you know we saw that the snow. would result from a cold closer to home occur revering had told the current citrus otoh mckown. interstate aviation committee publishes new transcripts of recordings from the plane crash that killed president lech kaczynski as the polish parliament reviews the official investigation report. the russian has been we continue to be a truce in the middle east peace process. president jimmy but it made better of reiterated moscow's position on some meeting with the king of jordan as he wraps up his tour of the region. few hours in the chinese president means to the u.s. counterpart anxiety of swings washington over losing towns growing influence on the

global stage. a recent deal between b.p. and ross that could spark investor interest in other state assets as that your company's plan to carry out exploration in russia's arctic shelf i'll have more on that in about twenty minutes time. a very warm welcome see this is live from moscow unless have beds the polish prime minister told his country's parliament the political games should not affect the pursuit of the truth and the investigation of the plane crash that killed the former president. government wants the truth to be complete and we realize that it will be inconvenient for many there is a complex number of causes for the crash it's convenient to blame the pilots that are under pressure for others it will be convenient to gain the russians but it

would be the whole truth the organization that seeks the truth must be influenced by forces in poland that wanted to be convenient for them. released the full transcript of the air traffic controllers conversation with the crew of the plane that crashed last april in the west of the country killing polish president lech kaczynski and ninety five others it shows the ground services war the crew to the conditions on the airfield were not conducive to landing and propose several times that they land at another field if this column is off the wall still blame the washington trainers and criticized the final report on the interstate commission as incomplete that profile of the polish crews lack of experience as well as pressure from officials to land as the main cause of the crash even if the now is keeping across developments for us. so far we've had mixed reaction from poland we understand they're going to try to get on the same page and find

consensus from the prime minister donald to this guerrilla typically diplomatic reaction from the current president borderline anti russian rhetoric and from the late president's family blake who blaming russia for the crash we've heard from experts and have understood from reaction that there seems to be a bit of an internal battle inside the country as to how they should we should we react to this report but it is expected from these hints that we've heard that the reaction could be less than positive but we heard from the polish interior minister as well as other high ranking polish officials on tuesday and basically they're looking to put the blame with russian air traffic controllers now that's despite international. aviation laws which basically state that any final decision to land lies with the pilot and his crew but also that air traffic controllers can never deny a landing they can only advise to land at an alternate airport which we know from the cockpit recordings that was done several times in this incident in reaction to

what we heard out of poland on tuesday the interstate aviation committee took an unprecedented move they published new transcripts of recordings that took place during that flight here's a piece of one of the conversations that was revealed. what are the weather conditions fog four hundred metres visibility temperature and pressure please temperatures plus two pressure seven forty five seven four five there's no opportunity for landing thank you but if it's possible we'll try a landing approach weather permitting if not we will proceed to the second circle one a one when you have enough fuel for a second circle after the landing approach yes we will making a landing approach is the captain's decision at the height of one hundred meters you have to make a decision and vitebsk will be requested for a sidetrack have you ever made an ending at a military airfield of course polish one a one at one hundred meters be ready to proceed to a second circle yes sir flaps and wheels down high control horizon make

a second circle make a second circle make a second circle where is it make the second circle one zero one. call emergency crews. to poland who perhaps accepting this report we do know that the committee is confident that they have the evidence to prove their findings are accurate and thorough and that's also been deemed internationally by x. first round the world the family of the late polish president lech kaczynski has denied all the findings of the interstate aviation committee and pretty much blatantly said that they believe russia is responsible for the death of lech kaczynski his son omar to be more specific claims that the plane crash was a planned a softer nation in revenge for kaczynski and the russian rhetoric also to prevent him from being reelected but many experts around the world that we've been speaking to in the past couple of weeks believe that first of all not all of poland believes that second of all that people in the country who do support these kind of accusations obviously have had

a hard time trying to break with the old stereotypes of russia as the enemy and it's certainly hoped at least diplomatically that that won't be what the polish parliament concludes today as they review this official report. well ahead of the poem its reaction. to the polish president admitted that it's hard for poles to accept the truth about the tragedy. for it is hard for post to handle a difficult truth and this is a difficult truth we have calls in for some things in this report which help us to shift some responsibility away from us and the situation. that make it hard to face its psychological difficult you know and the fact that it occurs within the context of polish russian relations there is an internal political war in poland with these things do not allow us to speak about the sea should not present any solace conclusions. when aviation security expert chris says poland's independent

investigation called possibly find any new facts about the tragedy is the final report has already. the interstate aviation committee as far as i can see has a perfect job of of this investigation all of the evidence we have before us now i can't see that if the polish side is going to decide to carry out another investigation is that it would be results will be any different from what we've seen and you haven't since the evidence so it is hard evidence it is factual and you know we simply can't change that with yet another investigation into the events you know we're talking about very clear instructions here from air traffic controllers to the pilots that there were no conditions for the landing the weather conditions were such that the airports was below operating the pilots on board the aircraft should have taken note of that but quite clearly some form of pressure

was brought to bear so the psychological pressure or suchlike cause the pilots to take what amounts to a rush decision to attempt to make a landing that airfield on that. you're with coming up in just a few minutes a muscle the media find out why you remember trading behind many african countries in terms of press freedom. go ahead it's probably one of the world's mission of the russian winter song girlfriend you're there exist. i could fill you in symphony exhilarated right now. reports of london and we're using water for i know you did for along with owls with the russians mocking the. swiss banker who claims to have hounded to wiki leaks data on tax evaders is facing trial

in zero rudolf elmer is accused of breaking the country's strict banking secrecy rules to discuss the story i'm not going to lie low investigative journalist tony gosling he's in the english city of bristol for us discussing many thanks for joining us so another person now going to trial for ties with nixon this too harsh your response with many now saying that the sly didn't that you're real anything new to begin with. or alice well i think many people will be wondering why we're seeing this right now and it looks like this is a case that started a couple of years ago. and we have it we have a bit of a problem here because this guy seems i mean this is going to i think this case is going to send shock waves across the swiss banking system because this this chap rudolf has come up with some incredible information it looks like we have forty

politicians and many other business people around the world who have literally been hiding large amounts of their assets in the swiss bank accounts and this is something that they've been getting away with for decades and he is really the first person you ever come out and leak this information out to the public so i think everyone in switzerland we are watching this very very closely but there is a kind of balance here because everybody has their bank account wants their information to be kept secret but i think that that is really the basis on which this court case is going ahead but here we have a different case where you've got many very rich very powerful powerful people with fantastic amounts of assets we're talking about big corporations too and those i don't think you really should be treating those in the same way and looking and guarding their privacy in the same way as ordinary people because there is a i don't think it's much much doubt here that there's massive tax evasion been going on and the swiss authorities have been too relaxed on it for far too long and

now they're going to get their comeuppance so huge ramifications for the banking sector not only in potentially but also across the world but let's also talk about the ramifications of the wiki leaks fell do you think the fact this. has now been taken to court that it might well deter people who may have considered leaking something to wiki leaks in the future and could that potentially have an impact on freedom as. well i think that's the whole point of this court case in fact that the reason. is to try to make sure that any bankers who are thinking of leaking information whether to investigative journalists or wiki leaks on the internet anywhere have a second thought and that's the whole point of this case i don't think that there's any real real prospect of really saying that this is an ordinary theft of information or theft like if you've been shoplifting or something which is the way they seem to be swiss authorities. taking the case so i think it's the whole thing

is in the balance though it's really difficult to tell whether or not. the jury if there is a jury in this case which way they will find the idea is of course to try and make sure that no one else thinks of doing this because it's uncovering a soft underbelly of this kind of for sol the swiss swiss banking. that this is a very important you know this is a very important institution people can trust i don't think we can trust them and i think that what we're finding out through misinformation that's been leaked is that we can't necessarily trust the swiss authorities. for example dictators there's one dictator for a moment nigeria. it looks like he looted two point two billion pounds from the jury an economy that has kept this square all the way in the swiss bank accounts and i would like to have seen the swiss authorities actually doing something about that the fact that they haven't i think is absolutely reprehensible so i would pat on the back rudolf elmer for doing this and i hope very much that he is released at

the end of this case and that more is done to stop people evading taxes by hiding their money and their other assets that's not just individuals corporations to and hedge funds in these swiss bank accounts the scandal revelations certainly coming out from from elmer on all this but of course one of the questions being asked by this with will. be about elmer's motivations in all this why do you think he turned to the internet and not. to the police to the swiss authorities if you think it's many think you should have done. well i think the facts speak for themselves the swiss authorities have a very strong vested interest in making sure that switzerland is seen to be a very good place to keep your money secret i mean we've had this whole business that for years of numbered bank accounts what on earth is that about a numbered bank account why should anyone need one the idea of course is that people are manipulated if only for example trying to hide their identity if if say

for example a hitman is hired obviously the thing to do is to use a number bank account to hire that this is outrageous and i think the swiss have really got to get their act in order and hopefully this case will force them to do that but the other issue about this case of course is the time element started leaking data we approximately three years ago but he only goes on trial now why is that is it purely coincidence that it's hot on the heels of the release of the u.s. diplomatic cables for example what is a good question it's really impossible to know why the timing is right now i think it may well be because we've had we've had several years in the mean time i mean let's remember this is from the cayman islands this all happened what is going on in the swiss of which he tried to get a court case going in the cayman islands and failed and why all the swiss actually trying a case which is all sort of cayman islands company and things that happened in the cayman islands in switzerland i think they found it a bit of

a legal nightmare and that's one of the reasons it's taken such a long time for this to come to trial right here fascinating court case unfolding as we speak involving rudolf elmer. all that material to wiki leaks for now investigate journalist tony got thing many thousand speaking to us thank you. ok also on the thursday the revelations are set to continue wiki leaks is to shed new light on u.s. russia relations will be the first to find out what these diplomatic cables are we'll be covering the story in full of course here on r.t. . russian president dmitri medvedev his middle east tour has reached jordan where talks have been fueled by potential energy deals he also spent time in the palestinian autonomy where he reiterated moscow's commitment to backing a palestinian state with a capital in east jerusalem arteaga that in the grand jury is following the visit for us. of course jordan for russia is more than just

a middle east partner in this region they have a very close very special relationship a visit is part of major proportions for the russian jordan economic summit which is due to take place in march these here and there the two leaders will see them talk how they're going to both straight konami ties their cooperation and adding just here today they also discussed plans for the construction of a nuclear power plant in jordan which several countries are beating to build and russia among those countries but of course all of that was on the sidelines of talks on the major on the top priority subject regional developments in the middle east and the israeli palestinian conflict. just russia has been and will continue to be in the middle east peace process we understand our responsibility and we continue to act in accordance with the decisions made by the international community. which from the bed of it has a reserve rated one in palestine or russia's position on the conflict which

actually hasn't changed since nine hundred eighty one then soviet union recognize palestine as an independent state today dmitry medvedev was looking for a month from the middle east peace process is obviously stalled at the three other members of the middle east quartet washington brussels and the united nations have so far been unable to persuade israel to make any form of concessions and russia is very keen to get engaged in talks with israel and palestine and palestinian president mahmoud abbas in an exclusive interview to set that russia had very good chances to become a key. peace negotiator. really recognize palestine in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight it was also recognized by ninety other countries what do we expect from russia now there are two things the first concerns the middle east quartet it's necessary to do everything possible to boost its activity so that it's similar to the role. the european union we would

like russia to convince the us because it's the only country that's against the final statement containing new conclusions it will help us to have a better substantiated discussion with israel while promoting the peace process russia could also insist on its position in stopping the settlement activity in its relationship with the u.s. and israel and on getting back to the negotiations table i think that russia is ready for that that's what president medvedev has reaffirmed during this visit. also the visit out the russian president to jordan coin sides will be orthodox church celebrations of it before any of this is one of the twelve major orthodox holy days and this side forty kilometers outside of amman the capital of jordan where we are now is the place where thousands of christians applauding every year because it is believed to be the site we're joined by jesus christ this is the first stand to make from a very of is making pilgrimage to this size as an orthodox christian is known to

celebrate all those were huge and holy days and he was always very keen on visiting the holy orthodox christian sites across the world. well find out more on the chinese president's visit to washington on a web site at www dot com while they do take a look at some of the apple stories we've got lined up for you out of the minutes find out why see the orthodox church official clown the founder of russian women as inappropriate accusing them of dressing like strip and. why there may be a march resting in peace and seven trees or not with plans to turn them into the life and soul of swiss society. ok the chinese president hu jintao is in the u.s.

for a four day state visit with discussions expected with. economics trade and human rights some say the u.s. the day is under pressure to clarify whether the country's upon all rifles or foreign affairs columnist simon tisdall says u.s. officials were last summer away from challenging china at this time. i think barack obama has a lot to do to persuade the american public and the american congress that he is sticking up to china he was accused when he went to beijing in two thousand and nine a time that was a bit unfair but he didn't get very much achieved and he's had his whole succession of administration officials in the past week for being trotting out a whole shopping list of demands or requests or the wish lists for chinese action and a whole range of areas as you mentioned to go into them on the economy on the security and on human rights and other issues which are which seem to matter more to obama than they do for a president who american press reports of artificial say that obama is going to be

much tougher this time while waiting on a very diverse reception from as to who is behind the scenes of the much tougher push in some of these issues particularly trade practices access to the chinese market and so on but whether he will get anything substantive out of it in the short term is i think questionable. media freedom in the european union is in decline already felt the findings of an international organization defending the rights of journalists it's that when you were being suggested in some countries reporters on the pressure from their governments and are often forced to reveal best false is well one stops country is allowed to via and all see the next year he met some journalists in the baltic states. with professional persistence latvian t.v. reporter. interviews a local politician in twenty years as a journalist she has done hundreds but one of them got her in serious trouble an

expose on a security breach in latvia state revenue body and it with police in her apartment was forced they opened their doors and went into my flat and then they showed that they had a security search they had a search warrant one say took my computer and information i had i got they also acquired information all of the my information sources which by a law i am allowed to protect and that was the biggest problem for me as a journalist because i could not protect my information sources it was a story shocked many in latvia a country used to press scrutiny just a couple of years ago latvia boasted one of the highest freedom of press ratings in all of europe being placed seventh on the annual reporters without borders index but for one reason or another in twenty ten this country is down on the very same list this incident is far from an isolated case say experts this one received a lot of public attention but it is not the only one a skull from the first bills

higher school an economist was charged but the secret police and she was actually arrested for two days for disseminating alternative opinions about the future of the local currency. devaluation a lot was imminent we are losing the last. support for the alternative information the liberal information. among the cross saltless in this country lotta love is and the other journalist who defined the insists freedom of the press is not being deliberately strangled he believes the reason is down to economics. newspapers when ben cropped up to the recession he. others turned to the rollers for money to survive so the. singlehandedly shifting the paper's editorial policies to their own preference simply for the sake of hurting a healthy dollar in their has directly heat press freedom. there are other theories

however some believe that latvia is spearing down the freedom of the press writings simply because the people behind the index are biased but not globalise that as long as nobody has been punished over the forceful search of her apartment concerns about pressure on the press may not be groundless. ski all see reporting from brega in latvia. now orthodox christians are celebrating the epiphany a holiday which mall the baptism of jesus thousands of believe with a plunging into frozen lakes and with temperatures plunging to minus fifteen degrees celsius it takes courage to pray forces are seen as peace on its cover. in the tradition of the author talks church here in russia the nineteenth of january is the date of the know what that means to people who worship the orthodox church is that was the date that jesus was but time now to celebrate that here they jump into the freezing cold rivers of russia now here in moscow where i am at least

could a hole in the ice on the mosque of our river to make sure that bush who isn't people can jump into the river and celebrate the feast day of the epiphany no it's not just a religious thing this is now become something of a health kick if you will for people that want to come into the water believe that the the icy temperatures can have some health properties for you can make you feel better in yourself the way it works in the religious sense is that it will see you again it will cleanse you of your sins and it will set you up for the new year rule of the blessing or of the ice pool by your priesthood it essentially into a film and simulation of the. chase is christ because it's a place where i take my word and turn it getting in the world to say it's about minus fifteen here the air temperature in moscow for apparently the temperature of the world is so i guess it's going to be a little bit warmer there's nothing left to do now but we'll get in. we'll see how

this goes. over. writing. let's see how do you prefer that the first they put their heart when they read mission that the russian wind is uncool you're there exists and. i could tell you i'm feeling very exhilarated right now. please share the assy moscow. one very brave. way to go to business now. hello welcome to our business program. the recent deal between b.p. and rosneft could spark investor interest in other state assets under the agreement

the two companies will carry out exploration in russia's arctic shelf artie's tom barton is now at rustan's headquarters following the latest developments. tom the head of ross staff has spoken to the media today what did he have to say. well roaster supporters are very happy about the deal that's been signed they say that essentially what's going to happen now is a whole new industry is going to be for the industry of offshore arctic drilling which didn't exist before in russia they also say that this is one of the first one billion dollars of this invested will be fielded by b.p. america happy about that the paper it's smart is also happy because they feel that they've got the expertise on the technology to make that work and get it right later on ros nestle also said that it's hinted they didn't it may be announcing future properties deals in the future and those may include other foreign companies it has seventeen licenses to explore off the north coast of russia and it's only

used three of those so far with the. time this is clearly a significant deal that the markets and the company shareholders are focused on can you tell us all that more about the specifics of the deals. yes the world heard the deal is to explore for an area about the size it's about one hundred twenty five thousand square kilometers about the size of the earth the ukase north sea oil exploration area it's called a global and optics to two to partnership what it really means is that exploration there's a lot of oil there it's estimated that is about a fifth of the world's oil reserves are on. the arctic. explorers here people from this deal from b.p. of course no record they might be able to start drilling in five to seven years other experts say that's a bit over confident it could be as many as twenty years before they could actually get drilling but the deal is very much of mutual benefit to both both sides rosneft

needs be the project to some specifically its advanced drilling technology and b.p. needs rosner after its gulf oil of mexico oil spill last april it needs to generate new revenue in the future so both sides looking for a positive outcome in the coming years from the steel. arches tom barton thank you . and that's all business news for this hour but you can always find more stories on our web site that's r t dot com slash business stay with us.