but an opposition party leader could now be tried for his claims it was orchestrated by a lithuanian speer oliver has a story. january one thousand nine hundred ninety one fourteen protesters dying after clashes with saudi troops the incident sparked international support for the demonstrators cause an independent state of bill if you a near however one local politician now faces a possible jail sentence that disagree with the fish equation of the band's good artist polanski this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers were responsible basing my opinion on the witnesses and on the book which was published by the former head of parliamentary the national security committee chair so he wrote in his book and nobody denied that but from this star our representatives of libyan authorities where shooting down into the crowd. and other businesses for i know who lived in

that area and still live pointed to bell's houses here on the roofs of british houses better people for the shooting and they sold them. for a ship in years on historical events are nothing unusual some are based on newly discovered evidence others merely conspiracy theories what's different is that mr polanski's his argument that it was lithuanian government that were responsible could land him in jail i am facing a charge of. up to two years in prison i mean i i may receive a fine for up to two years in prison i think this is absolute from term in terms of human rights and freedom of opinion absurd or not it's the law in the few ania that was first because those are part the lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against you. or war crime

rules people who believe these crimes are more victims should be held responsible as the nineteen ninety one aggression against citizens falls under the definition of a war crime. as an elected official mr polanski is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question plates cases sources back the official version of events. on the one hand there were civilians who wanted self-determination on the other hand there was military might in my assessment of the events of january ninety ninety one were an attempt to solve a problem the use of force claimed innocent lives. but should questioning history bring with it a criminal investigation. i don't think that this is a reason for a person to be prosecuted it's his personal opinion he'll thirty seven overreacted but it's up to the lawyers to decide it's

a provocation but it's based on certain logic lithuania knew authorities did make attempts to provoke the soviet authorities and compel them to start solving the lithuanian issue. should he be found guilty by the courts in his native lithuania and gladys polanski says he will appeal to the european court of human rights an appeal he's convinced would be carried out from a jail cell history may not agree with the opinion of mr polanski when it comes to the events of january one thousand nine hundred however those same historians are unsure whether it's the role of the legal system to determine who can say what about the circumstances of the deaths of fourteen people here in vilnius peter all over lithuania. now live in the information age and the air of the internet but for many people around the world russia remains and the serious and misunderstood land it's often portrayed as an evil totalitarian state where only vodka helps people survive the eternal winter is going off reports it seems for

a media five day to caricature is a better story than twenty first century truth. two decades have gone since the cold war ended but its ghost seem to be alive and well in some western quarters but it's the way russia has presented is often one sided or plain negative and if there's no proof sometimes authors just refer to their own previous publications it's absurd that. translates foreign articles and blogs for a news website so russians can read for themselves how the their country are seen and brought and quite often this is what she has to deal with paranoid mischievous and heading in the wrong direction russia is an awkward prospect for barack obama russia the totalitarian regime in thrall to it's our who is creating the new fascist empire russia is institutionalizing a state gangster culture which promises repression and ultimate economic failure

for itself perhaps during the quarter war of the iron curtain which are either blocked or distorted most of the media reports made it easier to create a specific image of an isolated steed but times we have changed most foreign press has long been available either in its original language or in translation to anyone with access to the web the nonprofit internet domain in a forum publishes daily translations of water goes about russia from ten countries and other material from up to ninety others. and judging by what's written russia is too often seen as a vodka drinking beer overrun by mafia seeking world domination. president's made the video in obama have been pushing horror the restart in relations but it is the western press deliberately avoiding a restart of its own because cold war stereotypes are simply easier to sell. the

press as a hostage of macdonald is ation a product has to be easily understood and quickly consumed and if the reader is developing intellectual a basis he is he's problem as long as this type helps make some money and boost ratings the ruling war over twenty years ago but perhaps some coverage just doesn't want to let the facts get in the way of a good story why do i tell you all the stuff you go to school of moscow. and coming up later in the program here in our team hungry for change as spiraling food prices are seen as a key trigger behind the rallies rolling around the middle east we'll look at which countries could be next. and with speculation of a change at the top among the occupying forces what mistakes are still prevailing and again a state. you have rising is in tunisia and egypt have triggered a domino effect of pro reform protests across the arab world in yemen rise continued for a fifth day between thousands of pro and anti-government demonstrators demanding

the country's u.s. ally president step down to protesters in bahrain were killed and several others one day the violence there police had to use tear gas and batons to disperse the crowds in iran members of parliament called for the execution of opposition leaders they say orchestrated protest on monday that saw two people killed president ahmadinejad also vowed to punish the organizers while the u.s. strongly backed the opposition it itself was grabbed by labor strikes were interim power is now in the hands of the military which is working because of that some experts believe the ideological splits the army leadership has more worry about from u.s. interference. they will not want to fully democratize egypt they will not want the military to be subject to civilian political control so they will be reaching out to civilian politicians who are willing to allow the military to continue to have

a problem or continue to have a very important economic power and the military will seek to ensure that it is those sorts of people occupied so whether the presidency whether in parliament whether in the media and so we can anticipate that there will be some opposition arising from the civilian political force there is a concern with the business enterprise. has gotten in the way of the military enterprise. the primary concern of the minister of defense and those around him is business not the military there are officers who are professional and who think the business of the military should be the military not business itself so the high command is going to have to russia without problem the middle east is central to american foreign policy experts say the push for democracy is creating difficulties for washington as

a tries to balance an approach to demonstrators with its own agenda. the united states have been developing a global policy throughout the last decades global policy in which it came in to support most of the authorities governments that you can see actually let's say on the broad middle eastern scene the americans consider that defending their own interests in the region can't come without making as if they were really supporting the democratic processes that are prevailing in the region and that is why you could see as an example that in the beginning when you had the riots in egypt they didn't really support the public opinion became much more with the position that was keen to what was the will that are wanted but when they consider when they noticed that they couldn't do anything against the river revolt and the revolution that was taking place then they decided to compose with the public opinion and to say to tell them that it was in favor of democratic process but i think that anyway

whether united states i want willing to do is concerned or is defending their own interests and that is why they try to anticipate things and they try to make as if they were the best friends of the public opinions that are present in the ground. while the age of protests may have ended as a demand for democracy but it was the cost of putting food on the table that actually drove many onto the streets food prices they are became overwhelming for unary people and it's a problem being seen across the world our teams correspondent karen for it takes a log. in egypt the revolution took to the streets. but it may have started at the table when food prices began skyrocketing for the more than forty percent of egyptians living on less than two dollars per day. and it isn't just egypt around the world where there are billion people who are already

hungry they spend more than half of their money on food so these kinds of huge world crop price increases grants and twenty or thirty percent or more increases in their cost of. food prices rapidly rising beyond the levels of the two thousand and eight food prices are forcing americans to make tough decisions at the cash register to the fries and then we have to really have to learn how to do things. because they don't know we don't get a raise to go into everything and everything means basic staples like milk be coffee and cereal which rose five percent in the last few months alone. it's going to get some are going to fifty dollars and i'll get a lot of i mean if i want to. but decisions about who pays and how much aren't made at the register says journalist frederick kaufman imaginary wheat being bought and sold by financial giants is controlling the price of real wheat they're made on

wall street by big investment firms who distrust dollars and euros and instead hedge their bets on commodities who's winning you've got it goldman sachs j.p. morgan chase the largest holders a lot of largest financial dealers in this they're doing very well as the u.s. pushes producers to convert corn crops to ethanol the crisis deepens around the world demand for biofuels has tripled over the past six years and will triple again by two thousand and twenty growing demand for. challenge of increasing the amount of food we have to produce for people and. farmers are having a tough time keeping up but americans aren't as eager to push frustrations from the grocery store to the streets from earth to take. you know we have got sick and to be sick and tell you what we do do we do with thirteen point nine billion dollars in cuts to food stamp programs over the next three years means that the average

american family will receive fifty nine dollars less per month bringing less food to their tables but it's unclear whether it will also bring them out in the streets in florida are washington d.c. . and the new twenty twelve u.s. budget plan submitted by president obama sparked a heated debate over spending priorities some satyrs have hit out by saying it will seek out backs on health care programs and an increase in corporate tax hitting business growth economics expert richard wolf the university of massachusetts the cuts in budget will badly affect the people rather than the government. i think we have a political system that is scholar rhotic and what i mean by that is all the beneficiaries of government spending the companies that get subsidies the military producers who sell goods to the government the working people who get some benefits even if they're small all of them have mobilized to hold on to what they get to make it

politically costly for any congressman or woman to go against them those people whose programs will be cut they will be hurt those people whose taxes will be raised they will be urged but these are very small potatoes the basic picture which republicans and democrats alike support is a budget that's going to be basically one and a half trillion dollars short the government is going to spend that money the republicans and democrats agree on all of that they're just squabbling over a little amount but the larger picture nobody addresses nobody debates and that's an economy that requires a huge amount of government support to keep hobbling along and debts into the future that we will suffer a farm much more than anything being debated by republicans and democrats in washington today or member there are always plenty of stories for you to explore at r.t. dot com online twenty four hours a day here's a taste of what you'll find there right now. the concept of multiculturalism is

criticized from the very top find out why european leaders are turning against the idea. and the winter olympics host city searching finally reveals the first slope ready for competition as preparations for twenty four team begin to take shape more on our website or com or probably the best videos around on to our you tube page.

the pentagon decided while the top u.s. commander in afghanistan will leave his post there have been newspaper reports that general petraeus will step down the year he was appointed eight months ago as part of a senior us staff. in the country but our military contributor says that despite all america's efforts the number of mistakes. american occupation of afghanistan has already exceeded all possible saw that mistake in that country and accomplished even bellyful more than that in

a negative sense and simultaneously having missed all the positive developments that were triggered and promoted by the soviet union intentionally or not in afghanistan i'm not going to justify the soviet military campaign in afghanistan however i do believe that the current american military campaign in afghanistan provides and ample evidence to exonerate the soviet political economic and military presence in afghanistan from the rays e g u of the united states information agency of propaganda which rolled supreme during the cold war battle you know afghanistan the economic objective was to distribute the farmland to farmers and that's why they're so armed forces while fighting the landlords the united states do not try the landlords befriending the landlords and have turned

them into the drug lords and the main negative success story for the united states occupation b.s. that afghanistan has been turned deliberately. into the narco caliphate. have a heroin produced in afghanistan now ends up in russia and europe despite international efforts to stamp the illegal trade out and the corruption which plagues the region doesn't help where the majority of international aid money adding up last. former un and drugs and crime chief told r.t. that nato itself is contributing to the problems. doesn't do over. the contribution of a. patient but you need to. offer very stymies different. their contribution to put up should be used the military logistics. they subcontract to people from start to private companies. put in the subform to.

immediately just the. business over a couple billion dollars. for the companies who are comprised by world roads and sometimes even by the thought about. to go to the security of. voyeur talk. to a degree in afghanistan in exchange of huge amount of money and the money that the for the media. logistic is more. the. drug trafficking. and he has a full interview in around ten minutes time here on our team. to go get some of the stories from around the world and u.s. immigration and force an agent was killed and another hurt while driving through northern mexico on tuesday was critically one dead and died from his injuries the

second who was shot in the arm and leg remains in a stable condition it's not clear if the attack was related to the escalating drug violence in the country but u.s. and mexican officials are working together on the investigation. silvio berlusconi has been indicted on charges he slept with an underage prostitute and then used his influence to cover it up the woman at the center of the scandal admits receiving money from me but denies he slept together a judge in the land gave the go ahead for the trial the time for a minister to begin any has rejected the accusations and labeled the case a fars. senior official from the south of sudan has repeated accusations that the north was arming militias operating in the region at least two hundred eleven people have been killed in the wave of violence over the last week and sudan's oil rich junglee state more bodies have been found in remote villages violence has highlighted security concerns in

a region that last month opted overwhelmingly to declare independence from the north. east of clashed with protesters in south africa for a second day leading to the death of one demonstrator evista geisha is underway to determine the cause of the death police say they responded with rubber and five bullets after demonstrators fired at them it's god's protect the protest sandor around a lack of public services. now he was put in power by stalin's followers debunked his predecessors called of personality and led the development of the soffit space program later a look at the secrets behind the rule of nikita herself.

my. street still seem. to feel. the soviets key to. life. yet again see that in just over an hour here on our team before that we'll take a look what's happening in business with you it don't go away. that's right time to get the latest from the world of business a very warm welcome and this week's news maker v t b which successful has sold ten percent of its shares on monday and is planning to snap up bank of what scope is expecting the record profits for twenty ten in addition to these positive

developments stepan h.m.n. morse says that non-performing loans have been steadily shrinking in the last year while its credit but for new is growing above the market. two thousand and ten will close in the years a set i think we expect to grow above market. expectation will grow somewhere in the area of twelve to fourteen percent for this year for two thousand and eleven we have you know fairly high growth expectations we think our corporate books will grow in line with market and we think that will be approximately fifteen percent. our retail book will grow above the market and we expect to hear growth of about twenty percent what about baghdad's what percent do you think there will reach this year we certainly past the peak where now we've seen a steady fall in the last three quarters of two thousand and ten i think for this year we expect that for the to fall and we expect for the new loan portfolio of

course the risk or percent the chill reserves that we create against the bad loans will be somewhere between one and a half and two percent so pretty pretty low number we think that's that's a new normal post post-crisis to realize approximately one hundred two percent of the bad loans of your credit but for. gas problems as the demand for gas has gone up since the start of twenty eleven the company's gas production has exceeded planned volumes by about nine hundred million cubic meters of gas that's due to the growing demand for natural gas for example bella ruse takes nine percent more gas every day than it's provided by the contract. let's have a quick look at how the markets are faring that soured most asian stocks extended their gains with tech shares benefiting from a jump in profit at japan's nikkei is gaining point six percent but chip makers

elpida memory and electronics railing three point seven and seven point nine percent respectively hong kong's hang seng is up a bit more than half a percent with computer produce alone overall curve rising two point two percent ahead of its earnings results expected later in the day. and russia's markets saw a change in direction on tuesday both are might expect will lower point seven percent as investors were not finding reasons for growth easily enough to see the ongoing decline a buying opportunity. analysts say the oil and gas sector will outperform in the coming weeks driven by expectations of a state tax reform but loved one from financial corp at creech here believes the retail sector will also catch investors not. apart from the oil and gas sector what we've seen so far is a profit taking the consumer space the consumer names in the last twelve months

before the beginning of this year have outperformed dramatically so this could be just pure profit taking and rebalancing in terms of allocations for major international funds we would expect some. real rating in the consumer space as well because of this in terms of their valuations for names like my next five percent they're trading below their historical average multiples which makes them good buying opportunity. and russian business week has kicked off in london to address the most pressing economic issues facing russia and the world our correspondent lorem it is attending the event it's an annual conference which brings together russian businessmen and foreigners involved with russia to discuss the business investment environment russia is one of the u.k.'s most important trading partners with the route just thousand british business is working in russia trades topping seventeen billion dollars as such participants drawn from the public and private sectors in russia will address opportunities with and for russian companies and how

to strengthen the political and economic image of russia in the world they'll be presentations on the role of foreign capital in the oil and gas industry and also a look at the changing investment climate in russia as the country diversify its away from hydrocarbons and tries to be far its technology and small business sector they'll also be sessions on building and promoting moscow as a global financial center but human capital is also high on the agenda with an emphasis on preventing a brain drain in russia they'll discuss the importance of attracting talented people back to the country to encourage innovation in all areas of business economics and technology. are reporting and that wraps up the business boardroom join me in less than one hour time for more business news here on our change.

british sign it's. happening to the global economy. from the. video. of your.

top stories. facing up to. the official state line. claims that local authorities were responsible for the death of. twenty years ago instead of saudi troops. are. the country still often portrayed. in soaring food. and street rallies in the middle east the problem. the world's richest countries. have all drugs coming from of ghana stand by people in russia and the number of addicts in russia has reached two point five million most of whom use afghan heroin that's the subject of today's interview where former u.n. and to narcotics chief. his five year plan to eliminate drug.