an assassination plot targeting russia's prime minister vladimir putin has been foiled by russian ukrainian special forces according to russia's main state t.v. channel. syria waits to discover whether democratic reforms will come into effect as people vote on the new constitution counted for the opposition boycotted the ballot amid escalating violence. and the anti austerity drive grips the u.s. spain's impoverished students lash out at me cuts saying they've been abandoned by their government. and investors on monday are reacting to the

g twenty summit results and it looks like they don't like the european markets are down the details in about twenty minutes in the business. world news twenty four hours a day you're watching our table straight to our top story now russian and ukrainian special forces have foiled an assassination plot targeting russia's prime minister vladimir putin the suspects reportedly admitted planning to make their move in moscow right after sunday's presidential ballot. joins us live now for more on this or you go what more do in their. well according to russia's channel one of two suspects were arrested in the ukrainian city of i.d.s. early in february both as the journal says russian citizens and one was on the

international wanted list reportedly both admitted plotting an assassination attempt on the life of prime minister vladimir putin in moscow right after the upcoming presidential vote on march the fourth press secretary told r.t. that the events did take place however he refrained from commenting at the moment meanwhile channel one has shown the video of the two suspects describing how they prepared for this assassination one of them said that it was actually ordered by russia's number one terrorist one off but this information is still has to be confirmed since the investigation is still ongoing they also said that there were originally three people in this group three men they studied at the root of putin's motorcade the amount of bodyguards there and were hiding from the voice switching flights and february they were putting together an explosive device which

went off right in that apartment killing one of these men and the other two admitted plotting this assassination attempt shortly after they were arrested by the authorities. but. put in travels with a lot of security detail doesn't he had an attempt on his life would be near impossible when it. well that's right the prime minister is quite heavily guarded by dozens of security officers both in uniform and undercover the motorcade itself isn't that large really it usually consists of up to seven cars discord by around four traffic police vehicles but the entire route of the motorcade is also guarded by security officers now this isn't the first time approaching the great game a target of an assassination plot but they never came to actual attempts on his life

and neither is why they want to put in the first senior politician in russia who became a target of these plots just in one thousand nine hundred three back then president buddies yeltsin almost became a target of bomb plot before that during the soviet times soviet leader i learned british if he's a motorcade was attacked by a gunman but i think it's probably. the lead in who tops this list since some historians believe that he survived up to ten assassination sustentation attempts on his life. ok article pace of life from central moscow i thank you for that. well today's news is of course on against the backdrop of the presidential election that's taking place on sunday let's focus on the campaign itself now putin has been writing a series of articles in leading newspapers outlining his plans recent one is on foreign policy let's discuss it with mr mitchy bobbitt she joins us now in the

studio here when our team well putin says that russia will pursue an independent foreign policy as he talked about russia's veto that the u.n. security council resolution on syria what do you make of that and doesn't some compromise have to be made but i think it's nothing new because basically russia did not make a big secret. it's a position to their actions or western countries and some of the persian gulf states against the syrian regime so it would be yes and see which indeed not support the section in the security council on the other hand i think the whole article is not anti western. would you know obviously want to cooperate with western he's just on paper with certain actions or need to go and other western countries in the middle east which as he approves in that article actually run counter the west interest itself so if he is unhappy with that then how does he see a solution to the syrian crisis well he writes about it in his article he sees it

in continuation of a dialogue in adoption of the new constitution in you know he wants the problem to be solved by the syrians with themselves without outside involvement and i think that's that's a very good difficult part or what but it's the only possible one because we know we have some experience with civil wars in russia a civil war which is one by one side or another it's never a solution because the victors always you would you venture on the vanquished turning to america and to quote what he said here he believes the u.s. is striving for status of invincibility saying that nato washington's foreign security plans make other countries when he says vulnerable what exactly does he mean by all that well he speaks about cold in the vulnerability of the united states and seemingly it's a good concept you know why shouldn't some state be told lean vulnerable to

security threats but he writes in his article that these stall doing vulnerability for the united states means total vulnerability for many others i mean before all that this because then the united states would not only be the biggest power when the ward with the biggest amount of fire power but also it will be able to strike anyone it wants to strain. now he also says that iran has a right to a peaceful nuclear program for energy sources only how does that go down that comment with the u.s. especially israel but from a legal point of view which is absolutely right because. iran is part of n.p.t. nonproliferation treaty and that nonproliferation treaty actually says that country has that agreed not to have nuclear weapons and you know iran agreed not to have a nuclear weapon they they can develop peaceful nuclear programs and more contrasts with developed nuclear technology such as russia for example must help those

countries to develop their own peaceful programs so if we speak in legal terms there is a clear nothing wrong about that statement that iran or the united states suspect iran of trying to get a nuclear bomb is another matter but if you look at what's going on you know north korea is the only pariah state which has not yet been attacked internally or from outside by the western powers why probably because it already has a nuclear weapon so iran has a huge temptation you know if they have to choose between the fate of really been the fate of north korea they would probably prefer to let them and still with with putin's articles here a sense that he lashed out really what the at the u.s. for what he calls asserting and politicizing human rights issues what is he referring to there particularly well we know that in the last few years. of military attacks were actually justified by human rights rhetoric on the part of

the us and the you. george bush jr when he wants to use military campaigns always talked about human rights how do how does that jive with tense or you know dozens of tens of thousands of you know people dying in iraq or in afghanistan that's not quite clear. yeah but somehow in the west we have this almost a quasi religion or human rights when in order to protect some human rights activist or some lies democrat we can separate fight thousands of these pagans who don't believe in human rights correctly but that was allowed this to me thank you for joining us here not in. now as we heard russia is against intervention in syria and is pushing for reforms in the country the mask this is awaiting results of sunday's referendum on a new draft constitution with a government already heading it a success the vote which went ahead amid reports of ongoing violence is said to

have seen a high turnout despite being boycotted by the opposition party's move is in syria. interior minister has said that it will take hours before the preliminary results come out with the main results so far is the fact that this referendum actually happened they've been fears that those against the ballots could try to wreck the referendum they've been attempts to intimidate people reports have been circulated in local media about possible terror attacks at the polling stations the syrian opposition both the one base the bread and help has not only boycotted the vote in but also has been repeatedly calling all people to go on strike to take to the streets to protest against this referendum and against president bashar assad this referendum and this constitution has been considered part of a package of democratic changes democratic reforms promised by assad's government we've seen demonstrations both prayer and to government here in damascus criticism

pressure from the international community has also been quite high the main concern was that the very chain comes amid a valance to continue in in the country especially in the besieged city of homs north of the capital damascus indeed we are receiving reports about people being killed in the clashes between the opposition and authorities literally every day but the fact is that it hasn't stopped people from casting their ballots we have been able to speak to a number of voters and the feeling we've gathered is that people are simply tired of instability and a nest in that country and they say that if the results like charles that this referendum and this constitution i were you able to bring peace to the country it's worth to try this chance but you're watching out here still ahead this hour he gazed in fist fights with fellow politicians and was detained for a drunken brawl at an airport and a former ukrainian minister said today the spate of even more serious charges and

details just ahead. eurozone leaders are hard at work to boost. the union's financial fire wall to prevent economic troubles from spreading between member states but spain's so-called lost generation of unemployed youth are already feeling the pinch of deep cuts pushed through to shore up national finances students have been taking their grievances to the streets disillusioned with the promise of europe prosperity as artists are first there abouts. if you were a sentiment was riding high off to spain during the year is saying back in two thousand and two that a decade on in years of us starting to put us all back to work with an economic crash we had a against. government policies and we were we were into was no question of quality but for all the latest round of cuts and reforms but nationwide protest in spain valencia and it was the students leading the way as

they took their complaints out of the classroom and onto the spanish streets and we're spending millions like we're rich but actually we're seeing that we're not rich at all i mean we have high schools without without heating you know there's no money there are cutting where they shouldn't they're touching the low income people and. and they just don't see anything that's they think it's right. the plan to bring not the basic reason of names class but that this place and. that is the coming late this country in the grip of the year in the rise in the thousands upon thousands of people take either he's raised the price now and again here and i see my children see that it was up on the population was spain's protests have by and large been peaceful they were worrying a familiar scenes last week a spanish riot police clashed with protesters worry about the same thing happening

here is happening going. yeah we do worry but we think we're just a little bit better and resolve the political helping is more or less the same. that you have it because there's no money spain is not there yet while being a very different country with very different problems it's now facing a scarily similar scenario to the us agrees with the press population being squeezed even tighter we are about two years should be going to greece in terms of pro. but you see the policy which the troika. and the international monetary fund european central bank and european union are imposing on countries greece italy spain portugal it's. economics one o one is very simple to understand that i mean if these countries. with problems and you force the. public spending you.

push them deep into recession like greece spain billions in foreign debt held largely by germany and france it's money which wouldn't be paid back less painfully . schools without heating teachers without jobs and unemployment on the rise make for a bleak prognosis and as the country tips into a second recession and with more protests planned for later in the week themes like these could be set to become much more common on the streets this surf. more on the eurozone debt woes on our website r.t. dot com and while you're there you can check out some other stories we've lined up for you today and circling moscow thousands of hands to surround the city's garden road for fair elections just a week choosing to its next president. and smartphone spyware find

out how summer vacation send your personal data straight to internet companies. dot com. south korea and the u.s. have begun joint military naval drills despite north korea's threats of possible retaliation. call the action a sign declaration of war but its neighbor states the twelve day military games are purely defensive when i get more perspective on this. ruediger frank who's an expert on north korea and east asia at the university joins us now live it's not the first time south korea has held such drills is it and the north routinely declares it a threat to its security is there in your opinion any reason to believe these exercises are a danger to the north. well to begin with that's not the first time but these are definitely the longest lasting such exercises ever used they used to be around one

week or ten days in two thousand and three and twenty eleven last year they were expanded to one month and now in twenty twelfth's the first time that we see it two months the period for the key resolve and fully legal exercises and i'm wondering what type of signal does this supposed to be sending to north korea. ques interest in north korea has threatened to launch a powerful attack to strike against south korea and prevent that considering it has nuclear weapons could this conceivably turn into a nuclear conflict well the risk of course is always there although we must say that north korea has issued state such statements in the past and lucky leave these purchased statements but you never know you can play with fire safely for a while and until you create some kind of a big blast and that's what you don't want i'm really concerned because we have a new leader in north korea kim jong un with whom we have no experience whatsoever

with whom we have a chance to actually open some new avenues for cooperation and for resolving all those pursing issues that we have on the table and by telling him well we don't care we do not either quit or shorten those exercises but they actually expand them this is sending the wrong signal and north korea of course responds the way how this would have to be expected by issuing such very very harsh statements using the terms of war and the lation etc when indeed you mention the new north korean leader i mean do you think this could be happening in a sense to test him. well in death case i don't really know what the meaning of that test should be if you want to force him into a corner where he is lawless where he has no other option but to have a hard line position fine because he is not only being watched by us he's also watched by his own people he is surrounded by generals who want to find out that it

is man is really fit to lead the country or not and b. are not forcing him to take such a hard line or oriented stance and thereby we are basically blocking all other options that might have been on the table what about the involvement of the us ham some would say washington is trying to deliberately provoke young and isn't a sense of that. well i have no idea what the intentions of washington are of course the options for policy are limited we have an election coming up in the united states that is important and in such a context a democratic president will not take any risk of appearing to dogfish. north korea because he has to face a republican challenger who will of course try to play that card i have no idea what type of signal the united states want to send to most korea in particular since last week they just met in beijing and had something that the american negotiators described as as fruitful talks how dangerous is this that you know

because in a case of an armed conflict could we be talking about world war three. well we have about two hundred thousand south korean troops about thirty thousand american troops in this one exercise alone on the north korean side we have over one million soldiers it's a state that is on a constant state of emergency on high alert is a state that is in possession of nuclear weapons although we don't know exactly how many and what in which quality they are there but this is definitely a very hot area and it's surrounded by countries like south korea japan and china so if they become involved in some kind of military confrontation the whole thing can easily get out of hand so i do believe that we are facing a potentially dangerous situation. came after leave it there would be a frank thank you for your thoughts here live in r.t. . now a senior member of ukraine's former orange revolution government will learn on

monday if he faces the next few years in prison and he of course is expected to deliver its verdict on the exing tim in a state that sank up he's charged with abuse of office and corruption artie's let's hear a shot ski reports. noted that his speeches once ignited thousands of hearts during the two thousand and four orange revolution where udall center was one of the driving forces now with no less inflammatory rhetoric from ukraine's former interior minister is heard from behind bars. among the worst you know president yannick which in a gang fight against corruption that's lawful they are corrupt through and through that's why they orchestrated this case against me which has nothing to do with criminal law only with their desire to get rid of political rivals. you know from unlawful distribution of high place jobs in the interior ministry to using state money to buy f. lot for his personal driver the charges against could land him in prison for up to

four and a half years so his trial has lost it for more than a year during which look santa went on a hunger strike several times it is drawing clear parallels with that of ukraine's former prime minister yulia tymoshenko currently serving seven years in prison for abuse of power in both trials loud protests of support were ever present and say experts such strong public outcry has seriously changed the country's political landscape but it was. the ruling party's reading drop below you'll to mission calls party the public doesn't approve of persecution that's what the mission was reading is two to three times higher now even higher than that of president you know coverage the ruling elite unwillingly made let's go into mission symbols of a struggle against themselves and any political force can now use these symbols to gain votes. just like his case korea had also been filled with controversy from fistfights with keeps mayor to being detained in frankfurt airport for drunken

brawl that along with doubtful decisions during his ministerial work makes the ruling party believe he is guilty then will you do your if you didn't have enough education and law for this job that's why he made many mistakes for instance he wants bragged of issuing a speeding fine to the president's son he had no right to do that there's only traffic police could and it was a violation if a person is in the wrong place he makes mistakes and one needs to pay for his mistakes. and said weeks ago that whatever the verdict they would file a lawsuit with the european court of human rights because expected to review his case on april seventeenth combined with the continuous global criticism of the tymoshenko trial this could put even more strain on t.v. ruling elite the opposition has been picketing central kiev ever since june last year and tymoshenko is daughter says that the protests will not die down even when the euro twenty twelve football championship comes to ukraine so the case will

definitely add more spice to what is expected to be a rather turbulent year for the ukrainian politics alexey recessed the r.t. reporting from kiev in ukraine. what are some other stories from around the world now a suicide car bomber has hit by the airport in eastern afghanistan killing nine people in a huge blast explosion went off near the entrance gates destroying several cars parked in the area the taliban claimed responsibility saying the attack was revenge for the burning of copies of the koran that an american military base last week tensions have been running high there for in the incident with nearly thirty people killed in violent protests. the train carrying some seventy five people has derailed in canada three railroad employees were killed and dozens of passengers injured carriages which were traveling from niagara falls to toronto came off the tracks close to a real way station emergency crews have been working to free those who remain

trapped in the wreckage the cause of derailment is not yet known. what silent movie the artist has won best picture best director best actor oscar ceremony hollywood movie or is favorite to collect the prestigious awards best actress went to meryl streep for her portrayal of work destroyed mr thatcher in movie meanwhile in martin scorsese's prime soon adventure hugo took five years. now and is the latest newspaper company logical ahead of the election official hopeful putin also addressed russia's economic cooperation with the european union that's across not in the task at the business desk for more on this natasha. that's right in his article in moscow daily prime minister putin essentially offers his view on how to solve europe's economic issues he essentially suggests that russia should form

a common economic zones including free trade zones with the european union and perhaps even offer direct financial help to the european union in return he's essentially suggesting that europe should give up the idea of. energy market reforms also known as the third energy package the package is sensually suggests that companies such as gazprom should not be allowed to own production as well as transportation networks at the same time has long been critical of that idea especially saying that it aims to destroy energy pricing formula that ties the price of gas to the price of oil and it doesn't seem to be phasing the russian investors if we judge by the market reaction essentially the r.t.s. and the open and quite upbeat and or upbeat up until this hour they are sliding in sympathy with the global indices more of them in just

a minute the big. movers on the my sex is the second largest bank the t.v. which is bucking the downward trend the sour and energy majors gazprom and draws now they're pretty much what. investors among deals to reacting to the results of the g twenty summit over the weekend and they'll have plenty of statistics to react to throughout the week namely the fourth quarter g.d.p. data and the home sales numbers coming out of the united states and by thursday the p.m.i. or production managers index coming out of china it's an important indicator of the health of the chinese economy and a bit more on the g. twenty summit the leaders of the world's leading economies met in mexico to try and iron out their differences when it comes to the second european of rescue package of course the idea there is that europe house to put up its own money first before

the press the world chips in and helps but the main sticking point there was germany it said it will make a decision by sometime in march on whether or not it wants to put any more money into the bailout fund and it looks like the european the investors are not very impressed with these meeting results at this point basically european indices are lower the footsie and the docks are sliding the macroeconomic headlines will be the main focus and one of these headlines is of course the price of oil rising oil is a threat to global economic recovery but here's the paradox oil is actually declining on monday for the first time in eight days and escalating oil price is indeed a threat tensions over iran's nuclear program continues to be one of the main factors driving oil prices higher analysts say prices carry this so-called fear premium.

of ten to twenty dollars a barrel in recent weeks and that's likely to continue to be so in the near future a higher dollar is putting the lid on crude prices though the dollar is gaining against the euro the ruble is strengthening against both the dollar and the european currency. and that's all the latest this hour i'll be back with an update in about fifteen minutes i'll see them.