the olympics. starting june with the fur on our. brand following types within nato and the outdated approach to other countries russia's top diplomat comments on this year's trends in foreign policy during his visit to see. a deadly bombing at target a police headquarters in egypt adds to the country's political crisis as the interim government blames the muslim brotherhood for their target branding it's a terrorist organization. against oil corporations aiming for easy cash or shower port on the bands that defined twenty thirty.

year watching on change or national coming to life from moscow hello and welcome to the park. well i think countries are gradually changing their approach to the syrian conflict realizing the threat posed by islamist rebels there that's the view of russia's foreign minister who spoke exclusively to r.t. about this year's main results in foreign politics and. was among those who interviewed sergei lavrov and joins us now live. here has been quite eventful when it comes to foreign policy what exactly that sergey lavrov focus on well we spoke for an hour and there are lots of things to talk about since it was quite an event for you which did bring russia several diplomatic victories like for instance the syrian chemical arms deal and clearly with the international community now working on the. conference according to the foreign minister one of the key obstacles in that sense remain preconditions being voiced by the syrian opposition including

calls for president assad to step down at the same time mr lavrov said the stance of the west in that sense has been shifting. well some countries are now becoming more realistic in their approach to settling the syrian conflict regardless of what their official spokesman say the number one problem is the threat of terrorism in syria the threat of jihadists coming to power in setting up the caliphate and trampling on human rights and maybe even exterminating minorities in syria and the realization is doing that region change is not the way to resolve these problems our western partners are becoming increasingly clear about this is about russia's relations with the west we're also talked about the minister said there is an apparent a will by both sides to create a more transparent and trustworthy relationship but some countries still shoulder

scholes warrior mentality and a desire to draw more dividing lines in europe. some leading members had to be against russia which is really said this leads to some of our european partners still wanting to keep dividing lines within us and even move these lines eastward the developments on our big continent of eurasia through the time they believe the country can either be with them or against them such an approach is completely inefficient nowadays. with the former so also talked about how sometimes moscow doesn't understand nato is actions for instantly its recent military drills on wall nearer to russia's western borders and some states some members of the alliance after that openly said that it was these were drills to work out of protection from a threat coming from the east the only country so close in the east basically is russia ends and wall president putin has been raising this question recently about

u.s. plans to build an anti missile defense system in europe since washington has been saying that one of the key threats that it's supposed to protect from is this theoretical possible threat from iran but with the progress being made with the iranian nuclear program what is the point of building that shield there now. it's kind of alive there you are thank you very much. and of course can watch the highlights of our exclusive interview with the russian foreign minister in about an hour here on our c plus it's available in for on our website r.t. dark. egyptians who have been sewer has been rocked by a bombing of target targeted with police h.q. in the city fourteen people have been killed and more than one hundred injured the blast has devastated a large portion of the building the government has put the blame on the muslim brotherhood with spokes person calling it a terrorist organization reporting for us from cairo is tom de. around one am

a series of at least two explosions went off inside and just next to the security directorate building in mansoor we know that at least two senior security officers are among the dead according to state t.v. and this is the deadliest the most audacious in a series of attacks a series of bombings which are plagued egypt since the july third ouster of mohamed morsy. and the group which has been behind most of these bombings which has claimed most of them it's called beat them up this the party zones of jerusalem. and while they haven't yet claimed responsibility for this attack they did issue a statement two days ago where they specifically warned employees of the security services that they would be targets and that they weren't safe so this is an all day just attack on which apparently managed to penetrate the inside of a security building destroying as you can see from your pictures part of the top

three floors and one which poses a real question about egypt's transition post the ouster of president mohamed morsi the first official reaction was from a spokesman for the cabinet office who appeared to blame the muslim brotherhood and who said that they had been designated as a terrorist organization however shortly afterward the prime minister hasn't we emerged to say that the muslim brotherhood had not being so designated that they aren't officially considered to be a terrorist organization and it should be said that it's very common for quite casual connections to be drawn between the brotherhood and terrorist activity for their own part of course the brotherhood did not have any involvement and condemned the attack. remains in turmoil since the military coup that led to the overthrow of the president morsi in july of this year the new interim government launched a massive quantities on his party the muslim brotherhood which still maintains wide support and egypt some experts say that the government's concentration on the

persecution of the former ruling party is dragging the country into deeper chaos. theory the interim president. made a decision that they have to see. the muslim brotherhood for the sake of survival. you need to carry a very strong. really months since the change in power over the summer and unfortunately. really the more important aspects that were egypt's got to go in the future not yet be acted on in the full scope people really need is immediately nomic to goldman they need jobs here a future the future of a hail holder koskie has been the number one topic in the foreign media since the former russian oil tycoon walked free following a presidential pardon from holder of course case plans to fight for his imprisoned

congress to putin's reasons for letting him out of jail the five day says the exxon accounts release has been full of speculation and analysis and marcus papadopoulos from the u.k. magazine politics first has been following the media hype and explain to us why have things what are called being glorified in the west. if we. had done what he had done in russia but say in britain where i live he would have been frightened into jail there would have been see from the british major i'm quite lightly as well rico could of course kate is a criminal but he served his time and in fact swapped a justice system is a pow but it's important to remember about. his company you cos it was built on the back of the pain and suffering of the russian people he is not this innocent in the future with this in the same entity that we are that we are here and this is not

a man who should be glorified in the west the only reason he's being glorified in the west is because he's a critic and an opponent of president putin. international the bank with more news interest a minute. technology

innovation all the developments from around russia we. covered. it will she all sing to national is great to have you with us let's move on now with twenty four saying just a week away now where sifting through the year's top stories. these local spin counts hour hey braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil

giants chevron. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some have dubbed the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines. is it. it's a modern day david versus goliath story and local communities fighting for their land against the oil and gas a child seeking to drill for easy money so called fracking technology was widely criticized for being dangerous and devastating to the environment has been drawing attention across the world twenty one scene of fracking resistance in romania.

locals in this remote region of remaining i have been saddled with and i'm going to guest u.s. energy giant chevron is due to begin drilling for shale gas. the greek culture is our largest. oil one who will die so because we'll seen would be a little bit of exubera. many residents here fear that the process of fracking could release chemicals into the soil and contaminate the water yet. i'm so afraid of this kind of exploitation people see they will be big problems for our animals grow the water will be affected and this woman the food animals and for us as well we have children and grandchildren what should we do these locals and environmentalist have been camped out here braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil giant chevron and the remaining government which has given them the

green light to start exploratory drilling and not feel david that without any public consultation the sense of betrayal is that by most protesters there are many in prime minister was against fracking during his election campaign but after being voted into office he changed his mind and granted chevron permits for the controversial practice for now nothing is happening chevron before still leaves the area last week unable to get past the locals human chain around the site but it's only a matter of time before they retire when you take all the gas we don't have a new future chilled. represent the future the old people in the village told us that they can die but they see it's important for us to have a future chevron told our sea that they have all the required permits to begin drilling and plan to return to the site and begin fracking safely soon as they can something that's less than reassuring for the growing number of people gathering

here. we hope to stop them even if it means being with our life even if we want to send the armies who die if you just pleaded for us to die was religiously. evolved until the old little thinking in romania. actually pretty juste romania. the fracking trend has been picked up by corporations around the world not willing to give up on a money making opportunity. just as in the u.k. have been fighting off oil companies to get to drill on their land despite being bombed by european powerhouses like france and germany the fracking lobby in britain started strong campaign is that even public pressure isn't enough for the government to acknowledge the danger the key from our point is to keep up the pressure so the government and the cronies in big business can't get away with forcing this onto the british people what we're saying every time this technology

turns up on the doorstep of a community in the u.k. that community does not want it unfortunately the government is preparing legislation at the moment it's trying to make it more and more difficult for people actually to oppose this this technology meanwhile they've actually made it possible for people to oppose wind farms but not fracking so this is obviously highly inconsistent from our point of view. for testers are also giving corporations on their time in the us what the lucrative shale gas extraction is booming welsh our report on how americans stand their ground. international. the story of the greenpeace activists arrested after that attempts to scale a russian oil rig in the arctic may be reaching a conclusion russian authorities have begun dropping charges against them with one already set free. joins us now live with the details there reynoso it seems the action is being released well yes actually they have been released

a while ago but now they're actually having charges dropped dropped against them which means they will be able to go home because of the twenty out of the thirty the so-called arctic thirty at least twenty twenty six people are actually foreigners now their story began in september of this year when some of the activists have scaled an oil rig in the northern russian the waters they were arrested on the next day apprehended as well as their vessel because the authorities deemed their actions to be dangerous to the personnel of the oil rig and of their will to the oil rig itself they have been charged initially with piracy but later the charge has been switched to hooliganism and this dropping of any criminal proceedings against them is actually part of the countrywide amnesty announced at the end of december. and he's really going to live from central moscow thank you very much indeed for that update where british aid. and some other global

news this hour in central africa. he's the husband to death by christian militias peacekeepers are increasingly becoming the target of rival is centuries old allegations they're taking sides around six thousand troops from the african union and france are battling to end the christian muslim conflict on this international s. tamate some one thousand people have lost their lives so father. received will have died due to a severe storm that's battering the u.k. it's also left thousands of homes without electricity to run sure rains have disrupted road and railway connections across the country affection schools of festive travellers one of london's largest airports gatwick is currently experiencing significant power outages and of flight delays. and up next for you a unique glimpse into world affairs through the eyes of russia's foreign minister in his exclusive interview with r.t.

. with the economic downturn the find. the deal and the rest. take a break. right . first. and i would think.

that maybe mr lavrov think you find the time to come here to ot see to give we have representatives of the spanish arabica and. and if there are no objections from my colleagues else be the first two thousand and thirteen has been a learn mark year for the russian diplomacy so how do you personally assess the arrangements on syria and iran one of the prospects of the geneva two conference. we have reached some very useful agreements. and i think this success which is good to see was due to our collective efforts and this is another evidence that. we can only achieve certain results when we all work

together based on the principles of internat. just law. that was a way to go i would not call this year a breakthrough year talking about syria and iran and what happened i mean was that the green meant to dismantle the syrian chemical weapons stockpile. and plans for the iranian nuclear program all of this is the result of meany years of effort setlist as far as syria is concerned we have being insisting on the principles of international law for three years and what happened would be a rainy and nuclear program this also has been going on for a long time actually more than three years it's we insisted on two points first of all all parties involved should agree that the final goal is to resolve the

situation in a way but that the right to all the wren to peaceful nuclear program including you renia when you reach meant for the purpose of producing fuel for nuclear reactors. as long as old questions and doubts related to the possibility of this program having a military to mention. and full control by the. program is. ensuring the security of all countries in the region which is our western partners however that they could not agree with this for a long time i think this is a very fierce date meant that in takes into account the interests of old countries in their region interests so all countries over the world were in the interests of nonproliferation so finally. just.

as we. we were approaching the end of the year we were able to reach disagreement then there is also another aspect another issue with that we would. that it was in that we need to really mettle this term is very popular in these days. because. it's hard to resolve a problem in simple in one step so you have to advanced stage by stage it has to be mutual. takes this tap. it's to meet the demands by the i.a.e.a. and then the international community in response takes a step to lift some of these sanctions and we go like this step by step until iran says it meets our requirements and then all sanctions will build lifted so that we can use this kind of understanding. the end game

and the method we conduct talks we spent several years working on that also insisting on the need for political settlement in syria so if this year was a breakthrough year it was because of years of hard work and patience on the part of the russian federation's. because. at the beginning of the arab spring we were accused of being on the wrong side of history losing the arab street losing to meet a least unfortunately our western partners at that stage and actually some partners in the region in the has the if they were not acting would be. global efforts looking for solutions that would help the nations of this region to exercise their right to build a life they used principles which may be described as the principles of information warfare i just mentioned what we had back in those years and even at the

beginning of this year. i recognize that there were some very important decisions that were eventually made by a western partners so if there was a breakthrough this breakthrough came as a result of. the work and my second reserve ation i have regarding this term breakthrough it has to do with the future because decisions taken by the regard to syria and iran there are far from being fully implemented yet as far as serious concerned this process is on. your way as bland we had to adjust some of the time frame but. these each estimates it's happened for objective reasons and the final goal june the thirtieth is the deadline for dismantling the entire syrian chemical weapons stockpile i think will meet this deadline as far as june you would too is

concerned we still have our work cut out for us we are not certain at this point that this. event will be successful and we can talk about this in more detail later and as far as the arena nuclear program is concerned we have only greeted the first stage in much detail the technical experts are currently working on a typical details related to the steps to be taken by iran and the international community but then we'll have the second stage. we need also a detailed rude map of mutual steps until the point at which we can describe as the final point in the settlement process so we're still in the intermediary stage we have achieved a lot. that's true but. currently. it was worth it i don't think. it is.

possible to say that we are there i think that would be premature at this point. so that she says things with the staying with syria salem and on the generally and what's happening in the country is that we're hates was the it was a. spring what is the bounds wince when security and democracy or what lessons could learn from the arab spring and wars threats they have for the region in terms of terrorism. i think the number of countries who repudiate democracy is steadily decreasing to day schools and democracy is the way all. the way the nation works the nation is organized and russia has made this choice and

it's serious. but. we know that there is no alternative to democratic development. and at the same time we strongly believe that it is every country to choose their model to choose democracy is their model of development based on their history their traditions their. of course there are some universal criteria that. these criteria have been universally approved i mean like the charter of the united nations the declaration of human rights which all members of the united nations have subscribed to but when a group of countries makes it to introduce something in addition to universally accepted principles to impose their values and we see this happening in recent

years maybe two or three decades of imposing. those things on everybody else when this happens. this results in conflicts of. certain democracies may want to impose their principle it's on the other countries by force and this is no longer a democracy. democrat it's. just that this may result in instability this is what happened when six years and they were invaded iraq this is happening to d. . when in violation of the un mandates we need to bomb libya and this happens in many other countries in the region the syrian conflict. is an example of that. but so. many

terrorists from all over the world including even european countries the us the russian federation a lot of militants fight in syria to set up a caliphate here in not just in syria in this entire region so this is. attempts to in the impose democracy from outside this destabilize is the situation and produces new threats new risks civil so. forth and on the contrary stability any chances and democratic process season makes them more effective so i have no doubt that the conference which will probably take place on january twenty second i really hope that nobody will contest it. and i hope that the opposition will not make

any unreasonable demands to disrupt this conference i think when this conference happens fighting terrorism it should be the top priority this is the biggest threat for syria and other countries in the region at the moment. of course there will be other issues on the agenda as will including humanitarian issues is. the coordination of the political approach says elections. the best way to arrange the elections the necessary institutions for the transition period but all of this should be based on the consensus between the government and the opposition as reflected the unique communicated dop today after the first geneva conference. and i really hope in this respect that our western partners and our partners in the region.