the giant bear sheds a tear of farewell as the curtain falls in sochi twenty fourteen winter games that will go down in history for its remarkable and record breaking performances. ukraine's interim president kickstart a campaign for the top job while the hunt is underway for the country's ousted leader and members of his former ruling party plus. a bulldozer consults with the u.s. and. western politicians step up the euro pilgrimage to ukraine with a financial lifeline to win over the new leadership. from iraq obama's attempts to tame the n.s.a.

have apparently failed as reports claim the agency snooped on hundreds of german officials after the president for bid them from spying on the country's chancellor . six pm in moscow watching are to international the twenty fourteen winter games in sochi have ended in style sixteen days of tough competition were capped with a dazzling closing ceremony our very own and he's now in our studio was lucky enough to witness the games from start to finish as he takes a bittersweet look back at how it all went. this is sad and it's overwhelming we've seen so many big breaks and heartfelt losses cheers and tears here in sochi over the past weeks a lot of nail biting competitions nerve wrecking races and great performances all of those are going to go down in the olympic history and this great celebration of

sport certainly was sealed with a finale to remember you were taken further on a journey through russian culture picking up from the opening ceremony it was a tribute to the russian greats in the arts music and literature and the organizers didn't miss the opportunity to poke a little fun of themselves over the infamous the limbic ring that one opened at the start of the games of course the biggest excitement came from russian fans after the host nation searched at the top of the medal count with a total of thirteen goals and a spectacular moment of course to the farewell show was the magnificent fireworks display. a dazzling ceremony there and plenty of olympic moments to remember we've put together our top five sensations of sochi to begin with the dutch they managed to grab eight golds and all of them in speed skating and actually twenty three out of the twenty four medals they want in sochi were in speed skating and number four

a rising star of figure skating seventeen year old nina so to cover she became the first russian ever to take individual gold in women's figure skating i'm very proud to have won a gold medal at the age of seventeen it's such a great feeling it's a blast with everything including with myself a sensation number three the new russians korean born speed skater victor on he won three golds for his new homeland and american snowboarder vic wilde were married to siberia and join russia as the olympic team to become one of the gold medalist i didn't have any good for the united states and that was i'm going to reach the goals that i want to. assure. the opportunity to get people's. person station number two is norwegian biathlete although born die then he became the most decorated winter olympian of all time a great performance for his sixth and final winter games and of course the top stop

goes to team russia for their overall performance of the host nation making a victorious comeback from the vancouver games and making it to the top of the medal table at home with thirteen gold medals thirty three overall. sochi has also welcomed usual competitors to for them it was not about taking the podium but about enjoying the games and making everyone else happy and inspired artist paul scott has more on those athletes with a difference. for some athletes sochi twenty fourteen was simply about taking part take for example indian illusia shiva can shave in his commitment to his sport highlighted by his training regime winding his way down dusty tracks by passing go and lorries along the way. my wife's insight yes he may have come thirty seven thousand and thirty nine but the him there is more state following accusations of corruption the indian and limpid committee were

suspended by the i.o.c. in two thousand and twelve was lifted during these games meaning can shave and could finally compete under his nation's fly unfortunately there's a lot of politics played to the flag of india which i'm sure many people back home when i'm happy with it but that's over think that's a lesson learned for everybody. to look at. one of the more colorful characters of these games was prince you purchase of hohenlohe in london the fifty five year old is a descendant of a former german royal. he's also a way photographer the pop star who goes by the name of royal disaster. these are his sixth olympics jewel nationality skis for mexico he's never won a medal for the maybe deserves gold for p.r. i think that russia the only problem that had this thing should have hired a p.r.

person like me to be better p.r. before i mean you know it's a great place. on the for venues like the for everything is really. the should of just got a positive for my over to europe and to america that we're so negative it's time to make his debut in these games you know banani went in the luge to tell his real name mind as part of a sponsorship deal he changed his name to the german underwear company but he told me he wants to be known for his sporting prowess if i didn't qualify for their lives they wouldn't care at all what names i am so i think is the most important thing that i try hard in training hard to get together. and does any winter olympics complete without the jamaican bobsled the main attraction for press in five mins raising their own funds to compete missing a connecting flight losing their luggage on coming second last still didn't dampen their party spirit proving that in amongst all the sporting excellence there is still room for sports to be fun. such as.

the sochi olympics have broken lots of records and it's not just sports we're talking about almost half of the planet was watching these games at some point with at least three billion viewers and talking about fans they set a surprising sound record with their vocal cords during one of victor and speed skating races but the cheers reaching one hundred ten decibels and here's another record quite an unexpected one thirty four babies were born in sochi on the day of the opening ceremony of the city's highest single daily total of newborns ever such a games will also go down in history for the weather becoming the warmest winter olympics in history or certainly not complain. there's been lots of sunshine and not snow the olympics of course officially over we're left with a lot of things to look back at but we're also looking forward to the paralympic games starting in less than two weeks when earlier i had a chance to talk to the man who was in charge of making sure everything went like

clockwork in sochi and now that the olympic flame is out to me to return to shango shared with r.t. his personal feelings about his project the biggest achievements probably for us for russians as the nation's. best games ever in the history of my country over us live was that we obtain the confidence that russia is capable to deliver ambitious project and the most important decided that the gold that we generated historical legacy for the generations to come well i have the games as you know russia has come under a lot of criticism so how do you feel about those reports i mean how the in any way overshadowed the games you know it's impossible to shadow the truth we were in the brick it's all of this from the cold war and now it was broken everybody who came and witnessed this. fish and transpired in

a way hospitable they really changed from the criticism to the cover and the real positive things a looking at the object of infrastructure they have been created in the city had all the games what can you tell us about how they are going to be used in diffuse the future of my native city of sochi is very bright the plan for the legacy it's all very well. we have the money allocated to maintain and of in this but the most important. events place where host in a couple of months most in the formula one the race in. no more to come in the wall. bowl championships the so sure in the drawn from the ordinary soviet style summer resort to the all the year round international sport in the laser convention vista nation. now bidding a heartfelt goodbye to the winter olympics we asked you to submit your highlights

and feel good moments of the games to our facebook page and i'm of course would like to thank you now for sharing your thoughts the moments with us no surprise you picked a russian gold and at the latest figure skating there and some were also impressed by the national team spirit while others selected the sublime performance by russian figure skating ruki and olympic darling yulia livni it's come and in just under twenty minutes a part which will be bringing you a much more detailed roundup of all the winter olympic action on the way. right see. search tree. and i think you're. on our reporters.

now ukraine's interim leader has announced the start of campaigning for what he insists will be a fair and transparent presidential election where the country's ousted leader a victory on a cause which placed on the one of a list by the opposition for what they call the mass murder of peaceful citizens he is once powerful party of regions has also been taking a battering seventy four officials have already withdrawn from the party saying they fear of reprisals. the names of some members wanted for questioning have reportedly been circulated to airports and vehicles are being stopped and searched on the roads around the capital while the new leadership considers banning the party altogether some of those trying to speak out for the former government are being gagged. with you. yet still you could say you didn't do this full bore the full of us. now this footage shows a protester who was earlier down with anti-septic when he tried to voice forth for

the ousted president viktor in a cottage in the western ukraine city of rob now the political tensions in kiev are showing no signs of dying down thirty to corpus going off now reports. freedom democracy independence as mind on hayles what the downing of the dictator and mourns those killed in kiev a city or street battles perhaps the way certain groups of the opposition have been acting can hardly be called democratic around five hundred offices of the now ex ruling party have been burnt down those with a different political stance or physically attacked inside the parliament most of those with right now it's more about emotions rather than political rivalry the most important thing right now is to prevent all parties from being banned completely because then the situation would lose all the judum a-c. . the president has fled the capital saying a coup has been carried out while the parliament passes new laws as fast as a printing press. taking down officials and appointing their all to political

rivals including putting a right wing party liners even government holds such as you must be from the nationalists while the party taking charge of the prosecutor general's office. is just. a new regime is taking shape really quickly and with the use of strong measures it has nothing to do with democracy because those coming to power will go on with pursuing tough policies and they will conduct massive expansion of the eastern territories. among the first laws adopted the banning of russian as the second official state language despite nearly fifty percent of those living in the east of ukraine being ethnic russians the public is stalled from now on the right wing is going to be heavily present in ukraine's law enforcement at the moment the situation in kiev is basically controlled by radical people with with us who are pursuing a very very militant agenda which is

a political call i think he is an utterly discredited man he cut deals with opposition who were quite obviously at a since the nineteenth of january no longer in control of the. here there are reports that foreign journalists have been promoting different values from the rebels have now been put onto a wanted list as well as trying to temporarily russian t.v. channels many are now raising the question if this is the type of democracy so many koreans put their lives on the line for. me to while the foreign policy chief catherine ashton is set to meet ukraine's new interim leadership following europe's pledge to provide the embattled state with twenty billion euros once a new is formed and the international monetary fund has also confirmed its commitment to support floundering cottony former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev says the west has long since crossed the line when it comes to meddling in

ukraine's affairs. have you seen what's going on there. you need a bulldozer suppose you know the console from the u.s. and the e.u. the. recommendation to nations is unacceptable and we shouldn't send. both sides need to head to the negotiating table and talk one month six months. is going to come to an agreement eventually they're going. to go way out. and we can cross live now to christine stone who is in oxford and she's a journalist and writer on the former soviet union and was an observer of the orange revolution elections almost a decade ago christine thank you so much for joining us here on our to international well as we know catherine ashton is visiting ukraine at the moment and the i.m.f. is also pledging a massive financial support to the country so what do you think they're hoping to get in return. well in the past thing have put conditions on.

this is the i.m.f. loans have been given to ukraine and they have always been broken so i don't know how i can see this time maybe they will make some nice fine noisy to keep everything quiet at the moment but conditions will have to somehow. and i am going to give all the shareholders to the other companies and the i.m.f. will not have to go along with it. well of course time will tell as they say but now let's take a look at the immediate changes in the countries when one of the first laws passed by the new leadership was to remove the russian language as official status in russian speaking regions so what kind of reaction do you think that will cause in the country when i am happy and i take it for granted that in the east and central and southern regions of ukraine this will make people very angry how they will own

i do not know. there are all sorts of. rumors and such like saying but with the they will seem to all say to join russia or they won't come but i'm afraid we have seen so often threats of that kind do not amount to anything and i suspect that behind the scenes the e.u. will be work trying to work out a more media raping a presence to the east and the south so that they will agree to some kind of election and. i think it's very important to realize the one thing the west does not want is the country. now oh i'm looking at the opposition looking at the protesters and the make up of the protesters i mean we've heard some strong nationalistic rather rigs they are so why does the attitude of the western leaders to that i mean are they prepared to face the consequences. i think the far as we can see now the west will work with anything for

regime change in ukraine is a cynical approach on the one hand we saw last week the germans are prepared to arrest ninety year old concentration of them on the other hand they give a power to the people in in groups like probably say. parties like top of the so i think it's a very cynical approach and i just keep a really mind of the world if they think they go. well speaking again about economic situation the country i mean economical lead looks like it's in dire straits now and speaking of the aid offered to the country from abroad do you think brussels can even afford to help ukraine i mean given the dire economic situation that the e.u. is in now. i suspect the brussels. washington.

living in hopes that mr putin will have. the main bulk of the money in the short time will come from be original promises that were made by moscow to mr got to covert and which the russians themselves they are not necessarily going to stall for in fact they have said they will be reviewing the situation once the government in its place they haven't said what kind of government that will be they haven't indicated should be a government that is anyway favorable to the kremlin so it may be that mr putin will go on paying out. brussels to reflect on the situation after that while christina give been observing ukraine for a long time and you observe the orange revolution and of course the outcome. of the followed i mean how do words what do you expect to come out of the upcoming polls in ukraine is there going to be any change there what what is your forecast for the country's immediate future. well the first thing that might help is if there was

some kind of opposition all these laws that could be. so far the last few days in the rather have all been passed unanimously there being no official so what is the opposition and the even baroness ashton of the west surely will want to see some. some opposition power because at the moment there are none or not allowed regions party is far as i understand it's been made in the imagine that goes the communists to so who are going to be the opposition or are one of the. suddenly going to say you are the opposition and i will be the the probe will sort of we don't know become less. position doesn't matter what next few days weeks and i can't see how they can be plausible really frankly at least in in the orange revolution. there was an opposition that was

a government it was an opposition all right christine thanks very much for giving us your perspective on the situation in ukraine and that was christine stone journalist and writer and former saudi union and of course stay with our national as we are closely following developments in and around ukraine for you and also find a timeline of the crisis and minute by minute reports online at r.t. dot com. i don't see how european countries who are member of the european union can solve the problem without leaving the european union so it's obvious that countries like great britain or france you name friends especially with increasing poverty in my opinion they have a difficult they have a difficult time to solve these problems but i think at least they should rearrange

the principle rules of free movement of persons and improve the system. under the new cultural phenomena like. the face i think people. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure. welcome back to watching r t international number aco bombers recent ban on monitoring anglo merkel's communications have forced to the n.s.a.

to turn to other sources of european data reports say the agency has switched to spying on hundreds of german officials including the interior minister of has the details from berlin. the national security agency was allegedly monitoring three hundred and twenty eight people here in germany mostly politicians also business leaders and this is according to a german newspaper here built which says it's info comes from a high ranking n.s.a. employee here in germany now that source was quoted as saying the agency had the order not to miss out on any information that the n.s.a. is no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communications directly the interior minister a close confidant of mr merkel was also allegedly watched as well as several firms such as s a p a competitor of the allegation was rejected by the us national security council spokeswoman who said that the united states did not spy to give

american firms competitive advantages the german interior ministry so far refusing to comment on what it called allegations of unnamed individuals but this is of course bound to make things quite difficult for on the lower merkel keep in mind revelations last year about mass u.s. surveillance in germany in particular of miss merkel's mobile phone had shocked this country sparking some of the most serious disputes between the two allies in a decade as a result we've seen a tougher stance here the german chancellor now pushing for a european communications network and also pushing for a so-called no spy deal with washington the german foreign minister is due to visit the u.s. on thursday but he has said that he has doubts that such a deal would have very much of an effect and of all the many things that britain stands to lose of scotland breaks away in september's in the panels referendum giving up the union jack would arguably be the most keenly felt and some have already begun to reinvigorate a flag it's been a cherished national identity for over two centuries are just more smith asked

londoners what they think about the new designs. the campaigns on both sides of the scottish independence debate the factions have until september to sell their idea of how the union should look going forwards westminster says an independent scotland would lose the pound but hardly anyone seems to be talking about something even more simple legs at the rest of the u.k. could lose if scotland declared independence the union jack scotland's represented on the flag by the blue background and diagonal white cross but if scotland left the u.k. might have to give that back old these flags would become obsolete and replaced with balls the u.k. charity the flag institute has moped tops and suggestions so let's see what people think the noise she's looking when i see. who's got the kingdom so the current states who are king. no is too faint she got one. some of

these are my favorite british one ok and what what you think of the idea what you think the concept of john would have to try to do what is going to more. tax and everything so i don't want to change i suppose it makes more sense i mean there's some point to having it in there of an impartial more that's quite attractive as a site she shook educational old flag that you know be difficult for people to have any change really yeah i mean i'd be sad. so many things would have to be changed. it really was that do you think maybe. the union jacks enjoyed a resurgence in recent years becoming an iconic brand again apparently everything from high fashion to soft furnishings it would be haute for britain to discard it and indeed there are no firm plans to change it even if scotland does declare

independence but david cameron and alex salmond might do well to better the flag in mind as this war of words save a scotland gets dirtier and. and up next sophie and cone discuss a switzerland's immigration or a friend and whether countries people's party vice president. judy cox a utah mother out of spite but an entire line of t. shirts at a popular chain store after a local mall the reason that she bought them was because she feels that the images of nearly naked women on them violate her local towns decency code she wants to make it clear though that she feels the store has the right to sell this type of shirt just not displayed in an exterior window ultimately her plan is to return the shirts on day fifty nine of the store's sixty limit let's hope for her sake they

don't have a no return policy i bring this up because this is a great example of a nonviolent form of protest that actually works cause the scandal and more importantly it will make the company lose a few dollars technically the girls on the shirts are even fully exposed believe me i checked thoroughly and i would even call them r. rated the local communities have the right to be more conservative than the rest of the nation if they want to be and it's good that judy cox actually did something rather than just sitting at home on the air complaining about moral decay across the country if a housewife from a small mormon community can stand up to the man what's stopping you but that's just my opinion. i marinate join me. in part and. very

conservative and much. only on the bus and on. well welcome to go on sophie shevardnadze switzerland has just narrowly voted in a referendum to tightly on a flow of immigrants into the country however the proposed quotas for the new arrivals run contrary to the use ideals of freedom of movement while this was know to ruin the country's ties with the european union how will switzerland keep attracting world class talent and is there really anything wrong with immigration well. the last president of the party pushed the idea through is our guest today.

switzerland the heart of europe a lender for cultures and a historic haven for refugees is now cracking down on immigration. the country voted to shut the door to new or rivals immigrants really a minister the swiss will be e.u. punished for his drastic decision or should others follow suite or example. and here we are with lucy sham vice president of the swiss people's party of us or some it's great to have you with us so we're going to go right had an ask you why was this referendum on whether to limit immigration even need it. oh i think for this was population is very important indeed because the last two years have shown that the immigration grew bigger and bigger and it is switzerland to say stop somewhere we.