transit. your best way to the heart of moscow. footage from kiev which is once again. on independence square which twenty four hours ago witnessed the country's deadliest clashes in decades. that's when the files and weapons is stolen from the authorities including machine guns raising fears of an escalation of violence. russia's president urges the west to stop blaming ukraine's government for the violence and condemn it stream with in the opposition instead. another news this meeting with to talk him into backing have planned to create a separate european internet free from the n.s.a. spying. and in sochi a gold silver and bronze for russia on day twelve but huge disappointment for hockey fans as the home side crashes out of the quarter finals we go live to sochi

a little later this hour. this is not international with twenty four hours a day live from our studio center here in moscow where just a midnight and ten pm in kiev where there is news of a development causing concern it's reported more than a thousand weapons have been stolen from the authorities just a day after violent clashes left twenty six dead with hundreds needing hospital treatment for injuries aunties and reports now from the heart of the rest. we reported from the independence square from the protester side this time we'll take you to the other side of the barricade the police lines where obviously the atmosphere is very tense i just took a stroll through the police lines and the police are seem to be very concerned of what's happening here over there as you can see the police line is here and over

there the protesters they lit the tires on fire again the coal areas covered with black smoke it's hard to see to breathe and the police are pretty much everywhere across the place heavy presence right now especially after the information that reportedly protesters in the western part of the country leave on a front cost city stole at least fifteen thousand bullets several hundred handguns and machine guns from the security services arsenals and they're bringing over to kiev that's why the authorities are implementing some sort of counterterrorism operation mode in ukraine would not don't know for sure what that is but that is definitely meeting tougher security measures everywhere across the country tougher police cordon schools but you can see for yourself the movement of the police is they're all taking all the time they're moving their forces now and then it's not particularly violent at the moment although just a few minutes ago we saw from this building over there which is used to be the police or the revolution headquarters in the form of a labor union building several mortar cocktails were thrown right at the place where i'm standing right now as you can see it looks like

a genuine war zone with all the rubble with all the rocks which were thrown at the police the remains of most of cocktails garbage everything so this used to be a beautiful area the central city of kiev is pretty much a telling story of what it has become over the past several days this is a true mayhem and right now you can call it a standstill you can call it pretty much a concentration compared to violence last night and violence on tuesday but you never know what's going to happen next because everyone behind those this line of fire behind the barricades over there they're expecting another assault from the police the police who are standing calmly and doing nothing at all they're just securing the perimeter as far as we can see i spoke to some of them they were not really aggressive they're not expecting any movement in the. i said you can move that because it's going to be quiet but again no assurances of that because no one else has gone through that size there's documented proof already that protesters have used live weapons live rounds against the police so we keep barging the situation and we're hoping that no major violence will happen during the night as

it happened on tuesday night and. well graham phillips is a british journalist based in western ukraine and he says this current turmoil is effectively ripping the country into what you call down my gun box full of thousand fighters that is zero point zero one percent of the ukrainian for collation all they're asking for is my offering called asking for an election which will see any code which ousted but the majority of the country still blackjack ohmage who suddenly showed action plain water presidential election to be held so what they're asking for ways is diametrically opposed to what they purport to be for which is of course democracy what you see is the absolute opposite that what you see is terrorism we need to look at the fascist symbols need to look at the logos and you also need to look at the the fighters and these are going on as a survey showed to work on italy from the west of ukraine they've come to kiev and

they perhaps came to cuba a couple months ago that's comparatively normally cranes but they've been radicalized they'd be militarized and not it's going to transcend it even terrorism the guerrilla soldiers are member i was there twenty four months ago and there were two thousand and twelve that was a joyous for the trial for a moment for a country which is still very young but this whole we're seeing today let's be quite clear this is the end of the crane as we know it there isn't any way after this you can put the crane back in the bottle. covert she's the foreign affairs editor for the chronicles magazine he believes that western politicians one hundred percent culpable over the sun rest we have witnessed brazen hypocrisy from the european union ever since the beginning of this crisis for the phase of their most creations early on the protests had degenerated into hooliganism in mid december and into terrorism since january nineteenth and we can no longer use the

term demonstrators i would rather use the term rebels because we are looking at de facto armed rebellion. to continue listening to the play area and calls from the west and he has also been called by biden and by kerry and asked for restraint would be simply sell defeating because all of these people are up to no good they want regime change they are interested in a geo political control over the key country in central eastern europe when i've spoken to green party m.e.p. rebecca harms who feels that the e.u. is mulling a further involvement in ukraine's crisis is completely justified. what we'd try it was to bring all the forces in ukraine all political forces on one table and to negotiate on a peaceful way out of this crisis and the one of those who

refused our president and people in his surroundings to talk about negotiations and talks but the opposition haven't engaged in dialogue because in effect it seems they've been hijacked by the extremists the nationalist so therefore does the e.u. still support the opposition when it has that very dubious identity that this is terrorism that these are extremists in the streets of ukraine this is only maybe a small part of the troops named there are very very normal people they come from east and west they are fed up with the corruption of the ukraine they want the rule of law therefore to attack control government buildings to attack parliament and acceptable way of protest. this was not the way which has been shoes by the movement i can really i can promise you that i have talked to many people from east

and west in ukraine they want a peaceful solution but surely also the fact that the authorities the police officers have been accused of brutality by the new any form of protests that we see in ukraine we see the likes of that happening in madrid and london and paris big so you know it was very odd months of protests in independence square all the bloodshed in ukraine i think everybody who dies. a person too much fear since a long time that there might be a very very tough escalation but who can stop it who can stop it those who can stop it are part of the government of ukraine and the president. is the first who has the ability to say we go back to the table we never she ate we don't want further bloodshed. meanwhile there's been a wave of voices from the west all of them years again mentioning sanctions only embattled state let's now get to more live reaction now from ortiz gonna git you

can she's joining us in washington gun is so again some strong opinions coming from western politicians to this more well bill president obama condemns the violence in ukraine saying that the u.s. holds the ukrainian government primarily responsible for ensuring that they're handling protesters peacefully he said and that there will be consequences if people step over the line now you also said we expect the ukrainian government to show restraint not to resort to violence then then he went on to say oh we we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful which is clearly not not the case in the footage that we've seen so far you have rioters attacking the police with guns storming government buildings now earlier u.s. secretary of state john kerry has raised the possibility of unfolding sanctions on your plane take a listen. well kind of. close

it's some sort of let's sit here can we hear about or not no we're not going to thanks very much indeed for that then for the moment yes it was one moment one moment bill if you have a moment where he he raised the possibility and there are already sanctions in place against the number of ukrainian officials barring them entrance into the u.s. is not clear what new sanctions u.s. officials are talking about here if you haven't specified are those sanctions going to target those forces on the streets of kiev among among the rioters is to get violence we hear european leaders considering what they describe as targeted sanctions against those responsible for the violence in ukraine now the leaders have not specified again what they mean when they say those responsible for the violence if it's the rioters how are they going to target them with sanctions so lots of questions but the president of the european parliament for example mark and schultz went as far as to say quote the ukrainian authorities are about to lose all legitimacy the current authorities in ukraine need to make space for a transitional government of national unity an early elections in order to bring

back the legit the legitimacy of national authorities now these statements raise questions about whether these leaders think molotov cocktails and attacking the police is the way to call for early elections in a democracy. john thanks very much indeed for that going to come live there in washington we'll kind of we've just recently learned is close its diplomatic mission in kiev until further notice of the violence reportedly broke out in front of the embassy we're of course closely watching the developments there in the ukrainian capital and that we'll be keeping you up to date with all the latest news from them and just a reminder online team is providing live minute by minute timeline of events and you can head to calm for the updates or more news coming up this hour including the latest sporting action from sorts to that so after a short break this is r.t. international.

when i close my eyes i see people. you know sometimes i think itself is a face covered by. both sides of the barricades with your mom. sometimes it feels as if all of ukraine is now.

live . the german chancellor angela merkel is taking a project of creating an internet to france and the hope of getting president land to back this idea now the european communications network is designed to prevent use that data from leaking across the atlantic but as. the toss could prove far more difficult than it seems. keeping european online communications within europe it's an idea that's gained traction amid revelations of widespread u.s. buying and now the german chancellor is on board. talk of european providers that offer security for our citizens so that one shouldn't have to send

e-mails and other information across the atlantic rather one could build up a communication network inside europe that's. the size and scope of american surveillance has outraged european leaders especially on glimmer who cell phone was allegedly tapped although germany is one of america's closest allies documents leaked by the former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden show it was treated as a third class partner spied on at levels similar to china and saudi arabia to put that in perspective the n.s.a. watched twenty million german phone connections and ten million internet data sets on an average day tapping only two million connections in france during the same time give her all the fury merkel's initiative may have want to do with anger at home her government has been seen as lax on u.s. spying and snowden revealed cooperation between countries may have been closer than german indignation would indicate. america doesn't really. believe

a plan. it doesn't seem that the conservative party is concerned with protection of the data of citizens at all it seems to be a point of pressure. put forward to the united states. but it's unclear what the actual purpose of this idea is marco has been pushing the u.s. for a relationship similar to the so-called five eyes agreement reached after the second world war i deal between english speaking countries not to spy on one another but the white house isn't playing ball there's no country where we have a no spy ring now it appears that germany is going on the offensive with plans for counter espionage against western allies as for merkel's internet proposal while the devil is in the details currently a message sent from one online user to another could have a long journey before it reaches its destination although the german government

hasn't released specifics the european networks could potentially allow data to bypass that route but is that realistic well for one the internet is a global network walling it off in europe goes against the concept of a world wide web what's more different european countries have different laws on privacy so a shared policy would need to be adopted for a europe wide scheme to work and there's a bigger issue it's not going to stop the n.s.a. let's put it that way. the n.s.a. goes where the data is is the n.s.a. compiled text messages that a telecommunications networks in china they can probably manage to get facebook messages out of germany moving the data isn't fixing the problem securing the data is the problem a problem that will take more than tough talk to fix reporting in berlin for r t n b c catherine of. imprisoned u.s. army whistleblower chelsea manning formerly known as bradley is being honored in absentia for revelations of u.s.

war crimes and he's been handed the twenty four adams award for integrity in intelligence the prizes given out only by a group of former cia officers to whoever they think is champion the truth even if it meant breaking an oath manning on the award for leaking secret u.s. military documents detailing atrocities committed by americans in iraq and afghanistan well last year's prize which would slowed him for his revelations on washington's tory spy network is now speaking with former m i five agent who was at the award ceremony in oxford so early clearly the recipient was in there who was. one of his old school friends a lovely young man called down kirk house who read out a speech that chelsea actually wrote specifically for this award and it's been wonderful to see so many intelligence officers come together in oxford at the oxford union society to honor the sacrifice and the bravery of chelsea manning the son out of his associates for integrity in intelligence has been awarding people who who take

a stand still within the system or by whistle blowing to try and protect the rights of us all it's been going through two thousand and two so the room was full and there are many people there from the u.s. and u.k. intelligence agencies and we are just very proud and very honored to be able to to to give this award teach healthy and to show that she is not alone she has not forgotten and that we all value what she tried to do in fact she was exposing the crying of spies. apart from what you're saying all these people in the fact of achieve manning snowden in the science have they really actually changed anything for the future. well i think a beginning to certainly the culture of whistle blowing the environment within which we have been doing it for the last twenty years from my perspective is shifting so the awareness of the issues is changing people are very much aware that with the the technological capability our intelligence agencies can now spy on us

all and erode our privacy everywhere particularly the n.s.a. and the g c h q in the u.k. which is very much a partner in crime of the n.s.a. so what we're seeing now is the technological capabilities outpace the laws and the accountability that are supposed to govern the spies and also of course since nine eleven this sort of brutal response and intervention is illegal in the middle east with invasions across north africa and covert actions and wrinkling strikes that there is a great need for people of principle to stand up and say this is being done allegedly on our name but actually it is illegal under all international laws but certainly not for any surveillance is necessary for indeed national and personal security that's the argument that so many people would push. well of course there has to be some sort of balance and that balance is massively out of kilter at the moment and because we all rely in every facet of our daily lives on communicating of the internet it with our medical records or with our banking or buying things and

having to give our financial details to amazon or whatever it is all that information is now fair game to the intelligence agencies because they can hoover it up and keep it for future reference in case the laws change and they can criminalize us so it affects us all it's particular affects people across great swathes of north africa the middle east and central asia who are not just facing an invasion of their privacy and a gross invasion of their right to communicate freely with their families and their fellow man but also where they face daily possibility of assassination through drone strikes which is based on wrong assessments often all hearsay all misconstrued information that is being picked out of the internet so this is a really very real danger the threat to life and this is what chelsea manning i did with snowden and other with those trying to expose you to the start realities that these people have in effect sacrificed their freedom they money received a harsh sentence of thirty five years we see other whistleblowers emerging are willing actually be scared off now. well the point of demonizing whistleblowers and

crushing them is to deter future whistleblowers however that did not deter edward snowden no matter what happened to chelsea manning he knew that he had to speak out and he showed great bravery knowing what he risked however i'm in the process of setting up a new organization called the courage foundation which is a global organization to provide help with leave legal funding and support and advocacy for future whistleblowers we want to show that it is possible five the process you follow your conscience act with integrity you can survive the process you will not be alone and we will help protect your life from oxford former m i five agent an emotion for you very much indeed for being with us here on r.t. to mention. time now for an update on what's happening in this year's capital of winter sports so cheap and over to our studio on the black sea coast and my colleague kevin know. everyone again this british day of ups and downs for the whole nation of the winter olympics here in sochi but the biggest disappointment of course for many russians

will be the ice hockey the country but expected big things from the team but end of the day they couldn't rise to the occasion being dumped by phil and in the quarterfinals his poor scot. it's fair to say there's a real air of disappointment in and around sochi right now russia losing three one to finland the red machine going out to the quarter final stage of the men's ice hockey competition for the second winter olympics in a row and of course this defeat is going to hurt more than most because it did come on home ice they actually took the lead in the bolshoi eyestrain which you can probably just make out behind me set them on their way put them up and it all seemed to be going to plan but finland then scored three unanswered goals to secure their place in the semifinals they're looking to improve on the bronze medal that they won four years ago their reward for the victory over russia is a semifinal against sweden sweden beat slovenia five nearly in the other quarterfinal elsewhere there's

a good news for russia at the halfway stage of the figure skating women's individual event adelina sotnikova is in the silver medal position after the short program however there's disappointment for fifteen year old yulia lipnitskaya of course she shot to fame after her stunning and foolish display to help russia to gold in the team event all eyes were on her this evening as she took to the ice in the short program in the women's individual competition however a stumble has severely damaged her chances of competing for a medal she actually finished seven points worse off than she did in the team event however it's not all negative news today russia did secure a gold silver and a bronze to add to their tally and it was a case of pretty much keeping it in the family in the snowboard parallel giant slalom for russia now vic wild is actually an american but he received russian citizenship in two thousand and eleven when he married his russian girlfriend. another was a double reason for them to celebrate today because he won gold in the men's

competition while she secured bronze in the female event and before the game started while spoke to artane explain exactly why he has swapped allegiances i didn't have any good thoughts. given that i wasn't going to reach the goals that i wanted. it was an opportunity. to be able to do what i wanted to do well despite the fact that he has decided to swap allegiances the americans that my colleague andrew farmer caught up with are fully in support of it while in fact they even get a cake you disowned him. no not at all it hurts a little bit but we're still going to play form right now.

well that's the gold in the bronze for russia the silver came in the cross country skiing in the men's team sprint event and i want to other bit of news for you. darlin he helped norway to win the buy athlone mixed relay they want gold and in doing so he's become the single most decorated winter olympian in history he now has thirteen medals to his name and eight of them are now gold. greats well ahead there are no doubt we'll find out who will receive gold silver and bronze medals in women's figure skating will be about them with more tells and glory for some crushing disappointment for others as she offers up another day of golden opportunities for another for me kevin owen that was day twelve here at the winter olympics. well we return now to our top story this hour and the latest development in ukraine and we're hearing that russia's president vladimir putin has told the german chancellor in a telephone conversation that should stop blaming the government for the extremism

and rioting in ukraine he said the west should condemn those within the opposition would be inciting the deadly violence well earlier russia's foreign minister said the west bears responsibility for supporting radicals and encouraging the arrest these are live pictures from nighttime kiev at the moment where tensions are running high we'll have more on this at the top of the hour and we continue with a special report here on r.t. international on the driving force behind the mob violence in ukraine but if you're in the u.k. it's going underground and then we'll all be back together again for more news in half an hour from now.

trend zero to vnukovo report your best way to the house of mosco. recently swiss voters nearly passed a referendum to put a strict quota back on immigration switzerland is a relatively small country and some estimate that almost a quarter of the population is made up of immigrants from e.u. countries that is a lot of people and the swiss are worried that the increased foreigners will also mean increased crime rent prices burd the state and erode traditional local culture as modern immigration almost always does the swiss population's democratic choice to restrict immigration is now actually being blasted by the e.u. brass what threats to cancel bilateral agreements how dare you have a different version of democracy than we in the you have switzerland how dare you i don't think this event will have much effect on the e.u.

bureaucratic machine nothing could make them change their hyper liberal minds but i think the swiss anti immigration referendum will have a huge effect on local populations of countries like germany and the u.k. which are seeing horrible effects of open borders and growing anti e.u. sentiment as i speak i don't like to make predictions by i think a lot of disenfranchised people across the e.u. are going to become quite jealous of the swiss move and demand the same type of changes at home but that's just my opinion. choose your language. we can we know if they feel some. of the the concerns get to. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that in high life choose the access to your office.

when i close my eyes i see people in mosques. to the people i remember best of all of it come back to us and they're all wearing masks sometimes i think that you are my gun itself was a face covered by a mosque was. just people in mosques on both sides of the barricades and you know sometimes you said it feels as if all of ukraine is now lost. yeah i'm from kiev. i've lived here all my life i have two children and a wife who i love very much yet interesting i want to say it because it's real

history taking shape right before my eyes what's happening now will remain in history forever but only time will tell that it's a black or a white page in history. i was only done in two thousand and four i remember the environment. people treated each other with. i was looking for the same people of your mind on hoping to meet the same attitude the same wall feeling that you put. that for some reason it turns out that people are getting ready to fight. for them what can you achieve on my done if opposition leaders aren't popular saying you know there's no real alternative to going to covert. it's good that the people have shown the next government that it can be either threatened by another. and if it fails to follow the will of the people.