in a day of political upheaval in armenia the prime minister's call for early elections is rejected by the opposition he also says the military must. also. god. this is my. disability. support. in the capital. for travel through europe the german chancellor says. but the european commission

says it's not a done deal yet. and the. political. jabs in exchange for diplomatic support. live from moscow this is r.t. international money welcome to world news one big story that's been dominating our coverage today the opposition has rejected an offer from the prime minister. earlier a standoff between opponents and supporters of. the capitol police were deployed in large numbers the escalation is in response to the chief of forces general stuff saying that he was part of an attempted military coup and the tensions could spiral further.

massive opposing rallies were seen close to one another in central europe an official crowd numbers are yet to be confirmed but they're estimated to be in the thousands. drivers have been honking car horns as crowd chanted anti passion and slogans some of the driving around with photos of the prime minister made in fake blood stuck to their vehicles opponents of nicole passing out of also being filmed standing on their balconies giving the thumbs down sign. the opposition block streets and paralyze traffic they're chanting that they wanted the prime minister out protesters have also set up a makeshift camp next to the parliament building in yerevan and they're reportedly being encouraged by opposition leaders to stay there until m.p.'s vote for the resignation of the prime minister nearby 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 met the crowds to assure them that the situation was manageable 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 country's military obeys him after he sacked the head of the armed forces saying that he was part of an orchestrated coup. no i don't want to also this is. your job god borders and the territorial integrity of armenia this is my order and no one can disobey to bring this railway is finished all accidents down at the negotiating table with the opposition consultations or no actions the prime minister and the government of armenia are no longer able to make adequate decisions in this fateful and critical situation for the armenian people given the current situation the armed forces of armenia the resignation of the prime minister

and the government at the same time we called to refrain from using force against people whose children died defending their homeland and care about armenians general staff insists on the resignation of the prime minister and his government the military accuses nicole passion yano 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 passion and inefficient management has brought armenia to the verge of demise a local journalist watching the protests in europe and earlier says the opposition is preparing for a night of demonstrations. right now we are between the 2 towns say in the fall of one square right behind me you can see. the buildings national leslie of parliament yeah right in the streets of the opposition is teaching the chance to

make a chance. because we should just to stand still 24 seventh's and all souls day they are preparing for that night's. drinking firewood for kim fire everything going for it for ration for the night and not just the one night but every day 247 yes the old physician leaders they are lost and also waiting for the president of for me to make some seizure. he had the feast of the president before he is also in the parliament street soldiers the main role says that the main action will take place right. a political tensions in armenia escalated following the military conflict in the disputed nagorno-karabakh region last olsson which so 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 r.t.d. gorst off to cover the bloody military conflict between armenia and azerbaijan for us and joined under fama had earlier with some in-depth analysis on the political crisis. this whole process it has been brewing for months because it all stems from mean years and well nagorno-karabakh a defeat in last year's war with the armenian 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 to go on a car about 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 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 and i mean it 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 the 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 they 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. nagorno-karabakh it's not just some piece of mountainous which it is for you or for me we don't have that 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 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 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 it does have a fair amount of support doesn't it i mean the call 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 room was still bleeding from the loss 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 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 as 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 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 and 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 on 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 he goes down 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 in a go no karabakh saying they won't give up their lands under the deal reached with as opposed to hold areas of the disputed region taken during the conflict but many armenian say they'll never forgive him for the loss. however the current unrest comes from a more recent disagreement inside the armenian government over weapons of the army's disposal double quarter now 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 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 his candor missiles either did not explode or quote exploded 10 percent it's not exactly clear what the pm meant by that were 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 younes 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 is candor 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 this time were used during the conflict it's appears that armenian prime minister. was misled and used information. that 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 that's paid international reaction

over the past few hours with russia the united states the e.u. and turkey over in 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 de-escalate tensions peacefully without violence the european union is following developments in a minute very closely we ask all activists for calm and avoid any rhetoric or actions that could lead to further escalation. experts we have from a great the only democratic way out of this crisis is to go for snap elections. who 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 opposition saying they want to democratic constitution solution so. we'll have new elections it'll take a few minutes to organize them so who by some time he can turn patch up his relationship with the army in the meantime and slight chance to he would bring 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 because people are looking to 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 as a whole want to start a war started the war and then lost it. have to resign he couldn't expect to have school he didn't start the war interesting areas he did the problem of arab leaders 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 are easy money they lost the war but the same. should have been better protect maybe and the problem is that the army feels discredited lost the war and dour all they have anger at their humiliation and so i think it's more between the general staff the 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 solved. this is a. the headline story short it looks like travelers within the you could soon be on the move again slowly as they've had a kind of a vaccine and if member states can even agree we're going to be live with our correspondent in paris after this.

join me every thursday on the alex i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. seemed wrong why don't we all just don't call. me. yet to stamp out this thing comes to educate and it gains from it equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

according to a new gallup poll over 60 percent of those asked are just satisfied with the 2 major parties the country is divided politically but the parties themselves are divided within into this the fact most voters either party is it finally time to move on from this to walk the. walk and back a shot in the arm for the use flagging travel industry could be just months away likely come in the form of a covert vaccination digital pos at least the german chancellor think so. i think that's the point where the respected there's a vaccination pass all member states agree that when he says a thing the technical preparations were done by the european commission as well as member states in january now when he temper man that's said that there's comfortability among different national passes when germany have decided that it

will develop such a vaccination past the key data that has digital past mass contained have been defined by the european commission and member states you talk about this is michael may have jumped the gun a little with the european commission president yet to confirm anything solid let's even get a handle on this now live from paris now correspondent jonathan bensky this is a bit too early to start packing the suitcase is there much being said yeah definitely i think so well that seems difficult so really colin trip herschel issues but it does seem that this is the way forward for the e.u. germany and france for the countries that were said to be really resistive to this idea narrower with angela merkel basically saying she's on board that is huge in change or for the future of these types of difficult but while it seems that angela merkel was certain that this is the part that germany's going to take in terms of the e.u. there really isn't overall approval yet the officially to statement was not sure about this it talked about a call approaches that the issue would have to be revisited and this is what the

long delay and to say. on the vaccine certificates. indeed we discussed this topic as you know there are still a number of open question political question the 1st one is of course what these certificates will be used for but there also scientific question well call for vaccine certificates 1st paper countries such as greece and cyprus who have actually already green lit plans for travelers from the u.k. and from israel could be inoculated to cope with 19 to be able to go there for that summer holidays but there is massive criticism of sorry dear especially given the problems that we've seen here in the e.u. ok ruling out the vaccination against kobe 19 now many feel that the idea of having a vaccine certificate given those difficulties would essentially create a 2 tier system it would be unfair

a form of discrimination so many people very resistive to their side there but to give you a sense of what the situation is in europe around 8 percent of adults in the e.u. have received a code made chad that's far behind other areas in the world for example the u.k. of former e.u. member states 27 percent of adults there have been inoculated and of course there have been these major issues surrounding the supply of exact scene and the distribution with lower than expected deliveries and problems from the major manufacturers would still some european. pretty much raised the effectiveness of certain vaccines such as the astra zeneca vaccine which is a new case swedish product and many marilou of us are results that are actually refusing to even have the astra zeneca vaccine in figures that were released on thursday showed that all out of every 5 doses that it be delivered to the e.u.

or that seen by astra zeneca. hasn't been used yet now even angela merkel has said that she will not have that vaccine she is 66 though a new official advice in germany is to not give the astra zeneca vaccine to anybody the age of 65 but of course all of this is making people think twice about having the vaccine now e.u. leaders following that video conference meeting on thursday pledged quicker provision to code that vaccines recognizing they said they need to step up an excel rate the program to ensure that everybody has the jack as of course the program has been routinely slow so far this is what the joint statement had to say we need to urgently accelerate that water isolation production and distribution of back since as well as vaccination. well of course russia is hoping to step in and assist the e.u.

with this it's ready to send doses of sputnik to the european union the vaccine was recently given a glowing report in the medical journal the lancet which ranked it as being as one of the most effective vaccines against the fire the e.u. has also ringback said it would be willing to purchase juices sputnik be of course subject to reiki tree approval but at the moment it does look like this confusion over whether faxing certificates will be given the green light or not here in europe and america from germany saying that's what he her country is set to do but there's a bundle a and the rest the european union saying that this subject won't have to be revisited it's. ok who are out for now just getting them all on the same page as i was the big uphill struggle where you are is now right for our parish out of the best effects for that. meantime the world health organizations a special envoy on cove in $98.00 has told our tave of the world to prepare for a new post pandemic reality and also warned that we should expect other dangerous

strains to spread. as someone who say we should be striving towards eliminating the virus completely others and i'm in this 2nd group say that we must strive towards 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's also how governments create the conditions in which we can behave in a really helpful way with regard to avoiding the virus and as international cooperation because if one country is bergen 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 faction 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 being toes of the day tired received 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 vaccination significance 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 health organization a joint independent group together with the chinese authorities and they are in the process of producing their report they're looking for hypotheses about the origins and their report will detail where they've got to in relation to each of these hypotheses finding out the origins of any kind of pathogen whether it's the one

causing this corona virus and mimic or other pathogens for example like it 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 where 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. over an answer and it's claimed leaders are exercising soft power through vaccine diplomacy with jobs currently worth awaiting goaltimate chronic shortage in some places the countries apparently negotiating political favors from other nations in exchange for giving felt his policy. israelis say to share that stock effect scenes with of the 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 various 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 i mean reports came tradeoffs sought being made with countries which is well listen 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 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 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 use 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. 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 in there in 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 we should help other countries and the 3rd world as well to get vaccinated. not to use it cynically just to gain for politico gain our loyalty and our government's loyals see should be to its citizens 1st and foremost like most of our population i think you should quit israel doesn't manufacture the vaccines itself and the idea was to stand thousands of left of the shots to other countries who don't position leaders are criticizing the secret nature of these deals and calling for more jabs to be saint to the west bank and gaza over half the population has been back sandburg wisher complete this operation 1st before bowing over satan very far away factoring in.