both of these countries have nuclear weapons capabilities there is reason for concern so that's why we're going to drill down on the story for you today right here on the news with rick sanchez where you know as we always like to say we do believe. by golly it's time to do news again. voting begins in russia on amendments to the country's constitution for the 1st time people can vote online as a precaution against 90. 2 come just as many nations start to relax over the coronavirus the world health organization does form the pandemic is actually accelerating well a number of countries to even start reporting a 2nd wave of infection. on. the street but the young. and hungry sports loving

foreign minister pays us a visit here are not just for a game of table football but also an exclusive interview where he does touch on claims about the death of democracy in his country. hello there good morning it's thursday the 25th of june you're watching r.t. international where it's just gone 10 o'clock in the russian capital. voting has just got underway in russia on amendments to the country's constitution the package includes more than $100.00 provisions some of which have been widely criticized to today both online and early voting begins all leading up to next wednesday's general votes let's get more details now with parties more on. good morning to you man i'd just run through there some elements of this constitution and this vote and also why it is proving to be a bit controversial. well it is it is.

many many people many voters meet many political factions but nevertheless the buddhism the way will find out soon enough which way people are leading hooting is under way of course of course across russia $97000.00 polling stations and you know vladimir putin he never misses an opportunity to remind everyone how the world is changing how quickly it's changing and how important it is for russia to stay ahead of the curve this obviously these changes of what the government of visions is paving the path for russia to stay ahead of that curve. tell you how important how much is at stake here the fact that they're holding them now just as russia begins to emerge from the quote of ours pandemic. have been lifted across the country nevertheless there are hotspots where the situation is east still severe which is

why there are so many mechanisms and procedures now in place to guarantee that this woot ease primarily safe to minimize the potential transmissions and infections to the lowest possible and there's all sorts of long distance routing there is in the house moves there's also for the 1st time online voting mass online voting people can register via moved all apps and vote a 1000000 people have registered so far though a number of applications have been declined juta due to detailed errors for example incorrect information incorrect contact details nevertheless people have been able to register it successfully as i said there's a lot of polarization many people have come out against this vote nobody will always be happy the communists for example their followers. but

against the changes saying that they will can continue to campaign against the machine just what they entailed even during the voting. we submitted 108 amendments by the last united russia party rejected what's the point of changing the constitution if we keep on keeping for a resource based economy if we choose not to teach children subjects relevant to today to support science so what is the point to for a long history. the more radical opposition those against the government and everything anything to do with the government they say that the vote simply isn't necessary that the amendment bad news and at the end of the day they don't even believe that the vote will be fair something that organizers have told us simply isn't true. that's our main goal is the health and safety of our citizens

is safe i think going to the. people there is no obligation and no one will know which way he wrote and people should feel free to come in in whatever way they want if they decide to vote at all we welcome everyone that critics like that takes. the vote was originally supposed to happen in april 1 day in april but because of the pandemic obviously it was postponed and now it is being stretched out over a 7 day period in order to prevent lines in crowds from forming again to minimise transmission to make it safe through all sorts of restrictions in place and how many people can be in voting stations at any one time nevertheless according to polls 67 percent of russians voice their intent to go and vote in these amendments 20 percent still undecided and just 30 percent of said that they don't plan on going to vote we've also put together the. video of this tape to show you what are

these that is so polarized people in russia. it was january when president putin stunned russia by proposing changes to the country's foundational law the constitution within hours the entire government had resigned the current constitution dates back to $993.00 to western backed president boris yeltsin built from the day bring of the communist soviet era yeltsin's constitution created what would be criticized as a hyper presidential system the president called all the shots and it was forged in bloodshed as a hostile communist control parliament trying to impeach yeltsin he resorted to the military to keep in power. 187 people were killed but all to him. one of the most important proposals today is to end that hyper presidential system while keeping the fundamentals of the constitution intact so what powers does the president currently have only he alone can nominate the prime minister another

cabinet member of parliament just gives a formal green light to the candidate. the proposal would flip that giving parliament the final say on who serves in government and the president would not be able to reject the m.p.'s choices. powers would be distributed between various branches of government intended to lock in more checks and balances into brushes governance system another big change would limit the president's tenure to only 2 terms in total as opposed to no more than 2 terms in a row as it is now. that means future leaders will be able to serve for as long as putin has. but it's not a member which is going to western media excited perceive trick to stay in power forever the existing rules say putin must stand aside in 4 years time after his 2nd consecutive term albeit his 4th mandate in total m.p.'s are pushing a proposal to 0 out his term count a reset button for an updated constitution i propose. to add to the new

constituents the current president like any other citizen would have the right to be elected to the post of head of the state that would mean putin could run again in 2024 and in 2030 if he wants to rewind back to january why putin said he wanted to change the constitution he says it's to develop a welfare state he was leading up to the reason for these amendments is to ensure the further development of russia as a state governed by the rule of law to increase the efficiency of institutions in our country with that in mind the room or than 140 amendments one guarantees that the minimum wage will not be lower than the cost of living another secures an annual adjustment to improve the real value of pensions and allowances that would also be tougher requirements for civil servants such as banning key officials from having foreign citizenship all foreign bank accounts would also be a ban on giving away any russian territory and a priority to domestic law over international there are some controversial proposals to marriage would be classified solely as a union between a man and

a woman and god gets mentioned over the constitution will still say russia is officially a secular state it's an all or nothing vote russians won't be able to pick and choose which of the amendments they want to say it's simply a yes or no to the whole package and the changes will only be enacted if the russian people get an unequivocal mandate to use the new if people do not vote for the amendments they will not be added to the constitution. but we spoke about this with the politician for the ruling seating party he believes critics of the amendments do have an agenda. for the past decade or even more one can say that western media did not get a fair judgement of russia they've retreated into their shells and spitting venom and by all towards russia unfortunately this is the development that we could not imagine but judging from the current reality in our media it will remain on. same

course they will not say a good word about at present a constitutional change but that has nothing to do with reality but rather with the intentions of the western press when you hear some voices from moscow in the western media but then look closely you can see that those are russians who are on the payroll of the west do you think tanks this is not allowed in any other part of the world but unfortunately this is the strategy against russia and that poisons the international relationships i'm hopeful that a lively parliament with more responsibilities and influences in making decisions on a national and international level will emerge out of that. now with the coronavirus restrictions in russia r.t. has welcomed it official guest in months but the hunger in foreign minister dropping by to see if he had a chat with our correspondent in a prank or about hungary's decision to rule by decree during the pandemic but it wasn't all tough questioning the sports loving minister.

well and all fine well. actually it will be really important because i can tell you. that. not only the media but the. national. everybody you know very well everybody's an expert. here

so this has happened here over should be the favorite. right now and. that. is really really good this point right at this point what's going on with mr or bans powers to rule by decree a state of emergency allowed us to make decrees like in every other e.u. member states every other e.u. member states what was the problem of the opposition they said and liberal mainstream in europe they said that there is no concrete date of conclusion in the law which allowed us to govern by decrees we said of course there is not a concrete date because who knows when. allow us to come back to normality of any it comes to decision making so what we have done now we seized we concluded the state of emergency less than 90 days opposition demanded $120.00 had the beginning now it took less than 90 days so this is number one number 2 when it comes to these

special economy zones yes. decree but in the meantime we submitted it to parliament so parliament can make a law on that because yes of course it to force quickly but parliament should approve that i think it's a very democracy way of. managing things. that has. great yesterday 1st time we hear what it was like. to come. join me every week on the alex song i'm sure i'll be speaking to a guest of the world of politics or business i'm sure i'll see you there.

hello again now after months of lockdown people around the world have been enjoying their 1st taste of freedom in recent weeks following the easing of many coronavirus restrictions but for those thinking the fight against the virus has been won the world health organization is warning it's only just begun. globally the plumbum if you still absolutely it took more than 3 months for the 1st 1000000 cases to be reported the last 1000000 cases were reported in just 8 days well south korea received much praise around the world for how it handled the pandemic but earlier this week officials there confirmed that the country is now battling a 2nd wave of infection. recently we found i heard that our predictions that curve it 90 will slow down in the summer were all incorrect and we believe that the virus outbreak will continue as long as there are close contacts

between people enclosed space and other success story was china which managed to halt the spread of the virus relatively quickly or so it seemed because a recent break was recorded in beijing and quickly started spreading to after locals can try to the buyers for the wholesale food market a local journalist from the. news network sent this report from the chinese capital . beijing toast ill food market she remains in the spotlight after a new coronavirus cluster of was linked to which on june 11th covering an area the size of $170.00 starker fields the complex supplies more than 80 percent of the capital cities agricultural products chinese authorities quickly shut down the entire market in the hope of curbing a 2nd wave of the 19 as quickly as possible to trace the original and cut off the spread of coronavirus in beijing more than $2000000.00 residents have been given

nuclear gay's it has been prone a virus since june 13th that's around 10 percent of the total population and now the city is spending its daily testing capacity to more than 200000 in beijing shooting shown district a massive testing campaign has also been conducted on people who live at a moderate risk areas residents from the street and shooting share power carefully lining up and thereby part reading for swap the street is the only place labeled as moderate risk and should ensure an area where a one time firm case was found recently officials say they plan to finish the testing of all residents on the street that's more than 60000 people in 3 days. i thought it. would be fast to take such a test but in fact i spent 3 hours queuing up for the test but when i saw the doctors my heart sank because their protective googles will focus and their sweat

was running down their faces. 5 other testing points like this are said to complete the task more than a 1000 of government officials the medics work hand in hand every day to ensure a smooth swabbing process though it only takes a few seconds to conduct death row swap china's experts say the recent corona virus outbreak in beijing has been brought under control the trend will persist for some time but the number of cases were declined despite those people in beijing will still be on high alert the habit of wearing masks in keeping social distancing in public areas my and your much longer time them previously thought. you cases of coronavirus have continued popping up in various regions leading local authorities to impose countermeasures which have differed from city to city in north rhine-westphalia for example new imposed measures that they resemble those taken at the very 1st stages of the pandemic peter all of a report sealing with coronavirus here in germany has moved away from sweeping

national measures with restrictions being lifted or imposed based on regional factors. here in berlin authorities have lifted restrictions that had limited get togethers to a maximum of 5 people from 2 different households earlier the same movies being made in the states of brandenburg. it's a very different picture in north rhine-westphalia an outbreak centered around a meat packing plant in the city of the scene over $1500.00 people test positive and a strict lockdown until the end of the month has been imposed on the area. undoes we will order a lockdown for the whole district of care are slow the purpose is to calm the situation to expand testing to establish whether or not the virus has spread beyond the employees of tony's we will get a better picture of the situation or intensive testing and can then see more

clearly within 7 days what the situation is we want to bring about this lockdown which will stay in place until june 30th and bring us more clarity of those long queues have formed as tests of being made available to everyone in the affected regions the military being drafted in to help with the large scale testing operation health professionals suggest that a large number of symptomless code would carry is a behind the spike the largest localized outbreak in germany and something that is already the idea of these tests because we know that there are symptomless people who don't have a high fever who carry the virus and they know unfortunately spread it today we've counted around 400 to 600 people waiting for it and we would also be setting up a hotline the next few days to help with registration and so on locals queuing to test sounds at all happy with the slaughterhouse at the center of the spike all the state authorities they say should have done more. akin to 40 found i don't want to

be careful and take the tests i don't have symptoms and what should i say i'm a bit angry with the slaughterhouse that they didn't read soon enough and now our region is headed into another log down we have to go through it. often find definitely the politicians and their thirty's should have reacted to you know and then completely convinced that the 1st condoms those infected were faked and then not taking any responsibility it isn't guns away from north rhine-westphalia there's also a localized lockdown in the city of my. workers and building is being seen bringing water and supplies to some of the 800 also families who were being taught. to quarantine. around 700 people remain in an apartment complex and get again a forced quarantine which turned violent last weekend. and remember i said restrictions were being lifted in berlin well not for old berlin as in the

friedrich china area of the german capital almost 40 households of being put on lockdown those living nearby a concerned about the risk posed a not too happy with those who faulted social distancing the policy in the some asylum and see if you know i have a feeling the fear can you explain why because i belong to the risk group and i have medical conditions i feel we are doing this for weeks and months we don't do visits anymore mostly you see it on the balcony apart from grocery shopping or law pharmacy or the doctor that's it. you push it you don't understand why some have in the box and in become phones we don't understand this. off the back of those regional covert 19 spikes authorities here in berlin have said that they will be enforcing fines against those law wearing face coverings on public transport or in shops as we try to get back to his normal

a life as possible while still remembering that corona virus is infectious today as it was a few months ago thanks for all overall see it. known to many to. representative to the russian federation still believes a full time is national passion is why. we have to understand that the transmissibility of the virus has not changed and it is still present in the community is this is why the recommendations of the world health organization have been to all countries in all communities where the numbers have gone down or even cannot be traced at the moment to be very vigilant to identify clusters new cases very quickly and to interrupt it yes the virus is around the transmissibility is above the 2 cases so one person can basically in fact more gentle persons and this makes the virus having an epidemic potential everywhere so we have to be

vigilant we have to continue with in that hearse that quickly identified the virus i surveyed the people who need treatment identified the contact and. in this case we can start a canteen or isolate very small communities or people affected rather than trying to follow lock downs as we have been seeing now you're the representative to the russian federation what do you make about the situation in russia we are seeing the number of cases on a downward trend that said there were just over 7000 new cases i think recorded yesterday. well we have seen that the epidemic has stabilized the christian now we can see that the communities that have the majority of the cases the major ones centers like moscow is going down relatively well however it is still not as it would say in the. contiguous vigilance is needed in case of any symptoms

staying at home contacting the health service making the task because that is going to prevent. flare ups or spikes that would follow i would not speak about a 2nd leave the 2nd wave means that we have almost no cases and then we see another rapid epidemic spread and this is something that we can and should prevent. moscow's red square is back to normal today following yesterday's spectacular victory day parade the iconic landmark echoed to the sound of thousands of troops marching across its famous cobbles and this year 13 foreign regiments also took part in clipping the 1st time a contingent from india written off spoke with their command. just witness this gallup performance and this gallup reform has got a history behind it you know 75 years of the 2nd world war getting over and the great history behind it and the indoor russian friendship relations which are

you know increasing by the day and we just had about 5 to 6 days before we landed here in russia and you would be surprised this is the 1st time when the union continue to move there to red square so we just landed at red square and we were asked to margin so that was absolutely praiseworthy so busy and cheered and the response from the russian people the flagging of the waves i think this shows how the din on forces contingent has been readily accepted by the russian people and we are also very very very thankful for the russian government will give us that they invite us to participate. a number of foreign dignitaries also attended the jubilee event watching the procession from the grandstand one of them was the commander in chief of mine mars armed forces who shared his impressions of the perfect. russian know of the parade was very solemn i liked it everything was ordered and harmonious

the soldiers marched beautifully i would like to note that despite the clear discipline in the ranks they march without much tension or you there was none the usual stiffness among the participants as often happens in parades the movements were very coordinated and looks natural moreover the parade demonstrated the success in great victory of the russians but of course i'm personally proud of this and i'm sure that the russian people are proud of their history it is natural that any people are proud of their achievements this parade was truly a reason for pride and enthusiasm they were russian made planes and helicopters on show at the parade i had a chance to see original russian aircraft i can say that these are really powerful modern aircraft they flew slowly and low so i managed to get a good look in addition i want to know the pilots who control them a really high class specialists also nice to see the planes and helicopters that are operated in our country and i felt proud that we have russian equipment.

this year we also launched the victory mail project offering me the chance to deliver your messages of thanks to world war 2 veterans share your stories and failings or just to say hello from a different part of the world once they did arrive at our offices we then send them on to the veterans for mine them the racks of bravery are not forgotten to show the world solidarity with the veterans and to remind people of the importance of not forgetting the lessons of the war a series of clips with words of gratitude are being displayed on a number of buildings in moscow and other russian cities too as part of the hash tag victory mail project to space have been chosen in busy locations so as many people. as possible can get to see them you can find out more about the project and you can find that website. very worthwhile project have a look at it if you can. just come up top last in the morning here in moscow back

again at the top of the. every single part pressure on america pretty much just doesn't do what it says it does the food companies don't make food the car companies don't make cars the computers don't make computers they built do what they say they're doing all they're doing is they're gaming the system by getting the free cash from the fed if you're part of the privileged class and then you know whipping that up to be paid for the executives.

that we. think will qualify for the well i hope not on are we kind of. well actually it would be silly for me because i can tell you that. that the. prime minister is about the. national head coach of the people everybody everybody knows about the.