burning and most in the moscow region they're very hard to extinguish and once it's when the fire goes deep on the ground and when you put out put it out in one area it pops up somewhere else and it's really hard to handle until temperatures really drop and peter gets a little bit damp while but even the most optimistic weather forecasts are not saying that temperatures will remain this high for yet another four days at least what more than one hundred sixty thousand people are now going out of their way to put out those fires across and watch. the ministry also said that now foreign fighters are working twenty four seven to do that also russia is getting a helping hand from abroad some countries are sending in people like bulgaria others are sending in equipment planes and helicopters like italy did like ukraine did. this help because the territory is huge and the fires are raging. on reporting from the moscow region so the city is remembering the

victims of the two thousand and eight war with georgia hundreds were killed when tbilisi attacked the breakaway republic with artillery and tanks two years ago. moscow sent forces to protect the people of the republic many of whom were russian citizens after five days of bloody battles georgian troops were pushed back to the border several countries have since recognized the independence of south of setia russia being first started and i got in the center of senegal to remember the victims candles were lit to mark the tragic events of the past are to tell you know of aqaba is in the capital. the reconstruction of infrastructure it is in full swing and i can say that i do see progress

a lot of buildings have been reconstructed of course there is still those buildings with the bullet holes in their wounds there are still buildings that are being reconstructed you can see builders everywhere through this as we move through this life point here in central square all fifteen vaults out the city and capitol reconstruction works are still underway there still people who waiting to have returned to their homes and the local government promises them that their houses will be rebuilt over the next year but most of the work has already been done a lot of schools are now functioning again and hospitals local university however still lies in ruins hundreds more investments to be reconstructed this winter however the gas pipeline from russia has finally been built in this winter people here had central seeking some teaching something they were deprived officer of the group because georgia consul gus gas supplies to self assess here so life here is getting back to normal however the wounds that the world will be steve thousand and

eight has left are still sore and here's this report by my colleague knight i.z.'s of a who's based here in c involved. it's been a restless nights for dr goldie has been conducting a complicate. it operation well nations continue to flow into the hospital room are very good of one motion forward for this new clinic in the center of the south a city in the capital was the only medical facility here two years ago and it looked very different than. your distil doesn't like to come down here into the cellar where he spent several sleepless nights of this and grating on days injured during the wars integration in the tissue is to show us how to hold on to. her with this brevity this was our operating room smelled awfully of ammonia because of the sewers the nurses had to leave the room every now and then to be sick we were performing surgery under these pipes. in a suitable equipment water or food. and doctors still had to be done for the other

two hundred operations here as well as other minor procedures. little three wins in here and came out there. and you thought it was one of these patients during the bombardment he had in the cellar of his home on hearing the bombing outside he fled in fear that he did there it under rubble as he did he was struck by a metal splinter from an exploded shell. my arm hasn't been functioning properly for two years and i can sleep on my right side as it hurts it a lot of squarely blames the georgian president for what happened to him and that war. through i never want to see him i don't even want to hear his name he's a murderer innocent people were killed children the elderly and women who never want to talk to him after what he's done. she was virtually unconscious when he arrived in hospital but you remember seeing the many injuries

he remembered lying on the wet ground makes you toss spittle were the situation here worse and with every passing minute the doctors are treating up to four hundred of the wounded someone can easily and here was a t.v. broadcasting only georgian t.v. the ongoing bombardment and lack of factual information only added to their despair who was almost lost many were crying you would use as this was the greatest moment that everybody was preparing to die. because of this at one point it felt like nobody was coming to help us at all everything seemed in vain so much work was done for nothing. he may have been unaware of russian peacekeepers efforts to protect some of them see to go his music but his work and that because of the things we do that are from what used to be good out of the hundreds if not they were staring at . only to succumb to their standards noble to bigger thing they are seen from the

mom those of the city. some say there is no victory in a war and that seems to be true for the people who are caught up in the conflict on both sides thousands were forced to abandon their homes seeking refuge in safety across the border but as artie's arena pollution reports some georgians have neither. when the war ends some wounds heal faster than others these people were forced to flee their homes leaving everything behind to escape the shelling and explosions in their native towns and villages but though they run away from war they cannot find solace in peace. president's head is in the clouds he has no idea how refugees live we're supposed to get new homes by twenty eleven but they're just promises we don't believe anything will be done all the majority of cars in south the city or some were forced to flee two years ago during the south a city or war others have been here in tbilisi since the early one nine hundred

ninety s. which the first violence erupt between georgia and its then breakaway regions for two years there are a few g.'s have lived in a dilapidated building which used to house government offices several months ago they were told they would have to move out if they have many buildings in and its suburbs where we could live and from where we could get to work but they don't want to use them they think refugees must not live and bill is saying. is a forty four year old sales assistant she survives on a salary of ninety dollars a month her son has cerebral palsy and gets financial aid of some fifty dollars a month when olga talks about moving she seems on the verge of hysterics. i'm not going to go anywhere even if they first simply evict me i'm not going anywhere i'm going to go on a hunger strike if that's what it takes i'm not going anywhere certainly not to the

regions. a recent report by amnesty international says six percent of the current total population in georgia are displaced that's some two hundred forty thousand people and though some have already been moved into new housing the organization says the government is still not doing enough to help further measures need to. we take and look into the future of these people not just the presence of the roof over their heads but there are more things that they need and we think there is more that we georgian authorities could and should be doing to help them actually to to fully integrate and have a future wherever that might be it seems for now though the refugees feel no hope of their needs being met yet but you know i don't know but you know i lost my house i lost my homeland i lost everything and now i'm being kicked out of here being made to refuse you for the second time i'm not concerned just with myself i'm speaking for everyone who leaves here. no running water no heating no basic

comforts whatsoever there are a few g.'s here already used to living in these conditions what they cannot get used to is being treated as a sub class citizens by their own government they say they feel like animals who are being herded from place to place without any hope of ever finding any where they can call home. it is a ghost quality tbilisi georgia. russia's maleev could soon go back to his historic name of police as it was known before the bolshevik revolution in one thousand seventeen years part of major reforms of the force which have been dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency of greaves takes a deeper look at the overhaul. they say don't judge

a book by its cover but russian president dmitri medvedev has given great importance to a name in his bid to reform the country's laura forces he's proposed to do away the title militia is still by the bolsheviks in one nine hundred seventeen and instead go back to the pre-revolutionary name police he sure so the man ever since the bolshevik revolution our law enforcers have been known as the militia this emphasize their popular or proletarian nature i mean they were volunteers in uniform but today we need professionals artist and well coordinated people who are good at their job this is why i think it's time we gave our law enforcers back their original name and started calling them the beliefs. is being seen as an attempt to rid the force of its image as a hotbed of corruption and bad practice but it's one that's not it's come at a cost. i can see tens even hundreds of different expenses to design and the custom tailoring of new uniforms for million workers design and production of new

ideas for million workers repainting of hundreds of police cars and other vehicles design of new forms stamps and seals and so on in total that would amount to spending millions even billions of rubles from the country's budget this rebranding effort is only the latest in a long line of reform measures these have been prompted by a widely publicized instance of police abusing their power the account of district chief dennis yes to cause shooting spree in a moscow supermarket that left two dead was one of the most notorious owing to its gritty nature but there are other examples and the shadow of endemic corruption and bribery still hangs over russia's laura forces people are scared to turn to malaysia people are scared to get a card check with a man in uniform in the street so yes we need to ride out there. that's what should

be behind this whole reform when he truly professionalism what he to root out ineffectiveness so the reforms are all the are long overdue and just this week those reforms were intensified would have to have offices face reexamination before being able to return to the force this and further plans have been given to january two thousand and twelve to be implemented but few are lucky to stand out as much as the renaming of the militia some over this move cynically has a quick fix measure so we were over the public but this latest pozo is backed up by more cold creek it seems to be a desire to push through these are forms regardless of economic and political costs one thing says sure come two thousand and twelve russians will want to see more than just a name change the country's police force greece see. still ahead here on r t things are getting heated in the frozen arctic. rich in oil and natural gas

the region is becoming increasingly attractive as more countries stake their territorial claims. for us to russia's foreign ministries accusing the u.s. a failing to comply with key arms control and nonproliferation requirements according to a new report published on the ministries website washington's lost over a thousand nuclear materials on its own soil it's also being accused of ignoring some points of the old strategic arms reduction treaty with moscow that expired last december the u.s. has allegedly kept in service several missile silos it was supposed to scrap under the deal on other allegations include experimentation with chemical and biological materials banned by the u.n. and claims that washington may have been selling weapons to iran so far there's no official reaction from the u.s. political analyst of light in your cozen says the report of the missing nuclear material is of huge concern. through movie alarming for act because it could be disseminated it could be. a recent poll did cool calm into the hands of

terrorists and all the. while all the countries of the north vigilant in terms of these matters but the sign time of the united states are turning a blind eye to the all new sea experiments with this kind of thing so that's why the russian side has made accusations it should have happened a long time ago. but nevertheless we see the there is no breakthrough well ations. commentary there from political analysts of lot of your cozen turned out of some other stories making headlines across the globe are red alerts been declared in pakistan as floodwaters sweep from the north of the country into the south mass evacuations of villages on the banks of rising rivers have begun officials say fourteen million people have been affected by the worst monsoon rains in decades sixteen hundred dead rescuers are still trying to reach densely populated regions

left without food or drinking water forecasters predict more heavy rains to come. to explosions have rocked the southern iraq city of basra killing at least twenty the twin blasts came within minutes of each other at a market and injured dozens there are conflicting reports over what caused the explosions some police officers say it was a roadside bomb and a car packed with explosives but the city's chief of police insists a faulty power generator is to blame. colombia's new president has been inaugurated i think huge ceremony in the capital bogota juan manuel santos pledged to uphold the constitution and continue the fight against leftist guerrillas if he takes office in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with venezuela which broke off ties under his predecessor alviro a rebate santos also took part in a symbolic ceremony with south american indian leaders before being sworn in. cuba's former president fidel castro has made his first speech to parliament since he retired due to ill health four years ago in his address he talked about the

almost inevitable threat of nuclear war as he sees it castro who is the secretary of cuba's communist party have returned to the public eye over the last month he recently alleged that the u.s. was planning to attack iran and north korea. a joint canada us expedition is getting ready to set sail later on saturday its mission is to map the arctic bed the ocean bed of the arctic a russian ship with a similar mission is already on its way to polar waters the three countries are said to be preparing to claim the massive oil and gas reserves in the region it's believed the arctic holds some of the world's most of the world's largest untapped energy reserves canadian arctic researcher edwards believes the u.s. and canada are working hard to catch up with russia the current leader of the rates . canada in the united states do have a disagreement over one area of the beauford sea which contains a lot of oil and gas but they set those differences apart because i think they don't really have the icebreaker power to do the job that is necessary in the short

period of time that is necessary so essentially they've set aside their differences and they're saying ok let's get on with it because the russians are very far ahead of the game the norwegians of already done their work and denmark has done a very good job as well so they're just joining forces and working on traditional alliances to get this job done there's no question russia has done a very good job in the recent years and they're way ahead of the game i think they've gone. been doing work ahead of canada the united states canada the united states are no catching up so i think you know russia is going to be a winner to some extent how big a winner is really the question that's left unanswered perspective from edwards arctic research or speaking with our team from edmonton canada for more stories futures and blogs you can always find more at our website r.t. dot com business politics and entertainment all just click away here's a taste of what's hot like right now hold in for one of the world's most successful

deejays hits the moscow club scene and chats with our team about future plans and his take on working with madonna. plus cigarette packs and rush are getting a make over and not everyone's had. about it all of the details of a heated debate between tobacco companies and anti-smoking activists that are to dot com. that's the news here on r t i'll be back with a recap of our main stories in about ten minutes just ahead on the second anniversary of the war in south. spoke exclusively with the country's president eduard kokoity he shares his experience of the conflict and told us how he sees the current situation stay with us here on r.t. .

mr president let's start our interview with the reasons for georgia's aggression against which happened in spite of negotiations between the conflicting parties would russia support these negotiations were approaching a successful result but they didn't stop those events from happening what.

i'd like to thank your colleagues from all of the russian channels who were bravely operating here during that time they witnessed inhumanity and aggression demonstrated by the georgian side. both russia and. south the sense here we're trying to restart the negotiation process took a special ambassador a year a pop off was here then with his help we reached an agreement with the georgian side to restart negotiations on the eighth at noon so we started receiving visitors to discuss the need genda and so warm on the same night we heard the georgian president's speech on his unilateral decision to withdraw all georgian armed forces from the conflict zone he called us his brothers and admitted his responsibility for the a setian population that cetera at the same time we watched armed forces and equipment moving towards something. we didn't see changes in their actions or intentions so we expressed our worries we were also concerned that the members who were staying

in south ascetic left the republic for hours before the aggression began and at the time the three party international peacekeepers mission was located here under the agreement and included representatives of russia georgia and south ascetic so georgian peacekeepers left their location and moved to their units which were preparing for military action by doing so they breached the international agreement and the issue of the international investigation on this crime has to be raised today to its nonsense peacekeepers to cross over and stand side by side with an aggressor especially when the georgian top brass spoke on television and declared war on the south especially. on the other hand they stayed behind the scenes for the international community the e.u. and the us were interested in this in particular therefore today they're ignoring it at south or city or russia really attacks the consequences would have been different today we do realize a tiny place like south

a city with its seventy thousand people could not attacked a well armed georgia practically all nato member states had participated in providing arms and preparing the georgian military including ukraine and israel. and you know arms were modernised by israeli experts georget was planning a sneaky attack on south ossetia at the time of the beginning of the olympics which was another breach of international law however they fail to consider the bravery and persistence of the defenders of south to setia their first two attacks the war the gulf. as the supreme commander in chief for forty minutes i wasn't giving the order to counter fire even though we knew the attack was being prepared we didn't even announce mobilization so that the international community would not blame south ossetia for provoking and aggravating the situation we only called to arms on the eighth we were doing everything possible to avoid that scenario however the

georgian side had been preparing for this attack with the help of the nato experts at the moment of the attack there were one hundred seven u.s. military advisers who hadn't left georgia as they weren't prepared for such consequences later they had a problem trying to leave georgia. i believe the country that had organized such actions had to be judged for them alongside with georgia the u.s. the e.u. and the r.c.a. the observers who left south a city before the attack are responsible for it the r.c.a. as an international organization had the opportunity to influence georgia but unfortunately they didn't use it for some reason. just ahead of the are you worried that a new war would start here as the ones there are revenge seeking and provocative moves in georgia since sackets really is criminal regime no more has the support of its own people and most importantly the support of the usa anyway the usa has its geopolitical interests in the caucuses so it's going to follow its own course there

could this is what worries us somewhat although i think that the recent warming in relations and the current reset policy pursued by president obama should remove that tension them. is it possible that south of setia will become part of russia sometime in a future. tense which will come. you know with a count taken of what the situation was before when referendums were held in south or setia naturally people were striving for in we are a small and divided nation most of which lives in russia but given the fact the south a city is independence has been recognized and that it is now building international relations with russia has once again shown to the world community that it doesn't need foreign territories i can argue south a city is not an alien territory for russia but we need a united to set it was a united a setia that voluntarily joined the russian empire but today the situation is

different and russia is demonstrating to the whole world that it's not going to an extent the body's territory and that its operation to force georgia to peace was not same did occupying georgian territory russia is building equal into states. relations with us russia has chosen this way of communication with south a settee and and we're going to build these relations yes we can create a kind of union with russia that can be various forms of unification but today we're fighting for independence in the states so if the un have recognized us and the world community has started perceiving us as an independent state even though there are countries that haven't recognized us as such during our visit to nicaragua and venezuela we were received as the presidents of independent sovereign states therefore we should proceed from the present day realities well it's up to us to determine the forms of our communication with russia and to decide whether

it's going to be a union or anything else so that those who are too much concerned with this matter to leave this to us we will make our own choice i would like to say that august the twenty sixth is not just a day when russia recognized south of santiago and make it down in history as a date when the world stopped being unique. pressures recognition is a vital important to us and we are infinitely grateful to russia for it this was a great and courageous international move were simply saved all people the recognition of the republic of south a city of by nick regular in venezuela shows that the world has become multisensory .

three thirty am here in moscow thanks for being with us on our t.v. these are your headlines moscow still covered with smoke with hundreds of wildfires still wreaking havoc across russia emergency services stepped up their efforts working around the clock people in the capital are struggling to breathe and wearing masks to protect themselves from toxic small. mixed emotions in the south said here as the republic marks two years since the georgian assault as the country rebuilds and moves forward some people are still

scarred by memories of war the battle lasted five days unloved hundreds of casualties it ended after russia's intervention force georgian troops back to the border. and by milly's hello police president dmitry medvedev proposes a name change for russia's law enforcement as part of a major overhaul into the eliminating corruption he wants the reforms to reflect a new era of professionalism and honesty on the force. coming up next russia is building the equivalent of silicon valley in the village of skolkovo near moscow the new project will get the biggest tax breaks incentives available anywhere in the country but will this be enough to turn russia into a supplier of world class technology nobel prize winner as your eyes out for i will try to answer this question up next in spotlight with al gore and stay with us. hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on.

polo again you're welcome to spotlight the interview show on r.t. i'll bring of an today my guest in the studio is. russia is building its version of the silicon valley in the village of moscow that would be silicon valley will get special tax rates and other incentives but will this project make or russia the country of world class and evasive products nobel prize winner and co-chair of the skull size city project. is here to answer this question . has a daughter who is one of the most respected scientists in the world does research into semiconductors has become a cornerstone for all modern high tech devices his work around him the nobel prize

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