ross and the u.k. joined forces in the search for natural resources there's a will join but i will be stronger than a month and a billion dollar bet. that teaming up to explore the untapped natural reserves on the arctic sea beds i'll have more from london in just a moment. federal employees at the heart of the u.s. capital live the high life new figures show they're taking a double the money of their colleagues in the play that sets are struggling to make ends meet across the crisis group country. and schools in indian wrong kashmir choose education over the separatist movement defiance a lot of warnings to cancel classes it's.

a very warm welcome this is r.t. live from moscow i'm alice habits to all of the largest oil companies in the world russia and b.p. are getting together for a multi-billion dollar venture they sealed a talk of agree to explore an extract the on top branches of the arctic sea bed together and it has the latest from london. this is a deal they've been discussing for months rosneft and b.p. are calling this a groundbreaking strategic global alliance and it's the first major equity linked partnership between a national oil company rosneft and an international oil company like b.p. and what's happened is that they've done a share swap process has got five percent of b.p. in exchange for nine and

a half percent. so it's very important that the governments are on side as well and in fact a meeting was held with prime minister putin before this deal was signed let's hear what he had to say about the support that he's going to give this particular deal. i would like to let you know that the government of the russian federation supports this joint operation this is a project that could become global and have a significant influence on the world's oil and gas industry. to reserves are estimated to be five billion tons of oil and ten trillion cubic meters of. such a project may require tens of billions of dollars of investment and state of the art technology and we are fully aware of the risks involved which. they've agreed to together to develop and explore three separate areas on the russian arctic shelf and that covers an area of one hundred twenty five thousand square kilometers b.p. has been working in russia for twenty years it was really the natural choice of

course and there's a strong belief in russia in the competency of b.p. to carry out a project like this in spite of the disaster that we saw in the gulf of mexico last year and i spoke to. him who's the chairman of ross nafta and one of russia's deputy prime ministers here's what he had to say about why they chose b.p. for this. is working on a new strategy transforming the company into an international energy holding little bar do do you. b.p. is of course part of the strategy they've gained a great deal of experience including the gulf of mexico oil spill cleanup operation b.p. has learned from this experience and our joint venture will be carried out with the greatest level of measures aimed at protecting the environment you know we've been working with b.p. for many years they're competent and have strong experience of russian companies so she said i want to show you so there is a strong relationship already in place between b.p.

and rosneft before this deals even been signed and of course this is a large area this hundred twenty five thousand square kilometers is going to benefit both sides and the extra expertise technology and cash of course will be needed to be to be brought in so that's where b.p. comes in really the piece incredibly contrite now about the gulf of mexico oil spill the new c.e.o. bob dudley was brought into specifically to rehabilitate the reputation of the company if you like following that disaster and he's certainly going a long way towards doing that he talks a lot about it talks about how much they've learned and the chairman of ross snifter actually said to me expression which basically translates as once bitten twice shy he thinks that specifically because he suffered this disaster and was blamed for it particularly by the americans they will think twice about what they're doing next time so a company like that will have been versed in what to do when an environmental

disaster like this happens so they're not they're not green in any way bob dudley again talks about how contrite they were and what they're going to do to make sure that another disaster doesn't happen let's hear what he had to say. it's been working with ross now for twelve years now and we've been working on york to for us since two thousand and five with ross staff working with sokal and i know our capabilities are exploration capabilities and i think to be honest we learned a lot about what happened in the gulf of mexico. can the company to the core we're going to remove focus on safety. and the technology of this new for the environmental care of what we do this is a project that they're looking at looking at over a term of about fifty year is so these reserves are still unproven in the oil and gas reserves in the arctic so one of the first things that they'll be doing doing is looking to see just how much oil and gas is down there. it's not clear when we're going to see them actually drilling

a hole in the ground and bringing out so we just have to wait and see when our experts are calling the deal a huge boost for both companies and countries international trade consultant or philip the almost as b.p. has produced riding on russian potential. b.p. has invested so much in russia so they cannot step away. and russia still needs the expertise of western oil companies and it's mutual interest and it's interesting because you know they have to sell a lot of. the oil spill in the gulf of mexico to put money aside for the recovery from well they are saving their money for russia and so in this thing and they're investing more so it means that b.p. is there for the long term the potential of russia is so huge if it's not them it's going to be somebody else so it's really a question of gets in first they were world position be put aside their difficulties from the first the new so to move forward. and you can get more on

this story in our business because in a little later in the ground moving on government workers in washington are taking home on average double the wages of their private sector colleagues according to the new revised u.s. census well meaning the very people in charge of getting the nation out of its financial hole and living the high life treated looks at whether they're really working twice as hard. across the united states unemployment lines and lines at food pantries and homeless shelters has marked what's been called one of the worst recessions in u.s. history but there is one special place that remains untouched welcome to washington d.c. the city full of power players pundits and politicians outpace nearly every other city in the country when it came to job growth this past year one thing is sure about this recession is that the public sector employees have been relatively sheltered compared to the private sector so just how well are federal employees doing according to the latest census numbers the average federal employee made

a whopping one hundred twenty three thousand dollars last year in compensation and benefits a private sector employee cashed in at almost half that sixty one thousand dollars public employees i mean is are a powerful you know voter base for pro-government vission so of course they're they're very unlikely to go after them wait a second wasn't it on wall street that you saw greedy fat cats sucking away america's cash at the expense of everyone else remember what president obama said about those guys i did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know fat cat bankers on wall street while politicians in the media seemed obsessive we focused on the lavish payouts on wall street who knew that at the peak of the recession last year federal workers in washington got an average raise of four percent more than double the national average they have more vacation

they have job security lots of things that the private sector doesn't have in the first year and a half of the recession private sector jobs shrank by almost seven percent however here in washington federal civilian employment grew by almost ten percent the divide between washington and the rest of america is even more evident if you take a ride to the spry. following suburbs just outside the city home to d.c.'s influential lobbyists and lawyers with the potomac fairfax virginia if there is one man who knows the montra location location location it's eric stewart one of d.c.'s luxury realtors seven and a half million dollars over ten thousand square feet it's in one of the best locations in all of potomac feeds a great school districts very desirable for the average american upscale consumer stewart isn't worried about sales we're sucking jobs into the washington d.c. area which is causing prices to actually have stability and it's not just stylish

digs that d.c.'s fat cats can afford. this upscale restaurant in georgetown the reservation list for a weekday dinner is fall it's called release the right side of the same table mrs clinton you know who is now secretary of state came many times just a lot of people come from the hill and big big law firms while one in seven americans rely on food stamps at me shelvey shard citron now an average couple isn't shy to shell out what most couples make in a month on a meal or the tax and the temperance of the six hundred dollar range or whatever it may be and some nights we do as many as forty fifty. people love it at a time when most are struggling to survive it seems like the lucky in washington are living it up preassure either r t washington d.c. want to. show you how one inventor of russian is where the rules trample.

pongs case i can buy yourself a cold season play with speeds of up to one hundred fifty kilometers per hour through land ice snow and even. a russian journalist a white house briefing has cool something of a media stir with a question some have compared to the. cold war rhetoric of old all to offering his condolences over last week's arizona shooting rampage although he still thought of all stiff the spring he was an inevitable byproduct of american style freedom or press secretary robert gibbs responded family the reactions of the government were turned on the american saying the nation's values and never allow for violence the gunman is in custody after opening fire at a political rally in a two phone grocery store today six people were killed and thirteen more injured including representative gabrielle giffords on the stairs all told r.t.

he thinks the u.s. is a very sensitive point foreign desk question is domestic policy. after the briefing i was approached by a number of people and they talked to me very professionally very calmly i would say some instances even sympathetically they definitely knew where i was coming from and i was coming from the simple desire for the americans to have a discussion of this that is pretty sensitive and that would help prevent such incidents in the future what i was surprised later was to find in the books by correspondence from the white house press corps that many of them treated this as a resurgence of the cold war i think this is that was definitely misplaced it looks like there is a double standard here where an american journalist in moscow was asking about the internal politics of russia is a hero and the defender of human rights and democracy and if russian journalist in washington d.c. is up on a sensitive subject of internal politics here then he has some crow and then you

have the american people. russia has not taken up an invitation to tour iran's nuclear facilities it follows the insistence of russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov that such visits shouldn't be substitutes for official u.n. inspections seven international employees are currently looking around two nuclear sites are they keep ours china and he also refused the offer when iran extended the invited to a number of nations but not the u.s. western powers say it was an attempt to divide them when i was international concern over iran's nuclear ambitions but ran insistence program is peaceful and the offer was million goodwill gesture but experts believe any such attempts are doing to failure. to do so from ever there has been a start in negotiations or talks or whatever and it never worked out certainly there may be some people who thought that they could create a fish or or

a rift but from the never managed to really break up. the peace five plus one formula. the behavior of russia and china just shows once again that it doesn't work i think it's half expected such and such a reaction however during its wanted to show two things to their own domestic public that this we are ready to negotiate you have to see it with a second step the iranians did it again to which their own public namely to boost the blast about their own new newly achieved technological progress which is not true but again it sends a message to do also of course inside iran who are highly critical of any engagement with the international community that both things iran can be solved confident it wants to negotiate are important. check out some other international

stories this hour now and officials say that the president who fled to saudi arabia on friday will not return to power president ben ali was forced to concede control on weeks of unrest and violence the speaker of the parliament has taken over as interim leader or demonstrators have been calling for more political freedom and better economic conditions human rights groups claim around sixty people were killed in the car shoots. fresh rains are hampering ongoing rescue efforts in southeastern brazil following the worst floods ever seen in the country at least a five hundred people have died in that outre disaster and thousands of been left homeless mountain villages have been the swallowed up by the landslides officials say the death toll is likely to rise. or to even india say over one hundred pilgrims that been crushed to death during a stampede at religious festival in the southern states and corolla schools more were injured while the worshipers were on their way back from visiting

a hindu shrine when the accident happened reports say the stampede was triggered by a car driving into the crowd sparking panic. to india and out minister to kashmir and now west schools have decided to do without the traditional four month went to break dance in defiance of separations demands they close in support calls for independence or pupils will instead make up the academic days they lost over the last year due to massive protests against india these counseling met one of the young victims of the latest separatists attack in the area. in srinagar this is all that it means for the school bus it was good by a walk in forcing a general strike called by separatists in the capital of a needed minister meet luckily the only child on the bus six year old. was rescued by first they poured petrol under the bus then they smashed the windows the bus driver picked me up and took me out of the bus then those people so far that

this attack was meant as a warning to schools which would mean defeat would strike school by separatists and won independence afternoon spread of the bus attack many schools shut down for the day but not the issue of school i wanted to show. those who miscreants maybe every feel if you. had to lose difficult to survive separatist leaders have condemned the attack which is at the center of a public backlash separatist independence for which has been administered by india since british rule in india with most parents ignoring this rankles any separatists we considering that it should not be counterproductive i mean we are giving a strike call because we believe that we do present apartment present people in it and i think if people are giving you a response that you need to think something else you need to have an alternate

means other four hundred dollars than just strikes you need to come out with something else that's where we need to sit together and farm out a threat of doing that widespread violence with children what i need. for four months and last year i know you are just getting a lot of got to wonder then that with the violence easing you know parents are adamant that you attend school with militants like it or not we should be proud of one thing that the people in kashmir. very serious about educating the children. and especially the girl children the girl child. has four children all of them look back to the. fifteen who've spent most of the day looked at last in extra tuition. polities meanwhile have decided to keep school during the. winter so that students can recover the last.

one is happy with this decision of infrastructure and government is so poor and it's all so pathetic that schools that even don't have windows and doors how can you how can you how can you hit them how can you want them it's going to be freezing cold and it's not i mean it's a have. to have a window because it's not i mean they wanted as you know and they had but then why are we suffering if we had nothing to do with the as i believe you were and have been given. the go next the swedish shoes clearly affecting people. with these children we caught up with the political this is called. whether or not the academic future is going to be impacted lies entirely in the hands of the little button saying r.t. . do you had to call for more stories we're online few twenty four hours a day here's just a taste of what you'll find there the minutes moscow demanding long to me the

challenge is all free to russia national. accused of spying for the kremlin well they released on bail she has to pay strict conditions waist deep in taishan herring and on the table. i got cash is difficult when a bank a.t.m. is fake people in ukrainian capital kiev and to learn the hard way. plus fifty million dollars worth of art was stolen from a russian businessman country residence or paintings by prominent russian artists will find out used to play on r.t. dot com. now it's the season for getting your skis and skates but if you're looking for a foster way to get around you might want to check out the window hovercraft

invented by russian aviation engineer that lives over the snow at speeds of over one hundred kilometers per hour rafa national went to try it out. russia's snow drifts in the winter oh impossible slashing the screen can make life hard for many but on this one can go just about everywhere. it. was that. was. the russian point skate to can travel at speeds of up to one hundred fifty kilometers per hour make an italian deal as a snappy runaround or a had turning how the emotion courts siberian man bought one his house is on one

side of the linda river his body out on the other which he said i'm so lazy to travel over with gary is it so easy for both of us to shoot when mom called me and asked whether we can get a trailer with two beds in the hatch inside the cockpit for fishing on the ice. garry's was designed in the town of cough ski hand to russia's annual international asho and by former abbey asian engineers not surprising that it has a lot in common with its wings and brothers some of them is patented features a great handling and improve safety it's got a very strong roll cage even if you capsize are you going to get is lots of adrenalin with thinking about installing an airbag another bit of know how is the propellant is mounted up front or if it's covered so there's no chance of a scarf getting into it and dragging its owner into the blades besides it's warm and dry in there. the rock currently only four gary says in the world but soon its creators say it could become mass common as scooters and bicycles. there are plans

to start mass production next year now we're looking for sponsors and facilities as for those who want one they're queuing already so there's no problems with demand just not just for. today it may only be two seats floating in a question of fat but if you float an upgrade idea past the engine years they're more than happy to listen that is of course if his stump up the twenty thousand bucks price tag if they carry supplies here there. are a few notion r t moscow region. business on the way and now it's a trade. welcome to business are to good to have your company b.p. and rosneft have indeed agreed to jointly develop a number of projects notably on russia's arctic shelf the fields potential capacity is around free and

a half percent of the world's proven oil reserves in roughly five percent of the world's gas reserves the oil majors of also agreed to swap shares b.p. will provide five percent of its shares worth around eight billion dollars in exchange for nine and a half percent in rosneft only we spoke to consenting seaman of the head of the national energy security fund and he says the deal will promote investment in russia. i think it's an excellent deal for both companies and not only for companies we can also mention the interests of the russian federation us speaking about b.p. company of course we know where it will be a story in mexico and gulf and after this we ease in the serious need in a good news if it's possible to say it's also bad is why for b.p. of course it's an excellent use because. during the last half of the year b.p. was sailin satan cillian its assets and now very serious increase in possible increase of the role of b.p. in russian business for those nifty it's also good news why because. now it was on

the way to serious bottom in the west and we know that. he's preparing for. we can separate ization of this company i fusilli our government said assume in the few years it's possible to sell more than fifty percent of the private investors think for the russian business climate having such a such a deal is is a good idea absolutely because you know that i said about last year because russian government during all two thousand and seven soon we will have a realization of. tax regime the british know how well war you were speaking about for the lesson because. he made two thousand and eight president signed the floor about foreign investment in the strategic oil industries and there were huge discussion that now we see because in the russian market now we want to show it because and what you said yesterday that there will be special to all these are the project because of course we know the price of production we will you see this and

first of all we know that there is a special roof we. i think that maybe there will be a special tax issue for spokesman project that there will be a special room for b.p. of this new joint when she know what. project so i think of all that is where now russia will show that the. really want to change i would like some more reason for the west wing. what do you think the most immediate investor reaction on the stock market on monday will be. the price on the. scalp in the new company will be increasing it's a really very very very very easy to focus. let's take a look now at how the russian markets closed on friday and there was a slight correction but overall the week was positive and was positive for ross never bought on friday's session it was down two point six percent before the news of course broke on the deal. over the week the my six again three point four

percent the r.t.s. five percent making russia the best performing emerging market of today. so the russian stock markets indeed came out strong in their first week of trade after the long new year holidays especially with one of its traditional drivers oil at a two year high sales traded on highs all from citibank explained to the stocks that were the main drivers i would say this week were rosneft stocks a lot of the large energy names in two thousand and ten lagged the market in general this week both of those stocks traded above key resistance levels and were able to hold those levels which are quite a bit of demand of them and one of the reasons why the russian market did so well this first week commodities are generally very strong crude oil held above the need for. we've seen brant closing about one hundred dollars level once again so that's obviously very supportive for the russian market also metals were quite strong and so we have for now but you can always buy more stories on our website that's r.t.

dot com forward slash business headlines are next stay with us.

the big. the be. the big. the be the enemy. this is street still keeps its secrets but now it's time to reveal living in the soviet files house on the embankment on our team.