crowds rally in the ukrainian city of sevastopol and a show of defiance against the self declared government in kiev and to voice support for a newly appointed for a russian mayor. the real path into the e.u. it's not going to be the german path it'll be the greek path some analysts warn financial aid from brussels and the i.m.f. may prove a slippery slope for ukraine. presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan causing a rift in washington president obama says he may follow through with his zero option lawmakers continue to push to keep up to ten thousand soldiers there. british muslims cry foul over the government campaign against radicalism and say they're being singled out as scapegoats.

midnight in moscow thanks for joining us here on r t a top story the political upheaval in ukraine's capital sparking a backlash in the southeast of the country where many are making it clear they don't recognize the new software clean leadership in kiev the movement's gathering pace in crimea an autonomous region home to major industrial hubs and some prime target spots also mainly populated by ethnic russians largest rallies held in the naval city of sevastopol where a production mayor has just been appointed by city hall after an outpouring of popular support is going up as more. for the past few days in the city of sevastopol which is also the country's second largest seaport and home to russia's black sea navy fleet scores of people have been taking to the streets protesting everything that's been happening here in the if in fact they haven't recognized the

new of shorty's and moreover they've taken down ukrainian flags from government buildings and put up russian once moscow has been saying that it will not intervene into the situation here and has been calling on the western partners to follow its examples now but it has also voted for a new mayor who's gained his supporters by promising to protect the city from the ultra right through what you're referring to the nationalists more of whom have been taking a new government post here in kiev rashid but it used to be we will have to defend or city it's already begun and we are brew once and police and police on the streets but i fear this is not enough we also face a huge economic theory on our economic system is tied to the current regime and keep it which frankly speaking is illegitimate there's a power struggle within the leadership here in disarray the political situation has been changing on a daily basis the priority forces to keep the situation in our city from spiraling

out of control so clearly the already existing gap between the east and the west is now growing and while we do want to see it what with our own eyes and we're actually planning to go to see us stop it later on to report about the events there from the ground meanwhile russia's foreign minister lavrov once again warned of the west against encouraging the new regime including its nationalist and sometimes extremist elements. ridiculous it's just radicals are now threatening to move on those parts of ukraine the disagree with the methods being used by the opposition so our goal is to help the ukrainian people are brotherly nation we want to understand who will form ukraine's new government including how it plans to stabilize the economy we do not want ukraine to be influenced by radicals and nationalists who are now clearly trying to play the leading role on the wave of this revolution they're also taking decisions that could harm

a significant part of the country's population. echoing russia's stance a luxemburg has become the first european state so far to voice concerns over the rise of radicalism in ukraine says the turmoil started details from artie's are unable to show. firstly i have seen at least five european officials parading through the independence square in its early stages making statements about the fact how everything is fine and dandy and it's absolutely a show of democracy in its best form but now we are hearing from the foreign minister of luxembourg who actually is the first person only an official level from the west to indicate that in fact there is something sinister going on on my done also known as the independence square in three of. the european union has no right to extremists who using violence the nazis as you call them europe is familiar with we have to fight all extremists including those in ukraine this is very important.

to hate violence and extremism need to find a compromise and restore peace. now about those who are russian foreign ministry is calling extremist and it refers to as nazis well let's have a look at some of the leaders of ukraine so-called revolution for example alexander . a man of radical views he's actually participated in the chechen war he went to the caucuses while all the side all of the terrorists and prided himself on the fact that he personally had several tanks and armored vehicles and despite that he still managed to run for the ukrainian parliament a couple of years ago again he's one of the leaders of alter nationalist movement and then there's also an exec who resists initially one of the leaders of the of the my don of the independence square movement and he is openly not just true simple but also. making numerous statements to in that regard that have actually gotten him into quite a lot of hot water with the jewish population of ukraine one of the most active in

propagating armed resistance against the authorities has been the right sector and ultra nationalist group that has been becoming more and more active in kiev over the past couple of my. it's and these are the words office leader but it will be. used to beat the world's oil rich. city police. which is not a judge it would seem that you will do what you like love will be done so this is what we're looking at the type of people that the west has been until now is ultimately supporting and if you look at the fact that just on fuse that we have heard synagogue has this hospital one ought to be praying it sounds well all of this really should leave us as somewhat worried and apprehensive as to what exactly is going to happen next we're keeping you abreast of the situation in ukraine on

air and on line here at r.t. as extremist sentiment simmers within the ranks of the opposition our crew in kiev has been posting some footage of ultra nationalist even fascist symbols appearing around the embattled independence square you can find more on that on our instagram page and with ukraine sliding toward bankruptcy the new leadership is welcoming western diplomats in the hope of urgent financial aid e.u. foreign policy chief catherine ashton pledged support and washington is said it's ready to chip in addition to an i.m.f. loan artie's aleck's airshows he reports that many europeans may be reluctant to see their money head east. e.u. member state greece we don't have any jobs and at the same time we have debts to pay they should support us now that we're in great need e.u. member states brain. i'm unemployed i have two children we don't get any government help and it's hard to survive each month but if we don't have money for us how can

we give it to ukraine. and revolting ukraine a country without even in association with the e.u. . the e.u. is as plain with carrots and sticks the there's economic integration which was going to mean that big parts of the ukrainian working population will see a deterioration in their living style the fantasy about entering your of the streets be in line with gold that's a fantasy because the real project is it is an i.m.f. based austerity program. with questions about who will lead ukraine into the future and whether the country will stay together one thing's clear it's the rubicon to be that needs to be revamped first even before the euro my down protest kicked off there was a talk of a possible default in ukraine in november its external debt three hundred sixty billion euro it was one of the main reasons why king of refused to sign the trade pact with the e.u. fearing it could aggravate the situation even the more november last year europe

offered only several hundred million euros to ukraine but with the opposition now taking the reins the e.u. is ready to give a whole lot more luxury maybe even members such as greece and spain can no hardly afford. that spade can't help now. i'm just speechless this idea is worse than anything. first the greece. and then the old for ukraine all the money. was in from kiev in ukraine. for more on this i'm joined by jeffrey summers associate professor of political economy and public policy and a senior fellow at the institute of world affairs at the university of wisconsin milwaukee speaking with us again here on our t.v. so we heard the merits of a stop all that is a largely southeast pro russian region saying that he considers the government illegitimate but why do you think so many western leaders have been very quick to recognize the legitimacy of the new installed government in kiev. well because that of course they just think that it will be in line with their interest to do so so

unfortunately what we've seen with u.s. policy and of course it's not unique to the united states but we will of course support any group regardless of how that come to power as long as they are in line with us financial interests and they feel that they will be allied with them politically so for instance you know in one thousand nine hundred three boris yeltsin sent the tanks against the russian parliament a highly underground demo undemocratic act and of course the united states for that but with somebody like a lot of you know somebody who we might have some critical remarks about but regardless because he displays an independent straight you know he's a robot so we see the same thing in ukraine if we feel that the government is one that is going to be in line with us interests will support it not if we want and of who comes to power and does so even through the overthrow of the violent or rather violently through a. protest to result in

a democratically elected government being pushed aside as so be it you know as long as the united states gets the government it wants how do you think that government may turn out looking at the current crop of opposition leaders who are now for all intents and purposes in power there do you think that that could end up being a viable government well it's really difficult to set this point is the situation is just so turbulent and i would also say of course that the united states is not interested in having a sascha government in place so while we do have these quite nationalistic extreme elements of some of those in the new ukrainian government that the united states certainly does not want those ten people in power of it what it's hoping for is that they will ultimately be to be displaced and that we will get more moderate figures that can be more or less controlled now we've heard promises of financial aid coming from europe do you think europe and also the u.s. would be able to contribute the amount of money that you know ukraine would need to

get back on its feet. of course the issue is whether or not they're going to have enough to pay their foreign bond holders so it's in the united states' interest to see that those bondholders paid off so my guess is that there will be an i.m.f. e.c.v. stabilization program that will put in place need the usual structural adjustment or what not was for fashionably all the austerity and that there will be sufficient funds made available to pay off those foreign bond holders since going to come at a rather extreme christ for the people of ukraine. what now what more do you think needs to be done financially to help the country since all of this on arrest has been going on there how much damage do you think it's done in terms of say g.d.p. to the country. well unfortunately their g.d.p. was so low that it i don't think it's going to do too much damage in the short run so if you take a look at ukraine bursts a whole and poland has twice the per capita g.d.p. that ukraine does so ukraine's relatively low level of development means that

they're not going to say too much further than they already are but that is what is the real chief issue here that needs to be addressed ukraine needs real economic development and just paying off its foreign bond holders does nothing to develop the country and what we really need is an entirely new dialogue what would be required to develop ukraine and of course that would be things like wrapping up its export of wheat and seeing if we can do something to identify markets where some of its industrial products for least of course some of those already go to russia but perhaps investment in the e.u. could result in new industries located into the western part of ukraine that would actually purchase industrial products from the east but again unfortunately all i see is a kind of trio. measure that's designed to just ensure that the bondholders are paid off the really nothing done to develop ukraine professor jeffrey summers from milwaukee thank you very much for your time and insight. stay with us here on r.t.

international as we bring you updates and expert analysis on the uprising in ukraine every hour still to come we report on whether the u.s. troops will be leaving afghanistan for good this and more after a short break. winter is when the sahara comes to life. away says palm trees are being harvested. people are waiting for the biggest event of the year. the desert festival. this is through a. race leading camel races have spent the last year preparing for the grueling marathon. the day before the race there's a heavy sandstorm overcoming the power of nature is a never ending challenge. a doesn't win to.

choose your language. we can without any. good the consensus you. choose to get to. choose the stories get him to. choose the access to. sixteen minutes past the hour president barack obama is warning his afghan counterpart washington may pull all of its troops out of afghanistan by year's end signing a bilateral security deal looking unlikely at the moment but artie's guide says the u.s. may be reluctant though to cut back its influence in the region. it's not easy for the obama administration to communicate reasons why the u.s. should say ghana's them past twenty four teens the administration hasn't been able

to sell those reasons to president karzai has taken a toll truce presence his country's worse but washington definitely does not want to leave afghanistan for good and one of the reported options is that those three thousand troops would be deployed to bases in kabul and bob graham and would not do much traveling across the country now the other option which the pentagon reportedly favors more is leaving ten thousand troops behind and also leaving more bases open the pentagon argues the closing of some of the bases would hamper drone operations in pakistan washington's main argument now remains that afghan forces cannot stand alone against the resurgent taliban to increase the pressure congress has recently slashed plans development and military aid to afghanistan to roughly half by half to one point one billion dollars there is also an understanding here in washington that in order to not lose of ghana's and completely they may have to make a now we to the taliban force they'd been fighting for more than

a decade. so many of the recent developments show how far we have come from initial declarations like the us saying that he would leave afghanistan by the end of twenty fourteen in washington i'm going to check on our team let's take a look at how the war has played out in numbers intervention in afghanistan's cost taxpayers more than five hundred fifty billion dollars in the u.s. equal to the average salary of about ten million teachers throwing a porsche is the metaphor used by troops referring to the jabal an antitank missiles that cost about eighty thousand dollars a pop dozens of nations committed their forces to the nato campaign but while austria and ireland sent only three and seven troops respectively the u.s. still has about forty thousand boots on the ground moreover recent polls show sixty six percent of americans think the war wasn't worth fighting one afghan activist tells us u.s. nation building there has been ineffective. they haven't done much incidentally done the thing they have provided the afghan military forces uniform and

a few outdated weapons billions of dollars to spend in afghanistan cost the lives of more than a million afghans they have not invested it strictly into this large agenda of nation building that they had and they simply mean ten that they have built institutions institutions building is good but if this division building can be done in cannot continue to maintain itself and it's not sustainable then institution building is of no use and so they're going to military they have trained them but they have not provided him with anything faced with rising rising islamophobia at home any urgent need to tackle the threat posed by combatants returning from the syrian war the u.k. government stepping up a campaign against extremism but some members of the multimillion strong british muslim community say they now feel victimized as artie's laura smith reports from london. preventing terrorism a powerful phrase used to excuse all manner of abuses from government spying on

their own citizens to foreign wars now muslims in the u.k. are accusing the government of scapegoating them in the fight against terror and creating what they're calling a cradle to grave police state they say the police strategy known as prevent monitor's muslims and tries to change ideologies in every area of their life so it's an all encompassing policy that is touching on every aspect of muslim life in a negative negative way which encourages discrimination you've got to remember that . when one person has been affected in this way the whole family as they tell their family they tell their friends they tell others so this is becoming a shared experience amongst the muslim community the whole community is now experiencing what's happening in prevent despite the fact that human rights organizations have branded the strategy unacceptably intrusive into the lives of

ordinary muslims and based not on preventing terrorism but on changing ideology beliefs and values it appears set to be enshrined into law and it's not the only example of politicians seeking to make capital out of apparently discriminating against muslims gerard batten is immigration spokesman for the u.k. independence party he wants british muslims to sign a code of conduct that affirms the equality of all people equal rights for women rejects violence and promote tolerance but i can't see how anybody could object to it i mean if you say to anybody anywhere in the world do you think that people should be treated equally men and women should be treated equally you know there should be no violence there should be no compulsion in religion everybody should be free to follow their own religion who would not sign it only people who don't believe those things back. the document would help moderate muslims to distinguish themselves from extremists but muslims themselves say it's just another way of

singling them out and it doesn't lead anywhere it does what leads to. you know fascism against all the communities this is what it's about what will happen as more and more people think it's perfectly alright target women who wear born get them sign a code of conduct to worry that it's policies like these become policy of every day life casual islamophobia full days pitting community against community and to fighting society. also in britain a media report says all homeless across the e.u. could potentially be given herbs or ribs over their heads in the blink of an eye with a shocking number of homes across the continent standing empty or unused like an r.v. dot com for more details plus evidence coming to light nostril you're suggesting our planet may have become habitable much earlier than previously thought all this thanks to a crystal that was on earth to find out more on our website. right

to see. the. first record. and i would think that you're. on a reporter's twitter. instagram. be in the. time for all sochi locals to take a break as the excitement of the winter games columns in the city gets ready now for the paralympics meanwhile russia's media have been hearing from the one person without whom the sporting extravaganza may never have happened of course president vladimir putin artie's andrew farmer has more from sochi. two days after these olympics have ended mr putin has been singing the praises of russia's athletes to the nation's media he said that before the games at best many people had said

russia would finish third in the medals table of course they finished top with a record haul of medals including thirteen gold and he went on to give a lovely little anecdotes about one of the biggest stars of these games the figure skater adelina sotnikova he told the media that he'd actually met when she was only twelve years old they had their photo taken with each other and then at that time she predicted that one day she would be an olympic champion how true that was mr putin then also addressed the criticism that russia had faced in the run up to these games and said that basically it had come from two areas all these years we have been working in conditions of criticism but it was constructive criticism in the first place very friendly and helpful on the part of the international olympic committee i am sure that without such friendly criticism and support we would have still managed to do everything but i doubt whether we would have done it with such quality because we lack the enormous experience from our friends from the i.o.c.

this was their gift to us however there was and i'm sure there still is another group of critics who have little to do with sport their main concern is competition in international politics their job is different and they used the olympic project to achieve their own goals in their anti russian propaganda efforts whenever a strong competitor appears russia in this case there is always someone who doesn't like this who starts working against it however they fail to understand how deep the changes are and watching society changes that have affected its very nature and mr putin ended by saying he hoped these olympics it shone russia's soul to the world and shown a new russia which the rest of the world should not be afraid of andrey. so full interview with vladimir putin focusing on sochi olympics available anytime on our website r t v dot com turning now to some other stories making global headlines

this hour the nigerian military says militants from boko haram the terror group they are stormed a boarding school overnight killing twenty nine students the movement that opposes secular education is frequently attacked schools thousands have been killed across the country since two thousand and nine when the militants started their violent campaign to impose muslim law. south korea says it see border has been violated by a north korean patrol boat the vessel spent several hours near an island on the disputed border before turning back on after warnings were issued from the south the incident follows souls' joint military drills with the us which have angered. and one of the world's largest bitcoin exchange platforms mt gox has gone off line taking around three hundred fifty million dollars worth of the digital currency with it earlier this month the site froze bitcoin withdrawals after detecting what it called unusual activity the site's apparent collapse has dealt a setback to bitcoin supporters who see it as a potential alternative to traditional currencies. up next on r.t.

international we take you want a trip to one of the hottest places on earth the sahara desert which comes to life during the winter stay with us as. a transit route to vnukovo report you'll best way to the heart of most. fact that. we're going to go that you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because

a free and open process is critical to our democracy shrek albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across the cynical we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers one school class i'm tom hartman and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks and rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing are not defined ready to join the movement then walk in the big picture. put it under full strong arm in washington d.c. a new knowledge face i describe you know.

pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm researcher. it's no accident that built his cafe on the very edge of the desert. he knows that any adventure into the sahara will always take this road. he sells water coffee and coke but trading has been slow today. but on top of that he's heard worrying news on the radio unlikely though it sounds

does snow in neighboring egypt. which could threaten it as its main event a festival that attracts thousands of tourists. the mild desert winter is when business usually peaks and when the sahara really comes to life. a small way of shape slice in the north of perhaps the most famous desert on earth this small country is known as the sahara games. for fifty years the annual desert festival has taken place here it's an event that draws people from all surrounding countries. these people's lives

a deeply intertwined with the desert. the many preparations for the festival began six months ago they've gone deep into the desert every day on an exhaustive training shuttle the main event is camel racing any prize in a sprint race is a great honor but winning the forty two kilometer marathon is considered especially prestigious the young boys in the small town of doulas dream of such a victory seemingly endless sand dunes begin just beyond the town's borders. like every other man in the region image hopes to win two years ago he and his camel came first in a sprint for us. i'm confident about this part of the race because my camel is quite familiar with the area but i do have some doubts about the long distance marathon i haven't entered it before with this camel. because the festival only takes place once a year.