and this changes the way our genes function. in a day of political upheaval the prime minister's call for early elections is rejected by the opposition he also says the military must. say he was part of an attempted coup. this is general. and the territorial integrity of our media this is my order and no one can disobey . thousands of protesters as well as supporters of prime minister faced off in the capital. and in other news this hour essential vaccines for political influence critics

sending countries jobs in exchange for diplomatic support. live from moscow this is. breaking news to start with from the south caucasus where the opposition in armenia has rejected an offer from the prime minister snap elections earlier a standoff between opponents and supporters of prime minister nick. the capital. police were deployed in large numbers escalations in response the prime minister sacking the chief of the armed forces general stuff saying that he was part of an attempted military coup and there are fears that the tensions could spiral further .

massive opposing rallies were seen close to one another in the. official crowd numbers again to be confirmed but they are estimated to be in the thousands. drivers have been honking horns as crowd chanted and slogans some of the driving around with photos of the prime minister made inflate a blood start on their vehicles opponents of nick of passion now have also been filmed running on their balconies giving the thumbs downside. the opposition block streets and paralyze traffic they're chanting that they wanted the prime minister out protesters have set up a makeshift camp next to the parliament building an arab and a metal partly being encouraged by opposition leaders to stay there until m.p.'s vote for the resignation of the prime minister. by the rallies in support of prime minister passion earlier in the day he took to facebook to tell supporters he needs them prime minister and his son met the crowds 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 that he dismissed remains quote his brother but he's demanding that the come trees military airbase him after he sacked the head of the armed forces saying that he was part of an attempted coup. no i don't want to also . generals do 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 finished all act since he will sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition for consultations on elections 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 demand 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 kyra. well i mean as general stuff insists on the resignation of the prime minister and his government the military accuses nicol passion yad of being unable to make sound decisions in times of crisis on top of that the military is unhappy about what they describe as numerous attempts to discredit the armed forces the statement goes on to claim that the passion and efficient management has brought armenia to the verge of to molly's local journalist karen adventists yand reporting from we are advance says the opposition is preparing for a night of demonstrations. right now we are between and through towns in the parliament square right behind me you can see. the building of the national leslie of parliament you are right in the streets that the opposition is teaching the p.m.'s to make that camp. because we shoot years to stand $24.00 seventh's and also. they are preparing for that night's.

bringing firewood for camp fire everything going for it for a show for the night and not just the one night but every day 247 yes the all physicians leaders they are lost and also waiting for the president of for me to make. from the seizure. he had the office of the president before he is also in the parliament street so the main rule says that the main action will take place right. political tensions in armenia escalated following the military conflict in the disputed nagorno-karabakh region last autumn which saw azerbaijan make significant gains forcing the 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 and mismanagement. of uncovered the bloody military conflict between armenia and azerbaijan force joined under a farm here earlier with some in-depth analysis on the political crisis this whole process that has been brewing for months because it all stems from meaning as and when the going to tabak to defeat in last year's war the a meanie and government the promise their people that they would come out victorious out of this clash with their by john over the issue of this disputed region over the going to come back 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 that the population the people there. from the armenian side 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 and i mean signed

a peace deal which russia effectively brokered it came poor mean eons for ordinary people as an absolute shock because according to that deal they had to concede 2 thirds of the go in a car back to azerbaijan and that when it sparked 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 him 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 he retracted 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 which 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 go to karabakh it's not just some piece of mountainous which it is for you or for me we don't have that you know feeling it's for that for them it's a matter of a matter of national pride so that defeat having to concede 2 thirds of the territories which are overwhelmingly populated by the ethnically armenian p. . people that was absolutely devastating and through the course of all these months it seems and while it is obvious now passion and hasn't the prime minister hasn't done enough to to do so back together the divisions in the armenian society just so back together to heal this woman this massive wall and looking at the pictures today it's clear that 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 nicol 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 streets so to speak he was like 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 the country's leader that's why the his kneejerk reaction to this statement by the military was to call in his supporters to gather in 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 well 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 is saying that it's an attempted military coup but again we haven't seen any. tree 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 word really the last warning like literally the last warning to passion and it came as a complete surprise to partially and so he's trying to find this balance as to he

doesn't want to be more 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. he goes down of now 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 at the corner carabao they don't want to give up their lands under the deal reached with as opposed to hold areas of the disputed region taken during the conflict many armenians though say they'll never forgive passion and loss. however the current armrests comes from a more recent disagreement inside the armenian government over weapons of the army's disposal as donald cotton now explains. 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 bomb 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 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 paasschen yon 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 paasschen yon's been given inaccurate information by i mean she is. according to the objective unreliable information available to us no miso systems of this top were used during the gold 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 international reaction over the past few hours with russia the united states and voicing 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 the old military coups or coup attempts 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 if the experts we've been hearing from agree that the only democratic way out of this crisis is to go for snap elections. well i think is most sensible thing would be to call for new elections because that buys a little bit of time and some democratic and as you said the opposition saying they want to democratic constitution solution so it. will have new elections it'll take a few minutes to organize them so who by some time he can turn patch up his

relations with the army in the meantime and slight chance to he would win the elections what's happening is almost a normal thing you go to when a country itself is defeated in war zones or is people looking for scary good people who can blame people who can't read it because you can accept a new reality which is to have lost a lot of territory huge human cost to this whole war to stop the war started and then lost it. you have to you couldn't expect to have school he didn't start the war interest there is he did the problem of i mean years that they lost the war the 6 weeks war that left 6000 people dead in moscow intervened in november 2 to obtain a cease fire and have things calmed down and count down the situation so everybody sort of me they lost the war but the same. kind of box should have been better protect maybe and the problem is that the army feels discredited

they have lost the war and dour all day they have anger at their humiliation and so i think it's more between the general style. the generals and the president that the thing of course your position tries to make use of it but it's some it's not really. the opposition at least the game it's more. an issue between the president and the military that needs to be sort. of a lever action now in washington when he has a legal expert a vice president at the aeration business coalition could have you want to say thanks for your time where do you think the hearts of the armenian people are all based so they behind that embattled prime minister or an increasingly belligerent military. i think the people of armenia just want peace safety and security and to be able to engage in economic trade and commerce with their

neighbors certainly the military is very unhappy because they've lost the war and having the military in the know being so unhappy with the prime minister is not very favor favorable for armenian general but i do think at some point at the end of the day. they will stand down. what are the dangers of the military influencing what happens next politically in armenia because a lot of the reaction we've been hearing is that politicians should be decided by voters in a political election not by military chiefs well that's what it should be it should be up to the people to decide their form of governance but certainly the military will want to have their say they're very upset you know that they lost the war and they want to make sure that they have a stake in the outcome of the next election. the prime minister rallied his

supporters earlier on today he drew thousands of them out so we have but equally there is a groundswell of anger against what happened last november to how much of a gamble is it for mr pushing on to try and colon election now would he get it. i think you will get it the question is can can he survive i mean how much support does he have among the people of armenia. with there have been any other options though for mr passion and i mean he didn't exactly go in. excitedly about the peace deal in november and he practically felt he had little choice whether any other options. i believe that their their credit but certainly. i have to be sympathetic to him because he certainly he had no other option. so it's just we have to wait and see what happens if the economic issues are going to drive you know the next election and of course the ramifications are going to be

felt beyond simply the borders of mania or aren't they because as we heard last hour from a former and going to cairo back prime minister if there's uncertainty in either us or by john or in armenia that's going to have an effect on the very delicate situation in that disputed region absolutely i mean what goes on in central asia especially between armenia and azerbaijan will have a direct effect on the on the upcoming election and we'll just see how the prime minister is able to maneuver and handle such a delicate situation the opposition rejected to the prime minister's coals for a snap election but they want him to quit if he quits presumably the have to be an election what are they after. i think they want him to step down you know they really want to force them into position or the house to leave office. but if he goes to a snap election and wins again that's not exactly going to achieve very much he's going to go full circle it's not now it could backfire absolutely but i guess it's

a chance that it feels worth taking and even though things are very highly emotionally charged in europe and at the moment it looks like we're heading for a night of protests outside the government building who do you think's going to blink 1st the prime minister or do you think. you're laughing about. it or it really remains to be seen. you know when people get out in a crowd and they're passionate who knows what can happen you know we'll just have to see it out both sides you know react to each other and they were going to keep watch on it for now in washington ralph when he really appreciate your time on r.t. thanks a lot glad to be with you by. turning to other headline news now in the pandemic namely claims of exercising soft power through vaccine diplomacy with jobs currently worth their weight in gold amid chronic shortages israel is negotiating political favors from countries in exchange for

giving shots more on that next from polish lier. israelis say to share that stock effect scenes with other countries including with palestinian doctors a generous mean few might think about but. 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. but ports came trade off sought being made with countries which is well listen people stood relations. soft at its finest he often appears quite clear we will give you vaccines and in

mattoon you give us all diplomatic support this is the czech 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 though 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 use us. diplomatic relationships to 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. it's before we think about offering it to any other countries 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 price 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 for politico 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 was to stand thousands of left of the shots to other countries but opposition leaders are criticizing the secret

nature of these deals and cooling for mold jabs to be saint to the west bank and gaza over half the population has been vaccine but wish i played this operation 1st before bowing over satan very far away from actually. no matter what is there and you know the diplomatic aerobatics. are in can be a very yeah you are humanitarian gesture at me and very crying read somewhere in there is not far. more eloquent to go out and that you met her hello you know in hell why aspect i think that sending them folksiness far away might be going to india. not nice for we have some of our obligations to our neighbors nearby and if they are on their i were responsibility. both human. and directed forward to these vaccines. 5 or 6000000 of these stream

humans leaving next week because the pandemic knows no borders. if you is not for israel to do it just don't buy it for ahmad there are no more fires or and then if you start on that you know american rulers all the communities are living together there are israelis living in settlements in the west bank next to arab villages and towns. of religious intolerance so yes after israel palestinian should get the 1st and not those regimes were cruel to me 10 yo and perhaps worked against b. israeli interests inside the country netanyahu is main rival in governing partner defense minister billy guns 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. r.t. tel aviv. the world health organizations special envoy uncoated 19 has told our teva the world should prepare for a new post pandemic reality and also warned that we should expect of a dangerous strains to spread. as some who say we should be striving towards eliminating the virus completely others and i'm in this 2nd group say that we must strive to wards being able to live with the virus as a constant threat but putting in place a mix of defenses in our societies that mean that we hold the virus at bay

at the center of that is vaccination which can protect people from getting seriously ill and dying but there's also how we behave there is also how governments create the conditions in which we can behave in a really helpful way but we're going to avoiding the virus and as international cooperation because if one country is brilliant and the neighbor is not so good that's not helpful to the people who specially if they were to move between the countries so that last point about international cooperation is absolutely vital. i want to be clear you always need to have traction nations to get so that's good practice or even just for many years i've carried a little yellow book next to my passport which indicates that i've had yellow fever

vaccinations it includes getting to those of the daytime receive the vaccination who vaccinated me and very importantly will number a vaccine i received i really think that's good practice now how decent to get so used as possible for being able to get on a plane or get into a hotel or go into a building or go to a festival that's a different story and right now i don't think anybody is in a position to start saying to our vaccinations if it gets will be used in practice it's early days on that but what matters is that there is good international cooperation between countries to really work out what the protocols for using vaccinations to because when enabling people to travel or enabling people to benefit from going to a particular event that needs to be discussed internationally. there's been as as most of your viewers will know

a recent investigation into how this virus appeared through an independent scientific group that was set up under the auspices of the world cocoa ghanaian station a joint independent group together with the chinese authorities and they are in the process of producing a report they're looking for hypotheses about the origins and their report will detail where they got to in relation to each of these hypotheses finding out the origins of any kind of pathogen whether it is the one causing this corona virus endemic or other pathogens for example like it both or particular kinds of influenza these investigations that difficult to do and as far as i'm concerned this is a process it's on track. it's very political and a lot of people are watching it and we have to wait until the report appears before

any further judgments could be made ok well on that rather guarded note of optimism that's what will wrap up the news for you this hour thanks for watching i'm call him bright but you know next hour to be updated often i say that. when i turn the happenings it changes us literally because it's a chemical change in our d.n.a. and this changes the way or genes function. sometimes for generations. or more politicized than ever or more polarized than ever the 21st century when speed is measured in megabytes per 2nd the models almost on their record using your multiple times.