sometimes it seems like in the face of giant corporations people are just sort of helpless i could be pretty pessimistic myself about what a few individuals with no real money or power can really do against the system but you never dull in fact if you remember tour discussion about ammonia doused pink slime being used across america and frozen fast foods well shift jamie oliver has actually managed to shame mcdonald's enough on t.v. to get them to back down and stop using this ultra processed form of quote meat at their establishments also we recently discussed gamer rage at the rather racist portrayal of russians in the game company of heroes two well while the rage actually worked and thanks to the seventeen thousand signatures on the change dot org petition that game has been pulled from russian shelves by the developer the

thing is that massive corporations do a lot of bad things because they have no morals and are obsessed with profit but because they have no morals and are only obsessed with profit the second you even slightly threaten their cash flow they will instantly start cowering at your feet sometimes but that's just my opinion. right to see. first street. and i would think you're. an army corps player. in. the the in . this is they we cannot see well combined this is haitian

concerning gay rights in russia has been triggering huge debate among activists politicians and even athletes and you know prohibiting gay propaganda to minors has sparked calls for a boy called of the upcoming winter olympics in sochi in february my colleague bill don't discuss the issue with the panel of guests. we have been accused of not covering this topic here on t.v. and just last week a freelance reporter by the name of james kind of chick he brought all tea certainly into the spotlight to me with great star one has to say. to me if you what you want to do twitter follower bump for him but to get to the point this by the way is our third panel on gay rights in russia but that's beyond the point kurtz that came on to r.t. to let us know what he thinks about our coverage or lack thereof of gay rights in russia and this is what happened you know being here on the kremlin funded

propaganda network i'm going to wear my gay pride suspenders and going to speak out what about bradley manning plus i was there i don't i'm not really interested in talking about bradley i've been talking about being a riff environment of homophobia in russia right now and the russian gay people know that they have their friends and allies are i think those are the folks. i only go on that station with the russians so i don't want to waste too much time my critic we did invite him to speak tonight he denied saying that he said in interviews around the world after this event that r.t. is not a legitimate news channel that he just believes it would be supporting putin and his mouthpiece and that he won't participate in discussions on our network to give it credibility but i think that we should not spend too much time talking about kirk and talk about the real issues absolutely we invited peter tatchell who is with us now in london with regard to the end to get a law what it's basically says is that any information that makes homosexuality

sound attractive or interesting or which says that homosexuality or heterosexuality is equally valid is illegal if a person under eighteen might witness it might witnesses and we know of at least two instances where people in russia have displayed signs saying things like homosexuality is normal and being arrested why shouldn't young people under eighteen know the facts of homosexuality and same sex love some of them moved sold or if not that would drop to no gay people they should know the facts the truth not about sex but about love between people of the same gender you quite rightly point to homophobic violence in russia but of course it's not just a problem here in the country i just like to give you some statistics about the problems elsewhere around the world in the u.s. for example sexual orientation ranks as the third highest motivator for hate crime incidents after race based on religion based attacks in new york alone crimes rose

seventy percent this year according to local police let's look at the u.k. ninety eight hundred thirty can transfer crimes recorded each week across britain and compared to other types of hate crime the proportion of and to get taxes on the rise to now of course martin statistics in this piece is already highlighted the situation isn't good in this country we have to admit that but your report a somewhat mixed report suggests that there is. vibrant gay community here but is it dangerous to be gay. that's very very difficult to give because in some ways i've lived here for eight years i've had no trouble whatsoever many people could say well of course martin you live in an ex-pat bubble in the privileged lifestyle that you're here but having traveled through seventy five regions of russia with much of a sure way for a few years ago i visited gay clubs all throughout russia so of course the violence happening there but but it's for people to you know get the details wrong about swats you know culturally in social is different would you agree you're going to go

in russia what's your experience i'm just fighting for the right some just fighting for human rights i have been doing this for eight years and what what is happening is just that i think activists in the west are just not listening to what we're saying here they are working to because of the vote because they want to because of the olympic games they want to do something where their own things but they never listen to the organizations and you're going to zation here in this country and what we're saying is that we have to do the olympic games in sochi we have to protest during this olympic games we have to raise this issues as much as possible during the olympic games and also the west have to do this during the olympic games there is no problem about this but why do we have to do it as a protest why do we have to charge after the russian people that their gay people that they are responsible for. the disruption of these olympic games we are not responsible for these we're just fighting for our rights why did this law come into effect look at the impact it's had on particularly on the people in russia and its

reputation abroad and you know what i mean and this law. will support why i was brought in is because russia is traditional i'm not going to live russia has problems with homophobia but for me and what i wanted to ask actually nikolai is why russia why the focus around russia obviously in the problems you've been having and it's been going up and down on social media the picture that is painted in the . west is clearly very different that's why it's interesting to me where peter is getting these statistics that it's become worse that there has been attacks i mean have you heard that by that it's not very easy because of people on the. right of. the reality let's just make it clear one thing is that there is a war which has a legal implications and there is a law which has social implanted into their program that is absolutely a tragedy on worst thing about legal implications i can tell you this law is not employed in practice the regional laws which are absolutely similar to the federal one are not applied in practice and the social consequences what's beautiful are

saying i absolutely agree that these people who are doing this on the internet who are caressing young people who have to have to be brought to justice and this is absolutely any find in any in any country of the world and can we really worry that this is because of this specific it can be a consequences of this war because these people are getting a cut of blanks for their illegal things for their illegal actual same carte blanche that they have an australian with a gay panic law which no one is speaking about this is why is this about russia yeah you it makes that you're actually an act of about russia or russia is now in the world spotlight because there is olympic games coming because it's the way to the next a moment. to these topics obviously there is no other topic of human rights violations that will make such headlines around the world and that's what is happening as i talk about peter's experience you're here in two thousand and seven do you think the sentiment is change the toll since you were here because you were actually punched and we got some video footage of it let's have a quick look at the souls of what happened to you when you came here it is can i

explain to you i was merely standing in the street speaking to journalists the police are allowed a mob of neo nazis and ultranationalist to walk through the lines and come and attack me what the film doesn't show is when i was dragged on the ground of being kicked and in fear of my life i was almost lost consciousness and the police just stood there and watched and then when i heard a good beating. the police arrested me and loud my attackers to walk free another year i was in moscow i simply held a sign saying gay rights i was grabbed off the street by the police and arrested and detained for hours in a police station much worse happens to russians beaten people much worse and we've got to remember that this is not about western perspective this is about supporting the human rights of all russian people and it's not just about gay rights it's about the attacks on civil and human rights across all sections of russian society

right you're about to cross reaction of these is. from the russian of. homophobia is rife in this country one hundred percent true what i find it culturally interesting is that what is the why is the focus on russia when there are seventy six countries around the world that you know how far west laws to death penalty etc i guess is every single day from people saying how could you live in moscow the reality is that if two tourists or americans come to moscow if they have come in say the sense just like they were in any other country they will be safe. but i think you have a can i just we're not seeing we're not singling out russia we're not singling out russia here in london just in the last you can i not say but they went through the media is certainly is and i think i can tell you about some of his experiences that he's had with them not being interested. i mean i'm going to agree with that homophobia is rife in this country i absolutely agree also with your point of two americans living here and not expressing their sexual orientation openly will be

absolutely safe in this country and all these things about the talks about homophobia in this country if they're not involved in the public utility of they're not involved in the l.g.b. activism they will be absolutely free in this country and. will not be have any problems but what i'm saying that. also the point is that absolutely true we don't have the freedom association of. really this is not respected i mean we have lots of case of the european court of human rights on freedom of assembly and we won the case on the on the most pride is excellence absolutely sure if you know that it's on your side most western media ok but just quickly sort of questions we're not giving interviews to western media outlets well i'm just telling you that i think that the whole picture is absolutely exaggerated it's not what they report is absolutely not true what they're saying is that basically everyone is being killed on the streets here what the sensational story. i mean i want to say i mean we i

want what we want to say i'm here i mean i'm absolutely involved in all the public to t.v. you know i probably know not being rated by the police why am i not running a role why am i look now in new york why not now in london why am i here in moore school in your studio fighting for your rights and talking about iraq that's what i want to say absolutely and it's proof you're here and it's very happy to talk about it now peter just quickly you said that you were talking russia does that mean that you you don't agree with boycotting the olympics. absolutely boycott is not the right way that would punish us and of course many russian algebras ations have said they do not want to boycott to respect their wishes but we do believe that protests are necessary as they are against any and every government in the world that violates human rights where they believe human rights of gay people or other people . i want to see i want to see an alliance in russia between gay and straight

russians to defend freedom of expression for russian people peaceful people. the russian consul general you have russia i have no idea where all there is trying to build their salience and this is absolutely fine we the gates opened the door of the european court for the public for the freedom of assembly of all the russian people on this issue there is no problem when they're going to russia well that's when you do there are seventy percent of people we have to change and we have to fight for the change of the public opinion we have to persuade the politicians to change their opinion and to educate the russian population this is very important and i'm glad to hear that we'll have because i was reading in one of the moscow newspapers that the opinion here is so conservative this is a very young country only twenty years old it will take about fifteen years for it to a change its attitude if we didn't start it in two thousand and six it would never change if we didn't start this fight in two thousand and six we would not have the disease not the european court we would not have the un decision on one of the

regional laws on gay propaganda we would not have many more cases that the european court what we want to do is find such a pride pride which will attract attention to those situation doesn't that then make the olympics about gay pride as opposed to about the athletes and then also doesn't that mean that western activists should be protesting the action of the world cup but i think we really have a great to get all to go for thank you very much indeed. thank you martin andrews and isa now and peter tatchell really appreciate your time as well live in london thanks so much for joining in this debate. and the bank with the in just a few minutes with all the top headlines to stay with us. they were ready to do anything for their country to me is to love the country more than yourself if you joined the military for any other reason. you're probably not

going to have a good day and they were tools in the hands of the state now they live remembering the past which is impossible to get rid of. the war. but i'll ever good people to get hurt. i've heard good people empty silent. a lot. but would prefer not to be sometimes i feel like. i should have died over there are. those i. i saw some people who died and. there is cheaper than therapy. on our.

the world holds its breath how about possible u.s. intervention in syria as president obama calls for military action but goes looking for approval from the congress. says the russian president appeals to the american media as a nobel peace prize laureate warning him over the grave consequences of the campaign against syria. and also the sound of radiation on the figure she would need to never was our eighteen times higher than previously thought which could prove lethal within four hours.