off to. russia breaks the record format also at a winter olympics it's now beatable at the games after the men's cross country team secured the entire podium in their final event highlights in just a minute here in r.t. international. and other news torched and transform the deadly battles in kiev lead to the worst political crisis ukraine has seen with the opposition taking control of parliament and moves the president calls a coup also. fingerprints all over the current chaos and new fears that putin is study fully in ukraine. and a russian router it takes center stage in western coverage of events in ukraine despite the fact it's the new and the u.s. politicians who were the most frequent visitors to key of the protests.

and r.t. investigates the reasons behind a number of suicides among senior bankers to find out what could have pushed them to the edge. watching r t international with me marina joshing there is absolutely no one to stop russia at this point in the sochi winter olympics the home team have excelled and how have now won their leaderboard breaking so much storage records along the way. and now let's cross over tony snow now in our sochi studio for the very latest. it's a big day for the russian team indeed the host nation is not only now unbeatable on

the overall table with thirty two medal. overall it's also the only country to win that many medals in winter olympics history fans can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the magic moment knowing their team will be on top at the closing ceremony tonight andrew farmer has more now on how this trial. what a trying for to finish to russia at these games a one two three in a cross country skiing for the men's fifty kilometer mass start not gold medal but alexandra de cold means that russia have twelve gold medals at these games and it means they are uncatchable at the top of the medals table on the very final day for small boys the best performance of the winter olympics from a russian team but since the fall of the soviet union the previous best was eleven gold medals at lille hammer that was back in ninety ninety four but they've gone one better what makes it even more impressive they could get another the soft in

the form on both sides with alexander zuckoff leading the russian way there with just a couple more runs to go i am astounded by the performance of russia at these games we have to remember that just four years ago they came away from vancouver with the worst performance ever the russian team at the winter olympics then they only came away with a paltry three gold medals somehow they've managed to quadruple that and we can still get a thirteenth the big question many people are asked more how is this possible since fine cuba rushes to form an overhaul of sport there was a purge of sporting personnel they brought in new coaches they built brand new facilities for athletes and they are now reaping the rewards of that these games have been staggering they've been record breaking from start to finish. the longest of the torch relay igniting the most expensive the most compact and one of the most watched winter olympics in. again stunning backdrops gripping stories

of heartbreak enjoyed emerged on a daily basis russia's red machine taking seconds to light up a nation's heart then deflating it days later with a quarter final exit. russian figure skaters left the world with a veteran and a youngster helping them grab the seventeen gold but hopes of move glory buckled under a bad back in media hype heat on tiny shoulders the need for another star to sparkle and shine and take her country in fans to new a limp a kite the ups and downs came thick and fast. and so did new russians and american he married a siberian sped to snowboarding gold for the hosts while the south koreans slipped to glory in short track repaying the faith this new adoptive country. these just some of the amazing hollywood like stories such as produced to keep

millions chained in world wide and should be remembered long after the olympics flame finally goes over the black sea. well the winter games have been full of unexpected victories and surprising disappointments and you get a test to tell us what were the most memorable for you go to our g.'s facebook page to post your ideas and remember fouls and tough luck moments are all a part of olympic history as well you can also share your opinion on twitter with the hash tag my sochi moments the best will be read out during our special coverage of the closing ceremony later tonight so here we are the final day of the olympics and we're keeping you up to date with the games right up to about closing ceremonies today with our see from sochi.

g. twenty four jean-paul most of the ultimate in exhilarating winter sports and he. joins me and you see now a make over though and the best of all the cake news team for sochi twenty four take. on. what you guys had a national now it's been the most turbulent week ukraine has seen in its modern history in less than seven days the capital of this eastern european country has gone through fire smoke and deadly clashes in scenes resembling a medieval battlefield and the police with droopy of fell into the hands of rioters and the opposition practically took over power and our t.v. crew has been right at the epicenter throughout including alex here who recaps it all now. all hell was breaking loose in kiev on tuesday compromise was seemingly reached all of a sudden ukraine's capital was plunged into the worst violence is seen so far almost two hundred dead the central streets of one of europe's finest cities

looking like a war zone and snipers shooting from the rooftops including our group what we have now is that we have a radical elements that we have read it. many times there which is somehow here and driven by especially as we see using snipers and so on and which is not controlled neither by the opposition either by the west directly so everything went out of control just two days later it was a totally different scene to the president make the biggest concessions yet by offering an early election to an opposition led government and a return to parliamentary republic there were twenty core of the protests did not buy it was still. there if the president does not resign by turning the. siege i swear. by ten o'clock on saturday they were is nothing left to store all the police were gone and the ruling party had completely lost control

over the capital so this is the presidential administration building which used to be the probably the most protected governmental building in the whole of the of the biggest fight in the first stages of the protest happened here now as you can see we are taking on an excursion that is no longer controlled by the police or the government the protesters have occupied this building as well this means that you will never be back here as a protest the president made to his sea retreat to the east of ukraine and was stoutly defiant even after receiving news that bonderman had ceased to recognize him as leader by an overwhelming majority and announced an early election solutions to the police all that is happening now for the most part is than the easement crimes this is my strong belief that i will do. takes to prevent my country from splitting up to stop the bloodshed it went from bad to worse than ever before which with. horrible you do michelle go from prison. where.

we know she dreamt of seeing you to force changed everything your heroes here is the best of this country where protesters are in high spirits the east and south of the country are simply different. governments and constitutional powers. where the break up in the country and the. ukraine well here's a map to give you an idea of just how much of a grain as opposed to a change of leadership in the capital the southeast of the country is made up of ten regions and it's home to half of the country's population the halves of those regions have gathered in hard this weekend to express their disapproval of the course events took in the capital. starting today local authorities every charge of all political decisions on the ground in these regions we have to protect our land we think that the central authority is a power noise and that the decisions cannot be considered constitutional. but

rioters taking over the capital is not the only thing people in the east of the country are angry about there is also a widespread feeling of betrayal following president concessions and his fleeing the capital. i'm shocked and disgusted by the actions of the president i never thought he betrayed the iranian people i thought but he told them to the end. well right now you're looking at live pictures from kiev as main square where people supporting the revolution are still standing by while leaders of the opposition are praising the rioters for the coup in kiev other parts of ukraine are remembered those was stupid to protect law and order. officers were given a hero's welcome by crowds of cheering and well wishers and they have been sent as reinforcements to help well the violence and the protests itself in the capital met

a little support in southeastern parts of the country with people there fearing a rise of radical movements up to twenty policemen were reportedly killed in kiev when they went against raging crowds armed with just shields and tom. well many experts have been highlighting the roles that the u.s. have played in ukraine's unrest but for most western media it's been the russian president's hand that's been there all along blaming russia for all the bad things happening in ukraine has become the main theme of mainstream coverage and that's despite the fact that the president distance himself from the situation from the onset arsonist as he explains. the blame game the western means to media play and repeat as if hell bent finger prints all over the current chaos and the. deadly appetite government clashes in kiev have turned into yet another reason to obsess over who else russia their coverage of ukraine fits a larger picture of the american media having cold war attitudes about russia he

doesn't represent anything except. authoritarian state this a drumbeat they have marched to for decades to blame for everything that the american media from the threat of terrorism in the world to global warming. the media are determined to criticize one man as if possessed the united states is looking to propagandize the population as much as possible in making russia and specifically putin into the enemy never mind the fact that putin is essentially on the outside looking in especially considering the fact that they have tremendous financial investment on the line in ukraine actual facts have left the building context and in depth analysis are brushed aside it appears that putin is stifling ukraine not reported. why do they have to choose why can't we russia. in its time of economic need an europe that was rejected by the west

instead it's headlines like these that are taking center stage then again superficial attention grabbing and hate driven media coverage is familiar especially when it involves events so far from the u.s. and so close to russia most americans who are in the media don't know anything about the ukraine they don't know much of anything about former countries that were part of the soviet union i don't think the american press including me has it accurately reported the latter mehr putin highly questionable as a battle of words aimed at one target trumps accuracy in the western media just as . new york last political chaos reigns in ukraine the country's economy is more fragile than ever russia is suspending its bailout payments until a new government is formed and the international monetary fund has also said it's unclear who to talk to about providing financial aid and their concerns are

understandable some of the protest leaders have a disturbing record and there are fears such people could and up in power should lose money and i will fight against jews and russians. now let's take a lead animals which coheres a leader of a far right nationalist party in western ukraine which played a key part in taking over keep and he's long been a member of ultra nationalist movements despite being a ukrainian citizen jury in the chechen war he went to the caucasus to fight against russian forces alongside the terrorists and he's openly boasted he personally hit several tanks and armored vehicles russian media believes he was responsible for the slaughter of a group of marines and he's also in a tory is for his criminal activity and is believed to have been behind an assassination attempt on his business partner and spent several years in prison for kidnapping well despite this record some rich co ran for parliament just a couple of years ago and once again this person is now the leader of the protesters took over the granny in capital. well we'll be keeping you updated on

the turbulent situation and ukraine throughout the day on air and online and our web site r t v dot com and via our tweeter feed. transit. you all best way to the heart of mosco and russia at least being

gay is not criminalized there absolutely no punishment for being gay in russia the only thing that this law is spreading information family information on nontraditional sexual behavior what are you going to legislate against couples through swing you know who. you know trade partners or is it only a certain type of sex that you're legally able to you know it is so what is propaganda you know it's so unclear. flow i'll go back to watching that scene or national now where the african continent increasingly in the sights of the us hundreds of millions of dollars are

being pumped into its military presence there and as you can see right here american military bases are already spread across the continents with a made outpost in the north of somalia drones and sauza and soldiers are being poured into africa with a patent on side of its fight against rising extremist groups but as r.t.s. policy or not reports there may be some other agenda behind the military boost. hundreds of millions of american dollars are flowing into africa as the pentagon upset spending on the continent there's plenty of war materials here nigeria a case in point the west african nation is america's fourth largest supplier of crude oil accounting for eleven percent of all u.s. oil imports we have made it has a lot of investment and. they have invested so much in the oil and gas sector and they need to protect that and that believes rafsanjani is the real reason for u.s.

troop expansion in africa not to bring democracy not to help the local populations but to protect american interests and justify the reasons for being here the governess in syria. to the collapse of. you know accountability. and of course you know dubai is. different is a show you kind of make up with crisis in the country. by that you know it is to me it in terms of american part of policy reasons to actually come into nigeria africa's dotted with u.s. bases and a growing constellation of small american drone outposts camp limb or near north of somalia has been america's main facility on the continent for nearly a decade it houses about four thousand military and civilian personnel but at the end of last year it was forced to stop flying drones in the area after a string of crashes and growing anger from locals problem is u.s.

forces are getting stretched very thin they're being tasked with missions will be on their numerical logistics capability right now and the danger will then for good they go forward and. new conflicts expand and all of the next thing you know the troops and money to sustain these. u.s. secretary of state john kerry says it is happening in africa so exciting overall and we are really deeply engaged and the president has instructed us to really try to. light our fire under our efforts throughout the but what's not so exciting is the growth of jihadists and groups across the continent thousands of american soldiers are gearing up for missions as part of the pentagon's new strategy to train and advise african militaries to deal

with the three eight it's not impressing those who live here are going to be the americans that feel to combat terrorism in afghanistan or anywhere else and the same will happen here in west africa it's likely that the prisons to even bring the terrorists to senegal to the prison does calculations seeing will this will allow me to be a good friend of the united states maybe attract some investment or strengthen my security forces but from the point of view of the senegalese people we risk losing our north. is a number of african leaders have expressed concern about the potential militarization of the continent fearful that america's expanding presence will bode badly for africa and her people. r.t. well we spoke to journalist lawrence freeman who has written extensively on african affairs and he believes the end forks of u.s. troops to the continent is actually destabilizing the situation on the ground spurring anti-american sentiment. spent over

a billion dollars supposedly in counterterrorism security in that hell west africa north africa and we've seen the mali with top of the year ago we've seen the rise of boko we committed the absolute criminal stupidity of overthrowing president daphne so how is this a curious helping look at the central african republic it's been destroyed it doesn't almost almost. doesn't exist anymore look at nigeria look at south sudan look at mali and still fighting terrorism more than mali with french troops so all this money that is being spent could much better be spent building roads building energy power plants building water development projects and actually uplift the population around we used to do that we have a military only policy right now africa could feed itself and could provide food for the rest of the world if we developed it but the western policy has actually

been a genocidal policy that is to allow people to die from salmon from war and from disease rather than developing these countries i'll take a look at some other stories from around the world in turkey thousands of protesters have clashed with police in the center of istanbul several people have been arrested demonstrators were rallying against legislation which is meant to tighten government control but internet many fear the move will undermine the speech similar rallies were also held in ankara earlier this year. six police officers and four protesters have been injured during a rally that turned violent in the french city of knowledge some twenty five thousand frantic fear and anger over the construction of a nearby airport demonstrator set fire to construction depots threw stones at the responded with tear gas and water cannon. was suring out of

suicide has shaken the financial world five senior banking executives have killed themselves all within one week our correspondents are still you investigates now what may lie behind their deaths. there are untimely deaths grabbed headlines three of which happened within a week be it the big investment banks they worked for the senior positions they held the public nature of their deaths or all three once again it raised questions . about an industry largely blamed for bringing the global economy to its knees in a two thousand and eight financial crisis michael taylor a former goldman sachs bond salesman who calls himself a recovering banker knew this world well it's so extraordinarily competitive and so focused profit above all the trees actually every moment like pressure turns carbon into diamonds extreme pressure can both accelerate human achievement and some cases break people the pressure and calling the shots the form of banking

we've got at the moment has no interest in the people it affects. because in a sense and legally responsible to invest and stockholders you make a moral decisions without thinking about the impact that it has on the people the job losses people losing their home and so on and so forth pressure to rake in profits or the pressure to put in more hours than your peers after the spate of recent deaths big firms did try to ease tension by telling their junior staff to take more time off or at least to try not to work on weekends it's kind of a disconnect between what they have the weekend off will also make us a ton of money and ultimately making a ton of money is what's going to keep you around so now you strike me as a real solution you're a sly and spent a year demystifying bankers interviewing dozens of fine us workers on the condition of anonymity the degree to which bankers are trapped. has been really

a really important finding i think we keep on projecting this idea on bankers as masters of the universe do you have everything we want but if you look at their actual lives they can be fired in five minutes this is a deeply dysfunctional and utterly abusive system so there is this real taboo in banking like the army. to own up to one film but it. does or so you are to london and coming up after the break it's worlds apart with exciting bike i do stay with us. i did first state of the city address new york mayor bill de blasio said that he would put forward legislation for the city to issue special municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants he summed up his feelings by saying

to all my fellow new yorkers who are undocumented i say new york city is your home too and we will not force any of our residents to live their lives in the shadows yeah that sounds nice but the reason these illegal immigrants live their lives in the shadows is because they immigrated illegally why should new yorkers bend over backwards for illegal criminal immigrants this is the same logic that if i catch a guy breaking into my house as a gracious host i should offer him a pizza because it's his home too this is not just a slap in the face to rule of law but also to the immigrants who do go through the bureaucracy and headaches to become u.s. citizens the right way the legal way so the blasio if you're going to provide these illegal immigrants with some sort of document it should be a plane ticket back home with instructions on how to apply for a green card the legit proper way just like everyone else has to fashion just my opinion. i know c.n.n. m s n b c news have taken some nuts lately but the fact is i admire their

commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's closer to the truth and i think. it's because one politician and the. mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on here. and our teen years we have a different approach. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not how. you guys talk to the jokes well handled.

hello and welcome to worlds apart teller and so inclusion and by the understanding these have values that the l.t.p. community has long stood and called for and can't be new only i dotted style of the l g b t advocacies anything but tolerant and inclusive do calls to boycott the olympics and other sporting events really how to fight against homophobia well to discuss that i'm now joined by five time a limp dick matterless and one of the world's greatest divers greg louganis missile again it's a big honor to have you on the show thank you it's great to be here now lympics almost over and so far we haven't heard a single gay athlete complaining all of discrimination or on all mistreatment here in russia isn't that perhaps a sign that all those allegations about l g b t a legit l g b t persecution in

russia. may have been blown out of propulsion do you think the calls to boycott these olympics were justified well i've also been following on the internet i'm not watching n.b.c. . just staying true to supporting the sponsors of the olympics and so in seeing what's happening in russia. you know there were arrests there was transgender individual that was taken away escorted away from one of the venues you know so yes i mean there are there are things that are happening i think that n.b.c. is sweeping a lot of it under the carpet we're not hearing about a lot of the things but you can find a lot of the true information on the internet but it is. this something that also happens routinely in many of the western countries as far as i understand violence

against gays and lesbians and transgender people has been on the increase in many of the western countries in particular in the united states in two thousand and twelve i believe it was at the highest level since one thousand nine hundred eight yes i mean we have been making strides forward in some areas and then in some areas of our own country i mean we've been taking steps backwards but i think with the community you know i was able to get married in the state of california the state that i live in many of the states are are are following suit you know justifying that. legislating marriage or you know legislating love and that's all it is is you know is unconstitutional well missile again is just to put things into perspective although.