international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. france's prized aaa credit rating has been cut according to the finance ministry in paris the standard and poor's downgrade of the country's status has sent world markets plunging after an optimistic start of the year the euro zone official has also said that italy's rating may face a two knots trim as well our correspondent tessa cilia who's in brussels has more on the possible implications. of what will this downgrade mean for france and the possible downgrade of course for italy and the eurozone. really good. to me my mom. is right the easy thing to me.

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little really lucky. to be a pretty he. is a really really really easy. especially. with. his i get this is. the easy. as you're going. to hear. the eat the thanks very much indeed apologies for the poor. that was all me to. action there from brussels r.t.s. cilia on the developments concerning the credit ratings of italy and france well let's now get more perspective on the downgrade and its consequences from your own research on the debt crisis at the european university institute florence well there are new reports that we've just heard that italy's credit rating is facing a two downgrade the news just coming as things seem to be starting to look up for

its ailing economy there in italy is it deserved this downgrading of its rating do you think. well ultimately i don't think this is really the question i mean is it deserved is it not we can't tell i am personally not an initial risk analyst i'm literally kind of missed so i look at it from a slightly different perspective and i think ultimately this is an opinion it's an opinion by a group of men in new york or a powerful private institution it was actually not deserved that's for sure is the fact that we're paying a lot of attention to it and never really seeing the power of these rating agencies sort of dictating discourse dictating debate here in europe it's also dictating to a very large extent the policy options that a country like france or a country like italy has available. during this crisis so ultimately we have to see this we take it with a grain of salt it's a subjective opinion by a private institution and what we should be really worried about is the leverage and the power that this private opinion the subjective opinion ultimately has on

the crisis and our ways of getting out of it but taking this as a pinch of salt is not what investors will be doing isn't it because investor confidence shorty is key to the future of the eurozone and in many ways you could blame those agencies for undermining that confidence and in the future they could be blamed what for the undoing of the euro eventually. well what one could argue that that's definitely the case the thing of course is that the rating agencies take a very particular position within this crisis i mean the power they have allows them to a certain extent to dictate it pulls the self-fulfilling prophecy and they have a downgrade and investor confidence is his last borrowing costs go up and ultimately the downgrade is justified by the results the impact of the downgrade itself so in that respect a self-fulfilling prophecy is the thing that we should be really worried about him and in that respect yes it will have very big consequences even though it's merely

a subjective opinion of the very small group of people somewhere in europe let's talk about the implications with france having its credit rating. definitely downgraded the speculation of course remains ever italy but what does that do to the franco german efforts to save the eurozone this is very embarrassing for some cause it is not well yeah there are two things here obviously in the national level this will have major implications for the elections it will definitely impede these efforts to be reelected when the french go to the polls but then as you mentioned there are also serious serious consequences for euro zone stafford's to save the euro zone especially because ultimately the european financial stability facility which is the bailout fund is only ridden by. aaa rated euro zone countries which france is the second largest after germany and the moment that france boost its credit rating which is it's just has also the credit rating of this european

financial stability facility will be called into question and this will make it a lot more difficult to sort of provide the financial backstop to the contagion this very first all right carol just briefly your research on the e.u. crisis what are your predictions and how is it all going to end. we don't know but it's definitely two thousand and twelve it's going to be a lot worse we had two thousand and eleven already a very interesting year and we're going to see a lot more and it's going to get a lot worse very very soon jerome reese thank you very much indeed for joining us there live in florence good to hear your thoughts on this time thank you. well. the news from the rating agencies is added to the gloomy prospects for the e.u. but it hasn't stopped serbia from still wanting to join up but it turns out belgrade concessions to win favor from brussels are doing little to help ethnic serbs living in kosovo who continue to come under pressure from the help they need majority we report on that a little later in the program plus this hour. a u.s.

intelligence report from the optimistic outlook on afghanistan offered up by general saying corruption weak local government and militants. a rule in washington . the british prime minister david cameron has met with king abdullah of saudi arabia the u.k.'s biggest trade partner and arms market in the middle east the gulf kingdom has been rattled by recent unrest in the arab world and has suppressed protests on home soil as well as elsewhere with ruthless force our correspondent laura smith has more on the trip strong relationships with the saudis is very important to britain for advancing the u.k.'s interests in the region and of course as you mentioned saudi arabia has recently been hugely roiled and rattled by various developments in the region including the overthrow of their longtime ally hosni mubarak and these recent tensions with iran and there is a certain amount of a lot of powerful opposition to this visit here in the u.k.

a group of very powerful members of parliament the committee on arms export controls have questioned why licenses to saudi arabia for arms exports from the u.k. haven't been revoked in the wake of that trouble they have submitted questions and then publish those questions to the government on licensing of various equipment including bombs and components of vehicles and helicopters and also communications equipment and they're saying why given the unrest that we did see in saudi arabia but it was very very little reported on what happened that license being revoked why would the u.k. government trust the assurances that the saudi the saudi powers have given them about the end use of those of the weapons that they're being sold we saw violence last year during the arab spring brutal suppression of protestors particularly from this shiite minority saudi arabia of course is a sunni majority country there's a shiite minority they came out on the streets and were brutally suppressed and

indeed just as late as thursday night we saw one processor killed and three wounded when the security forces opened fire with live ammunition. on. the saudis violence on iraq iran is has a shiite majority and in the region they represent the interests of shiite minorities in other sunni majority countries like saudi arabia so iran is accusing them of meddling there's also an accusation by the us that iran plotted to have these thousand ambassador to washington assassinated in october so there's all sorts of tension between saudi arabia and iran very worrying but nevertheless the british government is looking at carrying on selling arms to saudi arabia and even up in those arms contracts so massive amounts of money at stake for the u.k. government but also reputation according to this powerful group of lobbyists within the government during the visit the british leaving the king of saudi arabia

discuss shared concerns about syria with david cameron talking about removing the country's president but senior politics editor of the new statesman magazine maybe his son told me earlier that he believes britain has no moral authority to preach democracy to a country which is using lethal force to disperse protests. britain lost this moral authority in the middle east when we invaded iraq illegally in two thousand and three but over the last twelve months some would say that britain helped restore its own authority by giving backing to the arab spring belatedly david cameron said last year that we had an opportunity a responsibility to back those people in the middle east who were calling for freedom and democracy and yet now we have a prime minister who as your reporter mentioned arrives in riyadh the morning after a protester is shot dead in the shia province the eastern province in saudi arabia is the single biggest barrier to freedom and democracy in the middle east it's a bit rich for the prime minister our british prime minister stand in saudi arabia and condemn the dictator in syria without looking around him all the dictators who

are surrounding him in riyadh not only are we not backing people in saudi arabia who are calling for greater civil liberties group greater democratic reforms were actually the tyrant starts to that's kind of the double whammy of britain's relations right now with some of those dictators in the middle east and i've written in print if you want to deal with a british minister who go on and on about backing freedom in the middle east you only need say two words and that is saudi arabia and it's not just alms by the way let's not forget the politics of this the enemy number one in the middle east right now is iran and saudi arabia is a very useful strategic ally in the alliance against iran and that's why you saw the prime minister talking about iran today and saudi arabia as well again deeply hypocritical to talk about iran's violations of laws and human rights and protestors rights in the most to radical country in the middle east the kingdom of saudi arabia. syrian troops backed by tanks have reportedly begun a military operation against rebels fifty kilometers from the country's capital it

comes as anti regime protests swept across the country on friday tens of thousands came out to the streets after the largest civilian opposition group decided to boost cooperation with the free syrian army the west continues to put pressure on assad regime and is now attempting to do so through the u.n. however burn from the lebanese based conflicts form told r.t. that western interests are more focused on their own agenda than the well being of syrians. this is actually a project very much about regime change and the aim of it is that it's part of the war on iran which has effectively started and there were comments by the national security advisor from the us tom donilon by jeffrey feltman in his testimony to congress which has basically been very explicit about the regime change agenda of the u.s. they've been very careful up till now to acknowledge any kind. perpetrated by any others apart from. the government forces in syria but i think just

a few days ago the u.s. ambassador don't admit that actually there is violence there is there are. actors active who are not government forces so i think what's been very clear is that this is a project about regime change and it's within this context the narrative of the pro-democracy movement protesters. contextualize this is the cover for their regime change project. political hardliners in kosovo have announced they're to block serbian trucks of border crossings this weekend it comes despite belgrade's ongoing steps towards a compromise in the border issue was the country strives for membership and ethnic serbs in kosovo say they are finding themselves under more pressure from the albanian majority. reports. the point in northern kosovo may not look like an obvious triumph of peace but here is the same spot just

two weeks ago since the summer you back. and tried to take control of the border between serbia and kosovo the minority erected barricades in response don't recognize kosovo independence so in the old bailey and dominated province is still part of serbia now both sides of the new agreed that the border will be jointly policed. very cold belonging to anyone can now freely pass through this checkpoint when you're trumpeting this as a happy resolution that a standoff and while life here has become easier a lot of serbs are saying that once again they've given up too much for the compromise and have received no reassurances about their long term future belgrade try to talk serbs in kosovo down from the barricades so it was to join the e.u. which made a peaceful solution to the border issue a precondition but despite progress on the border belgrade application for candidate status has been stalled in the latest round of talks with brussels some

countries which did recognize corso and they feel that serbia is a weak just before they are getting the kind of a status because why they are squeezing serbia exacta trying to achieve something more than than usual we are asking the candidates. just meters from the e.u. soldiers in. our serbian militia many here have been engaged in conflict with albanians since nine hundred ninety nine when an ethnic war divided the territory into they have been coming to this roadblock since july and say they will carry on despite a border deal. why should we be happy to see you soldiers give us permission to use this road we never used to need permission to use it at all we do not trust the e.u. or albanians wanted it when a relative's and friends have been injured in this conflict for the past twelve years. have gained the most from the border compromise our ordinary serbs blocked roads prevented many children from coming to school and their parents from buying even basic foodstuffs but normality is some distance away. so was that

their constant warning sirens during the lessons these children are not growing up normally their lives are defined by the conflict and this is true not just for children but for all serbs have been living in kosovo for twelve years while opening the roads is a step forward the serb state as an independent kosovo they do not consider their own and that does not appear to want them remains as uncertain as ever you go girl of nerve. kosovo. and it report by the cia and other intelligence agencies has painted a gloomy picture of the situation in afghanistan the document says the country is in stalemate despite u.s. army generals optimistic outlook it was that attempts to improve security had been undermined by corruption bad local government and taliban attacks and some experts believe that the u.s. even a scapegoat which they quickly found just across the afghan border. basically what

the americans are not trying to do is their past the responsibility of their failures and of what i understand upon pakistan this is also corroborated from the fact that the nato supplies that pakistan has blocked today in pakistan contain the military hardware which is then i envision level hardware almost nine armored infantry divisions and their support equipment supplies up on them ammunition are stuck in pakistan and the concern in pakistan army is that if the americans are talking of the drawing from of understand they're talking about peace deals of a taliban then why would be americans need a bronze m one a one main battle tanks and almost nine armored infantry divisions next italian culture with a russian flavor for you as we travel to rome to explore the cultural connections you may never have noticed before and i'll be back with a summary of our main stories for in about twelve minutes from now this is.

hello good to see you again as we continue our exploration of the italian capital now russian culture has made its impact in many corners of the world and rome is no

exception so in this week's program we'll be exploring a various russian it's early and connections will be meeting experts ex-pats will prove my theory russia is closer than you think. standing in front of the ilford to be on a monument you really get a sense of how grounds the italian capital is rich in history culture and style drawn down many cities around the world the bostitch history intense music scene artistic treasures and all round appeal london athens moscow the russian capital is often called the third room of the comparison is mostly religious connotations two countries share many cultural similarities today the most metropolis of rome is a very popular disintegration for russian tourists killed by its might if some past sensational man mocks shopping and climate. muscovites revel in the romantic charm of the city then again don't we all.

well first location now we've arrived at the museum of roman civilization one of the largest so it's kind of this imposing columns striking design it's an impressive building from the outside but it's the treasures inside the brain this is from far and wide. in the main lobby of the museum is a photographic it's an issue here visitors can see a variety of views of the russian capital the kremlin red square cellars skyscrapers the and in terms of the crisis a to be drilled but why muskerry for the museum is displayed then within a possible ground project called art and culture of eastern european countries in rome. twenty eleven has seen its early al-rashid collaborating culturally with many italian displays all in russia and vice versa as part of the big project this exhibition has been set up at the museum of roman civilization alongside many of the ancient artifacts and exhibits a whole range of contemporary russian art is displayed three responses to live and

work in these how incompetent created separate pieces especially for the exhibition . of expression and officer question the answer is so keen to promote the developing world of russian constructed office. that it would look and set up many concerts exhibitions another events highlighting russian culture have been organized in the italian capital to strengthen the ties between the two nations russian nature they have had numerous interconnections over the centuries both cultural and political and for me as an artist these ties are only two parents the display was another addition to the final part of the year of russian culture and russian language in italy two thousand and eleven so hundreds of russian cultural events conferences exhibitions concerts performances staged all a bit silly and vice versa in russia.

many russian immigrants music if you join the late nineteenth century old words generations later still today has a thriving russian community many locals cherish their russian origin and keep the heritage and values a life families and cats and the children to this russian speech school and our school was founded as a cultural association by parents who are children to be able to study various subjects in russian ulan living abroad. located on a quaint street in the city center half the sound of italian chit chats mixed with russian is fascinating at the same time the media. tell me about this location where now and going to cost for a yes so this is the italian school of course. for every saturday the students can study a russian language and ukraine and that choice is up to schools and we have

a lot of yell for you to because this. is this collaboration between sri qantas like you. and to me it's an important. moving on and what other mission influences can be found in the italian capital. one of the most special and exclusive museum places in central rome is named after the famous russian composer and pianist of the twentieth century igor stravinsky the servants of the city's luxurious hotel go to see it is a place to mingle with the jets sent the venue is famous for its healthy alcohol free cocktails which can be enjoyed i've had the ball or in the mobile this private garden. with thousands of russians just. in the italian capital every week there are several toll companies

and private guys offering excursions around the city in russian there are also special tools which provide information not only on rome's most popular landmarks but also help to explore the looks no facts and cites for example you can have a tour around so-called russian prime time with thirty six dated old and have a newer stores and one of them which is a very interesting year for a russian to east is it the russians in role we should tell about. the russians who came here for almost seventeen send in the eighteenth nineteenth and the beginning twentieth century living here working here and mostly there were people there early to does a culture of the process and symmetry in writing symmetry of all to some poets is considered by many to be one of the world's most beautiful and impressive in the world thousands have gone to their rest here and that many russian to. regulations stated that the burial ground was reserved for the use of certain countries being

tournaments of their citizens a protestant faith which was later modified to non catholic citizens in general one of the most optimistic gravestones at cemetery is the one of the tomb of the russian nineteenth century painter hope. there are also several collective russian national teams located here. there are a particularly large amount of russians buried in this area of the cemetery as you can see from the russian orthodox crosses here we have to remember that room in the eighteen hundreds was the place to visit if you were an altar. so the place was full of painters sculptors poets and it must have been. the really stimulating place to come to. the year of recession is city's cultural

exchange might a finish but many aspects of the year long event will last well into the future further developing the cultural relationship between the two countries. helping of the center for russian science and culture for example dubbed the russian house it occupies one of the floors of the historic some to call cheap palace can tear is a very grammies to say the least. and. the center of his visit is of all nationalities a chance to improve the knowledge of russian culture history and traditions it also hosts language classes exhibitions concerts and meetings with writers and directors his library boasts a rich collection of printed and electronic books. various social events take place here each month and what a space it is just have these breathtaking interiors now as

a focal point for the russian ex-pat community here in rome it provides a great metalworking location as well as tomorrow seeing russian culture history i'm science to italian and this is of all ages. visitors will also be able to make virtual tools of the russian museum exhibit is back in the push museum of fine arts in moscow. as a matter for the us right is also shopping mecca for russians and other nationalities moscow base fashionistas in the credit cards assessing legal continue to stroll the streets in style and gaze at the remarkable sights shopping a side road is a sensational city overloaded with everything any tourist would want known to many as the eternal city the russian cultural union with rome with all this music and up to six glory shows no sign of abating and that's a cultural influence on moscow and st petersburg who so appears to be its home. was

an amazing city well unfortunately that's how we have left on this week's program i'll see you again at the same time next week until then for me and the rest of the crew from the spanish steps here in the sense of right now. cut cut. cut cut. cut cut cut

. party here in moscow top stories now the. aaa credit rating has been downgraded for the first time ever threatening to unravel the relative economic stability recently established by leaders. british prime minister david cameron arrives in saudi arabia the u.k.'s largest market in the middle east even as the gulf kingdom continues its ruthless crackdown on protests. syrian government forces supported by tanks have reportedly begun a military operation against the rebels close to the border with lebanon.