clear cut straight while unlike in washington the russian parliament both chambers of the russian involvement must say yes to these treaty and while the rest of the world is now guessing whether russia will say yes or no to these document russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov was more than optimistic over there we hope the new treaty will have the support of the state duma we think all necessary prerequisites for that have been met implementing this treaty will contribute to the security of our country and huge national stability that will contribute to nuclear nonproliferation and help our relations with the united states and the rest of the world before the now we have the first results coming from the state duma the lower chambre of the lower house of the russian parliament which said yes to these treaty to the court document in its first meeting in the first voting which took place today three hundred feet to vote three hundred fifty deputies said yes steve against fifty eight the plan to cut the arsenals up post the treaty itself well it

seems like a good start for new start in russia there will be two more sessions at the state duma and also the federation council but we expect they will take place katra the new year holiday see us senate approved their education resolution a very controversial document in russia's view which they believe contradicts the preamble of the agreement and these two resolutions says particular that a new new trade a new start should not contain the u.s. anti missile programs development and of course russia will be studying the docket the document carefully with regard to the u.s. missile defense plans especially close to russia's borders at the moment the u.s. plans to deploy and to me sell systems in eastern europe should have been the biggest he returned save the relations between moscow and washington and this is why it took that long to hit the reset button because it looks a little closer to final john. after resolution adopted by the u.s.

centers states that a fully fledged global missile defense system is necessary in this regard i'd like to remind you that the treaty on ambiguously states there is a link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons treaty also says that any party can pull out if an emergency situation occurs and russia definitely believes that the creation of a fully fledged global missile defense system of the u.s. would be such an emergency situation that the republicans main concerns regarding these treaty word that america's defensive capabilities could be a factor and president obama did everything to ensure this will not be the case he committed to a twenty five billion dollars ten year plan to make sure that there are many weapons at work and these of course played a key role that the document was finally ready for their termes in a political analyst for me instead if you to take assessments so the republicans did their utmost to throw a wrench in the works. well i think it's open secret in the

lawmakers if you give a date but so many reservations that. were added to the drag stuff they were evolution at dillard's moment under the pressure of the republicans and i mean the major reason for that is the republicans would like to kill everything linked with obama or his image but also for them these. defense is that it's kind of. holy you know and they've been so many efforts to introduce amendments which would make a vocally state of the united states government would proceed with the deployment of these more global a.b.m. system and even the. earth has made some concessions to the russian side there are some secret project goals where obama agreed not to deploy a b. and b.

on certain limits president medvedev says barack obama has earned his christmas break after his efforts in getting the start treaty ratified by the senate to look at the well done barack obama he managed to push the star deal through the senate and he did it in very difficult circumstances this treaty will become the coolest dude of security in the world in the coming years it's easy to work with he keeps his promises he's done a great job and he's now on holiday so i wish him a happy christmas and a good rest. of his comments came during his annual meeting with the heads of russia's main t.v. channels summing up the results of your two thousand and ten are here reading the luzhkov was listening it. this is the third time that makes you regret it has conducted such an interview session with the representatives of russia's three main channels and we could break it down into essentially two parts we could say that he touched upon the subject the subject matters that concerning the foreign policy and

he also focused of course largely on the internal policy but to start off with things that concern the foreign policy he basically talked about some of the main events of the year and one of those unfortunately was a quite sad event that of course was the tragic death of the polish president in the plane crash. now we have to remember that continued it was also a place where. thousands of polish nationals were killed by the soviet secret police in the one nine hundred forty s. so for for the polls as well as for russians players there is a very tragic he had significance and to have to have the plane of the polish president to come down in that very location is something that is bitterly or wrong make something that the russian president spoke about as well. who of course every time we receive such news we're shocked by the tragedy but this time it was not

just people who died it was the polish political elite and in addition it happened . something mystic about this place it was impossible to believe we've had a difficult journey together with poland our relationship used to be very bad now i think it's become better and easier of course the investigation should be finalized without politicizing the reproaches and we should listen to points of view. other foreign issues which shouldn't be dead of spoke about have dealt with japan for example he was asked a question whether or not he was worried about their relations or with the country following his visit to the coral islands which japan considers to be their territory and the russian president said that he's not worried about that he's certainly relations with moscow in tokyo will remain to be. top notch because japan and japanese culture exceedingly popular in russia now that of course is all about foreign policy if we do we have to remember that majority of the questions which were posed to the russian president during this interview session have dealt of course with the internal issues and one of those is the case of course in fact the

verdicts in his case will be right in just a couple of days and of course this is a very pressing issue for the russians and of course for the president and he being a lawyer did speak about the case but from the point of view all the president and a lawyer as well. no government official and this includes the president has the right to state their position on this or any other case until the verdict be it an acquittal or a guilty verdict has been voiced this is perfectly obvious my general position as a lawyer is that the legal practice works with what is possible and of course it is said. that the public or anybody else for that matter should not. scapegoat he says that he if if there is any proof if there's any evidence that any other russian businessmen of any caliber has committed a similar crime that the vet if it is ready to see the evidence on his table and to

take according measures and of course freedom of speech and democracy were also two major issues which reiterative touched upon in his interview session he also encouraged the ruling united russia party to be more active instead of just frosting on the laurels and he also spoke out to the leaders of the opposition parties encouraging them to be more active. the role renowned politicians outside the state duma some might call them outstanding some might not but they are well known public figures like mr numsa of mr because ya know. they're all public figures people might like them or not but they have their own electorate now part of public politics. and of course when it came to the freedom of speech he did have changed the format a little bit he actually posed the question to the three heads of the russian major t.v. channels asking them if they believed this freedom of speech existed in the country because in his opinion television has not been quite active in covering the events

which were interesting to the people of course the heads of the russian television channels have you know honestly applied they do believe freedom of speech exists but of course there is always a selection of what could be shown on television but they for their part of trying their best in order to show everything that is happening in full extent and that of course the almost two hour long interview session conducted by the russian president earlier today in the next hour i'll bring you some of the key points raised during president medvedev is meeting with russia's main t.v. bosses and of course for the full version you can always click over to our website it's there online for you now and wire there here's what else is online at our teeth dot com kings of the road and a drive for a living the real life find out what else russian harley davidson bikers and discover they have in common. and the silent struggle through the deaf community speaks with our team in their own life words to explain their difficulties in

getting hurt. in the boom years the u.s. long championed the cause of capitalism but globalization and outsourcing means it's experiencing some of the downsides as well one american town has an unlikely solution to reports from the town that's trying to make money by importing students from china. millinocket maine once a booming mill town now almost a ghost town the paper mill once a symbol of pride and prosperity in the region now a reminder of a time that has come and gone and international trade is what basically took the paper industry of the united states down it's not just here in the in the town of

millinocket it's worldwide the chinese they're more clever than we are. you know and we when we do a deal with them we usually we get the sour end of it. today millinocket is a small town of five thousand the closest mall or movie theater is an hour's drive away many of the once bustling businesses in town now stand empty and abandoned again very depressing for a lot of people you know they've had their hopes and hopes that they would something would come along that would change everything but it hasn't. dr cannot smith is the superintendent of millinocket public schools after watching his town fall apart around him he decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. myths idea is to boost the school's population by charging chinese students twenty seven thousand dollars to attend his high school for one year and they have some skills that we don't have that we'd love to instill in some of us to this desire to

learn and. get a good education it's a bold idea in a town where most few china as the reason they're mill went bankrupt but smith argues that the competition the might have hurt the town's past can also help to reshape its future but we can't possibly compete with the labor market and you know one point four billion people i think the competition is good for us and we have to learn a lot of jobs with economy work right now there are two hundred students that attend this heist. even though it was built for eight hundred sixty percent of the students here qualify for a state run free lunch because their parents' income is at the poverty level school administrators say that bringing in students from china will not only save the school it will save the town and bring it back to the days when the mill was booming. but not everyone in this almost exclusively white town is

excited about the idea that their school might eventually have just as many chinese kids as kids from maine some people will have an issue with they're going to be like oh my gosh they're not from here make them go away most students in this high school have never traveled abroad what they know about china they say they've seen on t.v. i think the chinese are going to be total shock i think of a. way more advanced than i think ten times more money in like in a better society and then you look at us in real life poor and nothing and those struggling to survive in town are angry that the country they believe took their jobs from them is now the one they're looking to for help preassure either party millinocket mean in about twenty minutes joining us as we travel across the u.s. soil that was once very much part of russia. it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of.

tradition the language. the best beat beat. and culture. the thing is. the have the dozens are still unaware of what's going on in there are still asking. the. israeli government is rooting nomadic arab tribes from the desert they've lived in for more than a century the jewish state says the bedouins built their homes without permission but there is deep suspicion that the crackdown on arab villages is to replace them with jewish settlements more from artie's policy clear in the negev desert. in the middle of nowhere the remains of our kids village. for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with a few verses and in little more than an hour demolished sixty houses. from

a flood no this is my land i have a paper i have a document this is my land i ask this government how do i live and how can i afford to buy the same land elsewhere in israel and i can't what they want me to sell my land i won't agree. and as long as he and hundreds of others won't the police will continue to raid seven times they've come so far backed up by a government whose official policy states this is their land but i think the unofficial policy underneath it is that the land should go to the jews not. the big ones on a medic arabs who've lived in the negev desert for more than one hundred years they claim they used to pay taxes during the autumn and period in british mandate but after israel took over in one thousand nine hundred eight they've been hard placed to prove their ownership of the land they don't have any legal documents proving

that this land is there's have agreements of buying and selling between themselves but according to the law of the state of israel ownership of land can only be proven by registering the land in a public office israel says it's built alternative cities fill them with all the facilities they could hope for but they keep coming back to the desert. they're not abiding by the law they live inside graveyards with horses donkeys sheep the animals mess all over the graves and make it difficult for us to move them but we have to because they need permission to build on the land and they don't have it. i think that. the government they would like to push them into the townships where they could become simple workers they would like to give the land to. jewish settlement. it's who. who changed the demographic status of the negative just look around here at this vast uninhabited is it is home

to only seven percent of israel's population several years ago the government launched an ambitious program to the value of six hundred million dollars to try and attract new jewish immigrants and israelis to live here it aims in the next three years to have more than a quarter of a million of them living in the desert but is because the desert is it seemingly not big enough for jew and avid jew mel torme has lost his way house and seven houses but he hasn't lost his resolve. we are men of peace we don't use the guns the man who came to destroy our houses and the bad faces of this land we did not fight back when they came but the fights will continue because tomorrow when the sun comes up jima will build again and in a few weeks the israelis will return. to our t. in the negev desert israel. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe clashes in the

taliban security troops near the afghan border in northwest pakistan have left at least eleven soldiers and twenty four militants dead simultaneous attacks were launched against five checkpoints in the tribal region involving around one hundred fifty taliban fighters the military has launched offensives over the last few months but ensure insurgents have continued to attack the area is and is a known taliban and al qaeda stronghold and a transit point for insurgents crossing between pakistan and afghanistan. un is officially recognizing ivory coast opposition leader as the country's new president is comes as west africa's central bank cut off access to funds for the incumbent laurent gbagbo he's refusing to stand down saying the election here last last month was rigged it's thought he'll be forced to quit if he can't pay civil servants and military staff. one hundred seventy three have died in the arrest which followed the ballot is designed to unite the nation but which threatens to drag the country back into civil war. brazil's popular president has

bowed out after reaching the end of his maximum term but isn't ruling out a comeback at some stage leaving as he does with the record popularity ratings which he puts down reducing poverty and sustained economic growth in the meantime you hands it over and he hands over it is chosen successor doma reset rado one a runoff vote in october she becomes brazil's first female leader. by only in this new bloc it's the season of goodwill but there's a chill in the air and some of the baltic states and it's all because of the origins of the christmas bruce latvia proudly proclaims to be the first to have it but its neighbors say they're barking up the wrong tree as artie's ox on a boyko explains it's a white christmas in a stony and lot near the fluffy snow fairy alliance and mulled wine all the ingredients of the proper christmas spirit and instead of gifts there is the pall

of historic arguments on the tree the two neighbors are in a bit of dispute over who was first to come up with the festive for its next line up the tree here in riga sasha helps her daughter to decorate her fourth christmas tree there in no doubt who spruce shines the brightest and for the longest time. of course is very pleasing to think that the first time a christmas tree appeared here in latvia and we have historic proof to back this claim everybody here knows that it was dressed with flowers and berries here in riga in fifteen ten. but head north and that theory has been cut down to size before somebody can demonstrate me. that. before i can believe but no i say. first christmas to. the best of freek'n has reached such

a pitch that even santa claus is weighing in. if you ask the fish people will tell you they were the ones to invent the christmas tree so would the norwegians and the germans i think what's important is not who decorated it first centuries ago but that we all do it nowadays seasonal spirit assigned this symbol of contention for the two feisty neighbors shows just how much they have in common christmas comes once a year but is still in use in love trance have many ongoing saga they also disagree about who is women are more beautiful because beer tastes better how many bears this nation is allowed to have the nearby woods some women say that without this legal disagreements life would have been too boring so in a way this latest christmas tree controversy is just another way of making christmas i think mary or somebody's got artsy tallinn estonia. stay with us

here on our team up next with a business update. this immoral region is economically and socially one of russia's better developed provinces the region has a significant scientific and industrial capacity doesn't realise its full potential after the construction of the. park can tell ya he has completed the i.g. parco has r. and d. projects in the spheres of automotive construction aerospace and oil chemistry high tech data center furbish with cutting edge servers and communication equipment will be constructed at the core of the park the project has been personally approved by prime minister vladimir putin the federal government is planning to allocate sizable funding for the parks construction investors will be given benefits such as property tax exemption low land rental prices and other preferences but it is this some more regional government is open to mutually beneficial cooperation we invite investors to participate in existing projects and we are ready to give

a hand of fulfilling your projects and growing your business in this small region. hello welcome to the business program. russia central bank has decided to leave the refinancing rate of seven point seven five percent per year the bank chose to only raise deposit rates by a quarter of a percentage point the news comes despite the fact that inflation has already risen to eight point four percent but the bank of russia said inflation would not exceed last year's total. and base in russia have been gradually increasing their combined credit portfolio in two thousand and ten and the first nine months the credit volume grew by almost ten percent speaking at a state duma plenary session on friday central bank of russian chairman sergei if not if revealed the latest statistics. in movember bank

credit nonfinancial organizations grew by one point five percent and according to statistics this group has continued in the first twenty days of december. and in europe markets were mixed which cut portugal's credit rating raising fears that members will have to bail out the country monorails more than five percent of the company says turmoil in the ivory coast will hurt fourth quarter production. and russia to my sex is down on the day but still and with fourteen straight week of gains trading volumes are light as investors travel away for the holidays. and gas farm has lost over half a percent after velour said it expects to reduce the price it pays for russian gas in talks this afternoon sparing preferred shares have also tumbled as investors cast strong gains from the past few days bucking the trend is no arsenical over point three percent after tycoon all of their possible called an extraordinary

general meeting to resolve the minor shareholder dispute. and today's one of the busiest shopping days of the year as people hunt last minute holiday gifts for family and friends reports suggest sales are well up on last year medina coach of us has visited here one of the biggest malls in europe. such a snowy day as we're having here now reveal lance the holiday spirit. of the snow has to have a here in the center of moscow so is the amount of russian shopper is rushing into the stores to buy last minute presents for their family and friends for the country's biggest holiday but this time the russians plan to celebrate this of the upcoming holiday on the biggest scale as a forty four percent of the population already claimed that they will spend moment for the coming new year on christmas rather than the one we had before while we still felt the consequences of the global financial downturn but still in terms of

the price tag of course it ranges from some tondo list to one thousand dollars and as i manage to visit one of the biggest shopping malls in europe i was told that the boss dollar for this season alec twenty gods it's like telephones all laptops. and that's all the business for now but join us in about fifteen minutes time for more business news in the meantime you can always check out our web site at r.t. dot com slash business stay with us.

it came here doctors one policeman swan's minister's wife. if you didn't pardon me if i lived. the night that i would get my kids out of here because i knew that what was going to happen was that he was going to kill me many victims don't understand that domestic violence includes verbal abuse psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million women are affected by abuse every year those are my only two options that i saw that mostly. killed him me in jail or he's going to kill it in the.

five thirty pm in moscow good to have you with us here on our t.v.'s in your headlines russia's approval of the nuclear cuts treaty with the u.s. waits while lawmakers spend the holidays mulling over conflicting points in the american segment as a lucia. bet it sends holiday greetings across the atlantic and encourages russia's opposition parties to show some competition as he wraps up here being quizzed by leading t.v. channels. and a lot in lithuania give each other a christmas roasting for those squabble over who was the first to invent the

festive decorated tree up next we're off to one corner of the united states where it's russian roots are still very much alive stay with us here on r.t. . once it was a part of russian territory there are still reminders to this day children wearing russian national costumes people having russian names and many orthodox churches are standing here but more than one hundred forty years ago it became the u.s. territory though some americans still don't know about. the still asking have no idea about. like nothing i don't know anything about that alaska it's cold. it was cold a box of ice a polar bear garden and one russia but in the language of the indigenous peoples the word alaska means the great land.