nine am monday morning here in moscow welcome you're watching r.t. with me kevin now in this hour and first for him a putin's returning to russia's top job a little later on the smalling he'll be officially back at the helm then later this monday after he's sworn into office for a third it follows his four year stint as prime minister but despite a majority of votes in the march election there's been some difference of opinion on putin's reelection that's talked about is in this and now a good morning it's fair to say is that it is not exactly been smooth sailing for the lead up to putin's return to power far from it indeed. it is any usually not always but it tends to be pretty black and white you either are for or against putin and that was very evident on the streets of moscow on sunday where we saw a pro an anti protest others anti protests got pretty ugly i'll give you some more

detail on those in just a minute but let's take a look at how really opinions the one thing people can agree on pretty much is that if putin wants to have a successful third term back in the kremlin he's going to have to make some changes . he's back for an unprecedented third term after a break as prime minister and many say russia will need to see putin two point zero any leader who's been in power for five six seven years in a difficult position because people get used to him and the taken for granted he has to then reinvent himself putin has made the promise ahead of the poll he proposed a vast reforms from a major crackdown on corruption to diversifying the economy and raising living standards it's delicious it'll be students next term will be the one that forms his legacy as a politician in russian history and i'm sure it will be a positive one. but the people to be convinced most. or the opposition who gathered

in the largest numbers russia has seen for decades after claims a vast front in december's duma vote and clashed with riot police on the eve of putin's inauguration. he needs to set out for a reform and not a reform on paper but something real something that both the opposition and you know the regular people not just in moscow but all throughout russia can see that this is really putin two point zero the most popular politician no doubt has a majority of support across russia and is credited with extraordinary development in the country but putin leaves few people in different at home and abroad it usually comes down to love or hate but i don't think that everything that putin has done is defensible or by a by a very wide stretch but there are some people who argue in such transparent bad faith that it's you know it's impossible not to notice that it's just it's

a person it's a personality thing in the west he's seen as harsher than me specially on foreign policy which could prove to be a challenge on issues like the reset with the u.s. and pushes for intervention in the middle east but on the economic front analysts have already sense to change at least three key issues to entry privatization investment climate reform we see. putin changing his. emphasis and direction on particular issues in a way which corresponds with a political shift a shift that is most evident on the web russians have never been more active in politics blogs twitter facebook or something putin will have to embrace if he wants to stay in touch yes to participate otherwise he'd be excluded and you would have the other russia which talks its own language and the president will talk he's laying there. leaving the question now that he's back can move forward.

well on sunday in the mosque out there were pro and anti putin rallies the opposition one did get ugly pictures coming out of there really the most violent scenes that we've seen for what has really been a very peaceful and almost festive movement i did start that way as protesters marched to below where but it changed very quickly when some of the more radical opposition leaders were calling for a sit in bottles began to be thrown there were smoke bombs back and forth it was a very chaotic clearly seen for a while there and what the mood is really is that it's unfortunate because some of the opposition was planning to continue this movement and like i said this was the first time things really turned ugly and it seems that it was because of a few provocations that the thousands of people that came out to voice their opinion the thing that will remember are those pictures that we saw coming out of

those protesters of course not some of the more festive ones earlier when i want to leave what's happening inside russia just for a bit because i have a special guest with me problem today of who is the executive director of the foundation in focus a little bit on foreign policy you said a bit earlier that you think they're very intertwined in fact. but a lot of focus is going to be on the u.s. we saw criticism of putin in terms of his anti american rhetoric as some people would say leading up to this election how is that going to affect one relations and also the so-called reset. i think the. focus has been. significant for the previous two. in office. i think the world is changing really has changed in five years. in the first it was the. washington post try. to live version and install its

own vision of the world two two two two countries including russia. and. putin had to react in the tough way they did. by standing up to this pressure to to. to defend the russians so for any t.m. the konami continued dependence but now the situation has changed. also as you said domestically because in the first. the domestic front of russia becoming richer and stronger was a was in the middle of it on itself and provided the food to the foundation for these tough rhetoric in the foreign policy by now the change the world has changed and russia has changed. and you had gender modernization agenda development the gender and for that you would need different foreign policy instruments the world is interested in. and russia needs to leverage all its

potential to find its positioning right positioning in the world to attract investment to attract you know how to become an appealing country to deal with it would be able to the next tour for putin inform the terms would be a period of multilateral diplomacy a period of coalitions and that's something to really lacked in his foreign policy when it was like you are pretty confident that putin is going to be a much softer in terms of his foreign policy with that in mind a lot of people feel like in terms of what's happening in the middle east in libya for instance we saw the first time russia not vetoing intervention in libya a lot of people said that if putin was in office that might have not been the case how are we going to see this softer putin that you're seeing or expecting in terms of the mideast and what's happening there i'm not saying that it's going to be softer i'm saying that it's going to be much more much more subtle much more complex. roache much more distinct list of priorities and clear and

attractive set of values sort of narrative of values which would be appealing to its to its counterparts around the world is not going to be with us as a primary focus in the world of the think part of the pole of power which is moving into the asia pacific and that's where probably russia will have to seek for more for more resources for its support its own development and positioning of the world as to us to us to to be doing awfully busy to ration well. each incumbent president in russia is trying to establish good relations with the with the with the west we could see. early putin them trying to force calm to the u.s. concerns off to these symptoms by the september eleventh attack. helping out with a with the kind of stone gratian rolling back on a couple of a couple of bases for and for military bases include and vietnam for example. now

past a while that that was also the case with believe it might be the case that if it was put in an office says as a president it could have been different but it was. the period it was some kind of some some rights positioning for the damage limitation of some sort. with this was the decision which which which you did russia at the moment but with the but it to be is that russian foreign policy has learned from that experience and on syria with for example sort of a much different stance much more subtle much more insistence. on only its own vision on on the vision which is which with food which with philly's right. there full full full full for the situation based on international law based on the notional sovereign it's of the countries so that i think i think that's in the that now is if we stay on it is quite popular with and with a number of countries maybe less so in the west but with china with with with other developing could. countries it's quite appealing but the thing is how to

counterbalance it with something something real only real real really attractive domestically. domestically and the sort of in this. infrastructural infrastructural. interdependent world which we are now faced with i wonder they have interesting thoughts there on this inauguration day of late the major putin of course executive director of the valdai it club face foundation joining us just outside the kremlin we're just hours away really of the inauguration of light emitted putin after a third term as president calvin back to your innocence thanks more as you say a little bit later exactly we've got live coverage from the kremlin coming up in the next couple of hours or here on r t is lima putin is sworn in as russia's next president will be bringing you opinion on what the next six years hold him for the country as well as comment on his previous ten years as both president and prime minister.

but raney authorities have arrested the country's main human rights activist who's been one of the leaders of the uprising there nabil rajab was detained late saturday on his arrival in lebanon that comes just days before his appearance on julian assange show here in r.t. where the whistleblower quizzed him and an egyptian activist over the revolutions in the arab states and his other bennett's got the details. well the authorities of

said is that now bill rand job is being suspected of committing a number of crimes punishable by law and that he's now being held on charges of inciting and taking part in a legal demonstrations and should be remembered though that labial raja's position has landed him in a number of made in a target even of the bahraini authorities before because he is a highly prominent activist there and also one of the most vocal outspoken critics of the country's ruling family and that's really what makes this next episode. so significant because this is this is thought to be. the last interview before his latest arrest now is considered one of the heroes of the first protests that took place in bahrain last february he's now got over one hundred forty thousand followers on twitter because he's the head of the bahraini center for human rights and he's really the driving force behind the mass demonstrations that we're still seeing in the streets of bahrain despite a government ban on on public protests there since it became known that he was

appearing on sanjay and that's that's what he elaborates on in this next episode and what i said in my twitter account that i'm going to meet julian assange i'm going to. t.v. program my house was surrounded by almost one hundred policemen and. machine guns and did you do realize that i was not at home didn't they just to. be to tell me to come to depose prosecutors today at four o'clock where i am here so the very day that he was summoned by the public prosecutor's office in bahrain he actually chose instead to appear on as angie's talk show and and appear on r.t. using the platform as an international platform even to criticize the regime in bahrain and it's for this reason that june last stanage things why he's been arrested basically by appearing on this show russia would indeed be risking a great deal but even so. he that he would be willing to pay any consequences that

come of it because he says he would be fighting in the name of democracy this is what he had to say. but this is the struggle this is the freedom disses democracy that we are fighting for as a cost and do we have to be a discourse and of course it might be very expensive as we did i cause in bahrain we were willing to bid for the changes that we are fighting for now one of the other guests this week on a do not show is another prominent activist in the in the arab spring his name is our abdel fattah he was a he was highly influential figure in the uprising in egypt last year in tahrir square but like roger he too has become a target of the or thora sees the fact that julian assange is seeking to the very people who are making leave things happen in these countries and are willing to face the consequences as we've seen with now with his arrest this weekend well that really that's what makes this next episode really one that's not to be missed and

you can catch it here r.t. is being shown at eleven thirty g.m.t. this tuesday. speak to two leading revolutionaries one from the rain where the river. was of egypt where the revolution is now and what makes a revolution and where. going to go. so that if you do guns and vote syria's holding its first parliamentary election in decades up to president assad adopted a new constitution but the opposition has to boycott the vote calling it a farce because reports. now the big story overnight then from swallows defeated nicolas sarkozy the french presidential runoff making him the latest e.u. leader to be swept aside by the crippling debt crisis among the first steps the president elect is planning is a push back against general standard c. measures chancellor angela merkel is already invited along to berlin for talks said

it reports. the results are out france has a new president socialist challenger francois long has a clinch a victory making him the first socialist president in a seventy years and for nicolas sarkozy who is now the eleventh e.u. leaders of power since the crisis started with a fourth this add to your sturdy sentiment sweeping across the continent now for a lot he has presented himself for the most part as the man who will unite france who will bring back equality essentially by wanted to heavily taxed big corporations adventure individuals cause he has said during his campaign that he is the only one who will be able to bring france out of the economic part bar it's in but a lot said it is speech that he is up to that challenge or one of the first things he wants to do as president this is speak with germany's angela merkel to renegotiate that fiscal pact that had been agreed upon certainly it's sending a symbol to europe this is a socialist when in france it's what kind of what direction europe will take now

with france changing its course there's also the question though off what kind of change and how much change can all on really bring to the country as he has promised given all the constraints that he will be facing will certainly he will have a very busy first few weeks there's a nato summit coming up where he's going to present to the u.s. and that's what would draw of french troops in afghanistan earlier than planned as well that's a g. twenty so the world is certainly watching what kind of france is going to be with france warlord as their new president to sort of sort of there which is talk of the nato summit. of the things on his forthcoming agenda along let's talk about birds with tom's roving correspondent on the line from bangkok this morning. the voter summit we're talking about is coming up next month where from the plans for an earlier troop withdrawal from afghanistan well sort of. from his allies in the region how are they going to respond to that work or reactions you can receive

generally do you think. in fact most european countries want out of these nato at fenchurch not only in afghanistan but in the rest of the world as well so hollande is going to get a lot of support for that he plaids doing to convey no french soldiers in afghanistan after the end of two thousand and twelve effect some of the mothers of young countries and some will leave next year as well so we will be left with a twenty thousand plus america swell talk of which what sort of relations going to be like has are going to pan out with washington sarkozy aligned france with washington over iran and syria i think a lot is going to stay the course will we see a new direction that. you know the great lines are succors foreign policy they will state but they will be tweaked by holand and the socialists very very important whole and once a strategic partnership with the brics cultures brazil russia china need

specially. genius very interesting the first impressions from beijing is that we can do business with this guy because oh i like school was a completely unpredictable a very outer against the chinese didn't know who were dealing with there what stability so these you know a whole and self described normal guy as the precursor of very normal relations so from the point of view of beijing this is already a go well on that front at the from one side if you fly in three out of the brics countries help help with in financial troubles here. you know very important calving in fact this is where obama and a whole and it will clash head on in spite of obama sympathies for holanda for the left in france and for the left in europe in general whole and once a renegotiation of the financial arrangement in the world and that means the end of

the u.s. dollar as a reserve. the greeks want the same state in now they have an ally inside the european union that happens to be one of the european you know so by by me now is smith so he learned all the eternal france in europe he'll be trying to call this merkel that this all stare at that business is drowning europe in on the external fraught hill coordinate with the brics or say look another way to change the whole system is to try to change the financial system as it works and that will mean a best get off current system there's reserve currency in the war so expect major fireworks inside europe and across the world as well ok thanks for the thoughts of joining us there. on the. serious holding parliamentary elections and the shaky cease fire the first such vote in decades the formation of political factions to

compete with the ruling baath party the opposition's already urged to boycott seeing it as president assad's attempt to cling to power rather than willingness for reform results to syria first reports next many in syria say it's the best time for both sides to lay down arms damascus right now is the sea of faith is with campaign pastis plastering. for weeks more than seven thousand candidates by take on a enough public support to him one of the two hundred fifty seats available at thirty years old. heathfield he's the voice of the young herr who wants to bring that into the political sphere. now in syria we have some problem it's a problem of people wanting to make things really democratic everyone must go and choose someone who can speak about this problem the people in this parliament that the elections have been criticised not least that being held during a period of extreme instability in the country it is really complicated nonsense to arrange voting. on

a country. people and too many cities and villages and towns that attorneys one of these towns not far from damascus before the crisis it was a popular holiday spot but over the course of the conflict is an area that fierce fighting with control switching from the government to the free syrian army and then back again in many ways he's continuing strong resistance to the regime has been a declaration of what they want. the government. safety. maybe maybe maybe anytime.

the price paid for its resistance has been high following the u.n. observers we find a population for him elections the last thing on their minds here and started down the list for you got a mock of the election campaign pasted in. here you've got the faces of people who died during the conflict one boy just thirteen years old many lies have been lost over the course of the conflict in syria is part of the reason many people are now desperate to see all sides lay down their arms and resolve this conflict in another way there's not there's not. the opposition's boycott of the elections has left little room for discussion here . have participated have requested some sort of monitoring. when you turning

teams in order to. scrutinize the elections and the results of the elections this does not happen it is one of the mistakes of the opposition did not participate which is one of the mistakes of the government does not encourage the opposition lack of consultation on the part of the government and lack of participation from the opposition seriously dented any chance that this will bring about any credible change something everyone in this country desperately lonely because. we are fighting each other not to use words but with bullets and this is. our syria. at r.t. dot com our web site this morning in hot water rand slams google for leaving the persian gulf nameless on its online maps with the what about where you can find out what could be motivating me internet giant to do it or not do it at r.t.

dot com and controversy surrounding giant pictures of stalin had been placed on public buses here in russia on the eve of victory day read all about. our web site . taking around the world in brief a small your senior al qaeda chief being killed in an air strike in yemen he was wanted for his role in the bombing of the u.s.s. cole in the year two thousand which resulted in the deaths of seventeen u.s. sailors at least one other man was also killed in the air raids in addition to being one of the most wanted terrorist in yemen the f.b.i. it offered a five million dollars reward for information leading to his capture u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton's arrived in india for diplomatic talks all oil is likely to be the focus of a visit after delhi publicly rejected western sanctions on iran choosing to continue to buy fuel from the state however the government has been pushing for a reduction in imports been for sanctions come into effect and makes trade increasingly more difficult the u.s.

is ramping up the pressure on iran over its nuclear program. in pakistan thousands of call for the prime minister to resign after his recent conviction for contempt of court last month the country's supreme court brought charges against use of killarney for refusing to reopen an old corruption case against the president he was found guilty beginning only a token sentence people accuse the government of working to hide its own corruption not to allow the judiciary to become tainted. whether here tomatoes in eastern japan killed one person injured dozens you can see the city of. around sixty kilometers from tokyo very badly affected there the winds caused a major power outage two schools houses flattened. just little after nine twenty seven the morning here in moscow good morning for me care. no in a couple of minutes we investigate a real life david and goliath contest where the matter of a small check village is trying to take on the might of the u.s. but it's headlines next just over two minutes away.

live from headquarters in central moscow it's kevin i would hear this morning this monday morning don said you know these are all top stories but putin is making a comeback as head of state as opposed to take the oath become the russian president for the for the time opinions where he streets ahead of the older a should his opposition protesters clashed with. bahrain arresting human rights activists who have been one of the leaders of the uprising there that's just days before the interview took this a blow job in the sun jazz here on our t.v. and watch that explosion show thread that they choose that. nicolas sarkozy fools out of the way to france's mounting debts his socialist leader grabs the presidency .