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cook low self esteem to the. way industries are rapidly developing. now wattie goes to the homeland of those with strength of mind and body. to the land developed by cossacks in ancient times and which became a premier destination for a nineteenth century political exile. this is the on screen pusher closeout on oxy. in india. the grand central shirts and the. president. they will. know beatriz will. tell her to. go to. the radio to lead the. church.

collection. on the maiden. question of time already jailed former russian tycoon. doubt how many more years behind bars. in the. court essentially. all the latest details. in just a couple of seconds. russia's prime minister slams airport and airline personnel for what he calls unacceptable behavior of thousands of stranded passengers in moscow said they were left to fend for themselves. the u.s. military budget grows as less money flows to welfare benefits some americans are wondering whether they're paying too much to fill the nation's.

company about. six pm in moscow good to be with you here on r t our top story three days before the new year and. still waiting to find out how many more he'll have to spend behind bars the former oil tycoon and once russia's richest man hasn't heard the sentence that he and his partner will serve after being found guilty of embezzlement. outside the court with the latest. new charges suggest money laundering and embezzlement persecutors are saying that new probe about his former partner brought down leverage of stow as much as around thirty billion u.s. dollars worth of oil via a eucharist oil company formally one of the biggest private owned companies in the

world in the first trial they were found of tax evasion for which they were sentenced for eight years behind bars and right now they want to q three are insisting on extending that turned out to fourteen years behind bars and now michael died it was cool with slangy the scheme for which the money laundering was done as according to the prosecutors the court concluded that could not of course not only because blundered carried out a complicated scheme of embezzling oil and money through dealings with three smaller subsidiaries of you can see some other news to gus. and you guns can have to go us all oil extracting companies each was forced into a deal that was highly profitable for them but extremely profitable for you because the result said billion dollars worth of oil still going by that of course can live as if through you can see here is how it worked the oil was bought from the companies at a nominal price said by ucas it was then sold at the same level to offshore trading

companies secretly owned by so that of course skin labors if when it was then resold at market price they pocketed the difference six billion dollars was moved offshore through thomson have to learn that of course the negative were found guilty of embezzling a total of three hundred fifty million tons of oil worth twenty four billion dollars this latest trial was also widely criticised by the worst school when you think you are a validation of human rights but the russian foreign ministry has made an official statement a statement about this saying that if first such a case were to appear in the united states for example that for such charges a person could be facing up to a life time in jail russian foreign ministry has also said that this is a domestic issue and it's all. all about the washes dishes system and it has to be resolved within the country without the pressure from the international community on the court may have or is actually expected it's the verdict to be heard before the end of this year but say right now it looks like it might take longer because

indeed in the beginning we heard that they're both three hundred fifty just north of paperwork even that verdict right now we're hearing a different figure we're hearing there could be more than eight hundred of them and not even half of them have has been voiced yet so it does look like it might take longer the hearing of the first verdict took about two weeks and many experts are saying that in fact this one is that a much more complicated case than the first one so it doesn't look like we're going to cnn's of this trial very soon. coming up lock and load it's time to trim the budget. biggest threat we have to our national security as are we need to cut spending we're not going to cut the defense budget and. find out why defense spending is the last place congressmen are looking to slice america's spiraling debt. but first about

a mere putin has told everyone in charge of moscow's airports and their power supply that they'll be working during the holiday break this follows severe disruptions caused by freezing rain and several travel hubs across the capital russia's prime minister says the way passengers were treated by airline personnel was unacceptable and authorities are looking into whether there were any legal violations or negligence should go to school even if everyone who is responsible. with the conditions should not go on holiday it's a difficult situation and it should be treated very seriously as well as a poor new one person in a concerned i think it's unacceptable the way they treated stranded passengers because. bad weather conditions shut down one airport temporarily and caused major disruptions out another in douma dead of electrical cables ruptured causing power cuts that left thousands of passengers stranded at sheremetyevo iced up runways caused severe delays and cancellations flights are slowly getting back to normal

but airports are struggling to keep clear the black the backlog stranded passengers complained of a lack of information food and water some had to sleep on the floor while others took out their frustration on airport personnel. fifty five trillion dollars and counting that's the total u.s. debt the highest in the world congressmen are calling for tougher cuts but with social spending already being trimmed. jihan hafiz reports the military is getting more and more money. if there is one issue that both sides of the aisle agree on and we need to 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 is projected to hit twenty trillion by the end of the coming

decade we're not going to cut the budget. to stop. 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 ninety 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. commercials 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 there were evolving doors there 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.

. before wiki leaks there was cryptome on the way in the program we sat down with its founder who gives us a unique insight into where top secret government leaks really come from according to john young state funded intelligence agencies are actually behind some of them. actually teach young people how to run the street operations by leaking information to test the system build something called a team to beat teams that do combat on the internet he will still be part hackers to do that hackers in fact are favorite employees now in such groups no one knows more more conspiracy theory than sponsored national security out of parental conspiracy theories all the time but they put out the story that it's just a conspiracy theory as though it's comparable but in fact they're the ones who cook up the threads that are far more complex and bizarre than anything we ordinary people could ever cook up and they get billions to fight it. you can catch the full interview with john young in about twenty minutes here on

our team turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe suicide bombers in the iraqi city of mosul have stormed police headquarters killing a high ranking commander three people with explosive vests approached the complex one of them was shot before setting off his belt the other two insurgents managed to get inside and blew themselves up mosul as a last major urban stronghold of al qaeda in iraq. south korea's president says resuming six party peace talks with the north is the only way to resolve nuclear tensions on the korean peninsula this follows the north the north shelling one of the cells islands last month killing four people john yang said the attack was a response to seoul's recent military exercises which have been called a quote path of military provocation by the north it's considered the worst spike in tensions on the peninsula since the war sixteen years ago. severe flooding continues to wreak havoc across the northeast australia with water levels expected to rise even higher in the coming days rain swollen rivers have burst their banks

destroying crops and bridges and hundreds of homes almost a thousand people had to be evacuated from worst affected areas and nearly three hundred roads across queensland have been closed authorities have declared several towns in the region disaster zone. west african leaders have made good a direct appeal to persuade the ivory coast president to quit they warn he faces military action if he doesn't pass power to. the un recognizes as the winner of last month's election one hundred seventy people were killed tens of thousands displaced due to violence following the disputed ballot west african leaders are due to resume talks next week. a little later we'll tell you how people in rural russia stay fit whether it's plus twenty or minus twenty outside. join our exploration of siberia home screen find out how young so preserving patience traditions and keeping team spirit alive. first though out of favor out

of office and now in trouble with the law moscow's deposed mayor yuri luzhkov could face charges of corruption money laundering and a fraud as artie's a cattery a grouch over reports russian investigators suspect luzhkov is alleged murky dealings were a family affair. why i call the workers at one of moscow's banks are facing jail for landing too much credit and trust to the city's former mayor you're a lush 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 that seemingly effective for a lot the bank of moscow owned by a friend of which golf is accused of approving a whopping great loan to a dummy company which then use the money to buy land from the mayor's wife who is

here memberships the scam was carried out under the control of city hall and luzhkov personally in three months this premier estate company appeared and with a little more than three hundred bucks in his account to 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 both tuna 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 a face a the shady deal was so blatant it looked as if the former mayor took the money from the city budget perhaps set up a christmas christmas for it from his office and presented it to his wife in full view of the bank. 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 paths to the bad smell left behind by the former mayors acrimonious acts it. instead of promoting himself and playing political games 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 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. now that these allegations are out in the open experts believe those in charge will be forced to pick up the tab. for 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 find those in. it will be easy there's a loan agreement in place. so the consequences of 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 time corruption exceeding the show our teeth. for all our stories and much more you can click over to our web site r t

v dot com here's what's online for you right now. to bring you the story of a russian bat who's preparing for the ancient prediction that the apocalypse is coming in two thousand and twelve that is making his own arrangements to avoid in. time for the international christmas festival kicks off in the russian capital with this year's celebrations dedicated to spain that's all on our team for you. time now for the latest in our close up series exploring russia both on and off the beaten track.

is so we were visiting the screen which is in the southwest siberia in the second part of this series we take a look at how locals live there and learn about their customs and traditions our guide tom barton shows us how people survive the cold and what they do for entertainment. excepting soviet times has always been on the frontier of russia it required people to come here and build it from scratch and then to defend that from both people with the cossacks and it's their strong and self-sufficient local culture but i'm examining in my report. the view from the end of a cossacks beer but not to worry the young cossack on the other end knows what he's doing he's part of a tough rural tradition which has lasted for centuries. similia there's dietitians friday night and we turn servant to trickle at the age of thirteen depending on chance abilities or as for me i was

a very good do i do horse eleventh as well as that i can handle a spear in a saber paragraph of your bottom and the others have a demanding daily schedule and horse riding is the glamorous part of the youngsters in the village built this gym themselves another training in it will have a lot to do to prove themselves as hunters and horsemen in the training communally potters a team spirit to fill 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. but they were selected for this deed in anger because they must be able to get the better of a wolf. with gauri 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. although he prefers the larger prey was more restricted b.-a likely living in old times to get the chance of becoming an atom and it was. suited prestigious to bring home a wolf tied up the three and a walk after the day's outdoor training we caught up with our at a man at the evening meal and 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. here before an interview the idea was to create villages along the country's border so that people are bound to the land they're living on having youth at 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 our self-sufficient way of life especially when it comes to resisting the bad habits of city. it's no easy matter living in the country of course but on the other hand if we're protected from the harm of the city from drugs alcohol smoking would go even 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 jud 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 provincial than some piers where i was before. have over the u.k. i've crossed a small town in the north of england so i'm used to the small town life but i also been to the villages around on the skin in the region people there are much more down to earth they're tied to the land all of them have

a lot but it's not farms they keep animals their. fears lot more healthy than what we have in the big cities and supermarkets and so on it's all locally grown except say tea coffee and sugar. and i guess you could say the lifestyle is healthier except boys leave it drinking is the stereotype us of people do they're just as. they haven't got much else to do. but what i say the people there are a lot closer to each other and they've got close knit 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 from 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 he will 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 you are lacking. whether it be material or in terms of family care like child care and so on are the first people you'll turn to in russia will be your family and your friends and neighbors and so on so it's up to the essential and so that's been a survival to tactic in russia from the movie for the communist time and during the congress time definitely so that song which continues in prevails today. 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 weather stay with us here on our t.v. show it's up next with the business news. hungry for the full story we've focused the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

in some petersburg she's available in hotels a story an. ambassador. hotel. hotel a true sports hotel. and. ski visits. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've got the future covered.

hello welcome to business program here on r.g.p. with me a short time is folly russia's aluminum giant roselles rejected the sale of its stake in or else nickel back to the company eurostar for it to buy or sell twenty five percent stake for twelve billion dollars yourself says it's not satisfied with the price will keep this she. also was made to end the long wilson bubble of control over the mining of two main shareholders into the holding. and further news russell plans to take legal action against nickel for the sale of eight percent of its share capital to commodities trader trying figure russell states that the deal was concluded with the lack of information regarding the tone and the price at which it was delayed also reselling solicited new prove girls nichols share buyback plan which is aimed at increasing the minus capitalization. russia's president has said more effort is required to improve the country's poor investment climate parties corresponding corpuscular of explains the outcome of it

is meeting their case or turning more school into an international financial center . according to the russian president during the past eleven months only fourteen companies are floated their shares in russia dmitry medvedev says this is nothing to be proud of that one of the main reasons for this is the current poor investment climate in russia need to move says that this problem can only be solved using a systematic approach with everybody taking from the head of state and the prime minister to the lowest levels of civil servants also the country's civil called needs more improvement as well because it's directly connected to russia's economy just to remind me to believe it is pushing to transform moscow in truly international financial center and at this meeting he also talked about some positive steps which have been taken this year to achieve this goal one of the

steps was the passing of a law to regulate the. insider information and another step was the creation of an international consulting which will include foreign international experts so we are seeing some small progress but the head of state himself a lot more is still needed to be done before we can really see the russian capital as a true international financial center. time and see how the markets. and with investors anxious to keeping his final week of training. leading the dow jones higher. than ever in europe markets are mixed. into the red. gains and higher prices.