taking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president assad through a u.n. draft resolution that was blocked by russia and china. and russia the foreign minister called western reaction to the double veto indecent and hysterical at the head of his trip to damascus aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. also ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister bruited lays out a plan to upgrade russian democracy the day after mass protests in anti-government rallies the country. the russian latvian minorities hopes for their language to be

officially recognized in the post soviet baltic states are marred by reports of intimidation being used to dissuade people from taking part in an upcoming referendum. live from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching r t with me and you so now it's four pm here in the russian capital our top story the e.u. is preparing to further toughen sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime this is and came after russia and china vetoed ally latest draft resolution on syria at the u.n. moscow and beijing say the wording took sides of the syrian conflict as it's all they blame the government for violence without mentioning armed. stream of groups

in syria opposition leaders claim at least fifty people have been killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homs the government denies the assault and amateur footage showing the alleged shelling cannot be verified as are two sarah firth reports an absence of credibility and video evidence from syria raises questions as to exactly what's happening in the country. and social networking sites have for the past ten months being one of the activists he means is offering the world glimpses of the violence this tool in three syria action is good support so we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify to say many differing numbers and reports getting to the ball some of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. do you think you. have a favorite he thinks. the right you think. head

is the u.n. security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seem to reach fever pitch with activists are forcing 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 there could be as many as two hundred just in the last hour or two part of that was later significantly downgraded strict 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 level discrete says in at the foreign minister's spokesman we've never been in the media by the way. because of the activity we've been through. but you can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you to. 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 of the truth of that can has been pretty sparse this graphic video appears to show every sheen supporter being hanged with the clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now it's hard to know what the western allies that the un basing their assertions on which is not really about genuine concern for human rights and democracy this is all about region change dissatisfied with the wording of the resolution especially in china veto the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya russia and china believed the door open for foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but any measures imposed from a player to try and put an end to the violence are going to have 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 the nastiest syria. well indeed sir and hysteria about how russia's foreign minister described the criticism by some western countries on the russia china double veto sergey lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where you scheduled to meet with syrian authorities on tuesday our correspondent peter all over listen you are the minister of commerce peter tell us more what exactly did foreign minister lavrov have to say ahead of his trip while this was continuing on from the decision by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow saying that russia had asked the u.n. security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr lover off to complete his trip to damascus no they were request overturned. by the u.n.

security council so he left off heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president dmitry medvedev a message that's believed to request a signed government make strong democratic changes in the country now the foreign ministry very unhappy about this the russian government very unhappy in fact going as far as to call it disrespectful to allow the not allow the vote to be delayed until. it completed that trip now. with regards to the comments that have been made from around the world following that the session by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution with a condemnation from the united states from france from great britain the foreign secretary in great britain going as far as to say that this meant there was blood on the hands of those that had vetoed it well so very unhappy about these comments he was speaking at a press conference alongside the partner in a foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments

made from abroad. this is your it was the western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council vote on syria sound indecent and almost hysterical in this connection i can't remember the saying that those who are angry are really right swifties historical statements attempts are being made to create a false picture of what is really going on in syria and what's really happening is that there are several and not just one source of violence in syria. but with regards to why russia vetoed that resolution over the weekend well russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the assad government and the the opposition and want them both sides to put down their weapons and come to the table for talks now as far as russia concerned the resolution it was on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any. any requests for the opposition to lay down their arms and as far as

russia is concerned that's not acceptable when it comes to the un resolution on syria. all right peter oliver bringing us the latest from the foreign ministry ahead of a visit by sergey lavrov to damascus thanks for that update. well let's continue to analyze the situation in syria john laughlin political analyst from the institute of democracy and cooperation now joins us on the line from paris thanks for being with us this latest announcement of a new batch of sanctions against syria western countries seem relentless in their efforts to press the president to go why do they want that so badly. well it's part of their general program of regime change across the middle east we've discussed on this channel on several occasions how the arab spring is in fact a program for installing pro western regimes across the arab world we've also discussed how of course behind syria there is the far more important target of iran

syria is one of iran's most important allies in the world and certainly in the middle east so you have a target syria targets iran but i think there's another element to this and i'm sure this is one that your viewers and your editorial staff are well aware of there's another target behind this these constant attacks on syria and that is of course russia herself. why have the western powers britain france and america repeatedly brought draft resolutions to the u.n. security council knowing that russia would not accept them russia and china would not accept them so gay lover of has said several times that he won't take sides and that the international community shouldn't do so in the syrian conflict the answer to that question in my view why if they brought these resolutions knowing that they would fail is precisely in order to paint russia in the eyes of the western public as supporting a bloody terror in me namely president assad's regime in syria in other words the

very drafting of these proposed resolutions is itself a diplomatic attack on russia as well as of course being as you say in your question part of an attempt to overthrow assad in syria. speaking of that criticism . at least they mainly been more criticized by the west thread that the double veto which of course with arthur beaten by china why does this reaction to china's the third and theme a little less hearth well don't you ask that because that's what i was going to say you only have to see the truth of what i what i said in my first answer you only have to compare as you've asked me. to do in your question the attacks on china or the attacks on russia the attacks on russia are far more virulent and in particular of course it is singled out and you will often see demonstrators whether they're in syria or abroad showing mr putin mr o. said with bloody again hands you know as if to imply that mr putin was somehow

involved in the violence in syria. the fact is that your sense of who's in announced his attorney intention of running for the presidency the west has been gunning for him and these attacks that we're seeing against him but not against hu jintao the president of china are part of a two problem strategy against putin. to problems i mean on the international level to discredit him at the international level by train him in supporting tyrants in the middle east and of course on the domestic level by betraying him as committing electoral fraud in order to win the parliamentary elections and possibly the presidential ones and as someone who as it were cracks down on dissent at home i'm referring of course to the protests in moscow so these are the two images that are being peddled not very vigorously in the western media against putin and the purpose of that of course is to make sure that he is as discredited as possible in

the eyes of the western media by the time he as everybody expects gets elected on the fourth of march. critics. in terms of russia and china who imposed impose the foreign involvement of course in syria we've been talking about critics are saying that they china and russia will have to bear the responsibility for further blood said is it fair to argue that our right same time you could say the same about western allies and what happened with the u.n. mandate in libya i totally agree with that and of the many remarks made by western politicians following the security council vote i thought that was one of the worst. it is of course true as you suggest in your question that intervention can itself make things work worse and i think that's true not just of military intervention it's pretty obvious to be this in libya the military intervention made things worse in spite of what the western powers claimed the most conservative estimates of fifty thousand civilians were killed during the nato

operation and that surely far more than would have been killed even if the worst propaganda had been true about colonel gadhafi but the same is true of political lives page we saw the scene you can slow it here in the breakup of yugoslavia in ninety ninety one as soon as the international community starts to get involved even even politically never mind by sitting in front of the sort of troops even politically as soon as it starts to get involved in a civil. situation of civil unrest of this kind then the tables are tipped in favor of the rebels in favor of the rebels in the country in question. because those people think that they can rely on foreign support political or military and it weakens as it were the government's position really strengthens them in their battle against the government so foreign intervention of both kinds can make things worse because it distorts the natural mechanisms which exist inside

any countries resulting in a conflict of this kind right john lochlann institute of democracy and cooperation in paris thank you very much for your analysis. well less than a month ago before russell's presidential vote emotions are running high and the campaign set up a gear following a day of demonstrations in russia prime minister and presidential hopeful that the america ten continues to lay out his electorial program this time it's more about west's a web site democracy within this sort of allowing the people suggest their own laws online r.t. the group going on has more. column in. the idea of the sort of go is that a 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 is about millions of interest users in russia who over the past few years have become very active there is stories of blogs and forums videos all internet wars between political movements and all of them are going on on the web and 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 on initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft law and if it gains say one 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 other 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 for them 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 come all the guards now there a need for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money and affording to the prime minister. it's time for that to

change as well. well tens of thousands took to russia streets in the election run up to rallies both for and against the government many is that it represented a serious divide in public opinion but political analyst to me bob it believes there's no real struggle between the people and says instead the protests will have a positive influence on the country's politics. it's mostly just emotions fueled by the media some people were obviously irritated seen the same two faces on television maybe to march in the last few months especially some people were terrified when they saw their position in that small the sun when they failed and all the west behind it so it's a small sleeve media driven there is no real cost struggle behind it there are poor people and reach people in both radius there are people all kinds of ethnic groups in both race so right now i think it's it's fair and mostly

a positive effect because it's sort of wakes up the government to the needs of the people so until now the consequence of smoke more stupid is if i hope it will continue in that way if there is a real split in society of course it's not going to be good for the country. you can always read more on our top stories twenty four hours a day on our website r t v dot com here's what's waiting for you right now the man behind the mouth is moscow street artist whose detailed artwork and figure of identity have earned in a nickname the russian that banksy after the british started. it was three thousand meters beneath the sea routes trying to come across a unique discovery find out exactly what they found and impact on the future of science at our website r t v dot com.

well russians make up near the thirty percent of largest population on a referendum is being held to recognize their native language officially in the baltic state five years language policy prevents the official use of any length. other than last this policy of preventing russian speakers from working as a result of the over a several rough schools over the last decade are to the life they are says he explains why the vote could be a step towards restoring basic political rights. this professor from a lot once everyone in his country to have equal rights that's why he had no second thoughts when the initiative of a referendum to make russian the country second state language came up you can't accept the policy of true true to my friends from the russian minority those who also voted for independence in one thousand nine to one we were shoulder to

shoulder back then but now they're being treated like garbage to citizenship for them jobs here that's why i signed for the referendum ethnic russians make up a third of the us population the idea of holding this referendum came after what they describe as ethnic discrimination had reached a critical point if the radical nationalists initiated their own referendum to close russian schools in latvia they failed but it was a worry in cool that's why we gathered 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 yes at the referendum means voting against law to be. escalating state level discrimination the nationalist denounces all such accusations however they believe their vote carries a threat to the country's sovereignty and are sending

a stern warning. to shoot we allow 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 all have to be tougher and make new laws. and some lothians have already started to our. 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 you have to do a solid someone rule ready to go voting their employer told them that should you see in the past byrd and the two part in the language referendum then he would immediately fire them like today is russians hope that the referendum will help brussels notice their distress call and have a hard talk with the. russian may become law 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 would be then deemed unconstitutional but may still become a major talking point. altie reporting from reader in la. it's coming up to twenty two minutes past the hour let's take a look at some other world news the greek prime minister is struggling to get polish to buy in to harsh new international bailout terms the country must accept even more painful cuts if it's to get a one hundred thirty billion euro second lifeline from international creditors if the deal falls through greece expected to default by the end of march. the many as prime minister has resigned of dissolve the government saying he wants to preserve social and economic stability in the country this follows weeks of protest over austerity measures introduced in twenty ten euro financially e.u. and i.m.f. the pm urged the country's politicians to bridge their divisions and vote in

a new government as quickly as possible. in the u.k. queen elizabeth the second is celebrating her diamond jubilee sixty years that's her accession to the throne she's only the second british monarch ever to have reached a milestone during her reign the queen has seen a dozen prime ministers david cameron being her twelfth all. the main celebrations are due to be held in june and while the u.k. may now be knighted in the jubilant mood coming up at eleven thirty g.m.t. on cross talk our teams peter lavelle debate the problems great may face over the issue of goddess independence. well look at the figures and i'm sure you i'm sure the viewers will be able to judge the figures from themselves are publicly available but let's let's look at this issue the last four years ago it was when it was weeks of course the u.k. only once in the last five years been an economic. growth you know there's been a lot of us as well scores will be lower in scotland than the u.k. average but those those figures are going to be

a little so vermont ok gentlemen i'm going to jump in whatever reasons why so many gentlemen let me jump in here david i guess is what is the interest here ok this is look like these two people should be together look at all of the different the. annual bushels here next with the latest business they with our city. welcome to the business program here on all to russia's goes from has acknowledged that it temporarily reduced just supplies to european customers at the end of last week the company said it was forced to cut deliveries due to unusually high the mystic the moment for more details on job books on the boy goes provide proof is also no thanks for joining us what reason did goes pro gear for cutting supplies. well daniel just a couple of minutes ago arts in business had a chance to interview alexander i mean david if he's gas from his deputy c.e.o. all responsible for our gas exports to europe and what he told us is that indeed

the company had to cut its gas supplies to europe by ten percent for just a couple of days to according to me to get it he said that it was partially due to these i'm usually called temperatures that are still holding russia and their groups and. satisfying domestic demand was the company's top priority but at the same time alexander mitigated also pointed out that european demand for gas has increased by about fifty percent in january a bof a b. ball games that were initially a contract that needed it also said that gas from do everything that it could to satisfy those additional demands but it wasn't always possible first and foremost because gazprom had already brought its production levels to its peak of about one point six b.c. on per day and again be domestic demand is pretty high as if it is expected to remain at peak levels. still late february when these chilling

temperatures are expected to recede now the gas from official also used this situation to make a rougher and placid and comment about its parts market for gas now some european officials usually presents markets as a sort of ulterior motive to the traditional routes of delivering. gas to europe mainly pipelines add according to the video of this whole situation and the inability of the european countries to contract as much gas as they need this port mark and showing that the spot market is still under developed it is still unreliable and therefore the primary source of the primary way of delivering russian gas supplies to europe is still the pipelines here is exactly what he said at. the sport what it could to demonstrate to the picture that is the real sport look at people in the u.s. to look at this for going into that is the walloons it's

a little speak wish to be as it was a sport crisis this is a price for for a little time conflicts on leverage them to continue to grow but cities will go. back to the family they want to do all those who will believe it will be people. now alexander mcqueen if wasn't the first official who used this mini crisis to drum up support for the russian pipeline three current similar comments from russian prime minister vladimir putin on saturday who sad that sport markets are essentially a virtual idea that it's still not working properly at this point of time. during that meeting on saturday putin also urged to gas for him to do everything that is in his power to satisfy european increased european demand but he also made it very clear that the gas from first and foremost should our work to satisfy the master

demand and many experts suggest that it is a very very expected. statement because russia is just the last been two months away from the presidential elections in which roger reportedly will be running as a main contender. to correspond with folks on the booker thank you very much indeed that's all the business news for this be back in about fifty five minutes for financial news here on alt. thanks. thanks.

to move you to. six or. six. safe.