grew after israel blamed tehran for two bomb attacks on its diplomatic staff on monday actually peter oliver following developments around iran and now joins us live with the latest developments peter what exactly was said by the russian military with regard to this or rainy and standoff well this came from the chief of staff of the russian armed forces he said he couldn't rule out a plan being in place for the west to attack iran by well by the summer of this year now he was basing this statement on the fact that since the arab spring began russia has been monitoring the the region of the wider middle east very closely and that is his findings from the monitoring that's being going on now this comes just a day after two israeli diplomats were targeted in the capitals of georgia and india now they were targeted with bombs being placed in cars the bomb in georgia was able to be found in diffused but the bomb in india exploded injuring several people now. what. the israelis were very very quick to point the finger of blame towards terror and something that experts of later said there's very re

country's a vocal online community let's get more on the proposed changes from our correspondent peter oliver peter well what exactly is being put forward here. while this bill is being put forward by president proposes a major overhaul of the electoral process in russia now some of the key points that are in this bill if it is put through the dealer becomes law what will mean is it will establish rights. at polling stations to video and photograph what is happening there also allowing of course the the web cams that we will see across it polling stations across russia that will not just be you're counting the life of the polling stations but also the count taking place where those votes are added now the system of proportional representation in russia will remain as it is however we will see changes to how the country is divided up now what is being put forward has been put forward is two hundred and twenty five electoral districts that's what the country will be split up into all of them roughly equal in population now the reason that this is happened is that as it stands currently some reg

as lavrov prepares to head to damascus tomorrow our correspondent peter oliver has been following what he's saying and how he's preparing peter what exactly did the foreign minister lavrov have to say just before he have to damascus on tuesday tomorrow russia's top diplomat certainly pulling no punches with his language a very strong worded statement from a lover of condemning those who have been what he says being hysterical over the situation in syria now so you have also critical of the decision by the united nations security council is not to allow a three day extension to devote being taken on a resolution on syria russia wanted that extended by three days so sort of a level of could go to damascus on this planned visit now he's going to be taking with him a message from president dmitri medvedev it's believed that message will be asking for strong democratic changes in. in syria now russia's stance has always been to condemn both sides in this situation its on the ongoing violence in the middle eastern country they aren't taking the side of one of the other saying well the govern

the formation of the lower house of parliament for more on the proposed changes lots of parties peter oliver peter can you tell us what exactly this bill is going to change the election system well the idea behind this bill is to make russia's elect electoral system fairer and more representative now as it stands at the moment some regions in russia do not have any representatives in the lower house of parliament the duma know what this bill proposes is dividing the country up into in two electoral districts each one of those districts guaranteed to have at least one duma deputy coming from there now these districts all be roughly around the same size in terms of the amount of people who were. in those groups in these districts will be assessed every ten years to see if the borders need changing now . what the idea is is to get people away from voting for a party or a leader based in moscow and to get local people essentially voting for local politicians that will represent their needs in the state duma there's also the hope of course that if you have local politicians being voted for by the

peter oliver with the latest peter can just tell us exactly what this bill is going to change in the election system well the idea behind this bill is to try and make the lower house of russian parliament the duma more representative of the whole country and not just a disassociated political body in moscow it's to involve the whole of russia in the political system now under the current system there actually some parts of the country that do not have a deputy at all that aren't represented in the duma now what we won't see changing is the method of election russia will stay with with proportional representation but with a twist now the country's going to be divided up into two hundred twenty five electoral districts now all of those be roughly the same size of course and roughly the same amount of people but they will get the same size. and those bought those borders of those districts will be reviewed every ten years now each one of those two hundred twenty five districts will have at least one deputy in the parliament you know what this is hope to do essentially is to get people t

terrine for two bomb attacks on its diplomatic staff monday and today a blast in bangkok artie's peter oliver has more. the chief of staff of the russian armed forces said on tuesday that he thinks a plan for a western attack on iran could be in place by the summer of this year and he's basing that statement on the fact that since the arab spring started a year ago russia has been monitoring the area of the wider middle east very closely enough to looking at the findings from that monitoring this is what he's come up with now and this comes just a day after two israeli diplomats were targeted with car bombs in the capitals of georgia and india now the bomb in georgia was able to be defused however in india that car bomb exploded very very close to the residence of the prime minister of india and injured several people now israel was very very quick to point the finger of blame for those attacks at teheran despite terror experts looking at the findings and coming up with saying well there's pretty much no evidence that it was behind those attacks this is all really part of the ongoing blame ga

elections by holding hands the people are plotting to complete the city's gardener our correspondent peter oliver is in the midst of the action he joins us live with the latest so peter you're on the gardening itself tells us going on right now well what you're seeing where i am right now is something of a standoff between the originals and people taking place in this protest which was those campaigning full fair elections in russia they were going to hold hands around the garden ring in asking people to come wearing white and to stand in quiet solidarity for their movement now they were joined by a quite large group of very young pro vladimir putin for president supporters who have been very vocal so we have seen some. small standoff between people putting across their various various opinions and positions on what they see the political future of russia being but all in all very it's all very very calm just a few a few little arguments break out but not much there now in terms of how many people are involved in these protests this demonstration across the city official figures are saying around

people even in neighboring regions often have contrasting moods and political preferences as artist peter oliver now reports the tale of two regions more dorthea and lie side by side over the life there is quite different in the two thousand and eleven parliamentary elections united russia wrong turn with over ninety percent of the vote in more doria well they took less than forty percent in that is down with just a few days to go before sunday's presidential vote to have a steps into the top job will have to win over russia's regions each having their own wants and needs evidence of redevelopment is clear to see in mordovia including the building of a new stadium which will be used in the twenty eight team football world cup finals in a village near the city of surrounds a cement manufacturer is the major employer will ignore the car during per store we were paid in coupons not money the country was in chaos we didn't get paid in currency were got coupons that we could take to the store in exchange for goods that's pretty difficult to imagine today considering how good we have it it's expected

express their political views ahead of the march fourth presidential election our correspondent peter oliver saw the gatherings firsthand. well saturday was a day of demonstrations here in the russian capital we saw a march and a rally by opposition supporters a large group of them meeting in the center of the city and marching here to block my a square which block my has really become the central focus point for opposition protesters here in moscow this is the second time that opposition protesters have taken to pull last night a square far fewer there this time than last but of course the the weather a big deciding factor in not cripplingly mode temperatures here in the russian capital in fact the organizers of the protest here shortened the events that were going to be happening just to make it more comfortable for people who had come out in the cold minus twenty times on saturday here in moscow. so they came out to to voice their opinions. i came here because i'm tired of the government which doesn't do what promises mari's and wants this to carry on for years. change their elections and

to damascus where he's scheduled to meet with syrian authorities on tuesday our correspondent peter oliver listened in on the minister's comments. this was continuing on from the decision by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow saying that russia had asked the u.n. security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr lover off to complete his trip to damascus now they were requested were turned down by the u.n. security council heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president dmitry medvedev a message that's believed to question the assad government make strong democratic changes in the country now the foreign ministry very unhappy about this the russian government very unhappy in fact going as far as to call it disrespectful to allow the not allow the vote to be delayed until. it completed that trip now. with regards to the comments that it be made from around the world following that the session by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution we've heard condemnation from the united states from france from grea

biggest buyer meanwhile russia's military has made its own assessment of iran's near future artists peter oliver explains. the chief of the general staff of the russian military has said that he believes there could be an attack on iran by the west by the summer of this year no he's basing that claim on intelligence since the start of the arab spring last year now he doesn't name one particular nation only saying that it could be from western powers now this comes just after two israeli diplomats cars were targeted on monday in both the indian and georgian capitals know televisa has blamed iran for being involved in one of the bombs the bomb in police in georgia was able to be disarmed but the born in india detonated injuring four people just five hundred meters away from the residence of the indian prime minister now this is all part of the the ongoing blame game between tell of the and tehran iran alleges that israel is behind a two year operation to assassinate a really in nuclear physicists but to get more western governments approach towards iran are to talk to brian backer a member of the

part in sunday's action in anticipation to the upcoming presidential paul our chief correspondent peter oliver was there. the goal of sunday's demonstration was to form a human chain around the garden ring in moscow and i want bodies as a ring road that goes around the downtown area of the russian capital. now the activists who are organizing this event today had called on supporters to come out wear white in support of their cause which is to receive free and fair elections in russia though they were able to complete that journey around the garden ring that human chain around sixty kilometers from one end to the other so clearly masses of people coming out and taking part there there were also some supporters of the to me of putin for president who turned out it is a week before that presidential vote and there were some heated exchanges at times between supporters of the various political factions here in russia all of them peaceful but a few raised voices at times all of this coming either say a week before russians go to the polls to elect the next president and we've seen a a space of pol

demonstrate for fair elections as well as rally in support of and against the current leadership artie's peter oliver has the latest. but what we're going to see on saturday is a march through the center of moscow two through on the road exactly behind me to block a square where a rally will take place now this is a rally of people who are protesting against what they see is irregularities taking place during the the parliamentary elections here in russia which took place on the the fourth of december tens of thousands are expected however i can tell you it is bitterly cold here in moscow that is expected to have some kind of effect on the the amount of people coming out of the authorities are on board with it however they have said the protesters must remain within the letter of the law and one thousand police officers will be deployed in order to keep the peace here now in terms of who will be attending we've heard from the current procrit of the independent candidate for president to they said that he will be at the meeting however he said that he doesn't plan to give any speeches as far as the ot

for mass rallies and a spike of political activity ahead of next month's election correspondent peter oliver attended the largest demonstration. both thursday seeing a date of rallies in support of various political candidates for president across moscow and out today is a public holiday meaning that lots of people are off work and able to come out on the streets largest rally taking place this is amongst the pro vladimir putin for president supporters many thousands of people gathered here inside the luzhniki stadium this is the usually the the home of top level football matches today it's been taken over by politics no originally the organizers had wanted to hold this event. which is right next door to the kremlin however they said that around one hundred thousand people could turn up but it's just too many people to have right in the center of downtown moscow it would have brought the city to a standstill so they put they've held it here somewhere that's used to hosting this type of capacity of people but this wasn't the only event taking place today you know we also saw the supporters of

either as artist peter oliver explains now. he was really addressing his standpoint on key foreign policy issues of course that election for president is coming up in just over a week's time and he was saying basically where he stands now with regards to syria he said that russia would not play along with anybody that they wouldn't just follow along with the herd when it came to opinion on the ongoing crisis in syria but it wasn't the only issue that vladimir putin was addressing for a little while now the major fly in the argument between relations between moscow and washington has been the united states proposed missile defense shield in eastern europe now to me a puritan very strong words for him from the prime minister here saying that the united states needs to realize that russia had the strength that they are the united states should be looking for a more constructive approach to finding a solution to the current impasse iran was also on the lips of the prime minister vladimir putin saying this the allegations that iran

all right peter oliver bringing us the latest from the foreign ministry ahead of a visit by sergey lavrov to damascus thanks for that update. well let's continue to analyze the situation in syria john laughlin political analyst from the institute of democracy and cooperation now joins us on the line from paris thanks for being with us this latest announcement of a new batch of sanctions against syria western countries seem relentless in their efforts to press the president to go why do they want that so badly. well it's part of their general program of regime change across the middle east we've discussed on this channel on several occasions how the arab spring is in fact a program for installing pro western regimes across the arab world we've also discussed how of course behind syria there is the far more important target of iran syria is one of iran's most important allies in the world and certainly in the middle east so you have a target syria targets iran but i think there's another element to this and i'm sure this is one that your viewers and your editorial staff are well aware of th