the more the state is the less the blame russians the mob equal justice as the

spotlight falls on cases of influential figures using their connections to invade prosecution. for another crisis as the u.k. prepares to reveal massive public service cuts economists warn the country is on the verge of plunging into an even deeper recession. criminals in the us heroes at home from the russian secret service agents at the center of the biggest spy swap since the cold war. around the clock around the world this is r.t. here in moscow the daughter of a powerful siberian official will be retried over a horrific car crash that left one woman dead and another paralyzed a public outcry was sparked when initially it was revealed that an

a chef in cover was not going to be charged over the incident which took place a year ago c.c.t.v. footage showed a varying onto the pavement and then the cars driver only checking for damage ignoring the critically injured pedestrians. over pregnant at the time of the crash got a three year suspended sentence and was given time to raise a child it was alleged high profile mother a regional electoral committee official could have took the case in her favor and sought to sara first now reports it's not the first time a kid with connections in russia has been accused of escaping. when valarie the day it was made down by it was the beginning of a long and very difficult to recover. it was this bus stop that valerie was not that the fiercely ended but that was five years ago and since then he's been our neighbor to say but investigated he suffered horrific injuries and the memories of that day are still very clear in his mind. i remember

exactly how it all happened moment by moment my friend oh yeah and myself we're standing here as we parted he left across the street on the green light i remember the green light vividly i had turned and began walking in that direction when i heard a sound and saw something flying towards me the driver of the car was eighteen year old. daughter of a former high ranking f.s.b. officer for larry's case or they being denied a criminal trial did make it to the civil courts with. we asked for one hundred thousand dollars in compensation but at the time of the trial she claimed she was just a poor student with twenty dollars monthly allowance so she was ordered to pay three thousand dollars to me and she did in installments but even before the trial she was actually a major shareholder at a commercial bank in moscow. so larry made eight attempts to have criminal

proceedings launched but was refused every time. if an ordinary person had been in her place they would have faced criminal punishment long ago the incident is too serious to refuse to open a criminal case there seems to be a category of the population in russia which is immune from criminal prosecution for larry's repeated attempts to get the case tried in the criminal cause of let's accusations against him with the abuse of the family claiming he jumped in front of the car and was trying to extort money from the in response to larry made an online play to president dmitri medvedev. i'm hoping for your objective help mr president. an investigation into the legitimacy of the refuses to launch criminal proceedings has now been ordered. but i made my online statement not because i want compensation for my hill but because i have been falsely accused and because of all the corruption i want justice. with the

full investigation yet to be conducted abuse of her remains in the driving seat to larry left to slowly rebuild his life with the help of friends and family surf. region. well fred with from the christian science monitor says media coverage helped bring privileged offenders to justice you know this is not an unfamiliar scenario in a lot of places it is perfectly common in almost every country that the rich get a better ride in legal systems if only because they can hire better lawyers and and find their way navigate through the system better and the thing you notice is that the intensive press coverage of that forces the authorities to make a show of treating them equally the more publicity the more like the trial on this the better the better it will be. that was fred where moscow correspondent for the

christian science monitor well coming up a storm is looming on the british royals and. the difficulty is that when you drown three bottles of vodka then you may well think that you're capable of putting the world to right but at the same point in time you know you're going to wake up in the morning with a hangover. to recover from the credit crunch some say nothing's been done the worst is yet to come. to germany now where experts are divided over chancellor angela merkel's comments that immigrants there need to do more to integrate she said attempts to create a multicultural society had utterly failed but critics have dumped her speech as a way to score cheap political points a survey found a third of people in germany believe foreigners are taking over and the founder. foundation which works to combat racism in germany says immigration policy has to

be addressed across europe gratian is the future you cannot work and live in a globalized world in the middle of the world in europe without immigration and moving populations so you have to really make a good policy of immigration all over europe and we see this there the history of g. europe with this long history of nationalism and small countries is now . is now getting into a crisis so we'll need a long time to to make it better but you have to in front of us you have to really change the policy of immigration inside europe. that was a net gain the founder of the antonio foundation talked a bit earlier from berlin. leaders of france and germany say their countries of

facing the same security threats as russia and efforts to tackle them should help in building a new partnership with moscow because mr causey and the merkel meeting ahead of the summit in the small french resort town of the view well live no brings out of. the talks there are. three leaders of. what is on the agenda tonight well the beginning of the visit is of course more focused on pleasure rather than business first of all the three leaders meet him individually markel and the french president nicolas sarkozy are going to enjoy a very delicious dinner one of the best in fact many critics believe it to be the best restaurant and one of the best restaurants in the french north and apparently according to some sources they're going to be enjoying a very delicious menu that is guaranteed to include to include oysters

a local specialty that is of course in season right now and also a great selection of local cheeses normandy is of course known for its cheeses and so they are definitely going to make way onto the menu for the three leaders and of course after that it will be business following pleasure but for now the three leaders are settling down to dinner and some lovely local wines hopefully getting a chance to be informal before getting down to business good food being on the table one of the issues that are going to be on the table that the three will be discussing over the over the next couple of days during this summit. well once the plates are cleared bill there going to be some very serious issues of course on the table as the three leaders tackle various issues relevant not only to the european community but also to the international agenda issues suggestibility in the middle east the ongoing situation in afghanistan and iran is nuclear agenda those are all going to be discussed by the theme of a defined his colleagues from france and germany but it's also the issues of course

that are relevant to europe specifically and they are expected to dominate the talks here and specifically the issue of global european security proposed by the russian president a little earlier russia's cooperation with the north atlantic treaty organization is also going to be discussed of course and that will be done tailing into the new proposal for a global european security plan and various other aspects of european called gratian of course the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the various effects that it has had on bilateral trade on european trade on russia's relations with those members of the e.u. all of those items are definitely going to be on the agenda as the three leaders said down to talk business one of the topic you haven't actually mentioned and that is concern in europe and that's the visa restrictions they can so many people here in russia the visa issues are going to discuss with a reason to think. well this is a topic that many russians are definitely following very closely the negotiations

to have a visa free regime for russian citizens wishing to travel to europe right now of course we know that russian citizens are obliged to get a visa in order to enter the european union that's according to the shang an agreement that is currently enforced and for a number of years of officials have been talking. all over the possibility of removing the visa regime and making travel from russians into europe visa free and that is yet another issue that medium and if a certain to raise with sarkozy and angle of merkel and of course many russians are keeping their fingers crossed that something. well come out of those stocks are up we'll leave it there for the moment catherine is our live from the french resort town of the fillmore for me of course over the next couple of days in the meantime thanks very much. thomas cloyd from the european council on foreign relations told r.t. that improving toys between moscow and was or could prove or what prepaid i should say pave a new way to a new era in russia e.u. relations there have been indeed greater within the e.u.

about how to manage the relationship with russia what we've seen over the last few weeks and months is a narrowing of these divisions and in particular the the very important fact of the proliferation rapprochement has really and to be a whole new dynamic and i think the u. today is much less divided than it was two or three years ago and this is the background against which this meeting is taking place and i would almost argue that it couldn't take place without the background being watched i think that's an absolutely crucial fact there was a big split between berlin and also especially about how to manage the relationship with moscow that was a source of strain in the proto tram relationship that is now gone and we are seeing a much more positive dynamic overall we are live in moscow still to come this hour for the italian invasion find out why a new surge of italian troops in afghanistan is being blamed for wrecking a series of secret operations. that story still to come but first the

u.k. is bracing itself to hear about public spending cuts with tens of billions of pounds because mission government will reveal the comprehensive spending review on wednesday it aims to dramatically cut the budget deficit and put the country on the road to financial recovery but some economists say the worst is yet to come as nor emmett's reports. the start of a new working week in the city of london in the eye of an economic storm life goes on as normal but those who work here know that the financial crisis is far from a. lot worse to come i think worse still to come. as more to come how much. they're talking about the financial crisis we've already had but according to some economists we ain't seen nothing yet certain respected finance is this a rather than solving the issues that caused the last financial crisis governments

and central banks like the bank of england behind me actually leading us towards an even bigger meltdown and they can't even seem to agree on was to do in europe the powers that be are stopping the money printing machines over in the u.s. the federal reserve has just announced another round of quantitative easing but who's right nobody is right i mean that's really the problem the difficulty is that when you've drunk three bottles then you may well think that you're capable of putting the world to right but at the same point in time you know you're going to wake up in the morning with a hangover this is the point where we're working up in the morning with a terrible hangover in a new book the gathering storm a group of finance he has got together to say that governments have learned nothing from this crisis policymakers are applying old models in their economic projections and that could lead to inflation hitting ordinary people hard debts will have to be

repaid and restructuring will have to begin but in the city there's a fear that people are in denial for sense of security i think yeah i think it's very convenient from the political perspective and overall feel good to. feel better you know people want to feel better you know but it's the fundamentals are not great people seven deny a lot. of money from the tax man. chasing people who can't buy them will be a problem that idea may come home to roost this week when the government announces extensive cuts to public services we shouldn't assume that the period of extreme global weakness which followed the lehman brothers collapse is the worst episode in this long drawn out depression there could be much worse episode still to come. and here in the city of london that would really put the cat among the pigeons nor abbott r.t. . let's take

a quick look now at some other stories making headlines around the world at this stage of the day students evocative entrances to schools and set vehicles on fire in paris and must say they join nationwide protests against government pension reform plans to raise the retirement age from sixty to sixty two years of the recent austerity measures at a quarter of gas stations across france are run out of petrol as truck drivers throw their weight behind the strikes if is it shall de gaulle airport in paris could be left without fuel workers say they won't stop protesting until the pension bill is abandoned the senate is to hold the deciding vote on wednesday. a trial in turkey has started into the case of more than one hundred fifty people charged with links to a separatist kurdish guerrilla group. elected mayors are among suspects who have been held in prison for eighteen months and the case is being closely watched by human rights activists it comes at a time when the turkish government is trying to reconcile with the kurdish minority who have been fighting for autonomy since nine hundred eighty four. thousands

of homes after a super typhoon hit the northern coast of the philippines which are just one to twenty feet it's capable of causing catastrophic damage when it already drowned in a state of emergency has been declared it's been four years since another storm of similar strength triggered lots lives and left dozens of people dead. russian secret service agents sent back from the u.s. this summer in the high profile spy scandal have received state awards from the president to meet him in video of all employees of the russian intelligence services in a ceremony at the kremlin palace you could open a can of has more. this story was probably the biggest spy scandal between moscow and washington since the cold war era in june american offshore he's announced that they've arrested a group of ten people who are suspected of being secret russian agents were working for many years in the united states undercover they've all been detained had gone and undergone trial were found guilty of being on registered illegal russian agents

have their property and belongings were taken away by american authorities that were also banned from ever coming back to america unless a big green light is given by the white house itself they're also all bridgette from ever publishing any information on their activities while were working undercover for russia in the united states and then they were deported from america in exchange for four people who are serving time here in russia after having been found guilty of being foreign spies this whole ceremony was held in the relatively secret atmosphere we don't exactly know how many people received the state awards we don't know exactly what state awards they were decorated with according to the president's press secretary not only to mark over the people who are in the center of the last summer's spy scandal between moscow and washington who are also reportedly awarded state awards now out of those ten people who keep order from the united states probably the most popular figure was and is on a shop owner who is

a young very successful business woman she used to have a british husband she used to have british citizenship which was actually taken away after this scandal last summer and this she's the type of character we usually see on the cinema screens in james bond movies and not in in news reports that's why probably the most attention from the media was aimed at her as this story was broadcasted across the world and there are reports in some russian media including the afghan mosque we radio station that on a job one was also there and was also given a state award but this is still unconfirmed information and more of speculation be unofficial at the moment. reporting there by the way you can get the latest on everything we're covering here on screen on our t.v. on old website don't comics have a quick look at what's online for you right now the russian capital cools off some

of the city's catwalks heating up as designers from all over the world display the spring summer collections for question. just to all of the russian mafia a contest to see if your knowledge of these days is good enough to get you into the closed circle stories in the future is on our website all took. italy's joined the u.s. surge in afghanistan which will bring the number ten in troops in the country to four thousand by the end of the year but a leaked report suggests rome is not following the rules of engagement it's alleged italian troops carrying out a secret operations involving raids on afghan villages resulting in civilian deaths

italians may be dying in afghanistan but journalists for brits you're on to says it's not for national security. it's not talking about it because basically we really is fighting a war in denial in afghanistan what's happening is that we are there oficial the. peace keeping rebuilding our reconstruction mission because that was the way that the government sought to detail in public opinion our engagement in afghanistan which is an engagement which is not well seen but probably public opinion being very costly in terms not of money of course but also in terms of risks and lives of our soldiers in a place which is seen by the public opinion as very remote and not really willing to the to the nation's security because the obsession with terrorism which is something that some countries namely for example the united states or britain feel particularly strong it's something which is felt less strong only if one in italy

the problem is that we are not there because our government or our establishment in general is concerned about the situation in afghanistan so we're not really there for strategic calculation if one a we are there because it's a way to harner to clearly and to friendship that we have with the united states it's more a political engagement and what this is something which is very crude and it's something that of course is not subject of public statements of course but that's basically the substance of our stand in afghanistan and this means that we have really no strategic thinking about our staying there we are there because nato is there. and that was italian journalist for more on to charlotte's going to be here with the business news in just a moment so join us then stay with us live here on alt. great for the feel we've got to. get voice to face with the news maker.

hello and welcome to the business program hey i'm not saying with michelle obama's folly b.p. has agreed to sell assets in venezuela and vietnam to his russian joint venture to pay one point eight billion dollars they're doing plays b.p. stakes in three joint ventures about its way into gas fields in vietnam the sale is politics the peace plan to raise up to thirty eight billion dollars by the end of two thousand and eleven to help the company meet its financial obligations off the

gulf of mexico oil spill acquisitions over finance from ten k.v. pais own resources i won't require additional debts. this is all part of a global expansion plan. was adopted for itself in. time to diversify itself out of russia and become. true of local company. so as a starting point the first step towards that goal. the most songs modestly sized acquisition might be too strong. now in other news running main putin has been talking up the prospects the russian economy the prime minister told a meeting of foreign businessmen and investors the growth was returning of the budget deficit will be smaller than expected he with a pledge that foreign investors will get the same protection as russia all correspond to the united invade of a small. so there was only

a top man to talk investments let him if he has met with over twenty c.e.o.'s of the global corporations to share their views on investment climate in russia addressing the audience would remove putin has explained that investment into russia where you talked a hundred billion dollars that the see we have summoned he explained how attractive russian economy is noting the upcoming privatization of very interesting us it's the house of the huddle which corporations such a spectacle tell you nor areas to the young expressed their concerns of what preventing investment to flow into russia and that is administered barrier slack of access to infrastructure and to leave before city shoes since their last year emitting the last point i don't believe the flooring labor issue has moved up from the dead stop and that's thanks to the new law that eases the regulations of the korean labor high skilled labor force so access to go to russia vladimir putin

talking to the businessmen so that actually russia doesn't make a difference between domestic and foreign businesses sisters in your position we do make a distinction between russian and foreign business when it comes to protecting the rights of is the best is it's important for us to create comfortable conditions for those who want to make investments in russia to develop their business to promote their goods and services. separately vladimir putin has approved a plan to give companies working in the year mile peninsula a tax holiday the government is keen to encourage gas production in the region which is rich in resources but is hard to access and subject to extreme winters planning please exemption from the results extraction tax and zero export duty for l.n.g. as well as local tax breaks but times of tax holidays will be great before the end of the year but exceeds twelve years'. time to see how the market for performing now in new. stocks are making modest gains this now after an index of

home builders sentiment. from the month before the first rise of five months or so says you group has reported it better than expected earnings report to kick off the week the u.s. bank has a surge in profits two point two billion dollars. and over in europe stocks climbed in monday's session to help buy the positive news from citi group those shares of philips electronics would down by nearly five percent off the group also with a cautious outlook for the rest of the year. and here in russia they are six of close and positive territory there was a last minute rally at the end of the session meeting most of the main players were awfully r.t.s. leading the gaze with which columns more than two percent after a strong report a rebound in oil helped lift energy produces gas from times more than one percent. so news in brief we know russia's largest food retailer chain magnates has increased profits by a quarter to almost two hundred forty million dollars in the first nine months of the year turnover was five point four billion dollars that's

a jump of thirty five percent on the previous year results are considerably better than analyst for cost. as i know among the top gain is only a loss yes and they gained around two. american mobile phone make up motorola is leaving russia will close its offices at the beginning of two thousand and eleven will no longer officially market or distribute its handsets in the country the company first came to russia in one nine hundred ninety three and gained a leading position since two thousand and three seen its market share steadily declined in no accounts which is one percent of mobile phones in the country motorola has set out a number of cost cutting measures this year including plans to close offices africa and eastern europe shopping we can always buy more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business.