all eyes on russia as the people vote for their next president who will take the reins for up to six years. with five hours remaining until polling stations close across russia one third of russians have already cost of their ballots in what could potentially be the most transparent election in russia's history joining me live for all the latest information from the red square in just a moment. and a look back at the week's top stories calls for a serious cease fire grow but reports of more arms smuggling any arrestor more than one hundred foreign mercenaries strike fears of international interference.

all but two e.u. leaders signed a new package on tough budget controls while people across europe unite against cuts to their wages and pension. four pm in moscow i met treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t millions of russians today choosing the man who'll be president for an unprecedented six year term polling stations close in a little less than five hours we're bringing you comprehensive coverage from the heart of moscow. today's turnout said to be high with russian voters showing a huge level of political activity leading up to the vote authorities making every

effort to keep the poll as transparent as possible hundreds of thousands of independent observers spread nationwide and every ballot box under the watchful eye of webcams which anyone can view with streaming video artie's alexei or ships he live for us in moscow keeping an eye on the vote for us here on r t so how's it been going what's the turnout like and already observers satisfied. well we can now say that the election has tossed its equator with only just five hours remaining until polling stations close across the country and it will happen at about nine pm mosco time and that's exactly when we will receive the first exit poll results which we will certainly voice to our viewers everywhere across the globe now we understand that the voter turnout at this particular time is higher than at the same time four years ago during the previous presidential election in two thousand and eight and we understand that around thirty two percent of all just have already cast their ballots across russia the v.i.p.'s of the political elite have already

and against of course the presidential candidates have already cost their ballots as well we know that the prime minister but even if we can and his wife have been at the polling station a casting their ballot as well as his main rival the leader of the communist party again id's are gone off as well as certainly all the other presidential candidates they have been reports of several irregularities happening at polling stations across the country but given the large representation of independent observers of these polling stations we understand that those irregularities have been dealt with right at the sports we are continuing said lead to more it's all the situation and the latest because i bring you every hour live from the rest. now we've seen a number of rallies both for and against the current russian leadership in the run up to the vote how is this influencing the election so far. all the accusations of a recount vote in december let's thousands and thousands of people into the streets of russia something which we haven't seen here since the early one nine hundred

ninety s. and definitely something unprecedented for this country something which inspired somewhat of a change in the whole political and social systems in russia we understand that most of the criticism was directed at the prime minister vladimir putin with people both in the streets and own line demanding for him to step down and certainly the authorities could not let this go unnoticed a certain democratic dialogue has been initiated between those in the streets those online and those at power so russia is changing that's what many have been witnessing in the process three or four months and earlier i spoke to eddie krauss a very well known economist an expert in moscow who shares the same belief. the fundamental problem is russia needs an opposition even needs serious loyal constructive opposition and for twenty years there hasn't been one i mean i

remember the yeltsin years the opposition was fairly pathetic and right now it is it's not much better so it's still going to be putin for the probably the next six years russia needs to modernize but it's going to be a slow process and what mr putin keeps saying is supposed to be a new gradually we're going to see gradual change so russia has to move up the value added chain and it has to modernize but it's not going to happen overnight. goods not indeed there have been those who have been directing their anger at directly. certainly there were those who were hitting the streets of the russian cities asking demanding for a fair election to. place to happen in russia this time and definitely the election process which we've been witnessing and the election campaign have every indication is that this may become the most transparent and the most democratic election that russia has seen since the collapse of the soviet union take us through some of those steps if you could that are being made to make sure that this election is

transparent. will certainly for the first time in the history of russian election process we have we have cameras installed at every single polling station across russia making this election in fact the most expensive in the russian history only a vis a procedure of installing web cameras alone cost health a billion u.s. dollars something which was proposed personally by prime minister vladimir putin indeed as i mentioned hundreds of thousands of observers out there this week talking here over eighty regular russian citizen who could have applied to be an observer at the polling station so that entered number of observers there that is eighty thousand in more school alone and hundreds of thousands across the country as well certainly as the international observers which also have a quite a large representation here of around seven hundred people across the country morning tory their election election no reports of major violations have been received so far certainly we are waiting for

a news to come within the next five six hours and what amir putin's been grabbing most of the headlines in this race then most pre-election polls if you set him as a front runner but who is he up against today four other candidates tell us more about that. this quite obvious that support has diminished almost two fold since two thousand and four when he ran for presidency back then it was about seventy percent now it is smaller but still everyone realizes that everyone pretty much sure that we can will win this presidential campaign it is the matter of whether there will be a second round runoff which will be held on march twenty fifth if it happens in three weeks from now or this will be if you are a complete victory in the very first round in order to get that victory but even if we can has to get fifty percent of the votes plus one vote of course we'll see whether that happens but if this election goes into the second round runoff the most likely manage to challenge him there is the leader of the communist party you know he's about of it's his fifth presidential campaign something unique and

unprecedented for russia as well because he's been running in almost every presidential election since the collapse of the soviet union in fact it's been only once that he escaped the presidential campaign another potential candidate for the second round runoff is russian tycoon mikhail gorbachev who in some way represents the rivaling middle class in russia he is a newcomer to politics it is the first time he is running but some experts believe that he may be there in the second round challenging but even if we can for the country's top job we also have two other candidates which is the ever prominent leader of the liberal democratic party but he was really lost to a very doing central command eccentric contains a very loud and harsh statements in his. rhetoric in his political life for the last twenty years also a veteran of the election campaigns in russia and we also have the leader of the fair russia party so given all of us to be the head of the upper house of the russian parliament what those two candidates are seen as actually very little

chance of them they can get into the possible second round runoff a very interesting race and it's coming to a head very soon we'll be having some exit poll results at nine pm local time the latest information will certainly be updating all of you. world war all right artie's let's air show ski checking in for us from red square thanks for that update. millions of people are cross russia now fulfilling their civic duty by casting ballots for their chosen candidate in for the first time anyone can watch the democracy in action why nearly every single polling station equipped with a webcam streaming live this is live video from one so we're showing you right now just south of the russian capital the webcam network is prime minister vladimir putin's idea to ensure maximum transparency in response to allegations of a rigged vote during the state duma elections in december we want to check it all out for yourself the address on your screen there in the lower right hand corner and you can also register using your social media account. if you don't want to register also showing you

a selection of streaming of web streams on our t.v. or you can also find extensive analysis of the election along with the latest updates. parties or catarina groucho over was checking out the web cam insulation as well as looking into other preparations to make the vote as open as possible. for a student yes i think. we won't forget and we won't if this is what the opposition promised the kremlin up to december's parliamentary elections they claimed the bones had been raked in response the authorities decided web cameras at all ninety eight thousand polling stations sold that problem it's cost russian taxpayers over three hundred million dollars doubling the initial cost of the vote now it's officially the most transparent and the most expensive in the nation's history but not everyone's convinced. the cameras won't change anything there will

always be discontent it was honest before even without cameras i don't think it will make the vote which unfair and it's only made to please the opposition or the so there was no sin. installing them too many people are voting and there are too many polling stations it will make things more complicated. one of the main concerns about the c.c.t.v. system is whether it can serve a country as vast as russia hacker attacks on the website in charge of broadcasting shortly before the vote only added to concerns but these young people claim they came up with a strong alternative the phone and tablet application aldridge deal was created mostly for observers it allows them to upload pictures reports on the turnout to give the final results and register any violations the data would be processed and published on the website immediately them when we realize our website might be attacked on the x. by hackers but we're ready for any attack on our servers are capable of dealing

with serious traffic that are based in data centers and europe so will cope with processing information from observers and regular users to. ultra geo is independent from the central election committee and its founders promise to come up with reports just as independent meanwhile that all five candidates had quarters it's been mostly about training observers this election also has set a record number of watchdogs almost a million including seven hundred international observers here. i was invited to this election doors open day it was good training for everyone but we could see first hand how c.c.t.v. systems work she transferred ballot boxes it will be the first presidential election in russia which not only will be filmed on hundreds of thousands of cameras but which has been rehearsed to a couple of days before the actual vote those who wish to take part were invited to cast their ballots not for candidates today but from history including peter the

great winston churchill and. your eternal great twenty six year olds is only hours before russia's next peter the great is named but even before the ballots have been counted many warned of a new wave of protests who the protesters in december demonstrated not against the results of the vote but the fact made very different putin was swapping seats irritated them was that putin was trying to return to the top job so regardless of how transparent the vote is if putin gets slightly more than fifty percent protesters will claim he added that i can serve to avoid a second round seventy no one will believe the result the first exit polls will be released one voting in the westernmost city of kaliningrad comes to an end the question then will any of the candidates have that much needed eighty percent to avoid a second round it in a gradual r t. so you're with us here on r.t.

for up to the minute coverage of the election from the heart of moscow as the votes are cast and counted. turning now to some of the week's other top stories fears of a foreign role in the syrian violence escalated this week government forces say they have arrested more than one hundred mercenaries mostly arabs and even some europeans and attempts to smuggle weapons into the country were reportedly being stepped up our team summary of the notion of reports. but the borders doors and windows do est despite international isolation syria's borders have remained opened and easy to pass through and that may have played a crucial role in the militarization of the country's conflict almost immediately after the crisis began here last margin there were reports of graph is being

smuggled through to on president al assad's opponents one thousand dollars for a truck full of reference capable of delivering wholesale destruction and that's how marshall kind of will pay to smugglers usually iraqi oil lebanese drivers according to the yard ismail chief of the customs series on the border with lebanon . these people bring women here to destroy our nation to try to kill syrian people on the syrian territory enemies. syria has more than two thousand kilometers of frontier with five states israel iraq jordan turkey and lebanon the syrian cities where the most violent clashes have taken place homes and there are all over the an hour of the border is a fact that some believe has determined their fate or destiny is this is one of three take points on the three hundred fifty kilometer syrian lebanese border in the last year as we've been told here there were only three times to smuggle

weapons across the offices confiscated thousands of bullets dozens of guns and hundreds of club rooms i have little metal pieces like this one used to maybelle horses main concern iraq little clothes like this one part of the border where there isn't any security at all but here look at this in the middle of nowhere there is nothing only one road across the road right now at the same time across the border and i'm already in lebanon on. and further south see remains extremely vulnerable the city of cairo the cradle of the syrian uprising it's all. all started here and it continues to play a role in the country's crisis where there was jordan just several kilometers away from here and numerous reports suggesting that foreign weapons and troops going to is a lifo through its that are has become one of the weakest points in the country's security the city has become the scene of fierce and bloody clashes at least twice in the

conflicts twelve month history the authorities have claimed that many of the so-called free syrian army have in fact come from across the border. they appear shoot and kill and then they disappear immediately they arrive from abroad but they are not from jordan they use this country's border many of them are from africa. we're showing their weapons allegedly seized in military operations now you have in the army we don't have weapons from israel and america sniper guns and night vision binoculars advanced developed weapons we don't have it in syria this what we confiscated was killing innocent people and kill even more. while the international community condemns the regime and supports its opponents many believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsible for violence across syria and with so many foreign ruffels involved it's clear that the crisis threshers far

beyond these borders refn ocean r.t. reporting from syria. rebel forces pulled back from a key district in the besieged city of holmes this week with government troops moving in to tackle the remaining resistance damascus as it's gradually purging a city of armed terrorists but activists say it's a massacre and claim repressions are happening the international red cross is stepping up efforts to aid to get aid to the city residents don't have electricity and low on food and water amid fierce fighting between rebels and troops one eyewitness tells our people are hiding indoors afraid of masked gunmen who may shoot them and thought to be foreign mercenaries the full firsthand account of vailable on our team took. on the diplomatic front u.s. and some of its allies see syria's president could be classified as a war criminal this despite the latest round of democratic reforms by damascus as a new constitution was put in place after gaining public support in last week's referendum neil clark writes for britain's guardian newspaper things western powers

may not be interested in the syrian people's opinion. it's a great day for democracy in syria and yet what's the reaction been of the western leaders well hillary clinton's grounds to that is a cynical coolie. rest of the german. he said that it was a sham what is a sham is the west approach because their reaction to this referendum shows they're not really keen on real democracy in syria it's the last thing they actually want but we've heard opinion poll before the show fifty five percent of syrians want a scientist a huge demonstrations in favor of president as we can in the rest of the reality is that the majority of syrian support the for the west because in long they have used now so we have this ludicrous musician where we have the west which claims to be supporting democracy is discounting the syrians. still ahead this hour to strike or not to strike president obama gets an ultimatum from israel which is calling for

a military attack on iran over its nuclear program. all except two e.u. nations have signed up to new tougher budget rules to stop countries running up huge debts britain and the czech republic staying out of the deal which must now be ratified by twelve euro zone members or to brussels correspondent has more. it's been talked about for months coined as a solution to europe's crisis fiscal compact for sky park the new fiscal rules after another two day summit this fiscal stability compact is signed sealed and delivered. most e.u. leaders have agreed to give it the go ahead and it's expected to be ratified by at least twelve years old nations this pact comes with tight budgetary rules that must be strictly adhered to or else face automatic sanctions member states must maintain a balanced budget or have a surplus keep a budget deficit of three percent or less and schreiber balanced budget rule

international legislation with it one year preferred we have in the constitution it budgetary targets are not met but guilty nation could be brought to the european court of justice and be obliged to make penalty payments the reins of strict budgetary oversight will be in brussels hands now we've been europe in brussels we've got our first saw i was a budget star and he's going to police all garages all the member states and these member states will lose sovereignty in the field of budgetary policy now is the population going to accept this. a population that's already been forced to accept one tough assertive asher after another all good couldn't just move on so if you are going everywhere you go towards crisis with everybody is no tackling people because it. can be expensive everywhere then you crush it where nobody's consuming nobody's interesting but of course the point of this trade is

a continuation of pure. looks and. so we are exactly going back to what we have done in the last fifteen years. in the us e.u. readers see the budgetary discipline discussed possibility pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the result structural imbalance. as the crisis hit countries ease their way out of their predicament but it's a one size fits all approach that has some worried about the impact it could have on healthier economies improved lead to huge school with some addition bias. even induce countries to see if it's going to situation the deal comes through the can school accounts can decrease come in. that's a. bank's peace problems and during the time you want to and not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are gross and employment just are cilia r t brussels there were sturdy protests in several european countries ahead

of friday's e.u. summit hundreds of demonstrators called for drastic action from leaders in front of the european union headquarters in brussels in spain thousands of students held more rallies against education cuts that are things trade unions worry about a three hour stoppage in march against changes their pensions salaries and benefits greece under immense pressure from brussels any international monetary fund to impose are. just six billion euro bailout. some other stories making headlines across the globe libya's muslim brotherhood has formed at a fish part by mohamed so braun who spent eight. there under the khadafi regime the brotherhood is expected to be a leading political force in the coming june elections islamist groups had a presence in the country for more than sixty years but maybe even some leaders were jailed or exiled. china's defense spending will rise above

the hundred billion dollar mark this year countries developing a new aircraft carrier a stealth fighter jet and missiles that could shut down satellites military budgets written each year for the last two decades making it the world's second largest behind us tensions between them grew last year after america promised to boost its military presence in the pacific. tens of thousands of north koreans gathered for a show of strength against the south and foreign forces during the rally the country's military chief said the chance of their going to war with their neighbor was greater than ever you know it's been angered by a joint us south korean military drills that is set to run until april. the train crash in southern poland has left fifteen dead fifty injured two express trains collided head on the travelling in opposite directions on the same track not yet clear how one of the trains managed to end up on the wrong track although maintenance work was being done in the area poland's prime minister described it as

the most tragic train catastrophe in many years. israel warns washington it will press ahead with an attack on iran unless the us pledges to use military force to keep from acquiring a nuclear bomb this ahead of monday's meeting between president prime minister netanyahu and president obama who came out against a preemptive strike both television washington suspect iran of developing atomic weapons which it denies claiming it's generating peaceful energy only u.n. inspectors visited iran last month but said they can't confirm the absence of weapons because tehran fails to cooperate but iran's envoy to the i.a.e.a. tells r.t. in an exclusive interview he doubts the agency's impartiality. we are warning that a couple of courses include the united states is trying to run day agency so that they can dictate from washington what the vienna should do and that is why we do not permit such a thing to occur and that is the whole issue that said the agency has

a professional technical organization should do its work and that is why you see they make meet so many noses here and there they do not let the agency to do its work and that is why we want to expect all countries including russia and others and i'm betty please that last meeting in fact russia and china ambassadors along with hundred countries of nonono movement all together questioned what had to happen in fact namely the least of confidential information that that we need mobilization of member states to prevent something happening in vienna we steered give away these agency from the society. full interview with iran's nuclear or iran's envoy to the u.n. nuclear watchdog click away at our t.v. dot com. stay with us here in our tease we bring you more in-depth coverage on today's mean news the russian presidential election as our updates continue from the heart of moscow.

and in a few minutes we'll hear from the man behind the installation of two hundred thousand election web cams across the world's biggest country to help ensure maximum transparency this after a recap of the day's headlines stay with us. we'll

. its technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've dumped the future coverage. as the folks for president archie looks at the fine running for the kremlin top. six hundred eight liberal democrats a lot of years of an old speech by far was just those words to. bully politician on

the record at sixty five juveniles he is on his fifth presidential campaign putting one to ten percent of the vote in two thousand and eight his campaign slogan is little escape or it'll be worse plan for presidency a two year drive against corruption and drug smuggling in russia farah food and housing prices controversy cost campaign promises included free volga and free underwear journals he's infamous for racist remarks and fighting with opponents no not broad for securing parliamentary immunity for the non britain says poison to alexander litvinenko. presidential election two thousand and twelve on party.