this is a central plank for diagram is kind of common right now they stopped. in a day of political upheaval in armenia that the prime minister's call for early elections is rejected by the opposition he also says the military must obey him after he sacks the armed forces chief say he was part of an attempted coup. by the old soldiers this is the new rules. dog borders and the territorial integrity of armenia this is my order and no one can disobey. clashes erupted as thousands of protesters as well as supporters of prime minister faced off in the capital. and other news ahead essential vaccines for political influence critics slam israel for sending countries chads in exchange for the

diplomatic support. worldwide this is aussie international from moscow money welcome to world news this hour 1st the breaking developments from the south caucasus that we've been covering for the past few hours the opposition in armenia has rejected an offer for the prime minister's snap elections earlier a standoff between opponents and supporters of prime minister nicole passion and rocked the capital yerevan and police were deployed in large numbers the escalations in response to the prime minister's sacking the chief of the armed forces general stuff saying that he was pos of an attempted military coup and there are fears that the tensions could spiral.

massive opposing rallies we're seeing close to one another in central official crowd numbers yet to be confirmed but the rest made it to be in the thousands. drivers of big honking car horns as crowd chanted anti passion young slogans some of it driving with photos of the prime minister smeared in fake blood stuck to their vehicles opponents of nicole passion have also been filmed standing on their balconies giving the thumbs down sign. the opposition block streets and also paralyzed traffic that chanting that they wanted the prime minister out protesters have also set up a makeshift camp next to the parliament building and yet a ban and they're reportedly being encouraged by opposition leaders to stay where they are until m.p.'s vote for the resignation of the prime minister. there by the rallies in support of prime minister passion earlier in the day he took to facebook

to tell supporters he needs them the prime minister and his son then met the crowd to assure them that the situation was manageable and that he's ready to discuss any problems in the country. he also insisted that the army chief he dismissed remained a quote his brother but he's demanding that the country's military base him after he sacked the head of the armed forces saying that he was part of an attempted coup . to all soldiers this is general rules your job god borders and the territorial integrity of armenia this is my order and no one can disobey today we're holding this rally and we'll finish all accidents we will sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition for consultations or no actions the prime minister and the government of army are no longer able to make adequate decisions in this fateful and critical situation for the armenian people given the current situation the own forces of armenia the resignation of the prime minister

and the government at the same time we cool to refrain from using force against people whose children died defending their homeland and care about. manias general stuff insists on the resignation of both the prime minister and his government the military accuses nicole passion down of being unable to make sound decisions in times of crisis on top of that the military's unhappy about what they describe as numerous attempts to discredit the armed forces a statement goes on to claim that passion and inefficient management has brought media to the verge of demise a local journalist karyn i did see on reporting from the advance says the opposition is preparing for a night of demonstrations. right now where between the 2 can see in the parliament square right behind me you can see. the buildings national leslie of parliament you are right in the streets the opposition was teaching the

chance to make a chance. because we should is to stand $24.00 seventh's and also say they are preparing for that night's. drinking firewood for kim fire everything in preparation for that night and not just the one night but every day 247 yes the all physician leaders they are lost and also waiting for the president of for me to make from the seizure. he had the feast of the president before he is also in the parliament street so the main role says that the main action will take place right. political tensions in armenia escalated following the military conflict in disputed nagorno-karabakh region last autumn which saw

azerbaijan make significant gains forcing armenians to cede large swathes of territory the opposition's been calling on the armenian prime minister to step down ever since accusing him of treason mismanagement. of who cover the bloody military conflict between armenia and azerbaijan force doing down here earlier with in-depth analysis on the political crisis this whole process that has been brewing for months because it all stems from mean years and well nagorno-karabakh a defeat in last year's war the armenian government promised their people that they would come out victorious out of this clash with their by john over the issue of this disputed region over nagorno-karabakh i spent a month there well as the war was breaking out all around me and basically from the very start and all throughout the war everything that we've heard everything that journalists have heard everything about the population the people that heard from the i mean inside it it was we're going to come out victorious yes we are falling

back a little bit but that's a tactical retreat and we will regain our positions and don't worry we have it under control so when i was there by john i mean it signed a peace deal with russia effectively brokered it came through or mean eons for ordinary people as an absolute shock because according to that deal they had to concede. to go in a car back to azerbaijan and that when it's parked that was the ignition that's when the protests started that's when people started to come out to the streets and when they started to call on world local trashing and to step down because they blame this on him and essentially passion and he tried to just push the blame on something else and at a certain point it was almost like he was trying to blame the military to blame the soldiers for not doing enough he obviously retract. is that he later he said that he did mean that but that's when the bad blood between him and the military started because i've been there soldiers they did all the could they just they were

overpowered militarily they were overpowered they had no response they had no answer to the drone problem because the drones they were just obliterating their positions we were absolutely not ready for you know their defense systems were not ready for that so that's when it started basically people heartbroken absolutely devastated because you're going to care about it's not just some piece of mountainous it is well for you or for me we don't have that feeling it's all good for them it's a matter of a matter of national pride so that defeat having to concede to. the territories which are overwhelmingly populated by the ethnically armenian people that was absolutely devastating and through the cause of all these months it seems and while it is obvious now passion and hasn't the prime minister hasn't done enough to. go back together the divisions in the armenian society just so back

together to heal those wounds this massive wound looking at the pictures today it's clear it does have a fair amount of support doesn't it i mean he called for supporters to come on to the streets and they did how much support does he have exactly and why is that support there given what you've just said judging from what i see right now it very much reminds me as to what was happening there back in october in november when it was still hard when the moon was still bleeding from the last in the war basically i did see thousands of people turn out against nickel passion on a given back then but again every single taxi driver that i would talk to back then he would tell me something along the lines well i don't know i don't know why people are so angry like a lot of people do support the prime minister after all remember he came into power as the man of the street so to speak he would like to. he came with the crowd he came as part of a revolution himself so really the streets and the public support is all that he

has to legitimize him as as as the country's leader that's why the his knee jerk reaction to this statement by the military was to call in his supporters to gather and the in the city center because this is what legitimizes him and that's why the opposition is following the same route because they know if a lot of people come out and if it is obvious that there is so many people who want him to go that the that the moves in i mean that the mood in armenia has changed because of this war and people will fewer people now support him after the after the defeat and that they blame that the pin the blame of the defeat on him passion on his saying that it's an attempted military coup but again we haven't seen any military in the streets the general chief of staff he signed a letter along with some 40 other top officers generals they have called on him to resign but again they called on everybody to refrain from violence so to me it looks like the last world really the last warning literally the last warning to

passion and it came as a complete surprise to passion and so he's trying to find this balance as to he doesn't want to be more who are than he needs to be and he's trying to and it is clear that he did not have a plan for this he's just he just reacting on the girl like something happens he reacts it's not it's not like he had a he had a contingency plan for that at least it doesn't look like he had one to me. back in november there was another violent rally in the armenian capital when hundreds of demonstrators broke into the government building they were strongly against the prime minister's decision to end the fighting and to go in or care about saying they won't give up land under the deal reached with who holds areas of the disputed region taken during the conflict many armenians say they'll never forgive for the loss. however the current unrest comes from a more recent disagreement inside the armenian government over weapons of the

army's disposal was done on course and i explained. there must always be someone to blame for losing a war what leader would blame himself right he wouldn't be a leader for much longer that was the dilemma hanging over prime minister posh and young and then he made his move he blamed russian weapons for his country's military defeat in a go in a car in autumn he said russia's electronic warfare systems could not handle turkish drones used by azerbaijan's armed forces the prime minister's attack on russia's military industrial complex added that the russian made is skandia missiles either did not explode or quote exploded 10 percent it's not exactly clear what the pm meant by that only 10 percent of the missiles launched did missiles hit only 10 percent of their targets neither statement has any confirmed substance behind it since no evidence was provided to back paasschen yon's claims what is known is that such unreliable weaponry would clearly never be accepted into russian military service or by those who buy moscow's weapons like the armenian military

which pasha neon is now at odds with in fact russia's ministry of defense says none of their iskenderun missile systems were in any way involved in the nuke or in a car conflict giving russia's defense officials the impression that posh and yon's been given inaccurate information. according to the objective unreliable information available to us no miso systems of the top were used during the conflict. it's appears that armenian prime minister. was misled and used in cuba information. the deputy chief of the general staff rejected the prime minister's claims about the unreliability of russian equipment calling his statement frivolous he then lost his post a chain reaction ensued with the military demanding paasschen younes resignation and then the chief of the general staff himself was dismissed and all that brought us to today standoff in front of the government buildings with the fate of the

armenian state itself hanging in the balance. there's been an international reaction over the past few hours to with russia the united states and turkey ovoid saying their opinions on the political crisis. russia has made it clear that it views the situation in armenia as its own internal affair and hopes for its peaceful resolution we condemn all military coups or cooler temps no matter where they take place across the world it is unacceptable for a military to call for the resignation of an elected government we are closely following ongoing developments in our mania and encourage all parties to exercise calm and restraint and to escalate tensions peacefully without violence. more live reaction now to former prime minister of nagorno-karabakh and i have an attorney leon joins us now really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us on r.t. 1st can i ask you many in our media criticized the prime minister over the peace deal with azerbaijan is that criticism justified

you get it good news in the media world your criticism was not for the peace deal but what about the capitalization in the war the defeat in the war. what other options were there at the time. well. there were other options in 94 and 16 when well there were different situations with there but john back then when they were when we were winning that's the way we could picture later for the enemy was something completely unexpected in just 44 days of the war. authorities. have being misleading the people

misleading the nation saying that we were winning and suddenly overnight they said we're capitulating. admitting defeat this came as a surprise to the nation to the to the politicians to the civil society and in terms of life today in nagorno-karabakh is their stability and does what's happening in the year over effect that. are interrelated things we are one nation and what happens. affects the situation in a corner karabakh and the other way around what happens in the going occurring about an arab. media clear has been

a fact on. their ass for stability. i have to say it's quite stable situation is quite stable right now. in the regions. and in terms of importance which is more vital for the embattled prime minister the support of the military all the support of the merely an armenian public. you seem to say the authorities. and the prime minister. they do not have the support of the military of the people because the general staff made a statement today and the statement was signed by top military officials. some of the highest ranking officers and

military officials told the prime minister to resign. and. most major political forces in armenia called for the same. in addition. our war patriarch our church also called for the prime minister and his government to resign the academy of sciences even a number of higher education institutions and universities. in our media. or the prime minister to resign. who will be. sensually the entire civil society demands that the prime minister step down. blamed russian

made on the missiles phase country's military defeat in karabakh the russian defense ministry says that he was misled as for you have you ever heard of these missiles being used in the region. yes today i wrote an entire article about that. i believe with. what was said was what he said was not just something because he didn't understand the carrolls and the. aim of these weapon systems i think that what he's doing is telling. her to deliberately. it's is. a mission given to him by someone from the west. we all believe that he came to

power. one can go. to. russia away from southern ca gases from armenia. to make russia go away from the region. in order for the turkish. military to enter. a soviet. forces and gain a foothold in the region and this is exactly what's happening is what we're seeing right now so do you think the prime minister passion yun can survive this politically. yes. i do not. believe that you can survive this.

for our entire people both in the corner of long and in armenia this person is not our brother i believe that she is a. political corpse right now. a very much appreciate. you know actually. i will provide an example. for governments to move in armenia from move from one building to the other. for to move from one building to the other just a distance of 50 meters they were 5000 policemen. so he could move these distance of 50 meters so currently he is being upheld. by the police by the by the coastal forces i said look at the next 2448 hours are going to

be crucial we really appreciate you taking the time to share your insights on this former prime minister of the going to karabakh and thanks for your time well jules . is turning to other news now in the pandemic namely claims of exercising soft power through vaccine diplomacy and with jobs currently worth their weight in gold amid chronic shortages israel is negotiating political favors from countries in exchange for giving shot his policy. it's really safe to share that stock effect scenes with a countries including with palestinian doctors as a generous means he might think about well we are talking about symbolic numbers of vaccines that were given to maris countries i took the decision in return for many things that we already received through many contacts in various areas that i will no detail here. poults came trade off sought being made with countries which least

some people stood relations. sauce paula at its finest he often appears quite clear we will give you vaccines and in return you give us all diplomatic support this is the chick embassy in tel aviv not so long ago paul promised to open a diplomatic office in jerusalem and in return the people of the czech republic would receive thousands of coronavirus vaccinations from israel or somalia has moved its embassy to jerusalem 100 page the same hungary has also set up a trade mission in jerusalem many of those think it's simply wrong to trade medicine for political influence the reason being that any always doing it is to

promote himself and to try and win the elections so in that sense of course the it's not done purely out of the right multi-verse he uses us for diplomatic relationships he use us for anything he has to report to people in israel why he's doing it and to which countries he's doing it to you has to be transparent about it but there's nothing wrong with it we need to give to all of our citizens here in israel the vaccine. speak for we think offering it to any other country is regardless of what they are doing for us the ideal thing would be that these vaccines would get directly to these countries and not through israel and the original prize to get to all the countries that need it and we shouldn't make any profit out of it i do agree it should help other countries and the 3rd as well to get vaccinated but. not to use it cynically

just to gain politicos gain our loyalty and our government's loyalist see should be to its citizens 1st and foremost like most of our population i think you should israel doesn't manufacture the vaccines itself and the idea is to stand thousands of left of the shots to other countries but don't position leaders are criticizing the secret nature of these deals and cooling for mole jabs to be seen to the way spank and gaza over half the population has been back sandburg wish i played this operation 1st before going over statements are very far away from actually you. know what is there and you know the diplomatic aerobatics. are in can be a very you and humanitarian gesture at me and very crying from red indians not farre . more eloquent to go out and out human i help you know in hell why aspect

i think that sending the book seems far away he might be going to india. not nice for. our own a geisha to our neighbors nearby and if they are on their our our responsibility. peace both human. and directed. to these vaccines. 2 5 or 6000000 of these stream humans leaving next week because the dead make knows no borders. peace not for israel to eat just to buy it for almost there are no or fives or and then give it to some that you know american rulers all the community is only going to get there or there are raised really just living in settlements in the west bank next to arab villages and towns but he's doing it on religious intolerance so yes after israel palestinian should get the 1st and not

those regimes who have been there call to make the yarrow at pax have worked against be israeli interests inside the country netanyahu is main rival in governing partner defense minister pentagon's has harshly criticized the arrangements saying they had been reached without any governmental deliberation the fact that netanyahu trades in vaccines of israeli citizens that were paid for from their tax money without any accountability shows that he thinks he is running a kingdom and not a state next month hundreds of thousands of medina vaccines are expected to arrive in israel once the country has finished inoculating its own population the surplus supplies might be used to help normalize relations with new countries who knows how many more of these embassies might be springing up in jerusalem. tel aviv and that's the way looks for moscow so far this out thanks for watching i'm calling bright but with your next update after the alex salmon show.

welcome to the alex salmond show from scotland the scottish constitutional debate is highly charged provoking many i'm videoed commentators i'm participants none more so than our guest of titty professor richard murphy started to scream as a chartered accountant however much of his analysis these days is on economics and

political economy whether he's attacking u.k. chancellor as for the timidity of the economic response to crisis or intervening in scottish political debate he is one of the most clear sighted and articulate of commentators providing an alternative viewpoint to conventional wisdom much more from professor murphy later on in the show but 1st to your tweets messages and emails in a sponsor russia last week on corporate 19 and whether it will be ever with us of course we heard from the wonderful professor hugh much government had lots and lots of comments 1st of all from lindy who says excellent interview with professor montgomery and bedding equality addressing poverty and dealing with public health properly should form the basis for scotland's route map of corporate and she says professor montgomery absolutely superior on the shoe speaks so well and communicates complex science issues so clearly to fixedly and eyes on the front line of intensive care he should command the highest respect from all of us and we need to listen to ski messages thank you ira says brilliant programme alex instinct

says that coverage was in scotland at the latter end of 21000 maybe that's a question that could be explored if you and i says really interesting sure gets to actually hear what the interviewee has to say without interruption thank you. we then had a discussion about long corporate and louie says wasn't a me chronic fatigue syndrome largely discovered by patients too long called it seems closely related and demi is still largely ignored and under-diagnosed will be searching to long covert help any sufferers i've heard already of any surface describing their condition as possible long corvids in order to have their symptoms taken seriously alan says in response my mate jimmy is still managing to work but it's an easy job that he doesn't really have to exert himself at it although he still struggles with doing his job he ends up not eating it is too big because he ends up falling asleep and fall straight to sleep when he.