you're watching our quick look now at the stories we're covering for you today egyptians are triumphant as weeks of mass abreast of finally see hosni mubarak step down leaving the military in power but there are concerns that the country's future is now under the control of a force largely financed by washington. as the twenty twelve presidential race nears in the u.s. the republican party's biggest gathering of the year has given a sneak peek at who might become the next american leader billionaire donald trump was a long those considering running for the country's top job. to south africa's. ukraine is getting ready to follow the example of last summer's world cup

hosts they plan to introduce twenty. to an old slavic instrument that will have spectators at fever pitch. there are lots of places in russia which could become popular tourist attractions however poor infrastructure makes it lucrative only for extreme tourism well next i'll go and talk to the president of the russian geographical society about ways to improve the situation do you stay with us. hello again oh welcome to spotlight on r.t.i. malvern off and today my guest in the studio is show a group many russians are unaware of their historical heritage and the natural treasures. addressing the russian jew graphical society prime minister putin said

there are lots of places in russia which can become popular tourist attractions but for infrastructure have only for extreme tourists so what can be done to improve the situation and why has the russian emergencies minister become the president of the russian geographical society here's. the russian geographical society's one of the oldest of its kind in the world established in the meet nineteenth century it set out to reserves the boss regions of russia today the task has been enlarged to popularizing russian culture and nature and environment protection the society is supported by the very top of the russian political elite its president who is also the emergencies minister with prime minister putin heading the board of trustees.

thank you for being with us today hello. michael well the first thing i'd like to ask you is why the emergencies minister and everyone in russia knows you as the mergence his minister. presides over the geographical society. is there some sort of emergency with geography. you know first of all it's very interesting. to you personally mentioning to me personally. i find it extremely interesting and the second reason is that this society probably the oldest non-governmental organization in our country. it's one hundred sixty fifth anniversary last year. another reason is that it has a remarkably interesting history agree number over. an outstanding people if you recall the famous russian audience to. the meeting of the

state council. eighty percent of the people for trade there were members of the russian geographical society members of the russians are going to feel society right. the society has reached traditions are conscious it was this is europe's largest your graphical library containing four hundred forty thousand volumes in russia yes what's going. on because petersburg yes it has archives of various famous travelers. well in the u.s. media hollywood has a great impact on everything. because they have this fantastic film indiana jones you've probably seen it made this profession very popular. but what about russia do russians students dream of becoming a traveling with me even more everyone is thinking of you know into business.

that's exactly why we have decided to address this issue any serious matter. if you consider all the trouble expeditions say over the past two centuries you will realize that we need to do our best to promote this work and not just the government. people to shoot encourage people to love their country. to explore their country to explore its nature exist in the cities. and crafts. you know there are many branches in geography for example economic geography. geographical statistics and so forth i'm pretty sure you know what i'm talking about the other was to place i'm grateful to people who launch such projects is the my planet channel says they would thank you personally i consider

it among the best projects of the recent years. so a good lawyer this channel received an award recently yes and i would like to congratulate them because they're really good investment up there doing a good job a very good job. with the board of trustees and his chairman. will award grants each year than we did but we didn't last year and this year i think will come together even more maybe a pro put it through the storm want tell the legibility criteria for such support an overseas candidates eligible yes they can they're eligible which if they want to receive a grant and they knew to submit an application and we have a board of very famous research travellers explorers into yog refers and this commission where there's board and they come together and consider

the cations like i mean what all those applications like i want to go to the off to can photograph there's no nocturnal like that a research project could go off course and applicants should states in purpose of their research it's subject matter it's expected outcomes and benefits and what the end product is whether it's a documentary or air report or a paper on the expected cost perhaps naturally tradin clude expected costs. well after the fall of the saw this name institutions fell apart and as far as i know many regional history you were all left without support even though they were a unique specialists to this end when you clearly does the geographical society help them these days. through the creation of course. of course in fact recently we had

a meeting of the geographical society and we invited all those infused. preserving theory museums i mean both there's a taf and there are buildings and. i can give you a lot of examples for instance the. original history has the nicest building in town which was built with donations from the russian graphical society and also from local merchants and to governor another prominent figures including by the way descendants of the end decemberists but it's the nicest building. of course it's no longer belongs to the geographical society in houses the museum of original history now. but they have preserved many of the traditions was thanks to those people you have mentioned that there was these people who preserved the archives. and both the archives in

the organization and lead it will stalk him there used to be a museum there too. much was lost during the soviet era and especially during the post soviet period. i think we'll start recovering in a revolving all that now mr you're talking about history but times change don't they previously those expeditions you talk to mount were sent off to explore and fill in the blanks polis on geographic magazine. and first and foremost on russia's map it was in the middle of the nineteenth century when the world's map wasn't complete yet what about today is what are the goals of the russian geographical decided today school and. first of all our goal is to continue studying the wild nature of both plants and animals of russia. this year we are running a big program on the arctic covering such as it says environment protection at the

economic issues they study of the foreign the wants the ethnic minorities and their cultural traditions to be preserved her and if that is i think this is a noble goal. there is another goal is if you ask an average school student to d. how many ethnic groups live in our country they most probably wouldn't till you just see many more who would say may most probably that are those that are clever but the thing is every single athlete group has a unique culture which goes back four centuries in a time they possess unique canny craft skills that will summarize fellowships are granted for those purposes by the way in particular the grants we shoot in two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten. and we do you value the researchers who work in this area and promote this knowledge galland they should documentaries read books. and know we are trying to revive the past traditions of the

russian general graphical society and they see a good such as the scenic russia project of the nineteenth century. such things are really precious and i'm not talking about money. it's about giving our people and me that i may sound a bit too magic now giving our people as solid a feeling of motherland. in a weariness. that this is my mother in law and that's what it's like. love it and how i should preserve. my organ i would put the word father wise if you don't know your mother in law. what is due for you to love you. distribute the british well let's take a look at the history of russia geographical exploration in a report from a spotlight on the demeter. here in moscow in the very heart of continental russia

is a special place for seal lovers in seafarers the history of russia's navigation and geographical exploration is written on this wall these are the names of russia's. for example these played here is in memory of all the key to recover the first european have a to set foot on southern no esca the one is part of food recall you have center in moscow the lead on down is what the famous russian traveller will say about places like those who the south pole and mt everest his circumnavigated the globe several times and we're still going to caution in this scene who will win both the spirit of adventure is something he must have inherited from january she was a version explorers. in eighty three this vessel two questions on their first ever circumnavigation of earth the expedition was headed by avon crews inch their who later became one of the founders of the russian geographical society which in the

shaded systematic exploration of the remote parts of the country among the most famous members were nikolai mickleham a quiet who lived through one time among native tribes of southeast asia and australia studying and describing their way of life when the cooperation of all ski who discovered several previously unknown species including a wild horse named after him the soviet union promoted and encouraged exploration the russian plane needs of the arctic like to shmeat or even proponent in who were the first to carry out scientific research on poor rice stations in the one nine hundred thirty s. became national heroes today in the computer technologies in space travel this still appear to be places to explore an earth like the seabed of the north pool which was for the first time reached by a group of russian scientists four years ago the spirit of adventure leads new

generations to new discoveries include new hope swallow thing is waiting for new names to be written on it. times. sounds mainly for the natural resources which means that they used to bring about benefits the right to say that she stays geographers i'm more concerned about environment protection than about the exploration of natural resources. yes and that's exactly why last year we reintroduced the environmental aspect into the geographical society scope of work and by the way it was here before i like to remind you that russia's very first nature reserve. nature reserve was established on the initiative of the russian general graphical society says. the president of the russian pilgrim. side spotlight will be back shortly and we'll be back in the studio in less than a minute after a break so stay with. discovery

. communicate with the wild. test yourself and become free. see what nature can give you.

welcome back to spotlight time all going off in just a reminder that my guest today in the studio here is said again the president of the russian geographical society. in two thousand and ten the russian geographical society held the international forums of which received a global public response would become a regular event for example are you planning to conduct another forum this year and what do you think about these forums practical value in general plates and. you know it was our first project of this kind to get through with the new search and see. this kind of. he's in great demand fury coliforms malta was the territorial dialogue our objective was to outline and present

our interests and discuss them with our neighbors in the arctic let us say that there were delegations from sixteen nations many interesting reports were presented and this brought about the common understanding that such discussions conferences are reports and expeditions and the most importantly an exchange of opinions between we'll known public figures and politicians including heads of states and governments are something we very much need and so we made a decision to make it a manual event and right now we are busy preparing the next arctic forum in twenty eleven that means of russia one of your board members prime minister putin gave a speech at the last forum and he said some tough words when she urged everyone to start a big thorough cleanup of the arctic and in the first place to get rid of the nuclear waste buried there has the work started yet did you hear the call of mr putin here

in russia we did and in other countries what about your colleagues. for other countries we haven't heard of any significant or specific actions which would develop into a consistent program off cleaning up the arctic region. this is you know our country we have a located funds in the federal budget and a signed contracts with companies which will work on this project. the ministry of natural resources he's monitoring this work and naturally we to monitor the situation to see we are we are today in the arctic. ocean there are two projects have been planned for this year. one project is work in progress it's under way we're studying the migration path santa habitats off polar bears. this project is underway and we expect it to continue. in the

next you might know that we had a major expedition to. which was led by the chairman of the board by the way. pollution managed to achieve a lawyer for this work will be continued this year we would like to send it begin a comprehensive expedition and i think that pretty soon possibly sometime in april we'll start screening candidates. students for russia's meteor universities to take part in the expedition to the new siberian islands it's a site for an incredibly interesting research in many different fields. that you cooperate closely with environmentalists you mentioned earlier that the work of protecting the environment is on your priority list if the environmentalists have raised in the lawn now seats

a lot in the news about the future plans of b.p. and ross knapp's to develop an oil field in the south and part of the chorus say if he probably does this project indeed present a serious environmental threat to that region or are they just being precautious but even steve knew that of cool. insured i'd say they're pretty cautious because of course any such a project involves a very serious preliminary research and analysis my x. and security specialists. specially after that incident in the gulf of mexico. in my opinion it was a huge you know our in mental disaster. so talking of environment protection and environments. movements in general or the me is what i would call it could be the size asian often marmont protection see color get with a good that is what i mean is that political landscape. being achieved so put it

through environmental means. does this politicize asian of environment protection affect your work it seems that it does from the way you speak. don't you see it here so that environmental movements and the very idea of an arm and protection get more and more involved in the division or markets which get used as a tool to prevent a company or a nation from answering certain markets such as the hydrocarbons market. you might notice that during the discussion of sea pipeline construction projects when building a gas pipeline for example the parties often resort to environmental arguments. among other things of course but the point i'm making is that when an mara mental disaster happens people start throwing political slogans the truth into this it's

interesting that you a politician you're a veteran minister outstations for you know one of our country's most influential positions and yet you're against the politicization of environment protection that . does that mean for you your posts in the government and your role in the russian geographical society a completely different things but there isn't the issue back up with such a family and a career something like that. something like that is is possible at all the you think no no i have to admit it and naturally i'm very grateful to my colleagues at my main place of work for they're a tremendous support including help in organizing expeditions because in the ministries vast and comprehensive network of training and rescue centers as well as a great number of rescue squads are a unique resource we can use to ensure the safety and working conditions for our expeditions. that's something no other imagines he has i would think that's why it

is quite hard to separate these two jobs and when i talked about the board he says they should open my. and protection i didn't mean that my membership in a political party or my position as a minister should have no impact on what i do you at the russian geographical society. so you mean using environmental protection as political leverage. here us that's exactly what i mean. yes that's exactly what i mean. you know it's a well known fact that there are many environmental organizations that are actually becoming less and less concerned with environment and at the same time the more and more concerned with politics. what particular organizations do you mean. how would you rather not name them because i don't want to advertise them. i would advise our people not to join those

organizations because they are in misleading when people tell you you can't do these stories that is because it causes harm to the environment and your health. and they say this without any preliminary study or any research any examination. without engaging in japan and x. spurts and even without conducting primitive laboratory tests they were good to us from was this home with me but. even one more question if they there have been reports that the russian jew graphical society along with the into restraint of agencies are going to develop ecotourism in russia but as any to. tell us more about this project do you really have such plans of.

your european viewers probably know that there is such a thing as egg recall tourism in europe. when young people go to the countryside and we want to form and they so. they harvest they take care of animals in russia that would need stream tourism or other. variety of eco tourism. but in our country it's much more interesting. because we have the world's biggest a reserve war all freshwater lake baikal. so why not send an expedition there. to help preserve the lake. and at the same time explored what might harm it. or for example sure we can arrange environmental expeditions to some

endangered polices. so that people can not only see something that was that some exotic places for example with their own eyes and at the same time. they would be able to. people about them told people what is being done to make sure that industrial facilities pollute the environment so i think it's a promising project. thank you very much for being with us just a reminder that my guest today was sygate board president of the russian geographical society and that's it for us here moving back with more forthcoming from what's going on. outside russia until then stay in the party and take it.

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