we. will. bring you the latest in science technology from. the future. you know release from. the already jailed former oil tycoon has been found guilty of

a billions and cash and oil. russia's once which is the man will face more time behind bars and catherine as our side the courthouse with a decent house in just a few moments. those spoils of war on display israel are let on compete for tourist attention with theme parks aimed at selling their side of the story what. makes up the crackdown on racially motivated crimes. there are. some promises. of all three slides in the opening minutes as china moves. over heating the business.

six pm in the russian capital i'm at treasure good to be with you here on r t our top story former tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky has been found guilty of stealing billions of dollars worth of oil by a moscow court hearing is now over but the reading of the verdict is still not complete and it could take several more days or his cattery knows all of the joins us live with the latest from outside the court hello catarina so the full document is still being weighed read what details of the verdict do we know so far the. well so far we know that because the difficulty and his former colleague. of russians once biggest oil giant company you cos have been found guilty of stealing up to twenty over twenty billion dollars worth of oil and embezzling the funds that of course is that the latest verdict in the second trial is revealed that gold ski him and his colleague apparently already serving time for a first conviction delivered in two thousand and five this of course is something that the prosecution seems very happy with they originally asked for fourteen years

for me and his former colleague the defense attorneys are of course saying that the trial has been politicized the evidence not substantiated and in fact the case itself has is somewhat ironic because according to their argument the credit for that is accused of stealing their very own oil that he was found guilty of not paying taxes for in his first conviction so these are the arguments that they're using and they say they will continue using in their appeal they've already confirmed to the journalists that they will appeal this guilty verdict and if it doesn't happen within russia itself they are prepared to take matters outside the country and go to the european court for their appeal now prosecutors of course maintain that everything was done by the book that every piece of evidence was submitted in accordance with procedure and that they are of course not prepared to comment on the verdict any further until it has been. read out in full that of

course can take days because there are fourteen files in the verdict itself each file comprises over the nearly three hundred pages and today the judge managed to read around a hundred so. if the math is pretty simple it will take days before the verdict is read in full and the most interesting part right now of course the exact amount of jail time that me. and the neighbors if will serve will be delivered right at the very end and that of course has a potential to stretch over into january so might not be until january when we actually find out exactly how much time that the two men will serve prosecutors of course asked for fourteen years but those fourteen years will be started as well start counting from two thousand and three when the first trial of. originally began so if the judge does give them those fourteen years that the prosecution asked for they will be released and twenty seventeen this of course is the latest

step the latest twist in the very controversial saga. and the oil giant you cuz my colleague kovel looked at all closer at the man his life and his work. once russia's richest men he's now russia's most prominent prisoner coming to the end of it sentence for the biggest tax fraud in the country's history he and his partner. which charged to stealing two hundred and eighteen million tons of oil worth twenty seven billion u.s. dollars from a subsidiary company. the verdict has been announced. supporters say he didn't break any laws. or was to blame because he had a whole team very experienced lawyers who told who used to tell him. everything he did was within the law it was a blue wall of the law. loop. holes in them the former tycoon rose to great wealth

thanks to one of the world's largest non-state oil companies you can see the company grew from the state selloff in the one nine hundred ninety s. when government assets would be hived off in often cittie circumstances it soon became russia's fastest growing oil producer but the fourth to success had a downside to a fanatical ski's associates were later found guilty of a number of night is. getting near the fees place this increases the cost he is accused of stealing tax evasion and fruit with the new charges he faces it's about stealing hundreds of billions his company security chief is in prison for murder. but there has always insisted he is innocent of the fraud charges which put him behind bars ever since his arrest in two thousand and three ignoring his past many in the west believe that he was singled out for prosecution among the billionaire businessmen because of his political ambitions the russian authorities say ucas is

purely a victim to the economic crimes of its management i think there's a strong operative on the part of many in the media and in the russian liberal media and definitely in the west to to politicize it as much as possible there is no question that. our cause and the rest of the crowd who participated initiated i was very active in the criminal privatisation of the ninety's are guilty of the crimes they were accused of so in that sense i think very few people would fatha carter koskie is persecuted for for nothing yes there is a very strong case i thing against him keeping in is divided i think that most of russia probably it's well or recollected if you're all those people i call them and that's why i don't think that i want russia brought probably. unlike liberals for

whom. he can find compression prosecutors had the who's forty seven at least six years on his current sentence. is expected to last several days and the sentencing has yet to come down. asking for moscow's main airport has resumed full operation following a blackout that poser cancellation of more than one hundred flights this weekend but thousands of travelers are mean stranded because of the disruption r.t. sorry for it has more from our team from domodedovo airport. but it's the second day of travel starts the people traveling to. you can see the huge number of people that are still around trying to get their flights incredibly chaotic situation still is of course off of the travel that we saw yesterday when the entire port had the power. stations the power the power cables.

running to take down the checkin. the hundreds and hundreds more passengers left stranded flight was supposed to be yesterday. flying. by the. yes we have been me and my mother. stages a local hotel it was really nice and comfortable and we're back here today to see if we can get on a flight you know the airport with power there around nine pm yesterday and then they managed to stop processing some of the flights domestic and international flights started running at about midnight bit of a silly it has caused a huge amount of trouble and we know a lot of the flights were diverted to share a. feeling the strain we share much of the space person say they've really been trying to do with these bad weather conditions too and they've had some problems that the the icing. will they go to the management of the data

that. they have off the problems yesterday get the flights to get people where they want to go a bit we've had that it will take a couple of days before the flights busy and completely back to normal you can see the traffic coming into the day to pull it's thirty experiencing some slight delays that says really nothing like we saw yesterday then this is a completely understand so you had people getting out they call it a little king with the luggage just trying to make it to the n.f.l. but of cools the weather conditions still having in effect all the rain that we've seen come down over the policy they have worries enough and essentially turned everywhere into like an ice rink it's been pretty treacherous to get around another of the fact that we've seen the trees freezing up and snapping we've already had a number of incidents where people have been injured with pulling trees and pretty dangerous when the by the right you can see how some of these we see in the way because today around the airport she trying to clear away this debris to avoid any

further delays of course the airport as we said now working really very hard to clear the spot i get the poor running to full capacity. coming up to the season to be jolly but not for all as the pockets of some americans during the all the way millions who didn't get a job or there's little or nothing to celebrate. but first the russian president surprised his kremlin colleagues during a meeting on monday to be treated better have began a session of the state council and modernization commission by addressing the recent racial violence in moscow artie's catarina graduate has the details. he talked to local governors and urged them to work more closely with the at the groups to prevent mass rides similar to the ones which happened in moscow and sent his brick on december eleventh over a bottle thousand people clashed with police in these two cities in moscow it was just outside the kremlin they were chanting russia the russians and beat ethnic

minority groups represented just mostly from the north caucasus those mass rides followed the killing of an afghani crush in this part of the book on representative and three of the four suspects who were released shortly after that of course it urged drew to fire football fans the most but also drew they are above the president and the prime minister the squeak released after such a short detention and they carried out the road investigation whether those policemen were somehow under pressure to do that of course that all raise concerns about a rising tide of xenophobia in the country and also the government's bungled reaction to that today the president urged police to act more fiercely to act more harshly to disperse rioters next time but i welcome any of them attempts at inciting racial he should you know provoking violence should be stamped out prejudiced or you will

forget about loyalties criminals don't have a nationality yet they must be isolated and punished regardless of their ethnic and social background that's on the net always new prime minister putin who was also present at this meeting admitted that as nick balance that was formed in russia through saying truth is now changing and these changes are rather painful and so as a result of that even as the conflict similar to the ones that happened. is that it is a work over. months are quite a frequent event now and to the question if you're a manager last themselves during what is its. to be rather peaceful about it such as much and prime minister putin who was also meeting with the representatives of different football clubs in moscow last week urged young football fans not to try to settle scores up to the games by breaking the law and he also urged them to stay away from the radicals and extremists who had actually nothing to do with the game

but those not yet. we need to make a distinction between football fans and radicals before trying to use fans as cannon fodder by putting them out on the street we must also keep fighting corruption at all levels of government but if people are outraged when officials react one way sometimes protecting even covering up the actions of people who should actually be punished in every crime especially racially motivated crime you should see a logical conclusion if you can shoot but just to go not because of us no surprise that the country's leaders beat their alarm the country just recently won the bid to host the twenty eight hundred football world cup and of course it's not acceptable for a country which is preparing to host such a prestigious event that's similar attacks and similar conflicts clashes between football fans and police take place deeply entrenched on opposite sides of a fragile peace barricade in israel are fighting a propaganda battle having won the hearts and minds of their own people have now

set their sights on tourists they report some of the attractions are more than authentic. it might not be quite the real thing but it sure brings one up close and personal dozens of tourists flocking to hizbollah strongholds deep inside lebanon at the low we decided to create and develop jihad tourism in order to thwart attempts to distort and falsify history. dubbed pallywood his bundle and all hamas would these theme parks offer through all of their own their appeal the danger here is all too real and how will we try to tell our visitors about real events that took place in this region many stories are about those who gave their lives for their brothers. and in the space of sixty thousand square meters all the trophies collected by hizbollah fighters are displayed captured his radio weapons and tanks alongside katyusha rockets and grad missile launchers. it's given us

a chance to see firsthand how wars are fought. but what is jihad to tourism for one tourist is nothing short of terror tourism for another here and now under other side the bunch of criminals they don't they don't they did tell the world they want their one of them over this group of tourists visiting the jewish state through a specially designed package titled the ultimate mission to israel in the course of one week we brought them to meet with. better officials most than intelligence brought them to the defense ministry to the border and gas that soviet eleven hours they live in is their forward positions and the highlights include of his attorneys really unit that carries are targeted killings a tour of the lebanese frontline and listening in on army trials of hamas suspects i'm looking forward to seeing the color and getting a better picture of the fighting we actually see here one of the generals

books as long as it's based on facts not propaganda not based on deception and force on a jason and it's false. presentation is more than ok and so the battle to win the hearts and minds and pockets of visitors is on the mop up operation after the real battle in the arena of pop culture and entertainment taking people to those places is a very powerful even for those people to shape the mind and to convince them was that we could advance the buck when the traveling hit home with photographs and maybe that fall from the usual snap shots these ideological hunted day make have a different experience to share point three. just ahead this hour new year's spirit thousands of kilometers above the ground. the frost talks to the crew of the international space station from mission control in moscow to bring you

all the details in just a few minutes. now to more stories making news this hour two suicide bombers have killed at least fourteen people in central iraq the attacks where the second this month targeting a government compound in ramadi one bomber blew up a car and minutes later another detonated an explosive vest as people gathered near the scene at least four of those killed were police officers forty seven other people were wounded. nine people in court in britain charged with conspiracy and terrorism offenses it's alleged they were planning a large scale attack aimed at landmarks banks and government buildings around central london the men were among twelve suspects taken into custody last week during dawn police raids in the u.k. but three detainees were later freed without charge. as millions of people around the world enjoy the holidays many americans are struggling to find reasons to celebrate i don't point out an expiration date on welfare has upped the ante as the

money begins to run out but as artie's lauren lyster oh poor it's while some are broke others are still raking it in. in the u.s. to use the season for holiday cheer charity and this year for some of millions of jobless americans despair now why did i work all of those christmases why did i give up that time with my family if now i have nothing and all of the work that i've done in my life for no reason for theresa this used to be her busy season at work but she was laid off from her job in the gas and heating business more than two years ago and has been unable to find any steady work since i look for work every single day i feel like applications u.s. lawmakers reached a deal this month to extend unemployment benefits for millions of unemployed americans we're all going to have the best holidays we can but lost in that story are millions of jobless americans like teresa who don't even qualify for this help

any more benefits expire at ninety nine weeks but a job doesn't magically appear by their own accounts and activists buying on their behalf these americans no longer count in this economy left out in the cold and out of the statistical surveys when for many for example their phones are cut off they are not counted and no one can say that they are but they're struggling arguably the most to get by merry christmas you're fired their people like sixty one year old gabrielle a laid off veterinary nurse like a record one in seven americans to eat she now relies on a government program that helps pay for food known as food stamps meanwhile no work is on the horizon it's very hard i mean. the truth of matters are really nothing out there despite the tough financial situation so many are facing these will be happy holidays first of all st thanks for what the lavish christmas decor is just the tip of the iceberg big things like this one are expected to post their second

highest near profitability ever recorded second only to last year and still. the average banker bonus may come out higher that means the average year end bonus would exceed last year's of more than one hundred twenty four thousand dollars a person but if banks earn this money what's so wrong with that many of the banks that are doing well are only doing well because the public bailed them out so we're seeing is a transfer of wealth from in a way the needy to the greedy is unemployment soars last quarter american companies posted their largest corporate profits ever recorded in u.s. history and while the rich may be taking those earnings to the glitz that new york's fifth avenue for holiday shopping in the shadows or those struggling to see a little light at the end of the tunnel lauren mr r.t. new york thank you very much to find more on this and all the stories we cover on our web site r t v dot com here's a taste of what's on widely right now on this day seventy eight years ago the

modern passport system was introduced in the soviet union go online to see why it was abolished for a time period and wasn't allowed to get. close virtual tours photos and videos get a personal look inside that is stored in the inskeep theatre of the opera and ballet in st petersburg. finally in this news block with only four days until the new year our team has been checking the festive spirit around the globe and beyond the crew of six currently living on the international space station are planning a new year's party complete with tree and presents artie's tom barton was lucky enough to talk to the cars went out ahead of the big day. down here on earth we'll be celebrating new year all around the planet in our customer fashion with

celebrations and parties but there will be six people who won't be able to they'll be one hundred kilometers of doctors on the international space station and they'll have a bit of a different takes to cut off from the rest of the planet as a worthwhile have limited. each of the crew will be up there for six months they've been doing experiments and living quite quite a different life to most of us down here here at mission control in moscow we were able to day to get a chance to talk to them on the on the live link up to the international space station hello my name's tom barton from russia today television merry christmas and happy new year they're fixing. six billion of us down here what is your message to the word. of the day should long or the happy new year we wish everyone good health love happiness success in all the new beginnings and plenty of room warning achievements in the upcoming year. also here was father

frost the russian father christmas he turned up and on a live link gave greetings from the russian people and from planet earth to the crew of the international space station and had a quick chat with them he also was with some children here today the children of the astronauts and cosmonauts and they were also so able to speak to their parents . through the lows daddy i love you still. the best dad in the world out of that meanly you know. physically it seems that the spirit and the festive spirit of new year and the festive season will be able to penetrate even outside the atmosphere. right around the corner well later this hour we'll talk to a renowned british politician who gives his reasons for supporting the redan recent student protests but first daniel bushell joins us with a look at the business news.

welcome to business the price of oil has hit a fresh two year high on monday a combination of an opec production freeze and blizzards in the u.s. pushed brant over ninety four dollars a barrel this morning before edging back in the past few hours it is also shedding but remains just over ninety one dollars. on the stock markets frankfurt is edging lower driven by carmakers volkswagen and b.m.w. are the top three losers on the backs of the beijing limited number of new passenger cars in the capital the footsie is closed monday for holiday. indices here in moscow are also slipping further in the final few minutes of trade after the central bank the interest rate charged the ruble accounts trading is light as investors leave early for new year holidays after losing up to three percent as it says production will still thirty first december tenth of january nicol is also down on news is ready to raise the price is also low after talks on expanding in

liberia. i list predict a further strengthening of russia's currency as all prices remain high market watchers also remain confident in global stock exchanges then the culture of reports. the russian ruble strengthened two point eight percent against the us dollar and nine point four percent against the euro between january and the vendor twenty ten december has dragged yet more games rising oil prices and returning confidence in russia after the crisis are fueling the rally of the forecast for the ruble remains flat even though it's hard to make predictions i believe the ruble will strengthen in twenty eleven and remain stable in the central bank of russia says it may relax controls on the ruble further next year i said aims to make the currency free floating. this is key in realize the the government's ambition to promote it as an international reserve currency the importance of the ruble has

also recently been giving a boost by the start of trading against the chinese yuan on the my sex given all those factors you know slightly sub chief economist from deutsche bank thinks the ruble has chances to strengthen in twenty eleven not forcing a complete. free float for the ball in the next several years i think given the dependency on oil prices given the volatility that we see in the markets the central bank is likely to be cautious although i have to say that the flexibility of the will of the volatility honorables movements will certainly increase in the coming years but when it gets down to it the ruble is still have really depended on commodity prices afterwards to diversify the economy and slow in bearing fruit that so many analysts expect commodity price inflation in twenty eleven particularly as u.s. authorities print more dollars and that bodes well for the ruble my dinner which no

business r.t. . wall street has opened around half a percent lower in new york join us for the company's moving the markets in fifteen minutes.

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