the president's speech putin says russia is not seeking to dominate the world and is capable of defending itself to protect its values. european parliament resolution brandes ukraine's u. turn on the association agreement a huge missed opportunity. should use all its power to persuade kiev to sign up. plus israel and saudi arabia reportedly tag team over common interests in the middle east after forming out washington on syria and iran.

from a studio center here in moscow where it is midnight this is international the russian president has championed traditional values of the state of the nation address and stressed the country can defend itself if need be that in the in touch on a wide range of topics in his speech from the economy to international politics. was listening to what the top man in the kremlin that. it's traditionally become the place to be to find out the president's vision of the president and his plans for the future every year russia stop politicians businessmen economists and elites gather at the kremlin to listen to his address firsthand just returned from there as well and here are some of the key points. had to me russia isn't looking. but that doesn't mean it has to stop protecting its traditional values. you know like i said on that basis we know that there are even more people around the globe who support our position in terms of ensuring traditional values these are the

values of traditional family and the value of human life including religious life that is not only material life but also spiritual of course this is a conservative position but the point of conservatism is not that it hinders the movement forward and upward but that it precludes the movement backwards and downwards back towards chaos and a barbaric state diplomacy was another point in the president's speech or specifically recent breakthroughs with syrian chemical weapons and the rain in your group programming many animals to greet these are examples that diplomacy still works by the time when russia. suggested. the process of chemical disarmament stars in syria. very few countries in the world were keen to support the so-called obama option which would have been yet another bombing of yet and as a country so i think this is

a very important lesson. lesson on. a crisis of this type should this old u.s. plans to build an anti missile defense system in europe one of the biggest sticking points in moscow's relationship with washington was of course also talked about the president's message was simple without a threat from iran what's the point of building it moscow does see the shield as a threat to its national security and putin says powering up russia's military is one of the ways to protect against it. you know when you look at your message it was more sinister that it no country should harbor illusions of achieving military dominance over russia we will never let it happen russia is ready to meet those challenges both political and technological we've got all the potential needed our military doctrine as well as our military equipment allow us without a doubt to ensure russia's security finally it referring to the current situation in ukraine putin said moscow respects the desire of those partners who want to be closer to the e.u. as long as decisions aren't made by hotheads and are based on dialogue you've got

to. moscow. and you can always learn more about vladimir putin speech today on our website all the highlights and analysis is there for you right now on r.t. dot com. the european parliament has adopted a resolution saying europe needs to do more to strengthen ties with the system partners this comes amid these three weeks low pro e.u. rallies in the ukrainian capital is paul scott is in here. on thursday members of the european parliament passed a resolution urging for more to be done to help integrate what it calls gates and european partners now he says they should be using all the tools at its disposal including aid trade these are waivers and energy security projects in a more strategic and flexible policy while the resolution says that ukrainian

president viktor yushchenko beaches decision to postpone plans to sign the e.u. association agreement was a major missed opportunity however this all comes on the day the president yannick overage sent a government delegation to brussels to try to negotiate on the deal which he says in his current form would simply be too damaging to the craney an economy which is fragile right now despite the odds it hasn't stopped washington saying it could hit the country with sanctions if violence returns to the streets of kiev what our strong message was on the ground all policy options including sanctions are on the table in our view but obviously that still is being evaluated while the mood amongst the protesters seems to be as defiant as ever my colleague alexy our chefs kate is in the crowds behind me we're now outside one of the barricades which was installed to separate the protest square the heart of the protest and the rest of the ukrainian capital it is no bigger and stronger than before you can judge i'm

one hundred and eighty six centimeters high and this barricade is almost twice taller than me let me just cross the wall to show you how thick it is these guys are here to keep a twenty four hour watch over the barricade against another police attack happens just follow me here. and the part of the barricade it's made of these bags which have snow inside them and it's not melting surprisingly despite the temperatures in kiev now rising above zero now in the twenty four hours i've been here i've heard complaints from the local taxi drivers that this barricade is creating something of a traffic nightmare for the locals but also i heard statements coming from the government that it's also creating economic problems for the country but that's not the focus of the protest here obviously the mood here is very much to find the people are willing to stay here as long as it takes for the government to resign and for the president to step down the even set up something off campfires over here to keep themselves warm and if we go over here you'll see the tent camp the ever present tent camp in the independence square which is now sinking the crane in

anthem thousands of people i feel here they're protesting and i'm willing to go anywhere for the last twenty four hours it has been pretty much peaceful but you can never rule out anything when it comes to ukraine and there might be another attempt to disperse the crowd anytime of course the situation is stance but we are watching how the developments are unraveling here. amid the many voices of support from washington for what they call the ukrainian opposition's fight for democracy shia political expert richard becker doesn't buy into these statements. it's clear that the what the united states government is after is regime change in the ukraine and it has nothing to do with what they say they're concerned about that is you know three rights and they're not there so you know we saw i understand your question of the occupy movement and dozens if not hundreds the cities carried out in an organized way were united way. by the federal government against people who

were peacefully focusing here and now we hear. these kind of statements coming when in the ukraine it's clear that the leaders of the opposition are trying to overthrow the government they're not just in gauging peaceful protests they are engaged in a process which they hope will bring about regime change and in that campaign they have the full backing of the u.s. and nato. i told top story now president putin state of the nation address well let's get more perspective on the president's speech in which he said that russia is not seeking to dominate the world in this capable of defending itself to protect its values let's talk more about this with russian affairs analyst martin mccauley he's live in london. what you make of president putin's talk of preserving the traditional values for his country. well one commentator said that

russia's had no ideology under president putin another is a new one called conservatism visit please russian traditional values the values of family russian of the church. and. really digit rejecting what people in the west would say are normal human rights like gay rights and all those things so therefore russia if you like is in fact saying it's it has his own culture its own traditions and so on it will not go the way of the west it rejects the way the west is going the way society is going in the west and they want to keep their traditional values and that's very important for russians what about foreign policy he talked about moving russia forward yet stressed he doesn't want to rule the world what does he exactly mean by that what does he really stand here but certainly bearing in mind russia's fairly strong position recently on the diplomatic saying. yes the been very very considerable

diplomatic successes such as syria iran and you have the gulf states and other states in the in the middle east saying that if the united states is leaving the middle east then they've got to look to russia perhaps for protection and so on there's very good news for for russia. russia as a hegemonic all russia would like to be a great power and so on nobody who's the world anymore the. center of power there's one in china there's one in america and so on and in europe germany is the strongest power and so on so therefore russia is up among the leaders and russia saying we have to be listened to obviously russia is a member of the security council has a veto and so on very important member of the g. eight and the g. twenty and so on so russia from of follow foreign policy point of view is doing in fact very well they are saying we are here nobody nobody can threaten us we talk about the military aspect nobody can threaten us and they shouldn't try let's talk

about that military threat in terms of the anti-missile defense system for europe saying of course the iranian threat is now subsided after the recent success of those talks and yet the u.s. is still pushing forward with that missile shield in europe putin sees this is a threat but should he. well he's always said that the russians have never believed the shield was really against iran. they see it as really a shield against themselves this is not the head and said this was the first time they've been saying this for the last ten years that nato is a threat if you look at from a military point of view russia seen as the greatest threat but if you talk to russians and if you think about your political position or russia. the power on the horizon the looming power on the horizon is china the interesting thing is that there's nothing in the speech really about the russian power china. in other words

it's sort of you don't talk about things like that and perhaps the economic incentives for businesses small businesses to go to the russian far east side of beauty and so on that is an indicator that there is a problem in the far east and that more russian should go there because if they do it's possible that china will expand its influence we must talk quickly about ukraine obviously the crisis is ongoing that relations between the e.u. and the us and of course moscow very strained over this how do you think britain going to react to this latest pressure we're seeing from the us in the e.u. on that a covert she's now saying he's going to now perhaps look again at starting these negotiations and indeed join that agreement so where does putin stand that. well he in the speech very very strong case for ukraine joining the customs union john belushi's collect on russia and ukraine that would be

a very very considerable customs union because you only covered she's in a weak economic position russia can give you create incentive such as a lower price for its gas and so on but only coverage as it looked about will will say to take some of the teeth of the finds out of the protest say ok we'll start to go shopping again with the e.u. not by giving in or not we can drag out these negotiations but from his point of view you have to cover just what if you he could say ok then we'll go along with some of these demands and so on and we're going to make up our own mind ukraine is going to make up its own mind the trouble with ukraine it's split pretty evenly split between the the west which wants to go towards the e.u. and the east to the south towards russia so therefore it's a country divided and unocal which has to bring the two sides together he may in fact in the end say the east and the south have the majority and we're going to go

with russia in the short term but a little bit he'd play now we can to go shake with the european union and drag out its because nations martin great to talk to you thank you very much indeed for joining us live there from london also a russian affairs analyst martin mccauley live on r.t. thanks. thank you well still ahead in the program this hour extending a helping hand to fall with the u.k. set to increase its budget that's not going down well with those still struggling to make ends meet at home. so.

to speak the language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of his p.r. p.t. interviews intriguing story. in trying. to find out more visit our big teeth it's called. israel and saudi arabia reportedly cementing an unlikely partnership with both countries increasingly alienated by their longtime ally america washington's

diplomatic approach to syria and iran has fallen foul of israeli and saudi interests in the region but he's got a report. the two countries saudi arabia and israel found themselves in one boat in their frustration over washington israel and saudi arabia hate the nuclear deal that the u. was another world power struck with iran and israel is very vocal about it the saudis are a little bit more restrained but the saudi intelligence chief said there would be a major shift in dealings with the us saudi arabia wanted the us to go all in on syria the us instead went along with russia's proposal and cut a deal with the syrian leadership to get rid of chemical weapons there saudi arabia and israel are very suspicious of each other the saudis oppose the creation of the jewish state they support the palestinian cause so it's too early to speak of friendship but washington definitely brought them closer together at least in their desire to threaten war saudi arabia is now reportedly working with israel on

a plan to attack iran it reportedly gave israel the green light to use its airspace in the case of a strike and pledged other assistance here in washington these where the lobby is fighting what they describe as a tendency in the u.s. to disengage from the middle east the apac meeting was all about it they talked about how war fatigue in the u.s. could be a reason for washington to want to be less involved in regional affairs they saw the nomination of chuck hagel as defense secretary as a signal pointing in that direction of course the obama administration quickly reassured everybody that the u.s. will not stop interfering in the affairs of the region but israel and saudi arabia are not so sure at this point or they don't see the kind of interference that they would want to see i'm going to check on in washington or. in yemen as many as fifteen members of a wedding party have reportedly been killed by a drone strike officials claim it's likely the civilian group fell victim to the

attack after being mistaken for an al qaeda convoy well let's go live now to live bolger she's an anti drone activist in the states so. clearly a tragic mistake what do you make of this news does it surprise you no it doesn't surprise me this is just another example in a long list of. despicable illegal and immoral combat drone strikes on the part of the government of the united states and this is another which you see tragic yes it's tragic but it that it could be prevented. for this to continue and the world needs to rise up and point the finger at the united states for causing and. necessary damage and death. while lee's drawing attacks are supposed to be of high precision how do you think they could get that wrong well just to explain to you know they say that they're very precise they're surgical. attacks and we can if

we see over and over and over again there are many many examples of civilians women children old people being killed by these drones and even if the drones attack the people that the cia intends to attack this is outside the judicial process and these are illegal attacks they violate the sovereignty of yemen of pakistan afghanistan and even if the person attacked is a bona fide member of al qaeda until they've been proven to do something that's against the law these are extrajudicial assessing nations and they're absolutely abhorrent and illegal it is gaining ground zero in the region in recent months what is the effective way to deal with them on all this the one has to accept the times are all tragic consequences in times of war that's i suppose how some people would regard this well i suppose if you if you think that certain governments

citizens are more valuable than other government citizens then you can justify this and say well american lives are are being protected but the fact is that every life is valuable and that unless we are in a declared war with with these killings our r. and justified they are illegal and they violate international law what about effective drone attacks where militant leaders have been killed that is that justified. no i don't believe so because as i said unless you are a brought evidence before someone the geneva conventions a call for for you to allow an opportunity just surrender to the enemy it says that you must grieving. bring proof of the charges and evidence and so none of this is that this is happening because. these are these are killings that are outside the law and you see any change in washington's approach with the use of

drones bearing in mind of course the statistics all building concerning the amount of civilian casualties well you know the obama administration has been conducting this illegal very secretive or with drones through the cia a civilian agency and not not legally able to kill people but he said obama said recently that he was going to move it from the cia to the military jurisdiction we haven't seen any signs of that happening that the military did not launch these drones in yemen and this is by the cia and it absolutely is it exceeds the bounds of u.s. law and international law to talk to you thank you lou bulger and a drone activist live from oregon in the united states thank you my pleasure. with britain improving its economic growth these days there's money in the bank another of plans to spend more of it on foreign aid but it's not his nor smith

reports the motions puzzling some who believe the funds would be better spent on the needs of the country's taxpayers. britain's economy is growing better than expected so more money in our pockets to relieve some of the miseria home lift people out of poverty help them pay their heating bills but controversially and despite cuts and hardship home the more positive figures will also mean increasing the amount the u.k. sends a broad in foreign aid not because there's more suffering in the world but to meet an arbitrary target not point seven percent of national income the british government seems set on increasing amount of money sending overseas aid merely for the sake of meeting a particular target not. target driven policy which is the worst kind of way to set policy but we think it's irresponsible of the british government at a time when money is very tight for everyone for family from the government to be

sending more and more typos money abroad particularly when a lot of the current defeat budget is not being spent very well money gets lost through fraud money is being spent in countries british even have their own aid programs to other countries it means sending a billion pounds more over the next five years and where's that money going well over the last five years nigeria has received more than a billion pounds from the british taxpayer it's got its own space program and is mired in corruption an estimated several billion pounds are stolen from the states every year by corrupt officials and politicians and india also trying to push a man in space they get two hundred eighteen million pounds a year from britain and they've got their foreign aid program worth one point three billion dollars the g.a.c. counts ability report shows the u.k.

already spends more percentage wise on foreign aid than any of the g eight country and the greatest irony britain is still borrowing billions of pounds every month and now growth is on the up it will be borrowing more than it has to just to give us a way. brings up today for the moment i'll be back with a news team with more free in just a hall for now from now in the meantime it is worlds apart with books on a boy discussing the political crisis in ukraine that's coming your way after a short break this is our international. as we all know the holidays are a great time for families to get together and sometimes on the elko gets flowing they're also

a great time for us to argue about everything from politics to religion with the ones we love but if you happen to be an n.s.a. agent and the government has an official list of talking points that way you could win those family arguments for sure yeah that's right the government is now giving n.s.a. agents lists a very corny talking points going to firedoglake so that way they could convince their relatives over the holidays of just how awesome effective and necessary the national security agency truly is despite all those little revelation thinks of mass spying by snowden trust me talking points exist for a reason political social and religious organizations and use them so that when their members who may not be the best debaters on the planet can defend the positions of the organization and i would have no problem with the if they gave this list to agents they could answer questions from journalists but when the government wants you to propagandize your friends and family over christmas and thanksgiving it all seems kind of cultish to me that's just my opinion.

one welcome to the pipe george w. bush famously said that democracies don't go to war spit upon another quote that is often recited by western politicians when they see people in other countries taking to the streets and yet over the past two years we've seen quite a few examples of supposedly democratic protests degenerating not just into violence but into full blown wars how do we strike the balance between the demands of democracy and the needs of security well to discuss that i'm now joined by that

here the secretary general of the organization for security and cooperation in europe mr zinni or thank you very much for a time we are speaking in key if the capital of ukraine reaches overtaken by protesters who disagree with that government's decision not to align itself a bit more closely with europe and so far at least it's been relatively bloodless there been a couple of clashes but. thankfully no casualties even though you know both sides accusing each other of violating the law i wonder how do you draw the line between a democratic protest and the riot and isn't it's similar to you know that distinction between terrorism and freedom fighting you know something that is essentially in the eye of the beholder i would say there is no absolute and certainly one cannot come from outside and say this is this is the line and beach country has to fight its own way its own way and strike its own its own balance.

see this is a debate where we're having internally of course and what we see is that different countries see this differently and being for a big tent to draw the line in a different place is the debate which is among other things also about this and it's a very central point. the way we interpret security in the u.s. see is that security goes well beyond the military relationships and the security or be disarmament issues security is also stability of our societies stability must be based. on some fundamental values human rights and the principle of the rule of law. this is what also stands for but of course the devil is all is always in the details so how how much can you. force a rule of law and implement the law to the detriment of potential freedoms freedom

of. expression of world one's views and vision of the freedom of assembly and older than we've seen statements by the government here. referring to the fact that there will be investigations if there have been abuses. but but it's a matter of all sides acting responsibly absolutely but i think and i know that you matter that the foreign minister of here in ukraine and yes trust that all sides have to respect the law but i think we can also see from some of the european countries and the reaction from them has been that you know the people's right of free assembly has to be respected there is a lot of alpha says on the right a sample freely and i think it's not that simple because strict politics is obviously a very imprecise matter of assessing democratic attitudes and people who are

gathered in the center of key if these these they demand nothing less than the resignation of the government and early elections something that some part of the electorate may support and some part of the electorate may very strongly oppose but it seems that in their case and many european countries supported that various. strongly it's not just about it voicing their views it's about demanding nothing less than what they want it's my way or highway they don't care what the rest of the country may want it's is that you know this interplay between security and democracy is very very tricky here what well of course it is and there's a see this is there's a lively debate in say the organization on this but one should also pay attention not to confuse the internal political dynamics in any country and the basic need to respect some fundamental freedoms and principles saw you know to be.