back to basics the e.u. mulls over fresh economic punishment for president os the syrian regime after failing to push through a polarizing u.n. resolution. modern technology to support political activism prime minister putin goes online in his bedroom proved russian democracy. was wind of change in lafayette as the country's russian minority hopes to win an upcoming referendum that could see their native language but socially recognized.

here with r t y from moscow where it's two pm great to have you with us our top story this hour the european union is preparing a new batch of sanctions against syria which the french foreign minister says will be the harshest yet it comes after an backed resolution that could have paved the way for military intervention was struck down at the u.n. we're also getting disturbing footage from the rebel stronghold city of homs which was opposition sources say is being shelled by the syrian army there are reports of casualties although this can't yet be verified earlier opposition fighters operating out of homes attacked a number of police patrols and army bases elsewhere in the country security forces say they've cleared all but two rebel outposts near the capital seizing vast caches of arms and explosives along the way for a report from sarah ferguson taken some images you may find disturbing. each e.d.t.a. and. networking sites have for the past and months being one of the activists he

means and offering the world glimpses of violence this tool in three syrian activist groups reports how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the person of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. do you think the have a fever if it. was a. head of the un security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seem to reach fever pitch with activists reporting a massacre in homs that was all over the headlines and watched with horror by people worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred you see there could be as many as two hundred just in the last hour or two that was

later significantly downgraded street to access policies they have made it difficult for many foreign networks to get their correspondents into the country to collect evidence at the end of last year i leveled this criticism at the foreign minister's spokesman we've never banned the media by the way. because. we've been filtering you how can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you tube and broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube you have also atrocity committed by the elements it's true that to a large extent mainstream coverage is the phrase of the can has been pretty fast this graphic video appears to show every jean supporter being hanged obviously a clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now it was hard to know what the western allies that they were and was basing their assertions on was not.

really about genuine concern for human rights and democracy this is all about region change dissatisfied with the wording of the resolution in china veto the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya pressuring china believes the dual rate than the foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized the emotions impose limits well to try and put an end to the violence again has to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya they seem to be backing one side increasingly looking like civil war so are say. well in peace and near his stare a call that's the opinion of foreign minister sergei lavrov speaking about the west's reaction to un syria resolution veto by russia and china his comments came during a joint appearance with the foreign minister of bahrain. as lavrov prepares to head

to damascus tomorrow our correspondent peter oliver has following what he's saying and how he's preparing peter what exactly did the foreign minister lavrov have to say just before he has to damascus on tuesday tomorrow for russia's top diplomat certainly pulling no punches with his language very strong worded statement from a lover of condemning those who have been what he says being hysterical over the situation in syria now so you have also critical of the decision by the united nations security council is not to allow a three day extension to devote being taken on a resolution on syria russia wanted that extended by three days so sort of a level of could go to damascus on this planned visit now he's going to be taking with him a message from president dmitri medvedev it's believed that message will be asking for strong democratic changes in. in syria now russia's stance has

always been to condemn both sides in this situation it's all the ongoing violence in the middle eastern country they aren't taking the side of one of the other saying well the governments have some questions to answer but both sides have to lay down their arms and get around a peace table to discuss this out how their issues now speaking today speaking on monday what we've heard from so be a lot of as well an attack against those who came after him we heard condemnation from the united states from france and from great britain over russia's decision to veto that security council resolution and this is what he had to say in response. to challenge the soft that we could have achieved consensus at the u.n. security council and we asked them to give us more time with your so that we could discuss the situation following our visit to damascus on february seventh they chose to push for the vote which i did means that they wanted to find someone to

blame for what's happening in syria and to distract the public from the actions of armed groups which receive weapons and advice from abroad the essence of what's going on is that there are several sources of violence in syria to which the bush now the main problem that russia had with the resolution as it was that it vetoed in the security council was the wording of certain parts but no they wanted russia wanted the wording to be firmed up so that no way could be interpreted as allowing foreign military intervention the reason for this is well that's what happened in libya something that russia contempo hardly in a situation where as far as russia sees it the u.n. mandate was completely overstepped that they don't want to see repeated in syria so they want to make sure that this the wording of any u.n. resolution is strong so that can't happen. we have course we'll continue to watch closely the foreign minister trip to damascus the three questions for diplomacy in this continuing standoff peter all over thank you very much for that update. well

stay with us in a few minutes we reveal the export of designer revolutions. ever since i've been traveling the world and teaching people how to get rid of that pesky dictator it's a group that's had its hand in uprisings all over the world financing guided by the us that story is coming up. and the steady drumbeat of war keeps coming from washington and tel aviv story not global concern that military action against iran will jeopardize the future of the entire region. but first transparent interactive and web savvy that's how prime minister vladimir putin described the future of russia's democracy in the latest article detailing his electorial program he says the congress should no longer tolerate quote political circus when the needs of the people are being put on the back burner parties or groups going off has the details of the main idea of the sort of goes the civil society in russia

has grown and developed and become much more active most importantly compared to say ten years ago and what comes to the state well it's a lagging behind at the moment people do want to be more active and have more influence on the political life and one of the mechanisms providing them with these opportunities is the internet and this is not only about the tens of thousands of people who now take to the streets for this or that rally it's about millions of interest users in russia who over the past few years have become very active. wars of blogs and forums videos of all internet wars between political movements and all of them are going on on what the prime minister wants to see the role of the internet is influenced increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper bases for public discussion and not only all initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft

law and it's against see. a hundred thousand approval signatures from other users it has to be reviewed by the parliament the internet also gives another opportunity to evaluate civil servants for example if locals of a district of any city are not satisfied with the way the head of the local police department works or a judge or even a principal of a local school they have to be able to voice their concerns on the web be heard by the authorities so that the civil servants can be substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on all the initiatives like reintroducing the elections of local governors was initially put forward by the president and supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering new political parties which should make waiting for more competition that is now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries of civil servants in exchange for their complete

transparency and put together a list of the most corrupt jobs and it's in the ninety's many people wanted to become all the guards now there a need for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money and according to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well and this is the fourth article published since he announced that he is going to run for president during upcoming vote in march and together they put together a. well tempers are running high in the run up to the presidential election with a wave of recent protests across russia political analyst to me the bobbit says they are driven by media awareness. it's mostly just emotions fueled by the media some people were obviously irritated seen the same two faces on television maybe too much in the last few months especially some people were terrified when they saw their position and it's small the incident when they failed to handle the west

behind it so it's mostly media driven there is no real cost struggle behind it there are people and reach people in both radius there are people of all kinds of ethnic groups in both race so right now i think it's been mostly a positive effect because it sort of wakes up the government to the needs of the people. well you can catch more on that story and much more on our website r t v dot com here's a look at what's waiting for you there right now in the russian street artist making his opinions heard through his murals how guerilla tactics and a secret identity have earned him the nickname the russian bank after the british artist. what laure some u.s. business people into sex dungeons meet the workers who say it's all down to politics and the economy get the full story and much more at our tea dot com.

well turkish and qatari officials criticize the notion of military action an ongoing western sanctions against iran at the annual security conference in munich they warned that any armed conflict would be disastrous for the region over. beirut based political analyst believes that iran's opponents are already focused on a confrontation all the inspection by nuclear agency. iran is actually weaponize in their system there are no following the nuclear agreement there is no violation to that end but no matter what they saying the sanction are coming around because the suspicion that there are no nor no matter what they are justifying or opening their facility there is some judgment already

been rendered against your brand your brand said very clearly they're willing to cooperate with the international community but you have to wonder what really the international community wanted at this point and what the american want to just point out and as i said there's a lot of politics in that special election politics probably is there. really coming that's pretty disappointing because they think if iran reach the level of capability of building the nuclear what then that i would be devastating for them. to catch up at this point and i think before six months we might we might heading into a major confrontation in the burgeoning gulf. well in about fifteen minutes for you are an interview with the former head of israel's intelligence service who says tel aviv and western leaders are attempting to demonize iran in order to stoke panic

and suspicions surrounding the islamic state here's a taste of what's coming up. believe it believes that in order to arouse international public opinion in order to mount pressure upon the iranians it's necessary to impress upon the world at large public opinion as a national public opinion this is a serious international threat and i believe that in this context probably the leadership here believes that using the word existence will rings a bell which also brings you back to the days gone by in the twentieth century. a rise of nazi germany the world war two and of course the holocaust and the. persians these. pictures these experiences recalled in order to impress upon the world that maximum pressure should be mounted on the run.

alive for years witnessing a growing outcry as the country's russian minority voices a thing or over escalating state level discrimination they're now hoping that an upcoming referendum could see their language officially recognized the move is viewed by many as the first step on the long road to restoring their basic political rights artie's alexei yourselves has the story. this professor from a lot of the ones everyone in his country do have equal rights that's why he had no second thoughts when the initiative of a referendum to make russian the country's second state came out. of the canon to accept the policy of true true to my friends from the russian minority who also voted for letters independence in one thousand nine to one by. being. treated like garbage. for the jobs here that's why i sang for the. ethnic

russians make up a third of luckiest population the idea of holding this referendum came up to what they describe it as discrimination had reached a critical point if you look now to cool nationalists initiated their own referendum to close russian schools in latvia they failed but it was a worryin coup that's why we gather signatures for a language referendum to legally protect ourselves after we did the ruling nationalists when hysterical trying to jeopardize the votes in the minority points to a recent statement by the country's president told us at the referendum means voting against love to the. escalating state level discrimination the nationalist camp denounces all such accusations however they believe their vote carries a threat to the country's sovereignty and are sending a stern warning to move. these people to live in our territory after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. we said you can live here under certain conditions but if they are trying to alter

the foundations of our state then we will have to be tougher and make new. and some audience have already started to act this lawyer told us you have numerous reports of people being blackmailed from taking part in the voting those who would not talk on camera afraid of sanctions but. some are already scared to go voting their employer told them that should he see a stamp in the past byrd and they took part in the language referendum then he would immediately fire them. the russian speaking minority and lock gays estimated of three hundred thousand people out of the population of almost two and a quarter million another three hundred twenty thousand ethnic russians are classed as non citizens and are forbidden from voting this ban experts say could prove to be crucial russian may become. to be a second state language only if at least seven hundred fifty thousand people vote for it organizers of the referendum say realistically there will be only

a hall full of that the result will be then deemed unconstitutional but may still become a major talking point not to use russians hope that the referendum will help brussels notice their distress call and have a hard talk with the read the vote takes place on february eighteenth with a final official results a few days later. ati reporting from reader in la. well democracy has become a profitable export for one international group it started off as a student movement in serbia but with the backing of the us became a worldwide brand for revolution started with the confidence of investigate. this is the business of selling a lot of sky high heels barely there clothes revolutionary styles exported from the fashion capitals of the world hello i am matter of. my research and this is the business of selling well revolution fashion

exporting how to lessons and revolution aided by the democracy capital of the world democracies after all are born knowing how to run themselves a decade ago merivale launched the serbian student movement that helped oust president slobodan milosevic. the group was called for resistance and it bore the now familiar symbol of the clenched fist but behind the spontaneity of the uprisings was a carefully researched strategy guided by the west the bush of knowledge is a balkans columnist who's been chronicling the events in serbia since one nine hundred ninety nine the or poor movement itself was just a tiny student organization that it got subverted taken over the operatives then expanded it turned it into a branding empire and ended up basically one ing. the ground the grassroots level of the revolution thus turning it into an astro turf war they were run by the ne d.

which very openly goes in and says our goal is to promote democracy a new york times investigation documented the extent of u.s. assistance according to journalist roger cohen poor was no ramshackle students group but a well oiled movement backed by several million dollars from the us the objective is regime change the objective is to install a government that will execute orders the worst thing about all of this is that it's undermining a concept that enabled the united states to claim moral leadership in the world in the first place with milosevic gone ivan marriage now spends his time advise young activists abroad ever since i've been traveling the world and teaching people how to get rid of their pesky dictators so you come up with these three easy steps so you two can get in on the action and laugh your way to freedom the video was made by students at the school of authentic journalism in mexico for narco news t.v. but ivan has helped develop a video game called

a force more powerful in which players can practice scenarios like organizing mass protests and overthrowing dictators today outpour is called canvas and with the help of the internet their methods and symbols are exploited the world over from the color revolutions in georgia and ukraine to venezuela and the arab spring uprisings in egypt william engdahl has written for over thirty years about washington secret geopolitics he's convinced that canvas is not acting alone the instigators of those so-called spontaneous protests was twitter revolts in cairo and tunisia and so forth have all been pretty organized and should you assume some of the people leaders of the protests have been trained in the belgrade in serbia by old poor activists financed by the state department. this thing has. department u.s. intelligence all over ip three easy steps and that's all it takes to overthrow your very own government so this revolution become a commodity

a product to be branded mass produced an export of all across the globe well just like ivan's video this too of course is a spoof but the game of regime change is quite real and its unintended consequences can be downright dangerous. for the american taxpayer i think who's getting. the short end of the bargain because there are there are bankrolling people that are going around the world for minting astroturf revolutions that are eventually backfiring and they're backfiring all over the place and once the people find out who was behind this their anger turns to the american government can do you where can people sense your bus service you can be good. and easy recipe but the aftermath may be the hardest you see catherine of our washington. up next here on our to the latest from the world business with natasha

stay with us. hello are you watching the business program on r t russia's gazprom has acknowledged that it temporarily reduced gas supplies to european consumers the company said it had to cut deliveries by as much as ten percent for more details i'm now joined by ups on a boy's gal's problems headquarters so exxon what reason has gazprom given for cutting gal supplies. yes the time of the figure that you just mentioned ten percent was was during a meeting between russia's prime minister and gas problems deputy c e o m three crude glow of crude glove sad that there is cuts to european suppliers stayed in place for just a few days and they were caused by an enormous surge in domestic. sanction russia as you may know is battling ever very severe cold snap right now with temperatures hovering far below the averages for this time of the year and this is

a result the demand for heating fuel has significantly increased now also sad that as of now russia is supplying gas to europe in accordance with its contractual obligations he also said that some european countries that are also dealing with these unusually cold temperatures have turned to gas from for additional supplies requesting supplies that go above contractual obligations it is still unclear where the gas from will be able to meet the additional demand that canonically it would make all the sounds because at this stage gas prices are at their record levels with about four hundred years dollars being paid for a thousand cubic meters of gas but it is as i said i'm clear whether russia can afford to do so because the domestic demand is still very high these. cold front is not expected to move away until late february and gas from has already increased

its production until up to its peak levels of about one point six b.c.f. and on top of that russia's prime minister vladimir putin who is going into presidential elections last than two months from now already said that satisfying domestic demand was gas from his number one priority even though putin also urged gas from to do everything in its power everything that is possible to satisfy the needs of european customers both within the contractual obligations and those above it. thanks for the sub date that was our t. correspondent us on a boycott. and now investors made focus on monday is the talks between greek party leaders europe is waiting for athens to safe it's ready to accept the strict terms of the new bailout deal without a greece is facing a high probability of a default in march. and let's now check the markets exchange rates first the euro

is slightly lower against both the dollar and the russian ruble meanwhile the u.s. currency is gaining to the ruble this hour and nothing less now check out the oil it's losing value on strengthening u.s. dollar and concerns about the european debt crisis which could demand right now light sweet is under ninety seven dollars a barrel brant is below one hundred fourteen dollars and european shares are shedding value this hour greek problems are the main drag on the indices the footsie is down a third of a percent the dax is losing around half a percent and the russian markets are mixed declining oil is pushing the r.t.s. down around a tenth of a percent but my sex is managing to bounce back the soured gaining less than a quarter percent and now so much individual movers on the my six gazprom is bouncing back from earlier losses in the news of gas supplies to europe meanwhile the company's says its current output is up thirty percent compared to last year's

average and precious metal producers are on the rise the price of oil in the shares is reached an all time high while paulus gold is one of the best performers this hour extending last week's gains and speaking of gold as both thing have to gains more than fourteen percent the sour against the backdrop of sliding indices that's after gaining a whopping thirty five percent on friday with the company's capitalization reaching almost nine billion dollars analysts cite a couple of reasons among them a possible new. boys hold on it's russian rival point in the towel and also the company is expected to buy back around four percent of its shares from minority shareholders. and that's all the latest from the business desk i'll be back in about fifteen that's about.

cultures the same of you are going to go right to the earning of the old world cup the folks in search of national determination and sovereignty this is what many scots say they want a realistic is an independent scotland would be over. the news today violence is.