this is our team today welcome to russia makes it here to moscow the first torchbearers uno taking the top show tomorrow for a four month relay through russia till it launches she twenty forty. also headlining in the week's news to the u.s. special forces reportedly forced to fall back during a militant raid in somalia but a separate operation in libya sees a top terror leaders see its claims swirl that washington is suspiciously picky its more against insurgents. and the netherlands goes to the international tribunal to try and free the thirty greenpeace to go activists to russia is taken to court on piracy charges.

just after six pm mayor of moscow this is the weekly an r.t. around over the top stories of the last seven days of me kevin when you're most welcome but dominating our coverage from moscow this sunday one big story unfolding right now of course. it's a very big day for russia the limpid flames now here in moscow for the final countdown to the twenty fourteen winter olympics a massive convoy of bikers product safety the red square in a cheering crowd before president putin sent the torch on its way let's cross live to r.t.c. go piskun off easy. and a bit of olive oil important and that concentrates the heat of the sun and that is enough to light the limb pick torch and then that flame is used to light the first torchbearer in olympia and several lanterns

a little as well from that flame but i don't get that if your. flame following this torch bearer in case it goes out come on to that in a minute and then this torch went around greece and it ended up at the end of an icon stadium in athens. was that a lot of it was of greece and even though greece isn't really a winter sports country still a lot of enthusiasm for the olympic was everything was going on in greece they all got so many problems with the economy etc the mood is far from happy i guess this sort of thing does bomb people it's. but because it the olympics were being held there what do the greeks actually think of it all is part of their history and they fully respect that and yesterday early get involved is there is a this is what we're seeing on the screen with the lady's dress so beautifully and the flame being lit but you know what it was traveling around research the acid test isn't it is the other general public involved they were and they try and get not just the alexander ovechkin is the ice hockey star to the top there are members

of the public that also see it as a great honor to do this but the litmus test as you were describing for me was at the stadium yesterday because that was where the flame was handed over to the russian olympic committee it's a beautiful stadium it's called the palace and i call stadium in athens and that's where the first modern olympics were held at the end of the nineteenth century and the public were allowed to go in and watch and they did in the hundreds so it was well received there and then the question was what happens to the flame now how will we get it to russia well i found it. so the question is how do you take the flame from sunny athens all the way to moscow while it's quite simple you put it in a small lantern and then you put it on a plane but that's not just any old plane that's a b. i paid plane and i've got a ticket. we are now cruising at thirty thousand feet and tucked into the seat twenty five billion pick flame you might notice it has been nice to light

a couple of other lanterns and that's because one of them might go out god forbid so they've got those extra ones just in case now they are in good company because on board among other people is the president of the sort she organizing committee dimitri tunisia and he sat just over here dmitri you spent the last eight years of your life trying to bring this flame to russia you must be pretty excited yes very broad very much so because it's once in a way the democrats really do for the generations. they knew more than russia to the wall with a global audience with this several billions of uber. during the opening ceremony which will be held on one hundred twenty four days in the very heart of my immediate city of sochi ok we've got a busy time ahead so i will let you get some more rest we are g.'s to touch down in moscow in a bank two hours time. and we have just landed in moscow it is in the story moment and if you look out of the door you will see the olympic flame for sochi

twenty fourteen is a back to receive a very warm welcome. and so it arrived now despite all the planning we've got to keep this brief but kate and i actually watched as we couldn't quite understand we're watching at the time when it was handed over by president putin the official torch was lit and we kind of thought we just seen it being lit again what happened. what are your sort is well briefly as far as i understood the flame when time to look for the olympic protocol is that the lanterns that we saw there should then be used to relight the flame however a very observant security guard i don't think he realized this and took out his cigarette lighter and listen again gasps from the crowd probably but i would probably also say that i'm sure the next torch would have been lit from the pure. questioning truth i was missing exactly exactly but you never touch the queen in britain for exactly exactly ok all right thanks well andrew really good to see what

it was like on the plane as well get real first of all specially with the door open looking out excellent right let's now go to the olympic city salt she where in just one hundred twenty three days time will arrive in the games will begin the fronts is there for your legs you can hear. the series change much of the past few years there's. been a few but if you will tell us how the olympics have affected locals and what we're hearing broadly speaking it's extremely good news but not everyone's been happy of it. of course not everyone's happy when you essentially live on a construction site for about four years but most of the facilities as we've been talking about today are finished beautification process is now underway and so that's of course enjoyable to watch all of these beautiful palm trees and other greenery being planted from the coastal cluster the ice arenas like the ones right

behind me to the ski hills up on up on the mountains everything is being beautified so the design and the landscaping is really being sewn together at this point not only that but we're also talking about the highways the roads the new airports the railway stations all of these brand new facilities that locals have gotten to use and really put to good use in essentially test out before the crowds get here. so they have really got to take advantage of that this is an upgrade that any city of this size the population is around four hundred thousand rarely gets to see in the time span of four years alone the amount of money that's been pumped into the infrastructure here these people have gotten to see a renovation that many people just never get to see in the in their in their towns how this has essentially been a quiet seaside coastal resort for many many decades and now it is it is a city with the facilities to host one of the largest sporting events in the world

and it very much shows now it's not just the physical preparations that have gone in. to preparing saw it's also the spirit of the olympics that has been infusing this community i spent time with locals here in saatchi and talked to them some of these people have lived here a short time some of these people been resident for decades and they say there has been a slow change in the mentality of the community of the feeling of the olympics whether it's volunteers or opening small businesses these people's lives have been changed by the olympic winter games coming to so i spent some time with them walked and talked with them to find out how they've been changed i talk to old residents and some new residents and they told me how they felt about it take a look. the winter games haven't just changed the landscape of this city they've already changed the lives of the residents as well the crowds of spectators have yet to descend on saatchi but that doesn't mean there aren't lines of brand new out

of town customers looking for services the business people calling temporary home in the run up to the olympics they all need something to eat somewhere to sleep and a way to relax the perfect set of requirements for any enterprising local like. a trained massage therapist she started up her own business here two years ago when she realized just how many new people were coming to. down in that time business has boomed i was thinking the tourists would come lots of foreign people will be here i had this in my mind when i was opening my business right now there are so many foreign people here who are attending massage sloan's everything is going forward tyler meineke from st louis missouri in the u.s. is one of those temporary saatchi resident filling a very important role teaching locals english in time to communicate with all those spectators the students here in sochi in particular are very motivated there they

have a very good reason right now learning english so it's going to make that experience more interesting for them i'm so excited for the olympics i came to sochi one hundred percent for the olympics i think it's it's something that ever since i was a kid i've i've really. been just glued to the t.v. but now i'm actually here and i get to see it and i'm so excited and discount when i count down the days as a resident of saatchi for thirty years dr alexander stubb call is using the winter olympics and paralympics to make big changes for people with disabilities he leads a group of advocates for people with impaired mobility they test out the new olympic facilities for the designers ensuring their outfitted properly even city parks now have universal access a major change from just four years ago. one month ago i flew to sochi airport and for the first time in twenty five years in a wheelchair i exited the plane insult you by a passenger walkway such things exist all civilized cities and now also it is one

of them he says softly has always represented a place of rest and relaxation in russia now it's a place of rest and relaxation for everyone because the olympics is fulfilling more than the dreams of the athletes and spectators it's fulfilling the dreams of the man of the street lindsey france r.t. . all right back to moscow very p.c. so you know talk to her now. she's three time olympian champion synchronized swimming and indeed on the future torchbearers as well we're going to be translating what she's going to do with this. hi there thanks for being with us hope you can hear me my name's kevin you're live on r.t. and how do you feel about being able to carry the sochi twenty fourteen olympic torch are going to be doing it very shortly. that's my question hello thank you very much for this opportunity to comment on what has

been happening here it's an amazing feeling ah it's tremendous i feel very good. for what is happening here today we finally launched to do use really feels very happy and proud that i will take part in this olympic torch really. this isn't your first olympic relay is it in your view is this one more special that was you've taken in the past. there is a slowness that's exactly this is. very special for me this is my third so i mean my first time was before i was below in the olympics and this was a dream come true for me because when i was an athlete i always dreamed of taking part in the olympics works very well for the olympics and i are participating in the anti-war truly. risky games and this is my first time a much more when three games in this is particularly important to me this means

a lot to me so we know about you we know you've done so well and showed in your field of sport but there are fourteen thousand torchbearers how did you become generally if you are as famous as you may be. just like the chess board said it is i'm a very fortunate that i was involved in the selection process i was selecting torchbearers together with coca-cola which is my partner for the organizing community and this is really a very important and responsible mission it was very interesting we wanted to make sure that people who fear the olympic flame across our territory because we wanted to select the best people the people you can really rely on the office the people whose example you as want to fall regardless of their professions we wanted to select people who can really be example for our there is the kind of people that. like these you feel part of the olympic movement when you watch these people and i

hold these fourteen thousand torchbearers there are people like that even so it's. very much to play and thanks to people like you putting your time in to sort it all out didn't quite go right at one point though very briefly when the torch went out and your experience is that ever happened before. yeah there were still. there but i think he then serry morny actually was always involved a lot of the. professionals working on. the claim can never go out with you know our hearts so i can tell you the olympic fleet is still going on. and to morrow the moscow stage of the olympic torch really will start here and then for four months olympic flame will travel throughout our country it will never go out

again we will be following it closely really because they have this three time olympic synchronized swimming champion torchbearer thank you so much for your time coming on r t international. thank you we'll continue our coverage of the olympic torch relay through the russian capital in the coming hours of course i'm kevin i will stay with our team for a live updates then as it makes its way through moscow. if you look at the videos we get from syria these days you know people chpa topping off. these intestines business travel far warns them something that you play beyond that hollywood movie i'd like is the united states of america to stop supporting people who have ideologies and crush humanity in the name of religion

in the name of interest in the name of any political. the media leave us so we leave them to be. by the sea motions to the other your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politics only mark t. .

you know her most cool things to be with her son kevin and this is are full of the course of the olympic flame through moscow in the coming hours but let's spend ten minutes or so now taking in some of the big news stories that shaped the past week in our weekly and u.s. special forces in somalia reportedly had to pull back up to have a resistance from militants during a navy seal attempt to capture their leader but another terror over four thousand kilometers away in libya was more productive as the military captured the suspect from the one nine hundred ninety eight u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania which put a peace activist run dorson his washington those very selective when it comes to fighting terror the war on terrorism has really replaced the cold war to justify massive military spending and so when they're supporting a dictator like hadi in yemen who want an election because it is the only name on the ballot or they're supporting al-qaeda or getting mercenaries in syria or whether it's in the being in afghanistan or any of these terrorist groups or drug cartels and so on if they are supporting u.s.

policy in the region then it's not terrorism it's not spoken of if they are opposing neocolonialism in usa journey and they're terrorists it's not about how the actor who they kill us has no problem supporting terrorists all over the rest of the world so for them to be fighting terrorists in somalia sounds a little disingenuous when they're supporting. al-qaeda in syria as well as and many other terrorist groups all over the world it's not just the u.s. that's been accused of supporting terrorists russian diplomatic sources are blaming a saudi group for the deadly august chemical attack in syria claiming they want to provoke foreign intervention independent users james corbet believes that's exactly why it's incorrect to describe the war in syria as civil. mistaken assumption that's often purveyed in the media that what's happening in syria is some sort of civil war as some sort of internal conflict and a lot of the narrative has been framed around that that frame but i think it's

fundamentally false to assert that i think we have to understand what's happening in syria as the planned result of a nearly decade long intervention foreign funded foreign armed foreign supplied foreign trained intervention in syria that has been arming and training syrian opposition groups on the record documented back to the bush administration as far back as two thousand and six they were starting to fund and train the office in forces in syria so we have to understand that this is not some sort of spontaneous uprising and that as a result there are many different outside forces including the united states including the saudis qatar ease and others. also this past week the netherlands started legal action against russia it's following a claim of international maritime court to win the release of thirty greenpeace activists arrested after trying to scale that russian oil rig many three weeks ago now the protesters were traveling on board the dutch registered arctic sunrise at the time they face up to fifteen years in prison on charges of piracy in the currently in custody awaiting trial russia says is well within its rights to defend

its assets under international law saturday so demonstrations calling for the release of the activists in dozens of countries former greenpeace leader patrick moore believes the activists should have found a better way to get their message across this last time. you can't expect to have people allow you to continue to storm their oil rigs oil rigs are a very serious operation with really big safety issues and you start scaling the rig and then people have to come and try to get you off it puts them in danger and so i can certainly understand why they were apprehended and finally towed away from the state i do tend to agree with president putin that they are not pirates. it's pretty obvious i think their intentions were not to loot the rig or anything like that but they're still putting people in danger and it is a serious situation it's my understanding that this is the first oil platform that is done designed specifically to withstand ice the intention is to make it

a safer way of extracting oil but assurances that we all reckon we stand the conditions are enough for everyone to have a greenpeace is out to campaign told us the guys from platform poses a threat to the fragile environment that. greenpeace's spent a lot of time in russia talking to the office or talking to gazprom about the specific risks that this rig platform posed at every stage we've been ignored we've written letters we've sat down in conferences said you shouldn't do this time and time and time again we've been completely ignored this form is about to start drilling they're about to start the pumps working this platform has been cobbled together from decommissioned oil rigs that rusting in a mound shipyard for nearly two decades we haven't published a full oil spill response plan we did not storm the platform we tried to put a team of two climbers up the side of it to protest the work gazprom were doing and the threat that this region the platform itself poses to the arctic region people

were very well trained we have expert climbers at no point was there any danger of anything happening to the platform. don't get review already not by a t.v. . service twenty four seven. but with more news just about thirty four minutes time between now and then worlds apart next on why two revolutions stability for a egypt remains elusive. recently the ministry of internal affairs of russia declared that they're going to dress to increase operations in and around the moscow subway system with a major emphasis on illegal immigration there is an odd paradox when people talk about dealing with illegal immigration in terms of what the police should do people want the police to deal with it but any means of trying to actually do anything or

generally taboo any form of asking people to see ideas viewed as an invasion of privacy or racial profiling well i don't know how exactly anyone can prove they are or aren't a citizen without id and if you're looking for people who are foreign and that's different then how can you go about looking for illegals without look. for people who are different profile if you were looking for a criminal of slavic origin in uganda would the police be wrong to stop me due to standing out from the crowd i don't think so that's not racial profiling it is just common sense obviously it is best to find the causes of illegal immigration rather than asking for id in moscow so boys but they have to do something so i guess id checks are here to stay but there's a big difference between looking at someone's passport and doing stop and frisk or involuntary blood and urine tests that is one immigration control goes over the line but the surest my opinion.

alone of welcome to worlds apart and a half years ago egypt and much of the arab world where going through dramatic changes that even the most creative screenwriter couldn't imagine hopes were high the futurists in bride and the happy ending simply didn't reach what happened to those trains well to discuss that i'm now joined by a prominent egyptian actor and activist. mr frank if i really appreciate your being on the show thank you very much thank you thank you very much for inviting me now i remember that back in two thousand and eleven you spend days on task or square alongside other protesters calling for president hosni mubarak to step down and eventually thanks to your efforts and the efforts of thousands of other dedicated patronymic activists he eventually deed and in one of the interviews you gave back

then you said that that made you feel very proud of the egyptian people i wonder if you still hold on to that pride are you proud of what is happening in your country now yes i'm definitely proud that we went down. two thousand and eleven to object to a number of wrong things that were happening in our country and when they happened again we just took to the streets again very quickly and very effectively took us three days instead of eighteen days and the second time so i'm still a sprout but i remember that one of the main slogans that you could hear on tap for square back then was brad freedom and human dignity and if you take those as as a yardstick of edge of success or progress the picture is not really here brive because your economy is much worse than it used to be more people have been arrested or killed since the ouster of mubarak than prior to that and when it

comes to human rights and human dignity the progress is very limited to say the least so isn't egypt pretty much back to where it was before the arab spring only much worse i think what's happening now in egypt is a retaliation to to the actions that were taken by people in power and their supporters to humiliate human dignity and and basically want to break it we've seen supporters of morsi shooting at people have certainly on the street trying to object to the.