an oligarch has won over a patriot and a good manager and all that's inside one man. surely luzhkov the patriot was always in love with the mosque a his passion to build and rebuild change the face of the city in two decades the russian capital was transformed from dies trades to more than make a law place that's corruption allegations and suspicions of a cave's a business relationship with his property tycoon wife were to prove his downfall he would do it the authorities began to look more attentively at private activity soon it turned out that funds allocated for the reconstruction and expansion of my school street and rules were invested in some enterprises from which someone receives it he dropped it for. court has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing he says do so with his wife's company were transparent and above board but resentment crew as they would in of contracts to learn about to in his company how to become russia's only female billionaire and want her place on the forbes rich laced yelena

nickel live now but is something else again hard charging in the plastics business in the construction business why they said to be in the corruption business they was also anger will add to t. to the city's cultural heritage you know that the demolition of seven hundred historical buildings and new ones who put up in their place say that ministration pay no attention at all to public opinion and this is one more example of. vandalism and crime and approach to the cultural heritage and architecture of the chip moscow but it was cause handling of the summer's wildfire crisis which proved the final straw while the capitol was choking from toxic smoke for more than a month the city's mayor refused to kushal his holiday preferring the clean air of the el. if the mayor of moscow comes back from holidays the day after the

smoke has dispersed i think it's unacceptable and i think you should have been here after it started in the end started taking the blame for everything the night traffic jams on his lawful ugly monuments around the city it seemed there was a loss of trust not just from one but true many people and a perception he'd been off too long. just like many of the mourners here proved cork was a political figure who was hard to ignore loved by some he was hated by others and after eighteen years in office it was his growing band of critics who are worn out and. not in our team. well michael binyon the former moscow correspondent for u case times newspaper told r.t. that despite the criticism of deserves a fair judgment i think one shouldn't underestimate his achievements particularly

in the early years in office where he really got things going when he came to power it was really a chaotic mess had very little renewal of its infrastructure he cleaned up the buildings admittedly he knocked down a lot of the historic grounds which should have been preserved but those that were preserved were wonderfully cleaned up and he presided over a real boom in the city's infrastructure but of course the taint of corruption lingered so long now the question is whether in fact the corruption charges will stick whether he actually will be accused of corruption i think it would be a messy trial if it came to that. russia's natural resources are soon to flow to its biggest trading partner china where a three day visit their president. and an oil pipeline and signed a number of key agreements. on avoiding reports russia is keen to study the secrets of the chinese economic modernization miracle. three c.d.'s in three days

a cascade of liftoffs and touchdowns that old russia and china to leave major projects of the ground and touch upon their strategic partnership. attention to detail has always been a china is very true they may have rolled out the red carpet for the russians but their meticulous bargaining proved just as tiring as climbing the great wall of china. it was that these are serious important talks as there are a large number of issues to discuss here. oh you know while both the natural partners in each other for years russia and china have been haggling over that process russian hydrocarbons but almost fifteen years to build this oil pipeline in the first victim and it's neighbors because of the money. talks on the price of gas are still ongoing. but china doesn't want to have a pay it claims that it can offer

a rapidly growing market in the future does problem in turn is waiting for the price of natural gas and its share in the chinese market to increase at the moment gas accounts for just ten percent of the overall consumption of energy resources in china but it's too little to be interesting to gazprom tough bargaining is a useful skill in these beijing neighborhood nickname to russia town that attracts thousands of vendors to on a hunt for knockoffs this is the first year with the winter when there was there's a here it used to be an open market with rows of counters only recently they've built everything that our expense if i may say so. but it's shamelessly low prices and high turnover areas like this one managed to transform themselves from shanty towns into glitzy shopping quarters russian chinese trade has undergone a similar make over in two thousand and nine china surpassed germany as russia's largest trading partner. we've overcome last year's negative tendencies the global

financial crisis was the reason for the collapse and our trade turnover volumes shrunk but this year we have managed to make up for it and will most likely get back to the pre-crisis level in trade and economic cooperation it's a big achievement for former communist allies at the earlier while meeting second world war veterans in delhi and the russian president was once again reminded of the two countries sharing. for us you're a symbol of a country that gave us marxism leninism and communism. but two days later in shanghai it became clear that it was now china's turn to spread the word there was them but its economy and infrastructure revamp in just three decades china seemed like a perfect case study but in my den ization oriented russian president when you go this exhibition is a unique chance to speed up the modernization of our economies and institutes innovative development is certainly the choice of our country we are following this path and we will do everything for our economy to modernize change and adapt to

modern life. and while a three day visit may not be enough to land the secrets of china's economic miracle the russian delegation was still able to take home a few pounds of them for the course of this visit russian officials took a breath equal a liking to studying confucius and china scholar how among. the worst again developing friendship is somebody who can a teacher any good well china is definitely not the case this country has made such a dramatic leap forward that you want to comment of big brother russia is more than willing to learn from it but some of our beijing china deal with r.t. and coming up later this hour brazil gets set to elect a new president will it be a woman for the first time in the country's history class.

feels very very strange very. happy doing all right. thing it's going to get more scary. as we explore what it feels like to be buried alive in the interests of stress relief. a u.n. panel says opium prices in afghanistan are shot up almost three fold this year report released on thursday says the hike was prompted by planting fiction that devastated the crop the survey also suggests that the spike nato operations the size of the area used to grow poppies remains the same cultivation in kandahar province the stronghold of the taliban has risen by thirty percent poppies are used to produce heroin the main source of income for the militants in his arteries paula reports drugs are seriously hampering the fight against crime. abdulrahim i used to put people behind bars for doing drugs now he's been put there himself but

the former army commander denies the charges he insists he never swayed on the white side of the law. we saw a truck driving on the main road something made me suspicious and i checked out the cargo we found our kartik south carolina and some drugs but what for him claims he didn't expect to find a driver who told authorities he was involved in drug smuggling. by himself is guarded by another policeman if. he's been taking drugs since he was twelve and went for treatment only recently after the prison warden found out he's in good company according to a recent us congress report nearly half the afghan police are doing drugs well. when i run the policemen as i was doing i can't quite i bought for about two years all the other policeman knew about it quite a few police drug addicts not telling anyone they're just saying i'm smoking

something about politics afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and or drug use but the knocks on not sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. there on the move these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years. this is a mix of opium or context. but then all of this is opium but this is the kind of tricks drugs inside a calm family members coming to visit bring these with them we found drugs in shoes over the years prison guards have been charged with mending a hand. they will give us it's true when i joined a few years ago lots of dollars were involved in smuggling drugs into the jail they are not very good educated and they don't have enough so there are

a lot. joining to produce truth out of the people who join the police to starve themselves but the ministry of cantona cottage insists it's now got a hold on the problem but questions remain what if some of those fighting afghanistan's drug war are actually foot soldiers for the other side and with the many challenges the country faces doesn't really have the resources to tackle the corruption within its ranks inside these four walls is a snapshot of the problems facing afghan society telep members drug traffickers and petty criminals and the prisons are overcrowded porous here our team pretty cheeky frozen karpal. former white house drug policy spokesman robert wiener is hopeful of a recent change of management having un's drug control body could prompt a tougher war on opium production in afghanistan. one of the very good things that has happened is the new united nations drug czar yuri fedotov is from russia

he's a very strong eradication advocate and the previous united nations drug czar mr cost we confronted him on this was against eradication thinking that it would be difficult for the economy of afghanistan and you have to make nice with the people what mr casa didn't understand what mr fedotov in the united nations now doesn't understand is that the only way that you can cut off money from the taliban and money from al qaida because this is drugs are seventy percent of their funding is to eradicate the drugs out of the source of their money and they will go to that proportion disappear and so will the violence against all the countries on earth that terrorists are. disappear and be drastically reduced by that so it's a wonderful development that we now have a strong drug czar from russia but the eradication must be combined with what hillary clinton is proposing which is crop substitution you can't just throw the

farmers out and say you're not allowed to live you have to give them a way to live those two policies combined eradication and crop substitution can be a solution. this week pakistan blocked supply route for coalition forces in afghanistan and came in response to a nato helicopter strike that sort of three pakistani soldiers killed one hundred fifty trucks of pond up along the border with afghanistan and pakistan has become increasingly angry that unlike through filtering and on its territory the critics but there are a she says the u.s. must treat all the stars of hotness. there's a strong feeling in that box dunn is getting though the bad side of the stick we didn't get what we really expected from this alliance with the united states with nato in afghanistan and of course pakistani interest are not being looked after or respected throughout the past eight years of course fox hunt has been coming up with suggestions in order to defuse tensions inside afghanistan study ideas suggestions pakistani input were completely ignored and in eight years of course

we've seen the situation go from bad to worse in afghanistan i don't think it is possible that you could do you could achieve that kind of an end in afghanistan without having a strong pakistani involvement. more on that and all the other stories we're covering all on our website r.t. taste what else is online moscow gets people hunting on paul could open a victory that racing championship that's trying to go all the way to the piggy bank. and the ultimate first get to the russian the company and to build the world's first space hotel find out how serious science fiction will be space age cracked down to what he don't come.

this week so mass demonstrations in europe has tens of thousands protested against government austerity measures the largest marches took place in belgium spain greece brussels protesters gathered around the headquarters of the closure of the city's international airport while in madrid two thirds of flights were left grounded due to actually transport when the protests come amid rising unemployment and president and levels of government debt. limit proponents claims the euro is to blame for most of the continent's current economic woes. i think the euro is teetering on the edge this is a manifestation of it this is a massive problem and you can throw hundreds of billions that it is trying to do but it's beyond that now i mean the real underlying problem is you're trying to force together all these different types of column is doing very well others are very weak and you cannot force them together under one common currency call the

euro the euro's the problem it's just unsustainable this as a say you know the throwing hundreds of billions of euros that it and the germans are paying through the nose and you know the majority of germans now want to leave the euro and that's conceivable that we recreate all the national currencies or certain strong currency is leave all that we currently one or the other. the biggest country in south america and one of the world's largest emerging economies is getting ready to elect a new president brazil's hugely popular outgoing the the commonly known justice luda can take part having already served two terms in office thanks to his support his chosen successor peers poised to become the nation's first ever female president ernest a reports. welcome to brazil south paulo to be exact. it's the largest city in a young democracy gearing up to elect a new president this sunday but it's so much more than that. the current president

is known simply as little for most brazilians he's their guy already born in a country always controlled by a small group of the wealthy he was one of the poor louise ignacio lula da silva is the one who changed everything and has seen approval ratings reach eighty percent of his two terms and draws thousands of those supporters to rally for his anointed successor dilma rousseff the american people who live well no not for her track record in public service but for being moolah choice to understand why that matters so much in this country you have to travel outside the city center to the slums where the poor the working class and. so this is where i came to live with my dad has lived here her whole life but it wasn't until the lula government she began receiving electricity proper water and a voice new people have more dialogue with the leaders so the community is strengthened because there is a democratic government so people feel confident to demand their rights and that

government has created jobs a record number this year and one social program after another credited with lifting more than twenty million people out of poverty. the fool the people couldn't have imagined housing a lot of children abandoned after school beneath the bridges being hungry today has been a big change and women can go off to benefits for the children those benefits from the bowls of the mill your program give families a cash stipend so children can go to school and stead of having to work opportunities that did not exist before from a president who grew up illiterate himself as a testament ten years old i was already a nanny i didn't have the means to study now she can go to college because of programs to. help the poor pay for university something she could not have imagined . you know i never thought to. start a fund for kid here. these are the people behind the red flags for dillman.

it's a far cry from the opposition support for suits and ties and business interests the opposition wants to be aligned with the us and western interests under the influence of what we have called. targets regarding the importance of international economy and of national politics the opening of the quarter on thursday on many of the out here are the orders that all the average person on the air thought would tell us they were by the end of the day or to be here after little is progress and getting broad support not from only the poor an activist who identify with his fierce trade union leader roots during a time of military dictatorship but from those who don't use the mcgrath periods the who are the schools who do the best bros and those who have never heads he's brokered ties with developing and non-western countries in trade and diplomacy pay down the country's debt growing the economy at

a quick clip eight years of lula brought to brazil the possibility of transforming us into an independent country as a large international force creating a social revolution where now a woman like many young who never dreamed of going to school can entertain the idea of being the next film. and pass it along to their children who may have only dreamed of being football players but now have prior aspirations to his or her and you want to be president of the one of the although he didn't achieve it with a bloody fight but with a political agenda that has catapulted a nation forward how far it will take dilma with fifty two percent of popular support looks pretty clear how far she could take the nation and the look phenomenon will go in the world only time will tell lauren lyster r.t. so paulo brazil. north korean leader kim jong il has made his youngest son a four star general and a promotion seen as the first step towards handing him power the appointment was

made just hours before a key convention of the country's ruling workers' party the first in decades the historic meeting came of one of his son kim jong other family members top posts the former leader of the european parliament delegation to the. world says one of these appointments could mark a whole new era of his foreign policy. it looks like this is a if you're a generational change and not merely the if you're signaling of who eventually will succeed kim jong il there are certainly people in japan with a within the former ruling party the neo cons there and people within the united states administration not all of them there are tensions in there who actually find it very convenient. to be a ploy to get their missile defense in japan. obviously deters the north koreans with the same time puts pressure on the chinese to move more money into into their military. according to

a new us poll the majority of americans don't trust the country's news media find out why and when i was time when the hotties laurie halfassed hits the streets of new york in this week's the resident. i just don't feel like we're getting all the facts and there's something. here that the media news media is playing into the public here's a problem news media isn't just news anymore and news is news. so any time you get like a c.n.n. or a fox who has their own ban on thing i think people just try to find what most in what they're already thinking anyways and then they watch that so if you're not from that side if you're not from the whatever side it is that you're not going to trust that other side. dealing with stress is an inescapable part of everyday life and in russia an orthodox group of therapists have come up with an extreme method to help people

cope by burying them alive they claim that twenty minutes on the surface can change your whole outlook on life despite grave concerns about it went to give it a try. i above ground there are a few signs of life below the surface a man trapped with his greatest fears pavel has just been buried alive for twenty minutes not torture but extreme therapy. has no good the first thing you experience is panic once your face is covered with dirt if you start tasting it and thinking what the hell am i doing down here or you want to come down to simply northern places like these these are the grave digging therapists modeling the burials on an ancient form of self in lightened practice by shamans they wanted to make the rights more accessible believing everyone can benefit. as the most effective and powerful method overcome an internal problems person can neither see nor hear

anything nor even move underground they have no other option but to delve deep inside their minds. a burial cost you around one hundred sixty dollars attracting both men and women from students to fifty something professionals all aiming to suffocate their worries the maximum burial is forty minutes beyond that the mind struggles to cope with the lack of physical function of the day thirty centimeters any deeper and the pressure would be too great to stand once under that volunteers briefly this chewed the organizers a ten year veteran of living burials and says this shouldn't be tried at home. but are we have to be able to get the personal very fast and also contact them earth for us to be distributed in a certain way across the body so that the key joints or pressurized you can't practice burials without knowing about things. that until now i didn't think i suffered from any cost a phobia well that could soon change because i'm going to try this for myself now

me given this to breakthrough which i'm told that we monitoring at all times so on a stop and all i have to do is make a noise so here we go. well they started to fill in my grave as it were and yet this feels very very strange the soul is very cold and also heavy i'm doing all right at the moment but i think it's going to get a lot more scary and i was right five minutes after being buried alive i was very ready to see the light of day again. one of the weirdest experiences of my life i felt completely trapped and definitely never doing that again a minute artsy. he certainly way when i'll be back with headlines in just a few moments don't go away.

it's wealthy british style it's a small tight tight.

find out what's really happening to the global economy. global financial headline news joining me to. recap now the stories that shape the week long time. russian president loses his patience for the city. russia expands relations with its biggest trading partner china. deals. we report on the devastating impact of drugs across sections of society. where the headlines coming up next our special report travels to historic. where

among other things a school which trains. one of russia's most important southern cities an industrial and cultural center with more than one point three million people this is a twenty first century town that's proud of its history where you can find cutting edge technology and people that still follow traditions that date back centuries. is an agricultural jewel covered with. oil and blessed with a mild climate it's the second most productive region in the country but if you want to appreciate it properly you really need somebody to give you a list. on this before. well i mean the best way to see the sights and. quite the. weather was perfect and soon i was getting it coming view of the nearby farmland below.