they promise to show. the olympic flame is ready for its final sprint into the opening ceremony the beginning of the twenty second of winter olympic games. it's good to have you welcome to our winter olympics coverage here on our international. live in moscow. well they did promise it would be spectacular and they went all out to deliver an hour in the opening ceremony of the twenty fourteen olympics are well underway and is certainly living up to the billing as cross now

to our headquarters down south it's the studio just above where the ceremony is taking place let's get the impressions. hello there welcome but. my name's kevin i want to join us as more of a star and a half way through the opening ceremony of the twenty second winter olympic games i mean east and now i am what i show it has been so far we've been watching it here the ceremony taking place just behind us the venue looks great doesn't it and you can see it plainly just behind us like i said in the background it's all happening inside that enormous building the stadium and we can almost hear it from here the you know parading through the stadium watching it as well they're actually still doing at the moment a lot of them to go yet for they get those seats behind many different people in

many different colors making their way through of course the seating areas also are wasps with color and flying spectators waving their nations' banners and cheering ahead their teams as we speak paula do that let's bring in and limping veteran. schooling with veteran everything about. the limping veteran who's been watching them who's been to enough olympics which of import from vancouver listed more from london vancouver as well as your aging in two thousand and seven london two thousand and twelve and i salute you in your eyes i can see my trip i think and look at overall shoulder the big show starts an hour and a half when the big show of shoulder there is finished but so far forty thousand people inside all the dignitaries will your first impressions are sort of very slick and well run certainly so far i find it very moving raising a russian feyerick go for war first time for me just when you hear this song just being amazing country what russia has given to the world over the last thing some people sent the other people in there to my will be russians as well yeah also it's

just the way flag moot as you can see the pictures of my movies where the flag moved all the people in the center of the stadium. of light was being raised but it's also great to see the different teams coming fruit the. run the track the stadium and especially new nations deserve it this is my first winter olympic games like thomas of the team very much smaller than the. another kind of big say there's some of the tiny why is that work is because they're not doing well obviously i mean even if you middle pacific pacific ocean for instance like tom go or some other for instance you don't have a lot of access points. see a couple of countries come out and sorts so yeah absolutely i mean trying to bring their own kind of difference but those kind of you will see those sometimes those kinds of talk about the don't have the big things that aren't really geared up to when to stop because they've got hot weather do they take it as seriously well certainly yeah i think something just stopping britain great britain is a case in point behind but great britain apart from really been over scotland has

very little slow but spent really invested in sports such as. a skeleton to try and better themselves out of neverland so they've had a long tradition of speed skating for instance because. it was for over a century the. free zone between winter and would be used as a recreational sporting but you don't really associate. with a bunch of benevolence all great britain to be honest in the last opening ceremony that we saw back in london in the summer games is quite spectacular obviously there's going to be a lot of comparison going on but both the u.k. and russia have such great deep histories so we are expecting to see it correct me if i'm wrong a lot of focus on the history of the different cultures across russia i mean it's the world's largest country i think in a way i think it's almost to be a cross between beijing and london bus the impression i'm getting from these from a certain extent to me so far is beijing it was a lot of brake lights off i was going in for one remembers opening ceremony along

the on the other hand it was all about the history it was a one wonderfully choreographed show bonaduce laurel traditionally are the winter olympics opening ceremonies kind of smaller than the summer ones because i'm comparing it with london london just amazing isn't it yeah but i think it's still early but i think we can probably expect it's a similar thing this evening because we're going to look a lot of the history of russian as. he was saying you have so much history and culture top of the world if you think of tolstoy and composers like. tchaikovsky just couldn't the west wall the world in general just so much culture and be all over the last few centuries was both the new ish see. a rousing welcome of course it was a gent wrote when russia won it back in two thousand. but he got a rosy reception yeah absolutely and he's been very fair i think talking about putin yes russia has had a few problems but from speaking to be athletes so far. few days i've been here

have been really impressed one about syria you see just a little while ago and she said her facilities where she's staying is great and she feels like all the athletes are quite please so far at least. if you give them a warm despite the athletes i mean you try to put on a good game so the athletes feel comfortable so they can try and do the best they can if you have good facilities it's just simple things where you just like being comfortable in your bed being able to get your venue and stress free and it's not a great thing i think about these games which will point out it is a fight that is so common patterns over the news or so close together something which wedding really seen by a group on the war in london for instance and it just makes for great spectacle it's my first time here are going to say taking it if you can so when you get a you actually see the roads the infrastructure where the money has been spent because you were in two thousand and nine and yeah you didn't reckon on here nothing was here and it's a different city i want to talk a little bit right now we're having the countries come out with their flag bearers of course russia will come out so i'll be at the end up the hall as the host this

is going to take quite a while now because you know i mean this is all this country sometimes. was saying earlier why in the winter olympics is a small ribbons in a way it's easy for the athletes because if you're an athlete and you having to especially graphics are going to be competing tomorrow. because tomorrow. when medals he thinks that he can drag on for a long time and send away but she sure the winter and. because i so less countries competing does me easier point after least in some respects. slovakia on this crucial serbia just now of course every country looking for athletes and those gives you that kind of little lump in your throat almost exceeds the ideas new when you see them come out looking for britain amid a team of fifty this year. offering us the grades it's a great one body the british olympic committee because it's not just ability of britain it doesn't appear from an officeholder who has absolutely no snow but so it's in the biggest delegation here for a long time as russia russia go by biggest delegation of two hundred twenty five

often it's thinking about no snow there's been too much so much talk about sochi it's in the subtopics and that's quite nippy tonight and i magine up in the mountain cluster it's much colder we have our correspondent andrew farmer there but what's the deal with this now besides i've seen natural i mean does it snowed. since i've been here but i mean this plenty of mantle slow there but you did actually keep a little snow stored up because four years ago in vancouver lack of snow was getting bad winds ministre were really worried what would be able to hold some of the events unfold because there just wasn't enough snow you can be all special slow but we don't have these problems and soldiered it was sort of a couple of weeks ago and it's not a piece of great united states of america just come in who heck that's a big thing but a lot of people in that what one of the expected to do well out this year russia is obviously expected to. do well with the ice hockey on hope so much what are you looking forward to we've got a minute let's say first of us save us a very very strong winds of nation bad it could be summer olympics but also the

winter olympics pair very similar to skiing. some of the sliding events twelve as strong i think and well as well yeah i mean we're going to see that in just a few days' time of us and united states. i like just had to buy tickets about spots only i think with my heart i would so the only game is going to be united states. but before you know i'm really. if it happens as i was on the final between russia and canada i mean for me that would just be the icing on the cake so what i hope is going to be fantastic games they're not alone right well as the american still continue to come out looking very pro they're getting a lot of in their home country and around the world i'm sure along with the rest of the teams will say good bye for now one hundred back to the studio course our big show on air just about an hour of fifteen from now. the g twenty four team promises we told them that in the exhilarating winter. storm

you see now a make over now and the rest of our lives take justina for sochi twenty four take. on. you know we're just in the early stages of our sort of twenty fourteen special international coverage will join kevin and then very shortly here on the program. for the meantime though here on r t the e.u. has refused to comment on the role that washington is apparently playing in ukraine's very own game of thrones a leaked phone conversation between two top u.s. officials has exposed the inner workings of the state department so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. well in the intercepted phone call us assistant secretary of state victoria nuland drawing a full roadmap of how a new ukrainian government should be organized let's get more on this now with our t.'s were important she's in new york. well what you hear during this four minute

conversation is basically two top u.s. officials strategizing about how to form ukraine's new government it sounds like they're playing a game of chess with the opposition leaders as the pieces on that chess board they're trying to determine which opposition leader has the best economic and governing experience to work inside ukraine's new government and which opposition leaders should remain on the outside it's a bit shocking to actually hear i had to listen to it a few times to really grasp the fact that there are strategizing on how to put together the government of another country instead of paraphrasing everything let's let our viewers actually take a listen for themselves. the pieces are beautifully big complicated electronics you're. going to miss deputy prime minister and you've seen some of our notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get her read really start work here on this stuff i'm glad you sort of put it on the spot on where he fits in

the scenario so i don't think leetch should go into the government i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's a good idea in terms of her not going to the government just let him sort of stay out in doofus judical homework and stuff i think he is the guy who's got the economic experience the governing experience he's the he's the guy you know what he needs his cleats in tiny book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week well clearly this is a highly embarrassing situation for the united states particularly because we've been here u.s. officials insist for so long that they're not involving themselves in into ukraine's internal circumstance. for for the spokesperson for the for the u.s. state department she had a pretty difficult day on thursday jen psaki was put in the hot seat by journalists one after another reporters kept asking her why u.s. officials are interfering in ukraine's internal problems at one point corresponded

said point blank that the leaks converses was tempting to construct a new government in a sovereign country and actually bring officials in from the un to seal the deal one thing u.s. officials had not spin their way out of it is the profanity and dismissive tone victoria nuland used when referring to the european union and its involvement in ukraine for that an apology was issued she's been in close contact with representative ashton also let me convey that she has been in contact with the e.u. counterparts and and of course has apologized but. for these reported comments of course you're not confirming because you're accurate under snow going to speak. to a private diplomatic conversation but i'm obviously speaking to the content of the reports. misaki also tried to make somewhat of a joke when she was in damage control mode when she was referring to the use of

profanity when it came to victoria nuland the assistant secretary of state let's take a listen you may know the story of how she lived on the russian boat for about eight months when she was twenty three in she learned how to perfect perhaps certain words in a couple of languages so perhaps that speaks to that more than a pervasive viewpoint you know suggesting that she has a predisposition against russian no i was suggesting that she learned russian curse words and curse words on that it isn't easy shooting. i was making an error learning the first words on a fishing boat there you see a u.s. person trying to make a joke out of a situation that is quite scandalous quite embarrassing not sure if any high official i officially in ukraine are laughing at this moment after their hearing this leaked conversation on you tube about you know the united states strategizing on how to build a new government in a sovereign country and in the meantime german chancellor angela merkel has called

the use of such language unacceptable. for my deputy speaker of the belgian parliament this is a sneak peek into real diplomacy. oakum to do real good diplomacy behind closed doors this confirms the. stance of the united states and the u. by the way to do this dana to show through and through democracy to do so you're going to seize this one small undermines the whole country of transparency and democracy building and a bunch of the building of political institutions these are all ideological afterwards into ones politics in other countries this is what the united states has been doing for decades he just confirms along stands by the way he shows how casual these people to talk about the bullets of another country and i just

a short while ago here on the program i spoke to susan lindauer a journalist an antiwar activist she says the u.s. is actually a being openly fascist groups in ukraine the us media would like to portray the ukrainian revolt as a populist uprising of peaceful protesters who have had enough and they choose to to move towards the west what we're seeing is that that's not true at all washington has been manipulating this the whole time from behind the scenes we know that washington is providing at least ten million dollars every month to the ukrainian opposition the united states has parked a warship off the coast of ukraine which is providing tactical support and intelligence to the ultra nationalist groups now altria nationalist is a very nice word for fascist these are neo nazis chechen terrorists and fascists and if they were coming into the streets of washington d.c. there would be and there were there would be horror among the elected leadership of

the country. and if we were more and more about the website we have a dot com loads right also the link to the leak itself as well as the reaction of the us. just a couple of clicks away of course odds he took home. and a bit later in the program here a david cameron he puts the screws on the scots delivering a speech punctuated with nationalist rhetoric and waxing lyrical about what he says all the benefits of staying part of the united kingdom. right from the scene. first struck you and i think that you're. on a reporter's twitter. and instagram. to

be in the know. there's a scene when you're in the arctic you have feel entire world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple shit but really she's not simple little. handful of people have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is that the polar bears and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted with the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we've undertaken a unique operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers. i. joining us here on r.t.

international the british prime minister has wrapped himself a figurative lead in the british and a limpet flags today calling for scotland to vote against becoming independent from the u.k. but as david cameron kept up the pressure from the olympic stadium in london the scottish national party has heavily criticized him for giving the speech south of the border laura smith reports. he wasn't actually talking to the scots he said he was actually talking to everybody else so the english the wealth of welsh and the northern irish he said full million scottish people would be able to vote in this referendum but in fact sixty three million people would be affected everybody in the british isles and he urged those other people who don't have a vote to play a part he said you don't have a vote but you do have a voice so what he wants everybody to do is or tweet anyone scottish that we know and tell them that we don't want them to be the u.k.'s essentially his message today we want you to stay and that message betrays his

worry really and could be quite timely in the recent poll has shown that support for scottish independence south of the border has leapt a little bit in the last few months january poll showed twenty four percent in support up from twenty one percent in november so he'll be slightly worried about that as far as the points that he made goes he stressed this intricate tapestry of the u.k. as he called it he said there are business ties agricultural ties but they're also personal ties to he said his own name is a scottish clan name it cameron knows currently and he also made the emotional case for staying part of the union and this is where he really played the scots at their own game of course they have the scottish national party has appealed to national values and this is what david cameron did in his speech he said that the u.k. is more than the sum of its parts and that he cares too much to stay out of the

argument he really laid it on very thick talking about g.b. not just to refer to the olympic team but to refer to the united kingdom as it stands at the very minute and so he's been accused by the scottish national party of using the olympics in this way as a political tool and he certainly did labor that point also a lot of people have asked out sort of outside in the real world and also in the city. when he made the speech why did he get caught and why is he making a speech from london his argument of course is that he was talking to the people of england wales and northern ireland he wasn't necessarily talking to the scots but the scottish national party accusation again is that he was too cowardly to go to scotland that he won't come and he's too scared to take part in a face to face debate about the future of the united kingdom r.t. the recent reporting there and cain is a pro independence activist he says the main selling point of voting yes in the referendum is to simply see the back of the conservative party i think it was

a very ordered speech members of the new camp in a bit a month ago were urging the scottish government not to politicize the commonwealth games and there would have david cameron standing in front of the velodrome connecting the olympics to the great british but so there's a huge amount of hypocrisy there but i think we look at david cameron and we see everything necessary a bit independence if you ask anybody for independence for a one line answer to the question why would you want to vote yes the i'm sort of is because there will be new to the government in scotland for ever and there he is there we are at the moment suffering under policies like the bedroom tax like the austerity budget from a from a tory government yet again no matter whether we have a scottish parliament no matter how many liberty m.p.'s are ascended to westminster we didn't vote for under inflicting their policies on us it's all to international to syria we go where the main government there is confirmed that it will take part in the second round of geneva peace talks are scheduled for monday meanwhile for

people in the syrian city of homs there has been a somber spite from fighting thanks to a three day ceasefire it will allow civilians to be evacuated and humanitarian supplies to be sent in those fleeing war join the estimated three and a half million refugees already driven from their homes by the civil war artie's paula samir met one family who is among them. to high but mark live is a refugee in her own country forced from a home by civil war she and her daughters are hiding some two hundred kilometers from the village in a three room apartment they share with another family their crime supporting president bashar assad. the terrorists want to kill me they broke into my house to find me they looted everything they kidnapped six members of my family all because they are looking for me a lot has been said about the desperate situation facing refugees who fled across the border to neighboring countries but most of those forced from their homes by

the spiraling violence are displaced within syria itself these internally displaced people remain extremely vulnerable and their numbers continue to swell. i've been told many times to stop supporting assad and everything will be fine but i won't change my principles and they'll when we will fight his first got hold of through high birth she was eight months pregnant they keep her so badly she lost the baby but she refused to change her politics. i ran away with my children my mother is very dear to me it is now the second aid faster all that has passed without me being with her my mother has god by her side he will not abandon her. they are kidnapping young people sixteen year olds and they're cutting them into pieces when asked if she'll give herself up for family sake through high bank in fashion pieces no. if i die i want my daughters to continue in the

same way everybody is going to die my mother may die but you will meet their last victim i'm a. serious death toll stands at more than one hundred thousand with no sign of fighting a beijing for many internal refugees home remains a distant dream for those like it's only their ideals that gives them the strength to carry on. damascus syria. our time for a global snapshot quickly with the r.t. world update to iraq where there's been a fresh wave of attacks where a car bomb and a shooting of taken six lives another thirty people are injured at the incident follows days of bloody attacks on civilians in baghdad and elsewhere in the country and the on the rest since the beginning of this year has left more than four thousand people dead. at least one hundred thirty people mostly police officers injured when protesters in northern bosnia took to the streets over the rate of

unemployment and corruption police used tear gas to break up the rallies that spread to other parts of the country a crowd responded by throwing stones setting tires on fire and attacking local government buildings the protests erupted after four state owned companies were privatized then later filed for bankruptcy. at least four policemen injured by two blasts in egypt the bombs went off in giza near where the security forces vehicles were parked but there has been a significant spike in attacks in egypt since the military coup took place that was just last july all right abby martin of breaking the set is coming your way on r.t. international.

recently in an online poll by the liberal dozhd t.v. channel that's rain in english has caused quite a storm of rage across the country how could a stupid online poll cause russia white anger well they posed the question was defending leningrad from the nazis worth it because retreat in their opinion could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives what is offensive from culture to culture difference a lot but from

a russian perspective fighting to the bitter end to stop the german genocide machine was worth it this is basically like if a somewhat popular news outlet had a poll on martin luther king's birthday asking was slavery really that bad it was a poem for the economy but why would someone create this poll is because the people who wrote it are sick with the disease are types total self infatuation egoism and greed in other words we're a generation mean me me these people could never imagine sacrificing the great and wonderful me for any cause sacrificed me to the. me i'd rather kiss their boots and learn german but it wasn't for millions of russians put their self-interest as a distant second then all those great and wonderful me would have been worked to death and shot a nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society the fascist my opinion. the. the the. the the.

what's going on t.v. land from abby martin and this is probably in the set so last week the state department released an environmental impact report stating that the southern leg of the keystone x.l. pipeline will have an insignificant impact on carbon emissions but even if this report gives obama the green light to move forward of one group is refusing to allow the construction of keystone native american communities including the just released a statement entitled no keystone x.l. pipeline will cross lakota lands. nation as well as other tribes from oklahoma to oregon have banded together to plan on how they will take direct action yes it looks like obama now has america's indigenous community to worry about if he does approve this toxic project so if you believe that that's destructive pipeline has no business crossing the native american territory and join me and let's break the set.

it was a little very hard to take out. once again. i have never had sex with her right there. my next guest is someone who has shattered the two party monopoly after winning a seat on seattle's city council what makes her unique is that she's the first socialist to be elected to public office and decades her name is seanna so want and she continues to make headlines as a critic.