so you have or you're only just back from the airport with what we have to call a whirlwind trip to damascus what exactly came out of that meeting between the foreign minister and the syrian authorities well russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov on the handle of the foreign intelligence service and held for of course have met with president assad and with syrian political elite and according to the foreign minister president assad says that he is ready for dialogue with the opposition with russia being the mediator now this stephen was me to right after the meeting in damascus earlier on tuesday by russia's foreign minister and we've already had a reaction from the syrian opposition specifically from a senior member of the syrian national council george summer who says that russia has strong enough signs with the syrian people and it's being the mediator actually may be quite effective still quite a positive reply there now the foreign minister sergei lavrov has also stressed

once again that both sides of this conflict must put their weapons down immediately . our approach is based on a clear and simple goal to stop civilian deaths the region needs peace syria needs peace it is clear that efforts to end the violence need to go along with the start of a meaningful dialogue between all political sides today we've received confirmation from the syrian president of his readiness to participate in that process we will continue to work with various opposition groups but anyone who has more influence on them than russia should also work with them. another issue discussed at the meeting was the new constitution of syria currently still being prepared and according to the foreign minister. of president assad says that the time of the nationwide referendum on this constitution is going to be announced in the nearest future and the important thing about that document is that it's

supposed to cancel the political monopoly of the ruling party now all this comes amid a major diplomatic standoff between russia and china on one side and the west on the other side with the west pushing for tougher sanctions against syria and regime change in the country and russia standing for peaceful dialogue between both sides of the conflict now just to tell you a bit more about how the russian delegation was greeted there in damascus today truly a spectacular scene as the convoy with the foreign minister and the head of the foreign intelligence service was the going from the airport to the president's palace in damascus it was greeted by thousands really thousands of people with flags with syrian flags or russian flags and chinese flags and many were chanting thank you russia and thank you china actually after that i spoke with some of the

members of the delegation and they said at first they thought they just caught them they were caught in the middle of a nationwide holiday store spectacular this scene was just so really a massive crowd of people there were so many of them at some point the convoy even had to stop altogether. all right r.t.c. group is going to thanks for that update. now earlier i spoke with russia's ambassador to the united nations battalion churkin he says the international community should make every effort to solve the syrian crisis through dialogue in order to avoid more bloodshed every conflict. needs to be resolved the su negotiations that there are two ways really in my view one is a frontal attack against the regime something which i'm afraid the has been happening lately including from some international important international players the advocates of regime change they have been trying to. resolve the crisis

a slew from doubling of the government in the moscow sound the but this is this would mean bloodshed and civil conflict and. conflict which will be spreading beyond the borders of syria the other the more rational way the only way which the international community should be supporting. trying to put the parties to the table to bring them to that they will and to arrange a dialogue among them in order to find a political solution with all for the bloodshed speaking of the bloodshed activists in syria say there has been a surge in government assaults on the city of homes where most of the opposition is based since russia and china blocked the resolution demanding the army stop the violence the opposition say hundreds of people have died in what they are calling the army's massacre do you think that moscow could be blamed for that could that be the blood on russia and china's hands. well some are certainly trying to do so but you know the latest round of military confrontation in syria started

a couple of days before that resolution draft resolution was put to vote and the reason i'm here i'm trying not trying to justify anybody but simply trying to be analytical is that as the monitoring mission of that i believe was there and that as the situation was evolving everybody saw that the government troops were pulling out of certain towns or certain quarters and in cities that territory was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the armed confrontation will continue and escalate and that was the reason for which were brought our amendments to the text of the draft resolution which would not only require the government to pull out its forces from from the cities but would also would also require the opposition forces to show restraint and not to exercise their military coup out taking advantage of some withdrawals by the government that was in fact a key issue over which our efforts to have

a consensus in his aleutian of the security council failed. arab gulf states along with spain france italy and the netherlands have now withdrawn their ambassadors from syria saying the government has failed to end the bloodshed that decisions were made just as foreign minister lavrov who was visiting damascus gulf nations also said they were expelling syrian envoys from their countries as a protest against the regime the u.k. also recalled its ambassador from damascus monday and the u.s. has closed its embassy to discuss these latest developments in syria i'm joined live from london. our president of the arab lawyers association so some easy when gulf states have recalled their ambassadors from syria what message do you think that sends to the international community coming at this time when russia is stepping up its diplomatic efforts in the country this is very clearly an attempt by the west to thwart any settlement because i don't think the western powers whether it's the u.k. u.s.

from the europeans and certainly the countries the gulf countries really playing according to the rules that are being laid down to them by the americans they are the people who are trying to look any possibility we've seen this before. and you rather. than go position and i mean. anybody who wanted to have a dialogue with the government regardless of whether there whether. they went accused of being. stooges of the government or the agents of the government not to be with you know and this is. now at the present moment i think in terms of the opposition in syria i feel that this is really while the russians are trying to get the opposition to talk to the government because that's the only way you can resolve the problem i think they would stop those people from even though position

from discussing with the government sitting with them they would accuse them of being agents that would accuse them of being hunted by the regime and they would continue to settle on invested entrance to them don't have a vested interest in ending the bloodshed. no on the contrary i think the western powers the history of them is full of carelessness about the bloodshed the nato and the. european countries killed enough libyans on the pretext under the pretext that they had given them democracy they have done exactly the same thing in iraq where they killed almost a million people the civilians were killed in libya just as important as this it's a left of it and they in the attitude of the west is really it reminds people of the western attitude toward the public opinions to lebanon so that when i guess where the west killed civilians all of the regimes there killed civilians what it appears i see wellington

a third party observers are to believe that it's the the assad regime that's really cracking down on the civilians more than the armed opposition in this case well absolutely there is no doubt in my mind that the assad regime is a dictatorial regime it is a regime which is using very harsh means which is totally unacceptable at the same time they have the duty to restore so-called law and order that's why the western powers through iran through other countries i mean the syrian opposition and they are financing them and this is really where they've done the same thing in libya where civilian and peaceful protest where converted into an armed conflict so that it gives the pretext for the west to intervene now there are reports that member states of the arab cooperation council are planning to recognize the free syrian army syrian army as the syrian people's legitimate representatives now it's a body that has been referred to before as terrorists and armed gangs what do you

think official recognition of this group might lead to well quite frankly i think all these measures which is the recognition of various parties or banning the travel of other people. all these political gimmicks trying to make a statement we had yesterday one of the senior american congressman saying that the u.s. should actually support should provide arms and finance to the revolution to change the regime i have no doubt that moment that the phoenician in syria is a fact you have to one but everybody is getting more bored the old enemies of see if you are getting on board many of the opposition leaders who have not been in syria for a long time sitting outside theorising as if you can send a plane so that right on it and leave the country and another plane with them to come and rule syria and even though that everybody wants the change in the regime

that's not how things are done but the people who are talking outside and indeed when the west is talking about the protection of civilian lives they are really hindering all the activity that russia is trying to do and indeed the real opposition in syria within syria i know personally a lot of them who have suffered and that the regime of assad both the son and the father who have spent many years in prison they are now saying become tree is one important supporting the west or the east or getting rid of bashar assad we're not going to burn syria to get rid of the ruler because this has been tried before and they always syria is very near to iraq and they know exactly what happened in iraq when the intervention from the outside destroyed the nation on the basis they were their way of bringing democracy and freedom to the country or writes about looked our person of the arab or association thank you for speaking with us. diplomatic

battles in the u.n. have morphed into diplomatic scandals with the media accused of blowing the issues out of proportion for example some news agencies have made much of a squabble between russia's u.n. envoy and a representative of qatar and head of the u.n. vote on the syrian resolution can head over to our web site to look at what the russian diplomat said and if and when asked by r t what he really if he really threaten to eliminate the story that supposedly never happened by hans made to measure media headlines stay with us at our g dot com for more details on the. public anger again spills onto the streets of athens where thousands of anti austerity protesters gathered in front of the parliament police to use tear gas to disperse crowds trying to break through a cordon around the building this is a greek train youths are holding a nationwide general strike in response to a new wave of fifteen thousand job cuts it's one of the concessions the greek

government has already mase to have made it to appease international creditors but in the long delayed agreement on debt bailout terms still failed to materialize and the talks continue into wednesday greece desperately needs a hundred thirty billion euros from international creditors to avoid defaulting in march and more on this story i'm joined by investment adviser patrick young. good to speak with you again so the greek government has already prepared a draft agreement with a list of painful measures demanded before a second bailout will be released do you think they'll be able to reject the terms put forward by international creditors at this stage in the game there is not a city new way that the greeks are going to be able to reject the offer from their creditors right now this is truly finally the brink we are on the cusp of the greek to roost on both the truly good of the group of people the world by the i.m.f. the european union people there are a lot of the point where they do there is totally exhaust for a shift in the rest of the world as to why they should be paying for

a greek economy in the greek state that is totally completely not. has been completely and utterly mismanaged for decades and ultimately tragically the greek people themselves are going to end up suffering as they already are. going to see it happens again descending into violence and staring protesters clashed with police what chance is there that the greek people will have their voices heard in this case oh look there's still a big possibility that the greek people are going to manage to succeed and essentially drive their economy street and to default and that when that's the incredible thing and of course if you're a greek trade unionist i've been to look at it from their perspective well i mean first of all a monthly salary you get fourteen of those every year if you work in greece i mean we're talking about the greek minimum wage of course it's going to be under the current proposals if they come through by something like twenty percent but then again that's still going to leave the greek minimum wage being higher than it is and spain and in fact several hundred euro's a month higher than it is in other e.u.

members like slovakia or even portugal. some protesters are saying that they wouldn't mind paying for the second bout if it helped them in any way but they don't see that happening why do you think leaders are so committed to this remedy that really doesn't seem to be a cure well no i think we have to go a step back i mean in one way the european union has certainly adopted the politics of the say and because after decades of ignoring these sorts of things they suddenly realize that actually all greek government figures are a complete nutter a fiction that the greek economy is based upon a complete nutter disorganization where ultimately nobody has any incentive to pay their taxes etc the problem is for the greeks themselves if you're a northern german you don't see why your local swimming pool should be closed on in order to pay for things that are happening right now in greece and that's why very interesting issue happened today we've got the deputy chairman of the deputy commissioner of the european commission mrs crewe know the crew she's from holland

she's one of the few commissioners. he really hasn't a huge how little on the political mood and she dropped something today she dropped a bombshell she said we'd like to keep you in the euro but you know what we don't have to keep you in the euro that's incredible it's a seismic move finally in brussels it is being talked to by perhaps it's being whispered or more than shy to but the truth is the european union has finally realized that greece is not going to manage to reform itself or doesn't seem to want to and ultimately that's why we're on the brink and those people who are striking god love them i'm sorry for them but they're losing money out of their pay packets but there is no way that this farce can continue we're greece can be bailed out by the rest of the world that's the simple truth of the economics of the matter unfortunately and finally it's been exactly twenty years since the european treaty was signed today the euro zone fights are self locked in this terrible crisis where do you think it's all gone wrong. oh look where it's all gone wrong very simple i

mean the core ideas of water granted by europe i'm sitting today in the middle of poland i can travel all the way to the western coast to the atlantic coast in france or somewhere like that it's important you go without having to show my passport i've got free trade free movement of goods through our twenty seven countries these are wonderful things the problem is that all went wrong because a group of rather well rather heads in the sky kind of dreaming pie eyed individualists thought that there could be one single europe and they rushed to compress everybody into a single currency and ultimately none of the countries were actually remotely compatible economically in order to make that giant leap that's where it's going wrong and this is a tragedy for europe and the european union. thank you investment advisor patrick you. as we've mentioned it's the twentieth anniversary of the european union treaty max kaiser and stacy herbert check out the e's record after two

decades the full program coming up later this hour here's a preview. of their opportunity was last year to have a coup d'etat and get rid of happened and they could have been put in a populist government and they couldn't save themselves but they failed to do that so it's finished for them ireland similarly is toast no hope for them whatsoever portugal under the bus spain no italy they have twenty five hundred tons of gold if they can hold onto it they're in good shape but i suspect that the current government will sell that italy's gold deal with the i.m.f. because they're totally corrupt and this leaves only germany if at the end of the day. finally this hour after decades of drilling russian scientists and antartica have uncovered a rare natural wonder an ancient lake buried fountains of feet under ice artie's

sean thomas toward the frozen continent exactly a year ago and explains what this discovery could signify. vostok research base in antarctica it is the coldest place on earth and the deepest drilling location on the continent the main research was to drill the great your eyes as big as possible to get these tiny bubbles off they are the force preserved for about. four hundred thousand years at a certain point researchers made a new discovery lake vostok team of russian scientists have drilled more than two miles into the ice and have reached the surface of the sub lake itself excited about the possibility of discovering life while the drilling project at legg is exciting for scientists and promising in terms of finding a new life form here on earth there are some who are thought to go through the project should continue in fact they say it could even be builders to humans there are some wars that we will bring up some microbes that are really harmful. to human

being which is from the biological point of view it is some kind of the harsh conditions that make working in vostok difficult now scientists have a limited window of opportunity to conduct their research for the season with the arvin we had one essential self this is the coldest one that we're stretched it as minus eighty nine celsius at the end the favorite beginning of march temperatures begin to drop drop drop at these temperatures the planes can't fly anymore and that is it. now that the drilling task is complete the race is on to find the new discovery of ancient life on our planet in antarctica sean thomas r.t. . headlines coming up at all a bit but first the business news but danielle stay with us. talking to business in a surprising move for the russian stock market may compensate minority shareholders

for losses on their investment cry mr putin says the bank will use its own profits to buy back shares from people who took part in its i.p.o. five years ago called price of d.t.b. shares is roughly how of its initial listing plans estimated to cost up to half a billion dollars while investors await the details to be reviewed richard haynesworth from rating agency responded saying says there could be a more efficient way to solve these problems. if the shareholder. is unhappy with the performance of the manager of his company you fire the manager of the company and bring in new ones the share price has gone down the shareholders are not like what's happening and therefore that they have been selling out the government doesn't like the effect that's had on minority shareholders so as a majority shareholder the government should really sack the management of

the tb and put teen new managers who will increase the share price mobile phone retail is among the sectors that continue to show double digit growth in most of the markets russia second largest silis as noise says its last year's revenues rose by a quarter of the company's c.e.o. dennis lute cos he outlines what gadgets will be driving the growth this year. and mobile markets usually grow between ten and twelve percent i think next year will probably be towards the lower end of that spectrum my understanding is that about thirty eight million falls maybe thirty nine x. were sold in russia this year but sixty four percent of the overall revenue coming from mobile phones so it's actually coming from smartphone sales and that will increase dramatically was a hundred percent increase in mobile phones there were smartphones two thousand level. they would leave their still significant to grow russian energy market could soon see a new state owned player the government setting up an oil and gas service holding

cording to commerce and daily ventures plan to consolidate state resources based on the country's oil major rules next or energy as it manager rules nifty gas from should improve state competitiveness in the country's energy service markets which is forty percent owned by foreign companies. let's take a look at the markets rushers closed mixed with the all tears recouping early morning losses. to head north for a second day movers on the most six on tuesday flagship korea aeroflot finished lower traders had already priced in the announcement the passenger growth group a quarter last year the best result of any russian airline be to be boat was also down as investors await the details of its recent back and precious metals producer polish gold extended losses investors were cashing remarkable forty percent gains in the last few days on rumors of a merger with rival poly metal other metal stocks are also fairing badly peter weston explains we had some more of news out of china. and therefore made

a projection that should china there could be a slowdown in china's economy down to about four percent from the current plus percent if you're a sort of gets worse and that has really hit commodity prices where we're seeing the metals companies in particular being hard hit today that's the business news to stay with r.t. for the headlines. wealthy

british style. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look global financial headlines two kinds of reports. see a story. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm tom harkin welcomes a big picture. of

the mission in free cretaceous and free zones for charges free from a challenge free risk free studio time free. download free blog just plug in video for your media projects and free media. tom you. just saw.

an. odd.

eleven thirty pm in moscow the zero r.t. headlines. it is clear that efforts to end violence must be accompanied by a dialogue between all political forces syria's president confirmed that he is ready for such work breaking news this hour syria's opposition signals it welcomes russia's mediating efforts in trying to bring that end the government to the negotiating table this after president assad assured russia's foreign minister of his readiness to talk to all political sides and promise syria's new constitution will be put to a vote. as russia steps up diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis in syria major european and gulf states exit there and that is from damascus. greek standoff

clashes on the streets of athens as protesters voice anger at massive new job cuts while coalition members struggled to agree more austerity measures to secure a vital second bailout. staying with the world economy max and stacey explore a new kind of offensive looking at how currency wars are heating up around the globe kaiser report up next. kaiser this is the kaiser report the currency wars are heating up around the world stacy manx there are so many super committees and super bodies that i thought we here should form one on the kaiser report which is why we have the same exact shirt on oh great michelle little little paul so tags.