very critical time to sit down in shock. in the headlines this sunday morning from moscow armenia's prime minister raises the stakes this weekend sending an order to dismiss the country's top general back to the president of the you rejected it setting the stage then for a constitutional showdown crowds in the capital continue to demand that the. stories of the astra zeneca is code. used in europe as people refuse vaccination. at the same time as the world health organization is pointing to drastic shortages in. world health organization special envoy on code 19 speaks directly to us of the week and says we may not be near the end game yet when

it comes to the pandemic. good morning from moscow this is r.t. of the weekend with me kevin owen here with a recap of some of our biggest stories of the last 7 days and must make the news right now talking of which mean is political crisis has escalated further after the president now has rejected the sacking of the country's top general on the prime minister's request setting the stage for a constitutional showdown meantime crowds in the capital continue to demand the pm quits thousands of opposition protesters took to the streets of europe for a 3rd day calling for the resignation of nicole. they're angry at his handling of last year's war with azerbaijan which many saw as ending in humiliating defeat the fresh protests which have continued all along. since the war ended in november

erupted on thursday when defied a call by the military to resign and accuse the army of an attempted coup is a quick recap of how the situation's really deteriorated over the past week or so. if it. were. already for consistency and to bolster sam. i'm a show and just and there are people in the square to go along with the stand being the only the scientific community top politicians parties everyone is against nickel. we've made significant progress it has to quit he has betrayed the nation has to leave we've never had such a vile leader who treated us so badly we came to the square answering the call from our prime minister and we stand with him to the end he must put an end to all this

course failing that this form of governmental transition is definitely not acceptable to me we came to see our prime minister of the republic square so the whole world knows that the people support. the right in the streets of the opposition a teaching of the chance to make camp. because we do stand 247 and they are preparing for that night drinking it's for kim yeah. the country's been on edge since november over a piece to. over the disputed region. the government had victory in the war but

armenians saw the agreement to end it as a humiliating defeat protesters reacted to the truce was storming the government building. and he goes down often spent time there last year for us the trouble that's led to what we're witnessing now. 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 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 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 and i mean i 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 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 you're going to care about it's not just some piece of mountain in 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 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 to do so back together the divisions in the armenian society just so back together to heal this woman this massive wall and clearly 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 and 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 a 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 would. go 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 he's kneejerk reaction to this statement by the military was do. call on his supporters to gather in the in the

city center because this is what legitimizes him call passion and he's 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 hardcore than he needs to be and he's trying to and it is clear that he did not have a plan for this is 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 it goes down of a correspondent in the week we discussed the latest with the vice president of the

country's national assembly and also an armenian left turn a general who's a veteran of previous wars in the. but what if you knew that for 30 years the military has been poorly managed in terms of equipment and maintenance this led to the army becoming wheat and pushing and came to power without a team experience the prime minister was an absolute 0 in military affairs as well as in economics and politics and this management disorganization noncompliance with the mobilization plan the destruction of command and control systems and the dismissal of military officers all this led to the fact that the general staff lost all patience and demanded the supreme commanders resignation as he was destroying the army to communion. its post-war turbulence when the military makes political statements it can only be called a military coup in the military must carry out its immediate task of protecting the borders of the republic politics is not

a military matter our colleagues from other countries are emphasizing that this is unacceptable the prime minister has problems with a few military officials following the war and i must say the authorities and the prime minister are in control of the situation putting the blame on one person is wrong it's not fair and there are millions understand that and we all have our share of the blame. angle or merkel's at the center of media attention for allegedly refusing to take the astra zeneca cova job herself the german leader explaining her rage was the reason and 66 years old and i do not belong to the group recommended for astra zeneca the vaccine so far approved in the country for those under $65.00 but the chancellor statements added to the controversy though where many in the e.u. are refusing western shots over reports of poor efficacy leaving significant numbers of news jabs maint on the head the world health organization has warned

rich countries against restricting job supplies to developing nations as our europe correspondent reported in the week. germany is facing a touch of cognitive dissonance when it comes to covert 19 vaccinations on the one hand politicians on the population are outraged at how slow the process of giving a vaccine to everyone in germany has been on the other hand vaccination centers like this one here in berlin at the old airport which only gives out the astra zeneca job well they've been struggling to get people to take up the offer that some sorts a line unused because not enough people enrolling or just not turning up for their appointment this is an absurd and unbearable situation as of last friday only 10 percent of the vaccines available had been administered the astra zeneca job is only approved for use in under 60 five's in germany due to a lack of data on its effectiveness and older people it's being made available to

health care staff but tales of reactions to the vaccine have seen some german states suspend its use. astra zeneca has been criticized because on the one hand it seems to be less effective than the messenger r.n.a. vaccines from beyond tech and moderna and on the other hand there have been reports of vaccine reactions both must continue to be well monitored is something quieter share there how can we give that to vaccine and then find out a couple weeks months later that it's maybe not as efficient it was as it was promised i think this shows that the way the european union has been managing this whole vaccine campaign it was not only by the professionals that were supposed to be making decisions in the 1st place i think this is something which is and now it's backfiring of course we see a very small percentage of western europeans getting the vaccine it's angle of merkel spokesperson even had to put out a post on social media encouraging people to take the astra zeneca vaccine because

there's a worry that the doses germany has could end up going. to waste. us to resent it because of c. and that it prevents many infections and protects against serious illnesses vaccination can see. france has found itself in a similar position to germany when it comes to its citizens being unsure about the astra zeneca job a general lack of vaccines across the european union added to growing fears about their safety i mean the 2 biggest eurozone economies germany and france vaccinated just 6 percent of their populations but the head of the world health organization wants rich countries to check before ordering more shots and made diet shortages in developing nations if there are no vaccines to buy moneys irrelevant currently some high income countries are into contracts with vaccine manufacturers

that undermine the deals that call vioxx hours in police and reduce the number of causes come by. millions and millions of shares and we don't even know if these vaccines are safe and now that we've got these vaccines people don't want them so what do we do with that and there's no better be over of course if some kind of cheese if you see it with these vaccines and they want them then definitely you should and should should have them or sell them more or get it to say that to the countries we can't have vaccines staying in it. some more as some calls for us to call there is refrigerated areas around the you know while e.u. nations the did the ring over whether or not to get one of the main vaccines that are on offer poorer nations are running the risk of having no doses of any vaccine at all peter all over r.t. berlin while i talk more about low uptake of astra zeneca shot with the director of health and care at the international federation of the red cross and red crescent

in the week he told me the consequences of not using all available doses a dire in his view. it leaves a nasty cold that we have hundreds of thousands of of those of effective and safe vaccine lying news that in the european countries when we have many elves workers in the developing countries that are not getting any vaccine these are not only unethical it's extremely sad because every vaccine that is not injected in the arm of a person is a potential death due to. the 19 so we really need to accelerate the distribution of vaccines and to do that one of the critical point in europe has been means information and mistrust and not only in europe we have a lot of vaccine is around the world and i think there is a lot of work to be done to make sure that people understand that getting a vaccine that has a 60 percent efficacy rate is

a great deal everybody should be going for that vaccine as long as the vaccine is safe as it has been demonstrated by tickle the tree so there's no reason why those people should be the caring and not taking a vaccine they're putting themselves and their communities at risk besides creating problems for the rest of the world lovely to have a company this weekend here out international live from moscow around the world revenue watch and we appreciate it now this is coming up. a recovered covert patient telling us about getting hundreds of death threats being blamed for locked restrictions how does that happen we meet him again then and there's other news that made the headlines these last 7 days after this break. is your media a reflection of reality. in

a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation or community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. what is true what is faith. in a world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. or inmate in the shallowness. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

one of canada's covert victims as will the stigma attached to the disease is stopping many from reporting they could be infected colon krunk received hundreds a death threats after it was revealed that he caught the virus. people attacked me for no reason in new brunswick that's my hometown that's where i'm from there's a video that was on october 31st of me saying that i couldn't taste or smell anything and the background story i kind of the you tube video on this so that you know creates allergies where i can't taste her might and you know my nose gets blocked up and and that's what i was relating it to and that's why the 2nd day i book tasks like weighted still there you know it could be covert i have to go down to the states so i'm just going to double check i'm pretty sure it's not because my spouse days prior tested negative for covert $191.00 of the guys that i was on the trip with who came home early from calgary he tested also negative for quote 19 which he actually had symptoms so i was like ok there's probably

a very slim chance that i have over 1000 and when i was traveling from calgary back to new brunswick i was considered an essential worker so we were required to isolate and i didn't have symptoms at that time my symptoms didn't come to 31st and i was coming back to new brunswick on the 24th of october after being infected people on social media began blaming him for subsequent public restrictions on the law told us the dangers of public shaming. a lot of people are so worried about having kobe not because of it's going to harm them but it's because they're worried of what the pope and i the population around them will think when you shame somebody and when you have this big stigma on people for having called it a lot of people who are sick you know that might have a sniffle or a sore throat or something they don't bother going to get tested because they they feel like they're going to be shamed so or shunned and so a lot of people end up hiding their symptoms that's an issue because then you're not getting a true number on cases and and you know you have people going around spreading the

virus not knowingly the they have the virus because they're too worried about what people might think that they have the virus. and then the world health organization special envoy in covert 19 telling us that the world should prepare for a new post pandemic reality whatever that was going to be he also warned that we should expect other dangerous strains to spread to. this some who say we should be striving towards eliminating the virus completely those 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 the way 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 help

governments create the conditions in which we can behave in a really helpful way that we're going to avoiding the virus and this international cooperation. 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 data i've received the vaccination who vaccinated may and very importantly will number a vaccine i received i really think that's good practice now how the significance it used as possible as 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. 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 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 are 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. away from covert everything from brand names to work relations even family ties are showing signs of breakdown as a u.s. political divides begin to affect probably every section of society double quarter of that story. if you take joe biden's word at face value you might think political polarization in america is no big deal the nation is not divided it's not nearly as divided as we make it out to be but if you take a look at what's actually going on in the streets well a different picture begins to appear.

and according to the statistics your eyes are not deceiving you i think we're all aware of how political polarization has affected our elections and system of government but the impacts go far beyond the political arena it seems the facts contradict biden's feel good speeches about unity take the family the core structure of american society it's a real example of unity and something more important than political bickering with that in mind check out what one republican senators family had to say about his decision to support trump's impeachment we all thought really just gusted with you it is now most embarrassing to us that we're related to you you've been bearish the king's family name ok he's a politician his family cannot get around political talk at the dinner table but divorces parents disowning their children this is happening in ordinary american

families it's tough my husband is a trump has caused such strife they feel like i want to divorce i'm a registered republican who is now an independent who voted democrat my republican family however has dug in they think i'm the crazy one they were more shocked to find out i hate to d.t. than they were to hear i was also known as none of my family members talk to me i'm so sorry for anyone who's lost family over politics it. you could see it in the workplace where playing politics can get you fired and the spotlight of national news like the former what a burger employee who wore a black lives matter mask to the job i would say but that's a key to the mess in the growth of the style of clothing that i think they don't think it's a good thing you probably shouldn't buy the wrong item either unless you want to incur the wrath of those who don't agree with you go a food for example is now being boycotted just because the boss praise donald trump so fora also under boycott because the company dropped its contract with

a conservative beauty blogger who claims she was targeted for her political views and the head of my pillow is taking flak since he publicly supports the idea that the last presidential election was fraudulent the keyboard warriors have drawn their swords and retailers have even cut ties with the companies because of it so next time you think about buying a pillow think twice unless of course you want your family to fall apart we know of one coast host justin robot young warms the hostilities not just through insults is getting physical i honestly think that it has to do with the fact that we can interact with each other a lot more we were probably always at our core of this polarized the difference is that now the the barbarian at the gate to use a metaphor is a lot closer in real or than it was when we had cities that lived in liberal bubbles and red states that lived in their bubbles and everybody kind of believed based on the way that you would go about your life that there was

a little bit more of a homogenously lifestyle now the person that is very very conservative sees the 3 of the liberal city life in the liberal city live sees the 3 of conservative ecosystem they are on top of each other in a digital way that simply didn't exist until this moment. that's the way some of the top stories of the last 7 days shaped up here at r.t. international thanks a bunch of the weekly brought to you by me kev you know it for the whole team. have a great rest of the week. the world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person with those words.

thinks. we dare to ask. all. alone welcome to all the parts put into my guest today a world is undergoing crises of crises and if your speech on the news or scroll

through a social media i'm definitely seems to be the case although alpha says would be different depending on the country and do those crises from polarization to power to a phone call that thankful to climate change so they have a common denominator to discuss that i'm now in joined by again and i've got the dean of the school of world economics and international affairs at the higher school of economics and law school is to go. again if it's always a pleasure talking to you thank you very much and i think that the now when western journalists reference you in their articles they usually describe you as hawkish or sometimes even belligerent but i think some of your recent thoughts could be taken as pure actually democratic blasphemy for example you're right that democracy is now essentially or should be considered essentially a privilege i mean even at a white privilege that only well of societies can afford it how did you come to that conclusion it's not i think it's it is its own spur will it.

be done or the acts of but this constance democracy was dies it is one of the ways 1st of all it's one of the ways of a manager complex societies. it was born in in one way as with as we know it increased and died because then the. room of the public. empire then. republican republicans or more easily one of his french republic but it's been it's been a long time ago since then we had a no i'm sorry and then an emergence of liberal democracy and it's a raid around the world then let's be right to that morris the liberal democracy brought about most of the coalition because february. we had a liberal who was what evolution in favor of 17 then who had.