two thirty am in moscow good to have you with us here on r t these are your headlines president medvedev pledges swift action against those behind the terror attack at moscow's domodedovo airport the airport's management is facing charges of negligence after a suicide bomber was able to pass security and killed thirty five. more than one hundred people injured in the blast are still in hospital many of them in critical condition. the new strategic arms reduction treaty between russia and the us gets the green light from the lower house of parliament in moscow after months of debate . and europe's top human rights organization backs are report that claims the kosovo liberation army was involved in organ trafficking during the conflict with serbia more than ten years ago. more news coming your way in less than half an hour

of next we report on the day the world stood on the brink of nuclear war the cuban missile crisis stay with us. this club is hosting a tournament in which teenagers are taking part they are playing a computer game a touch of the caribbean crisis or as its better known the cuban missile crisis the game has a historical setting in the united states in the former u.s.s.r. of fighting battles at sea in the air and on the ground we got them. everybody's dead this video game is based on the actual events of october one thousand nine hundred sixty two a period of confrontation between u.s. president john kennedy and soviet leader nikita khrushchev in response to the american deployment to ballistic missiles in turkey targeted may just soviet cities the soviet union retaliated the stationing their own missiles in cuba about time

the world found itself one step away from the start of global nuclear war. the way of life in this small village never changes that's why the appearance of any newcomer in south is a big event. when the first soviet specialists came to the village in august one thousand nine hundred sixty two the locals were told to keep their mouths shut. a large plot of land in the village outskirts was fenced off with barbed wire what went on inside that enclosure was kept secret for a long time. today and old bunker is in ruins the residents have found a use for everything they could take from those ruins. here for example you see all these places all they. are now in grown were set up all the by russian i'm. not even came here now you can see this now you can get

a little dish so we are in a place where part of the wall was the border. of that there was. his family has been cattle breeders for decades or more lopez largo has a big farm by local standards in autumn nine hundred sixty two cuban military men knocked on his doorstep among them was a young officer william rocket might hello or more hello friend. how are you my friend i haven't seen you for ages. you haven't dropped in for a long time it's been so long since we saw each other how's it going not too bad ok let's go and turn. back in one thousand nine hundred sixty two when i'm our first met the cuban military there wasn't time for idle chit chat. the conversation was short and to the point his family was asked to give away their land for the deployment of military hardware brought in by companeros from the soviet union but

abramoff they came and said that we should leave the house in the next seventy two hours at that time a construction team was already at work here it took them seventy two hours to build a new home for us. camouflaging the missiles under the trees with tents turned down to be an almost impossible task the pantries grew too far away from each other on october fourteenth one thousand nine hundred sixty two a u.s. air force surveillance drone flew over the territory of cuba it took several aerial photos cia analysts identified the soviet ballistic nuclear missile launchers on a photograph taken a list san cristobal. tech stars a process in about six hours. of looking at it i was really surprised. this is country is not conducive but it's good for secrecy. out of the group of officers who were sent to kibera nine hundred sixty two

a small handful is still alive for many years they have been gathering to mark the anniversary of dispatching the first soviet missiles to what's now known as the island of freedom this time the better. met the commander of the russian rocket troops. in cuba i was division service chief and there's a good surname in the division where i served we had a general is name was general of. in the end they all posed for pictures against the background of an r twelve missile the soviet union delivered a total of forty two of these missiles to cuba they were able to reach the us territory in six minutes after launch. world that they were all in order to transport my regiment to the port but there will we needed eleven seventy carriage trains. with a lifting capacity of sixty tons each. a secret operation to transfer soviet troops to cuba was code named after

a town in the north of the soviet union most of the forty thousand troops that took part in that operation was sure they were going to the north. in september nine hundred sixty two field nurses united on sky found herself onboard one of these ships a voyage lasted eighteen days. the ideal we were where in passing trances sticks old shoes and ordinary stockings all men the saw that soldiers and officers were dressed in flannel to greet shuras with small pattern for soldiers and big one for officers. all the ships that arrived from the soviet union in one nine hundred sixty two were more than this port the service men proudly got off the ships without hiding their faces alleging that they had arrived in cuba to gather the harvest cause no doubt some of the locals their weaponry was discharged in conditions of top secrecy even today the shooting of films here is forbidden.

the form of participants of those events who guarded the secret cargoes agreed to speak into cameras only inside their cars this was a real real secret movement some people. turn off the lights of the street. very quiet. the military tried to stop traffic everything but anyway they say this is secret. cuba see yankee no motherland or death. yes yankee no. local school children know these mottos of the cuban revolution by heart they are still wearing pioneer scars after the cuban revolution they borrowed that symbol from the new ally the soviet union. the morning lineup in school looks more like

a military ritual. cuban school children study the events of the past fifty years that history lessons prata telling them about the revolution itself a teacher shows a selection of black and white archive on a monitor the schoolchildren are shown how americans carelessly spent their time in a pre-revolutionary cuba as if they were the masters of their own destiny and i mean. to me fidel is the biggest hero of all heroes whom i know because fidel supported the ideas of our independence as he is a revolutionary oh the only person who had to put up resistance to the united states in the time of neo colonialism. the history of the kievan revolution and prevails rise to power i described in the memoirs of witnesses and in photographs today one can find these publications at bookstores in the center of havana historian thomas d.s. is a frequent guest here some new books including foreign literature and human history

have appeared here more recently. this book reminds me of my youth. it was printed in one thousand nine hundred fifty nine you could usually find these cards gather an entire collection of these cards in the told the history of the cuban revolution. local historians claim to have been moving three hundred fifty attempts to assassinate fidel castro the leader of the cuban revolution according to them the cia was the main offender. although one of the three hundred fifty six assassination attempts on fidel's life was supposed to take place in mid september one thousand nine hundred sixty during his visit to the united nations headquarters the thing is there was a poisoned cigar the policeman responsible for the operation refused to obey orders they just awarding that cia operation in one nine hundred sixty.

in one nine hundred sixty one a year before soviet missiles were deployed in cuba the cia had worked out a military operation to bring down fidel's government a group of american trained cuban emigrants landed in cuba's play of pigs so quiet here on the superior forces of fidel castro stopped their offensive by next day the attempt to seize power fails. the bay of pigs was a disaster. it was poorly done and. and kennedy had stopped the. at stopped. the navy from giving support i mean it was strictly. they're the real rebellious force that when n. which was a bad bad move on the part of the place. ever out of though was only twenty when the bay of pigs battle took place little has

changed since then. he hasn't been here for forty years but he had no difficulty finding the place where the american sent forces landed. the government forces fought for every millimeter of land after the battle was over one revolutionary soldier wrote cuba on the sand to mount the victory. a bad look at our eye and the most powerful u.s. warship the houston we were sitting over there. it carried a lot of weapons and foodstuffs. fidel arrived here in a tank with a hundred millimeter gun he fired four or five times at that ship sank and it tilted and sank this is how we achieved what we wanted to know if we. later the military museum was opened in the bay of pigs devoted to the legendary

battle a cuban military plane which took part in the events was installed near the entry there are monuments erected along the road to the bay of pigs dedicated to the soldiers who died in the american bombings. more than eighty cuban revolutionaries died in battles against the invaders the local residents still remember an incident when the invaders tried to burn a bus full of volunteers with napalm the volunteers had come to the bay of pigs to help fidel's government troops. hello hello so good to see you. by my father my brother my sister's husband and my wife's two brothers four together with me. goodbye so long well so long it was great seeing you there to see.

the soviet union started supplying these planes to cuba shortly after the bay of pigs invasion as a result the most advanced make twenty one fighter jets with trained crew and started patrolling the airspace over the island. through my old friend. we've flown together. how high we used to fly and how fast. yes this was a very good craft it has never failed me. at all in september nine hundred sixty two we were ordered to take these planes to cuba. we didn't feel any danger of course we were so young. because we had been

prepared and we were ready for anything in. the soviet u.s. standoff grew more tense every day these top secret shots were taken during nuclear tests and the soviet testing ground at that time very few people thought about the real consequences of a nuclear conflict never before had the world been closer to a third nuclear world war. to. be. wealthy british style.

markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max culture a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. kids off has been a submarine commander for twenty years in august nine hundred sixty two he was in charge of one of four submarines the left soviet territorial waters for the first time ever they were carrying nuclear arms torpedoes rorik knew nothing about the submarines destination until it reached neutral waters. with but we didn't know

what was in this on the lobe when we opened it after leaving cola bay we saw the roof inside even though i remember it the coordinates are two hundred twenty degrees from young mine to cuba now during his eighty two years old he was one of the youngest commanders at the time like all the other commanders he had been told to use every weapon available in the event of a confrontation with the enemy you know you have been authorized to use either nuclear torpedoes or conventional ones. one nuclear torpedo and twenty conventional torpedoes is nothing to sneeze at you know. to be done would amount to three torpedoes salvos. meanwhile the cuban missile crisis was rapidly sliding into his darkest moment when president john f. kennedy was told about soviet nuclear missiles in cuba he decided to declare a naval blockade of the island ships in. any kind of bound to cuba from whatever

nation. well it found it contained cargoes of offensive weapons back. to the so-called hawks among us top military commanders were trying to persuade kennedy to wipe out soviet missile sites in cuba by delivering a first strike the head of strategic air command curtis lemay was the principal advocate of such a solution to the crisis lamaze attitude was. if it's going to war is going to come this is the best time because we had superiority over the soviets in terms of numbers. and let me let me when i was asked what he would do it cuba he you know what he said he said burn it and he minute he meant. by late october cuba was ready to face enemy airstrikes special shelters had been built in havana and locals had been alerted to the need to start evacuating the city as soon as the signal came through that will who were in this strange when we saw american

aircraft breaking into our airspace. we also saw american naval vessels approaching our country from this trench a passage leads to what is in effect an underground town a tunnel stretch over hundreds of meters several thousand people could find shelter here in the event of a nuclear attack. lisa on the ground troops that we can see the base of a periscope installed and signed. to by now killer sonny a by. then they were in duty twenty four seven. on october the twenty seventh one thousand nine hundred sixty two the world was closer to a nuclear catastrophe than ever before one of the soviet submarines was find out when it surfaced in the south of us a c. the sub responded by putting a nuclear talk paedo on full alert about moment a crewmember became aware of u.s. seamen trying to establish contact with the best discounts in british warships

captains of its key brought the submarine to the surface again. when you're asked to look around and see what was going on what. there was some confusion on board. as a result of the order to fire a nuclear problem torpedo was not given. near wister the. following contact with the americans they stopped firing at the submarine if the situation had dragged on for another two minutes the nuclear talk radio in the first compartment would have been launched marking a point of no return. because along with this is the torpedo compartment will. not appear that there were twenty torpedoes including a nuclear one in this torpedo to book i'm only pretty cool no threat what these handles yet could have sent the air into the launcher. and this high pressure air injection could fire

a self. of one nuclear or five conventional torpedoes. october the twenty seventh one thousand nine hundred sixty two was dubbed black saturday that same day there was another incident in cuba a u.s. spy plane was flying over the island photographing soviet rockets it was shot down by the soviet and missile defense system. they have the order and they. obey the order so they shut down. they used to and this is the end of that one part of the main part of the engine. they are living on the united states crisis. alexander says always one of the offices of the air defense unit there was ordered to destroy target thirty three the plane piloted by rudolf anderson after it was

brought down is over and many other officers have been told to get ready for war. as we waited for them to strike back we sort of withdrew into ourselves there was a complete silence your new talking and no emotions. everybody was in anticipation of further events without knowing how it all would work out. at the last moment when tensions and reach their peak the kremlin and the white house found a compromise. christophe had responded to a us offer a security guarantees for cuba by deciding to have the missiles dismantled when the news reached the cuban leader fidel castro he flew into a rage the decision had been taken to hide his back one of the most seasoned soviet cantinas. went down after talks with castro. when the talks got under way my father received a message from moscow saying that my mother had died my father was in no position

to go back to the news had a visible effect on castro people who showed a good deal of compassion for my father he said he respected him for staying behind and i'm sure this helped the talks. the blockade of cuba was lifted and operation got underway to remove the soviet missiles from the island they were being loaded on to upper decks without disguising them in any way the american saw that the russians weren't fooling them those were not mockups of missiles but real hardware. the key difference job meanwhile gave himself credit for resolving the critical situation that emerged in the wake of the cuban missile crisis. direct threat of a world thermonuclear war which has emerged in connection with the crisis in the area of the caribbean sea has been diffused. i mean those who were involved in operation were awarded no medals or other distinctions.

felt the americans had not been julian pressed by the soviet union's military might he focused his anger on the submariners. he accused them of cowardice because they had failed to reach cuba but there was no point in arguing with him only. in those years even top military leaders couldn't approach crucial unless they have to. tell you was impulsive. when you realize the snap of somebody's fingers will have you traveled under force that was a dreadful experience. later cantona rurik yet of the captains of three other submarines experienced many humiliating moments. they weren't given their june for the fact that they had been able to keep their heads in a very difficult situation. and haven't resorted to their right to use nuclear weapons because of course there was no thanks at all but i'd rather not talk about

it i don't want to frame our nerves the commanders had a very hard time yes we were dragged through the mud but what about our subordinates including my crew do you think anybody ever thank them for the eighty day mission. time seems to have come to a standstill here revolutionary posters and linen suspended from ropes showing through the windows. plush american cabriolet is the best reminders of the so-called colonial era before the revolution. drivers make a special point of avoiding any discussions with foreign is about cuba's current policies not all don't talk to our politics or get out of the here you know forget our politics. i live here q will you go back to russia either live here. at a nest of frog or find it quite difficult to run a private business and be a taxi driver for tourists in cuba these days. numerous bans within the country are

only part of the story an economic embargo on cuba has been in effect for fifty years already. less than two hundred kilometers separate cuba from the united states but no u.s. made commodities can reach the island. cubans are still crowning the benefits of the revolution despite the embargo and the difficult economic situation. festive atmosphere is present in the streets of havana. the daughter of the former officer of the cuban army william racket is about to get married william shows old photos to his future son in law as it tells him about his family one of them features an old friend alexander markov

a soviet pilot who took part in the events of the cuban missile crisis. the two offices correspondent for years before the internet came to cuba then they switched to skype. believe yirrkala alex alex how you doing the. hello william how's your family how's life. mine is ok how's your family. we're ok cound visit us some time. motion you know alex down i might come to moscow soon. yeah looking forward to seeing you in my home village. nothing anywhere bye bye. today the caribbean or cuban missile crisis computer games is popular among those who could be the sons of the real participants of the one nine hundred sixty two events now with the help of computer graphics it's possible to imagine how the

events could have turned out if the soviet union and the us didn't find a compromise the worst outcome possible a new clear apocalypse. would be accidentally all this looks less realistic in a game than in real life shells and anything like that ever occurred in real life there wouldn't have been or a video games. like this left cherish every is the winner of this tournament most of the contestants couldn't make it to the finals and the game begins once again regardless in real life however there is no such thing as a reset after a nuclear disaster.

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