i'm minister dmitry medvedev let's get the latest on this now from our correspondent peter oliver here tell us what's behind this sudden decision. but it's been a very busy week for vladimir putin on monday he was sworn in as president on tuesday how to deal with the election of a new prime minister in the parliament and on wednesday he was part of the annual victory day parade here in moscow so the president called barack obama and explained that he couldn't get attend the g. eight next week he had to remain in moscow to finalize key cabinet appointments while the two leaders will instead meet next month in mexico the g twenty meeting. the debate you made to get of the prime minister who will be attending the g. eight representing russia instead though the white house issued a statement saying that they understood the position of president putin in welcoming the prime minister made head of to camp david. so

the issue of key cabinet appointments being listed as the reason for putin's not attendance at the g eight however it has left some wondering if there could be another motive for i'm not going but to me a putin has never really been the biggest fan of the g. eight in fact he's said that he finds it somewhat outdated much prefer in the g twenty the g. twenty conference which includes more of the a mooching economies in the world countries like brazil china india that russia does an awful lot of trade with. also the president has said that he is committed to continuing the restart of relations with between russia and the united states that was begun under the presidency of dmitri medvedev during his campaigning for the presidency flooded me a putin was very critical of some aspects of u.s. foreign policy in particular the united states's stance on syria washed. treatment

of tehran arabian nuclear program. as well as the american missile defense shield that's proposed to eastern europe. right peter thanks very much for bringing us this update peter out of reporting from central moscow there. now the missile defense plan in europe will be up for discussion by nato later this month and the lions is holding a summit and chicago that's expected to give the green light for the activation of interceptor missiles in poland but as the reports washington's reluctance to cooperate might force moscow to take action. scared distrustful and even hostile these are only some of the labels moscow has received in the west for expressing concerns over washington's controversial european anti-missile shield plans that u.s. wants to build european support for this missile defense system the russians on the other hand are very mistrustful of the u.s. global agenda and want to use this issue to disrupt the u.s.

you know why and if you. want. an isometric of up. to make russia's position clear the defense ministry organized a special conference in moscow visualizing its warriors in a graphic clip experts say that by the year twenty twenty when the final phase of the shield will be ready nato bases in europe will be able to shoot down russian intercontinental missiles this small school says violates the principles of nuclear containment and would dramatically shift the balance of global power. that would have no objections to the will of the u.s. to strengthen security in europe but it cannot be done at the expense of our security security cannot be divided and that's one of the principles of the start treaty signed between moscow and washington the u.s. delegation again played down talks of a possible threat to russia now did you first try. to hash this out

here. would be interesting if you hear it. in the street. but words do not match actions according to moscow with washington unwilling to rubber stamp of those promises in a legal document until it does russia defense ministry says it will continue to grow military potential on its borders ready to act against america's a.m.d. ambitions even preemptively sujoy them. taking into account the destabilizing nature of the missile defense. system and in particular creating an illusion punishable strike the decision about a preemptive use of force will be made in a period of heightened tension the deployment of new offensive arms in southern i'm northwestern russia including its come the missiles in the callinan grab region provides for the destruction of the european missile defense infrastructure. this

scenario is clearly seen as a last resort however moscow is standing strong in its position sending the ball firmly into washington's court moskos conference happened just two weeks before the nato summit in chicago where the alliance is expected to officially launch the first phase of the euro m d and while nobody has any doubts that the points made here will not change the summits agenda they may eventually urge washington to provide legal guarantees that this system will never be used against russia something moscow has been demanding for the past several years let's see russia see reporting from moscow. rescue teams have not yet been able to reach the wreckage of a doomed russian airliner despite earlier reports the next generation so we superjet went down wednesday and rescuers are expecting to find any survivors of the mountainous crash site in indonesia british leader is in jakarta. the authorities have said that there is no sign of any survivors but it's been

extremely confusing the search operation because it's taking place thirty miles outside of jakarta in a very mountainous treacherous region so actually at one point people in the rescue had quarters were hearing that the searchers had found bodies but that's not the case that's not what we're hearing anymore so there's been a lot of confusion and. as of the passengers that many of the indonesians on that airplane been informed of the fate of the plane that the plane actually crashed into a mountain where there was a dormant volcano and so obviously there's a lot of grieving and a crisis center that's been set up in the airport where the russian sukhoi superjet one hundred took off obviously yesterday everyone was wondering what happened to this airplane when it disappeared off the radar twenty minutes after it took off there was talk that perhaps it could have even been hijacked because the emergency

beacon that should have gone out if the airplane had crashed into a mountain and didn't go off the plane is equipped with the latest technology on its very high. that perhaps it was. some sort of emergency landing somewhere is just it was part of or around asia that was meant to promote it i mean it just it just because it's done is done in myanmar and was said to go to laos and vietnam on this plane it was the first commercial airplane built in russia after the soviet union in two thousand and seven so we're actually heading to the airport right now we plan to go to the crisis center and hopefully get a better sense of exactly what the family members of the passengers are hearing from the. authorities who are also planning to. speak to a russian blogger who was supposed to be on the airplane yesterday and did not he

had taken several flights on the russian jet in the other locations during this era shell he's been a blogger and he's been tweeting pictures from the crash site and also other information regarding the russian sukhoi superjet one hundred so i'll continue to bring you the latest information as i receive it. reporting there now two large explosions have shaken damascus with more than forty killed and one hundred seventy injured in these blasts are the latest in a spate of violence in syria despite the apparent ceasefire or can get more on this now from our correspondent there for us who is in damascus for us so sara the blasts are another blow to the u.n. backed peace plan there are so what are the details what more can you tell us about this. what we felt the blasts here in the center of damascus this morning around seven fifty am local time it happened on

a very very busy road that leads to the airport from damascus near a government intelligence building near the faculty of engineering it's an area where there would have been security and soldiers but also highly populated civilian area as well and fortunately we've seen that high number of casualties and these injured as well as a result of these blasts it's a twin car bomb and one going off a few moments after the first blast had occurred as the u.n. monitors who of course here in the country at the moment to see the implementation of the peace plan had been at the city we heard the general the head of the mission here general robot meet he gave a statement he said he was very story for the families to be affected by this and that what these people are doing this is what he said what these people are doing is not helpful and they should find another solution without killing civilians of

course this is exactly what the u.n. observer mission is here in the country. implementing the peace funds is exactly the kind of thing that they're going to be looking at very very closely and trying to stop. welfare of the bomb attacks are not only threatening to civilian populations we can see but the entire observer mission are in day. well there are deep consensus that have been from the very beginning of this mission that there are going to be a tends to undermine it the actions in the course of this conflict have left the country wide ape into this kind of instability and you know all across the country right now you've got such large areas of rescue travel to homes you travel to hama recently i mean it really is a huge struggle but of course even now here in damascus which for a long time remained largely sheltered from the ongoing conflict you're seeing it becoming a target now we've seen this a bombing campaign stepped up and certainly it is not really

a secret anymore it's common knowledge that you have foreign nationals operating in the country that you have armed groups that are carrying out some of these terrorist acts there is a lot of concern here that was the international community has been applying a huge amount of pressure quite rightly so a lot of people would say only regime to end the violence and the crackdown on the civilian population seeping demonstrating they've had economic sanctions put on the and a huge amount of rhetoric coming from the west aimed at that side of it but that hasn't been the same pressure applied to the armed opposition in fact in complete contrast you've had some of the gulf countries you have the u.s. calling for moral alms to be sent to the opposition and the country has been quite open about calling for that and that funding is happening right now so it is really a concern that you know seeing the international community condemning some of these terrorists that sort of being carried out now of course from the beginning of this conflict this claim and counterclaim from both sides about who it is and who's in

the wrong has happened and it's really kind of the issue of what is going on here and that is that you've now got a situation in a country where people have absolutely lost all sense of security and stability and i really mean that you speak to people here and you know as well as people he has been affected he lost people family members you know. every day people have lost that sense of security that had a huge impact on this country and it's part of the rethink if both in this observer mission is able to continue if they were to be supportive and is able to carry out its work if they are looking very closely at who it is that way think anything with carrying out these types of attacks and they're going to be trying to put a stop to it and remember this it can fit the best and quite possibly last child of the bill if he in the country if peace plan fails and you could see the country this heading into civil war which is already happening in some parts of syria right now all right sara thanks very much indeed for keeping us up to date on what's

happening in syria sara for reporting there from damascus. and russia and china have been signing a singing from the same song sheet a lot recently and now sergey lavrov is latest to join the charm offensive the russian foreign minister is in the region to talk up common interests let's get more perspective and speak to professor joseph chang from the hong kong city university there's a tank thanks very much for being a program with us now are a lot of current issues shared by the two but who do you think stands to gain more out of this relationship. i guess probably both. a bilateral relationship has to be benefit for. so to me. and continue it i think both russia and china share interests in terms of the promotion of multiple merit and containing the increasing

influence of the united states and obviously interested to prevent a kind of american and to many international affairs and in disregard the. a lot of common interest in the middle east situation in syria and all. they can help each very substantial men know the expansion of nato will be installed maze of anti missile defense systems in eastern europe as well as to return to a strategy on the united states mutual support in the international forums you certainly helpful. as you said there is a lot of issues there on the plate let's not talk about syria which the two countries see eye to eye on and china has been saying that some western states are stirring up on the rest thereby backing the opposition so do you think nato states

will ever pay any attention to beijing's warnings. the zero three may determine is a should be to syrian don't mistake situation is so it all depends on the state. of the. region. he can really mean a measure of control of his government proves to be so and. the mess the uprising. is more and more. more and more influenced you know be very difficult for russia and china to prop up the region which was except you do see a newbie or. well visit to china comes hot on the heels of hillary clinton's visit there and she was there to drum up support for u.s. policies in north korea and iran why do you read into this i mean does the u.s. . run scared about losing its dominance globally. i guess so

to me. it's a rout a high of return to asia strategy on the obama. administration which fully appreciates state even fulton's strategic and economic bad deal of the asia pacific region and the moment is certainly enjoys the opportunities. the hedging strategies on the power of time just neighbors who are very concerned with the increasingly assertive stand of china live you've got to. by the throat and multilateral territorial disputes. president chang from hong kong city university thanks very much indeed for sharing your thoughts here with us on our team. and kewl. you're watching our team from

moscow well you can go deeper into any of the stories that we covered for you here in our website which is r t v dot com and online today can find out how you brains jail there is no longer on hunger strike while she's been moved from prison to hospital after ending her nineteen day for. the reviews from prison guards. and thousands of troops impressive military hardware and helicopters rush on earth it's a veteran celebrating sixty seven years of victory over the nazis in a world war two with a spectacular parade. and watch the action on you tube channel. is.

the official. from the. video. and. the palm of your. comb all attempts to form a coalition have so far failed in greece's far left leader. rejected proposals by the parties now this comes after sunday's parliamentary elections in which no party managed to secure an overall majority without the deal greece will be forced to hold a new election in june german chancellor angela merkel said any new green. government must stick to yesterday plan while also stressing that cuts in structural reforms

are the only way out of the crisis economic aspers warned her demands on athens are unrealistic. this is merkel is speaking as if. the implementation of the fiscal adjustment program that these agreed to between the government and the european union is a matter of will that if greece wanted to implement it then you would be able to do to do it. this is a very profound better greece cannot implement this plan because this plan could not be implemented by anyone it flies in the face of economically and. if greece doesn't try to implement it as it has been doing over the last year and a half or so all that will happen is that that is going to get worse that the session is going to deepen and this often only is going to enter more into its kind

of coma so what mrs merkel is asking the greeks to do is mission impossible now later when all that out well prize for economics can is joseph arrow tells r t how is series not the way forward for greece or the entire eurozone. i'm disturbed about the tendency which is partly through the united states but much more true in some parts of europe of too much austerity when we have. a commission of deficient demand massive unemployment i think the idea that you want to stimulate the economy. through government spending or some other good way he. is pretty clear he was interesting greece had had not been in the euro they probably would have been able to borrow the body. that was going to lead the drachmas because. nobody but they would demand i disagree i think we made a mistake by not therefore your earlier. said that they have because themselves

a little bit trouble. overspread that there was no. course they ran up with a deficit that was. during times of prosperity that was. not sustainable. while you watch the full interview with nobel economics prize winner joseph arrow in just over an hour here on r t. and i was take a look at some other stories from around the world football fans clashed with police in the spanish capital where night thousands bored into the streets celebrating athletico madrid victory in the europa league final violence erupted when a small group of salem started throwing bottles and stones at police to try to push the crowds back several people were arrested after the confrontation. believe ian wright police have fired tear gas at an anti-government demonstrators

in la paz clashes broke out with thousands of workers protesting over pay and work conditions the laborers were joined by union members united in their opposition to the president was a very different scene in the city. where people gathered to show their support and solidarity with the government. rock obama has become the first american president to back same sex marriage he said gay couples should be able to wed illegally thus ending months of dodging a direct answer about his position obama also mentioned it's important to him that all american troops are able to commit to marriage their mark follows a vote on a constitutional. north carolina makes it the twenty eighth state to prohibit same sex marriage. and our crossing straights to natasha with all business news so natasha what's driving the markets this hour well not in the europe is really in the spotlight as it has been for a while but especially over the past week after france and greece voted against

candidates that really supported the austerity measures and that really brings a lot of questions about the health of the european economy going forward and let's not check out the equity markets to see what's going on there and as you can see the footsie is trading in the red this hour while the dance is managing to hold on to its gains apparently many traders see the previous day's losses as a buying opportunity and of course there are a lot of questions about the health of the european economy going forward as i already mentioned but there are two major stories that we're looking at today first greece really makes investors worried after all attempts to form a coalition government have failed at least so far there are concerns that it might actually drop out of the euro zone on wednesday the eurozone rescue fund said it will transfer four point two billion euro to greece on thursday but that's one billion euro less them planned the european financial stability facility explain

this decision by saying the remaining one billion is not needed before june and it will be dispersed depending on the financing needs of greece and staying with the eurozone spain has decided to partly nationalize its fourth largest lender key to clean up its financial sector the deal will give the state a forty five percent stake in the struggling bank which has more than thirty billion a year over exposure to troubled loans the government is expected to lend to ten billion euro in additional aid but some analysts say that's certainly not going to be enough and that brings. just to the currency markets let's see what the currencies are doing at the moment and as we see the euro is actually losing value against the dollar and the vole is. is retreating against both the greenback and the european currency and oil oil is old lower this thursday

after brant briefly bounced into black over the past hour and that is still in the red and of course the oil is one of the major factors affecting the russian equity markets so let's see what's going on there at the moment and we see that the russian markets are also mixed to the r.t.s. it is shedding value less than half a percent and my sex is actually doing quite well three quarters of a percent alp and that's after the central bank decided to keep the refinancing rate unchanged and now let's take a look at the individual share movers on the sex and they include the financials v.t.v.m. russia's biggest lender is a bear bank it reported a fourteen percent increase in net profit for the first four months of the year but that's according to the russian accounting standards and the. the energy majors are actually gaining they're doing quite well despite mixed or oil and oil is among

the crush of the oil superjet one hundred and didn't actually really challenging russia's plans to join the global aircraft market it's still significant new plane from the country's aircraft makers for the past two decades they spent around one billion dollars on it the jets producers aim to sell eight hundred units by twenty twenty nine and they were planning on taking fifteen percent of the global regional jet market they still hope the accident will not affect sales but analysts. potential clients will certainly wait for the results of an investigation today their eighth super jets and service walled wide most of them used by russia's air force which has moved out grounding its fleet. fighting and that's all the latest from the business desk i'll be back in about fifteen minutes and see that all right no thanks very much indeed for bringing us this update from

the world of business now sure they will look at one of the most well known symbols of victory and world war two before that they'll bring you the headlines stay with us. fifty two meters. more than a thousand tons. skin thickness thirty centimeters. the

guinness record. commemorating the battle of. the mother's womb cold on our teeth.

are watching our t.v. live from moscow these are the top stories russia's president vladimir putin for his his u.s. counterpart he's pulling out of the g. eight summit in the state of maryland next week accounts just days after a potent returns to the top job instead he'll be sending prime minister dmitry medvedev. reports say rescue teams are looking for bodies of the victims and trying to crush of russia's next generation airliner in didn't crash into a mountain on wednesday. and two strong explosions rocked damascus with dozens reported dead and injured the capital has recently been struck by a number of blasts mainly targeted at military installations the u.n. warns the spate of violence could put its observer mission in jeopardy. so they have a line.