these are the images from seeing from the streets of canada. a giant corporations rule today. that assassination plot targeting russia's prime minister putin has been foiled by russian and ukrainian special forces. syria waits to discover whether democratic reforms will come into effect as people's votes on a new constitution are counted meanwhile the european council puts more pressure on the regime agreeing to new sanctions. again tie austerity drive grips the eurozone as spain's impoverished students flush out of more cuts saying they've been abandoned by their government. one week ahead of the presidential elections here in russia prime minister and presidential hopeful document putin outlines his idea of how to solve europe's economic problems the details and the market reaction in the

business bulletin in about twenty minutes. to three pm in moscow i met good to have you with us here on r t our top story russian and ukrainian special forces have foiled an assassination plot targeting russia's prime minister vladimir putin suspects reportedly admitted planning to make their move in moscow right after sunday's presidential ballot is can offer ports. the suspects were detained in the ukrainian city of i.d.'s early in february they are reported to be russian citizens and have admitted plotting an assassination attempt on the life of prime minister vladimir putin in moscow after the upcoming presidential poll on march fourth i didn't put in the press secretary to me that if you confirm to our t.v. that the invents 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 washes number one terrorist no cool one off but this information is still has to be confirmed since the investigation is still ongoing we 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 authorities voice switching flights and. they were putting together an explosive device which went off right in that apartment killing one of these men the prime minister is quite heavily guarded by dozens of security officers both a new uniform and undercover the motorcade itself isn't that the large really it usually consists of up to it was seven cars discord by around four traffic police

vehicles but the entire route of the motorcade is also guarded by security officers this isn't the first time that was even put in became a target of an assassination plot but then never came to actual attempts on his life neither is the first senior politician in russia to become a victim of assassination attempts for example back in one thousand nine hundred three president bodies yeltsin almost became a victim of a bomb plot said to be prepared by a member of the public disappointed and angered by the. the soviet union before that the us is sort of the last leader mikhail gorbachev was the target of a gunman the suspect reportedly had the chance to shoot but he was detained by security officers at the last minute and prior to that. gate came under fire as well as it turned out the general secretary wasn't in the corps but that didn't stop the gunman from flying sixteen bullets at what turned out to be

a core full of cosmonauts unfortunately the corps driver was killed and one of these cosmonauts was wounded probably. tops the list with some historians saying that he managed to survive up to ten assassination attempts today's news against the backdrop of the presidential election that's taking place sunday turning to the campaign itself putin has been writing a series of articles in leading newspapers outlining his plans a recent one on foreign policy putin wrote that imposing democracy by force brings the opposite result allowing extremists to come to power threatening national development he writes that the us is striving for the status of invincibility adding nato and washington's forensic foreign security plans would make other countries vulnerable he also stressed that interference in the affairs of other countries could push some governments to pursue nuclear weapons to defend their interests political analyst dmitri babbage weighed in on putin statements. i think

the whole article is not anti western. we do know obviously one of the ration was western policy he's just on hate deal with certain actions all we need to the west of the country which as he proves in that article action is wrong counter the west interest itself. you know he wants the program to be sold by syrians themselves without outside involvement and i think that's that's a very difficult war with but it's the only possible one because 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 victim of all this you would you venture or on the bank. he speaks about cold in the vulnerability of the united states seem in the it's a good concept you know why shouldn't some state witold lean vulnerable to security threats but he writes in his article that the stole doing vulnerability for the

united states means total vulnerability for many of us maybe for all of the us because then the united states would not only be the biggest in the world with the biggest amount of fireball but also it will be able to strike anyone it wants to strike. as we've heard russia is against intervention in syria pushing for reforms in the country damascus awaits the results of sunday's referendum with a new draft constitution with a government already halley it as a success the vote that went ahead and made reports of ongoing violence said to have seen a high turnout despite a boycott by the opposition parties marie if an ocean has more from damascus. the interior minister has said that it will take hours before their preliminary results come out but 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 to the head has not only boycotted the vote but also has been repeatedly calling all people to go and tried to take to the streets to protest against this referendum and against president bashar assad this referendum in this constitution has been considered part of a package of democracy changes democratic reforms promised by assad's government we've seen demonstrations both prayer and to government here in damascus which is has been pressure from the international community has also been quite high the main concern was that the value chain comes amid the balance to continue on in the country especially in the besieged city of homs north of the capital damascus indeed we have received in reports about people being killed in the clashes between the opposition 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 gods is that people are simply tired of

instability and a nest in that country and they say that if the results like chavez that this referendum and these constitution i wave will to bring peace to the country it's worth to try these chants. the european union has adopted sanctions against the syrian central bank its latest effort by the e.u. states to put pressure on damascus for more on this we speak with gregory clark a former australian diplomat joining us from japan so the searchers have a history of mostly hurting people as opposed to the regime being targeted do you think we're going to see something different this time around. you know it's more of the same with sort of the libya we see it over iraq whenever they. go with fifty american britain europe some program is the one they like to put sanctions. china's state newspaper has labeled hypocritical western attempts to protect the

arab people because of their record of warfare through the region with other advance in the arab spring do you think the domestic conflict in syria has become a tool of international politics. who is not the most recent wist. does like to intervene in these situations to move its own interests and. if we have a situation where there is some anti government. full sunni in syria to be able to learn this seriously hundreds of book people and i'm sure there are many in washington and london. who want to use this to. well. it would like to see it through the syrian regime and. in particular its who promote their interests these are the iran and these are the. u.s. secretary of state has refused to admit washington is siding with out and now hamas

through its support also for the opposition fighters what's your take on that. well i was interested it's interesting that she's been accused of. american interests here it's quite clear that they want to see regime change its course into a situation that in libya the only difference is that they haven't begun to arm the government forces but the many other forces can get arms and sort to she slowly and . begin to see an ugly situation because it will be a very bloody civil war. probably with a name it will not end up is that it's said to be. russia's foreign minister says international friends of syria group that met and nisha last week was one sided and didn't offer a solution do you think that's a fair assessment by sergei lavrov. and quite a lot of respect to

a foreign minister and i think he's generally been correct it's important to maintain relations with the sisu regime. to. contribute to issue a situation to the regime to make whatever reforms on needed. to. support and would for some kind of settlement do you leave. it to get. out of the country and. neither is the country. right clark a former australian diplomats speaking with us from tokyo thanks for your time thank you stay with us here on our t.v. still to come this hour he engaged in fist fights with fellow politicians and was detained for a drunken brawl at an airport now a former ukrainian minister is set to learn his fate over even more serious charges

details ahead. but first here ozone leader is hard at work to boost the union's financial fire wall to prevent economic trouble from spreading between member states but spain's so-called lost generation of unemployed youth is already feeling the pinch of deep cuts pushed through to push through to shore up national finances students took their grievances to the streets and disillusioned with the promise of euro prosperity is archy's sarfarosh reports from valencia. if you are a sentiment was riding high off to spain during the year as a back in two thousand and two but a decade on in years of us starting to put us all back to work with an economic crash yeah against. government policies and we were we were into was an impression of quality but for our kids the latest round of cuts reforms but nationwide protest and they led via and it was the students

leading the way 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 to think of the plan to bring not the basic reason of nations that have been that way should. think but is the come the latest country in the grip of the year and the rise in the thousands upon thousands in the book take the reins to the president and again feel indebted to magilla feel that it was upon the population was spain's protest by a large being peaceful it will bring a familiar scenes last week the 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 be determined resolve the political helping is more or less the same yeah yeah because there's no money spain's 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 think times of pro. but you see the policy which the troika. and the international monetary fund the european central bank and european union are imposing on but if a countries greece italy spain portugal it's economics one hundred 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 came listeners and unemployment on the rise makes for a bleak prognosis and as the country tips into the second recession and with more protests planned for later in the week seems like these could be set to become much more common on the streets of spain so. it's a. sturdy protests are familiar sight on the streets of greece germany set to vote on the next rescue package that would save the country for a painful default it was agreed by e.u. leaders last week at a cost of massive new cuts patrick young from investment advisory firm devi advisors things greece should have left the currency union a long time ago. greece is truly

a tragedy in every sense of the word and i didn't what we're not doing is they're not only cutting i mean they're cutting flesh in fact they're possibly cutting into their own arteries and let's face it what does this deal actually do for greece well what it says is that essentially if you want to go another five or six years old total potential destitution in austerity you might just end up with one and a half times the debt that they basically house at the moment in countries like germany are counted are totally unreasonable and unbelievable the tragedy of greece is that two three years ago when it first came to light that their financial figures were a complete fiction and we finally knew the truth that we'd all suspected all along they really should have been out of the euro at that moment instead we've got this absolutely psychotic desire by a group of frankly well economically illiterate people in western europe particularly within germany who are desperate to manage to hold this all together

then we've got another group of people who are absolutely determined to try and keep greece in the euro zone which of the incredibly highly paid greek politicians and the poor greeks themselves are absolutely stranded there is no way that greece can manage to bring together all of these cuts there is no possibility that greece is going to survive in the euro with the long term why we're throwing good money after bad and why we're there covering actually the good people of greece on the ground absolutely defines a lodger. more on the euro zone's debt woes on our website r.t. dot com and while you're there you can click on some other stories a lined up for you today in circling moscow thousands hold hands to surround the city's garden the ring road in a call for fair elections a week before russia goes to the polls to select its next president. and smartphone spyware find out how some apps could send your personal data straight to internet companies all of the details at r.t. dot com. south korea and the u.s.

have started joint military naval drills despite north korea's threats of possible retaliation pyongyang threatened to launch a strike against seoul of provoked though the south states the military games are purely defensive ruediger frank an expert on north korea and east asia at vienna university thinks the conflict could conceivably turn into a full scale standoff. well korea has issued to state such statements in the past and look at these versus the statements but you never know you can play with fire safely for a while and until you create some kind of 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 il 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 pressing issues that we have on the table you have about two hundred thousand south korean troops involved in two 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 the 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 in watch in which quality they are there but this is definitely a very a hard area and it's so wrong to buy a countries like south korea japan and china so if david come 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. a senior member of ukraine's former orange revolution government will learn one day if he faces the next few years in prison i can have court expected to deliver the verdict against former interior minister nuri let sankoh who is charged with abuse of office and corruption artie's alexei or chefs he reports. we should go to that his speeches once ignited thousands of

hearts during the two thousand and four orange revolution where you listened to was one of the driving forces now in no less inflammatory rhetoric from ukraine's former interior minister is heard from behind bars in clovis new york among the. present yannick gang fight against corruption that's if they are corrupt through and through that's why they can. 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. lat for his personal driver the charges against could land him in prison for up to four and a half years so his trial has lasted for more than a year during which will 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 the will to machine 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 all senko enter mission symbols of a struggle against themselves and any political force can now use these symbols to gain votes. just like his case look sanctus korea had also been filled with controversy from the fist fights with keith's mayor as to being detained in frankfurt airport for a drunken brawl that that will that along with doubtful decisions during his ministerial work makes the ruling party believe he is guilty then while you do us we're doing them a euro he didn't have enough education 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 that he had no right to do that as 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. goes defense said weeks ago that whatever the verdict they would file a lawsuit with the european court of human rights he is expected to review his case on april seventeenth combined. continues global criticism of the strong 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 still just says that the protests will not die down even when the euro twenty well football championship comes to ukraine so the case will definitely add more spice to what is expected to be a rather the year for the ukrainian politics let's see reporting from kiev in ukraine turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a suicide car bomber struck the jalalabad airport in eastern afghanistan killing

nine people in a huge blast the 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 qur'an at a u.s. military base last week tensions have been high in the region following the incident with more than thirty people killed in violent protests. a huge fire broke out at a power station just east of london the blaze is centered in a fuel storage area is said to contain about four thousand tons of wood pellets no injuries so far reported firefighters are on the scene the power station was originally built to burn coal but it has permission to burn biomass fuel and wood materials. and the black and white silent film the artist has won the best picture best director and best actor awards at the eighty fourth annual academy awards in hollywood the movie was the favorite to collect the prestigious prizes best actress went to meryl streep for her portrayal of former british prime minister margaret thatcher in the film the iron lady and martin scorsese's persian adventure hugo

took home five oscars. as we've been reporting vladimir putin has been outlining his foreign policy priorities ahead of presidential elections next weekend europe's energy policy came in for some criticism let's go live to our chief business desk when atocha is standing by to give us the latest updates well indeed prime minister please. and has been returning to the subject again and again what he particularly objects to is what's known as the third energy package centrally it's the idea that the companies that own the production cannot own the distribution and the supply networks and which it has been arguing that this is centrally. designed to squeeze companies russian companies namely gazprom out of europe and to discuss this in more detail and now join a live by consenting seaman of the head of the national energy security fund in moscow mr seem now thanks a lot for joining me and why is this issue so critical for prime minister putin.

you know european union now wants to rewrite all rules and that is why it's so very important because we must understand what will be the scheme of our energy business between russia and europe off that will solve them twenty where the main long term contracts between wrong and european consumers will be finished because you know. it's a serious dilemma because european union. usually is saying that there will be absolutely a new system it will be a sport market there will be no need in long term contracts but it's a serious question you have there will be no income complex what will be the level of consumption of russian gas after two thousand and twenty it's this question is extremely important because gazprom doesn't know what will be the level of consumption and it's a question to invest money for example the mountaineers for the project do invest

money. or not maybe to invest money do you see being brought to increase the supply of gas to china to other asian countries so now we must understand what will be the rules of our business it is extremely important i understand it does sound like gazprom wants a certain level of predictability. wouldn't you say that europeans have a point gazprom does in that respect seem like a monopoly. so you know in the relative guest broom has very few assets in the european downstream we can speak about german you we can speak about some assets and baltic states and not in the relative we can say that this because for example maybe it's a good opportunity for a gust problem because if there will be a move. there will be more competition and mom gets produces and you there will be

a lack of gas on the european market means that there will be no need. to invest minute doing european guess infrastructure is a serious problem because no cars no assets and i mean serious asses and you will speak about implementation of the package just moved in the first week to all this process european companies will be the first week terms of these and bentley and and. that is why in my opinion for best moments a problem wolf first of all the problem of psychology because as a set of the now there is no need to invest money to european infrastructure europe must find these smart ambitious investment and in the ready to get born again increase the prices of there will be no confusion on european market but as i said during the onset of your first question the main problem is our long term relations because just boom has assuming you do invest money now and the thank you very thank

you very much unfortunately we're running out of time that was consenting semen of the head of the national energy security fund here in moscow and it does seem like investors are not seeing anything new or anything threatening in this case judging by the market reaction both the r.t.s. and the my six start of the day quite i'll beat but at this point they are trading mixed and that's. mainly in sympathy to the indices across the globe and specifically the european indices at this point speaking of the biggest movers on the my sex russia's second largest bank v t v is actually managing to buck the trend it's gaining quite a bit and energy majors a gal's from and of ross nast are also trading higher at this hour. and european markets are reacting to the results of the g twenty finance ministers meeting in mexico over the weekend and they don't seem to be too happy as you can

see the markets are sliding if it sees losing more than half a percent the dax is almost one and a poor of a percent a lower and. now speaking of the macroeconomic headlines of the oil market is also down the oil is losing value and unfortunately that's all we have time for in this edition of business i'll be back in about fifteen minutes i'll see that. cultures that show much interest in which of course you can work on it will be the price of crude remains stubbornly hard and consumers feel the pinch but why are energy prices so hard use of the lack of supply.