lifts one of these so should there i recently i think i heard that the bureaucrats call their united russia party they call it a social lift that that makes people like me helps them helps them. make it clear now putin is obviously dumping the united russia party so so so one of these lives very hard imo a problem with the idea of social left if only because i'm in often we talk about you know social ladders and social. as a source a lifted lift is something you get on you press a button and it gets you off regardless of your your effort and i think that that's not necessarily even what put in me this is where you are talking maybe this is why everyone like you know. the book and then me write for a certain number of people for a certain amount of time but i think that the broader problem is is mobility the broader problem is giving people opportunities not necessarily to go where the government wants you to go but to be able to take your own life in your own career where you want to go and that means creating an economic opportunity but it also. i have a hard time understanding what the story do

so much disillusionment with the russian government that back in december, vladimir putin's united russia party was beaten into second place by the communists in every part of the city. russia's corruption contagion can affect anyone, rich or poor. this man is a wealthy executive but his son was arrested for dealing drugs which seem to have been planted. his father has been asked to pay a bribe to set him free. >> i get the impression that nobody cares about people. they only care about themselves. >> all of this corruption makes people feel powerless, like these campaigners. no, to corruption, their banners screen. they even wrote to vladimir putin but he never rode back. in this city, they're preparing to punish him in the election. >> thousands of passengers have been stranded after the budget airline carrier air australia with a bust on friday. the airline could not afford to refuel one of their flames. >> just three months after the budget airline took off, the honeymoon is over. more than 4000 passengers were left stranded in thailand, honolulu, and around australia when the company cance

there is so much disillusionment with the government that back in december, vladimir putin's united russia party was beaten into second place by the communists in every part of the city. brushup's corruption contagion can affect anyone, rich or poor. this is a wealthy executive but his son was arrested for dealing drugs which seem to have been planted. he has been sitting in prison for a year and a half. his father has been asked to pay a pride of 300,000 pounds to set him free. >> i get the impression that no one cares about people. they only think about themselves. it never occurred to me that someone would do this to my son. >> all of this corruption makes people feel powerless like these campaigners fighting against an office block being built on their children's playgrounds. they even wrote to vladimir putin but he never wrote back. in this city, the third largest in the russian federation, they are preparing to punish him in the election. >> you are watching "bbc world news america," still to come -- swimming towards a solution, the sea lions are touting some high- tech equipment for a uni

and i hope my hope my hope is that it will be not only my party is one of my partners with russia but will be much hope that we will be really united in strong liberal party is that it will be if it will be united liberal party it could take twenty twenty five thirty percent of the meant elections and be one of the biggest political parties and here you are optimistic this is going to have to mystic not because of power not about not because of a thought it is i'm optimistic because of. russian society has changed for the last ten years and the russian society now is totally different with the ninety's in the ninety's it was who're. and very split a decided this is almost without middle class now it's my much more prosperous society with massive middle class and now as a historian i could say that maybe it's the first time in russian history for last thousand years when we have real social basement for democracy and these people of that race it's a signal that we have civil society demanding democracy there is an interesting opinion there pinion is that that maybe putin is. so clever that he is he wants to liberalize this legislati

there is so much disillusionment that back in december, vladimir putin united russia party was beaten into second place by the communists in every part of the city. the corruption contagion can affect anyone, rich or poor. this man is a wealthy executives but his son was arrested for dealing drugs which seem to have been planted. he has been sitting in prison for a year and a half. his father has been asked to pay a bribe of 300,000 pounds to set him free. >> i get the impression that no one cares about people. the only think about themselves. it never occurred to me that some would try to get to me through my son. >> all this corruption makes people feel powerless like these campaigners fighting against an office block being built on their child playground. they even wrote to vladimir putin but he never wrote back. in the city, the third largest, they're preparing to punish him in the elections. >> thousands of passengers have been stranded after the budget airline carrier air australia with a bust on friday. they could not afford to refuel one of their planes and they immediately gr

december they have been protesting against alleged fraud in the state doing well action the ruling united russia party gained half the vote amid ballot riggin accusations which infuriated the crowd this time protesters called for free and democratic presidential election in less than a month meanwhile elsewhere in moscow was separate from the mantra was held the main slogan there was we have much to lose suggesting the country's current stability will be damaged if it is not real active participants said they were against the protest movement in the country right in their putin spoke to both sides in his new weekly pre-action article he sees the current political activity in the country as a good sign and an achievement of his years in power at the same time he admits the quality of the state is lagging behind civil society which has become more mature active and responsible. so putin has. admitted that the government needs to catch up with the civil society right here as an out some political concessions but do you have the feeling that putin is ready to to go. further in liberalizing really the soci

all started with protests over the stay do my election results last december when the ruling united russia party won which triggered ballot riggin accusations ever since the opposition has regularly how this rallies and has become exceptionally active online demanding changes that would make the election process more transparent last weekend however the protesters had to face the fact that the . government supporters are also ready to defend their point of view on the streets according to the data he should by the police the pro-government rally even outnumbered the anti government one in their position addressed both sides shortly after the meetings in the other of his pre-election articles the prime minister's manifesto published in russia's corner sunday league admits the quality of the state is lagging behind civil society which has become more mature active and responsible at the same time putin sees the current political activity in the country as in the chief mentor he is in power a byproduct of the economic stability he brought about. learned simon welcome to the share thank you for bein

he coined the now popular description of prime minister have had a here putin's united russia party as the party of crooks and thieves. navalny and others were arrested on the first day of those demonstrations, but by christmas eve he was out and speaking to an even bigger anti-putin rally. all this has brought white-hot focus on this coming sunday's presidential election as putin seeks to reclaim the top office. though polls show navalny is the most popular of the opposition figures, he's not on the ballot, but he stayed active with a campaign branding putin as a corrupt autocrat with his widely red live-journal blog of government corruption exposeeÉs and with a new project to enlist volunteers to monitor polling places this sunday. i spoke with alexei navalny at his office in moscow. thank you for joining us. you were at a rally in st. petersburg and you said these are not elections, this is the reappointment of putin. what did you mean? >> (translated): literally it means what i said. this is not an election. this procedure is aimed at only one thing, the appointment of prime minist

the early ninety's since the elections in december we have seen that to be approved one united russia the ruling party follow through on some of the promises they made to you to make changes to the electoral system we've seen well the very expensive program of putting webcams into polling booths every at polling stations every polling station in russia is now being fitted with a a webcam allowing them to allowing people to to log on at home and to watch him become if you will your an armchair observer at the at the election so that's been put in place before so seen independent league of all of this said to monitor the elections that will take place on the fourth of march and we've also seen but to me putin say that one of the criticisms that the protesters had of him were saying that he was on television and on radio and in other media far more than any other candidate now going to be approved and said that he's going to slash the amount of air time he's on the air in order to as he says give the other candidates a fair crack of the whip. teaser peter all of our reporting for us there and of course w

registered and it's very difficult to get a party into the demon and that's the nature of transitional politics that's not such a bad thing that united russia has a very strong mandate from the lower house now you want you want a party that can push through reforms and i think russia's now got the next stage in transition where it is it has to push for grace representation of other parties of opposition parties in the duma but it needs to be broader than that there needs to be a greater involvement of civil society in russia in general and i think that that could be the key change that we see over the next five years of the next dream and so. the big question i think for investors and the concern is the extent to which a growth in the opposition will impede the ability of putin potentially the next president of united russia to push through unpopular reforms and bear in mind is still the communist party here the second biggest party in their country and it's the communist party's manifesto that runs completely in the opposite direction of esther's wishes them in their manifesto as the renationalisation of the economy foreign investors do no

syria despite all the heated arguments in view of the upcoming presidential election united russia for the ruling party and the opposition spoke in unison on this matter of. i don't rule out the possibility that the state duma will revisit the issue perhaps more than once. during your meeting with president assad you pointed out that russia's. going to reform a syria and it was born of intervention in syria's affairs will not stand the strain a scene or comment on the recent statements by the signature and trainer of the arab league below horridly a moscow and behind an actual science of their position might sunshiny arch you're the most. obviously did you get of the statement made by the arab league's representative expresses nothing but his own opinions so far i see nothing that could make moscow in beijing change the firm stance on the issue expressed in the recent vote on the resolute. on syria in which they called for was urging both sides of the conflict to stop using force rather than only the pro regime forces or should i think we currently have every reason to believe the russian delegation wi

maps that would allow parties and a process to save face, and very important, to keep the russians in the process. it is clear after the veto, which russia has done in the united states -- the united security council, for them not only to block the process, but that they really can contribute to stop the violence. >> a lot that they want to show the international community, but there is also a lot of economic and military interest that russia has in syria. can you fill us in about that? >> yes, sure. if the assad regime does fall, russia will lose its last ally in the region. that would mean they would lose the naval base in the mediterranean and a lot of arms deals with hundreds of millions of dollars, just the week before a russian leader reported that russia will deliver, for example, what is to be used against the protesters. >> markets, thank you so very much. meanwhile in berlin, police have arrested two men suspected of spying for the syrian intelligence agency. one is a syrian nationa the other holds dual german lebanese citizenship. >> prosecutors say syrian opposition activists living in germany had been kept under close surveillance by syrian agents

parties in europe stand for unilateral. missile defense system which would include russia and the european union nato and the united states washington says that it's ready to cooperate but it has to have a tough stance always going to its defense while the foreign minister says that this is russia's foreign minister says this issue through etan's the positive relations between these two branches the eastern and the western branch of the european civilization like they said russia and the united states but of course there are many great examples of positive cooperation between russia and the northern north atlantic treaty organization for example cooperation in afghanistan and with transit problems for nato in pakistan russia is playing a major wall in the operation there giving its air corridor or through its airspace and there is also of course a great example of. cooperation between washington and moscow being the new strategic arms reduction treaty with the two biggest nuclear arms who is now reducing their arsenals because of that cooperation. from the annual security conference in munich. protests have been raging across europe

the remaining candidates are family a crowd united to ban of the oton communist party leader has always relied on the mention of a form about one third of russia's population now his laurels all contest is once again middle of the drama for a russia polity is the no should be easy can't even afford to milk whether pensioners. the competition has made is he gonna reach out to younger generation and offer them a brand new slogan there's always a choice to bloody made putin running for his that time has refrained from getting involved in the campaign directly he has controversially refused to take part in any t.v. debates sending. representatives instead and he's promised to never show his face. when he doesn't go to television when he's a part of st paul it takes what he's a part of television coverage oh he's a job as prime minister he is there is the only one let's say the only can do that with so many resources so much media attention i think that he wants to show that he's the only real candidate precisely by not going there as the campaign picks up steam it's expected so will the number of street protests both for and against putin and it's l

united states or outside. mentioning the pirates the piracy and we know that there is like the pirates party that has been organized in russia and they and their sea seeking official registration and there their leader has been in the studio a couple of days ago and he said that you personally you visited one of the gatherings well and officially but you were present at one of their at one of their meetings well mr shulman he said the following the russian government is lacking ideas and is trying to find them from external sources like the pirate party so. your visit to the party part of the meeting is it because you really want new ideas is it because you consider to be adequate people and do you want to cooperate with they were with the people like the pirate party. it was quite ridiculous just visited on the subject. bookstore. looking for some books. by the way it was. julian it's a very known novel of got to be dull but it was edited ten years ago and it was the only store what. well not not quite but this one a special. and there was a gathering of some young people and they recognized me and told me listen we're goin

remaining candidates are similarly a crowd united to band of the in time communist party leader has always relied on the bench and is a form about one third of russia's population now his laurels all contest is once again all of that from a payroll ship quality is the notion of things you can't even afford to milk now whether pensions. the competition has made you gonna reach out to younger generation and offer them a brand new slogan there's always a choice bludgeon of putin running for his that time has refrained from getting involved in the campaign directly he has controversially refused to take part in any t.v. debates sending his representatives instead and he's promised never to show his face. when he doesn't go to the towers or when he is a part of three politics where he is a part of the television coverage though it's our job as prime minister he is there is the only one that say he could be only a candidate with so many resources so much media attention i think that he wants to show that he's the only real candidate precisely buying or going. there as the campaign picks up steam it's expected so will the number of street protests both for

candidates are some of the a crowd united sudan of the old time communist party leader has always relied on the pension of voters who form about one third of russia's population now his laurels all contested by city middle of from with a russia polity is the notion believes it can't even afford to milk now whether pensioners. the competition has made zyuganov reach out to younger generation and offer them a brand new slogan there's always a choice bloody mad putin running for his that term has refrained from getting involved in a campaign directly he has controversially refused to take part in any t.v. debates sending his representatives instead and his promos never show his face. when he doesn't go to television when he's part of st politics where he's a part of television coverage he's job as prime minister he is there is the only one let's say the only kind that with so many resources so much media attention i think that he wants to show that he's the only real candidate precisely by not going there. as the campaign picks up steam it's expected so will the number of street protests both for and against putin and its likely election two thousand