when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. so we can get some divine rush on amendments to the country's constitution for the 1st time people can vote online as a precaution against 19. i just as many nations do start to relax over the coronavirus the world health organization has warned that the pandemic is actually accelerating the number of countries to start reporting a 2nd wave of infection and. not only 30000000 from me this week both. national. and hungary sports loving foreign ministers place a visit not just for a game of table football but also an exclusive interview where he does touch on

kinds about the death of democracy in his country. hello there she's come a day here in moscow you're watching international voting is 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 today both online and early voting begins all leading up to next wednesday's general fight but it counts the reports 7 days of voting in now underway across russia across 97000 polling stations set up for this vote 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 these obviously these changes what the government of visions 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 restrictions 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 in procedures now in place to guarantee that this would ease primarily safe to minimize the potential transmissions and infections to the lowest possible and there's all sorts of long distance routing there's in-house moves and there's also for the 1st time online voting mass online voting people can register via move all apps and vote a 1000000 people have registered so far though a number of applications have been declined jew to detail 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 to boot but against the changes saying that they will can continue to campaign against these changes and what they entailed even during the voting. we submitted 108 amendments by the last ruling united russia party rejected it will go what's the point of changing that monster tuition if we keep on keeping it 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 lose against the government and everything anything to do with the government they say that the vote simply isn't

necessary that the amendments bad news and at the end of the day they don't even believe that the vote will be fair. something which organizers have told us simply isn't true. our main goal is the health and safety of our citizens is the very thing is safe i think going to the shops or walking in the park there is no obligation to vote and no one will know which way you wrote it hence people should feel free to come and vote in whatever way they want if they decide to vote at all we welcome everyone all the critics the doubters the skeptics. 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 minimize transmission to make it safe though 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 have said that they don't plan on going to vote we've also put together this video of this cape to show you what it is that has 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 debut of the communist soviet era since 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 that autumn. 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 and other cabinet members parliament just gives a formal green light to the candidates. the proposal could flip that giving parliament the final say on who serves in government from the president would not be able to reject the m.p.'s choices. powers would be redistributed between various . branches of government intended to lock in more checks and balances into russia's government 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 won't be able to serve for as long as putin has but it's not a member which is got 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 you can situation 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 and 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 more than $140.00 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 a no to the whole package and the. changes will only be enacted if the russian people give it an unequivocal mandate. if people do not vote for the amendments they will not be added to the constitution. ok let's get the thoughts now journalist prime is following the story closely to brian now good afternoon do you think changes to the constitution are really needed to improve russia's development

. i think to understand the process of the moment we have to understand our talk about where this constitution comes from and we have to go back to 993 and what happened in 1930 was that russia was 2 years out of the soviet union it was in the beginning of laying down a sort of nascent democracy and want to see i'll soon have a problem that the communist party controlled the parliament and he was finding it very hard to get any forms of legislation or what he saw as the reforms to the system at the time he was trying to bring in you know free market capitalism the only group of floor reforms i'm a communist are blocking him at every turn as older viewers will remember and yes and you got to the stage where yeltsin sent tanks down to the parliament. he was blown up essential over 100 people were killed and then at that point he went to the country that autumn in 1003 passed a referendum very similar to the one but that at the time it created what's known

as a hyper presidential system and what that did is it got rid of the 2 years of russia having this sort of like presidents and parliament kind of equal democracy and it brought in a system that was very centralized in the kremlin at the time the west was very supportive of what boris yeltsin did at bill clinton actually compared to abraham lincoln after he attacked his own parliament but the point is that here we are 2027 years later and this document says obviously as i just said a centralized power dramatically putin feels it needs to be changed opinion poll suggests the majority of russians feel it should be changed as well i think it's very important to note that the present constitution came out of violence came out of a time of deep uncertainty a time of very small just events after the collapse of the soviet system i mean it all happened when 2 years of government of leaving office 27 years have passed

a lot of water has gone under the bridge. a lot of lessons have been learned and that's why one of the western media is focusing on the putin term limits thing which by the way doesn't mean he has to go and actually one day anyway. for most russians they're not really concerned about that polling consistently shows that what the russians are interested in is stuff like you know a guarantee of you know of state providing health care in the system provisions guaranteeing certain social welfare for children there are things that get the russians excited ironically the putin business or for example including god in the constitution they're not really exciting russians they're kind of seen a side show. the alternative to that brian is that ok you said that this these changes will help develop brush or in these the changes are needed but people will look at this i will paint me as creating an opportunity for himself a whether he takes it or not we don't know but he could stay in power. a lot longer

is that really going to need to change do you think that's part of the motivation the president. absolutely astley part of his motivation doesn't as opposed to get i want to lay out the 1st points 1st but the fact is that putin himself wants to keep his options open he's been there for 16 of the last 20 years in the kremlin he served as prime minister for a deal before there's no doubt he still had quite a lot of influence while he was prime minister putin wants to keep his options open one thing western viewers have to understand is that the russian system being such a huge country it's not like running ireland or running denmark it's a massive country with different ethnic groups and different regional you know power areas and on and on personal life times and all kinds of stuff. it's quite evidently trying to avoid becoming a lame duck if everybody knows that he's stepping down in 2024 in the end of may 2024 the countdown clock is kind of hanging over his head all the time you know

he's leaving soon everybody's working towards a time. and that's one way of looking at another way of looking at it although this is a minority view among experts in moscow is that he actually wants to stay in office until he's 83 now if he does want to stay in office for the next 16 years and he's 83 with that obviously opens up another you know element of things and also it means that he hasn't been telling the truth himself because he's made various statements over the last number of months saying that he does not intend to remain in office as elderly man he made comments like about what happened to so meek leadership in the early eighty's when he had put asian and chernenko in the role of very elderly that role on the well. and broke up took over he was gone very shortly afterwards churning go took over he was very sick at the time didn't last long either and then of course he went from gorbachev who said as recently as january that he does not want that to happen again because it will destabilize the country so if he stays until 83 he's basically contradicting himself so most experts in

moscow believe that this is about you know keeping his options open keeping some cards and play not becoming a lame duck now if he does as i said if used pulling the wool over everybody's eyes and he doesn't tend to sit in the kremlin for 16 years well the charitable way of looking at it is that he'd only be a year older than joe biden would be leaving office and 2025 if he wins and this autumn in america or the way i look at it is my god like 36 years will be a long time in. another element a of this course a lot of discussion at least outside the rushers the the need to ban same sex marriage is that a step in the right direction or is that just perhaps a reflection of different temperaments different cultures around the world. well i'm obviously not russian i don't agree with that but the point is that most russians. whether you're a westerner you might see on fortunately it as far as they're concerned they have their own belief system and values and they don't really care what we think but the

reality is that most russians do not support same sex marriage and that has been proven over the years and years and years of opinion polls it's not unique to russia the same thing pertains in many eastern slavic countries ukraine for example poland then in all these countries there is no desire for same sex marriage and whether we like it or not at the same pertains to places like serbia you know a lot of these ports docks christian countries all the poland of course is catholic but the fact is that in eastern europe they do not have the same value system as western europe and that's just a reality across many many things and they have a different culture they were a kind of separate you know experience in the 20th century for most of the 20th century and they don't have the same values as people in belgium and the netherlands and nuns and that's just how it is whether you like it or not in fact is that the majority of russians oppose same sex marriage and from putin's point of view having that in the constitution is what he would see as

a popular measure and just last. 140 amendments are going to be voted on is there a chance that the public will just be able well. i think it could have been done slightly better. well see here's the thing like what they've offered people is a simple yes or no answer to them do you support this or not i mean if they had a 140 different you know ballot papers that would be even more confusing. i mean where do you draw the line i mean they've gone for the yes or no putin says he will respect the vote you mean technically by the way he didn't have to have this national vote at all i mean it was passed by every russian region all 85 federal something it's passed in the state parliament the duma passed it the national parliament he didn't have. to have this vote he's chosen to do it because he obviously wants the public democratic legitimacy. he said he will respect the decision but in fairness i think if there had been that many ballot papers would be a hell of a lot more confusing than a single ballot paper saying yes or no and yeah ok very interesting look brian

going to have to leave it there nice to talk to you today it was journalist brian macdonald. now with coronavirus restrictions east in russia r.t. has welcomed its 1st official guest here in months with the hunger in foreign minister dropping in to see if he had a chat with our correspondent about hungary's decision to rule by decree during the pandemic but it wasn't all tough questioning the sports loving minister.

and all fine. and. well actually it will be really tell you. that. not only. national. will very well everybody's in. russia will be this has happened in europe will russia be the favorite. now given 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. made the decree but but in the meantime we submitted it to parliament so parliament can make a law on that because yes of course it entered into force quickly but parliament should approve that i think that's a very democracy way of of of managing things. for a minister speaking to. you watching our monies just after the break.

i think the biggest danger that's come out education as you just try says it's highlighted issue inequality that exists and i think one of the 6 the education of the. each that changes access to the internet for educational purposes needs to be i think to this century children rights. law no team no crowd. no shots. actually helps because. you know what struck the 1st. points your thirst for action.

welcome back 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 is actually being won the world health organization is warning it's only just begun globally the fundamental you still absolutely. it took more than 3 months for the 3rd swine median cases to be reported. the last 1000000 cases were reported in just 8 days before south korea received much praise around the world for how it handled the pandemic but earlier this week officials there did confirm to you that

the country is now battling a 2nd wave of infection. i do magic only. recently was found and it are predictions that curve it 90 will slow down in the summer we're all incorrect and we believe that the virus airbrake will continue as long as there are close contacts between people in close space and other success story was china which did manage to halt the spread of the virus relatively quickly or so it scenes because a recent outbreak was recorded in beijing and quickly started to spread after locals contracted the virus at a wholesale food market journalist lucidity from e.c.g. t.n. news network sent this report for r.t. from the chinese capital. they genes host ill food market she remains in the spotlight after new coronavirus cluster was linked to which on june 11th covering an area the size of $170.00 soccer 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 coal the 19 as quickly as possible to trace the original and cut off the spread of corona virus in beijing more than $2000000.00 residents have been given nuclear gay's it taxable prone a virus since june 13th that's around 10 percent of the total population and now the city's 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 streets and shooting share power carefully lining up in an hour by part reading for a swap the street is the only place labeled as moderate risk and should insure an area where one confirmed 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 google's will. and their sweat was running down misplaces. 5 other testing points like this are set to complete the task more than a 1000 of government officials the medics work hand in hand every day to ensure a smooth swapping process though it only takes a few seconds to conduct a thorough 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 done. cases were declined despite there's people in beijing will still be on high alert the habit of wearing masks in keeping social distancing in public areas might undo your much longer time is the thought. we did speak to the w

h o's representative to the russian federation about all of this and she believes still that a full lockdown is not necessary 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 klosters 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 the measures 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 creasing now we can see that in the communities that have the majority of the cases the major one centers like moscow going down relatively well however it is still not as it would say out in the green so continuous 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 wave 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. the wiki leaks co-founder julian assange she's currently fighting extradition to the u.s. is facing fresh allegations from the department of justice it now accuses him of trying to recruit to gain access to classified information so let's get more details now from our correspondent in the u.k. sherry it was actually good afternoon just bring us up to speed then on these latest developments. yes and as yet another step closer to being sent to the united states as new allegations have now satisfy against and they've been outlined in an updated indictment the night said that wiki leaks founder has now been accused of providing a hit list of targets as he has allegedly conspired with hackers all around the well he is said to have even tried to recruit happiness at

a conference in europe and one in asia and then online asked activist groups including anonymous in pursuit of this classified information full of wiki leaks website nervous want to courting to the u.s. government to publish this latest indict and then of course genocide is wanted by the united states but is currently in custody here in the united kingdom battling against this extradition to america which has indicted him under 17 counts under the espionage act and want him to face trial sighing and publishing these classified military documents related to the war in afghanistan and war in iraq plus one of conspiracy to hack a government computer to publish the secret documents now this latest indictment does not add to this very very happy nest list but it does include new claims against the suns between the years 2009 and 2012 so the united states is now describing this is one of the largest compromises of classified documents in

history and it couldn't stick to it in america and it could face up to 175 years in prison now some people would argue that his crime whistle blowing is a national security risk and many campaign a say is actually proceedings should all be dropped because there's no way that assad reverse even that trial over in the united states and in fact they think he's a valiant come here to. the drum department of justice a term to imprison in the songs for going with you source to publish classified documents that exposed years will crimes is the most severe us through that broke through them since 2016 that person. thing didn't work let's try another you scum bags let the journalist had his liberty i wouldn't give the department of justice decided to shooting dice mint just days before julian's next procedural hearing aspired to finance a smear campaign against him of course students are back in the public eye and

april last year when he was also from london secretary and the scene where he was seeking political asylum for massa to get out of days which is almost 7 years than the end 7 point till now has been called into question and many of his representatives argue it is mistreatment and even to some extent his torso while in custody in prison don't you just are just noise as this latest allegation is yet another journalist wildlife in an effort to stop genocide be where on. the government's relentless pursuit of julian assigns poses a great threat to journalists everywhere and to the public's right to know well today superseding indictment is yet another chapter in the u.s. government's effort to persuade the public that its pursuit of julian assange just based on something other than his publication of new.