in the country there are hundreds of them but a really big one to be really really significant ones and the worst of them are pete fires there are forty of them still 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 the peak 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 watch at the margins the ministry also said that now firefighters are working twenty four seven to do that also while she's 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. and reporting from the moscow region. 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 are russian citizens after five days of bloody battles with georgian troops were pushed back to the border several countries have since recognized the independence of south of russia being the first on saturday night thousands gathered in the center of the capital to remember the victims candles to mark the tragic events of the past

artie's an italian over he is in the capital with more. good reconstruction of infrastructure and is in full swing and i can say that i do see progress a lot of buildings have been reconstructed of course there are still those buildings with 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 team ball itself he said capital reconstruction works are still underway there are 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 means more investment to be reconstructed this winter however the gas pipeline from russia has finally been built in this winter people here had central seating some teaching some think they were deprived officer of the group

because georgia consul just gas supplies to sell for says here so life here is getting back to normal however the wounds the world. aids has left are still sore and here's this report by my colleague knight as he's a man who's based here in sea involved. it's been a restless nights for the uk to gorky has been conducting a complicated operation well the patients continue to flow into the hospital room are very good who were for this new clinic in the sent to all the south of the capital was the only medical facility here two years ago. and at least they're different than. you or do you still doesn't like to come down here into the cellar where he spent several sleepless nights of rating on the injured during the georgian aggression in the tissues to show us where the food is and to. go with this provided this was our operating room to start smelled awful leave omonia 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 through a suitable equipment water or food. doctors still had to go down for another two hundred operations here as well as all the minor procedures there's a little three wins in here and came out there. you thought it was one of the stations during the bombardment he had in the cellar of his home and 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 when i can't sleep on my right side as it hurts it a lot of squarely blames the georgian president for what happened to him and the 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 she arrived in hospital but she remembers seeing the many women in the most lying on the bare wet ground of make she tore spittle were the situation here worse and with every passing minute the doctors were treating up to four hundred or wounded some more can easily and here was a t.v. set broadcasting only georgian t.v. the ongoing bombardment and lack of factual information only added to their despair was almost lost many were crying during he says this was the rain is not meant that everybody was preparing to die. because of this but one point it felt like nobody was coming to help us at all but everything seemed in vain so much work was done for nothing abilities rule over he may have been unaware of russian peacekeepers methods protectors of them seated on his musical but his work and that of his likes

will we do that are from which the good out of the hundreds if not they were staring at death in the cellar only to succumb to what follows a noble to go bigger than a daisy so r.c. from the moment is of the city. some say there is no victory in 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 glue she reports some georgians found 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 ran 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 of them are georgians and south a city or some were forced to flee two years ago during the south a city a war others have been here in tbilisi since the early one nine hundred ninety s. which though the first violence erupt between georgia and its then breakaway regions for two years the refugees 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 it's 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. if you take a look into the future of these people not just the presence of the roof of 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 here 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 lives 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 alamos for 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. to other news we're covering here on our team russia's most could soon go back to its historic name of police as it was known before the bolshevik revolution in one nine

hundred seventeen the idea as part of major reforms of the police force which had been dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency r.t. jacob greaves takes a deeper look at the overall. they say don't judge a book by its cover but russian president dmitri medvedev has given great importance to a name and its bid to reform the country's lower forces he's proposed to do waive the title militia is to buy the bolsheviks in ninety seven team 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 honest 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 police. 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 four million workers design and production of new ideas four 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 crazy nature but there are other examples and the shadow of endemic corruption and bribery still hangs over russia's lower 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 root out corruption that's what should be behind this whole reform with a true professionalism what it to root out and effectiveness so the reforms are all over due and just this week those reforms were intensified with a total to have all officers face reexamination before being able to return. the force this and further plans have been given to january two thousand and twelve to be implemented but few lucky it stand out as much as the renaming of the militia some may interpret this move cynically has a quick fix measure over the public but this latest proposal is backed up by more cold creek measures it seems to be a desire to push through these are forms regardless of economic and political costs one thing's a sure come two thousand and twelve russians who want to see more than just

a name change the country's police force greece see. stay with us here on r t still ahead things are getting a bit heated in the frozen arctic an area rich in oil and natural gas the region is becoming increasingly attractive as more countries are staking their territorial claims. but first russia's foreign ministry is accusing the us a failing to comply with key arms control and nonproliferation requirements according to a new report published on the ministries website washington has lost more than one 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 us has allegedly kept in service several missile silos that was supposed to scrap under the deal one on the raw emotions include experimentation with chemical and biological materials banned by the un and claims washington's actually been selling weapons to iran so far there's been no official reaction from

the us political analyst glad in your clothes and says the report of the missing nuclear material is a big concern. through movie alarming for act because it could be disseminated it could be a resold it could come into the hands of terrorists and all the bad guys so while all the countries of the north vigilant in terms of these matters but the time of the united states are turning a blind eye to the whole new seek spread. this kind of thing so that's why the russians made accusations should have happened a long time ago but nevertheless we see the there is no breakthrough well ations. commentary from political analyst glad to hear cozen turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe the red alerts been declared in pakistan is floodwaters sweep from the north of the country to the south mass evacuations of

villages on the banks of rising rivers has begun officials say fourteen million people have been so far affected by the worst monsoon rains in decades and sixteen hundred have been left dead rescuers are still trying to reach a densely populated regions left without food or clean drinking water forecasters predict that there are more heavy rains to come. to explosions have shaken the southern iraqi city of basra killing at least twenty between blast came within minutes of each other at a market and injuring dozens there are conflicting reports over what caused the explosions some police officers say it was a roadside bomb in a car packed with explosives but the city's police chief insists a faulty power generator was to blame. colombia's new president has been inaugurated at a huge ceremony in the capital bogota juan manuel santos pledged to uphold the constitution and continue the fight against leftist guerrillas he takes office in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with venezuela that broke off ties under his presidency

predecessor. santos also took part in a symbolic ceremony with south american indian leaders before being sworn in. former president fidel castro has made his first speech to parliament since he would tire due to ill health four years ago in his address he talked about what he called the almost inevitable fred of nuclear war castro who leads cuba secretary of its communist party has returned to the public eye over the last month he recently alleged that the u.s. was planning to attack iran and north korea. joined kind of a u.s. expedition is headed to the north pole its mission is to map the ocean bed of the arctic a russian ship with a similar mission it's already on its way to the polar waters three countries are said to be preparing to claim the massive oil and gas reserves in the region it's believed that the arctic hold some of the world's largest untapped energy reserves canadian arctic researcher and where it's believed the u.s.

and canada are working hard to catch up with russia the current leader of the rights. canada in the united states do have a disagreement over one area of the beaufort 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 of 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. commentary from edwards an

arctic researcher speaking with r.t. from edmonton canada remember for more stories videos and blogs you can always find more on our website our team dot com business politics and entertainment just a click away here's a look at what's online right now. paul oakenfold one of the world's most successful deejays hits the moscow club scene and chats with r.t. about future plans and his take on collaborating with madonna. and cigarette packs in russia are getting a make over but not everyone's happy about it at all the details on the heated debate between tobacco companies and anti-smoking activists at r.t. dot com. that's the hours news here on r.t.

i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in about ten minutes just ahead on the second anniversary of the war in the south of setia speaks exclusively with the country's president eduard kokoity shares his experience on the conflict and how he sees the country's current situation. thrown up that would have if the other thought mr president let's start our interview with the reasons for george'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 start those events from happening what can. i do like to thank your colleagues from r.t. and other russian channels who were bravely operating here during that time they witnessed inhumanity and aggression demonstrated by the georgian side systems prior to that both russia and south

a sense here we're trying to restart the negotiation process a couple 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 discussing the agenda 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 the setia 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 a settler left the republic four hours before the aggression began and at that time the three party international peacekeepers mission was located here under the dagger means agreement that included representatives of russia georgia and south

a set yeah 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. the 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 to set up 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 are ignoring it and south of russia really attacked the consequences would have been different today we do realize a tiny place like south of setia with its seventy thousand people could not attacked georgia tragically old nato member states had participated in providing arms and preparing the georgian military including ukraine and israel ukrainian

arms were modernised by israeli experts georgia was planning a sneaky attack on south the city 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 a setia their first two attacks. 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 calls 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 or said here before the attack are responsible for it they are see as an international organization have the opportunity to influence georgia but unfortunately they didn't use it for some reason it just helped 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 caucasus 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 so yeah that is it possible that south of setia will become part

of russia sometime in the future. which will come. you know with a count taken of what the situation was before when referendums were held in south a city and naturally people were striving for it we are a small and divided nation most of which lives in russia but given the fact that 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 a setia 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 territories russia's building equal into states.

relations with us russia has chosen this way of communication with south santee and of cause and we're going to build these relations so yes we can create a kind of union with russia that can be various forms of unification but today we're fighting for independence one would be member 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 or 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 with them 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 vitally 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 in the recognition of the republic of south a city by nick regular in venezuela shows that the world has become multisensory.

every month we give you the future you understand how to get there and want to know . the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world join your knowledge on r g. seven thirty am here in moscow thanks for being with us here on our t.v.'s your headlines moscow was covered in smoke with hundreds of wildfires still wreaking havoc across russia emergency services are stepping up their efforts working around the clock people in the capital are struggling to breathe in wearing face masks protect themselves from the toxic smog. mixed emotions in the south of safety is there a public marks two years since the georgian assault as the country rebuilds and moves on some people are still scarred by memories of the war the battle lasted five days and left hundreds of casualties it ended after russia's intervention

force georgian troops backed the border. and so long believed hello police presence meant better proposing and name change for russia's law enforcement as part of a major overhaul aimed at eliminating corruption he wants the reforms to reflect a new era of professionalism and honest. next on our team murderous spies in voting lies the story of clint curtis the man who was commissioned to create and vote rigging software for electronic ballot boxes that's coming your way in a little bit here on r.t. . mr curtis if you would come forward. and ask the court reporter to swear the witness. mr curtis would you please state your full name for the record on amos clinton eugene curtis and what is your profession i'm

a computer programmer mr curtis are there programs that can be used to secretly fix elections yes how do you know that the be the case because in october of two thousand i wrote a prototype for president congressman tom feeney at the company i work for an o.b. to florida that did just that it would really going to lection it would flip the vote fifty one forty nine to whoever you wanted to go to and whichever ray she wanted to went to ever you wanted to win. on november second two thousand for george bush was popular easy middle of an unpopular war i was watching the exit polls and looked very clear that john kerry was going to win. for doing. was.

down.