it is good to have you with us on this historic day here in moscow. live on r t a lavish celebration has taken place to the kremlin today by a lot of my protein has become the first russian president to be sworn in for a third it has now is set to stay on the front unprecedented six years as put in took the oath he appealed for unity and reform to carve out a strong russia and what he called a new stage of national development by thousands of guests join the president at a private party to enjoy a champagne reception for more and i want to return to harold's for russia as a tease and he said now i. usually but not always tends to be pretty black and white when it comes to what people think of like the mayor putin that was very

evident on the streets of moscow just on the eve of his inauguration one thing most people do agree on is if he wants this third term to be a success hooted is 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 data who's been in power for five six seven years in a difficult position because people get used to him and 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 just be putin's 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 are 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 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 midriff especially 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 profit as asian 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 blocs 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 his language leaving the question now that he's. back can move forward.

now what we saw on sunday were pro and anti putin rallies are across the city the biggest one took place on both my a square and it did turn violent it should be said that this is been a quite peaceful if not sometimes festive movement that began in december after claims of doom of fraud it lost a little bit of steam leading up to yesterday's protests but what a lot of people say is that this peaceful movement or at least what has been was pretty much ruined by a couple of provocations very violent provocation from some of the more radical opposition leaders and even on today the inauguration day we saw some people gather throughout the city one hundred twenty or so arrests were made and this is really a sign that putin has come back to the kremlin and the political life in the country as well as protests are most likely going to continue important of course has officially said in his candidacy for dmitri medvedev to become prime minister is expected to officially go through as

a formality on tuesday. now let's get some more reaction now from. the editor in chief of g q russia and a supporter of putin's former rival for the presidency. good to see you today thank you for joining us on the program a moscow police detained around one hundred twenty people earlier today for illegal rallies in moscow protesting putin's return the opposition claims it is supported by a significant part of the population is that is that really the case. leave the president of the majority of russians at the same time we have seen that nearly the population against his term and want changes and i think the main task for him during his third term will be. peaceful. a peaceful and stable russia which will

be reformed but not. by the aleutians. was saying today during his inauguration the next few years will define russia for the next several decades more than twelve years after putin first stepped onto the big stage he still dominates russian politics does this mean there's there's no true alternative for russia and the voters. i think that he is at that moment the president of the majority but you know if the russian television or if russian media will be freed i'm not sure he will. he will be able to maintain his it's really the question over political situation. there are quite popular leaders among the opposition. leaders. dissipated in the presidential electors elections and mr prothero for. according

to the results of elections and i think that if he will maintain his you know. sort of irani. attitude towards a position it will it will. need more as long as you describe putin having having a tyrannical tyrannical perhaps attitude towards the opposition can you can you put that into context for me how has put him behaved in such a way towards the opposition i think he needs to listen to people more to listen to people more. to understand that. it's not something something small and. something which which is. you know which which is a matter you know he should understand that it's actually the. wheel

of a lot of people for changes and if you you know if you go to the blogs through the internet you will see that a lot of people thought and so people really want changes and. as you as you said a few moments ago putin certainly did they did get the majority vote if i may just for a moment let's let's say leading up to his reelection putin a place a lot of emphasis on boosting russia's military might in countering threats on the country's border how's that kind of rhetoric do you think going to go down with europe and the united states. you were as as we were referring to were friends of putin he's placed a lot of emphasis on boosting russia's military power and countering threats along the borders of russia how is that kind of language you think going to be accepted by counterparts in europe and america. i think it. mostly the

language of called war he used to. during the elections i don't think that really needs confrontation with the united states and i don't take it seriously i'm sure that it was the sort of believe he was the majority of the population who steal needs the end of it. right. the editor in chief of g.q. russia live in moscow thanks for coming on r.t. today. right now around three thousand special guests from russia and abroad are all invited to celebrate. presidential inauguration our correspondent was at the kremlin just a bit earlier and alexia let's talk about this every year one of the lucky few we know there are some big big names there apart from artie's bill dodd he was there in the audience as well of utah. but what actually happened inside the kremlin's

walls earlier you were one of the v.i.p.'s it was my first time first chance to witness the inauguration firsthand to be honest but i never expected that the whole process would take just less than an hour basically with first we and about a thousand of v.i.p. guests in the in the descent george's hall where we gathered all of us we witnessed the amazing aerial shots of how putin was travelling through on the government building to the kremlin something of a novelty for the way the inauguration has been broadcasted in russia amazing shot simply believe me then he just entered the building he went inside greeted by the kremlin regiment walked inside through the hall where we were standing. large evasion from the crowd from the crowd of the guests then he took the oath of the author which was only thirty three words long that is three words shorter than the oath of the u.s. president let's listen to what he had to say in this. you

know it's as i fulfill the judy's of the president of the russian federation i swear to protect and guarantee the rights and freedoms of our citizens to observe and protect the constitution of the russian federation to protect the sovereignty independence and territorial integrity of all state to serve its people faithfully . well you can see how calm and collected put it was during his oath no one day it's his third time he's going through this integration probably he's know what he's doing on the other hand looked a bit nervous maybe a little sad but it's also easy to understand but certainly the whole process was very fast and when putin was walking out through the hall he shook hands with most of the crowd especially with those who were standing in the first line of the of the of the line when you talk about this crowd or something there were some big names in attendance i mean i saw i saw. i saw the widow of you saw some of the big names as well they didn't yeah yeah the former prime minister of italy was there as

well as the former georgian chancellor. they believed to be very close friends of the no wonder they were there also very big names in russia just from any sphere you just name it from politics from military from religion from any even former everton football player to being the dean of was there surprisingly enough i saw even the leader of the biggest biker biker pack in moscow the night the surgeon is a very well known and known person in russia he was the only person in the whole georgia sent georgia hall who was not wearing a costume i tell you he was wearing a leather jacket just like all the bikers do obviously very many big names certainly and interesting enough that in just about twenty minutes after the inauguration finished. st george's hall which was packed with fifteen hundred people there was almost empty because all of those people went to a dinner some speculate at this dinner the around a million dollars and had a chance to go there but i've heard from some of my insiders there that some

absolutely crazily delicious new things were there like black caviar style made scallops lots of expensive champagne and wine but certainly the party is now over and lots of work ahead for presidents a feast fitting for now president of let me put on putin i we did see we did see though as you were down there we. watching some helicopter shots all over moscow some truly spectacular photography going on but also we noticed that the majority of the main thoroughfares through moscow were deserted they were empty to get the presidential motorcade through so what kind of security operation takes place in the biggest european capital clearly unprecedented i mean for all the years i've been living in moscow i've never seen anything like that i was traveling to kremlin and to the kremlin in the morning and the streets were really deserted only for the police there the thousands of policemen just securing the whole area around the kremlin you know i thought to myself you know i've been a regular visitor normal and it reminds me of somehow the deserted streets like a ghost town but clearly i remember the shots from the inauguration of president

obama four years back in the united states and the security measures there were in fact even more severe there were that it took a year to prepare to all those security measures during obama's inauguration they were fearing some attack probably not only helicopters were holding about washington d.c. but also fighter jets and snipers in every rooftop so basically the security measures in moscow are still well let's say short of what was happening in the united states and european states during the inauguration but clearly the security measures were and that and hopefully in six years' time when we'll see you integration we'll see security measures as stuff as this because well clearly this is such a ceremony which has to be which has to have security measures tough security measures especially inside the kremlin where several cordons were set up for us to get in and indeed as you say the point worth noting is that you said in six years' time we'll see because this is the first time ever the russian president can sit for six years and will get reelected again we'll just have to wait and see. thank

you. for now let's get some more perspective on of lot of imprudence return to the political mainstage i'm joined by gary hart of mine got a political science professor at the university of innsbruck thank you very much for coming on the program today putin's back for six more years how do you think is our policies will remain as tough as they were during his first eight years in office. but certainly both mr putin has changed and the russian society has changed when putin first came to office russia was looking for a new or leader tonight to come. on board behind mr and during his first suit now that russian society is much more frequent it's a lot of different interests the social stratification it is much more that front and now mr putin has many different expectations which are complex sure so it will be very difficult for him of course to be mean it is above the three in there with

these huge popularity reads he will more to now into a typical western style british and. well can hand over some positive things to part of society but he is recent by others so russia turns into a new chapter of its critical development and it might well become much more like a european countries in the next years where as you mentioned you bring to light the issue as you were saying about a fragmented population here in russia we have seen many demonstrations against parliamentary elections and putin's government since last december more violence yesterday but how do you think putin will approach his opponents and critics now that he has officially manning the helm unfortunately what have yesterday does not help the future liberalization of the political system in russia i think both sides are so what plane a putin needs to realize the team needs more dialogue with people who are very

skeptical about him about his record it seems we have the sense. but on the other men to the most among the opposition there are forces who are not interested in the dialogue and people like or demonstrated yes dead keen interest is not dialogue a provocation and an escalation and i think that many of those who have sided with the demonstrators in the past moms are not very happy about that about this turn of events so i think that moderates on both sides have to stick to the process of x. so move dialogue about a third liberalization of the pretty consistent some steps that's been taken we'll see in the autumn elections for all the governors simeon several of russia's regions how elections will go on there if there will be free and fair certainly we will we will start to see some new faces in the cabinet in the coming days in coming weeks but you know you talk about how people should have the ability to

speak out in public certainly most of the protests or demonstrations were sanctioned sanctioned by putin the people who upset it were generally those who held protests in areas where they were not deemed legal where they were not sanctioned so the police had to intervene let's address some of the issues though that certainly are on the minds of many right now putin back at the helm what issues does he need to tackle first are we talking the economy corruption domestic terrorism what is your best ally on that what the most important thing is to economy i guess the russian leadership has realized that the russian economy is still much to one little two external shocks we have seen the massive crisis the russian economy had to go through when financial crisis erupted in united states and escalated globally and is of course is about ability which is the result of the extreme dependency of the russian economy on the exploits energy carriers and metals so that the question really is diversification diversification and more

insulation and fresh. industry and that of course means that the state has to play a very prominent role both to invest as the state but also to attract foreign investment and for tracking foreign investment of course you need a very favorable investment climate and you get a favorable investment climate if you have the rule of law and if you are really start on a convincing a campaign against the police it's corruption so i think that will be the key putin still has a broad shouldered in society that is something that some commentators in the rest sometimes use to forget the team does have the broad support of the maturity of the russians but in order to keep up that support it's got to offer those people something in forty actually needs money and the money he gets only if he is able to diversify the economy to diversify away from that all materials and commodities and now i've got a political science professor at the university of innsbruck are joining us live

from austria many thanks indeed thanks for having me. you're watching our two live from moscow our socialist francois hollande has defeated nicolas suck cozy in the french presidential runoff making him the latest e.u. leader to be swept aside by the crippling debt crisis and the president elect has promised to fight against the german led european austerity drive and has already spoken to chancellor angela merkel the first foreign leader online that will visit from paris artie's tenser awesome man. first of all and in his acceptance speech yesterday did talk a lot about unity which is which has been much of the theme of his entire campaign he said he's the one who's going to bring about solidarity and unity criticizing cycles is divisive presidency but of course the unity he's talking about does hinge on his ability to bring about the promises that he had made particularly the practical promises of jobs and employment and this is a no easy feat given the economic circumstances of france and again he is the first

thing he wanted to do is to talk to german chancellor angela merkel to push for this growth or yet that approach and he has a lot of supporters on this approach however even the supporters are skeptical as to how much he can really do given the constraints i mean france is a part of the euro zone there are sixteen other nations who are using this currency there are a lot of rules to be followed and so they're looking at how much maneuver room he really has on it comes to international dealings there's going to be the nato summit and he had said that he wants to pull out french troops from afghanistan a year earlier than planned he will have to and he's expected to present this blood to president barack obama and bill the rest of the nato alliance and also when it comes to issues like syria iran observers are saying that we may expect a less aggressive perhaps whatever this observation is based on the rhetoric so far so of course we have to see the actions that this new president will be taking now french people at the end of the day said that they voted for change but let's not forget that when nicolas sarkozy was voted in two thousand and seven they also

voted for change so it's a first hole and does have a lot of work to do ahead of him and prove that he does the service presidency. artie's tesoro silly reporting now rain all thora has have arrested the country's most prominent human rights activist stand a harsh critic of the state's ruling family not believe our job was detained just days before his appearance on julian assange show here were not see in the program airing on choose day there was a blow against an insight from him and a fellow egyptian activist well into the uprisings in the arab states with this report that. well the authorities of said is that now bill rand job is being suspected of committing a number of crimes punishable by law and he's now being held on charges of inciting and taking part in illegal demonstrations and it should be remembered though that position has landed him in a number of made in the 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 and i'm going to. give you program my house was surrounded by almost one hundred policemen and. machine guns. you do realize that i was not at home just.

to tell me to come to deposit prosecutor 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 they do nasty things why he's been arrested basically by appearing on this. ranch out 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 of course. we have to bid of course and of course might be very expensive as we have

a course and we're 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 activists 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 that like right out he too has become a target of the or thora sees the fact that julian assange is speaking 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 marty it's being so now eleven thirty g.m.t. this tuesday. to speak to two leading revolutionaries one from bahrain where the revolution failed was really egypt where the revolution is though in turmoil what makes a revolution and where is the arab spring going to go. and

you can watch the program all day on tuesday here on r.t. for now syrians are voting today for a new parliament the election takes place amid a shaky cease fire between the opposition and the country's ruling regime president assad has tried to ease the crisis hinting at reform but the opposition remains unconvinced from damascus artie's serve. well there is no election fever head by any stretch of the imagination and that being said there has been a steady stream of people here in damascus since the polls they pinned at seven am this morning and our state t.v. is already reporting that beta turnout has been high the population and syria around twenty four million forty million people are actually eligible to participate in these parliamentary elections but there is a feeling amongst the opposition amongst a lot of people indeed that these elections simply aren't enough and certainly not

at a time when the violence in the country is continuing to claim lies the opposition should have participated and should have requested some sort of when you're talking when you're talking to teams in order to. scrutinize the elections and that is of sort of addictions this is not. it is one of the mistakes of the position that you did not purchase a priest which is one of the mistakes of the government does not encourage your position against that backdrop really there is a sense that the actual impact of the serious change to serious political landscape won't be hugely affected by these votes but nonetheless they are going ahead and you are seeing very small steps now being taken towards this political reform. threat that a reminder of our top story here we're also you know what i mean putin has been sworn in as the next head of russia this during a very grand ceremony at the kremlin today he's the country's first president to

return for a third and we'll stay on for an unprecedented six yes and here's a brief recap of the events hard lines. live i. live.

straight to the headlines here on t.v. as we come to you live from moscow back to the kremlin of lot of me becomes the first russian president to step in for a third as. you said to leave the country for an unprecedented six years promising to make russia a stronger and more united. front. the french president as he promises growth instead of. the falls under the weight of france's mounting.