market why not. get in the. mind on what's really happening to the global economy with mike's concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into khan's report. all eyes on russia as the people vote for the next president will take the reins for up to six years. the battle for the kremlin continues with more than a holiday of the voters in russia have already cast their ballots in what could potentially become the most transparent election in russia's history join me live for all the latest information straight from red square in just one minute. and roughing up the week's top stories calls for syria cease fire growth but reports of more arms smuggling any arrest of more than one hundred foreign mercenaries of spike in years of international interference. and all but two e.u. leaders cited new pact on tough budget controls while people across europe unite

against cuts to their wages and pensions. six pm in moscow i mattress or bring you today's top stories at a look back at the week's news here on r t tens of millions of russians choosing the man who'll be the president for an unprecedented six year term today polling closes in just under three hours we're bringing you comprehensive coverage from the heart of russia. today's turnout expected to be high with russians having showed a huge level of political activity leading up to those who vote authorities are making every effort to keep the poll as transparent as possible hundreds of

thousands of observers spread nationwide every ballot box under the watchful eye of live webcams for the first time which anyone can tune in. live in red square bringing us all the latest so there's only a few hours left for the western part of russia to finish voting what's the latest we're hearing now on how about spelling. effect it's only three hours remaining until polling stations close across the country and we'll be receiving the first exit poll results which will certainly deliver first hand to all of us we understand that more than a health of the voters in russia have cast their ballots it is a rather high turnout higher than it was the last time the president was elected in russia in two thousand and eight some regions reported a very high turnout of about seventy percent that's in the in the far east of russia all the v.i.p.'s all the political elite have already cast their ballots as well we sold prime minister putin and his wife casting their ballot as well as his main probably his main rival the leader of the communist party you know if you go

on a also day at a polling station casting his ballot making his choice in this election suddenly it's been a very interesting day and we will bring you the latest details as i said at nine pm time when the polling stations close in russia's most western point the city of police and then the exit polls we produced to us here and we will bring in two of us so we've seen them a number of rallies both for and against the current russian leadership in the run up to this but what impact has all had on the process this year. well it has been a tremendous impact and russia is going through a. serious change following these protests the allegations of a rigged vote on december the fourth spurred mass protests both on and offline with thousands of people taking to the streets and also for voicing their protest on the internet in different blogs and micro blogs and so on definitely this signalled a major change start of a new democratic dialogue between those of power and those in the streets and the

election which we are seeing right now is in fact of the direct consequence of all this change and definitely there has been a serious shift in public opinion and recently just last hour i spoke to one becoming true from the other russian opinion research center and she basically explained what the change in this opinion is all about. but i think they've right now these awareness this interest was the political base to be sure we still life in russia in general is showing that we are meeting certainly a different period of time in russian history much more interest and much more feeling that something depends on you something depends on something on the things that you do in your choice and then you'll kiss a patient with charisma i can tell you that in the latest three months we have observed the rice and supports all the positions leaders but in general we see much eager interest always the elections right now especially among the younger

population most of the big cities and in the villages and the small rural areas willing to speak much more actively both voting and observing the elections. these crowds which had been protesting for months all across russia they were split in there in the form of their protest most of them the large part was protesting directly against the government directly against prime minister putin saying that he should go that he should resign in the power should be changed in russia but a large chunk of the crowd was also demanding fair election. quote particularly protesting against anybody just demanding free election. and this is something which we are hoping we would see come come to moral come the first results and whether any regular regularities unfolds for patients happen during the election process will certainly know that later on but definitely the election itself has changed dramatically following the several months of protests all across this country and so on the topic of those fair elections take us through what measures

are being taken to make sure the selection is transparent. for the first time in russia's history that we have webcams installed at every single polling station across the country a project which cost a billion u.s. dollars to the russian state budget this was initiated by prime minister putin himself following all the critique of the of the previous caller mentioned election this is certainly something new for russia the ballot boxes themselves are made of see through gloss we have a tremendous and enormous number of observers at every polling station in fact every russian citizen could become an observer at a polling station the only had to register with a certain party to be able to be an observer at the at the polling stations that is hundreds of thousands of people more than eighty thousand people in moscow alone are observing as international observers at the polling stations as well certainly as more than seven almost seven hundred international observers from all over the world who have come here we've already had reports of irregularities during the

voting process but we understand that due to the tremendous number of observers at the polling stations these irregularities have been sorted out right at the sport you know and most of the eyes out our on the front runner of white here putin but what about the four other candidates how do their chances look ahead of today. nobody has any illusions about the fact that even a question will eventually win this presidential race you support is still strong despite just by diminishing from what compared to two thousand and four and two thousand and five and and the years after that we understand that the only intrigue of this election of this. presidential races whether there will be a second round runoff if it happens so that means if you will not get fifty percent plus one votes at the first round then we'll have a second round runoff on march twenty fifth it's in three weeks from now and everyone is speculating now what's. who will possibly challenge lead you know which in this potential second round run off the most likely challenger is the head of

the communist party tonight as you go on a very experienced campaign who's been running for just about every presidential election apart from one during this period since the collapse of the soviet union is he's quit complaining now he every time he took part in a presidential election in russia he always came in a second place now we also have a dark horse of this election cycle. who represents in some way many ways he represents the middle class russia and he is a newcomer to politics it is the first time he is running for the highest post in this country also we have two other candidates though their chances of making into this contentious second round run off very very slim this is the ever present leader of the little liberal democratic party let's be very eccentric man who has been using very let's say peculiar ways and he complains and very harsh rhetoric mostly nationalist rhetoric and also last but not least we have i say again that

all of the head of the fair russia party also the former head of the upper house of the russian parliament also running for the third time as for the country still also having very slim chance of succeeding should a second round runoff happen that's about it and definitely an interesting presidential race which would be coming to an end very soon at nine pm as i said. bringing you the latest details in the latest figures of exit polls as we get them all right artie's a large parish as you lie for us in red square with that update thank you. millions of people across russia now are filling their civic duty casting ballots for their chosen candidate and for the first. as we've reported anyone can watch the democracy live in action from the web nearly every single polling station of work with one transmitting a live this is what's happening right now at a polling station in c. here is for the web cam network is prime minister vladimir putin's idea to ensure maximum transparency in response to allegations of a revote during this week you will actions in december you want to check them out

for yourself you can go to the web site of the lower right hand corner of your screen right now using the web register using your social media account if you don't want to register you can also see a selection of streaming webcams live out of our website are there you can also quite extensive analysis of the election and the latest updates. groucho was checking out the web cam installation are looking into the other preparations to make the vote as open as possible. for a student these are people. who won't forget and we won't forget if this is what the opposition promised the kremlin after december's palm tree elections they claimed the bones had been raked in response the authorities decided web cameras at all ninety eight thousand polling stations won't solve that problem it's cost russian taxpayers over three hundred million dollars doubly the michele 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 will change anything there will always be discontent it was almost before it without cameras. i don't think it will make the vote more transparent it's only made to please the opposition. there was no sense installing them too many people are voting and there are too many polling stations who 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 if the phone and tablet application older geale was created mostly for observers it allows them to upload pictures report on the turnout and

give the final results and register any violations the data would be processed and published on the website immediately when we realized our web site might be attacked on the x by hackers but were ready for any attack on our reserves are capable of dealing with serious traffic they are based in data centers in 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. 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 to see transparent 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 the great winston churchill and. you will be a truly great trying to speak slopes it's only hours before russia's next piece of the great is named but even before the ballots have been counted many warned of a new wave of protests. protesters in december demonstrated not against the results of the vote but the fact an advantage when 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 up in self 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 fifty percent to avoid a second round if they didn't graduate r r t more scale and stay with us for up to the minute coverage of the russian election from the heart of moscow as the votes are cast and counted. turning now to the week's other top stories fears of a foreign role in the syrian violence escalated this week government forces say they've arrested more than one hundred mercenaries mostly arabs and even some europeans and attempts to smuggle weapons into the country were reportedly being stacked up our teams were if it has been. their bosses those and to the state despite international isolation series 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 march they were reports of the effort has been smuggled through to arm president al assad's opponents one thousand dollars for a truck full of weapons capable of delivering house sale destruction and death that's how much all kinds of will pay to smugglers usually iraqi oil lebanese drivers according to the yacht ismail chief of the customs service on the border with lebanon on. these people bring we're here to destroy our nation to try to be the syrian people under syrian territory enemies. syria has more than two thousand kilometers of front year 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 in an hour of the borders

a fact that some believe has determine their fate or destiny is this is one of three checkpoints 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 prowse of all those dozens of guns and hundreds of kilograms of little knuckle pieces like this one used to may well put these horses main concern and make little clothes like this one part of the border where they reasoned 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 and at the same time i'm crossing the border and i'm already in lebanon on little and further south she remains extremely vulnerable the city of tire on the cradle of the syrian uprising it all started here and it continues to play a role in the country's crisis with what it was to have been just several kilometers away from here and numerous reports suggesting that foreign weapons and

troops can easily flow through it 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 complex twelve months of 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 are showing their weapons allegedly seized in military operations now. 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 in syria this what we confiscated is killing innocent people kill even more. while the international community condemns the other side and supports its opponents and many

believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsible for violence across syria and with so many foreign weapons involved it's clear that the crisis thresh is far beyond these borders raef an ocean r.t. reporting from syria. rebel forces pulled back from a key district in the besieged city of homs this week with government troops moving in to tackle the remaining resistance damascus as it's gradually purging the city of armed terrorists activists say it's a massacre and claim repressions are happening international red cross's boosting efforts to get aid to the city residents are without electricity and low on food and water amid fierce fighting between rebels and government troops one eyewitness tells our key people are hiding indoors afraid of being shot by masked gunmen who are thought to be foreign mercenaries the full first hand account of elbel outlined it r t v dot com. on the diplomatic front u.s. the u.s. and some of its allies say the syrian president can be considered

a war criminal and this despite the latest round of democratic reforms by damascus as a new constitution is put in place after gaining public support in last week's referendum syrian activist omar what says many people in this country prefer assad because they want stability. we've noticed since the very start of this problem in syria the west in general did not welcome and ridiculed actually every single reformists that the syrian government promised to do or actually took all the steps were other than mentioned little role by the international media all pretty kewl somehow as being either too little too late or not sufficient or you know their credibility not ok this is i believe to try to undermine the syrian government's commitment towards reform what the international community needs to understand is what syrians view on the ground is very different apparently from what everybody here is in the

in the international media the mainstream media and in that sense people i wouldn't see totally united behind the current government but they view it as their best option so as not for the country not to collapse because everybody is afraid of what to come next should this central government collapses and that's exactly what's keeping this interim government in its place and intact for the past year or so still ahead this hour to strike or not to strike president obama gets a call to meet him from israel which is calling for a military attack on iran over its nuclear program. but first all except two e.u. nations have now signed on to tougher budget rules to stop countries from running up huge debts britain and the czech republic staying out of the deal which must now be ratified by twelve euro zone members r.t. to brussels correspondent terser sawyer as well. it's been talked about for months claimed as a solution to europe's crisis fiscal compact this kind of talk to new fiscal rules

after another two day summit this fiscal stability contract 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 it here too 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 enshrined a balanced budget rule of the national legislation within one year preferred we within the constitution if budgetary targets are not met the 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 in europe in brussels we've got our first saw and there's a good start and he's going to police all the bridges 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 austerity measure after another all good economies and of course that if you are doing everywhere you go towards crisis everybody is no tackling people because if we are cutting expenses everywhere then you crush it with the bodies consuming nobody's investment but of course the point of this treaty is a continuation of pure liberal orthodoxy. so exactly going back to what we have done that i think. in this either read or see the budgetary discipline this is the stability pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the eurozone structural imbalances and help crisis that countries ease their way out of their predicament but it's a one size fits all approach worried about the impact it could have on healthier

economies you could lead to huge fiscal consolidation bias so you can boost countries to see if you screw situations and you. don't have fiscal accounts which can decrease coming. at a time when banks these problems and the going to go on to lend not a desirable scenario when the new buzzwords are growth and employment lesser cilia artsy brussels. there were protests in several european countries ahead of friday's e.u. summit hundreds of demonstrators demanded drastic action from leaders in front of the european union headquarters in brussels in spain thousands of students held further rallies against education cuts in athens trade unionists went on a three hour stoppage and march against changes to pensions wages and benefits greece is under immense pressure from brussels any international monetary fund to impose austerity to secure one hundred thirty billion euro bailout. plan out of

some other stories making headlines across the globe a series of explosions at an arms dog for the democratic republic of congo has reportedly killed about two hundred people hundreds more were injured in the blast in the capitol hill because a still unknown the government believes it to be an accident. libya's muslim brotherhood as for the official political party will be led by muhammad so one who spent eight years as a political prisoner under the cannot be regime in the brotherhood's expected to be a leading political force in the upcoming vote has run as groups had a presence in the country for more than a half century but many of its leaders were jailed or exiled under the khadafi regime. china's defense spending will rise above the one hundred billion dollar mark this year the country's developing a new aircraft carrier a stealth fighter jet and missiles capable of shooting down satellites beijing's military budget has risen each year for the last two decades making it the world's

second largest behind new u.s. tension between the two increased last year when america promised to boost its military presence in the pacific. train crash in southern poland has left sixteen dead fifty injured two express trains collided head on while travelling in opposite directions on the same track not yet clear how 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 warning washington that it will press ahead with an attack on iran unless the u.s. pledges to use military force to keep from acquiring an atomic bomb this ahead of monday's meeting between prime minister netanyahu and president obama who came out against a preemptive strike both tell of even washington suspect iran of developing a tonic weapons which it denies claiming it's generating for its for generating peaceful energy only u.n.

inspectors visited the islamic republic last month but said they can't confirm the presence or absence of weapons because of iran still failing to cooperate but iran's envoy to the i.a.e.a. tells our t.v. that he doubts the agency's impartiality. we are warning that a couple of countries including united states is trying to run day agency so that they can dictate from washington what again i should do and that is why we don't not permit such a thing to occur and that is the whole issue that the agency as 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 all countries including russia and others and i'm barely pleased that last meeting in fact russia and china and massive those along with a hundred countries of nonaligned movement all together questioned what had happened

in fact namely the least of confidential information that that we need the mobilization of member states to prevent something happening in vienna. way these agency from me says sakshi full interview with iran's envoy to the u.n. nuclear watchdog ready for you right now at artesia stay with us here in our cities we bring you more in-depth coverage of today's main news russia's presidential election as our planes continue from the heart of the russian capital. i'm coming up the second part of our special report on people using culture to bring change after the recap of the top stories. from.

the. world. science technology innovation all the rest of elements from around russia we've got the future coverage.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for asians are relieved a. mum.