russia slams the u.s. and envy you for attending it influence the trial of. a former oil tycoons awaiting set in the south are being found guilty of a bezel and billions of dollars. more on one of the most controversial trials in russia or indeed one of the schools like from home side of the border towns in moscow in just a few moments. of your frustration grows of moscow's ice covered in airports struggling to cope with the flow of holiday travelers. on it one of the most easiest types not thousands of passengers are still stranded in the catch up in just a couple of minutes from where people are battling to clear the path. plus two years after israel launches a large scale assault on gaza killing more than

a thousand palestinian survivors say they feel like they're still living in a cave. seven 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 mikhail khodorkovsky his trial has been met with anger by russia moscow said the international community should stay out of what is a domestic matter the former tycoon is waiting to hear what's said and still have to serve after being found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars are going off explains. well washington is saying that such a verdict will horn russia's image when it comes to human rights germany has said that this will be a step back for russia in terms of modernization but according 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 british rule system of the russian federation. any of them to exert pressure upon the royal for an exception. in his recent interview with the heads of the only the russian t.v. channel. the russian president has on this tour that nobody has the right to interfere with the powers of the poor. the foreign ministry has also outlines exactly the crimes that mean that of course the and only have a different already been found guilty off are considered to be severe offenses in many western countries including the united states where people found guilty of

these crimes. even face 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're ready to appeal it in russia if they don't succeed here they say that they're ready to take the skis 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 book me take some time for the actual sentence it is expected that it's me take several days actually because of that of course he was already involved in another case and back then it took two weeks just to give verdict and. back then of course you received eight years in prison now the prosecution is asking for fourteen more years and so we are still to find

out exactly how many years they will receive what the defense seems optimistic that the sentence will be else in the near future or go through. the judges reading as what the court considers to be the evidence against because according to liberty from the information we've got we understand that the court plans to finish reading the verdict this year it was so still waiting for the or final decision here this is a very controversial case since. only we differ and because that of course you have already been found guilty of stealing oil from what you consist so called daughter accompanies this happened on monday there are also felt guilty of embezzling billions of us dollars and for more on this here's this report prepared earlier by a colleague that it was caught. once russia's richest men he's now russia's most prominent prisoner coming to the end of it eighty a sentence for the biggest tax food in the country's history he and his partner

platon live which charged to stealing two hundred and eighteen million tons of oil worth twenty seven billion u.s. dollars from a subsidiary company you can see here that it has been announced guilty of ski supporters say he didn't break any laws khodorkovsky was not to blame because he had a whole team of very experienced lawyers who used to tell him that. everything he did was within the law it was the blame of the laws that had dissolved loopholes and them. 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 headed outside too often associates were later found guilty of

a number of murders. the thieves place is in prison. 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. that of course ski 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 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's a strong upper edge on the part of many in the media in the russian liberal media and definitely in the west too to politicize it as much as possible there is no question that. carter koskie and the rest of the crowd who participated initiated

and was very active in the criminal privatization of the ninety's are guilty of the crimes they're 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 public opinion is divided i think that most of the russian public smeller reckon the activity of those people i call the course and that's why i don't think that i want a russian broad public unlike liberals for whom. i come here and find compassion for the prosecutors had asked that had that of course who is forty seven served at least six years on top of this current sentence however the reading of the full verdict is expected to last several days and the sentencing has yet to come down the party must go to thousands of passengers stranded in moscow's main airports are

growing increasingly 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 journey have reportedly been staging protests even fighting with airport personnel groucho over reports from government at about. this is one of most easy is tops looks like power is back on and flies are getting back on should you like that the my idea that the airport which was worst hit by bad weather conditions over the weekend when a snow storm disrupted pala lines in the area as a result of that some one hundred people to 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 screen salvi 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 gossipy valon they've been waiting for their flights inside how long have you been waiting for the flight. i was due to leave for terms of even the twenty seventh they promised the flight will depart today but i don't know yet there's no information on the screens with cooley office in television and they said the plane at two o'clock today. says all the passengers have spent more than two days inside the airport complained they were not given hotel baths and there was not enough food and drinks so the press service of the apple says they regularly hand out lunch boxes and also provide stranded passengers with drinking water what's the situation adama denver airport is gradually improving we've called in extra staff to help resolve the problems we're handing out water as well as hot and cold meals we hope the situation will be completely resolved by tomorrow some of the person just 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 or the hardest of all of these poor parents traveling with their kids many of them have been at the airport for whole and long hours close cuse me. how long have you been waiting for your flight. were we committed says the twenty six boxing day and we're going to northern ireland to belfast to buy a heathrow so we have so we were at the airport when their electricity went off. all flights were cancelled we were told to fly yesterday which is council were on a flight this morning which is counsel them are we being put onto the ten o'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 any reporters are very well with these problems as we're seeing across europe and

other local schools bs is top three minutes of an airport which didn't have any electricity blackouts also faces how to delay suppose some seven thousand passengers many of them have been kalash with the representatives of companies and with police they tried to still impossible to control zones they blocked blogger cherice and try to stage protests and system to meet the hand 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 taken rushes to law just add ports. still ahead this hour our g.'s close up team uncovers a mysterious past of russia's on screen. if i was his three hundred years ago i moved to support my local lord does this is from the army or a variety of other crimes the results was the same not want to follow prisoners around me i've got

a long and very cold walk ahead into exile in siberia more about this treacherous journey as well as a look at what else the ohms region has to offer and are post-op report coming up a little bit. first though palestinians are marking two years since israel began a devastating offensive into gaza with protests across the strip israel launched massive air and ground strikes on hamas targets in two thousand and eight killing more than a thousand people that came in response to rocket strikes by palestinians conflict or worldwide condemnation because of the huge number of civilian casualties israel blockaded the strip after it came into the trunk under the control of hamas in two thousand and seven a group it regards as a terrorist organization since then aid has been rigorously to restricted and most really reaches its destination as artie's policy or found out. israelis insist their economic siege on gaza is easing i think continent the border and international condemnation is heating up and asian aid convoy but politicians and

activists from eighteen countries is on its way to gaza on border one hundred eighty people food and medical supplies and a determined call to reach gaza on the second anniversary of the last israel gaza wall the convoy dubbed asia to gaza sunday deputy caravan sits sail from new delhi at the beginning of december it's trying to do what in a fit to fail to do it may break the israeli blockade on the coastal strip that attempt left nine activists did since then israel insists things have gotten better there is a humanitarian analysis that we are. on a daily basis which allows 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 sell them they're spoiled and those goods that are getting in there 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 well just two hundred dollars for a rather simplistic alternative what can we do there's no 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 and no barley today and even when we have

barley people are always here to buy it's been four years since israel imposed siege on gaza to try and break her massive support and with no sign that life will get better any time soon most gazans have the eyes on the sea and their hope on the next. policy are to israel. a tel aviv courthouse said instead israeli activists to three months in prison for a nonviolent antiwar protest jonathan pollard took part in a bicycle ride demonstration against the blockade of gaza three years ago human rights activists are calling his sentence unusually harsh joseph dana from the popular struggle coordination committee says the case highlights the poor state of democracy in israel israel's engaged in a very serious military and diplomatic repression of any aspect of nonviolence mr pollock's sentencing is the latest attack on this in which israel is

targeting its own citizens and i think it's quite a commentary on israeli society that the only israeli that has been jailed in relation to the gaza war is one that decided to nonviolently ride his bike through the streets of tel aviv for the treatment of palestinians is significantly worse mr pollack addressed this in his sentencing argument in which he said that because he's an israeli jew he's going to jail only for three months while nonviolent palestinian leaders go to jail for years and there are sometimes placed in administrative detention without being charged with a single crime and so we see that the quality of israeli democracy now for its own citizens it is in a serious decline and one might say in a crisis and this is just a logical extension to the type of violence and repression that we see against nonviolent activists in the palestinian territories. perspective of joseph dana from the popular struggle coordination committee turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a third suspected u.s. missile strike has hit pakistan's northwestern tribal area near the afghan border

killing nine people officials say it hit vehicles carrying alleged members of a well known militant group two 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 the ivory coast to persuade the incumbent president to step down refuses to make way for i'll assign a autoroute who's been internationally recognized as president elect warns that any attempt to oust him could throw the country back into civil war violence since last month's election has seen over one hundred seventy people killed and locals are desperate to return to living as usual. bad weather is causing chaos in australia's northeastern states with the government declaring some towns disaster zones severe flooding has shut around three hundred roads across queensland including two major highways to the state capital brisbane hundreds of people 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 damage is expected to exceed one billion us dollars. it's time now to explore another lesser part of the world's biggest country. this time the russian close up team is in the omes screen in south western siberia it may be located more than two thousand kilometers away from moscow but it shares more with the capital than you might think parties tabard and uncovers the checkered past of the region. 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 reenacting the march into exile made by thousands and czarist russia. it's a come here is to go there some ways winces in say yes 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. you have guinea discovered that he's descended from some of these exiles and

decided to build a museum telling a story he and his reactors now receivers it has from all over the world to show them what it was like with the body it's scary to put the shackles on of course but it's interesting if we don't remember history will have no future. it's a monument to one of the wrist russia's coolest chapters. one of the more noble traditions and always has military professionalism practiced here at the city's cadets college for nearly two hundred years. of. what was an officer school now gives. boys 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. 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 kolchak in the civil war from one thousand nine hundred to nine hundred ninety whilst 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 history to the rest of russia's particularly of exile where they were an apple or

a criminal. if i was here three hundred years ago i may have dissipated my local lord i may have deserted from the army or a variety of other crimes the result was the same flight my fellow prisoners around me i've got a long and very cold walk ahead into exile in siberia. with talk of it more about place in history and its place in russia is alexander you've lived here all your life so just trying wonders through basically how. developed as a city the history was going to say korea maysan because it was first established as a fortress to fight over the nomads but then during the czar regime they used as a place for the political exile and you probably know that's the famous russian writer dostoyevsky was an exile here for quite some time. also our city was

a capital of russia for for a short period of time for a year under the our culture shock and it's sometimes called a third capital the third one after the moscow moscow st petersburg and then also sometimes and it's also one of the biggest series of siberia and one of the most important important ones ok having lived here all your life you obviously are quite proud of the city yourself i how would you say why would you say it makes you proud and how would you say almost fits in to siberia and in the why of russia well. if you can so i'm scott i should say maybe fifteen years ago you would have you we would have been so nice but it's it really develops in the last fifteen years they go on the road stage repurposed the buildings and right now we have very rich aspects of you know world social life and cultural life we have famously risk. you know we have festivals going on the world here and i should say. i really am proud of living here yes. ok from one of the people who's lived all the life there we go

picture of all rise from its beginnings off until its modern day. and if you'd like to get your news online you can always check out our team and you can read more on the stories we're covering here as well as features blogs and the top rated videos here's a look at what's online right now. as a new group of congressmen and women prepare to take their seats on capitol hill some americans are worried they may harmfully impact the country's foreign policy and defense. russia's santa clause comes out for the new year only to find out why and how he is different from his western counterparts also we have valid intense training course that promises to teach you the skills of the legendary did models.

he joins us next with the business news stay with us here on r.t. . welcome to the program russia needs extraordinary measures to improve the country's investment climate that's according to president dmitry medvedev and says it's recovering snob about expected at around three percent. the investment climate in russia is bad and that's what the government should work on next year yes we've managed to overcome the consequences of the crisis but the investment climate is still very difficult in our country there are several reasons for that we've done and are doing a lot but apparently we need a rematch years. and the key to improving the investment climate in russia is dealing with bureaucracy that's according to list of all that from. the main

problem is excess of bureaucracy you know at various levels including your the regional level that will take even more measures even more than we've seen so for i think a bit more needs to be done in terms of structural adjustment in terms of subtle reforms in terms of forming natural monopolies that is something that probably will take a bit more time that is more of a medium term issue for the government with a slower recovery in foreign investment russian banks have been helping business out they said they increase the volume of lending to north financial enterprises by ten percent around thirty six billion dollars the average interest rate for long term loans has declined to around eleven percent while a few months ago it was around fourteen but russia's prime minister vladimir putin says that level needs to fall further to support me and to prices.

in russia the stock markets are closed in the black with the asking us up more than a quarter of a percent and the mindsets gaining trust or not. there's a little movement on the stock market and what it does happen mostly tied to the holiday season that says head of research at metropole mark stein. the main movers today where there are you know the presence the gifts the holiday gifts of the store if you look at the two top performers today they're my stock exchange now the one is now but too soon so that just shows that we're in the holiday season as is no joke this department stores the shares of these two companies were top performers today on my six and it's very low volumes today and which is the basic in going sideways in the market they'd be in the additional interest today and an aid to any sector as is because into row.