some of the military are. the most heavily reinforced series. of. lasted forty nine. one of the bloodiest battles. in the turning point of. the burning. there's a look at the top stories here in our team iran starts loading fuel into its first atomic power plant with the russian build reactors operations to be strictly controlled by the un's nuclear watchdog facility in the southern city of the share is expected to start producing electricity for the year. moscow says it will seek to bring businessman victor boot back home after

a court ruled the russian is to be extradited to the u.s. on suspicion of illegal arms dealing russia's foreign minister sees the court's decision as political and made under pressure. and matter new yorkers feel they are losing one of the city's symbols as the iconic yellow taxi has reached the end of the road before it is scrapping the production of the traditional model by next year due to sluggish sales and a push towards fuel efficiency. of the allies here now i'll be back at the top of the hour but nextel going off talks to a french author whose novel ninety nine francs became a bible for russia's elite hoping to capture some of the parisian glamour. for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

how again are welcome to spotlight the interview shell on r.t. i'm old enough and today my guest is said to think. the next he won't pull six two thousand and ten is the year of france and russia since the eighteenth century no other european culture as influenced russia more than the french one and the same still to be a case at least with literature but that's only one of the reasons why i guess novels are so popular in russia what else what does he himself think of russia and

is there still a place for literature in the glamour obsessed cultures such as russia pretends to be the famous french author is here to answer the question. why to frederick baghdad has the reputation of being somewhat of a modern day liberty a man who indulges sometimes to excess from a privileged french family he works in advertising before finding fame in the torah with his book ninety nine francs the book's a pamphlet on capitalism and people's passion for consumption eight years ago frederick decided to help the french communists in their unsuccessful election campaign returned to writing and produced several successful books one of them is about right. well the writer is a frequent visitor he says russia person experience the feeling of eternity and only hear a song beautiful but some strangely like what else attracts project but there is russia your spiritual beings your own spotlight.

hello fredricka thank you very much for being with us thank you. well last year let's press the magazine single you out as the french writer put popular in russia is there any other country outside france that you're really as popular as the as a russian of. nineteen and france was popular in germany. in italy but there is no place like russia really it's the only country who translated every one of my book and all of them including my in my chart with bishop. and all the little. every everything i wrote is leading in papers examination scoring or anything yeah it's sad you often say that

ninety nine francs became popular in russia by mistake because of misunderstanding because of because you really tried to to to mark at things and the russians took it seriously is that true well i don't know kind of their legs actually why readers like what i do and if there is a misunderstanding then it's great i don't mind you know i think i'm just doing my job i write what i like and if people don't understand it it's ok with me but it is possible that in russia some of the young people took ninety nine front guide to learn more and to cynical way of life. which i was criticizing making for. own of you know exists it's a colleague at jewel of advertising and this was my life i see my life on the on the wall it was my life when i was in the ninety's as a copywriter in a big american agency and i hated this job so i was i wrote this book basically to

destroy advertising in maybe some of the young people read it as phony book and they love it and they want to work in advertising so it's crazy ok well people say that that you like russia or you like being in russia you mentioned it in couple of your interviews and that actually russia has inspired you to write the whole school. but critics say that this book is filled with well we're with western cliches about russia so how does that add up with the fact that you that you say you like russia but you love but but is there also a satire a mockery of russia or what no it's it's a description of the new russia and the new russian people of the rich people. by a french guy who is a foreigner so he of course it's field of stereotypes and cliches if you come to paris you will maybe if you write about paris you will see that the french people

are. buying a baguette in the morning and complaining all the time and the taxis are crazy and these are cliches but it's also true and what i just wrote in in this book called. in russian. the story of a french guy who is looking for the most beautiful face for an advertising campaign and so of course he's surrounded by beautiful mother he goes out in crazy clubs like i did last night and it's also true it does exist and russia has to accept that part of the clichés about russia are the reality it is not bad well you don't. you don't only find beautiful girls in the clubs in moscow but here you can find a lot of russia today one of the works of our spotlight and today spotlight cuts at ullevi what about one thousand feet so moscow to find out what attracts foreigners in this country let's take

a look at qatar and that has tory out there today i'll try to find out what the russians think attacks powerless in this country and what keeps them coming back for more. of them over there think it's because the city's full advantage of the streets give you a charge of energy out of blood. even when we must start feeling it down taking a walk in the streets makes us feeling great again. probably to unreal the russians so to see for themselves that we have no business in the red square to drink vodka and probably because we opened our country for visitors creates a recently and people are just curious to see a new country. we see each other almost no new zealand's theatres we have a well developed culture you know people are quite friendly i think that means a lot and we have beautiful nature and russian hospitality per month before are you asking about moscow all rushing general because we are from siberia from brusk and we see a lot of foreigners on lake baikal and i think they are interested to see our nature

which is way different than in their countries they like by call here. some aggressive. i think it's because of our girls and women right considered to be the most beautiful in the world there may be some other reasons such as business school is also beautiful but i think the girls are the main reason for example you are very beautiful your eyes are very expressive things like. you keep up with its business possibilities and wildlife so to speak. out i've got to with you he's going to question podcast. go they say you have a reputation of the whole again is it part of your personal p.r. campaign in iraq are you really this kind of person ok is it a reputation that you. i want to want to follow your one or is. what you are really i don't know where it comes from i think this comes from the characters in my novels because you know my books of heroes are anti heroes and they behave in

a very strange way and they are very weird they take drugs they go to prostitutes the the on dance floors going mad all the time but it's not really my life i am more normal and that's why i write because i am too normal in my real life so i want to be crazy and i think as far as i remember you were arrested arrested for taking drugs in the center of paris so this is not normal i mean you get arrested for these things that you're all right other items normally people go to the toilet yeah i do it in the street. strange i know but i agree with what this say you know it's not only the beauty of women who are trucks people to russia for example between france and russia there is a long history of mutual love and fascination for little at you and poetry so now there are good reasons to the beautiful nature of this so you know yeah sure i've been tunisia need to do some petersburg also you see. and it's really

it's the real reason is to to be inside the russian classics that i read when i was young like dr zhivago for example dodge of august break here so but do you read some of the contemporary russian authors is there anything in russia written in russian today published that's worth translating into french for those of you know of course like i like many of you can you mention a couple names that victor to live in is translating well he is translated he's known so. i have a friend who is not translated yet. but i think it's it could be fun because people tell me he's a little bit like a russian. myself so i would i would love to read him in french i'm trying to make him translated now but. because i think it's a lot of humor and it's important that people know that russian are funny you know . well you mentioned the classics that you liked russian literature

while you also mention the young the young writers but as far as i know you mentioned that couple of times in other interviews that moscow involved because of your affair because one of your favorites well why is it one of the afraid is of and do you think that vodka consumption is still the most remarkable experience for for for you. i think. this. novel it's a failure for you is it's really. a masterpiece because it's a little bit like. russian catcher in the rye you know the catcher in the right by selling a church it's a guy who is walking around the city and he does nothing but drink and he maybe wants to take a train but finally doesn't and it's for me it's very simple very very funny and

also you feel the soul of russia in this book and it's in a way an answer to people who criticize a book about russia and see it's full of cliches because if you read this if you have a lot of cliches well go. for it three leary you know is a romantic guy it's. completely it's really wouldn't compare your thieved to. school school though i'd rather compare it to the ninety nine friends because because this kind of vodka is a mockery well yes he is on purpose of course making a cliché yeah out of this it's too much it's. he hears it out there that's what they do all the time i think really as i said in the beginning real life is boring if you write books it's because you want to improve your life and make it exaggerated make it more than lies bigger than life or it would life be right. yeah

i think sometimes when you're bored you start to to to imagine things and you start to dream and maybe writing is fighting boredom and this is one of vodka really helps me. well says frederick very bad there are french writer and author let's see here in moscow spotlight will be back shortly and while he still is here not country we will have another fifteen minutes with him in less than a minute stay with us. extracting black gold is dangerous. but worldwide demand pushes the limits to catastrophe.

is the price too high. is it possible to prevent such disasters. and can the aftermath be dealt with quickly and effectively. oil spills and thrills on. the toes of team has been to the kaluga region where the car industry is rapidly developing. now margy goes to the area where the first russian fleet was born. where the indigenous people were the first arctic seas navigator and where russia's glorious history is still visible. well. we. should close up on our.

welcome back to spotlight i'll bring all of in just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is frederick baghdad there our friend third thank you thank you thank you mess. with pleasure and. well you say well though actually you say and you like to talk about it a lot says written in the russian magazines about about lots of fun you're having when you come to moscow you know your name is all around the glamour magazine is nightclubs. what about is there something else except having fun and then a trip to moscow and i know you're introducing your new book but except making money and having fun is there anything else you know it's not only making money when you promote a novel you have the chance to meet a lot of people who ask you deep questions why do you write these what about your childhood who are you really freddy and if this is where i have no outs or is there

no answer about you but you know it's like doing a psychoanalysis for free and in a foreign country people don't know my image in france they have another image they think i'm somebody else it's really very relaxing and very rewarding for me i feel like it's a big honor to meet all these people and discuss during the day but also during the night because going out at night is not only to destroy myself it's to meet people and dog and sit down and you know for hours talk about lot of talk about the absence of god you know like why americans have so many shrinks i mean there. they did these personal side because they don't have enough russians to talk to exactly exactly the russians are helping me she used to feel better listen you know you once said that moscow reminds you of paris in the nine hundred twenty s.

is that true well i was not unfortunately in paris yes well that's what i want to ask you how do you know i mean from when i read it what did you mean when i read hemingway or scott fitzgerald talk and henry miller talk about a city where everybody is free and everything is possible and i think most schools now is a little bit like that that's way everyone wants to go there because it's like new york in the eighty's or so it's a city where you have a lot of energy electricity people want to do things build things create new new companies and it's it's not only fun it's human behavior that is really positive i think do you really hate capitalism do you really hate paris paris is a little bit. dead right now i hope it's going to resuscitate do you know i lived i lived in paris for six years when i was in which younger and i visited lots of

times but last year the first time in my life i went to paris in the winter i loved it yes so you have to go to paris and i think it's much better you know it because it does not as many japanese and russians are well even even not as much french that it was there all way for for the council. says ok it's better paris without the french is all right but you know the french we. prevent the grass is always greener on the other side so maybe because i was born in perry's and raised in paris and has been there all my life i prefer to move and see other cities you said about the grass and you know what my for. father always says it he says dealing with people is like washing washing the went shield of your car when you wash the glass you also think that the dirt is on the other side when you start washing the other side you also get think that it's on the

other side that's exactly the thing ok now in other another quote from yourself you said that literature is a game and if a book is too serious it's crappy what so what's the purpose of literature that we turn to tame people i think it's important that you give pleasure to your reader i think so i think if it when i write i try to have fun myself if i have fun maybe the reader will have fun too i'm not saying every novel has to be funny and entertaining but i'm seeing the novels i like are full of humor and they have have a distance they have irony in them the best russian novels are like that you know check of what's really funny and i think people think. a book has to be serious i think the book has to be ambitious which is not the same you have to have an ambition to sum the world in in

a few words but if you do it was distance and you know cynicism if you do it in a little bit spectacular way then it's more of a distraction and it's not a crime to distract people when you write but. of course chuck of maybe firmly but especially the short story as a source of is not always funny no and not always funny and and also you mentioned you mentioned you mentioned got you mentioned for example dusty have skin your interviews and of which tolstoy who are not funny at all although that someone on the phone when that guy finally kills the old lady this is probably yes. i mean he's a for example he needs a sort of a homeless guy in a bar at the beginning of crime and punishment and drinking together i think this is kind of funny it's a little bit like when i go in and disco and girls it's exactly the same except in

certain petersburg a long long time ago. today you said something different from what you've been saying for a long time you said that you hope that that our society is going to prove there before for a pretty long time we kept on saying that you believe that that that the end of the world is coming soon the that you really believe it accounts so. do you think that it's going to going to get better i think we're or what i think i'm just changing my mind because i'm getting older and as people grow old girl is start to believe in god also you know because they have to do things that this is not the end so i am like that beginning and also i have a daughter she's ten years old and i cannot hope that it's the apocalypse i have to hope that it's not going to end but it i'm scared and feel very scared. you were born into the bush family to me and even to the rest is to create

a family you know you've been sort of a holy ground for prayer for a pretty long time but as you say that you're growing older yeah doesn't that mean that you're returning to a bushel way of life than that that that there's bourgeois mentality starts taking over inside of you my god. you know i think being a hooligan is very bushwah you know all the sons of rich people are always like acting like bad boys it's really a cliché this is really a cliche of the board. am i am i going to be a boring old man is a possibility i bought a house in the southwest of france i go there named leave a very. peaceful and quiet where i make a fire and prepare the dinner for my daughter read my books but my books other books in my library so if if i see this on russian t.v. i'm going to disappoint all my readers i'm very sorry in fact an old and wise man

sitting on a chair going like this you know but but you do you do it sound. but then but then you do call the. russian girls that a lot of them are in the south of france when you're one family goes away you pick up the telephone how. goes it really. you know listen you took points. you took part in the french communist party's election campaign once it was very successful was a disaster why you know why because i was paid by jacques chirac to destroy the communist party. so now you do need to go the first part of the party. i was very surprised that they asked me for help they were reading the engine in france and they thought it was the new kalmucks so i said of course i thought it was crazy and

. i came to see the new works with great relief for the russians so i suppose you were nineteen our friends would go there only for the rights of that of the french so what happened is i did an advertising campaign for for the community's candidate . and it didn't work but i still believe that the ideas of communities are going to happen if you look at since two thousand and eight what happened with this crisis the economy crisis is americans french and all the orcs in done countries are buying the banks and the state is ruling the economy now so in fact as you are becoming more and more capitalist we are becoming more and more coming east it's really increase. abel. you mentioned when you when you talked about your your little house in the south of france and the rocking chair and reading your books you said sitting on my love reading well you said well not my books but what like like books about reading your own books do you think you will

ever write a book that you will be able to read yourself like sitting in front of a fire. i was scared that you will end your sentence and just do you will you ever write a book. i don't read my my own books because i. know them totally because when i finish them i have read them one million times so i don't know i never read them again. i don't know if i can be proud of my work is difficult for me to answer your question i think the last one is really honest really sincere and for the first time i talk about my past so when you finish a book you don't you don't really read it you just give it to the you just to the editor and then i like to listen to what helps people react some people will hate it some will love it and i like them to see them fighting each other. i like to be

a conversation that's what i like but reading my own work is it's too painful. well you are becoming a little philosophical or you say yeah you are changing but are changing and this is good this means you you will still be worth reading in the back thank you very very much and all the best to you thank you for being with us and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today was frederick bake better get a french writer and that's it for the hour from all of us here if you don't have your say and spotlight just drop me a line we'll be back tomorrow with more until then stay on r.t. and take care thank you.

and. every month we give you the future we help you understand how it will get there and what tomorrow brings the best unsigned sundeck going to be from across russia and around the world to join us.