from a nation and saw this is what many scots say they want a realistic is an independent scotland would be over. the years seeking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president through a u.n. draft resolution that was blocked by russia and china. and russia as foreign minister calls western reaction to the double veto indecent and hysterical that's ahead of his trip to damascus aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. also ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister putin lays out his plans to upgrade russian democracy the day after mass pro and anti-government rallies sweep the country. plus the russian mafia and minorities host for their

language to be officially recognized in the post soviet baltic states are marred by reports of intimidation being used to dissuade people from taking part in an upcoming referendum. my from our studios in central moscow you're watching r t with me and he said no way it's good to have you with us six pm here in the russian capital our top story the e.u. is preparing to further toughen sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime the decision came after russia and china vetoed the latest draft u.n. resolution on syria moscow and beijing say the wording took sides in the syrian conflict as it's only blame the government for violence without mentioning armed extremist groups in syria opposition leaders claim at least. fifty people have been

killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homes the government denies the assault and amateur footage showing the alleged shelling cannot be verified and as our team sara further of course an absence of credibility and video evidence from syria raises questions as to exactly what's happening in the country. each video and social networking sites have for the past and months being one of the activists he means is offering the world glimpses of the violence is a tool in three syrian activists who support how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the person of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. you got a very very strong had a very good he thinks there. was a. head is the u.n.

security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seemed to reach fever pitch with activists reporting a massacre in homs that was all of the headlines and watched with horror by people worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred you see there could be as many as two hundred dead just in the last hour or two part that was later significantly downgraded strict access policies they have made it difficult for many foreign networks to get their correspondents into the country to collect evidence at the end of last year i level discrete citizen at the foreign minister's spokesman we've never been in the media by the way. because objectivity we've been filtering you how can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you tube and broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube well you have also atrocity. the elements it's true that

to a large extent mainstream coverage of the trade of the canned has been pretty fast this graphic video appears to show every. being hanged obviously clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now it was hard to know what the western allies that the were basing their assertions on which is not really about genuine concern for human rights and democracy this is all about region change dissatisfied with the wording of the resolution in china veto the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya russia and china believes the do right then that foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis here in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but any measures imposed limits where to try and put an end to the violence again has to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya they seem to be backing one side increasingly looking like civil war

so are not. indecent and hysterical that's how russia's foreign minister described the criticism by some western countries of the russia china double veto sergey lavrov are speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where he's scheduled to meet with syrian authorities on tuesday our correspondent peter all over listened to him on the minister's comments. this was continuing on from the system by china and russia to veto the recent u.n. resolution on syria from. saying that russia asked the u.n. security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr lavrov to complete his trip to damascus now they were requested by the u.n. security council heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president dmitri medvedev a message. it's believed to request 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 decision by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution with a condemnation from the united states from france from great britain the foreign secretary in great britain going as far as to say that this meant there was blood on the hands of those that had vetoed it well so very unhappy about these comments he was speaking at a press conference alongside people here in a foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments made from abroad. so western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council vote on syria sound indecent and almost hysterical in this

connection i can't remember the saying that those who are angry are really right. statements attempts are being made to create a false picture of what is really going on in syria and what's really happening is that there are several and not just one sources violence in syria well with regards to why russia vetoed that resolution over the weekend twelve russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the assad government and the opposition and want them both sides to put down their weapons and come to the table for talks now as far as russia concerned the resolution is on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any requests on the the opposition to lay down their arms and as far as russia concerned that's not acceptable when it comes to a u.n. resolution on syria. but get more reaction on the situation in and around syria dr . nicholas rabbani professor at the lebanese international university joining us on

the line from beirut thanks for being with us this is not the first time that russia and china have sided together to resist a u.n. resolution backed by europe in the u.s. what lies behind the division as you see it. i think that the u.s. is the trying to make and you had germany and then in the middle east and to dominate the you and security council. they are that their responsibility to protect the civilians as a cover you know that responsibly to protect the civilians should it's a strategy it's a new strategy in the international public lol but it's it means that the military action is the last resort and the begins with the. responsibility to prevent the clash from or to to blow between between the parties and then to say

responsibility to protect and at the last when the when they can do they want to have that responsibility to be built this is this does not happen and leave not in iraq and then now it seems as not happening in syria you know the western allies are trying to go directly to mitt to suppose that they are going to protect civilians but that. their policies are making. empowering the so-called opposition to raise arms in the face of that agenda and force of the of the of the state as soon as the terrorist attacks and and all these arms in the hands of the people will tend to get syria to a civil war and this will will make that the clash in the middle east and this will be a war happened happened in syria or a military action but a military intervention happened in syria this will blow all the region in the

middle east and in the near dear graphical region. in europe also reports are coming from u.s. fear officials that washington is quoting an embassy in syria what do you think that might signify. i think that the. us or the u.s. is a trying to get out of the middle east you know they are was drawing from iraq and like panetta said that the day two thousand and thirteen they will withdraw or finish their their actions in afghanistan and they are it they are tending to go to the pacific they are they have new strategies to go to the past because they are they are going towards the the asia they are trying to to blackmail russia and and to china or to contain them to make and you and you had your money order to restore their their hegemony order their way which was two decades before i think that it's

a strategy to regain the head germany about and you would order like that one happened after the us as our collapse will not be regained again i think that there are many powers now and russia and china have the ability to contain also and to not to blame be blackmailed so the they will make a balance and then you and security council and they should make a balanced and the global order as well i think that that will be for the state for all the humanity and this will be it will prevent the chaos or constructive case which was which was the strategy of the. administration for this war the last decade russia and china are staunchly opposed to pressing for regime change in syria from abroad while supporting the opposition saying it would only make things worse so you agree with. yes i i i do i do because the old these

surveys and the statistics reveal that assad has still had the majority of the syrian syrian people and you know i don't know how institute made a recently recently survey which gives fifty five percent for the regime and some reports said that it's it's more than that it's about sixty or sixty five percent of the majority of the syrians. are with us if this if democracy is what is the aim of the motive is democracy so let the syrians handle all day all of the issues with their issues. by the by themselves and the best thing for syria now is a dialogue a multi dialogue with all the parties coming to town table and to manage the transitional transitional justice for syria and make it transitional let the national state from from syria the old syria to a new

a new syria but the what are done by old what are it is empowered the policies that is empowered by the u.s. and its allies in the opinion alleys it will make syria feel state and if syria is instability or goes in a tunnel of instability i think all the middle east will come towards this tunnel also and the fundamentalism will raise and this will affect the whole world and especially specially it will affect eastern europe western europe and all. mediterranean region also right dr varian. robin a professor at lebanese international university thank you very much for your analysis. but with less than a month ago before russia's presidential vote emotions are running high i am a campaign shift up a gear following a day of demonstrations and. prime minister and presidential candidates idea where

putin continues to lay out his electoral program this time it's more about whether shape democracy with initiatives allowing the people to suggest their own laws online can offer has more of the main idea of the sort of go is that a civil society in russia has grown and developed and become much more active most importantly compared to say ten years ago and what comes to the state well it's a lagging behind at the moment people do want to be more active and have more influence on the political life and one of the mechanisms providing them with these opportunities is the internet and this is not only about the tens of thousands of people who now take to the streets for this or that rally is about millions of interest users in russia who over the past few years have become very active. wars of blogs and forums videos of internet wars between political movements and all of them are going on on the web and the prime minister wants to see the role of the

internet is influenced increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper bases for public discussion and not only on initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft law and if it gains say one hundred thousand approval signatures from other users it has to be reviewed by the parliament the internet also gives another opportunity to evaluate civil servants for example if locals or district of any city are not satisfied with the way the head of the local police department works or a judge or even a principal of a local school they have to be able to voice their concerns on the web be heard by the authorities so that these civil servants can be substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on other initiatives like reintroducing the elections of local governors was initially put forward by the president. supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering

new political parties which should make way for more competition but now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries of civil servants in exchange for their complete transparency and put together a list of the most corrupt jobs in the ninety's many people wanted to become all the guards now there a need for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money quick and according to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well. you can always read more on our top stories twenty four hours a day on our web site r t dot com here's what's waiting for you there right now meet the man behind the mask he's moscow street artist whose details are working in secret identity have to earn him earned him the nickname the russian banks ski after the british artist. plus three thousand meters beneath the sea russian scientists make a unique discovery find out what exactly they found and its impact on the future of

science head to our t.v. dot com. well the greek prime minister is struggling to get coalition party leaders to buy into harsh new international bailout terms the country must now accept even more painful cuts if it's to get a one hundred thirty billion euro second lifeline from international creditors now if the deal falls through greece is expected to default by at the end of march before more on the story i'm now joined live by professor of constitutional lawyers george cockerel godless thank you for being with us this hour greece is facing an ultimatum here i mean make the cuts or no cash injection what outcome do you see

from this deadlock. well you know our out of to be soap has lucidly said that of politicians continue to give us increase the dosage is off a little medicine there continue our faith experiment two years now we are living through i hear a lot of austerity measures over there are only a measure of the output or the burden to the poorest that we kissed members of our society and our debt you stayed off beat it used is get inflated so i don't have any hope to these new measures it is the same us if we continue to put money into our debt or start a credit to him to drain our economy leave them the leave the need to even more or stare decisis i want somebody is going to have to give in what do you think it's going to be. well i don't have many hopes for. the existing political system but this political system is completely discredited in

the view of the good people just to give you a number there are three members of the political party that they are now for been very sound to government policy and had at the last their legs more than eighty percent of their votes and that is that post give them to him now less than forty percent of their stand that there is a complete lack of lives if the media do the political governing majority and that on the other hand they could have people. fed up they do not we do not want to get. to this continuous sacrifice this sacrifice is without any kind of cope i well speaking at all not continuing president sarkozy is urging greece's political leaders to agree to reform saying the crisis must be solved once and for all but is that realistic i mean this proposition of once and for all we need to find a solution. well no greece is

a go to for experiment for all european union this is not an exceptional case they're just trying to impose to us or stupid measures the dark suits the salaries the dismantlement of the protective legislation for the workers that later they are going to try to impose to other peoples starting from the people in the colors of the south first port of gold which in a similar crisis like us then to other counters so into this mix there will be the fields of art of first thoughts of because. the measures that can fall out of people they want to sell out mainly concerned enterprises our basic infrastructure most of. our pollution to us actually nothing but a scheme to give up our public infrastructure infrastructure public property to foreigners at especially big german enterprises. all right professor of

constitutional law george cottle gallo's thank you very much for being with us live on the line from athens. but russians make up nearly thirty percent of latino population on a referendum as being how to officially recognize their native language in the baltic state latvia's laws prevent the official use of any other language then land in this policy is prevented russian speakers from finding work and resulted in the closure of several russian schools over the last decade artie's alexy or says he explains why the vote could be a step towards restoring basic political rights. this professor from a lot to me wants everyone in his country to have equal rights that's why he had no second thoughts when the initiative of a referendum to make russian the country second state language came out. of the cannon to accept the policy of true true to my friends from the russian minority those who also voted for matters independence in one thousand nine to one shoulder

to shoulder by. being treated like garbage. for their jobs here that's why i stand for the. ethnic russians make up a third of luckiest population the idea of holding this referendum came up to what they describe as discrimination had reached a critical point if the nationalists initiated their own referendum to close russian schools in latvia they failed but it was a worryin coup that's why we gather signatures for a language referendum to legally protect ourselves after we did the ruling nationalists when hysterical trying to jeopardize the votes in the minority points to a recent statement by the country's president told us at the referendum means voting against blood to be. as a state level discrimination the nationalist denounces all such accusations however they believe their vote carries a threat to the country's sovereignty and are sending

a stern warning move. these people to live in our territory after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. we said you can live here under certain conditions but if they are trying to alter the foundations of our state then we will have to be tougher and make new. and some lothians have already started to act this lawyer told us you had numerous reports of people being blackmailed from taking part in the bolting those who would not talk on camera afraid of sanctions but. some are already scared to go voting their employer. that should he see a stamp in the passport and the two part in a language with a random then he would immediately fire down like he is russians hold back the referendum will help brussels notice their distress call and have a hard talk with. russian may become largely a second state language only if at least seven hundred fifty thousand people vote for it organizers of the referendum say realistically there will be only half of

that the result will be then deemed unconstitutional but may still become a major talking point let's see russia r.t. reporting from riga in latvia. this is next here on r t with danielle. to the business program here on the russia's gazprom has acknowledged that it temporarily reduced supplies to european customers at the end of last week deliveries to some countries will cut by ten percent this is due to high demand in russia caused by unusually cold weather the energy giant says it's now made up the shortfall in supply to europe and is pushing production to the maximum last week of this month john thank you for that. was in a position to meet hundred percent of the inquiries but. the first week of february it was another job that you want to put it was

a previous. plus fifty percent normal i just repeated well. gas prices in europe have shot up to the highest level since two thousand and six but alexander medvedev says the market is an illusion as there is no extra gas in the system. sport market demonstrated that actually it is a real sport market in the usual look at this for a reason. it's a lot of speculation to the sport prices this is the price of a long term contract. and continue to grow but that is. just. so it's only a marginal. b.p. . let's check the markets on the exchange rates the dollar's just joined the euro in the red against the ruble the euro's continuing to shed against the greenback this hour as well from the oil markets the price of brant and light sweet

continuing to slip a key meeting of greek leaders on the new bailout has just been postponed to tomorrow investors fear failure to do a deal with confidence and cut demand for crude european shares meanwhile have recovered a little but they remain down for the day concerns over the greek economy is the main drag on the indices. russia is following europe into the red with declining or prices a drag the my six has slipped into negative ground in the last few hours and moves on the my six gazprom has slipped into the red but precious metal producers are on the rise the price of poly metal reached an all time high earlier today although investors are cashing those gains at the moment gold is the best performer this hour extending last week's roys. gold is posting have to gain more than eleven percent the sellers after gaining a whopping thirty five percent on friday with the company's capitalization reaching almost nine billion dollars. a number of factors among them

a possible merger of political and its russian wyvil polymaths or also the company is expected to buy back four percent of its stocks from minority shareholders. now the current period of profound economic change has some talking about a new world order who will be the winners and losers marcus troyer the head of a brazil based think tank the center for business diplomacy offers his verdict. but we're in the midst of a transition phase what are the elements in this transition phase that i think will shape the world oh very straight very strong state owned enterprises from brazil russia india china a renewed innovative capacity in the us in knowledge intensive sectors they will create new facebook's new google's new microsoft and that is going to be good for parts of the american economy it will also widen the gap between the nose and the know not just the haves and the have nots and i think we're going to also see a time of sacrifice in europe airfares going to have to have. those of dynamism

being inserted into its economy otherwise it's going to be stalled for a number of years. sort of business in about fifty five minutes with more on nothing.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.