:00:08. > :00:13.The Syrian army stops the Red Cross gaining access to Baba Amr, scene
:00:13. > :00:19.of the bloodiest shelling of civilians. What is really going on
:00:19. > :00:22.in the area around Homs. We talk to Paul Conroy, the wounded British
:00:22. > :00:27.photo journalist, smuggled out three days ago, who said his
:00:27. > :00:30.colleague, Marie Colvin, died trying to alert the world to the
:00:30. > :00:35.slaughter they witnessed. We have lost a good friend, and one of the
:00:35. > :00:41.best has been taken from us, I salute her and I will go back and
:00:41. > :00:46.get her when the time is right, and bring her home. Steve Hilton, David
:00:46. > :00:52.Cameron's back room brains has quit Downing Street for California. Is
:00:52. > :00:56.he taking Cameron's mojo with him. We will ask what his friends and
:00:56. > :01:00.enemies think the Prime Minister will miss.
:01:00. > :01:06.In Russia, as they vote for the new boss, he looks like the old boss.
:01:06. > :01:09.Will they get fooled again? Russia's protest movement is
:01:09. > :01:12.getting stronger and better organised. With Vladimir Putin
:01:12. > :01:22.certain to win the upcoming presidential elections, what can it
:01:22. > :01:25.
:01:25. > :01:31.Good evening, the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon,
:01:31. > :01:37.said tonight, that he feared Syrian Government forces were ash trairly
:01:37. > :01:44.executing and torturing people in the city of Homs. The Syrian army
:01:44. > :01:52.agreed to let the Red Cross and Red Crescent into the city today, but
:01:52. > :01:55.refused to let them into Baba Amr, which they have been pounding for
:01:55. > :02:02.days. Our diplomatic editor has been trying to figure out what is
:02:02. > :02:06.happening. What is happening in Homs, as far as we know? The city
:02:06. > :02:09.status is the cradle of opposition to the regime. One of the key
:02:10. > :02:16.focuses of it is not extinguished, but the opposition has suffered a
:02:16. > :02:20.heavy blow there. If we look in detail at the map. The reason it
:02:20. > :02:23.became such a centre for opposition, it is very close to the border,
:02:23. > :02:27.that allowed people to get in and out, particularly through the
:02:27. > :02:32.western approach, through the rural area, to the west of the city, to
:02:32. > :02:36.Baba Amr, which is within that circle. It was the route for people,
:02:36. > :02:42.guns, money, journalists to get in and out, and all the rest of it.
:02:42. > :02:46.That is what made it such a focus and caldron for both sides. The
:02:46. > :02:49.opposition forces thought they could hold on to it, and for some
:02:49. > :02:52.weeks, during the pounding, it seemed they comfortable but the
:02:52. > :02:57.Assad regime was gathering its forces and preparing what it was
:02:57. > :03:03.going to do next. If we look in closer still, we can describe what
:03:03. > :03:09.happened, over the last few days. That's Baba Amr again. Just the
:03:09. > :03:12.centre of it. I will put the symbol for the Free Syrian Army fighters
:03:12. > :03:15.in there. The Government already held positions in some
:03:15. > :03:20.neighbourhoods, where people are loyal to them, in the centre of
:03:20. > :03:24.town, and extended, during these weeks of bombardment, extended its
:03:24. > :03:28.position in areas like the university. In recent days, they
:03:28. > :03:32.have moved armour from, it is believed, the President's brothers
:03:32. > :03:35.division, the mechanised division, to interdict these groups in and
:03:35. > :03:39.out of the city to the west. That is what the journalist, who were
:03:40. > :03:46.trying to escape, had to run the gauntlet of that. Around Tuesday,
:03:46. > :03:51.other armoured units from the resident brigade, the 90th Brigade,
:03:51. > :03:56.went in and cut off the northern route in and out of Baba Amr as
:03:56. > :04:02.well. Once that situation had become a reality for the fighters
:04:02. > :04:11.in there, power was gone, water was gone, they ordered a withdrawal.
:04:11. > :04:15.They decided to quit Baba Amr. That seems to have happened Wednesday
:04:15. > :04:21.night, with the Free Syrian Army announcing it on Thursday. Was
:04:21. > :04:25.there an assault, as such, or did the Syrian army just drive in? It
:04:25. > :04:29.seems to be more the latter. Where does it leave the humanitarian
:04:29. > :04:33.situation for the people there? Desperate. Before this happened,
:04:33. > :04:38.about 100,000 people living in the area. Syrian Government aired these
:04:38. > :04:40.pictures this morning, we can tell they are recent because of the snow.
:04:40. > :04:45.That is south towards the university area. Look at the state
:04:45. > :04:48.of the houses, many hit on the upper storeys during the weeks of
:04:48. > :04:53.bombardment. What horror lurks there, people who have died in
:04:53. > :04:57.their homes, or struggling to survive on the meagre food and
:04:57. > :05:02.water they have. That is another view from the tall building at Baba
:05:02. > :05:05.Amr, it authenticates the cameraman was there, we can identify the
:05:05. > :05:08.mosque, and so where the footage was taken. They are in control,
:05:08. > :05:13.they have a ghost town, they have thousands of people in a desperate
:05:13. > :05:20.condition there. That, perhaps, has motivated their decision not to let
:05:20. > :05:22.the Red Cross in. Are they engaged in some sort of clearout, or as the
:05:22. > :05:27.opposition alleges, in there murdering people. However you look
:05:27. > :05:33.at it, tactical withdrawal or not, it is a big setback for the
:05:33. > :05:36.opposition? It is. If you like, it must empower people around
:05:36. > :05:43.President Assad who think they can resolve some of these issues by
:05:43. > :05:47.force. If we go in and look closely. Homs was a divided city, the yellow
:05:47. > :05:50.areas represent the pro-Government strongholds, if you like. Now, of
:05:50. > :05:55.course, Government troops in Baba Amr, in the north of the city, that
:05:55. > :05:58.is the last remaining area where the Free Syrian Army still has
:05:58. > :06:03.fighters in Homs itself. The battle is moving north within the city,
:06:03. > :06:07.and within the country, to other places north of Homs, like Idlib. A
:06:07. > :06:12.last couple of images to show the sort of people that will be facing
:06:12. > :06:16.the onslaught next. These are biders in Bider taken a couple of
:06:16. > :06:19.days ago. Quite a professionally put together position there, that
:06:19. > :06:27.will take some punishment. Some evidence that arms are coming
:06:27. > :06:35.through, perhaps, they say, from black market sources in Lebanon. An
:06:35. > :06:40.AK rifle, fitted with a sniper glass, so more modern than the army.
:06:40. > :06:43.The Government is planning to move to other places further north. They
:06:44. > :06:48.think they can do it by force. My assessment would be they don't have
:06:48. > :06:51.enough people to do it in all the places simultaneously, where
:06:51. > :06:54.opposition now rages. Last weekend the British
:06:54. > :06:58.photographer, Paul Conroy, was working with the Sunday Times
:06:58. > :07:01.reporter, Marie Colvin, in Homs, when she was killed, alongside the
:07:01. > :07:04.French journalist, Remi Ochlik. Paul Conroy and several others were
:07:04. > :07:08.wounded. He has finally made his way back to a hospital in London. I
:07:08. > :07:14.met him earlier tonight. Can we start with what happened
:07:14. > :07:21.when you were hit, what was that moment like? It was, traumatic,
:07:21. > :07:26.instant chaos. A few shells had hit the house, the final shell that
:07:26. > :07:31.Marie, and Remi, my friend, everything went black, I felt a
:07:31. > :07:36.huge pressure in my leg, put my hand down, put my hand straight
:07:36. > :07:40.through my leg, realised it was bad, stuck a tourniquet on, and
:07:40. > :07:48.essentially tried to crawl out of the house where I found Marie. From
:07:48. > :07:52.that point on it was really all hell broke lose. It took 15 minutes
:07:52. > :07:58.and we were finally evacuated to a field hospital, with the doctors,
:07:58. > :08:04.with very limited supplies. Basics, they did what they could to fill
:08:04. > :08:07.the holes. From that point on we entered the very basic Baba Amr
:08:07. > :08:11.healthcare system. Over the next couple of days, what did you see? I
:08:11. > :08:17.know you feel very much for the suffering of the Syrians around
:08:17. > :08:21.you? Absolutely. The situation, I mean I have done a fair few wars, I
:08:21. > :08:27.have never seen anything on this level. It is a bit of misnomer to
:08:27. > :08:32.call it a warzone, there is no actual war. The Free Syrian Army do
:08:32. > :08:36.their best to get in things like bread, and evacuate anyone. There
:08:36. > :08:42.are no targets in Baba Amr, there are no military targets, this is
:08:42. > :08:47.pure and utter, systematic slaughter of a civilian population.
:08:47. > :08:51.There is nothing. You and Marie, of course, knew in one sense, what you
:08:51. > :08:59.were getting in to, people at home will wonder why on earth anyone
:08:59. > :09:03.does this? There are places in the world that light is very rarely
:09:03. > :09:07.shone, unless people do go. We live in an age where we have the
:09:07. > :09:11.Internet and YouTube, we see these videos, what happens is people will
:09:11. > :09:16.take it, the regime will take it and put their commentry on, the
:09:16. > :09:21.activists will put their commentry on, it leads to more confusion. I
:09:21. > :09:27.think it is a necessity, otherwise we sit by and this will happen
:09:27. > :09:32.without any witness, I think it is important to bear witness. Marie
:09:32. > :09:38.was passionate about getting the truth out, about fact, attention to
:09:38. > :09:42.detail. That was unsurpassed. She would go for the detail. You see in
:09:42. > :09:48.a news report with unverified, that is not good enough for me, and for
:09:48. > :09:52.Marie, and the few people who do this. I just think it is critically
:09:52. > :09:56.important, these people are being slaughtered, massacred, and there
:09:56. > :10:00.is nobody there, we will all get on with eating our dinner, and this
:10:00. > :10:04.will happen, and in ten years time we will all be wringing our hands
:10:04. > :10:09.going why didn't anybody do anything. I know you can't go into
:10:09. > :10:14.details about how you got out. Give us some idea about how you did it?
:10:14. > :10:16.There was a lull in the shelling, we were piled. It was the Free
:10:16. > :10:24.Syrian Army took, it was a last ditch, they had wounded of their
:10:24. > :10:30.own to get out. They knew we were in a bad shape, edit was
:10:30. > :10:36.deteriorating, it was -- Edith was deteriorating, it was a proper
:10:36. > :10:40.American out of the embassy, type, we have one shot at this. They
:10:40. > :10:44.threw us into vehicles, there was a lot of sniping, there were shells
:10:44. > :10:53.going out. They got us to the escape place. Half of us got out,
:10:53. > :10:57.the Government shot, lots of people got shot, including the Spanish
:10:57. > :11:00.journalist who was shot, not fatal low. A lot of people lost their
:11:00. > :11:04.lives. I was in a room, they started piling bodies in, people
:11:04. > :11:09.shot through the head. I can only say the people who got us out of
:11:09. > :11:16.Baba Amr, every person in there is a hero, but these people especially
:11:16. > :11:19.put their lives on the line and I can only say the biggest thanks to
:11:19. > :11:23.the Syrian people. Just about yourself, have you got all the bits
:11:23. > :11:27.of shrapnel out of your body? is a few bits still in there, they
:11:27. > :11:32.are not going to chase them. They reckon they will eventually pop out
:11:32. > :11:37.on their own one day and I will be able with a pair of tweezers, I
:11:37. > :11:44.don't know how it comes out. have a souvenir by your bed? This
:11:44. > :11:48.is a present from, probably the Russians, this one. You know really,
:11:48. > :11:56.the Syrians had the unfortunate situation where they happened to be
:11:56. > :12:00.under siege during Putin's election campaign. And now that is him doing
:12:00. > :12:08.all he can to help the poor people of Baba Amr. Finally, you must
:12:08. > :12:13.think a lot about Marie? Yeah. I mean, extremely close friend. A
:12:13. > :12:18.journalist who worked to a standard that is unsurpassed. I don't know
:12:18. > :12:23.anyone who had the tenacity, the bravery, all in one package. She
:12:23. > :12:28.would not let go. This is why I have really got to tell this. She
:12:28. > :12:34.was the best of the best, and I worked all last year in Libya with
:12:34. > :12:41.her, we worked in Iraq ten years ago together. The world, we have
:12:41. > :12:44.all lost a good friend, and one of the best has been taken from us. I
:12:44. > :12:50.salute her, and I will go back and get her when the time is right.
:12:50. > :12:56.Bring her home. Paul, thank you very much.
:12:56. > :13:00.No problem, cheers, thanks. Steve Hilton is one of those people
:13:00. > :13:06.who pull the levers of power, without generally ever appearing in
:13:06. > :13:10.public it's regards at David Cameron's closest adviser, but has
:13:10. > :13:17.-- and is regarded as David Cameron's closest adviser. But he
:13:17. > :13:24.has quit to go to a job in California. He's credited with the
:13:24. > :13:28.Cameron's Big Idea and The Big Idea society. Why has he gone? It is
:13:28. > :13:32.largely family reasons. His wife lives in America, she commutes from
:13:32. > :13:36.America to London. Two small kids, the first of whom goes next
:13:36. > :13:42.September, if they are going to get out and go and live in sunny
:13:42. > :13:46.California, now is the time. We would be kidding ourselves if
:13:46. > :13:51.anyone walked away from Government, he had an office next to the Prime
:13:51. > :13:55.Minister, for purely the sun. It is not much fun to be Steve Hilton.
:13:55. > :14:02.He's thwarted often, eventhough he has massive access to the Prime
:14:02. > :14:05.Minister, he has found the Civil Service frustrating. The icon yum
:14:05. > :14:10.of transition doesn't translate easy. The coalition, he adored the
:14:10. > :14:17.Lib Dems and then he came to believe they were more conservative
:14:17. > :14:22.than he was. It is 55% family, you don't go, however, making the
:14:22. > :14:27.decision, unless you feel thwarted. What will he do there? It is
:14:27. > :14:32.acedemia for a year. International studies, fatastically vague. He
:14:32. > :14:40.will do some work for Cameron. He will still be sending in the ideas
:14:40. > :14:46.via e-mail. He will come back in 2013, when kid number one goes to
:14:46. > :14:50.school. He has talked in the past wanting to do Meryl stuff, this is
:14:50. > :14:54.the -- mayoral stuff, this is the stuff he has been pushing through
:14:54. > :14:57.wanting mayors in other places. We will see more of him not less. He
:14:57. > :15:01.is a big figure, which, no doubt, others will talk about. If they
:15:01. > :15:04.have a legacy, this Government, it will be in large part down to him.
:15:05. > :15:10.He pushed through some unpopular stuff on welfare and education.
:15:10. > :15:14.While we parody him as the Big Society brain, which didn't really
:15:14. > :15:17.brilliantly work, and maybe, in part, why he has decided to leave.
:15:17. > :15:20.There are the other nitty gritty things, in Downing Street, might
:15:20. > :15:25.have failed. He would like to go, do a bit of thinking in the
:15:25. > :15:30.sunshine, and then come back and run as mayor? I think he will
:15:31. > :15:35.probably come back, but it will possibly be to a frontline role
:15:35. > :15:42.himself, rather than necessarily being an adviser, when it is not
:15:43. > :15:48.masses of fun being an adviser when you are not getting your way.
:15:48. > :15:53.Thank you. Joining me is the former speech writing for David Cameron,
:15:53. > :16:01.and Lynn Collins from the Times. You know him well, what kind of
:16:01. > :16:04.person is he? He's nice, very funny, he zings with ideas. He's an
:16:04. > :16:08.enthusiast, he's very passionate and an idealist, he wants to make
:16:08. > :16:12.things happen, he wants to see changes. He has very good attention
:16:12. > :16:17.to detail, which he's not given credit for. In all that sense, is
:16:17. > :16:20.he a bit of a loss for David Cameron? I think he's a loss for
:16:20. > :16:25.David Cameron on a personal level, they are very close. It was said
:16:25. > :16:28.when they are seen batting around ideas it is hard to see where David
:16:28. > :16:31.Cameron begins and Hilton ends, they are so close. But David
:16:31. > :16:36.Cameron is now very comfortable with being Prime Minister, it is a
:16:36. > :16:40.biggest loss to the coalition, he is the ideas man, and he is the one
:16:40. > :16:44.who says why are we doing that, why not do it differently. Do you see
:16:44. > :16:48.him as a big loss? Most advisers come and go and nobody notices,
:16:48. > :16:53.Steve Hilton made a big difference, but mostly in opposition. I think
:16:53. > :16:55.the way people see the Conservative Party changed, and Steve Hilton saw
:16:55. > :16:58.that early. He was clever in identifying what was wrong in the
:16:58. > :17:02.way people viewed the Tory Party. That was hugely important for David
:17:02. > :17:05.Cameron? Yes, in the change of the Tory Party. He has a real legacy, I
:17:05. > :17:08.think he really made a difference. I don't think that translated
:17:08. > :17:12.anywhere near as well into Government. Governments go through
:17:12. > :17:16.phases, and Downing Street will be quite a lot less creative for his
:17:16. > :17:20.absence, but perhaps a little bit more organised. A bit duller?
:17:20. > :17:24.think they need to be a bit duller. It has been the opposite of dull on
:17:24. > :17:29.the NHS bill, the period of dullness is what they need, they
:17:29. > :17:32.need to get dull people in there to do some very conventional political
:17:32. > :17:35.intelligence, and drive it through. In terms of the Big Society, I know
:17:35. > :17:41.people in the Conservative Party, some of them have thought this was
:17:41. > :17:44.a completely daft idea, it is one thing to have lots of ideas, but it
:17:44. > :17:49.is presumptionably the Prime Minister's job to say that one will
:17:49. > :17:53.work and that won't, with the Big Society there will be less
:17:53. > :17:57.impetuous on it? David Cameron believes in the Big Society, Steve
:17:57. > :18:00.Hilton didn't impose it on the Prime Minister, he genuinely and
:18:01. > :18:05.passionately believes in it. It is important to remember the last time
:18:05. > :18:09.Steve went to California in opposition, the Tories were doing
:18:09. > :18:14.very well and were 45% in the polls, and the Big Society was part of the
:18:14. > :18:17.language being used. It was when he went and the language went on to
:18:17. > :18:23.convention issues like cuts and crime, that the Tories began to
:18:23. > :18:27.drop. It was a myth that the Big Society was not a success, it was
:18:27. > :18:32.doing well elect trally. Given his energy, he was somebody who
:18:32. > :18:38.embodied that within the party? has been hard to translate it into
:18:38. > :18:42.policy. It is hard to take the Big Society from an ethereal idea and
:18:42. > :18:44.embody it as a real policy. I don't think it has translated
:18:44. > :18:48.particularly well. It is interesting the Prime Minister
:18:48. > :18:52.hasn't mentioned it for quite a long time. It will be intriguing to
:18:52. > :18:56.see, coming up to the conference speech, whether the Big Society
:18:56. > :18:59.features as a theme in the conference speech. It is still the
:18:59. > :19:02.only overarching idea the Government has. It has gone missing.
:19:02. > :19:05.Can either of you see him coming back into frontline politic, again,
:19:05. > :19:09.one of the things about people who have lots of ideas, they also rub
:19:09. > :19:14.other people up the wrong way, and actually being in frontline
:19:14. > :19:20.politics means not making unnecessary enemies? I think he is
:19:20. > :19:23.telling people he doesn't need to come back after a year, it is
:19:23. > :19:26.unlikely he will come back to the same role. He wants to make change
:19:26. > :19:29.and make things happen, there is a very good chance, not a definite
:19:29. > :19:33.chance, a good chance he will come back and do something such as
:19:33. > :19:36.perhaps going for the mayor or something like that. I think Steve
:19:36. > :19:39.Hilton is searching for where power is in Britain, I think he has got
:19:39. > :19:42.to the side of the Prime Minister, and got into Government, in Downing
:19:42. > :19:47.Street, he has found power isn't quite there, because you are
:19:47. > :19:50.thwarted at every turn, and the Civil Service seem to run things
:19:50. > :19:54.without you doing anything. He will be become, people who know him well
:19:54. > :19:57.say that, he will seek out power in some other guise. I wonder, going
:19:57. > :20:00.back to what you were saying, driving things through, whether
:20:00. > :20:05.people do enough thinking in politic. It is a good idea if you
:20:05. > :20:09.have a big thinker to take a break and think some ideas and come back?
:20:09. > :20:12.I think you are absolutely right. It is such a maelstrom of events,
:20:12. > :20:16.there is not nearly enough thinking, that is why he's so important
:20:16. > :20:19.because he does think. I totally agree, I have said to people there
:20:19. > :20:22.you have to find space and take time out to think, without thinking
:20:22. > :20:25.you are just reacting to events. The Government needs a strong
:20:25. > :20:28.narrative, which perhaps it doesn't have at the moment, because it is
:20:28. > :20:31.all a narrative for cuts. It is more boring for political
:20:31. > :20:35.journalist, perhaps? I don't want to give the impression I'm against
:20:35. > :20:38.thinking, I'm strongly in favour of people thinking. I don't want them
:20:38. > :20:42.doing it while in Government, they are dangerous. What it meant is the
:20:42. > :20:47.Government, over the next two years, in the run up to the election, is
:20:47. > :20:50.in the implementation phase of its cycle. The health bill, for example,
:20:50. > :20:55.doesn't even begin until it goes through the House of Commons. Then
:20:55. > :20:58.it starts to really count. And you need that vigilence all the time.
:20:58. > :21:01.It is quite hard conventional political work. Number Ten at the
:21:01. > :21:05.moment is very, very underpowered on its political operation. I think
:21:05. > :21:08.if David Cameron uses this as an opportunity to get some fairly
:21:08. > :21:13.conventional political advice in there, and beef up his operation,
:21:13. > :21:16.actually it won't be such a bad day for him.
:21:16. > :21:20.On Sunday Russians go to the polls to vote in their presidential
:21:20. > :21:23.elections, everyone knows who will win. It seems certain that Vladimir
:21:23. > :21:27.Putin will be re-elected for a third term, although after recent
:21:27. > :21:32.weeks of protests, unprecedented since the last days of the Soviet
:21:32. > :21:42.Union, his next presidency may be more turbulent than the last. We're
:21:42. > :21:43.
:21:43. > :21:49.in Moscow assessing the mood of the opposition ahead of Sunday's poll.
:21:49. > :21:57.In Moscow's Gorky Park, it is time for a knees up.
:21:58. > :22:03.The end of the long Russian winter is almost in sight.
:22:03. > :22:08.They are celebrating mass lenitza, the carnival before Lent, the last
:22:08. > :22:12.chance to fill up on pancakes. I have been coming to goarkyo park
:22:12. > :22:15.since I first lived in Russia -- Gorky Park, since I first lived in
:22:15. > :22:20.Russia, back in communist times. It was always a place of licensed
:22:20. > :22:26.entertainment, where the masses could play, as long as they towed
:22:26. > :22:31.the party line. And loyalty has been expected of them again since
:22:31. > :22:37.Vladimir Putin came to power many years ago. Now something is going
:22:37. > :22:46.wrong. TRANSLATION: I want to -- want to know if life is as sweet as
:22:46. > :22:50.a Russian pancake. She says it is just as round! She says everything
:22:50. > :22:53.goes round in circles, in a political sense too, she's
:22:53. > :23:00.referring to Putin's plan to come back as President, after a term as
:23:00. > :23:05.Prime Minister. But now there are people, even in
:23:05. > :23:09.Gorky Park, who have had enough of him. TRANSLATION: I will vote
:23:09. > :23:14.against Putin, I don't support his policies, I will vote for one of
:23:14. > :23:19.the others. We shouldn't go backwards. Putin has already been
:23:19. > :23:23.President before, and I think his time has run out. TRANSLATION:
:23:23. > :23:32.think the presidency of Vladimir Putin's shouldn't be repeated so
:23:32. > :23:38.often. Why? TRANSLATION: There is too much corruption in Russia.
:23:38. > :23:43.Where did the rebellion begin? One place was this quiet forest outside
:23:43. > :23:48.Moscow, where a young entrepeneur and mother liked to go walking.
:23:48. > :23:54.Suddenly, one day, five years ago, she discovered many of the trees
:23:54. > :24:00.were marked for felling. TRANSLATION: There were trees all
:24:00. > :24:07.over here, this was terrible Barberism to destroy a forest near
:24:07. > :24:11.Moscow, here we managed to stop them. These activists helped her
:24:11. > :24:16.stop the plan to build a motorway here. The plan of a tycoon closely
:24:16. > :24:22.linked to the Kremlin. They were injured in battles with police and
:24:22. > :24:30.contractors, and for now, they have won, though they keep a constant
:24:30. > :24:34.vigil here. But she wants -- once apolitical as most Russians, is no
:24:34. > :24:38.longer fighting for trees, she's one of the leaders of a movement
:24:38. > :24:42.fighting for a new democratic Russia without Vladimir Putin.
:24:42. > :24:46.TRANSLATION: Five years ago I was a typically anonymous person, I
:24:46. > :24:52.thought it was only a few crazy city types who went on
:24:52. > :24:57.demonstrations. I ran my business, I got three university degrees, I
:24:57. > :25:01.raised two children, all by the age of 35, but I always thought there
:25:01. > :25:05.was something wrong. What did I need all the money for? Then, when
:25:05. > :25:08.I saw the trees account down, I started to think, should I live --
:25:09. > :25:13.cut down, I started to think, should I live differently, you
:25:13. > :25:18.can't buy another forest, I didn't come to politics, politics came to
:25:18. > :25:22.me. Suddenly, Russians like these have turned from subjects of the
:25:22. > :25:26.state into citizens. They are no longer satisfied with the material
:25:26. > :25:29.comforts that Vladimir Putin can offer, they want a say in the
:25:29. > :25:39.running of their country. But are there enough of them, and are they
:25:39. > :25:44.organised enough for the Kremlin to care?
:25:44. > :25:51.The answer is, yes. This pro- Government video paints an
:25:51. > :25:56.apocalyptic picture of Russia without Putin.
:25:56. > :26:00.The country dissolves into anarchy, Chirikova and her opposition
:26:00. > :26:09.friends take over, and their alleged backers in the west are
:26:09. > :26:14.delighted. Can a woman, who spends so much of her time looking after
:26:14. > :26:18.her daughters in her tiny flat really scare the Kremlin so much?
:26:18. > :26:22.TRANSLATION: Of course, they are afraid of me. But it is the same as
:26:22. > :26:26.when they tried to discredit dissidents in Soviet times t has
:26:26. > :26:31.the opposite effect. People want to know where they are abusing us.
:26:31. > :26:36.Then they get interested. Then they join us. Today she's being
:26:36. > :26:41.photographed outside a polling station, for an internet campaign
:26:41. > :26:48.to recruit election monitors. We are confronted by an angry
:26:48. > :26:53.official, who wants us to leave. Back home the photo is uploaded and
:26:53. > :26:56.will be seen all over Russia. These young people are already
:26:56. > :27:03.being trained by an independent organisation to observe proceedings
:27:03. > :27:05.in polling stations next Sunday. But there aren't enough volunteers
:27:05. > :27:11.like this, particularly outside Moscow, to cover all the polling
:27:11. > :27:17.stations in the country. And maybe the result has already been decided
:27:17. > :27:20.any way. I think we will rewrite the result documents, through the
:27:20. > :27:24.electoral commissions, where we will give all result documents from
:27:24. > :27:29.polling stations and they will calculate, and if they don't see
:27:29. > :27:33.that the result which they need, so they will just put another number.
:27:33. > :27:37.But I don't think that way they will cheat a lot on the voting day
:27:37. > :27:43.from the polling stations, there will be a lot of observers to
:27:43. > :27:48.prevent those violations and prevent them. So usually when they
:27:48. > :27:53.are trying to rewrite their result document, there are no observers to
:27:53. > :27:57.see this process, so it is quite easy to do this.
:27:57. > :28:01.The fear that the election will be stolen brings thousands of
:28:01. > :28:06.Muscovites out on to the streets, a week before the poll, to form a
:28:06. > :28:09.symbolic ring around the city. Most wear the white ribbon, that has
:28:09. > :28:17.become the badge of the fair elections movement. Bizarrely,
:28:17. > :28:20.puten to said they looked like flaccid condoms, now in satirical
:28:20. > :28:24.response, they are waving blown up ones. Yevgenia Chirikova is here
:28:24. > :28:27.too, in carnival costume, to celebrate what she calls the
:28:27. > :28:31.approaching end of Russia's political winter. TRANSLATION:
:28:31. > :28:37.most important thing is to change the way people think. We are not
:28:37. > :28:40.struggling for power, we are struggling to drown this slave
:28:40. > :28:46.mentality out of ourselves. On a day like this you really feel there
:28:46. > :28:50.is a new spirit in Moscow, for people who have woken up
:28:50. > :28:56.politically, their demands remain so general s it is still not clear
:28:56. > :28:59.what they can achieve. In any case, the opposition is
:28:59. > :29:05.still largely urban and middle- class, it doesn't represent the
:29:05. > :29:10.whole of Russia. The man they want to beat still
:29:10. > :29:14.bestrides his country's stage. He would probably still be able, even
:29:14. > :29:17.in a fair election, to win a mandate a western politician would
:29:17. > :29:22.consider acceptable, even if not a genuine majority of votes. He has
:29:22. > :29:29.no clear programme, only the same patriotic rhetoric that hasn't
:29:29. > :29:35.changed in years. TRANSLATION: have come here today to say we love
:29:35. > :29:40.Russia. To say it so that the whole country can hear us. And I'm asking
:29:40. > :29:50.you to say a simple yes, the question is this, do we love
:29:50. > :29:55.Russia? Is it the rhetoric of a former spy chief, who can't see how
:29:55. > :29:59.his country is changing? One of Russia's best-selling
:29:59. > :30:04.novelists says social change will eventually sweep Putin away.
:30:04. > :30:14.Middle-class is a new class in Russia, it has a lot of energy, it
:30:14. > :30:19.is very much different from middle- classes in the west. Because to sur
:30:19. > :30:23.vief in the 1990s in -- survive in the 1990s in Russia, to become a
:30:23. > :30:30.member of the middle-class, you had to be strong and you had to fight.
:30:30. > :30:34.With very harsh conditions of life, with corrupt police, to fight
:30:34. > :30:44.against authorities. This is a class of winners, and survivors.
:30:44. > :30:48.This is Putin's main problem, I think. Back in Gorky Park, the
:30:48. > :30:53.middle-class is testing its strength in a traditional carnival
:30:53. > :30:58.tug-of-war. It is not easy for them to get a grip on this wintry down,
:30:58. > :31:02.and for now, it is still the state that decides who gets the prizes.
:31:02. > :31:04.In a moment the review show, and Kirsty is here to tell us what is
:31:04. > :31:10.coming up. Tonight two different takes on
:31:10. > :31:15.British history, from the 1960s to today in White Heat, and the
:31:15. > :31:23.financial crisis of 2008 in John Lanchester's new novel, Capital. We
:31:23. > :31:26.also journey to Mars in Disney's 3.D epic, John Carter, and mark the
:31:26. > :31:30.icon Lou Reed. That's all from Newsnight tonight,
:31:30. > :31:34.Jeremy is back on Monday. The singer, Morrisey, has ensured
:31:34. > :31:39.himself of another year without a Knighthood, after declaring the
:31:39. > :31:44.British people know the Falkland islands belong to Argentina, we
:31:44. > :31:49.don't have any footage of the concert in Argentina where he made
:31:49. > :31:53.the pronouncement, we will settle for this.
:31:53. > :31:58.# Sweetness, I was only joking # When I said by right
:31:58. > :32:02.# You should be bludgeoned # In your bed
:32:02. > :32:11.# And now I know how Joan of Arc felt