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a question of time already jailed former russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky waits sentencing in a new case that could see him starting to get his more in jail. also forgotten passengers russia's prime minister slams our port and airline officials after thousands of people were left stranded in moscow time and all for days without basic help or travel information. boiling the way it was award the u.s. military budget continues to expand despite more social spending. new so russia under around the world this is all see with me thanks for joining us

joe all tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky and his former partner blotto negative are awaiting sentencing by moscow court judge has been reading the lengthy voted for the last three days but the defense expect a conclusion by friday found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars and gives more added to that existing sentence i don't know the cards fall in the case. but new charges suggest more you laundering and embezzlement persecutors are saying that new car over there and its former partner blood on livid if stole as much as around thirty billion u.s. dollars worth of oil why you go so well 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 the prosecutors are insisting on extending that turned out to fourteen years behind bars and now michael died it was cool it slangy the scheme through which the money laundering

was done as according to the prosecutors the court concluded the 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 set a billion dollars worth of oil still going by 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 own skin labels 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 negative were found guilty of embezzling a total of three hundred fifty million tonnes 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. all about russia's judicial system and it has to be resolved within the country without the pressure from the international community on the court over the third day of the hearing has come to an end and many lawyers expected that the hearing of the verdict would be done before the end of this year and the beginning we've heard that there were three hundred pages worth of paper works in divergent 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. russia's prime minister has

told authorities in charge of the force on the power supply they will be spending the holidays at work this follows severe disruptions of several across the capital that left thousands of people stranded the snow and freezing rain that paralyzed the capital airports also call say traffic grind to hold at one point on wednesday it's estimated in quote over three thousand kilometers more than a distance between moscow and barcelona. 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 average people today will have to wait to spend about three to four hours a night so yeah 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 it's a daily problem 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 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 all 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 two of most because major airports. thousands of people stranded for days on end without proper food water. everyone responsible for this situation has to be in place celebrating the new year . it was out of power but people continue to arrive at the there was no information

provided. people were stranded there. to help people nothing but weather forecasters are saying that this kind of sort of weather be 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 after all this is our sea on the lake so we'll tell you how people in rural russia stay fit whether it's mud of thirty or plus thirty celsius outdoors join in so now it's the ration of siberia as always creatures find out how dark or sunset presiding ancient traditions and keeping team spirit and why . trillions of dollars in debt and falling deeper the u.s. is looking to cut spending but not in the direction of the military in fact the pentagon is receiving more money now than at any point in american history and

while congressmen are working hard to trim social spending we investigate what escaping the military has done to save the one hundred. 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 as are 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 does 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 ninety nine iraq nine hundred ninety one somalia nine hundred ninety two haiti nine hundred ninety four bosnia 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. 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 it's addicted to war spending and it's a bit of the 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 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. . well you know with and still ahead with the russian capital on a bug. do you deal with still believe as the bull mayor took the money from the city budget. christmas period from. prison to do you suppose i've been full of you. so we investigate be counter trailing also has people

ned. but with a gun let's take a look at some other stories that have been making headlines around the world five suspected militants have been arrested for allegedly planning a gun attack in denmark they say that target was the copenhagen offices of the danish newspaper that printed the controversial prophet muhammad cartoons five years ago officials described as the most serious terror plot after ever attempted in the country the publication of the cartoons one of which depicted the prophet muhammad with a bomb so calls months protests among muslims across across the world. the president of south korea says resuming six party peace talks with the north is the only way to resolve nuclear tensions on the korean peninsula it follows the north shelling in one of the south's islands last month killing four people people young said that time it was

a response to seoul's recent military exercises which have been called a part of military provocation by the north and it's going state of the world spike in tensions on the peninsula as the war sixty years ago. severe flooding continues to wreak havoc across north east australia with water levels expected to rise again in the coming days rains small in rivers that binds destroying crops bridges and hundreds of homes over a thousand people have been evacuated from the worst affected areas and nearly three hundred roads across queensland have been closed authorities have declared several towns in the region of disaster and it's. our favorite authors and laura in trouble with the law moscow's deposed school could face charges of corruption that well it will draw a fraud and that's the ritual in our reports russia investigators suspect those calls alleged dealings were a family affair. why did 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 little cough and his wife russia's richest woman in a find themselves of the central yet another scandal prosecutors suspect them of laundering some thirteen billion rubles almost half a billion dollars in a somewhat primitive but simming really effective for a lot 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 who 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 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 board learn from but soon are only covered her debts while bankers across the world will 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 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 wrapped it up for 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 x. it. will of the months 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 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 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 friend those in. it will be easy there's a loan agreement in place. so the consequences of a 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 exiting the churchyard t. . and for all our stories and much more head to our web site dot com but here's what you can find online right now this still is not it's in the sky above southern russia had some speculating that aliens had come down to greet the new year with the locals but all for a more downtown explanation a visit. to also find out why russia's father christmas or dead mother

rose was fined three hundred dollars a kid walked home. and now for the latest in our clothes that series exploring russia both on and all the track. base week r.c. is close our team is in the almost granger which is in southwest siberia and the second part of this series we take a look at how locals live that i love about their customs and traditions our guide to the region bartle shows us how people survive the cold and also what they do

when to time and. 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 cruel tradition which has lasted for centuries. they started when we turned 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 i can handle a spear and a saber that's got your. arm and 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 the training communally fosters 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 the bars only bred to perfection over centuries and not for any ordinary prey. but they were selected for this speed and anger because they must be able to get the better of a wolf. with gore is master not just of his hounds but of this whole cause village he's called the atom out and he has to show skill in leadership from solving british disputes down to training dogs to catch hares. although 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 and all 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 desires in return for grams 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 their self-sufficient way of life especially when it comes to resisting the bad habits of the city. it's no easy matter living 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 tom barton r.t. . now we can make this the world's number one whistle blowing web site but it's only been around for four years so we're all came before it at who really is behind

the top secret government documents to whistleblowers and have got the answers up next our special and so pleased to stay with us. before there was ever wiki leaks there was crypto on 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 crypto 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 so i was set up principally to publish information about communication security which is the fundamental technology you for keeping secrets and it grew out of my participation of a group called software punch which was also a group or a group just launched learned his skills and show that this group was composed of very hollywood u.k. to do 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 who had access to it but did not want to be identified and as a source everything we're doing we know that we cannot keep any secrets about our side and we tell our readers you should not expect us to protect you because we are being watched and every other side is being watched just like we hear leaks is being watched so there's no secrecy on the internet and we make that clear that's the lesson we've learned and we now try to spread that. message 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 less secrecy in the presidency and i'm sick of seeing all forms of government you should know that governments make 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 if 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 published as they.

actually. teach young people how to run the sting operations by the leaking information to test the system there's something called a team should be teams that do combat on the internet but leaking the 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 hacker conferences about how you get in on the if you can pick up good money by one be going to informant who is running these tests 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 threat 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 should we could he should call stop or security with a brand new cyber command has just been given a huge amount of money it's been in the works or 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 talking to 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 so that's. what we see coming with wiki leaks is going to be blamed for the state department's own failure to protect its own material to harbor threats will probably of eventually replace 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 wedding of the two and so there's these kind of accusations of these new congressional people about we could be speak of terrorist as 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 have that now they've got a fabulous opportunity to say well the enemy is already inside the u.s. they're on the internet because we set it up it's ours and there are they've infiltrated what has 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 cooks up 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.