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time already jailed for more russian. waits to find out how many more years he will have to spend. russia's prime minister. for what he calls an acceptable behavior thousands of stranded passengers in moscow said they were left to fend for themselves. u.s. military budget grows less money flows to welfare benefits some americans are wondering whether they're paying too much to fill the nation's war chest.

this is r t live from moscow where it's now just after midnight welcome to the program just days before now. still waiting to find out how much longer he'll spend behind bars the former oil tycoon and once russia's richest man still doesn't know what sentence he and his partner. will serve after being found guilty of investment. is out there outside the courthouse and it brings us the latest. the new charges are just more you wondering and embezzlement persecutors are saying that mick over there and his former partner blood on livid if stole as much as around thirty billion us dollars worth of oil why are you going to the 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 that was the cutest are insisting on extending that turned out

to fourteen years behind bars and now michael enjoyed it was cool would slangy the scheme through which the money laundering was done as according to the prosecutors the court concluded that about of course not only but if 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 gross 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 he billion dollars worth of oil still going by her that of course can live as if through you can see here is how it worked we always bought from the companies at a nominal price said by you can see it was then sold at the same level to offshore trading companies secretly owned by so that of course skinned neighbors 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 calling it a validation of human rights but the russian foreign ministry has made an official statement 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 russia's judicial system and it has to be resolved within the country without the pressure from the international community on the fourth of the third day of the hearing has come to an end the navy lou is expected that the hearing of the verdict would be done before the end of this year and the beginning you heard that there were three hundred pages worth of paper works in the verdict right now we're hearing that it could be as many as eight hundred of them and not even half of them has been voiced yet so it does look like

it might take longer than until the end of this year. that's the reporting right now coming up here on r.t. lock and load time to trim before. the biggest threat we have to our national security is are there we need to cut spending we're not going to cut the defense budget and. find out why defense spending is the last place congressman looking to slice america's spiraling debt. russia's prime minister has told everyone in charge of moscow's ports and their power supply that they will be working during the holidays it follows severe disruptions caused by freezing rain several travel hubs across the capital perfect storm of snow and freezing rain has also paralyzed the city's traffic at one point on wednesday one estimate suggested the length of queues equal to over three thousand kilometers that's more than the distance between moscow and barcelona parties are going to go to school reports you

would think wildcards would be used to all sorts of extreme weather right now especially when it comes down to winter conditions but this year residents of the russian capital have been in for something of a trial a particularly heavy snowfall has paralyzed traffic all around the city on average people today will have to wait to spend about three to four hours a night so i have to leave home by eight in the morning to make it to work in time i don't have any other option i think the weather doesn't have much to do with this traffic is. it's a daily problem you know you're always full of traffic it is a matter whether it's snowing or not there are just too many cars i've been stuck in traffic for five hours and you have to also keep in mind the fact that over the past weekend temperatures have risen significantly and then dropped literally overnight in the entire city was covered with ice sheets of ice on the roads on the sidewalks so there are massive traffic disruptions because of the conditions on the

roads there are very many accidents the ice that has engulfed the russian capital over the weekend has paralyzed not just the traffic on the ground it actually also caused massive disruptions to all of most because major airports. thousands of people stranded for days on end without proper food water. someone that you see everyone responsible for this situation has to be in place celebrating the new year we did it was out of power but people continue to arrive at the airport there was no information provided eight thousand people were stranded there what did you do to help people nothing but weather forecasters are saying that this kind of sort of but there but actually take a turn for the worst as there is more ice and more i see rain is expected to fall in moscow in the next couple of days so this actually may not be such a merry holiday season for it's after all parties are going to go to school

reporting that now fifty five trillion dollars and counting that's the total u.s. debt the highest in the world congressmen are calling for tougher cuts with social spending already trimmed but as are to this reports the military still 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 our 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 defense 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 neil collins 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 and 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 questions their 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 they were evolving door through which employees from the defense contracting enterprise when jobs at 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 hospice r. t. washington d.c. .

the danish newspaper that printed the controversial prophet mohammed cartoons five years ago. the most serious. in the country the publication of the cartoon depicting the prophet mohammed with. across the world. president says that resuming peace talks with the north is the only way to resolve. the north. killing four people. being called a. severe flooding continues. to rise even higher in the coming

days. hundreds of homes over a thousand people have been evacuated from the worst affected areas and nearly three hundred roads across have been closed. while. in trouble with the law. mayor yuri luzhkov could face charges of corruption money laundering and fraud as artie's acquitted in a grove of reports russian investigators suspect alleged murky dealings may have

been a family affair. why did call the workers at one of moscow's banks are facing jail for lending too much credit and trust to the city's former mayor your english golf and his wife russia's richest woman in a 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 ot the bank of moscow owned by a friend of the gulf 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 is here . to 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 its account might she 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 would committing suicide the eggs man's wife came out squeaky clean. on closer inspection it appears that 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 new 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 we'll ask him haggard mask of ice they say the shady deal was so blatant it looked as if the former mayor took the

money from the city budget wrapped it up for christmas cross the street 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. you. know that these allegations are out in the open experts believe those in charge will be forced to pick up the tap 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. 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 exceeding the show ard t. . and for all of our stories and much much more you can just head over to our web site that's common here a few of the things you can find waiting for you want line right now the story of a russian who's preparing for the prediction of the two thousand and twelve

apocalypse but he seems to be making his own arrangements to avoid it. in the time for. international christmas festival kicks off in the russian capital with this year's celebrations dedicated to spain can access the story and all of the other stories twenty four hours a day. just now about seventeen minutes past the hour here in moscow you with r.t. and time now for the latest in our close up series exploring russia both on and off the beaten path.

and this week artie is a close our team is in the screeching which is in the southwest siberia in the second part of the series where you take a look at how locals there are living and about learning their customs and traditions our very own guide to the region is tom barton and he shows us how people survived the cold harsh winters and what they do in their spare time and the time. of. the view from the end of a cossacks spear 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. much and i'm glad to see media they start teaching us friday when we turn servant and to trick ride at the age of thirteen depending on chance abilities and as for me i was very good at do i do horse at eleven as well as that i can handle a spear and a saber 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 communally potters a team spirit to fill in the cossacks society. a team spirit necessary for the cossacks noblest pursuit hunting on the sharp end the beloved fast russian dog the 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 glory is master not just to those 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 like living 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 ottoman at the evening meal where he tells us about the history the cossacks originally came from lands 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 are 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 the 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. but tonight

at least the elders of the village were allowing themselves a few liberties. somebody reporting that now wiki leaks is the world's number one whistle blowing web site but it's only been around for about four years so who or what came before it and he really is behind the leaking of top secret government documents to whistleblowers we have the answers coming up next in our special interview stay with us. before there was ever wiki leaks there was cryptome the website cryptome dot org

has been publishing information prohibited by governments this includes classified and secret documents on u.s. soil since the one nine hundred ninety six now the co-founder of that site joins me now to tell us more john young i want to thank you so much for joining us now as i said cryptome dot org has been in the business of making government secrets public long before wiki leaks was tell us a little bit about the history and philosophy of your web site the site was set up principally to publish information about communication security which is the fundamental technology for keeping secrets and it grew out of my participation of a group called software punks which was also a group. learned his skills and so that this group was composed of very highly educated engineers scientists and technicians who were mostly working for corporations or government on the technology of communication security and they

knew that this was going to come into the private market as a cold war wound down and they want to get information out to the public about what was coming so we set up the site to make that information available from people had access to it but did not want to be identified as a source everything we're doing we know that we cannot keep any secrets about our site and we told our readers you should not expect to protect you because we're being watched and every other side is being watched just like we hear leaks is being watched so that is a. secrecy on the internet and we make that clear that's the lesson we've learned and we now try to spread that. message to be very aware of the internet which is a very large scale spying machine what really really motivates you to expose these secrets why is this your vocation why do you feel strongly that this needs to happen well because secrecy is the biggest. enemy of democracy. it is way over done and so threats to democracy are coming from the inside about from the secret

keepers and that they need to be expose it to become a huge industry it's extremely expensive and you can't criticize it you can't get access to it because those who go inside that world are sworn to lifetime secrecy about it and they can never talk about it and i'm saying that's a system that is anti-democratic and it's a big business now thousands of firms have been drawn into it since nine one one because it's very lucrative and so we need to have less secrecy in congress about secrecy in the presidency unless you can see in all forms of government you should know that governments leak more information all the rest of us put together for their own purposes and their own describe the employees are or are encouraged to leak secrets and to see what happens and they leave laptops around and so left behind by a drunk they leave papers around they put stuff on wiki leaks these are all well known techniques to a lot of the public create sympathy and get more funding there are schools to train people like bradley manning and doing just that on the internet it's at fort huachuca this is one of their training syllabuses that we publish as they they they

actually teach young people how to run the sting operations by leaking information to test the system something called a team should be teams that do combat on the internet but leaking this stuff they've hired hackers to do that hackers in fact are a favorite employees now of such groups and so this is talked about at hacker conferences about how you get in on the if you can pick up good money by one being an informant to is running these test systems infiltrating systems. sending out false information. but this is not new this has been going on ever since sort of been a spy world and so i just say it's now the internet is now used for that purpose what does it achieve that well it achieves one funding if you don't have threat you don't need the system so leaking threats so then people say oh no this is scary this information that is randomly surprisingly gotten out so we need to go support whatever our government is saying it needs in terms of ramping up homeland security funding or. you know breaching civil liberties in the name of protecting protecting

against terrorism that sort of thing is that we are effective the latest one that perfectly but usually gets called cyber security with a brand new cyber command that's just been given a huge amount of money it's been in the works so ever since the internet popped up sarber security and so if we could leaks hadn't invented itself let's assume that it did it would have been invented because this is a goldmine for people who don't stop or security and don't forget most of this work is handed out to contractors and universities and research institutions and so it's widely based. money flow and so without that we would have no defense department we'd have no national security apparatus that would have less need for the president or congress so one of the things that's important to keep in mind here is that this is a deeply entrenched approach turns out i'm not i'm tired of i'm not anti-government i'm anti secret government but one of the ways though you cover up your own fault is to raise a new threat and blame other people and that's what we see coming with wiki leaks

it's going to be blame for of the state department's own failure to protect its own material harbor threats will probably have eventually replaced terrorists that you know there's been this claim that terrorists are using the internet to plot attacks on us so it's a kind of weighting of the two and so there's these kind of accusations of these new teacher who question people about we could be bigger terrorists was expected part of that pattern it's a repeat of the red menace and all these other kinds of fabricated ministers and so now they are good now they've got a fair bit. opportunity to say well the enemy is already inside the us and they're on the internet because we set it up it's ours and there are they've infiltrated whatever about people that would listen to your take on that and say that just sounds like a conspiracy theory well conspiracy theory was invented by the spies no one knows more more conspiracy theory than spies do national security out of paradis conspiracy theories all the time but they put out the story that is just conspiracy theory as though it's contemptible but in fact they're the ones who cooked up threat the.