one spy scandal many russia says the cia has crossed the line with its antics after the us agent was caught in. a phone recording involving another american operative intercepted earlier this year. europe couldn't get by without britain says. blasting london's complaints calling them a danger to the very existence of the european union. mediation effort in syria gets the thumbs up from the un but faces obstacles from power as the rebel forces that despite evidence of atrocities committed by them in the ongoing civil war. cash strapped european union mounts a crusade against the continent's banking hubs open season on account privacy and

tax evaders alike up top stories this hour. online on screen international news and comment from us judea sent to him in moscow the cia has gone too far with its spying operations that's a message from russia's federal security service commenting on the recent scandal involving an american agent in moscow this week. explains the implications of this . i visited the f.s.b. had called in moscow where i was given some more fresh information on the latest spy scandal involving a third secretary of the us embassy in moscow first of all the f.s.b. officials told me that they knew from day one since ryan fogle came to moscow that

he was working for the cia that's why they had a very close eye on him and the most important formation here clearly is that this is not the first case over the past three years in fact in fact since two thousand and eleven there have been four cases like that but one story which the f.s.b. officials wanted to draw particular attention on is the story of also a third secretary of the u.s. embassy benjamin dillon who just like ryan fogle tried to recruit an employee of the national anti-terrorist committee offering him a money and for him to meet and in private to discuss the details that's when the f.s.b. officials actually managed to apprehend him i have acquired a recording of the phone conversation between benjamin dillon and that man it's a group that is renewed promise you know it's not exploited it's a group you have a. minister misses and those that. are never really. we're not sure you have to let me know long till it's physical but

also not something that's gotta hurt but instead you know yes and yesterday and we were never assume or new used to be mysterious and so. for specific approach to two years being you well the f.s.b. officials also pointed out the tactics which both deal and used to have a striking resemblance they both made phone calls they offered money maybe there's one exception that presumably dylan didn't have a wig on him like fogle did but clearly the tactics were the same and the consequences will probably be the same as well because we know that ryan fogle is now in for a different station from the russian federation and the same thing. happened to deal and he was deported in january twenty third scene without making it public and it was done quietly back then the bottom line and the main message here is that some lines should not be crossed of course there are some routine intelligence work and some professional ethics but the cia according to the f.s.b.

officials went too far with the fogel case the reason why the benjamin dillon story was not made public in january was because the f.s.b. try to keep it under the carpet they made a warning to the cia colleagues that such things could not happen especially given the fact that the f.s.b. and the cia have a very strong partnership in fighting terrorism together i talked to one of the high ranking officials in the f.s.b. and here is how he explained the current state of affairs. we were particularly outraged at the actions of the american spy dylan benjamin he tried to convince an employee of the russian national counter-terror committee to hand over classified documents of this department to the cia like mr fogle he was also deported from russia we hope the cia would learn their lesson and something like that would never happen again so we decided not to release the information about dylan to the public but apparently they didn't learn that lesson in fogel's case the cia crossed a red line so we had to react according to official instructions. while they have

no common so far not from the u.s. embassy in moscow not from the washington officials but the f.s.b. told me that they will let us know if anything any comments coming from washington come on that matter. and the european union can survive without britain that's according to the french president who gave americans three news conference yesterday. went as far as accusing the british of being a threat to the very existence of. this report. there's been a lot of your skepticism growing in the u.k. and david cameron had said that he wants to put the membership of the e.u. to a vote in twenty seventeen and when a lot was asked this question a lot simply said that well europe had existed before britain even joined yet he also said that well you hope that britain does stay in the union but he said he can't decide for the british people it was very noticeable how along has really been trying to go on the offensive he was acting showing himself to be

a strong leader at this point because he himself is facing a very large and growing euro skepticism in his own country if you just look at the latest figures there's a pew research showing that even if most french people still want to remain as part of the eurozone seventy seven percent of french people think that this closer economic ties with the entire union has been detrimental to their own economies so a lot of very seems he has been talking to the french people that is his audience for this speech trying to show how france can still go on even if the u.k. does lead the you that if that is the final decision now a lot also said it criticized the u.k. for being such a euro skeptic essentially saying that this kind of rocking the boat attitude of the u.k. is threatening to splinter the e.u. is what we can see here is pointing out the fact that the u.k. really has been one of the most critical voices in the union so far and also along criticize the austerity policies of david cameron and interesting enough a lot himself is facing no growth in his own country so he said that david

hindering growth in the u.k. while france right now is officially in recession now again it's interesting to point out that when a lot of this trying to rebut in answers these questions he's speaking to the french people hoping the massive this satisfaction that he's facing for the french people will eventually turn on his leadership here is under question he's facing massive unemployment he's a very unpopular man at this moment so in trying to prove that he is still a french leader years going on the offensive it's unlikely that we're going to hear him say that france is not going to survive without the u k. moscow's efforts to launch direct negotiations between the conflicting sides in syria is now receiving support from the united nations secretary-general ban ki moon has become the latest in a string of high profile figures visiting russia to discuss the syrian civil war and has given the green light to russia's talks initiative or util position of joins me live now from the black sea resort of sochi where the discussions have been taking

place so what else came out of these latest discussions concerning syria hugo. well after meeting with russia's leadership the un secretary-general ban ki moon agreed that the conflict in syria could only be resolved in accordance with international law without any foreign military intervention and with the full respect of syria's territorial integrity he also agreed to the idea of putting together this joint conference which would include both the syrian rebels and the authorities now they were also able to establish a list of current stumbling blocks concerning the sadia and well first of all currently the opposition is still quite divided it's unclear who would be able to represent it as a whole at such a conference secondly moscow wants to see all the regional players taking part in such a conference including iran and saudi arabia which may cause problems with washington and also if the syrian authorities are ready to take part in such a conference right now then the rebels are making are voicing preconditions which

include president assad having to step down but in general ban ki moon's visit continues this diplomatic marathon which will been witnessing for the past few weeks a lot of officials have been coming to russia discussing syria including u.s. secretary of state the prime ministers of great britain and israel and in general it seems the approach of many nations two ways of resolving the conflict in the country is changing now however there are still many problems including the one with the washington since when john kerry was in moscow it seemed that they were completely on the scene ph with the russians leadership but as soon as he left he started calling again for president assad to step down and promised more support of the rebels and that was back just recently by president barack obama himself you know what's the potential dangers in pledging support to the rebels in syria. well see pretty much since the beginning of this conflict most western states. only

supported and took the side of the rebels basically but what's widely being ignored is the fact that many of these rebels admit that they are receiving directions from international terror organizations including al qaeda there are tons of videos in the web showing horrific acts conducted by rebels including public executions of captured syrian soldiers there's just troubling and horrific video of a rebel cutting the hordes out of a dead syrian soldiers chest and eating it on camera calling on everybody else to do the same and promising to continue doing so in the future and also there is the statistic from various international activist groups which basically shows that every time the rebels receive a weapons from abroad the violence just spikes. you go thank you very much

indeed for that sorties europe is kind of reporting from the black sea coast in sochi. banking privacy could soon be a thing of the past in europe that is if e.u. regulators have their way you have been pushing hard for access to all account data on the continent and even switzerland an old member nation has found itself being squeezed and it's not as kitty pilgrim reports the prospects for the alpine banking help all looking good. so what do we know about switzerland then while the mountainous country sells tasty chocolate is home to some of the finest watches and it's a great place to ski but when it comes its banking sector well that's when it also is getting a little bit secretive avenue the one hundred years this secrecy attracted some of the world's mega rich to the country now to qualify for the flat rate tax deal on offer of the rich are not sure how to work in the country but must have

a net world of at least two million dollars now this ystem has attracted more than five thousand affluent x. patches to this nation of only eight million people including. twain now well they are foreigners collectively give seven hundred million dollars in federal and local taxes maybe it is that could be going into their home treasuries this cozy arrangement may soon be a thing of the passes the e.u. can't stand no such juicy tax incentives the e.u. is also piling pressure on members luxembourg and austria as well as san marino and dora monaco which are actually not members of the union now luxembourg recently changed just last month that actually agreed to lift bank secrecy rules for european union citizens who have savings that so what all these tax haven countries

actually expected to do that well quite simply expose the e.u. want to be able to check out bank tea towels of any individual whenever they want without requesting permission first and considering in cyprus the banks were worth seven times as much as the country's g.d.p. lots about for example they're worth twenty two times more the situation could be catastrophic than if you put it in that way so in a wall where banking secrets are no longer kept these havens may have to find another way to seduce the great. altie live here moscow i'll be back with more world news of the break. they're ready to come here to work and not get paid for it. people from all over the world are eager to help. what does it take to become

a volunteer at russia's premium museum why do the son of louvers director come here . from one of the cats do. behind the scenes of the. language. of holy week with. choose the the consensus to. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to.

these continues here on r.t. gay rights activists had to run for their lives in the georgian capital tbilisi as their street parade descended into chaos a crowd of orthodox christians stormed the event attacking the revelers reality's town but he's been keeping track of the event has the details he's with me here in the studio tom so where were the police here i mean it all started in the georgian capital when a large number of anti gay protesters thousands of them including. orthodox christian police priests beg pardon they came to deliberately to protest against a gay pride rally that was scheduled to be held at the time many of them then set about doing what you can see here very very angry protests there threatening to frash with nettles that they had. if they caught any of these gay activist

activists in the in the in the square however i think a lot of the what it came down to the arguments were from the from these and to go protestors were our orthodox christian sensibilities to have a protest like this they were shouting things like we don't want sodom and gomorra here in georgia a real a real sense of anger. right tom so no doubt you'll be keeping an eye on developments there that's tom barton with that developing story then tbilisi in georgia thanks for the moment. now we return to one of our top stories this hour banking privacy could soon be a thing of the past in europe that is if e.u. regulators have their way euro kratz have been pushing hard for access to all account data on the continent and even switzerland a normal member nation has found itself being squeezed where we hope to get some perspective on all of this a little later from a member of the swiss parliament but before that we'll talk about about another

economic matter and that is the independent online currency bitcoin and that has had a serious snag after u.s. authorities blocked the account of water a business that allows users to convert u.s. dollars into big and then back again to department of homeland security says the peer to peer currency runs roughshod over new laws that require online transfer systems to identify its users that is made a porno explains the move as a warning shots for the fledgling currency. the u.s. government has made no secret of the fact that it is keeping a close eye on the point but now it appears that the close eye includes a crackdown on the decentralized digital currency the department of homeland security has seized the company known as to wallop which allows customers to transfer their u.s. dollars into points on tuesday washington shut down while his ability to process point payments now the u.s.

warns of alleges that iowa based company was operating as an on the license money transmitting business because to wallow wasn't registered with the with the department of treasury is financial crimes enforcement network now some economists believe the timing of this case is no planes that see the popularity and press surrounding the point is skyrocketing and the use of electronic currency is growing more appealing to investors and customers around the world this of course threatens the long held grip that governments and banks have had on currency regulation and interest rate manipulation this new york city farce last restaurant behind to be known as ever again accepting this point last month so far the midtown business has reportedly processed more than twenty thousand dollars worth of transactions in the morning now while wall street remains less than eight kilometers away from here the

financial industry to its disappointment is far removed from the way in which the business of the morning is operating according to new york very important artsy. let's return to one of our top stories that's banking privacy that could soon be a thing of the past in europe that is if the regulators have their way your crowds have been pushing hard for access to all account data on the continent and even switzerland the nomination has found itself being squeezed by let's get as a proposed early some swiss perspective on all of this with thomas he's a member of the country's parliament now switzerland if you don't mind me saying this does have a reputation as a haven for tax evaders a money laundering is that about time for it to come clean. it's not a question about becoming clean i mean first of all we have to see what the current environment is lots of countries are for data protection we offer data protection to the banks customers what is quite important to us is that corporate structures

like trusts others on the british jurisdictions that they would move to a similar agreement and also for full transparency on the ultimate beneficial owner but just how much though does switzerland economy rely on these opaque banking practices there's no big banking banking practices in switzerland well. why is the e.u. then asking switzerland to open talks about being transparent the european union of course once a form a european tax cartel they want to have minimal taxation to want to harmonize tax regimes we are for tax competitions we think it's quite important that there is that there is a competition in the market and yet you want to abandon this and this is what we reject but officials are saying so much money has been siphoned away from the e.u. tax coffers and going into the banks in the likes of switzerland austria and other

countries so don't they have a right to try and get that money back particularly in these times of economic difficulties. well this is why switzerland offered a model that they have a taxation of thirty five percent on all european union citizens great britain has signed up to the model austria signed up to the model we offer the same model to terminate her many rejected it we think that this is the best way forward european union says differently and now we have to were discussed with the european union how to go forward thomas says she deputy of the swiss national parliament thank you very much indeed for joining us tonight here in r.t. . the independent online currency bitcoin has hit a serious snag after u.s. authorities blocked the account of dollar and that's a business that allows users to convert u.s. dollars into bitcoin and then back again the department of homeland security says the peer to peer currency runs roughshod over new laws that require online transfer systems to identify and says well for more on the online currency i'm joined by

economics professor richard wolfe he is live there in london now what the u.s. government is blocking businesses that are using big coin why what are they wired abouts. i actually don't think they're much worried about big coroneted at its current level they're worried about out things like that coin becoming more and more important in the months and years ahead big coin has grown pretty quickly and the problem there is it is a way of developing and using money that is outside the conventional controls of institutions set up to control the money system for example the federal reserve in the united states is though concerned about security because anonymous users can use this online currency and it's ideal is it not for a gun traders drug runners anybody who's involved in illegal activity yes but you have to recognize that in the united states today anything and everything up

politician wants is sooner or later covered over with a veneer of something about security we have had rules like this in the past we have a rampant drug problem we have a ranking of rampant or isthmus of our borders we don't solve these problems with little adjunct rules like this and we're not going to solve these problems by controlling bitcoin either i think the fear is that conventional methods of finance are so corrupted and soul looked upon with a negative mentality that masses of people are inventing ways and then dozens of them to get around to evade to avoid some of them are of course criminals they want to avoid for those reasons but the majority of people involved are really expressing a sense of economics out of control of an economic system that isn't working that is making the inequality unbearable and everyone is looking for something that will

allow them to escape though the rules as they are so professor is the bit coy and then the i'll say clearly the the u.s. is authorities reaction to it is indicative of the fact that it could be perhaps a serious or turn. i think it's an exploration it has extraordinary vulnerability to all kinds of manipulations if you follow the value for example in dollars of a bit coin it oscillates all over the place making rational calculation if you're not a speculator virtually impossible everyone promises was involved in it and don't get all of these problems solved but given the fact that regular currencies are also volatile this kind of unregulated one promise is a volatile older ability to evolve still till agrees that his will unlikely to make it and you can be more than one of many efforts to escape the rigidity of a status all over that is broken down and this is a phenomenon which is

a merger of the internet many may say this could be a fad but it's interesting isn't it that the likes of e bay and amazon are actually considering using it now so that does give it a bit of credibility yes and there are people who want to use it and it is correct to imagine that the appetite for anything that looks like it's in this cape from the rigidities of a broken capitalised system basically will attract all kinds of people and the game day and amazon and a whole host of internet operators cannot of who are not to be in on it for however long the ride lasts but if you look at the government's anxiety about letting any of these experiments develop then my guess is the ride will be short so long as this system can contain all of the explosive pressures that are building within it and just briefly is very difficult isn't it for the u.s. to take control of this because the main trading platform is overseas in japan for example is a global trading currency now so really the efforts by the u.s.

authorities could be futile right and that i hope of the united states is and they're already working on this to get other governments to weigh in because of this same problem of losing whatever control those governments have and. secondarily by the example if they prosecute some of the people and entities working in the bitcoin a world that they'll pull a chill on everybody else for fear of the intrusive mr b. i already saw the f.b.i. will add oversight to what they're doing and since people are trying all kinds of mechanisms the last thing they watching is interest on the part of the government professor richard wolfe thank you very much i did a location change not a currency change with you i said you're in london at the start put your actually in new york sorry about that thanks very much good to have your thoughts by you so that's a professor richard wolffe there in new york but on to some of the international headlines in grief now for you here on r.t. in iraq at least forty seven people killed in an explosion targeting a sunni mosque to the northeast of baghdad this comes a day after

a string of bombings across the country the death toll in the space of two days is reached almost one hundred the recent surge in violence and instability adult a major blow to rebuilding efforts in iraq ten years on from the u. s. led invasion. the train has derailed in hong kong injuring more than sixty people in the north of the city three people were taken to hospital with serious injuries officials have not said what caused the accident but passengers say the light rail train was speeding around the corner when it veered off the tracks. let's bring you up to date for the moment talk about the news team in just over half an hour from now in the meantime at the hermitage museum in some petersburg recruit some feline stuff as a special report for you next on. a

fairly dickinson university study has been revealed to twenty nine percent of americans think that a revolution will just happen in america but needs to be done in order to protect individual liberty if respondents consider themselves conservative than that number is bumped up to forty four percent that's nearly half also fox news found out that since nine eleven the percent of americans willing to sacrifice their personal freedom to reduce the threat of terrorism is at an all time low this number might sound trivial but it only takes a tiny percent of the population actually start a revolution i mean how many communists were in russia at the start of nine hundred seventeen and how many were there at the end revolution may sound like a nice thing to a growing number of people but the media wrongly portrays revolution as some fun video game battle where freedom fighters topple the statue of the dictator and then democracy just instantly comes about and life is good and happy i ask you to ignore movies like v. for vendetta and look at history revolutions cause horrible destruction that could take decades to repair i guess what when your economy collapses because

a revolt infrastructure breaks down and the shelves go bare also professional revolutionaries get their supplies from somebody and a foreign powers would have say fundamental revolutionaries they would want something in return aloha and goodbye alaska if you look at history then you'll see that revolution is brutal and ugly and it's truly the last resort but it still is a resort but that's just my opinion. this is the best time to come here before opening hours to hear all this silence you can feel that the holes and everything in them are waiting for this day. i.