i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical. usage. in. week voting gets underway here in russia on amendments to the country's constitution for the 1st time people can vote online as a precaution against covert 90. just as many nations start to relax over the coronavirus the world health organization is one of the pandemic is actually accelerating the number of countries have even started reporting a 2nd wave. of. national headquarters. and response loving foreign minister pays a visit not just for a game of football of course but also an exclusive interview where he touches on claims about the death of democracy in this country.

this is r.t. internet. 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 criticised today both online and early voting has begun all leading up to next wednesday's general vote. 7 days of voting in now underway across russia cross 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 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 would ease primarily safe to minimize the potential transmissions and infections to the lowest possible and there's all sorts of long distance routing that in-house move there's also for the 1st time online voting mass online voting people can register move 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 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 these changes and what they entailed even during the voting. we submitted $108.00. amendments by the last ruling united russia party rejected them 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 or to support science so what's the point to prolong his term. 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 amendments

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 so that's our main goal is the health and safety of our citizens voting is safe thing going to the shops or walking in the park there is no obligation for it and no one will know which way he wrote it hence people should feel free to come in in whatever way they want if they decide to vote at all we welcome everyone all the critics the doubters the skeptics. the votes 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 see 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 have said that they don't plan on going to vote we've also put together this video of this keep here to show you what are these that has sued 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. constitution dates back to $993.00 to western backed president boris yeltsin built from the debut 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 tried 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 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 we distributed 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 in that amendment which has 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. 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 one $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 or foreign bank accounts that would also

be a ban on giving away any russian territory and the 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 see 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. and i suspect niall alive to richard professor of russian and european politics at the university of kent is also an associate fellow at chatham house very good to have you on richard. ok let's talk about the fact this constitution is quite old goes back to i believe 993 does that

mean it's in need of an update. no in many ways constitutions are always a living organism which change can evolve through decisions of the constitutional court legislation and so on so 25 years 30 years isn't that old and there isn't i think the key issue in why these changes have been introduced at this time i think that the fundamentals of the constitution stay much the same but. at the margin. there has been some constitutional consolidation of social rights and other elements of how to choose the government and the prime minister there's something like 140 amendments all 10 together i mean that forces people doesn't accept things that it want to accept just to get the things that they day wouldn't it be better to split them up. not really that would be a classic pick and mix and there'd be no end personally i think that the position

of constitutional conservatism is a sensible one the united states has it countries with constitutions often make it quite difficult to change and of course there has to be a mechanism of adaptation in united states you have a system of constitutional amendments but no it has to be a package but the question then becomes the nature of the you know who end of it's not which the vote is continuing now up to the 1st of july is that it isn't actually referendum it's a popular vote which again you know these are some questions about the constitutional status the amendments themselves were adopted by parliament and accepted by the constitutional court in march or the vote to an effect earlier 14th of march and the regional assemblies all accepted it so this vote if you like is the icing on the cake and it status is important in legitimacy terms which is clearly

a key issue but in purely legal terms it's superfluous to the system of modifying the constitution what do you think of the idea of giving the russian parliament more powers. well it's a great idea but don't do these amendments actually give it all that much more power initially when putin made his initial speech in january at their state of the nation speech where he outlined these changes we assumed a major shift there'd been a discussion of at least a couple of years the chair of the. the lord in and they had chairs they call the usual court. all said in the dream talking and opening the door to constitutional change but when finally it went through parliament the actual changes yes now that i'm an airport and all changes are important in legislative and constitutional proceedings but it doesn't actually shift power enormously because soon after i made the initial speech then he insisted you know with good sense and perhaps

sensibly usually that russia will remain a presidential system so therefore the changes are not substantive the only fundamental huge change is the ability to extend for the present incumbent beyond the 2 terms yes future and future presidents will only be able to serve a maximum of 2 terms no longer consecutive that word has gone and simply 2 terms however we know that amendment allows that with as the new you well modified constitution is not a new one will allow have no option to start again well again putin has spoken about it this week and he's been quite honest and open about it that this is a way of managing expectations coming up to 2024 when his existing to come to an end and it opens the door to him staying on it doesn't mean that he will

but it means that it's possible and that of course will come internal elite conflict and indeed stopping the defection of people towards a possible successor and indeed splits lining up between possible candidates so politically it's important again i'm going to turn to the my fundamental point i think that constitutional conservatism was one of the key features of the putin system for so many years the fact that he has now moved for towards the these changes which really don't. substantially change of political system in fact in many ways the intervention of conservative values is again in terms of. introducing the word god the also in terms of giving a status to russian language also about maybe in limiting some historical debate and meaning. condemn nation of any historical your vision ism as it's called about the 2nd world war all these things could have been dealt with in other ways so i

think that under changing the constitution in this way i understand the political reasons for it but i think in long longer term that if each leader as they used to do in the soviet system changes the constitution to suit their political short term political needs then it undermines the very foundations of constitutionalism richard pleasure to have you on thank so much which is sacco my guest professor of russian and european politics at university of kent and a fellow at chatham house thank you. now with coronavirus restrictions eased here in russia artie's welcome its 1st official gas for months with a hunger in foreign minister dropping by had a chat with our correspondent philip a trunk or about congress decision to rule by decree during the pandemic was a lot of questions though for the sports loving minister.

qualifying. actually will be truly tell you. that. not only. national. will very well everybody's in. russia will be. here will russia be the favorite.

going into the. world 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 they'd because who knows when. allow us to come back to normality when 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 had the beginning now it took less than 90 days so this is number one number 2 when it comes to the 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 1030 to force quickly but parliament should

approve that i think is a very democracy way of. managing things. coming up after the break. is facing more charges in the united states over accusations he tried to hire access to classified information. joining me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sport business i'm show business i'll see you then.

welcome back after months of long down people around the world have been enjoying a 1st taste of freedom in recent weeks following misa give many coronavirus restrictions for those thinking that the fight against the virus has been one of the w.h.o.

is warning it's only just begun. globally the number if you still. took more than 3 months for the 1st $1000000.00 cases to be reported. the last 1000000 cases were reported in just. south korea received much praise around the world for how it handled the pandemic but earlier this week officials there confirmed the country is now battling a 2nd wave of infection. had a magic only. recently were found and it errored predictions that curve in $1000.00 will slow down in the summer we're all in correct and we believe that the various outbreak will continue as long as there are close contacts between people in close space another success story was china which managed to hope the spread of the virus relatively quickly or so it seemed a recent outbreak recorded in beijing as quickly started spreading have to locals contracted the virus so they wholesale food market journalist serif from the c.g.

news network said this report for r.t. from the chinese capital. they genes host their 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 to transport 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 street and shooting share power carefully lining up in an hour by part reading forest watch the street is the only place labeled as moderate risk and should ensure 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 they had protective google's will. and their sweat was running down my face says. 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 he 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 then. cases were decrying despite this people in beijing were still be on high alert the habit of wearing masks in keeping social distancing in public areas mind you are much longer time demme free to sleep thought. a mile in germany a new cases of the virus of continued to pop of been various regions leading local authorities to impose countermeasures which differ from city to city in north or on westfalia for instance new imposed measures resemble those taken of the very early stages of the pandemic into oliver has the story. dealing 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 move it 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 beirut is last seen 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 killer slow the purpose is to calm the situation to expand testing to establish whether or not the virus has spread beyond the employees of toni's we will get a better picture of the situation there 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 covert carriers a behind this spike the largest localized outbreak in germany. that is already the idea of these tests because we know that there are symptoms people who don't have a high fever who carry the virus and then unfortunately spread it today we've counted around 402600 people waiting and we will also be setting up a hotline in the next few days to help with the registration. local skewing to test science at all happy with the slaughterhouse at the center of this spike all the state authorities who they say should have done more. than 45 i don't want to be careful and take a test i don't have symptoms and what should i say i'm a bit angry with the slaughterhouse that they didn't react sooner and now our region is headed into another log down we have to go through it. to find definitely the politicians in their thirty's should have reacted to it and then completely

convinced that the 1st kind of those infected were faked and then not taking any responsibility. away from north rhine-westphalia there's also a localized lockdown in the city of. workers and is being seen bringing water and supplies to some of the 800 also families who are being to. 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 schein area of the german capital almost 40 households of being put on lockdown those living mia by a concerned about the risk posed and not too happy with those who faulted social distancing the policy in the summer. and i have a feeling the fear can you explain why because i belong to the risk group and i

have medical conditions. we are doing this for weeks and months we don't do visits anymore mostly we sit on the balcony apart from grocery shopping or a walk pharmacy or the doctor that's it. if push it we don't understand why some have seen the box and in the compounds 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 peter all over all see the it. today thanks staying with r.t. with molotov uno. we so too had to quit. for good.

but on the go to. the so let me just. move. to east. you need. to. go chill the truth. we seem to be soldier to boot she's wearing. huge which so so looks like to move the opposing opinion with. some russian police force to just hold.

every single car price in america pretty much just doesn't do what it says it does of good companies don't make food the car companies don't make cars the computers don't make computers they don't do what they say they're doing all they're doing is they're gaming the system by getting a free pass from the fed if you're part of the privileged class and then you know whipping that up to d.c. it's paydays to the extent that it's.

well actually. there. are. but these are. the. works of your favorite. because. it is really really good at least to say that you are the 1st government minister to come toward t. after quarantine so that's why we're grateful and welcome again let's get going thank you so much for an invitation it's great to be here but i do have to say that

you flew into the russian capital. at a time when still every day there was $1000.00 plus new cases in moscow. but in hungary there's only a total of $4000.00 a bit more than that aren't you worried and is it really time already to go back to business as usual when it comes to diplomatic trips look i never stop basically i didn't stop during the crisis at all if i had to travel abroad for example for humanitarian reasons bringing mosques or protective clothes for our friends in the vegetable canes or somewhere else i did travel i did travel i take care about the hygienic prescriptions and obligations you know washing cans not to go to clothes shaking hands but to some time we did because now it's in our case it's it's over i mean from the crisis perspective but but during the peak of the crisis i really seriously tried to respect the rules and regulations.