the host nation wins its first medals at the twenty four team with russia's figure skating team taking gold but aside from the celebration of the winter olympic sports. trend of something happening in sochi the western media dishes out and launch of criticism raising questions about whether the hype and panic a justified. in the week's top headlines on r.t. international. you know. the message reportedly coming from the u.s. assistant secretary of state leaked phone call reveals the depths of washington's true involvement in ukraine's political turmoil. in switzerland votes narrowly in favor of a controversial plan to put a limit on immigration in a nationwide referendum.

it's all to international live from moscow with me. it's been a big day for russia in the sochi winter olympics that's a head over now to kevin owen and let's get the latest from our lympics headquarters. rory. rory big big celebrations going on the russian come tonight the second day of the twenty fourth the winter olympics brought the first gold to the host and that's in team figure skating russian athletes live impressive performances in other disciplines as well winning silver bronze medals to result russia's now tied fourth place in the medal table with canada for scott breaks down the day's results for. the celebrations beginning with the fall i want to be. i'm

a rush as far as gold came in the biggest skating team event i saw of challenges from canada and the united states to take the top spot and they were helped along the way by a foolish display from one of russia's most famous sporting sons if gagne pushed blowing the competition away in the men's free program a magnificent display when you consider in recent years he's been plagued by injury and has undergone surgery twelve times meanwhile a new star has been born a fifteen year old beauty impressed in the ladies' free programs with peerless performances i mean the procession has become the youngest winner of the winter olympics gold medal she is six days younger than the previous record holder american tara lipinski elsewhere on day two there were three other medal successes for russia forty two year old veteran lucia. competing in a record breaking seven i'm following a winter olympics he missed out on a first have a gold medal but he did claim silva. olga beluga in the women's biathlon seven and

a half case sprint meanwhile they all know for the first medal for russia in these sorts of twenty fourteen winter olympics went to all good graf early on sunday she claimed bronze in the women's three thousand meters speed skating event in the arena so let's take a look at the all important medals table then and you can see that it is norway who still lead the way but the united states in the netherlands and not far behind and russia starting to make their way up the leaderboard. yeah well done to all those cars but no to the russian team's success though in the figure skating earlier left the competitors i spoke about earlier with other teams and this is now if she was lucky enough to watch the performances at the iceberg skating palace. it was huge i think we can say that playing on the home field as they say really benefited russia tonight there were tons of russians in the audience we were quite high up and our whole section was it was

full of russians and everyone had a good skate but i think this is going to say that russia is. actually better than the soviet today what's the atmosphere in that huge stadium loyd when it when it kicks off its buzzing it's buzzing of course the russians when they came on to the ice and i'm sure anyone who is watching it at home felt the advantage of having the home support in the crowd was going wild and i think that helped them manage a lot of confidence shows with many more goals to come as well. of course he's a veteran only thirty one one of the old. great show just phenomenal of course he's been having horrible back trouble in injuries and then young you did you know it's just phenomenal and i hadn't seen fifteen years old i hadn't seen her skate and this is her of course olympic debut i think personally she is a great chance at the gold and then the pairs as well they didn't score as high as some of the russian sitting next to me thought they scored because i thought they were quite phenomenal but as a team the russian skating team is just really really strong leave it in for

a little while back in vancouver and so this olympics of course at home is about taking it back. great great you know the skating tonight well the russian i. love projects also in sochi he. cauldron of course along with iconic figure skater in the opening ceremony he shared his impressions so far about the games of the split earlier. those who ignite the olympic flame go down in history for many years to come because it's a task that is only given to the most popular in the most worthy sportsman it means the world to me because i'm representing the team of my youth the hockey team that is an eight time limpy champion i feel honored that out of all the players they chose me it's unbelievably beautiful here to see palm trees and snow i think these are going to be one of the best games of ever been held in my opinion a very good infrastructure was put together for the athletes here in sochi and

everything is very compact the facilities are located conveniently close to each other no public transport is needed it's very aggravating when buses are late whereas here everything's very well put together and the athletes are satisfied we were commentated imprisons in the united states staying in not the most favorable conditions. we're referring to the united eighty winter olympics in lake placid usa then as you say a number of athletes were apparently indeed accommodated in the barracks of present anyway today some of the western media actually than calling the sochi olympics a war zone we've been hearing so much of it over flowing they're saying with minor mishaps in stead appeared to be still neglecting the competition itself in the looks of why so many news outlets across the atlantic seem to be still casting a cloud over the event. hundreds of world class competitions involving thousands of top notch athletes sports fans all over the

world rejoice it's time for a live big game fun again and some of them are pretty distressed but why feed the excitement word of a possible new terror threat character a terrorist threat terrorist threat and her world champion and multiple gold medalist for buzz kill the western mainstream media and the olympics is a wonderful time for a contrast to get together in order to despise each other and in order to treat each other like crap it's only happens once every two or four years you know there's not a lot of time you've got to come together and hate each other and not a second has gone to waste from picking any little thing that might be off to fifty toilets but not one that could be flushed to toilets i by that i miss you toilets right next to each other just spells party that doesn't spell bad conditions three million years to be exact one very tiny room left a fifth paint they're trashing things the problems that that come up in every

olympic games as them these were unique to sochi olympic stadium has always been accused of being an overpriced boondoggle that was constructed shoddily not ready until the very last second every single one that i can remember a media war against the saatchi olympics taken to a ridiculous extreme but my impression of fox news is that they're just sitting around the office and they go hey it looks like no one's russian to get to sochi and i write i'm going to go eat lunch. there that is fine there's definitely quirks spinning tiny flaws into viral sensations facts or actual sports reporting be damned. it's really kind of unpleasant to watch more to the point it's pretty counterfactual as well going so far as to say that the games are being held in a war zone. as opposed to what's really a black sea resort. even though plenty of work went into security hysteria remains

the airwaves but threat of something happening in sochi well that's increasing by the day taking the fear of yes toothpaste to an extreme toothpaste containing explosive material it is terrifying all right did you hear all the tooth paste is going to explode it was even staging tests on hiding explosives and tubes were c.n.n. commissioned this changed i've stopped brushing my teeth i've stopped flossing i think that might help solve the problem no matter how much the media act as the doomsayers of the games toothpaste will be toothpaste and nonsense will be nonsense in the end the olympics will celebrate joy excitement and victory there will be winners and there will be losers hopefully able to move on with at least some snippets of dignity you're not concerned at all not you're not really not really truly can we piece about why and especially if you're going to r.t.

new york. well here paul scott spoke to the man responsible for trying to persuade american tourists to come to sochi he says his job has been made much more difficult by the negative coverage in the media. we've had some people back out because of what they've heard on the news do you think the i mean why do you think there is such negativity in some parts of american media around so even if a year and a half is unjustified i think because of what they call the ring of steel i think this is a very secure place i think i would be more on secure an american classroom that i would be in sochi itself just because of the security here when some of those great time some of those tourists decided to back out did you try to convince them how do you sell tsotsi to them which will say well we told them that the place where we we would be staying would be in a very secure location. and one of the major parts here of the sochi have lurked at us like a lot and so i think those are about as secure as you're going to get let's talk

about the infrastructure that has sprung up around they such a region is sochi set to become a tourist hot spot off to the games you think is going to be a legacy of tourism hey well they're in a better position certainly because they build new highways they've got a great train transportation now. in there they're more up to date with our electricity grid and stuff i think they're prepared but as with any city that's going to give birth to a modern resort you're going to have labor pains and you were up in the mountains i believe last night watching this right of course is the name because it is about this but what about the venues how they look how are they holding up to the beautiful of the ski jump we we saw a men's short short jump last night and i was incredible when you're going up the gondola and overworking the ski jump there is just it's quite magnificent it was awesome i got a great time. yes a crack interview well things winding down here now it's just after tempos one of the morning so the olympic flame still burns bright though another full day of

sport to come we'll have one final wrap within hours time join me for now back to the studio. ok thanks very much about indeed so we have our. following the competition at all times and to get an even closer look at the winter olympics you can simply head over to our official instagram page that's where you get the videos the footage of fright from the olympic capital you can just join our official instagram dot com slash for the very latest in. the g twenty four team promise is the ultimate in exhilarating winter. storm and it's now a make over now and the rest of our lives take justina to sochi twenty four take. on. i thank for joining us here on r.t. international we come to you live from moscow this week a massive gaffe by

a top u.s. diplomat revealed washington's true ambitions for the antigovernment protests that have rocked ukraine as well as his attitude towards other european partners have a listen to more important. in ukraine we stand for the principle that all people have the right to express themselves freely in peaceful way. and they have a say in their country's future as it turns out washington isn't just cheering from the sidelines. in this video posted anonymously on you tube my understanding from that u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland and the u.s. ambassador in the kieve are heard orchestrating ukraine's political future playing a game of verbal chess with ukraine's opposition leaders i think yats is the guy who's got the economic experience the governing experience he's the he's the guy you know what he needs is clear on a book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week the embarrassingly conversation goes from bad to worse when washington

senior diplomat drops the f. bomb dismissing the european union's role in ukraine 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. the state department has shifted into damage control refusing to confirm the authenticity of the audio while admitting that victoria nuland has apologized to her european allies for the profanity she's apologized for a comment to she's not admitting she made which is itself a confirmation that the comment wasn't indeed made but will she hasn't apologized for the plans to midwifery new government in ukraine you know the words she's she's apologizing for you but she's not apologizing for trying to overthrow a government in kiev calling it popular democracy the diplomatic scandal hit as nuland arrived in ukraine for her second visit in less than two months back in december she was walking around independence square handing out snacks to protesters this time around the assistant secretary of state promised to feed the

country with financial support if necessary political reforms are implemented at a press conference nuland refused to comment on what she called a private diplomatic conversation this is a devastating revelation and a very important revelation because it shows. that washington is not only manipulating the washington is dictating who shall be in the government and they have taken the power away from the people. r t. the tory newlands use of strong language has caused outrage from many around the world including germany's chancellor angela merkel she dismissed the comments as totally unacceptable load of a new still former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament he says the conversation is a clear demonstration of how america really regardless of a sovereign states. open to do real good diplomacy behind closed doors this confirms the long stance of the united states and the e.u.

by the way towards a new conscious diddy's dana to show floor for democracy to some of the old logic countries this one small undermines the whole claim of transparency and democracy building and but to do building of political institutions these are all ideological efforts to influence politics in other countries and also by the way shows how casual these people can talk about the do politics of another country. still last to come here on r.t. international including the corruption eating away deep inside the e.u. and the reporter feeling the huge levels of money being lost making some to wonder why the wrongdoings and europe's own financial institutions are not being made public that story is just around the corner for you.

and your mom and why should they keep all the same i dislike you.

switzerland has voted in favor of limiting the number of immigrants allowed to come and work in the country the plan put switzerland at all with the issues of free movement with critics warning of the measure might also take a chunk out of the economy. once. what's will and voted to shut the door to european union workers setting up a showdown with brussels as well as a potential exit from the single european market now the so-called stop mass immigration initiative was the brainchild of the right wing swiss peoples party which wants strict quotas on foreigners for switzerland to essentially abandon its free movement of people treaty with the e.u. and supporters the we've talked to say that they're worried immigration is driving

up rents that it's undercutting local workers and that is burdening public services now opponents had argued that immigration caps will in fact cripple economic growth and experts do say that the swiss in column e. is booming because of not despite foreign labor especially when it comes to folks who have skills to work in fields like health care in i.t. where there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that unemployment here is just three percent many voters were ultimately swayed by the argument that switzerland simply cannot take in any more people now in order to understand why you really do have to look at the numbers about a quarter of the country's eight million residents aren't swiss there's been a huge uptick in immigration in fact about eighty thousand new immigrants came to switzerland last year alone the vote will likely mean severe repercussions with brussels you have to remember that switzerland isn't a member of the e.u. but it has signed on to a lot of the blocks policies in order to gain access to the european markets for

switzerland sells more than half of everything that it produces and with five hundred million customers there's a lot of money at stake here a historic vote that is likely to have a significant impact on the swiss economy as well as on relations with the country's european neighbors reporting in burn for r t m d c catherine. a new report this week pointed to a wave of corruption sweeping through the book brussels believes that thanks to shady deals amount to billions of years. there are estimation that corruption costs in the european union is no less than one hundred twenty billion euros each year and that is the equivalent of an annual budget so it's a lot of money we're talking about the figures were revealed by the e.u. use home affairs commission in its first ever annual report on the subject the agency's chief called the problem breathtaking and warned it's eroding trust in democracy or philip clay is an m.e.p. for the flemish nationalist party he says while highlighting bribery on

a national level the report ignores brussels overall complicity. problems in some member states are huge and widespread and the problem within the european union is that all the member states are in danger of being contaminated by this problem because when you are in the euro zone for instance and when one of these member states in the eurozone has a big corruption problem world this problem will be felt by the other member states within the eurozone that's a problem with greece for instance so the problems in one country are becoming more and more the problems of the other member states what i find surprising them with i found interesting at the same time is that the european commission has made this report on corruption in the european union but it didn't make a survey of corruption within its own institutions and didn't have any specific

information about corruption with e.u. funded projects it's because government is pushing through new internet laws that would allow more thorough he stop blocking even more websites without a court ruling also internet providers would be asked to store data on what people are looking at online the measures street clashes between protesters and police on saturday crowds hold firecrackers and stones of security in response to police used water can. and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in central istanbul ankara face journalist yousef connelly says in reality it's the authorities who are losing this battle. in turkey is oligopolistic to thousands of sizable lead to bad. you tube struggled for moves to get close to because as you turkey now the government is getting. on limit to clamp down the internet the duduk or truly ok

i'll give do this to people throughout says to ted that. they may buy the sites new sites will be open they may close them other mentors will be different the guy wouldn't. realize that it's getting more and more isolate the releases last week showed at oppikoppi of balls out anyhow but i believe that by the government there is all lies in the media and therefore you have to be to see what the bit is there to all go over this bottle that the government is closing after it does so far. it's r.t. international a british couple fighting extradition to the us of accused their government of college talent to washington that dunham's face life behind bars in america on charges of fraud which they vehemently deny and the pair claimed the british officials are refusing to stand up for their rights as tests or australia reports. one morning fourteen months ago

a life changing knock on the door with two policemen from scotland yard and i said where i was sorting was done and we've come to arrest you and your husband since then they've been out on bail and are fighting extradition to the united states to await trial after claims from the dunham's former company in the u.s. that they embezzled more than one million dollars in illegitimate expense claims something the couple say are without merit showing as evidence that they've gathered the german say they're not afraid of trial but their worst fears being sent to the states is the possibility of being denied bail and spending years behind bars apart from one another simply waiting for their day in court if we were away from this country. for a very good chance he would have. we're confident we would win. because we are innocent but we would then be shipped but the u.k. there's no compensation and. wrongful act for the ocean. can you imagine coming

back to this country you know three or four years later no harm no money no job and you're now in you know sixty to sixty three years by and trying to rebuild your life and i controversy has long surrounded the u.s. u.k. extradition act of two thousand and three signed in the wake of nine eleven critics claim the agreement is biased against the u.k. if you're a u.s. citizen wanted by the u.k. government you have a higher standard of evidence that you need to provide in the u.s. and also as a u.s. citizen you have the opportunity to go to a u.s. court to plead your case and unfortunate for british citizens there is no such opportunity to have your evidence tested in the u.k. court before you are expected and that's a basic concept missed an independent review and twenty eleven found at the treaty quote does not operate in an unbalanced manner but this contradicts findings of the parliament's joint committee in human rights which called for

a renegotiation to ensure british citizens get the same protections as americans conservative m.p. who sits on the committee looked at nationalities of those extradited and found at thirty five britons have been sent to the us it's two thousand and four versus just five u.s. nationals who made the opposite journey that's seven times more but for every argument on this side of the atlantic a counter is thrown back the united states has never denied a request under the treaty whereas the united kingdom has to divulge to pull requests from the united states if the relationship is imbalanced i would say it's imbalanced against the united states but that is little comfort to the don imus and others like them who teeter on the edge of desperation knowing it's very lives at stake from the moment they put us on the plane we will both take the first opportunity we can and. cilia r t london. coming up after the break or an international the city of angels hiding a dark secret thanks for watching.

the head of the sober russia program wants to bring back russia's sobering stations which are like a hybrid hospital and police station in america we call these a good old fashioned drunk tank and in russia their history dates back to the early years of the twentieth century to two thousand and eleven when they were all closed putting the burden of alcohol abusers health on local hospitals despite the amount of alcohol consumed per person in russia steadily declining over the last few years alcoholism remains a big problem but will privatized drug tanks work no no they won't let's think about it what is business motivated by money big government contracts in countries

around the world are often abused and if you get paid per alcoholic served then pretty soon companies are going to incentivize the police to round up as many people with a hint of booze in their blood as they can or look at it this way what is more profitable helping cure an alcoholic or treating him with fat government contract money every week for the rest of his life there are some things the private sector is not suited for and this is one of them but that's just my opinion. this is the media lead us so we need to be part of the scene potions to cure the

whole your party there's a goal in questions that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politics only on our t.v. . in response to the intense law enforcement skip around some local residents needed their child to watch the police. my mother in law father both came to california in one nine hundred fifty six and they both got a job downtown l.a. work in a bullish department store on seventh and broadway. my father had been living downtown and since. my mother she lived out in the projects the bad part of it was that i ended up hanging out in my mother's old neighborhood where i ended up joining the games and so for near i got into my diction my addiction landed me in front of a judge. because you're doing robberies he said you have to go to state prison so

they say as soon as me to eighteen years state prison. when i was doing my time in prison i became really more radical i was on the revolutionary side before i got out you know i i promised all brothers that when i get out i would give back the wrong that i've been doing as a gang member and grown up in my life right so when i got out the first thing i did was i came back to steal a role. so one day to bicycle security guards from the business improvement district called a suburban shirts had just one twisted home up in the air and it was about to break the woman on so i say what are you doing man this is little woman cohen boys you crazy because like a shot a picture got by i say so you go to break girl because you got a pipe so the lady was dramatic i know my back i know i'm yours.