coming up on r t it was another day of fierce competition at the sochi olympic games today female athletes from around the world competed in hockey ice skating and much more the latest on the wins and losses just ahead and ukraine remains in a state of chaos teles continue to pile up as protesters and authorities clash more on the unrest in ukraine from an r.t. reporter on the ground in the chaos. and there are still concerns over the fate of a russian an imprisoned in the u.s. american authorities have agreed to allow for a medical examination of the end mates but the result exam the results of the exam haven't been released more on that later in the show.

it is thursday february twentieth eight pm in washington d.c. and meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. america well it was another big a limp big day for team usa and so if you russia teams competed in women's hockey freestyle skiing among other events let's take a look at the leaderboard the u.s. leads the medal count with twenty five russia is two behind with twenty three medals followed by the netherlands norway canada and germany now the long anticipated rematch between the u.s. and canada in women's hockey indeed with canada coming out on top in a bitter defeat for the americans for more from sochi i spoke with our tease paul scott a short time ago about the gold medal women's hockey match. it's a case of deja vu when his heart breaks for the usa canada three victories in the women's always hold the final to secure all the gold medal the usa still to one

stage that they were going to head for revenge of course come to be to us a three two in the preliminary stages do you. they were up at one stage going in to the final period or one stage in the final period but late goals from canada secured overtime on the momentum shift. in their favor canada's fantastic winter olympics winning streak continues well over twenty matches now since they last lost they were the three time champions going into tonight's match perhaps they were favorites for many many people but it was absolute drama on the ice the same thing it couldn't be couldn't have been close between the two sides what kind of is great record continues it is a disappointment and heartbreak for the usa defeats in the most agonizing fashions but the usa will be hoping i suppose to get revenge on friday when the two sides meet again in the men's hockey competition this is for a place in the final they go head to head in the last four so the usa will be looking for revenge the other semifinal sweden take on finland so what is the

chance for the usa and to move on to gold in the men's hockey match well they're going to fancy their chances of course the u.s. have already been sternly tested in the men's hockey competition you remember the thrilling game they had against russia in the preliminary stages where they went into overtime it was a two two draw that day they went to one of the most lengthy shootouts. the usa eventually prevail so they have been sternly tested on the ice and tomorrow they take on a kind of decide who of course will be boyd by what their female counterparts have just done so all eyes are going to be on the bolshoi on friday where the usa take on canada and i think we can expect another thrilling match up and paul i know that i talking is it the only thing that's going down in the rink today talk about the big event which figure skating what do we know from the who are the winners and losers are yeah i think figure skating is probably the number one sport in russia

right now after the men's hockey team were beaten. of course by finland in the quarterfinals i think they will turn their attention to figure skating this is a sport that russia are doing exceptionally well in this evening they've just claimed their first ever gold medal in the women's individual competition in the figure skating went. to put in an absolutely full list display in her free program to move from second to the halfway stage after she was in the silver medal position following the short program so she has secured gold it's given the russian. a bit of a boost but of course before. the competition started all eyes were on fifteen year old. who was the new darling of russian sport she was absolutely superbly she helped russia to win the team event but she stumbled twice she stumbled once in her short program last night and she stumbled and fell to the ice again in the free program she ended up finishing fifth i have no doubt the fifteen years of age the time will come again but this evening it's all about adelina sotnikova she's the

one that if she's the one who's given the russian sporting fans a much needed shot in the something to cheer them up after that hockey defeats and i can tell you that the usa is great disappointment narrowly missing out on a medal finishing fourth and one of the big events that we can expect tomorrow as we head into the final weekend of the winter games. over the next twenty four forty eight hours or so all eyes are really going to be on sunday's men's ice hockey final it really is to show you piece of end of any winter olympics and there's a bit of an air of deflation i have to tell you in and around sochi this week after russia suffered defeat to finland they were going into the tournament talked about as favorites favorites they haven't won an ice hockey gold since the fall of the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred. some russian players were part of the unified team that won gold in one nine hundred ninety two but it wasn't a big. loss to finland in the quarter finals three one i'm not really did slightly deflate the mood in and around me for the whole you have to say but of course we

have the semifinal lineup in the men's competition tomorrow with sweden taking on finland and the usa taking. and coming to so to our supposed local dobbies if you will which are going to be excited when the tension in that concludes on sunday afternoon a few hours before the closing ceremonies will also show you president building up and they were all leading to over the next day or two parties paul scott bring us the latest from sochi russia in the winter olympic games thank you so much well let's head to ukraine now where a temporary truce between police and rioters broke down within hours overnight and bloodshed filled the streets of kiev ukraine once again. the ukrainian health department says at least seventy five people have been killed in the clashes however doctors working on the scene say as many as seventy protestors were reported dead today alone hundreds of others have been injured

during this twelve week ordeal the heaviest fighting is happening in independence square now the surge of the number of victims comes as both armies rioters and police are now using live ammunition in clashes many of the protesters and police officers killed or injured since tuesday sustained gunshot wounds today is being described as the deadliest day in the protests to date r t correspondent alexei you're a chef he joined us earlier and he shared with us some of his harrowing experiences in ukraine including being shot at. well right now we're pretty much ok very turbulent day for us first of all getting here to a hotel ok you know where i am right now which is pretty much a fortress of the opposition right in groups at the moment was a nightmare because all the adjoining streets were blocked off by the police and the first thing i saw on my way here was a policeman beaten to a bloody mass carried on the stretcher and i was really surprised to see that

because last night supposedly the opposition and the government and the president managed to agree on a truce on a ceasefire it looked nothing like a like a ceasefire from the first minutes i got here then i had a live broadcast at nine o'clock in the morning and while i was doing that broadcast i saw literally hell coming alive behind me with the protesters throwing molotov cocktails and firing live weapons at the police the police retreating and right in the middle of my live broadcast the right wing groups were actually running towards my life position so i literally for the first time in my fifteen year career in television i have to say to the viewers i have to apologize because this is no longer safe and i'll just leave you with a report i did yesterday so this is how the day started literally two hours later we were doing a live shot from a life position one floor below where i'm standing right now in hotel ukraine literally about ninety seconds before i was supposed to go in that shot was fired

into our room and hit the glass broke the window and hit the wall literally thirty fifty centimeters from where crew was standing and getting ready for the live broadcast we eventually did the live broadcast but it was quite tense indeed and later on in one of the rooms of our crews we managed to find seven sixty two bullets presumably fired from the kalashnikov so this is pretty much across five bullets were fired in every direction and even in the rooms where there were no people inside there were still bullet holes and bullets to be found. alexei that is just unbelievable i really hope that you and your crew are keeping safe out there obviously this peace treaty that was supposed to have happened between the police and the rioters has not actually happened or it was broken very quickly can you talk about the latest and about that peace training well this priest peace treaty is nothing as we can see i mean it's nonexistent it is once again a viable proof that the people in the protest in the heart of the protests the

so-called right wing sector they're not taking orders from anybody from the oppositional from anyone else in fact their leader said last night that he knew nothing about this truce and that they would not obey orders they want the revolution to go to the very end and this is pretty much what was happening in the morning in kiev and from my standpoint where i was standing i clearly saw that it was the protesters who were attacking the police not the other way around as it happens on several occasions here in kiev so this is no truce i mean we cannot speak about any kind of reconciliation between the sides and despite the efforts by the opposition and the president to agree on something these people here at the my down at the independence square they are willing to go to the very end right now it's leverage relatively calm we were hearing very sporadic gun shows gunshots being fired but it's not particularly tense at the moment i would say it's a tense wait people are waiting for something whether this will be another a sold or something else but this is

a very very nervous wait and alexei i do want to clarify something we know that the police are using live ammunition but from your a perspective from what you have seen you've also seen protesters using guns and ammunition as well right absolutely i can confirm that i've sold with my own eyes both the police and the protesters and the rioters are using live weapons in fact when the police were retreating they fired a k seventy four famous kolache and of rifles a special version called discussion forces. the protesters and the protesters were firing hunting rifles sniper rifles handguns and we actually managed by pure luck by pure coincidence to get into their sniping position at the fourteenth floor of the hotel you cry you know where i am right now where the protests of the riots have their sniping position our cameraman was inside to film how they were firing back at presumably snipers of the of the armed forces of the police

so yes it is absolutely clear that both sides are using live rounds now and this is bringing certainly much more fuel to the old ongoing fire now well i understand also that you were covering the orange revolution that happened in ukraine back nine years ago or so some talk about your experience covering that and kind of compare it to what we're dealing with now is there any comparison you can strike well i can say i can safely say that i've covered several hotspots as we as we call it with riots and conflicts but already revolution a little less than nine years ago was nothing compared to what is happening at the moment because it was pretty much a peaceful protest peaceful attempt to overthrow the regime no bullets were fired no rocks were thrown no most of cocktails were used it was a purely peaceful matter back then there was certainly some feeling that army could be involved. would enter the city and things may get violent but it never did this

time the suspicion the allegation that and even the belief that the army may actually be involved in this conflict and may attack anytime soon even during this night is absolutely real because of all the things happening because of so many dead i just literally seen at least ten corpses of riotous carry to the independence square for a vigil and pretty much the same thing is happening from the police side we also know of. reports of several dead policemen on that other side and lots of injured so this is not. compared to the orange revolution dollars revolution was a completely peaceful one no force whatsoever only some whiner pushing and shoving this time it's real warfare and i'm afraid to actually i'm i'm afraid to even think what was going to happen next with a country and in a hole in the hole oh actually i cannot stress enough how how how much i hope you keep safe and keep bringing us here excellent reports are to correspondent alexei you're a chef a reporting from kiev ukraine while european union leaders are now criticizing the

ukrainian government for its role in the bloodshed and have agreed to impose sanctions on the country during his trip to mexico president obama expressed concern about the situation and also threatened sanctions however critics say that those threats as well as the understanding of what is actually going on on the ground are misguided author stephen cohen is one of those people listen we who are you have president obama apparently uninformed about what's going on he says he hopes the protesters won't become violent where has he been they've been violent for more than a week they've killed policemen they were occupying government buildings they've set buildings on fire in ukraine and then we get this incredible statement by the european union in washington that they're going to sanction people who resort to violence now of course that's meant to be a threat at the president of ukraine but how about the guys wearing masks in the

streets and hurling the wallets of a cockroach. with all of the molotov cocktails and somebody from the state department going to go in the street and get their names phone numbers and addresses it's preposterous well for more on the west stance when it comes to ukraine's demonstrations let's turn now to our team is going man touch him. president obama knows what the ukrainian leaders should do we hold the training together by merilee responsible for making sure they it's dealing with peaceful protesters in the propre of way. president obama has however made no suggestions on how ukrainian authorities should deal with rioters torching the city shooting beating and throwing molotov cocktails at police. he there has he called to the so-called peaceful protesters to wait for elections to express their aspirations as he would at home find a different circumstances you don't like

a particular policy. or a particular president then argue for your position go out there and win an election. european leaders don't seem to want to wait for elections either all but calling for the ukrainian president to step down. the ukrainian authorities are by to lose all legitimacy the kind authorities in ukraine need to make space for a transitional government of national unity and early elections in order to bring back rigid mysie of national authorities. washington and brussels are considering sanctions against ukraine the u.s. has already barred a number of he craning officials from entering the country shouldn't there be sanctions against the opposition because they're the ones who are obviously define democracy by torching the capital as opposed to accept the results of a legitimate election and we're going to challenge them next next time around washington may stand up for democracy in words that it is the people themselves

that make those decisions and that's what the united states will continue to strive . to achieve. but behind the scenes u.s. officials are apparently trying to decide who should be in the ukrainian government and who should not 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. that they're not going into the government just let him sort of stay out and do historical homework and stuff. it makes me wonder if for barging the police with molotov cocktails and shooting at them is also part of the opposition is quote unquote work in the name of democracy. going to shut down party. well meanwhile the u.s. the e.u. and there lay full responsibility on the ukrainian government threatening it was consequences and sanctions individual sanctions for twenty your cranium politicians have already been imposed by washington russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said that the the actions of these western states resembles

a blackmail and he urged condemnation of the actions of quote radicals and extremists who are mostly responsible for violence and bloody riots to discuss the bigger picture i was joined earlier by brian becker national coordinator for the answer coalition and i asked him if these sanctions will curb violence as the west seems to think it will. well we have to look at the new sanctions measures and in a bigger context the united states and the e.u. the nato powers have been using all kinds of pressure on the ukraine government with the effort to bring the ukraine into the e.u. which means to bring it into nato right on russia's border and in november what they did is they gave an ultimatum to the ukraine government you either make a decision no deal with russia or be with the e.u. no other choice then they outlined the plan which was to impose extreme austerity measures on the ukrainian people as part of the admission policy to get into the e.u. then of course they helped castigate or create these protests and now as the protesters

are using extreme violence as the government is using violence and as the government is trying to maintain order you the u.s. and the e.u. say now we will impose sanctions on the government for the use of violence so this is a full court press this is pressure what's the real purpose i think it's to break up the ukraine government with the hopefully we can in that government toppling that government and getting a government that will take the country into the e.u. into the western sphere of influence and this has to be seen by russia as a great threat so you kind of lay out one scenario there but i want to talk to you about best and worst case scenarios what do they look like to you in this country well the worst case scenario is the ukraine which is divided of course between east and west and there's a class divide between rich and poor between those who look to the east and those who have been sort of taken towards the west or the operative crust of the of the western part of the country who look towards germany. the worst case could be that

ukraine could descend into real civil war that there could be the dismemberment of ukraine a country of forty six million people a beautiful country with a rich history that's what happened to yugoslavia under pressure from nato forces it was a country that was a multinational multi-ethnic regionally divided my. republic it was broken up could this happen to the ukraine yes the same thing happened to the former soviet union under those circumstances the worst case scenario could be so much suffering not just for now and not just for months or years but for generations for the people of ukraine best case the e.u. and the united states should get out of the ukraine and let the ukrainian people become the masters of their own destiny that's the best case now that is a really slippery slope to civil war but i want to know from you i mean we're seeing people die on a daily basis we're seeing these clashes continue for weeks and months what does where is that line when it comes to a revolution when that starts happening or when we start calling this a civil war when is that line well we're getting close to the line i don't think

it's a revolution i think it's kind of a counter revolution we've seen the era of counter-revolution for the last twenty years where western powers who have vast economic military and diplomatic authority especially since the collapse of the soviet union are picking apart the former soviet republics integrating them into a an american or western sphere of influence integrating them into nato and that's part of a counter revolution because it's not really for the benefit of the people the western powers who will always say we're doing it for a noble cause freedom democracy against repression but they have their own imperial interests in this very important geo strategically important and resource rich part of the world and i and your kind of speaking of the u.s. as a whole i want to focus on some of the individual players that are obviously taking part in this a number of american politicians have been very vocal about it some of them even visit and i'm talking about john mccain he visited back in september or december excuse me and u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland actually handed out pastries and

independent square so talk about the involvement of individual american politicians and how this whole thing plays out well john mccain is a provocateur or in a war maker i he's assigned to him the role of destabilizing in overthrowing governments or always advocating war i mean he is the. ultra militarist there but you know this is as you mentioned a bipartisan affair because this sector when i talk about the us i'm not talking about the american people i'm talking about the mean u.s. foreign policy establishment which is linked to the military link to the cia linked to big oil to the n.s.a. that whole military industrial complex where they're trying to do is destabilize ukraine not because they care about ukrainian people they want to incorporate ukraine this important country big country the second largest army in the military in europe they want to incorporate it as part of the us fear of influence that's an imperial design the american people don't gain anything from that the big corporations and banks in military complex they do gain very interesting

perspective on what is no doubt a very complex scene thank you so much for weighing in brian becker national coordinator at the answer coalition well u.s. authorities have agreed to allow a russian citizen who is being held in american jail to receive an emergency medical examination but the results of that examination still remain a secret constantine euro shank zero has been complaining of shortness of breath and speech problems r.t. correspondent an associate churkin a has the story an update in the case of russian pilot constantine who is serving a twenty year prison sentence in a new jersey jail for conspiring to internationally smuggle drugs and delegation spearheaded by russia's consul general in new york after three official request following red flags raised about the health conditions of the russian citizen visited the russian man in jail despite official requests from moscow the doctor of the russian mission to the u.n. in new york has so far been denied a visit to the prison citing system regulations as the reason those of poor.

judging simply by constantini are shingles appearance it's visible that he has suffered from a serious infection which has added on to the chronic illnesses that he already had due to huge efforts the administration of the fort dix prison finally turned its attention to the numerous written and spoken requests. of the russian to provide him with medical assistance. your sugar was given an ultrasound on monday this week and on tuesday a basic medical exam including an electrocardiogram none of the results or diagnosis have been provided to go or the russian consulate despite numerous requests prison doctors keep insisting that there is no reason for concern this kind of response is not satisfactory according to consenting himself who is extremely concerned about his health as well as the russian delegation and you. of course the medical exam that was conducted cannot be described as a full and qualified in this regard we will continue working with the prison authorities to provide constantini or shan't go with medical help. despite moscow's

request a russian delegation from moscow has not yet received permission to access the prison to meet with constantine was arrested in a sting operation conducted by u.s. officials and liberian twenty ten and became the first russian to be sentenced to two decades behind bars for an intent to commit a crime in a third country he had never stepped foot on u.s. soil and has no criminal record anywhere in the world and r.t. new york alright well i don't know about you but when i was a kid field trips for the absolute highlight of my school year but one recent d.c. schools a field trip went horribly wrong when students watched as their teacher was handcuffed and questioned by police after reports came in of an assault and police believe that her students matched the suspects description the teacher is brandy byrd she was taking fifteen students from her history class back to dunbar high school after visiting the holocaust museum when she was stopped by d.c.

metro transit police miss byrd says that she identified herself as a teacher but was nevertheless detained for twenty minutes and pushed against a wall numerous times without being told what she was being held for here's how she described the incident. and he was like well you know you're being detained because we have an active investigation going on in my case it was the investigation what is it that we're being told or the metro transit spokesman says to our t. that she became a rape and indicated that she intended to leave the scene officers explain that she was not free to leave and play store in handcuffs until they confirmed that she was not involved police eventually let brandy bird go without pressing charges needless to say the lessons from this field trip that the students learned won't be forgotten anytime soon well whatever happened to freedom of the press tonight's resident looks at the obama administration's potential plans to have government agents in newsrooms watching over us.

you know bob my administration has ideas about what the press should cover what shouldn't be so surprising what might be surprising though is that it has plans in place to send government agents into newsrooms across america to watch over the i'm not kidding how's that for freedom of the press their plan is called the also market study of critical information needs or is the i am and it's supposed to start the spring their intention is to send government workers into newsrooms to grill reporters editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run they want to find out how stories are selected to see what biases newsrooms

might have and as a chain of some issues aren't being covered enough supposedly the plan was put together to figure out how to lower entry barriers for minorities and broadcasting but even the f.c.c. is own commissioner pai isn't buying that even he says it could easily be used to pressure media organizations into covering certain stories he even wrote an op ed about it in the wall street journal. the f.c.c. has put together eight categories of critical information that it believes local newscasters should cover got that the government has decided what it thinks the new should cover and if that weren't in they'd enough the f.c.c. is expanding the regulatory powers in the new program to include newspapers which it has absolutely no authority over some congressmen are saying it smacks of the fairness doctrine that was a mandate that required. asked the regulated entities to offer contrast viewpoints

when covering big controversial issues basically it tried to enforce balanced coverage from news organizations which let's be honest is a joke because all news organizations have biases so it hasn't been enforced since one thousand nine hundred seventy but some are saying this news the i admitted to is very much like that and that it tries to dictate what the news should cover of course the f.c.c. is all what try to control the news. but come on if that were true they'd realize they have no business ever even going through the front door of a news room the us probably both freedom of the press and its first amendment but this initiative clearly shows freedom is the last on the f.c.c. list of priorities tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at a restaurant.

all right that does a porno i'm mega lopez and from all of us here at r t america good night. if. it was a problem very hard to take the plunge again long here is a plot that has sex with the perfect hair plugs. that color.