with him is jonathan steele, former moscow correspondent for the guardian.he recently wrote a piece called, "the ukraine crisis: john kerry and nato must calm down and back off". he is the author of "eternal russia: yeltsin, gorbachev, and the mirage of democracy". here in new york, we are joined by keith gessen, editor at n plus one magazine. his latest co- authored editorial is called "ukraine, putin, and the west." he covered the 2010 ukraine elections for the new yorker magazine. welcome all to democracy now! let's begin with debo adegbile --anton shekhovtsov, the referendum wanted to succeed from the ukraine. >> thank you for the invitation. i would agree with the former prime minister and president barack obama that this referendum is absolutely illegitimate for three reasons. first of all, it is against the ukrainian constitution to hold a referendum in the autonomous republic of crimea. second, it is not possible to hold free and fair referendum in this situation when crimea is now invaded by the russian troops and pro-russian separatists. , it is no

thousand and one of them killed since the war began nice of them soldiers and pro admonition and jonathan steele who has written extensively about syria for the audience as minorities face a grim future if the sun is remains from power. this has become. daddy and me. nestle will in some cases as well. any money rizzo accusing the government establishment and operation sleeping with the cartoon devil. not just something wrong with them on his way to even get into the temple may have a difficult time uses the system is to remain stable sunni fundamentalists to this. who says you need to finish the city who impressed by the alliance needs and wants him to give up. also if anyone did it. just another license and christians and to the armenian listened to some parents may have a difficult time to clean. he said. sunni muslims. on line see you in prayer palestinian setting at the top of things to smile for you. this can get behind a body con on these rainy days to find out how that works and the hot seat. the un men's us aerial strikes come under the label scrutiny the pentagon is not racing for fun i

killed since the war began most of them soldiers and pro assad militiaman that's not here from jonathan steele who has written extensively on syria for the guardian newspaper mr steele very well welcome to r.t. nice to see you as always to what extent do the alawite support president assad does it make any sense to target them just because i sat happens to belong to the religious group. well unfortunately this has become a sectarian war and an ethnic war in some cases as well so it's not surprising that the rebels seeking to inspire terror. community i mean this area which they captured and where these people have not been shared is one that i went to in september last year about three weeks after the massacres there and the kidnappings there and i spoke to people who'd been in the region and they said that they thought that about sixty two people massacred sixty kidnapped and something like one hundred thirty nine hundred missing or possibly been kidnapped so now we hear that just maybe there's some very same group that the divers learning about at that time i mean the. family comes from a vi

its interests and let's not discount this father with columnist at britain's guardian newspaper jonathan steele miss a still very warm welcome to r.t. nice to see you. with the well we know the you as the obviously have condemned the decision of the russian parliament to send in troops to ukraine as well as they are asked for calm in the country do you think by their actions and their speeches they are achieving what they want or are they getting the opposite result. no i think it's completely counterproductive because it shows that they're very one sided when for the moment outsiders need to be very cool and calm and even handed ukraine is almost a divided country it has been because of long history different history culturally and so on and economically the crucial thing is to try and keep ukraine together and so the new authorities in kiev must do all they can to to make the eastern ukrainians feel welcome in ukraine and that means peeling this change of law by which they've made it impossible illegal for russians to use their language as an official language in eastern ukraine that was a di

steel because he still far too little. while not wearing the suits but that just acting. i am a a ay ay ay ay ay ay. sixty one jonathan. costly. go to laos if i so want to help the state the real criminals it also continues to talk on tuesday. so on. all i could choose to sit in between cremation. laos to have mistakes. we want to act more it's true this year. i'm not prone to india bowled opener no financing ups. in sydney it's good for you it's not he did this too. according to all who don't know enough to salvage a point to my house and how. its fuel supply to what the amounts of time. she grunts and was trying to get something out your response be given to her. the city to city we live in states that the adults the couple. you know commutes to allow use of technology to work on the comfy. often. two hours there was this. it seemed content of their companies. i mean come on people. people are being held this friday then he pooped. i didn't still you know. the document it. used to. two killed genocide. this tool. but it is easy. the court to me they stood. in the us. there are still commonly known happening. for the

steel. >> young bear found wandering the ski slope at heavenly now expected to make full recovery but raising some concern among wild life experts. about jonathanhe story. >> heavenly the bear now snoozing peacefully. watch him on web cam but can't see much except when the vet checks on him. >> he has great prognosis will heal and he's thin and he's on special diet right now and on antibiotics and pain killsers. >>reporter: he's supposed to be drouzy this time of year but not long ago the bear was awake and frolicking up on the ski slochlt hybernating bear is light sleeper. >> he roll around snore sometimes gets up and stretche stretches. he's moving. >>reporter: brian says nature has answer for. that just like you close the window and draw the shade when you sleep. >> normally a bear will go into a den and snow will coverup the entrance and buffer him in and soundproof him. keep it dark and quiet. >>reporter: as long as there is snow. this year there was hardly any. >> the opening to their den are just open to the world. open to the sky and the sound. >>reporter: that she says starts a troubling chain reaction. bears sleep in the winter becaus

jonathan bowles is executive director for a center for an urban future. >> so much of our gas mains are in unprotected steel and cast iron. materials that are very weak prone. and it leads to gas leaks. it leads to in some cases disaster. new york is far from the only city which has an aging gas infrastructure. >> last week an explosion outside trenton, new jersey leveled this town house. one person died, seven injured. in february, another blast tore out the side of this apartment building in chicago. two women were hurt. and this plaming 60 foot wide in kentucky the result of an underground gas line. two people were hospitalized. according to a report by massachusetts senator ed markey, there are about 91,000 miles of leaky pipes across 46 states. over a 10-year period those gas lines were blamed for 116 deaths, 465 injuries, and more than $800 million in property damage. patrick kennedy trains investigators looking into pipeline explosions. >> i've seen a lot of loss of lives, loss of property, serious maiming and injuries from people who were injured because their gas lines were 100 years old. >> gayle

thousand allies have been killed since the war began most of them soldiers and said militia men jonathan steele who has written extensively on syria for the guardian says minorities face a grim future if assad is removed from power. this has become a sectarian war and actually war in some cases is well i think anybody who is a watcher is in the government established in the government operations even musicological learned level not just in some sort of army commanders or innocents even people who don't know level may have a difficult time if he says you mr bent double sunni fundamentalists. they say they will say they need revenge the city will press well you know once and it's time for the other words you know to give out. control so i think it would be very comfortable for them but it's not just an alawite sect and christians the only unionists and even some kurds may have a difficult time if leave is if he's arab sunni muslim street or from. online say you approach me and stone app now at the top of the singles moscow uses ten behind a boycott is way good as not to find out how that the word