promise is to honor past deals and not stop selling arms to syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups from abroad despite any. german leader takes. these two words as he tries to convince china not to write off the e.u. while also urging beijing support for the oil embargo against iran. and egypt mourns over seventy football fans killed in post match clashes and investigation into the tragedy is underway amid claims of police simply standing by.

live from moscow this is our role received a welcome to the program russia's defense ministry has reiterated moscow is committed to agreements made with international partners and will continue selling arms to syria russia is against a weapons and saying it would not prevent the arming of opposition groups from abroad although progress has been made at the u.n. on a syria resolution moscow is adamant it will block any draft which doesn't rule out military intervention and reports. russia says it won't accept even a hint of an embargo on arms embargo when it comes to syria and its reasoning for this is pretty simple it says firstly that the weapons and arms are that russia provides to syria cannot be used against demonstrators thus don't influence anything that goes on inside syria and when it comes to this conflict now secondly

russia says that it is only following its legal obligations its following its international contracts with syria and it's not breaching any international laws at all and most importantly it says that the lessons of libya need to be large because when an arms embargo was put in place on libya what ended up happening was government forces were embargoed but the opposition groups continued to receive openly arms from abroad and this is something that they don't want to see in syria and russia says it's time for the west to stop pretending like armed groups don't exist over there. it would seem logical if there's a conflict let's not supply arms because we saw what happened in libya in an imperfect world this would have meant the following no weapons were the government the opposition point is could get them from anywhere that's what that would mean especially now our security council colleagues refuse even to admit the presence of armed groups they will not condemn them. being supplied with weapons and we say ok

we'll break holo contracts and longstanding relations with syria but they will start supplying even more to opposition groups just like they did in libya the arab and western backed regime change resolution calls for the. syrian president to step down if this does not happen within fifteen days further measures could take place and russia says no thanks we've seen this similar scenario in libya and this particular case moscow says what's important is for talks for syria to exercise its sovereignty for the opposition and the government to sit down together moscow has offered russia as the center stage for these negotiations but it's important to say that russia still. believes that a consensus can be found within the united nations security council it says that broad resolutions that are dangerous should not be put on the table that can split the council and really aggravate any sort of conflict and it continues to call for the important arab observers to remain working on the ground. he's an

associate you're going to reporting right there from new york with moscow has also the arab league observers a recent report which accuses both sides of the conflict to be also taken into account when the u.n. it debates a resolution on syria let's get more on this now from dr marcos up at the top of all of that it's all the politics first magazine live in london thank you for coming on r t you said the arab league missions report acknowledges the existence of groups involved in the killings quote the observer mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries so why have the western powers and some arab states actually ignored those findings do you think. well let's be very clear western interest in the conflict in syria isn't guided by wanting to advance human rights democracy or the rule of law in the region if it was about that then we'd probably see an american naval flotilla off the coast of saudi arabia which happens to be

one of the most repressive and brutal regimes in the world but it follows a pro western foreign policy the reason why western governments are we can all in the findings of the report is because it doesn't fit into their agenda syria is a huge player in the in middle eastern politics and the west principally america has a very problematic relationship with syria so it would be very much within america's interests for the syrian government for president assad to fall from power and for a more accommodating a more sort of pro western government to come to parallel should that happen that would give. washington almost full dominance politically in the middle way and it's what i would describe as a. chess cooled because also as well american policy makers plan is a very very clear that russia has a lot of influence in syria it has

a naval and naval base at the port of tartus which has been there since the early one nine hundred seventy s. if president assad to fall from power and a new progress in government to replace him that would force russia out of the middle east and russian russian foreign policy would take a huge blow should president assad fall from power and the american government is very very conscious about that so in answer to your question it's not within the interests of western powers principally america to take into account what has been actually said in the in the reports of the arab league so as you suggest here there are multiple geo political strategies that play here that really need to be emphasized but if i may the findings in this. new arab league mission report also suggests the media has exaggerated the number of those killed in the country and the nature of the incidents is that something sinister in the reporting or is it just a lack of access for journalists do you think. western media is as powerful as

any bomb in the nato military arsenal i mean i interviewed the former bosnian serb leader radovan karat it last year and he told me that western media did more damage to the. nato bombs and of course we can see that western media has been distorting things that have been that it that happens in syria and this has been shown up in the reports of the arab league but i would like to make the point that this is not the this is not the first on the western media has demonstrated just how powerful it is first made its debut in the u.k. slow of civil wars where the conflicts in croatia bosnia kosovo for trade is a conflict between good and evil the good be in the bosnian muslims the croats because for the albanians the pads. been the serbs. it's a lethal weapon in the west sas and all western media and it should never never be

underestimated just how damaging it can be and it works together in the interests of western foreign policy where as you suggest or certainly in working with the western media many western states are claiming that assad's days are numbered calling him a dictator and the many other names at the same time did you think the overthrow of the regime is just a short matter of time now. oh i die i mean who knows it's very difficult to predict the future but i mean the international community its main focus should be on bringing pace and stability to syria civilians are dying every day not just because they are being called up in the fighting between government forces and armed militants and terrorists as well the report by the arab league clearly states that he must crimes have been committed by by the op by the people in syria that are opposed to president assad so instead of western governments the british and

the american and the french ones talking about president assad stays being numbered they should be more responsible in their outlook and the main focus should be on bringing peace to syria dr marcus papadopoulos the editor of the politics of the magazine live in london thanks for coming on r t today thank you. well if syria is also on the german chancellor's agenda during her trip to china and tries to persuade beijing to support the new resolution at the u.n. merkel is also calling on beijing the biggest buyer of iranian oil not to buy more after an e.u. embargo and on top of all of that she wants to offer reassurance to the eurozone is still safe for investors that's not a crystal horsed although government consultant and a political analyst joining us now live on r.t. . good to see you so china has been strongly opposing foreign interference in syria is there any chance that merkel will change beijing's mind on the issue here. no

flatly no and i will tell you she is not also not trying very hard that is clear spiegel wrote this morning that she is heading a strong delegation and since germany is known all over the globe to usually travel in very strong delegations this must be large and that means her main focus in this trip is german economy and she's wise to do that she will even not you know lobby very much for chinese investment into europe because she knows in our heart of hearts that this is truly the best investment as you say that angle of merkel and in beijing is trumping up the german economy here i mean it doesn't make sense when you think about how much of the brunt of the eurozone debt that germany is shouldering if we made a turn our attention now to that of iran what do you think but can offer china to get it to buy less or at least not buy more oil from iran or something that could

ultimately damage beijing's economy as beijing is such a vast consumer of iranian oil. now if you if you want to i would chancellor on a triple begging to if she wants money for europe she wants you know a support from beijing for the new un resolution which beijing is not going to give and she also wants beijing to cut off its own oil supply which beijing is why it's not going to do and of course beijing has also to take into consideration that india competition in the region is standing straight with iran and buying ever more rain in oil so i don't think she has any chance of you know talking china out of buying iranian oil or that we're not have been again i would say she will not put any much focus on it she will she will say that then she will look to the ceiling and then she was smile and say let's talk business now. or again not so

much emphasis on syria or iran as anglo-american as in beijing or china's prime minister says that his country is considering helping the eurozone as you mentioned moments ago merkel's a visit there as well as our three pronged begging as you mentioned moments ago that she needs help but are we seeing a breakthrough at least on the economic issue of china investing in the faltering eurozone. ok china will you know use its money which is hard earned very wisely and that means they will have single investments not so much in the euro zone maybe a little bit out of politeness but in any case more into you know directly into companies or things that are strategically on the chinese agenda i have closely watched the last buyouts china has taken in germany and i was let's say a little surprised how deep they were allowed to dig into our technology

and buy things that america would certainly have refused and the chinese buy is and these this is the situation right now we are writing in the west on a very thin razor blade in this regard because we are not investing enough into our education we are selling out on technologies to china and that means china is going to you know close the technological gap very quickly to the western world right now in this bad economic and financial situation i wish we had more time for this crystal horst always a pleasure our government consultant political analyst our thanks for joining us on our thanks. but i still to come your way here on the program whistle blowers final appeal. you know speak to you now fellows do we know the great chief judge in the fight extradition to sweden on the cases of sexual assault well

coming up to me in london just to make. africa was a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos find out why the cannabis comments of u.s. politicians could be costing america credibility on the international. egypt is mourning of the victims of violence following a football game which sold more than seventy people killed in post match fighting the fans are rushed onto the pitch in the seaside city of port after the home team beat egypt's top club setting off clashes and a large stampede protests being cairo now over the police handling of the trouble foreign affairs analyst richard de j darian i think is just an indication of the instability in post revolution egypt. the violence this. is also the sense of for it's the overall security who has been sort of offers the first look at them from. the sparkler or the security forces on the loose

in this manner for that reason this is so far as the are. for the north to the void the violence from yesterday and the fact that their agreements with knives we still warm states along the border security lots more than. that overloads them with. the war resume in some ways the violence with the lies the with our. position of emergency laws or the come to the sort of security mode really will come to. and more analysis on the situation in egypt are always available on our website are two dot com just a click away for you online at the website right now for example frozen water pipes inside japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant despite warnings made months ago

that exactly this could happen. and praised as a spontaneous protests that started on twitter the arab revolutions may actually have taken a decade of expertise to prepare and millions of dollars to fund about story along with many many other it's available on our website r.t. dot com. it's the last chance for the world's top whistleblower at the supreme court julian songes appealing against extradition to sweden where he's wanted on allegations of sexual assault denies the accusations and insists the case against him is politically motivated laura smith is outside the supreme court in london. we're not expecting to hear to station today we have heard already from documents released by the supreme court that although this is day to over two day hearing begins we reserving judgment for what they term a number of weeks if stars like that could mean between two and eight weeks so we

will have to wait to find out the birthday this is day two as i say into the nostalgia right this morning about how the full proceedings started again looking fairly relaxed just seated yesterday saying hello to a few his supporters standing behind me to have braved the at today's subzero temperatures and on to turn out to show him that they are still. rooting for him yet today we heard his legal team giving their side of the story in this case here at the supreme court is no simple out whether or not so she's guilty of the allegations that have been made against him it's about the nuts and bolts of the legal system and specifically about whether the european arrest warrant under which his extradition has been requested is valid the his team say that the swedish prosecutor who issued the warrant doesn't have the authority to do that because it's party to the case and therefore it's not independent and impartial to be

communicating to fund the fundamental principle of the rule of law but today the swedish prosecutor's legal team will be arguing that that doesn't matter and that in fact it's the a shingle thirty doesn't have to be independent and impartial if we are hearing from inside the school that the arguments of the swedish prosecutor's team is coming under a lot most recently an associate teams argument did the judges a much more questioning of it seemingly less impressed by it that this is the final avenue for him here in england this is the highest court in the land that we're in now he could then take his case the european court of human rights but that is by no means guaranteed however that the backlog in stratford. eight years he could be hanging around in this is a bit bizarre. if he doesn't win here the greatest fear is. he would be extradited from here to sweden with his feet literally wouldn't touch the ground

in this week's events to the streets of america which of course has a vested interest in this he's always said that these allegations definitely went with mickey where he he released a huge number of very embarrassing files for the u.s. government and other governments around the world and international businesses will have to wait to see what he does and how how he's going to pass the time indeed he does just continue with the bite. he's laura smith reporting there from london it's now or just turning twenty minutes past the hour heard moscow or the blunders of u.s. politicians have inspired jokes and parodies for decades now with the u.s. presidential election campaign heating up there's a whole new supply of ammunition but it's not his marina portnoy reports some believe the comments of displays of ignorance and disregard for world affairs are no laughing matter. every four years america's top job is up for grabs. with each new election comes a new batch of candidates with compromising foreign policy credentials when i ask

me who is the president of you becky becky becky becky stan stan i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border you can actually see the russia from land here in alaska africa was a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos geographically illiterate us candidates have supplied comedians with endless material but all jokes aside some presidential hopefuls vying to lead the world's most powerful armed forces know very little about america's military interventions so you agree with president obama libya. ok libya. forming a cohesive sentence on geopolitics can be a struggle i do not agree with the way he did it for reasons. no

that's that's a different one differentiating between friends and enemies is also a challenge obviously got to stand with our north korean allies in the case of republican candidate mitt romney mixing up presidents and prime ministers and becoming i think their president represents a real threat. to the. stability and peace of the world the overarching ignorance on international affairs has caused american political commentator bill maher to conclude i think anybody could be president in this country ok sort of like at this point now where i think if you're going to be it when you register to be a candidate you also have to go take a test about foreign affairs and if you fail the test we might get you one chance to take it again. and then i'm say sorry go you know for city council in your little town in alaska if a country with the world's highest national team is being represented by

politicians with a deficit on international affairs the biggest consequence is likely to be america's credibility around the world and even who we target and let me finish this i just get lost in a blizzard of words there this is where it gets really dangerous for united states of america it's like wait a minute how could they possibly be right about terrorism how could they be right about north korea are going to be right about iran so-called nuclear program when their candidate doesn't even know that there's a north and south korea i think the us is why and so then the world has this very paranoid view of the united states because of the candidates not understanding basic facts or understanding the basic principles of international law which unequivocally prohibit torture and if i were president i would be willing to use waterboarding i think it was very unfair if you. think the consistent streak of foreign policy blunders made by u.s.

presidential hopefuls is quite humorous but it could also be considered a national tragedy if most candidates campaigning to be leader of the so-called free world simply don't know enough about the world outside of america's borders. new york. before we get to the business with dmitri let's check out. some other global news and brief we'll start with pakistan where the supreme court has decided to charge the country's prime minister with contempt for its failure to reopen an old corruption case against the president if convicted yourself out good luck could face six months in jail and losers office the court has demanded a reopening of the case dating back to the late ninety's when the government has refused and insists the president enjoys immunity from prostate. while in office. the united states has made the surprise announcement that it will hold combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected u.s.

the defense secretary leon panetta said the country wants to switch to a role of supporting and training local forces before the end of next year and officials claim the decision ruin the whole transition plan and force preparations to be rushed through a one thousand seven hundred american troops and tens of thousands of civilians have died since the two thousand and one. a ferry carrying three hundred fifty people has sunk of papua new guinea's north coast rescuers plucked from the sea at least nine hundred nineteen survivors but others are still missing the ship's operator said it lost contact with the vessel on thursday after a send a distress call most of the passengers are students and trainee teachers. let's get to the business news now your hourly update with dmitri.

story a radical improvement in the business climate will be the urgent task of the next administration and wins the presidency in march the current prime minister says the country needs to jump from one hundred twenty of twenty of place and terms of its attractiveness for business speaking at the troika dialog economic forum in moscow he explains what this would mean in practice. in reality this would mean it would take a quarter of the amount of time to commit to a true city network it would seek an accountant a third of the time to fill in the tax their collaboration a truck would find it seven times easier to get through customs and it will take a fifth of the time to give permission for construction or strategies based on presumption of fair business practice this means there will be less control and excessive brookport requirements officials should not decide what investors need it should be businesses defining what they require. now the same for max finance minister who has also been urging speedy reforms he says without them growth will

be kept even with a high oil price. russia is not ready for a bounce in economic growth for the next three to five years we're lacking some legal states management and market conditions if the new government decides to improve these it still means a transition period of three to five years then we could be ready for a bounce and a return to growth rate of six to seven percent. so the biggest market moving story of the day the russian government is ready to buy back shares in the country's second largest bank d.t.b. from minority shareholders who purchased the stock during an i.p.o. in two thousand and seven the government adds it will do its best to ensure investors do not make a loss the list price for the shares was thirteen point six copecks are currently trading around seven the head of the tb estimates the cost of the buyback. there are around one hundred fifteen thousand minority shareholders in bt bank in

order to pull back shares of around one hundred to one hundred ten pounds and minority shareholders will need some fifteen to eighteen billion rubles. i was sick of the markets this and there's a change for the better in europe they used to be down now the up they're turning positive after the u.s. labor department reported weekly unemployment applications fell by twelve thousand so we're expecting a slight positive opening of the u.s. markets the greek government is still trying to come to a deal with their creditors who are putting pressure on the e.c.b. to join the bonds for the. here in russia also a change of nearly r t s m i six now point two percent of what's moving the myself now as we mentioned financials in the lead the tb is up two and a half percent of the prime minister putin said a buy back from minority shareholders is possible it still as you can see there almost half the listing price of thirteen point six kodak's energy majors are also

looking positive with gas from our point four percent close burbank is down by just . currencies now and the euro continues its recovery versus the dollar now. from from what we've seen last it's up at least the european union official said the block has asked the year's own to help provide an extra fifteen billion euro for there to read in greece. and other news the world's largest publicly traded commodity supplier glencore is in merger talks with another mining giant extra both are listed in london glencore already holds thirty four percent of xstrata which is very to fifty five billion dollars if the tie up goes smoothly the combined company will have a capitalization of about eighty billion dollars and would be the first largest mining company in the world. coming up next i'll see the headlines with rory.

wealthy british style. is not i'm not surprised with my current american. markets why not. come then.