russia slams the u.s. and e.u. for attempting to influence the trial of. former oil tycoon is awaiting said this after being found guilty of and bezel of millions of dollars. for more on one of the most controversial trials in russia join me what it was going all right from outside the courthouse in moscow in just a few moments. passenger frustration grows of moscow's ice covered in airports struggling to cope with the flow of holiday travelers. may be back on it one of the most of those days is tough but thousands of passengers are still stranded just consider the catch up in just a couple of minutes from when people out of battling to clear the backlog. and two years after israel launches a large scale assault on gaza killing more than

a thousand palestinians those who survived say they're still living in a cave. and oh joy i think that he would need you dash in about twenty minutes time to record all financial and economic headlines. six pm in moscow i match reza good to be with you here on r t our top story criticism from the west over the handling of my trial has been met with anger by russia moscow says the international community should stay out of what is a domestic matter the former tycoon is waiting to hear what sadness he'll have to serve after being found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars let's get the latest marty of our piskun all these outside the court in moscow hello you are so why is he international reaction been so critical of russia. while washington is

saying that such a verdict will horrible russia's image when it comes to human rights in germany has said that this will be a step back for russia in terms of modernization with a warning to the russian foreign ministry this is an attempt to apply pressure on the court and moscow is now calling on the united states and on the european union not to intervene. this issue rests with a competent of the traditional system of the russian federation. any it them exert pressure upon the floor for an acceptable. in his recent interview with the head still believe the russian t.v. channel. the russian president has underscored that nobody has the right to fear with the followers of the poor. the foreign ministry has also outlines is that the crimes that about of course the and only we did have already

been found guilty of are considered to be severe of fences in many western countries including the united states where people found guilty of these crimes even fees life in prison so some. really strong words from the foreign ministry meanwhile the defense says that it does not agree with the verdict they are ready to appeal it in russia if they don't succeed here they say that they're ready to take this case to the european court they're also preparing to make a public appeal to the president after the sentence is announced the judge says that the prosecution has provided more than enough evidence and claims that so far the trial has been going by the books. he has been found guilty but we haven't heard anything. well that's one of the peculiarities of the russian legal system although it may be known the verdict itself may be known

guilty or not it may take some time for the actual sentence meaning the time that the accused or the felons will have to serve in jail and that's what we're waiting for now since the verdict is still being announced and it is expected that it may take several days actually. already involved in another case and back then it took two weeks just. the verdict and back then. eight years in prison now the prosecution is asking for fourteen more years so we are still to find out exactly how many years will receive but the defense seems optimistic that the sentence. in the near future. because. the judge is reading out what the court considers to be the evidence against because. from

the information we've got we understand that the court plans to finish reading the verdict this year it will go to with them. so still waiting for a final decision here this is a very controversial case. you have already been found guilty of stealing oil from so-called daughter companies this happened on monday they're also all guilty of embezzling billions of u.s. dollars all this is of course a denied by the defense like i said they're playing to appeal this verdict but this is truly a controversial case and for more on this here's this report prepared earlier by a colleague. once russia's richest man he's now russia's most prominent prisoner coming to the end of it a.t.'s sentence for the biggest tax fraud in the country's history he and his partner platon

a belief which charged to stealing two hundred and eighteen million tonnes of oil worth twenty seven billion dollars from a subsidiary company you can see here that it has been announced guilty khodorkovsky supporters say he didn't break any laws khodorkovsky was not to blame because he had a whole team of very experienced lawyers who are used to tell him that. everything he did was within the law it was the blame of the laws that had the those loopholes and them before me tycoon rose to great wealth thanks to one of the world's largest non-state oil companies you can see the company grew from a 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 path to success had a dark side to a fanatic of ski's associates were later found guilty of a number of murders. the thieves place is in prison holocaust is accused of

stealing tax evasion and fraud with the new charges he faces it's about stealing hundreds of billions his company security chief is in prison for murder. for their cause he has always insisted he's. innocent of the fraud charges which put him behind bars and the 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 you can is purely a victim to the economic crimes of its management i think there is a strong afterwards on the part of many in the media in the russian liberal media and definitely in the west to to politicize it as much as possible there is no question that. carter koskie and the rest of the crowd who participated in initiated and was very active in the criminal privatisation of the ninety's are

guilty of the crimes or accused 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 being in is dividing i think that most of the russian public smeller recollected what you are all those people like and that's why i don't think that i'm on a russian broad public unlike liberals for whom. i can he can find compression the prosecutors had asked of her that of course he was forty seven at least six he is on top of his current sentence however the reading of the field verdict is expected to last several days and the sentencing has yet to come down the party must go and. thousands of passengers remain stranded in moscow's main airports and are growing in for chris and we frustrated bad weather over the weekend temporarily

shut down domodedovo airport and the delay of some flights and cancellation of others has left many struggling to get to their planes some travelers unable to complete their journeys were reportedly staging protests even fighting airport personnel or he's a catarina groucho has more from god out of. this is how one of the most easy is topps looks like power is back on and flies are getting back on should you like that the my idea the airport which was worst hit by bad weather conditions over the weekend when a snow storm disrupted pa lines in the area as a result of that some one hundred fifty flights were delayed and over eight thousand passengers were forced to sleep on the applets premises well now we can see that information is getting back on the screens all of the app or before people had been complaining that they were receiving no updates on the flights whatsoever and even muscovites had to spend hours and hours here inside the airport having no

information on whether to leave home on keep waiting for their flights well that's god's people how long they've been waiting for their flights inside how long have you been waiting for a flight. i was due to leave for turned away from the twenty seventh promised a flight will depart today but i don't know yet there's no information on the screens we've called the office and television and they said the plane at two o'clock today just as all the passengers who have spent more than two days inside the airport complained they were not given hotel butts and there was not enough food and drinks though the press service of the apple says they regularly hand out lunch boxes and also provide stranded passengers with drinking water once the situation adama denver airport is gradually improving we've called in extra staff to help resolve the problems for handing out water as well as hot and cold meals we hope the situation will be completely resolved by tomorrow some of the passengers even kalash with the representatives of companies and complain that the airport is

full of passengers but no representative so companies are inside and largely people complain on the lack of information on their flights the hardest of all these poor parents traveling with their kids many of them have been at the airport for a long and long hours close queues made. how long have you been waiting for your flight and where are you going to we're we can we this is the twenty sixth boxing day and we're going to northern ireland to belfast to buy heathrow so we have so we were at the airport when their electricity went off. were cancelled we were booked onto a flight yesterday which was counseled we were on a flight this morning which is counsel them are we three people into the can a clock flight which is obviously being delayed so honestly what do you think about how the airport has been dealing with the problem. actually not very well but i don't think i mean your poor deals are very well with these problems as we're seeing across europe and other local schools bs is top stream it's about an airport

which didn't have any electricity blackouts also faces how to deal a spot some seven thousand passengers many of them have been kalash with their representatives up and companies and with the least they try to still impossible to control zones they blow up a lot of beach areas and try to stage a protest insisting to meet the hands of the apples people mostly complain that they were denied hotel baths and they ended up sleeping on the floor so so far why payola tikkun rushes to law just applets. palestinians are marking two years since israel started a devastating offensive in gaza with protests across the strip israel launched massive air and ground strikes on hamas targets in two thousand and eight that led to the deaths of more than a thousand people that came in response to rocket attacks launched by the palestinians the conflict grew worldwide attention in part of beijing because of the huge number of civilian casualties israel blockaded the strip after it came

under the control of hamas in two thousand and seven the group is regarded as a terrorist organisation since then aid has been rigorously restricted and most warily reaches its destination as are these policy or discover. israelis insist their economic siege on gaza is easing i think continent. the border and international condemnation is heating up an asian aid convoy with politicians and activists from eighteen countries is on its way to gaza m border one hundred eighty people food and medical supplies and a determined core to reach gaza on the second anniversary of the last israel gaza war the convoy dubbed asia to gaza solidarity caravan sits sail from new delhi at the beginning of december it's trying to do what an aid flotilla failed to do in may break the israeli blockade on the coastal strip that earlier attempt left nine activists did since then israel insists things have gotten better there is a humanitarian analysis that we are making on a daily basis which allow us to see

a broad picture about the humanitarian conditions and the situation in the. moment but gazans complain life is still unbearable. and israel has limited the number of trucks clothes and shoes coming into gaza and this causes problems with coordination in gaza. last month twenty two international organizations issued a report claiming the easing of the blockade has helped bring in materials only for the u.n. and international building projects ordinary goods they say are still not getting in our goods have already been detained in israel for three years but the fines that we've paid already equal the costs of the goods so even if we receive the goods back now we can't sell them they're spoiled and those goods that are getting in there are too expensive for most people here. the goods that we receive are not of a high quality but we have to buy them because we don't have an alternative. cars have also become a luxury two thousand dollars for an engine while just two hundred dollars for

a rather simplistic alternative that what can we do you know fuel for vehicles spare parts inevitably result that it's kind of transportation to donkeys this is one of the largest cattle markets in gaza and as the economy here plummets. it too is struggling to survive. we have no animals today and even when we have people aren't always here to buy it's been few years since israel imposed siege on gaza to try and break a massive support and with no sign that life will get better any time soon most gazans have the eyes on the sea and they have hope on the next return policy r.t. israel. for more on this joined live from gaza by matilde believed from the international committee of the red cross good to have you with me so the blockade of gaza has been widely condemned by the international community how come it's still in place more than three years later. i'm sorry i didn't hear the question

could you repeat it no problem the blockade of gaza has been widely condemned worldwide how come it's still in place more than three years later. of course i mean that's a question that we can't really answer directly since we're not the ones imposing the blockade however it is true that. the colony is still suffering from lack of recovery due to the limited exports that are coming into gaza there are still no exports coming out of gaza and so the whole local economy is suffering from from i think we start it's also having a big pressure on services such as health care and water which are two areas in which the international committee of the red cross is working closely with in order to provide some relief especially in these two areas so you're there in gaza what's the situation on the ground how are the palestinians that you see that you're

dealing with how are they coping with the blockade. i think it was it's a bit what you were already mentioning in your in your documentary previously i mean i think one of the main problems is the lack of perspective of course there's more than thirty five percent unemployment in gaza. the population of under eighteen year olds is about fifty percent and obviously when you put the two together the lack of perspective is something that is really worrying a lot of people they're wondering how life is going to improve what the future is going to look like because of course it doesn't seem like things are particular improving at the moment so i think this is probably the main the main problem that people are facing is sort of this doctor's perspective and again the pressure on these health services and on the watch are especially sanitation we have one point five million people in an area of about three hundred sixty square kilometers so

you can imagine. the waste water that is discharged along with with other needs for the population again for the health services a lot of the aid comes from outside so all those drugs disposable spare parts etc all need to be accessed from from the outside which with the blockade and which with the political situation obviously of course is a problem from your perspective how was the humanitarian situation there changed over the past three years have things gotten better. i don't know if we can say things have gotten better as such i mean again i think the problems persist the blockade is still basically even though there has been a slight lifting of the blockade there's been no tangible relief to the population so we can't really say that things are getting better unfortunately again we're trying to address these needs by supplying pipeline for medical spare parts

through local hospitals we're working with the emergency departments with the palestinian red crescent society and with the ministry of health locally. but of course again. the basically the population of gaza is completely dependent and as long as this is the case. this informational not. all right matilda read from the international committee of the red cross thank you for joining us. turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a third suspected u.s. missile strike has hit the stands northwestern tribal area near the afghan border killing nine people officials say it had vehicles carrying alleged members of a well known militant group to other strikes in north waziristan region on tuesday killed eight the area is a stronghold for pakistani taliban and al qaeda militants who carry out cross border attacks against u.s. led nato forces in afghanistan. west african leaders are in

ivory coast to persuade the incumbent president to step down. users to make way for tara who's been internationally recognized as the president elect. that any attempt to oust him could throw the country back into chaos and civil war violence since last month's election has seen more than one hundred seventy people killed and locals are desperate to return to life as usual. bad weather is causing chaos in australia's northeast territories with the government declaring tums some towns disaster zones severe floods are shut down around three hundred roads across queensland including two major highways to the state capital in brisbane hundreds of people have had to leave their homes after the dawson river reached a record level of almost fifteen metres it's the worst flooding in the area in decades and damages are expected to have to exceed a billion dollars. finally

in this news block we continue exploring another lesser known part of the world's biggest country this time the russia close up team is in the autumn screech it in southwestern siberia archy's tom barton uncovers its checkered past. two things in particular it is famous for those are the fate of exiles sent here by the czarist regime along a difficult and dangerous road to get here and prison and forced labor once they arrived the other is a rich military to dish and the city has a military academy established here two hundred years ago has provided very famous officers and generals for the russian and the red armies and it's those themes of examining. on the march under guard these men and women are walking one of the longest and probably the loneliest road in the world they're reacting the march into exile made by thousands and

czarist russia that will get its income years to go there some ways when face in say years a lot of people died on the way this group in the western siberian region of omsk discovered they're living on the only surviving stretch of the original nine thousand kilometers of the siberian exiles track that's had no modern changes made to it. when you come to the track you can vividly picture the convicts on their walk and hear the clinking of their chains you can smell russian history here the story of guinea discover that he's descended from some of these exiles and decided to build a museum telling a story he and his re-enact has now received from all over the world to show them what it was like with these bodies it's scary to put the shackles on of course but it's interesting if we don't remember history will have no future we think it's a monument to one of the restructures cruelest chapters. here for

gold hair was. one of the more noble traditions in all spheres military professionalism practiced here at the city's cadets college for nearly two hundred years oh. what was an officer school now gives by. as a general education but with the military emphasis this here they created siberia's first cadet corps to prepare officers to protect the territory before that was a course like military college that's why i think with the successes of those old times. young hopefuls have to pass tough exams to get in here for those that do it's a very different school to the others in arms. giving a book and it's strange to be away from home unusual but when you get used to it it feels like home. military personalities are dotted throughout history the city served as the capital of anticommunist white russian leader admiral culture in the

civil war from one thousand nine hundred to nine hundred ninety lost in residence he lived here though the study of the man like the maintenance of this building has remained a taboo right up until the present day or we still receive hate mail saying that he hanged a lot of people and was famous for severe punishment it's all true but it was at a time of civil war both sides were monstrously cruel. it is sadly the theme of cruelty which links so much of our history to the rest of russia's particularly of exile where they were an apple. if i was here three hundred years ago i may have disappeared my local lord i may have deserted from the army corps of writing of other crimes the result was the same what my fellow prisoners around me i've got a long and very cold walk ahead into exile in siberia tom watson r.t. . business news coming your way in

a few moments stay with us here on r.t. . hungry for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. and welcome to the program this is our business update thanks for being with us russian binders have given a round to six billion dollars of loans to non-financial enterprise that this yeah that's over ten percent increase over the year yeah yeah the average interest rate

for long term loans has declined to around eleven percent but prime minister vladimir putin says that account should come in order to support new enterprises. stuff because interest rates particularly for the real economy must not be a constraining factor for economic development we do understand this and i hope that together with the central bank we will consistently decrease interest rates so . according to some analysts russia's accession to the world trade organization and large scale privatizing national program analysis by the government will help improve the investment climate in the country. russia's banking sector keeps growing with borrowing activity picking up and interest rates falling down to pre-crisis levels adding to consumer confidence and what's more important to investment activity to talk more on that i'm now joined by alex is a balkan head of investment strategy at b.b.b. capital. tell me how would you assess the current investment climate in russia what

has changed this year and what are we going to see next year. in russia he is improving gradually but steadily to themes which reemerge that in two thousand there would remain extremely important in two thousand to leaven. and w r such from . the lines of the interests of the state with the interests of the minority investors much closer with than ever before and we believe that will improve the governance of the state controlled companies in the coming years whereas the w.r.c. . proper framework both on the side of the trade in goods and services as well as for the foreign investors and we believe that it will be increasingly important for the f.d.a. in the coming years as we expect that the w.c. assertion talks will be completed as the government expects them to sometime next year. cecava not have now us talking.