the biggest stories of the week here and let me just triumphant in the russian presidential election after turning overwhelming poll numbers into a convincing victory the tough challenges a still ahead for the new leader. the russian opposition scrambles to recapture the public's passion but dashed expectations and internal fractures leave the movement increasingly short of support. russia and the arab league are finally in the same boat over how to stop the syrian crisis but there are still those trying to put sticks in the spokes of the fence a lot of analysis from london on these about and show me on r.t. . three days of far more deaths reported in israeli airstrikes in gaza after the

assassination of a palestinian resistance leader sense of rockets flying over the border on top stories this hour. of an attack in the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on ati the long haul isn't hard fought race for the kremlin is over when prime minister vladimir putin now set to make a return to the presidency after a landslide election victory but expectations are now greater than any other time when serious national challenges still ahead compounded by a public more politically cute than ever before he's alexey going to ski ripples. it was one and motional night for that approach and yes i did promise you we would

win. i. only have one. but you know the prime minister may have justified his cheers by the strong wind but no one would be surprised if it was caused by the joy of victory. it was hardly a shock as putin had been the elections clear front runner but eventually result of almost sixty four percent stunned even those at the helm who would never think of such a high result so it's even higher than we predicted for ourselves and he shows once again actually proves that putin is a political figure number one of these countries and his potential is yet to is yet to be open toes are there but it's no time to party now many experts believe putin's real challenge in fact starts now. this will be sort of a battle between the two out parity of course of all of that state irrelevant here and developments creditors for myself identify the first concept as putting land

they want russian political system to be transparent whereas russia's economy where they will be no nepotism and no corruption but on the other hand this other alternative group of process elite as well as the russian public whom i associated with a put a stop they just need status quo they need just some candles from the state they don't want any change which is the road to nowhere the change manifested itself in the sudden rise of mikhail prokhorov in under four months the russian billionaire managed to persuade more than five million people to vote for him many say this new face in the country spall ticks has serious potential and broker have already declared an intention to form an opposition party with putin promising he would cooperate with it to symbolize the new the new russia is some dishes and other candidates. from the old stylish solid elite.

they're not you know. anymore leaders of the younger generation and figures speak for themselves second place community leaders you've grown of gauge seventeen percent in his fifth presidency less than he's already had earned a column entry vote and experts say even this came mostly as protest voting in the eyes of many this is a clear signal it's time for french politicians to make way in the western countries if a party loses the election its leader is no friend changed if it happens again and he's definitely changed these guys had lost three times prior to this a lot of those folks are still seen as being somewhat out of touch you and the russians traders there are look these guys had their chance in the one nine hundred ninety used to screw things up you know we still need stronger leadership variable to offer we need a more concrete program. who can will continue his work as prime minister for two more months the period which could become crucial and decisive for the country's

long term future bloody reporting will officially return to the kremlin on may the seventh that is when his inauguration takes place until then the president elect will have to work out a strategy of holding a dialogue between those in power and those in the streets and given that some are still calling for him to step down even after such a convincing victory this may prove to be quite a task. let's see russia ski r.t. reporting from moscow one of the issues this presidential campaign will be remembered for is the massive rallies that hair of the political awakening of russia's public appearances they worked with transparency becoming a top government priority today however the protest movement is fizzling and support quickly fading. looks at why. when the protestors unhappy with the results of the presidential elections took to the streets the day after the roads took place some kept the police busy. to give myself decided to i'll stay

they wanted two hours yes it was their third bush ignored although i'm not going to leave this square i'm staying here until putin leaves where the tents and there were no tents but there was a fountain which some chose as a makeshift stage to make his statements from and from which we certainly know him and several dozens of his supporters. the situation repeated itself on saturday when police pulled from an electricity transformer again after the opposition rally was officially over but the antics of the opposition leaders seem to do little to keep people coming to protest rallies but yes there was one of those it was the with the spirit if that hysteria that irritation and aggression had continues it would have alienated the public no one here wants a revolution no one wants to fight with police the people who come to these protests only want change they don't want bloodshed all violence which is what

could scare them away the results of the elections to the state duma hotly contested by many brought tens of thousands out in the streets of moscow by the day after presidential elections there are only half of that number showed up to push his case square and even fewer still to the demonstration on saturday this out of the leverage here is that they don't always hear every single protest actually stick by some allow that i'd rather see it was a day over did that really go to that so no way out o. traveling or your guy to know here is was there some blame the lack of a coherent idea and absence of unity among the opposition leaders for the waning support that i had i think these people all have a different agenda some don't even know right ahead if i was born i don't see different in japan. candidates that i could choose from but i don't think we can really reach any calls by proto flighty even some of the most vocal supporters of the movement for their actions see solid foundations are necessary to carry on with

the movement because that's in the book some sort of regulation and structure is needed some sort of goals an understanding of what happens next which could be easily understood by people are also necessary. to protest movement which began as a call for free and fair elections in russia following the vote for the state duma seems to have turned into haphazard series of gatherings they have achieved success in that bringing people. to the streets. try to attract more attention to their slogans but we are now witnessing their slogans leads to the change there is a need for a new age gender in fact the rallies seem to have only one slogan out with putin went to do if he leaves no one seems to know in moscow in a girls' school r.t.e. . the russian government rattled by public protests went a long way in making sure these elections were as transparent as possible but with

transparency came unexpected insights from walking to the ballot box to weddings and discos the polling stations are all part of the electoral reality show captured by two hundred thousand webcams and watch that in twenty minutes from now here in a. debate on how to stop the syrian crisis has been tending towards diplomacy russia and the arab league of come up with a joint plan rooting out foreign meddling and calling on both the government and the opposition to lay down arms that says the u.n. arab envoy is in syria promoting an all inclusive dialogue but as artie's revolution reports there are those still trying to hinder the efforts. after several recent differences between western and arab views and those of russia and china on how the long running syrian conflict should be handled we are now seeing some consensus speaking after the meeting with his arab counterparts russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov has said they haven't out a common plan that sends

a clear message to all of the sides being involved in this crisis because we've agreed a joint position of five main points first to stop violence wherever it comes from second to create an impartial and independent monitoring system for no external interference which forces the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid to syrians and finally the firm support of kofi annan is mission to start political dialogue between the government and all opposition groups you've seen it was. the joint u. arab league envoy is currently on a peace mission here in damascus both their sources and within the country opposition welcomed the initiative but the efforts were dismissed even before coffee allen's arrival to syria fight and now the opposition group based outside the country the syrian national council recognized by many countries by e.u. as a legitimate representative of the syrian people seeking for democratic changes firmly rejected talks with the government and support more military pressure on the regime of bashar al assad these calls were followed by suggestions by qatar to deploy

foreign troops to syria but there is a fear here on the grounds of the growing international interference in the country's conflicts paving the way for an even bigger crisis as the syrian conflict stretches out in time it has also spread geographically i case of the uprising belt far from the country's borders what's happening in syria is heartbreaking. and what you've seen is the international community mobilize against the assad regime strategic analyst says one thing is clear though that mobilization has many more forms than officially stated. during the operation in baba amr the syrian army are . arrested fighters from gulf countries and afghanistan iraq libya and some european states their work was coordinated by qatari and saudi intelligence officers as well as cia and mossad it's also seized israeli weapons especially in take missiles and israeli drones well the us and many other countries have admitted

al qaeda linked extremists groups fighting alongside the armed opposition in syria dr saleem says some countries are using those groups to further their own interests . to get local players involved in order to hide their involvement this is why we hear mostly arabs like saudi arabia and qatar or iraq these countries don't have democracy at home of course they cannot ask for establishing in syria they have another agenda. there are books and written sources where this plan is described in detail decades ago and how the culture of a blogger and freelance journalist has been investigated for an important and serious crisis since last year she says this is a story with three main chapters often smuggled across the border over says contractors and foreign cash. when you see a lot of money here then you will. this is comparable to what happened in the

civil war in lebanon there were plenty of money then you will find not going to talk about pogroms will balance or something nobody would give him so. now what you will see now this is the beginning here in syria with more and more reports on international involvement emerging and calls to arm the opposition getting louder even for those at the grassroots of the uprising the initial euphoria is turning bitter. i can say we regret what we did but we didn't want things to go back or turn so much militarized globalized and blow and we never wanted and don't want intervention. but fears are abdulaziz says that this could be too late to stop this cult of current claims of conflict while the conflict between president bashar al assad and his opponents here in syria about to enter its second

year another conflict is also in full swing between those calling on political settlement as their way out and those who insist on military solution and the latter is turning into a fight almost as important as the one claiming blood on the streets. to damascus syria. to talk more on what may be ahead for syria i'm joined by a she returns to london based journalist and author so russia and the arab league of set a five point peace plan which says that volatile should be stopped on all sides in the conflict but syria's major opposition group rejects any dialogue can make them change their minds or indeed. i think anything can probably change their minds of the russian foreign minister really has his work cut out for him because the horrifying prospect of foreign intervention hasn't gone away it seems like this un visit these talks involving the russians this is all in the face of what the e.u.

and the u.s. want and they're not concerned about humanitarian help for the people being killed by assad's troops if they were really caring about humanitarian issues they'd be caring about what the saudi arabians are doing to their people over the weekend or the bahraini government killing its own citizens you know we know that some of the correspondents in the packets that we know from wiki leaks is strapped for document is correct british troops are there now american special forces british special forces on the ground libyan money hundreds of millions of their supply routes from turkey this is. horrifying prospect this week and if so get out of all get a resolution this week at the u.n. some people talking about that very carefully would you mention covert operations and what about formal intervention cata a member of the arab league actually thinks very differently to the organization which of course is saying that both sides should lay down their arms but we've seen

that the calls for diplomacy are not having any positive positive effect wouldn't a military option be better than that to stop the bloodshed isn't it not necessary now. we know that military intervention by western powers well look at libya today two hundred warring militias fighting it out it would be a complete disaster for syria although there is military intervention right now for and close i mean the assassinations going on there's a boxer was killed one champion boxer in aleppo assassinated by these different pieces you know extra residential of course would be an utter disaster. china or russia i wonder what they're looking at when it comes to a new draft of a resolution in any case president obama has his own pressures in washington and from israel of course is according to one unnamed source for an american t.v. station saying a regional grouping could give

a mandate for military action in any case so this is a very good move actually what do you make of that u.n. arab envoy kofi annan he's tripped that little cheap much has it achieved. that he met president as a second time we have a coffee and goes i'm not sure where the prospects of peace are necessarily furthered but certainly it was an advance that at least he was there and there was the e.u. and the americans with baying for blood recognizing the opposition and so forth at least there is some element of diplomacy going on because we know really clinton wasn't interested in diplomacy wasn't even interested in in having a conference in tunisia with the other side to talk about what was going on and we're pulling humanitarian situation in syria this is of course about syria and iran you're certainly person who wants the next question the media coverage of all of this some way some international channels have been covering this conflict is sparking anger among their employees for example al-jazeera now i understand you of

course work for that organization and i've seen some of the reporters the managers resigning recently over their editorial policy but why is that. it is unprecedented this number of resignations correspondents producers directors in their offices it's very sad that al jazeera arabic which wrist such a voice for openness that's a revolutionary channel in that part of the world openly allowing people to criticize the dictators back where the united states in the region it's very very disturbing to hear al-jazeera is now are becoming this regional player for a foreign policy in a way that some would argue say b.b.c. and others have been for decades because. because if. it was going to take a warlike stance or graphic a tory government that was bodes very ill and i have to say there is the courage of those journalists however in failing look this isn't the way we should be covering

this there are elements of al-qaeda in there and the way i'll just her because covered the story of syria is completely once an option returns always good to hear your thoughts thank you very much indeed for joining us live there in london. well coming up here on r.t. this hour outrage in afghanistan as american forces have some major blood on their hands it comes off for u.s. soldiers as foreign civilians in kandahar killing sixteen people many of them children what effect will this have on washington's quest to win over hearts and minds. also still to come salvation to some collapsed to others greece kemas up the biggest debt reduction deal in history but once praised to the hilt by brussels rating agency slam it is default by another name. a story still to come but first israel has carried out several airstrikes in gaza killing seventeen over three days it's the worst violence the region seen in more than a year the first attack came despite an informal truce between the sides it

targeted a high ranking palestinian resistance leader and sparked a physics change of fun. as watching developments. the situation here on the ground continues to escalate as israeli forces and palestinian militants continue exchanges of fire for the third straight day today sunday now the latest figures we have put the palestinian death toll at seventeen mostly non members of islamic jihad but overnight a twelve year old palestinian boy was killed in the jabalya refugee camp by any israeli airstrike cairo is reportedly mediating work he's trying to mediate there is a hamas in a geisha in egypt and the egyptian ambassador to the palestinian authority has put the blame firmly on the shoulders of the israelis saying that they are to blame for breaking this tacit ceasefire that has been in place between israel and gaza at the same time the arab league has been meeting in cairo and they've also called israeli airstrikes and massacre now tomorrow monday in the middle east quartet is needed to

look at these stored negotiations between israelis and palestinians that meeting comes ahead of a special session of the united nations security council that will be addressing the arab spring uprisings. and u.s. soldiers being detained after going on a shooting rampage in southern afghanistan killing sixteen civilians including nine children as for europe and far inside local homes in the middle of the night there is investigating the incident which comes after a mass protest last month over the inadvertent burning of copies of the qur'an at a u.s. military base in the german from the start the walker addition believes this is massively damaging for america's entire campaign in the country. the americans will try to say this is just an isolated incident but we have to remember the there are a hundred thousand occupying troops there are many many times for asians over the koran that isn't just about the offense to islam it's also about the occupation

itself the air strikes and particularly in this case we know that every now and soon after and stand up to forty miles it's a rated looking for alleged terrorist in the country now if this soldier is one of the many who have been involved in these raids and it does raise many many questions as to exactly how the americans are treating the occupied population the afghan people. it's been a week of short hops and downs for the greek economy athens managed to talk private creditors into accepting a crucial bun swap deal that's considered the biggest debt write down in history and the agreement seemed to loosen the noose around athens neck by reducing the debt burden by one hundred billion euros e.u. leaders praised the deal to the skies claiming a solution to the crisis and at last two found just hours later the your crowd suffered a major slap in the face by the credit rating agencies as moody's and fitch declared

greece in different markets backed the trend by showing no signs of optimism we demanded an associate professor from frostburg state university's resolute in his assessment which is different. this is it before i'm going whatever you settle with your creditor for less than what you. have agreed to do it then when you do it i don't care how systematic it is or how complicated these debt swaps are we are dealing with a real live before everybody knows that just because he claims that it isn't a deep fault means absolutely nothing to politicians don't believe the pm leaders are trying to put a political spin on this but what you have been the end is in fact the taking of assets that are worthless and you have a suffered by pretending that these assets mean so think that these assets really are valuable when in fact they're not and then they try to monetize the whole thing

and then pretend it so they solve a problem and solve nothing they've actually made it worse because they won't admit what is going. demonstrators and supporters of the hacking group anonymous covered in paris on saturday protesting against the controversial actor treaty and it fears it will violate internet freedoms this comes after the activist community was shaken by tuesday's detention of members from another well known group. it's and he was arrested last summer then sort of become an f.b.i. informant and this week turned his colleagues in the group is known for carrying out several high profile hacking attacks on the cia fox news and sony following the arrest see a lot of this group retaliated by taking down the website of the panda security company that's known for its widely used antivirus software political commentator luke samuel says the government's approach to hackers will not achieve anything. anonymous is a group that genuinely sees itself involved in

a kind of cyber war where they play the part of the self-appointed protectors of internet liberty because it's worth bearing in mind that the most this group of actually managed to achieve a shutting down nasty card for a couple of hours so this kind of jittery response on behalf of western governments is really an embarrassment it really does show that this is a set of governments that are completely run out of ideas and the only real response they can come up with is using the law in this kind of war for a tarion way which in the end of the day is completely pointless. the free and fair the government's motto leading up to the presidential election in russia and officials certainly spared little expense in delivering hundreds of thousands of webcams broadcast the vote for the world to see as artie's the main let's see find out how much transparency also came with a dose of had merited. allegations of widespread voter fraud in last december's parliamentary elections set off a wave of mess of protests against mr putin sensitive to the incited opposition he

ordered the installation of web cameras and all of russia's polling stations it has been a very ambitious and costly project for the russian government not everybody was convinced by the use of the web cameras to ensure transparency the cameras however did prove to be quite handy in some provinces such as degas done in one station the results were cancelled after cameras showed while ations of election procedures. the web cameras reproduced a fascinating slice of russian provincial life which went viral and got hundreds of clicks on social networking sites such as. some even joke that mr putin gave us the best reality show. cameras captured various activities from cultural dancing in chechnya.

to russian women at streaming and lots of dancing. one of radio that was a hit with it was three hundred thousand hits on you tube this man bring in michael jackson's moonwalk back to life because palate. we caught up with him in our speed he expected his video to be this popular. song i would say we did it for fun not for pain actually i was surprised because we were the only ones who voted this way i thought they should have been more people like us there were a lot of opportunities to create whatever you want i hope next time people will vote more creatively with me lets you know the world and the country awaits the swearing in the president elect mr bloody. as for the rest of us there's no doubt we'll never forget the glimpses that people gave us of their lives from all across the country and those who thought that their moment during camera wasn't being

watched but really we were looking. so mom agree on seat not stuff. but so brings us to twenty eight minutes past the hour now i'll be back with this week's main stories a summary of often office main stories for in just a moment. the

mission is free accreditation free transport charges free maintenance free. free. tuition free. the old free bonus money in videos for your media projects and free media don carty dot com. the my. handlers. just say. it's just silly.