all. in the czech republic in. central europe most of the stuff. which are. available in. children of each.

term. nato's role in the changing world of strategy. in relations with russia. this comes at a time when critics say the sixty one year old military alliance is facing an identity crisis can nato find itself lauren lyster and i'll have more from. the dangers lurking beneath the dome. investigate tenchi deadly poison could lead. to glimmer of hope. she could soon have the option of a fine. instead of

a stay in an overcrowded prison. twenty four hour news from russia and from around the world this is r.t. in moscow good to have you with us this at a summit defined as one of the most important it's ever held nato is meeting in portugal to decide what its future should be and whether it's even relevant engaging more closely with russia and deciding on a strategy to stabilize afghanistan and get out our key issues all this is part of an identity crisis for an organization created sixty years ago to oppose the now defunct soviet union. is in the portuguese capital and has been. we can expect the leaders to really try to defend what the reason is for nato to be in this day of age this is a time when analysts internationally are asking why it still exist what its purpose

is what its place is in the world at a time when we've seen its mission in afghanistan for example go on a mere ten years with countries reevaluating their resources and it's rising casualties i missed tough budget decisions where countries facing austerity may need to cut their military budgets so these are the questions that leaders here in lisbon will be trying to answer or at least that people will be looking at them for to try and figure out what the direction is for nato moving forward into the twenty first century we have more details on that take a look. it's the biggest and oldest military alliance in modern times but when you think about what it's places in the world today. the answer. the answer doesn't come easily and not just for one speechless american official decades after the cold war ended with no common enemy originally supposed to define

i defend western europe against the soviet union nato allies have been at a loss for a new one and at a loss for a clear purpose here is where the identity crisis for a while we can severely by the seemingly endless afghan war with nato members growing weary and countries such as canada and the netherlands pulling troops out the power of the block is in question no way actually in afghanistan in many of the places in the world we're seeing because of the lack of. ability to transform and the depth and perhaps the consequences of a growing group of now twenty eight nations driven together but still largely led by the interests of one of the united states is trying to use need to directly and indirectly or directly tries to use nita as his daughters in the to fulfill. american missions yet everyone feels the strain and with goals not laid out since before the attacks on nine eleven which drove the alliance into war there's not

much that's concrete to guide an organization seemingly in crisis which is just one reason why now when lisbon this meeting matters here at the nato summit the alliance will try to buy for modern relevance with the promise of new strategic goals but also here in lisbon are another group of international critics who believe that there is no place for nato and the twenty first century reiner brown is planning an anti nato protest you know i think there is no place for nato i think there is no place for me who lives any longer in the world because you conned solve any of the global problems with military. and nato is now looking to an old foe for help solving its problems with all drop which has now emerged as a basically a one of the global players it's impossible for them to do always such booming shows like the war on going war in afghanistan they're looking

to russia for help with supply routes in fighting the drug trade and now an organization that famously touted a mission of keeping the russians out and the americans in needs the russians in afghanistan to help americans get out i'm not sure what nato is in the twenty first century and i think good so i would dated and without a major rethinking of its goals policies and missions and alliance looking for a new place in the world may find itself. the answer. fumbling along without one although president medvedev is not here yet already nato russian relations are a key subject we've seen us president obama come out with an editorial in the end of the international herald tribune calling for nato to reset relations with russia in the way. the u.s. has a saying that this is the key here at this summit to show that nato views russia as a partner and not as an adversary di d. did a cold war era thinking and so here they'll be discussing

a number of issues one of course being afghanistan which nato is looking to russia for cooperation on already russia is helping in those efforts with supply routes in with helping to combat that the drug trade in afghanistan also on issues that they share nuclear nonproliferation or disarmament which are concerned both for nato members as well as for russia and of course the issue of missile defense which has been a sticking point between nato and russia for thiers now nato is taking a different approach trying to bring russia on board saying that this is an issue that they both face in terms of the threat of ballistic missiles and that they will see if they can tackle together now political analysts say that russia does have the political will but there are a number of questions that are unanswered that nato will be needing to answer in order for there to be progress forward but of course we will have to wait and see when that when those talks get underway lauren list of the more normal little later here in all to you in the meantime there are some experts who believe that nato is

doomed as long as the u.s. forces europe into accepting its promises. it's actually vital on the one hand that european major member states make a move for spending more efficient in order to just be more efficient pillitteri but also a political one to play with the other it's equally vital for the us understand that if they think that in future they could use that imbalance to just as it were drive europeans and through a sort of meek exceptions of their policies that would be over time the end of major i think this is something that president obama understands very clearly he wants the europeans to become stronger militarily politically more united more integrated because he realizes and i think mary americans do that american might in the twenty first century is not going to be what it was in the twentieth century pacific particulars the second half of the twentieth century and that america needs europeans as true partners including one day i think russia.

so it is fair the site of the chernobyl nuclear disaster still has the potential to cause an even greater catastrophe the aging concrete bunker covering the area is nearing the end of its life and no one can be sure just how deadly the day beneath still is next year as yet ski has this report. almost a quarter of a century since the chernobyl fallout a special confinement structure called the circle for gas is still preventing more radioactive emissions into atmosphere this structure the circus was built in nine hundred eighty six just months after the disaster that you know build nuclear power plant back then experts predicted that this would last for only twenty years until two thousand and six that is but it was strengthened and improved extending its lifetime for five more years the biggest question is how much nuclear fuel remains under the surface some experts believe that there is none as most of it did

vaporize into the atmosphere and was spread around the chernobyl exclusion zone but many experts believe that there are ninety five percent of nuclear fuel still remaining under the surface and that could be tons and tons of nuclear material. we believe that the nuclear fuel under the sequential gross is no longer a solid mass like it was twenty four years ago there now is more of three layers of dispersed dust so should the presence or cause for those crops we could see a very powerful explosion at the facilities as powerful as a nuclear one. in order to avoid another catastrophe europe invested in the building over new confinement in two thousand and seven french company was allowed to start the construction of an arch like steel structure to cover the facility three years later the project is underway with more than five hundred engineers building the new circle for gas next to the contaminated plant it won't be just the frame yeah it will be

a technological complex as multi-functional crane system will be installed inside the new structure it one final step that the new safe confinement should provide this environment for the works far in the projects initial cost was thought to be half a billion euro now sources international report that figure has almost doubled but in the fight for the continent's safety know some is too much the new confinement is expected to be completed by the year twenty thirteen and is expected to last for another hundred years the only question is what is the fate of the nuclear power plant in chernobyl some say that it may be dismantled under this new dome but that is only a speculation for now we only heard that this is a process which may take another seventy years and there are no technologies to this date which would allow this to happen. r.t.

reporting from the church noble exclusion zone in ukraine. still to come on the program this hour for you here in our new hope for russia's first time offender reforms through the prison system could see fines and community service replace jail sentences for mining crimes. and bringing democracy you want to start american slam the government of the billions of taxpayer money used to fund regime change abroad first in a series of reports ahead of you here. but first there's been little sign of improvement in russia's volatile north caucuses according to president dmitri medvedev he's meeting security forces and local leaders in southern russia to discuss how to bring stability. following the visit to what's for us. terrorism cannot be counted singlehandedly to successfully fight terrorism is the task of many this was the main message as the leaders of the north caucuses gathered for

a meeting with the russian president dmitry medvedev the talks were devoted to security in this russia's most volatile region they were mostly held behind closed doors the president opened the session with very harsh criticism of the work of russia's police and security services there indeed twenty ten was a very top number of terrorist attacks group four fold compared to two thousand time according to the country's national counter-terrorism committee some sixty terrorist attacks were prevented this year and over three hundred terrorists were destroyed but the russian president said today that to the grey people the districts in russia are not something he would fully trust that used to go a statistic so often misleading there's no trust in them i want to once again draw the attention of rural forces to this fact there is no trust in the statistics but often just a clue being interior ministry or. police this in the works now will make it

possible to make the statistics exact. well according to the statistics which the president doesn't want trust worth enough it's been relatively stable in this year but violence has been on the rise in the republics of english and traditionally peaceful cover deniable carrier there were over one hundred terrorist crimes carried out there six times more than in two thousand and nine the president today called this upsurge in violence as russia's biggest domestic problem a year ago when a similar meeting was called in he ordered a full rasha full of local law enforcement also as part of the measures aimed to improve the situation as separate antiterrorism group was formed which now works along with a national counterterrorism committee also the president formed get to. these republics saw russia's volatile region into a new federal district and many saw this massive the kremlin is now stepping away from military force approach and is now going to focus on social and economic

development of the region moscow says it wants a fair trial for russian businessmen vick to boot the president's aide says russia will continue to provide consular assistance but has made no judgment over whether or not he is guilty which is accused by the u.s. of arms trafficking and terrorism charges he denies after being extradited from thailand earlier this week he is now in solitary confinement in jail he could face life behind bars if found guilty he's trying to set for general next year. to try and do what you can check out all of our stories you see on the screen at all of our web site it's online all the time or to dot com to keep up to date and here's a couple of examples of what's on line for you right now down about lighting up a new survey reveals russia has more smokers per capita than anywhere else in the world find out about the. problem. customers classes for hitting the town hundreds of american men enroll in

a pick up boot camp to learn all the tricks for meeting women from or not store employees other features to talk to. russia's petty criminals and first time offenders may soon see jail time swapped for fines and community service as part of ongoing reforms to the country's criminal code designed to put an end to sentences and relieve overcrowded prisons. explores the alternatives in store for some of the inmates currently serving time. the fourteen hundred women serving time here have one thing in common at some point in their life they all made a bad choice. i went over to my friend's house to get some minor back that he owed me but he refused to pay up so he didn't have any says so his canary bird sitting there and i took it as collateral later the police came and said i stole it after breaking and entering the price for a stolen canary bird that's instead of that i was sentenced to three years in

prison and i'm currently serving out my first. this extreme aspect of russia's legislation has been questioned by many including the country's law makers a system of alternative punishment for a lesser crimes in the works with people found guilty of minor law violations facing fines and house arrest rather than jail time used to put it on me you can't put someone in prison because they still two chickens are legal system no deals with these things and effectively there are harsh punishments for small misdemeanors and in some cases punishments which are too late for me ger cranes we need to balance the system because despite recent statistics crime is on the rise. add that to overflowing prisons abysmal health conditions on the inside tougher integration into society after serving time and the true nature of this problem becomes even more evident even financially that reform makes sense according to official data over a million people are currently imprisoned in russia with twenty percent serving up

to three years for misdemeanors substituting their jail time with house arrest will free up the prisons lessen the burden of taxpayers and most importantly not give people who have stumbled a reason to fall. if a person goes to jail following some silly act or other certain circumstances because he comes out as a lifelong criminal but we have relevance to the backslide amounts to thirty to forty percent at the very least i mean almost half of them later become criminals. but there is much to do before these amendments get implemented into the legal system the electronic surveillance bracelets for example will rely on russia's glowing ass positioning system and it's not yet ready neither is the legal system with law enforcement not yet capable of the required facial surveillance the proposition to stop throwing those found guilty of minor crimes behind bars is something that the women in this penitentiary can definitely get behind but even if

the law is implemented the people serving time now may have to face the fact that they will have to serve and pay their debt to society in full without enjoying the benefits of an alternative punishment catarina r.t. moscow region. top that you and some other news this hour to new zealand and an explosion has ripped through a coal mine in the cell five twenty seven people are missing five others managed to return to the surface with minor injuries rescue workers are at the scene trying to make contact with the miners the country's emergency minister says that the cause of the blast is not yet clear. break has now reached the. entries largest prison where two thousand people i don't know about thirty in that to be infected killing ten people over the last four days almost twelve hundred people have been confirmed dead from the epidemic so far protesters clashed with u.n. troops as they blamed peacekeepers from the pull of bringing the epidemic into

haiti something denied by the u.n. . and usually the small bits of the chinese capital with the reduced visibility cause the widespread destruction pollution has come from a growing number of factories and villages built on the outskirts of beijing two major highways linking the city to the north are being closed both officials have asked people with spiritual problems to stay at home until the small is dispersed by a cold front expected. and while the u.s. is stretching its finances to fun too costly overseas wars huge amounts of cash are also going towards extending its global influence in more subtle ways it's left many americans wondering whether it's a justifiable use of their tax money in the first of a series of reports artes you haven't hafitz explains what's at stake. but. this is what u.s. backed regime change used to look like back in the days in a bid to ensure u.s. political and economic interests were safeguarded cia backed coup d'etat was announced the democratically elected leaders from home in most

a dock in iran to sell the door again day in chile. in their place all too often brutal dictatorships and governments that committed heinous crimes against their people. to replace the overt support for dictatorships a new concept for regime change was born one that sounds and looks better democracy promotion we do this through surrogates and we do this through non-governmental organizations and we do it through people who are. less suspecting of the evil that may lurk behind their actions and perhaps they were before. have we learned some lessons of our guard you bet do we do it better you bet is it still just as highness as it always was you bet the concept of democracy promotion is simple finance train and politically back local opposition forces around the world that support washington's agenda but in america in eastern europe with the velvet revolutions in africa. middle east all really all over all over the world and so

the us set up these different mechanisms now for penetrating the civil societies and the political systems are going to have countries that are going to be intervened and to assure that the outcomes would be pleasing to the washington's foreign policy objectives so while the goals remain the same it's no longer the cia but the u.s. agency for international development usa id and its partners spearheading this effort millions and millions of u.s. taxpayer dollars go every year into funding for political organizations who campaigns in different countries around the world that promote u.s. agenda and most us citizens are unaware of the fact that that's how their money is being spent to meddle. and influence and interfere in other nations affairs the concept of facilitating regime change to democracy promotion has garnered widespread criticism congressman ron paul once wrote it is particularly orwellian to call u.s. manipulation of foreign elections promoting democracy how would we americans feel

if for example the chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to china why is terrible we use our taxpayers' money to go over and use our military and our cia and these programs to say this is what you ought to do and influence and there's no authority for that it doesn't work it teaches a lot of people to despise us and tomorrow segment we'll introduce you to the political figures who became national and international stars of the help of u.s. democracy promotion funding and explain exactly how the system works you have compass our team it was going to end this thing. a weekly edition of moscow out on the way but first it's the business news with you that's coming your way in just a moment stay with us. for the feet we've got. the biggest issues get. face to face with the news maker.

hello and a very warm welcome to the business news trade between former soviet states has accelerated shopper this year at a meeting of c.i.s. prime ministers and st petersburg question of putin said the founder of percent increase evidence of improved corporation the customs union of russia belarus and kazakhstan forms the new core of regional trade and is not going to hold reports although some thorny issues remain progress is being made russia belarus kazakhstan are gearing towards full scale integration and speeding up the next phase of their

customs union the single economic space where the free trade area and a common external trade policy the meeting of the prime ministers of the three countries is taking place within the framework of the u. region economic community which also includes going to start to decrease down because stumbled over our media and ukraine some of these countries are also showing interest in joining the customs union now the key document is a final agreement on the single economic space of russia belarus and kazakhstan which is due to start functioning next year and to provide more mutually beneficial opportunities for its members in a free trade area now i'd like to remind you that the customs union of the trilateral union of russia belarus and council which came into effect this year has been designed to simplify. movement of capital between the member countries under a unified tariff and customs territory now the creation of the customs union has stirred up the long lost in negotiations on russia's accession to world trade

organization after russia said it would see the accession in a joint bid and. now according to russia's president would be a few questions remaining in the negotiations with the european union on the matter and they should be solved quickly at the same time the first year of the customs union has revealed some serious discrepancies currently existing export duties on russian oil for almost brought the countries to an oil war well it's annually wise about twenty million tons of russian oil at domestic prices for two years is only a fraction of it at home most of it is being refined. to europe at much higher prices feeding the belorussian budget now today's meeting may finally put an end to the conflict as the russian prime minister vladimir putin has promised to lift all the duties for valorous on russian soil once all the documents on the single economic space are signed. over approaching the customs union doesn't come without

course finance minister alex it could really believes that russian oil companies may have to pay an extra fifteen billion dollars and to tex home and i say sure whether national companies will be compensated for their costs by either subsidies or it increase in extraction taxes. there's no point in privatizing russian watches for the time being that's according to the head of the state corporation which controls several hundred center prices in russia is a show but in libya because the. privatized russian trick is for the trying being i would even say could be harmful privatization would hinder the development of the enterprises and true we first have to transform into. joint companies create holdings and distribute companies between them and also help them develop financially. a look at the markets now the russian equity markets close flat to

positive on friday they are just broke the sixteen hundred point benchmark finishing just a tenth of a cent of my success and up and down session and just. looking back at the last week the russian markets were pulled in both directions with virtually equal force upbeat economic data from the us encouraged the bulls while inflation war isn't china feel the bear markets and that of the weak. but largely unchanged. the past week has seen. the continuation of the tug of war between the bulls in the bear is you know there are people who are seeing a lot of economic coming out of the u.s. coming out of asia a lot of quality. people general motors which was very well received a lot of good news in the market and good developments but the biggest fear and now is inflation is special in china where the central bank had to act to stop the

rapid increases in prices there is also told that both china and hong kong can take measures to arrest the rep of the growth in real estate prices to prevent the bubble parasol between these two kind of big positive over improving global economics and certain positive corporate developments the fear of rising inflation in china and therefore maybe elsewhere in the world these two opposing factors have resulted in the share prices and in the we slightly down a bit essentially flat. so business update for now get more store a small website r.t. dot com slash business. thank. you.