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former russian tycoon much how he waits to hear is said this after he was found guilty of embezzling oil and profits. and that's a look outside the courthouse in central moscow to bring you all the latest details on this high profile case. we need to cut the spending yes we need to cut spending the u.s. senators call out in unison but as education and health care suffer major cuts the money flow to the military is not stemmed at all. and shady dealings around in moscow has an ex mayor bankers could end up in jail for laundering billions allegedly pocketed by the wife of the capital's former top official.

three pm in moscow good to be with you here on r t our top story a moscow court will sentence former oil tycoon and once russia's richest man mikhail khodorkovsky after convicting him of embezzlement it's the second trial fraud akatsuki who's coming to the end of his previous jail term for tax evasion and fraud or he's an italian overcoat is outside the court where the reading out of the verdict has entered its third day. uhura's expects to hear the food verdict on the case of money laundering by his former business partner but on a visit by the end of this year but the fact that it's taking so long came as no surprise to anyone as the way it works in russia is first the person is announced to be either guilty or not guilty and then the judge gets into the details of the verdict and in this case the verdict itself is three hundred pages worth of paperwork so you do the math as for how much time it could possibly take to read it

after the first trial it took the judge about two weeks do you read the food verdict on the charges of tax evasion why you haven't got a book and welcome david right now michael would that it would bode would play in court charges here being that he's going to challenge the court concluded the medical skin blood on neighbors if planned and carried out a complicated scheme of embezzling oil and money through dealings with three smaller subsidiaries of ucas some i don't have to guess you gonski have to guess and after all the oil extracting companies each was forced into a deal that was highly on profitable for them but extremely profitable for you can see their results thirty billion dollars worth of oil still and buy for that. through you can here's how it worked the oil was bought from the companies i don't know me or price said by ucas it was then sold at the same level to offshore

trading companies secretly owned by could that skin a bit if when it was then resold at market price they pocketed the difference six billion dollars was moved offshore through tomsk alone so that's according to the prosecutors the scheme used by the program of scam plots on leverage of that they've used for money laundering of twenty seven billion us dollars worth of work russia has all. as a criticism coming from the international community on this case saying that the charges that the two had being pressed with a serious charges that would have been at it would have had serious consequences everywhere in the world and in the united states of similar simple situation a fear that a person could be facing a lifetime with reason and. those statements from the russian foreign ministry team to the united states has said that this trial is

a serious damage to human rights in washington and in germany has also said that it is a step away from would nice ation but motion foreign ministry insists that this is a domestic issue that has to be resolved within the borders of the country without the pressure from the international community on the courthouse this issue rests with a competent over british rule system of the russian federation. any of them exert pressure upon detroit or on the couple. in his recent interview we would have still believe the russian t.v. channels the russian president has on this tour that nobody has the roy to interfere with the followers of the poor meanwhile the defense will continue to argue the verdict they are prepared. to appeal to the international court of human

rights is that is what it takes to prove their point they're also planning to appeal to the russian president. the u.s. federal debt has hit its highest level in more than sixty years but while the public sector is certain to suffer major cuts the military budget continues to get a rubber stamp or approval or history and a half is investigates the flow of cash from the capital to the pentagon. if there is one issue that both sides of the aisle agree on and we need. we cut the spending yes we need to cut spending it's cutting spending to reduce the country's budget deficit even top pentagon officials acknowledge it as the country's most potent problem the biggest threat we have to our national security is. the federal government's debt now stands at thirteen point eight trillion dollars and it's projected to hit twenty trillion by the end of the coming decade we're not going to cut the budget half. the country's military budget

now seven hundred twenty five billion dollars a price tag of epic and historic proportions the largest since world war two. it includes one hundred fifty nine billion dollars for america's wars in iraq and afghanistan the reality is this is what america does neo-cons like robert kagan who urged war with iraq long before nine eleven helps keep this reality alive by equating military might to global leadership and world domination we intervene in grenada nine hundred eighty three panama nine hundred eighty nine iraq nine hundred ninety one somalia nine hundred ninety two haiti nine hundred ninety four bosnian one thousand nine hundred five cost of zero nine hundred ninety nine afghanistan two thousand and one in iraq two thousand and three. the united states spends nearly as much on military hardware fixtures and training as all other countries

combined we see at a time when there's twenty five to thirty million people who are unemployed or underemployed where forty seven million americans can't go to a doctor when they're sick there's limitless funds limitless resources for the war budget the military budget is hardly ever questioned that town that is dominated by its industrial complex. advertisements lined the metro. commercial showcase the latest hardware and politicians. cave into the lobbying campaigns and you can see it by the budget figures that the united states is in fact a warfare state it's addicted to militarism its addicted to war spending and its addicted to war profits this is where the war profiteers are headquartered tearing over the pentagon this place is known as contractors row and it's from this clear point we see the revolving door through which employees from the defense contracting enterprise one job to the government and likewise a significant number of officials in the government the pentagon and the cia fly

into jobs in the military industrial complex despite this military contractors spend close to thirty five million dollars lobbying congress according to the congressional research service defense contractors also dish out substantial amounts of money for campaign contributions in election years meanwhile a congressional watchdog group found in two thousand and eight over one hundred fifty members of congress had one hundred ninety six million dollars collectively invested in defense contractors and so as lawmakers scream louder too we need to cut spending and federal spending for education health care and social services has been reduced cutting the military budget which makes up over twenty percent of the federal budget is not on washington's agenda jan hottest r. t. washington d.c. . the u.s. government has spent more than eighty billion dollars dollars on intelligence this year that's three times more than the las figure it disclosed twelve years ago john

young founder of whistleblowing website cryptome dot org says the u.s. government trains those who leaked the information so they can justify spending billions on intelligence. people how to run the streaming operations by leaking information to test the system called a team should be teams that do combat on the internet probably he was so hard hackers to do that in fact or favor. such groups no one knows more. more conspiracy theory than national security or perot's conspiracy theories all the time but they put out the story that is just a conspiracy theory as there was a comparable bit but they're the ones who cooked up the thread so therefore more complex and bizarre than anything we ordinary people could ever cook up and they get billions to fight it. that interview coming your way in just over an hour's time here on our t.v. well stay with us up ahead siberian military might rush

a closeup takes you to the land of the cossacks to test the bravery of them are told the. first russia's prime minister has criticized the way moscow airport officials dealt with the bad weather conditions that stranded thousands of people living near putin said all those responsible must remain at work instead of starting new year holidays airports are working hard to clear the backlog but many people are still waiting for their flights after days of delays and cancellations freezing rain ruptured power cables leaving the largest airport domodedovo without electricity for hours at another major hub ice stuck runways meant many planes couldn't take off frustrated passengers who said they had no information about their flights reportedly tried to break through passport control many people had both airports complained they weren't given enough food or water or hotel beds that they were promised. almost seven and a half billion dollars were irregularly spent on construction in the russian

capital fees are the preliminary findings by the russian government auditors on how state funds were used over the past two years when you're luzhkov was still moscow mare the president fired him in september citing a loss of trust but as artie's a catarina groucho over reports alleged fraud involving the ex mayor and his wife continues to come to light. why it's called the war crimes that one of most banks are facing for lending too much credit and trust to the city's former. mayor your english cough and his wife russia's richest woman in the buckboard and find themselves at the central yet another scandal prosecutors suspect them of laundering some thirteen billion rubles almost half a billion dollars in a somewhat primitive but seemingly effective fraught the bank of moscow owned by a friend of which golf is accused of approving a whopping great loan to tell me company which then use the money to buy land from

the mayor's wife was here. the scam was carried out under the control of city hall and luzhkov personally in three months this premier estate company appeared and with little more than three hundred bucks in his account get a loan worth five hundred million dollars unbelievable it was clear the company may not pay it back and could evaporate then this premier state company bought land from bet sooner and it covered her debts while bankers across the world were committing suicide the eggs man's wife came out squeaky clean. on closer inspection and to piers the bank of moscow may only have been a middleman in the transaction suspiciously a couple of weeks before the loan city hall gave the bank fifteen billion rubles and it is should news shares prosecutors suspect this was the money given to prime

your estate to buy land from the mayor's wife many are now wondering did the mayor really steal the money for the love of his life the alleged scam haggard mask of its face a vitiated deal was so blatant it looked as if the former mayor took the money from the city budget wrapped it up for christmas christmas for it from his office and presented it to his wife in full view of the. the price paid for the land also raises questions seven million dollars perhaps or of land on moscow's outskirts is astronomic experts say and there is no sign of any construction taking place all of these adds to the bad smell left behind by the former mayors acrimonious exit. villages and the months instead of promoting themselves and playing political games the mayor should have worked the city has a huge number of problems corruption is going through the roof this is unheard of it's impossible to get anywhere through fair competition someone who gets all the

work contracts and tenders who has always won until recently as the mirror of moscow used to say those who exhibited outstanding business skills and prove their right to work on these projects are the most talented entrepreneurs but we know what kinds of decisions were made to. know that these allegations are out in the open experts believe those in charge will be forced to pick up the tap at the word or glasgow got out of the case has received too much publicity this people will have to pay one should not forget that the man has changed so if they don't pay up they'll be jailed to friend those in charge it will be easy there's a loan agreement in place. so the consequences of laskowski controversial time as mayor are still being felt and it could be that it's small time bank workers that will be paying the price of alleged big time corruption examine their share of r r t. r stories and more always available on our website our team dot com

here's a taste of what's online right now. and why the tourists are the latest weapons being gauged by israel in lebanon is the bitter rivals large competing wars over being partners aimed at getting across their messages. to hundreds of people in southern russia thought they were about to welcome visitors from another planet when they spotted a u.f.o. . in the sky for a more down to earth explanation click over to our t. dot com. all twelve people aboard a military cargo plane were killed when it crashed in central russia the engine of twenty two came down in the tula region south of moscow all those who died were crew members a preliminary investigation says the crash may have been caused by engine failure prosecutors are now looking into the incident. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe severe flooding continues to lead to massive chaos across northeastern australia nearly

a thousand people have been forced to flee their homes and around three hundred roads across queensland have been closed including two major highways to the state capital brisbane authorities have declared several towns in the region disaster zones it's the worst flooding to hit the area in decades and more rain is predicted over the next few days. south korea's president says resuming six party peace talks with the north is the only way to dismantle its nuclear ambitions you know it's made comes amid a rising tensions in the region which escalated after the north shelled one of the south's island south islands last month pulling more people said there were a spot of the attack was a response to souls are gresson of war games which have been called a provocation by the north it's thought to be the worst spike in tensions on the peninsula since the war sixty years ago. west african leaders have made a direct appeal to persuade ivory coast president laurent gbagbo to quit they have warned he faces military action if you does not pass power to

a lot tara whom the united nations recognizes as the winner of last month's election one hundred seventy people have been killed and tens of thousands of been displaced because of violence following last month's disputed ballot. airline schedules on the northeast coast of the united states are struggling to return to normal after severe blizzards caused thousands of flights to be cancelled services have resumed into and out of boston new york and philadelphia but heavy snow and strong winds are still causing delays thousands of travelers are expected to be stranded until the end of this week and the situation is only improving very slowly . up next the russia close up team continues exploring its journey on more of the world's largest country taking this time to the almost southwestern siberia. the area's more than two thousand kilometers from moscow the region has a continental climate with cold snowy winters and hot dry summers the main city is

the administrative center for siberian cossacks who settled there in the sixteenth century artie's town barton explores the military might of the marshall people. excepting soviet times almost has always been on the frontier of russia it required people to come here and build it from scratch and then to defend the province here both people with the cossacks and it's their strong and self-sufficient local culture that i'm examining him are part. of. the view from the end of a cossacks spear but not to worry the young corsican the other end knows what he's doing he's part of a tough rule tradition which has lasted for centuries. and it's no good to see media they start teaching and we turn servant into trickle at the age of thirteen the billion chance abilities and as for me i was a very good do i do horse eleventh as well as i can handle a spear and

a saber progress that's got the old ottoman the others have a demanding daily schedule and horse riding is the glamorous part the youngsters in the village built this gym themselves and now the training in it will have a lot to do to prove themselves as hunters and horsemen in the training community fosters a team spirit crucial in this cossacks society. a team spirit necessary for the cossacks noblest pursuit hunting on the sharp end the beloved fast russian dog that bred to perfection over centuries. and not for any ordinary prey. even though they were selected for their speed and anger because they must be able to get the better of a wolf welcome with gore is master not just of his hounds but of this whole course village he's called the atom out and he has to show skill in leadership from solving village disputes down to training dogs to catch hares. though he prefers

the larger prey will always more restrictive be a likely route in old times to get the chance of becoming an atom and it was considered prestigious to bring home a wolf tied up. with the ring in a war after the day's outdoor training we caught up with our at a man at the evening meal where he tells us about their history the cossacks originally came from lambs far to the west of here but they proved a useful militia force conquering and securing siberia for the czars in return for grants of land. the idea was to create villages along the country's border so that people are bound to the land they're living on. the cossacks strong independent traditions were disliked by the communists they were suppressed and marginalized since the end of the soviet union they've been trying to rebuild that self-sufficient way of life especially when it comes to resisting the bad habits of

city. it's no easy matter to live in in the country of course but on the other hand we're protected from the harm of the city from drugs alcohol smoking. but tonight at least the elders of the village were allowing themselves a few liberties. with me to talk more about life in the siberian villages is alex dude you've been here for a while now in russia and in arms and you've also told outside the big city so how would you compare life within the cities of russia and outside them. well i'd say the obs is quite a lot more. even children some fears will grow before. the u.k. i'm from us a small town in the north of england so i'm used to the small town life but i also been to two villages around on the skin in the region people though much more down to earth they're tied to the landlord and have a lot months if not farm to keep animals their. fees lot more healthy than what we

have in the big cities and supermarkets and so on it's all locally grown excess a tea coffee and sugar. and i guess you could say the lifestyle is healthier except always lead to drinking which is the stereotype of russian people doing here just as they haven't got much else to do. but i say the people there are a lot closer to each other and they got close to that close knit communities because they rely on each other a lot more than say in a bigger city. ok so you've described a more close to lifestyle family values and a kind of great connection to where they're wrong how would you say that that helps people there to survive the greatest challenge that there is which is the ferocious russian winter i'd say that song which is current of all console russian culture in general. like the west where who are much more individualized take care take care of themselves so that people here in russia and especially in the russian villages have to have to look out for each other just because you can't rely on number one all the time. and if there's something which which your liking where the roof the

material in terms of family care like child care and so on are the first people you'll turn to russia will be your family and your friends and neighbors and so on so absolutely essential and so that's been a survival tactic in russia from the move for the coming this time and during the conversation definitely so that song which continues in prevails today you get a view there from someone outside russia seeing life in the russian verges and it seems that those close knit ties and strong family values are enough to get people through even the worst of the russian weapons. stay with us here on our team yulia bokova joins us next with the business update.

hello and a very well welcome to the business program russian president dmitry medvedev has said more is required to improve russia's poor investment climate and we're now joined live why our correspondent is. dedicated to turning moscow into an international financial center and which is being attended by the president so you're thank you for joining us a little ahead critical about the current investment climate in russia so what needs to be done to change this. well as you said this meeting was the. lead. in the moscow since the president is pushing to transform the russian capital into an international financial center according to you did you want to be mean obstacles is the investment climate in the country. during the past eleven months only fourteen companies have exploded in russia the

media says he understands this is nothing to be proud of this is quite a small number and he said that in order to improve this investment climate a systematic approach is needed to be president and the prime minister and the lowest levels of. all taking in this. war improvements. need to be made to the civil code because it isn't directly connected to the country's economy but the head of state and also outlined some positive moments in the past year for example he said. regulating be a lawful use inside or. a positive step towards towards police to investigate climate in the. story. financial center another step which is actually taken to the meeting to ward so you must comply with what was these

sightings of would be aimed at creating the best consulting culturally commercial consulting fields or to help transform was going to leave russia a financial center and the interesting thing about berta is that it will also lead the international and the world financial experts so these are some of the steps which are being taken to to achieve this goal to transform most order to nancy international financial center but obviously a lot more work still needs to be done. but was it workers who are outside the meeting dedicated to turning moscow into an international financial center. attended by the president thank you very much for your. moving on and we can have a sneak peek at the markets european stocks a mixed the solid but see reopened for the first time since christmas eve and slipped into red this hour at texas up oil stocks gained on high crude prices

shares of francisco child gained one percent and world that shell advanced one and a half percent and another bright sport was gold miner rhonda gold resources which is up four and a half percent in london. and here in russia the markets are mixed they are ts has slipped into negative territory after early gains on the mice it says up around three tenths of a percent. or else can it kill has jumped almost three percent on reports the company's buying around twelve million of its shares from the market after parts from a is the top loser after the car maker has announced its suspending activity for new year holidays and plans price increases will lot lot to cause. russia as a medium giant through sol has rejected the sale of its stake and back to the company. offered to buy whistles twenty five percent stake for twelve billion dollars to sell says it will keep the stake because it's a strategic asset.