transit routes the ripples you'll best way to the heart of most. russia calls on all involved political crisis to avoid further escalation is a manhunt launched for the country's ousted leader and members of the former ruling party. it's not really juice you need a bulldozer to push through the consultants from the u.s. and. western politicians step up to ukraine with the e.u. offering a financial lifeline to win over new leadership. a giant bear sheds a tear a farewell as the curtain falls on sochi two thousand and fourteen winter games i will go down in history for a remarkable record breaking performances. president obama attempts to tame the n.s.a. of apparently failed as reports clean the agency spied on hundreds of german officials after the president forbade them from snooping on the country's

chancellor. midnight in moscow i am at present very good to have you with us our top story this hour the ongoing hundred for ukraine's ousted leader viktor yushchenko between his once powerful party of regions prompted some strong statements from russia issued by the foreign ministry this statement says moscow's quote alarmed by the dictatorial sometimes terrorist methods chosen by ukraine's interim leadership to suppress discontent the text posted on their web site also urges all connected with the crisis to show deep responsibility to prevent further escalation of tension restore law and order and restrain extremists striving for power is going off as more from kiev. the situation here in kiev is referred to by many now as a witch hunt because now former officials are being searched for words masked men

having been seen stopping cars and checking the i.d.'s of drivers and the passengers inside with deputies and other authors also they're looking for the party of regions which just a few days ago was the political force in the country is now under the threat of being banned while ousted president. wanted list when they knew of accusing him of being behind the deaths of civilians referring to the violent clashes and street fights between the rioters and to the police in kenya for the whereabouts of. unknown but he is believed to be somewhere in the east of the country where there's a completely different picture the eastern ukraine is of the country's industrial powerhouse also heavily populated by russians and in general they've been quite critical of what's been happening here in kiev for instance tens of thousands of people took to the streets of. protesting political changes in the country so i stopped really is the queen second largest seaport and also form to both the

russians and the ukraine's black sea naval fleet to say that meanwhile here in kiev the new. taken to the next stage in the fight against their political rivals 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 which 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 legitimacy. 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 old political rivals including putting the right wing hardliners in. government posts. from the nationalists the party taking charge of the prosecutor general's office. is just

for 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 told 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 arms 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 leaders who were quite obviously since the nineteenth of january no longer in control of the crowds and 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 ban russian t.v. channels many are now raising the question if this is the type of democracy so many ukrainians put their lives on the line for you go because of our t. t. of. meanwhile e.u. foreign policy chief catherine ashton is again in kiev where she discussed crisis management and money matters within ukraine ukraine's new interim leadership following europe's pledge to provide the embattled state with twenty billion euros once a new government formed the i.m.f. is also confirm its commitment to support kids economy former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev thinks the west has crossed the line though when it comes to getting involved new friends of theirs. or. just who have you seen what's going on the it's not religious you need a bulldozer to push all the consultants from the us and the e.u. . they should let the people decide for themselves issuing recommendations to

nations is unacceptable we shouldn't send bandits and when both sides need to head to the negotiating table and talk one month or six months if needed they will come to an agreement eventually. christine stone a writer on the former soviet union says problem for a compromise may never been a priority for brussels or washington when it came to ukraine. as far as we can see now the west will put up 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 up power still be people in in groups like probably think. at least in in the orange revolution. there was an opposition that was

a government it was an opposition all these laws that could be in power so far the last few days and the rather of all being passed unanimously even baroness ashton of the west surely will want to see some. some opposition parties at the moment there are none or not allowed one of these. he suddenly going to say you are the opposition and i will be the price. we don't know but unless. the station doesn't manage the next few days weeks and i can't see how they can be plausible really quite frankly they with us are to international where we're closely following developments around ukraine you can find a timeline of the crisis and up to the minute reports online in r.t. dot com. right to see. that. first strike. and i would think that your.

instrument. in the. russian capital welcoming its olympic heroes athletes who made it to the sochi podiums have arrived in moscow to a deafening ovation with good reason prior to the games the most optimistic forecast but the host no higher than third in the overall standings for the champions you're seeing exceeded expectations and scored the top spot for russia leaving thirteen golds eleven silvers and nine bronze sunday they were cheered on by the biggest crowds at sochi stadium during a dazzling closing ceremony and he said no way has more. this 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 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 went open 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. as link ceremony there and plenty of olympic moments to remember we've put together our top five sensations of sochi we 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 nick of a 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 bus with everything including with myself. sensation number three the new russians korean born speed skater victor on he won three golds for his new homeland an american snowboarder vic wild who married a siberian and joined russia's the olympic team to become one of the gold medalist i didn't have any good for the united states and that was a good to reach the goals that i wanted. but she was the opportunity to get people's. person station number two is norwegian biathlete although they are born

by 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. she has also welcomed usual competitors to for them it was 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 trucks bypassing don't send lorries along the way. my wife's insight

yes he may have come thirty seven thousand and thirty nine but the him 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 with the flag over india which i'm sure many people back home we're not happy with but no that's over i 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 dinner he's also a way photographer the pop star who goes by the name of royal disaster. these are his six olympics jewel nationality skis for mexico he's never won

a medal for the maybe deserves gold for p.r. i think of russia the only problem that he 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 they will want the full ten years before everything is really poor we should have 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 preston five 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 for. the sochi olympics are 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 the sochi games will also go down in history for the weather becoming the warmest winter olympics in history or certainly. not complaining 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 earlier my colleague marina joshie had a chance to talk with the man who's in charge of making sure everything went like clockwork in sochi now that the flames out dimitri chernyshenko shared his thoughts with our team. the biggest achievements probably for us for russians as the nation's. the best games ever in the history of my country all the us live us that we obtain the confidence that russia is capability to deliver ambitious project and the most important decide that the gold that we generated to 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 shed those it's rules in the brick itself. from the cold war and now it was broken everybody

who came in with them is this. fish and turned spy and how we're hospitable they really change from the criticism to the cover and the real positive things looking at the object of infrastructure that 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 it's a very bright the land for the legacy it's all these very well. with the money allocated to maintain and divinest but the most important. events place where host in a couple of months most in the formula one the race in four months and no more to come in the vault all championships so sure in the from the ordinary soviet summers or to the all the around international sport and laser convention vista

nation. getting a heartfelt goodbye to the winter olympics we ask you to submit your highlights to us on our website and let us know what you think were the main happy moments that you'll remember from the games thank you for sharing. in those moments with us who picked russian golden ladies figure skating there are also impressed by the national team's parade during the opening ceremonies. selected the performance by russian figure skating rookie and olympic darling yulia. in about fifteen minutes time don't miss our in-depth round up of all the olympic action in our sports bulletin with kate partridge here at r.t. international. but first with scotland's independence referendum looming britain faces the prospect of losing the union jack. so many things would have to be chased we ask the brits how they feel about saying goodbye to the treasured national icon this and more after

a short break. trends . you'll best way to the hearts of most. 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 named 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. twenty minutes past the hour now rock obama is a recent ban on monitoring on a limb or polls communications force the n.s.a. to turn to other sources of european data reports say the agency's switch to spying on hundreds of german officials including the interior minister r.t.c. coughing up as more 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 on tag which says its 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 and 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 us company oracle this 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 berlin 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. very much of an effect earlier we heard from him and i five asian and he may xan who highlighted reports on the n.s.a. these spies on all germans on a daily basis not only officials and things the country's intelligence services have a duty to protect citizens from surveillance. whether it's under the merkel's personal telephone or whether it's three hundred twenty so-called elite german eighty million germans are being spied on by the n.s.a. so. ok to spy on one it ok just three hundred twenty eight million you know i think this goes much deeper there is no guarantee that the n.s.a. will stop spying on anyone in germany including angela merkel the only thing that can go to some way to rectifying the situation is not to to rely on the u.s. guarantees open are going to spy on you is to actually take matters into their own

hands technologically countries do spy on each other the point is that german intelligence agencies should be protecting their german politicians from the german government from being predated on being spied on by other governments and other intelligence agencies that's what they're there to do not to be complicit in helping the n.s.a. and u.s. intelligence agencies my own people in their own country that is not whether they're for they're there to protect the national integrity national security of the german country. magnates may claim fracking is safe but as we report online they won't put up with a near their homes on this far by a statement from exxon the c.e.o. on our team dot com what's. internet giant google robots will eventually be able to understand us better than we understand ourselves to the bottom of that futuristic forecast online. of all the many things that were in the stands to lose if scotland breaks away in september as independence vote giving up the union jack could arguably be the most keenly felt some of already started to reinvention

a flag that's been a cherished symbol of national identity for two centuries or he's laura smith reports. 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 way that 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 get that box full of 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

state sure kingman. know as to fame she got one. of these are my favorite british one ok and what what you think of the idea which because the concept in general would have to try to do what is going to more. and everything so i don't want to change i suppose it makes more sense i mean there's some point in having a share in marriage and a part of anymore that's quite attractive as a kitchen dish and our flag you know if we could go to the 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. you know 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 holds 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. after a break and our senior national kate partridge has all the latest from the world of sports or if you're watching us in the u.k. going underground is next. 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.

for the young girls cammo for the future harder. there's between two and three hundred million guns in united states so you can act like they're not here and keep kids away from them. the causes that if they won you know i mean this teaches them a lot of for us both ability and. gun debate through the eyes of children if we can do it for our children for our future what is the country will save. one of the new will come out of an ally should be college face.

a pleasure to have you with us here today. hello welcome to the r t sports special all the highlights from the last day of the winter olympics with me partridge plus the pick of the week's top sport these are the headlines. goodbyes thought she rushes made in the winter olympics to close with a lavish ceremony as the host finished top of the medal table with a record thirty three. last swedish test russia are set to face slaton even have a bitch and sweden as the group draw for euro twenty sixteen takes place in france

. while by in munich go nineteen points clear at the top of the bundesliga and forty seven games unbeaten with a four nil triumph at home over. top gear formula one star roman grows talks testing rule changes the start she not propose to host russia's first f one race. but first let's turn to start she where russia said good bye to their maiden winter olympics with a spectacular closing ceremony after a thrilling final day of sporting action to finish top of the table and with more on that here's our correspondent richard feet. wonderful closing ceremony which is reminiscent of the opening ceremony itself the organize even i suppose a bit of fun at themselves the closing ceremony of you remember at the opening

ceremony but final say the big ring failed to open and the organizers recapture about moments in the closing ceremony also if you hard back to the nine hundred eighty olympics in moscow where the big bear he shed a tear the same thing happened here at the closing ceremony in solitude but it's been a memorable games of everyone and everyone who did attend a closing ceremony just had a absolutely wonderful time as they took in wonderful big shiny past time and musical past what russia's given to the world over the last couple of centuries was an amazing final day sixteen for the russians and especially for a cross-country skiers who hadn't brought home the medals than they would have hoped for a german course all of the soldier gave i will changed in the men's fifty kilometer myra first and has face what the podium for the first time in history with cough. and cold serve claiming a gold silver and a bronze go by convair silver in the relay just a day before.