talk about the reality of life from moscow to now some stories russia should have a stake in the missile shield program in europe. his idea while visiting warsaw poland is still set to house part of the system today used to be in full of discord between moscow and washington. serbia is a divided over. a restaurant and looming extradition on the war crimes charges with many saying it's a sacrifice to speed up joining the e.u. earlier the former general was ruled to be handed over to the hague despite health

problems. the u.s. state department calls on the georgian authorities to investigate the crackdown on protesters little that led to several deaths that says crowds take to see streets again to rally against the government's excessive use of force. and egypt opens a border crossing with gaza partially ending though for you a blockade of the palestinian territory human rights groups say it's a breakthrough in the humanitarian crisis for one and a half a million palestinians who have faced constant food shortages and the lack of medical treatment. for my colleague bill daughters here in half an hour's time but for now but a big problem it's a commie is in meltdown and it's isolated regime has a few places to go for help a former leader now explains to want to see how this might not in the future that he's next.

mission three couldn't take three days for just three m.h. three. three stooges three. young and three broadcast quality video for your media project a free meal got a hearty dot com. hello again or welcome to spotlight the interview show on r.t. i'm now going over and today my guest on the program. for sketch i've written the news yesterday that a man in minsk has bought thirty two refrigerators and brought them no the problem is the severe financial crisis and by the russia that's turning into no

overall economic crisis at least it may turn into such a crisis prices are skyrocketing nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow people are buying all they can for the country desperately needs cash injections from the outside can this economic situation influence the isolated political regime and minsk would be talking about it to the former leader of the country the first president of independent of those stanislav sketch. the currency prize assume it's because pred panic among the population people have been allowed to pay the u.s. dollars in euros for petrol and tourist services i still see it as a recognition of the defeat of about the russian ruble in this situation present a solution for suddenly made a statement he could release political prisoners many analysts said he was trying to bargain financial aid from the west. but a day later to have missed a look at political rivals was sentenced to long prison terms the crackdown on the

opposition leaders has made the aid from the i.m.f. virtually impossible and still can receive a one billion dollar trade from russia but can only do so if it sells more to some key state assets experts say mr shand who's finding himself in a very shaky situation if he doesn't find a way to stabilise the feverish national economy he may lose the grip of the country has been ruling by the strong hand during the last seventeen years. with a good day mr scott which. is the thanks very much for coming to our show it's an honor to have you here today we will be discussing the situation valorous it is a dire situation that freshens are very concerned about. why is there is facing this crisis today with some people certain media and kremlin sources that wouldn't say that the main reason for it was that those governments pumped a lot of money into the belorussian economy in the run up to the elections do you

support that theory that it's no creases this crisis these are all illegitimate president's fault because surely you could put a big cash injections were his fault too he lied to russia europe and his own people on television and on the re it was also started quite some time ago a very long time ago. absolute power corrupts absolutely. such people don't care about democracy and elections are any longer. and he's this way because obsessed with power that is the main reason trees are an illegitimate president i say illegitimate because he was never elected he lost to the latest elections. he completely subdued everyone he worked with turning them into complexes in what the people of belarus had just. offer still goes on we missed you i wanted to say bill russians are good but i'd rather go with the people of belarus

to avoid is sounding like a nationalist rose this. war with nevertheless the outcome of the last year's presidential election in belarus is still named a model of the major reason for the current devastating economic situation in the country there is this report from spotlight the demeanor. when he was running for his fourth consecutive term last year of the question displayed nothing to ensure success one of his carrots was inserted percent increase in wages extravagance might have added to look at shanghai's popularity but it didn't help the country's economy which only went from bad to worse the opposition never trusted the official results of the presidential vote the night they were announced thousands of people went out in the streets in minsk to protest the motion is real action police append something

a rally were dispersed by the police more than six hundred protesters were arrested and as the dungeons of the valorous opposition during the election were harshly criticized the broad base by their dozens of protesters accused of when i was in the rally i've been given prison sentences the e.u. and the us condemned the repressions and introduced sanctions against our troops taken on nick pressure combined with his extravagant reelection spending of invention to the financial crisis this week the bellers currency was devalued by more than a third eating into the pre-election wage increase those was granted as three billion dollars on from the eurasian economic community a grouping of only sewage with publics that's considered no more than time for relief deep fiscal and monetary paul serious ones the needed because the economy still mostly been run in its. soviet style the first time in the seventeen years

president lukashenko has been in power finds himself under the impression both internationally and at home we some trials of the opposition leaders combined with the current financial turmoil make the prospect of public unrest ever more real and . this is just cabbage you just said you know who has lost the latest elections that's holding according to the opposition because he claims he won it december nineteenth saw mass protest against election rigging they were going to be for the next day and courts started handing out guilty verdicts one after another day after day i think thirty people were convicted in total only almost all opposition leaders were sentenced to time in jail some of them got suspended sentences some didn't just this mean there is nobody left in belarus who can protest against it was that what

it when you go it you know they had this saying during the war and you can't change everyone the same is true today you can't jail everyone in jail the best there are people with a place also you have to realize that the belorussian opposition is purely nominal because there were you opposition i mean like the one they have in the west or like you have in russia our parliamentary opposition was wiped out it was they yet those were the people who had the courage to rise up against the illegal aris she begins to state terrorism yes you're right and he really. quite hard but still i think we have enough people. to transform and improve should the overall situation in belarus. this is coach minsk saw

a terrible terrorist attack an april. terrible tragedy but immediately after it occurred people started saying that look and sound go well acted as a shrewd politician and used to strengthen his own political standing and to weaken the opposition. do you think that's true that was what. he said straight away that it could only be the opposition who could have done this just war which was proved not to be the fact later but it's still for them and this only because they were real professionals saw me investigating. here's our police are too stupid and busy battering civilians as you put it so we know why didn't you russians and israeli investigators. and they conducted equality investigation when it turned out and i don't think culprits were involved with the opposition but look at shank of course will still claim it was the opposition's fault now he blames all

the earlier attacks some down play at the moment but this i think was done by other people than those who investigated this the tragedy so whenever things get difficult a lot of those thirty minutes you know it was brought his son two weeks pollution site even before the bodies were removed and if there were a child has to be protected from seeing such horror but he brought his son there should show everybody how much he cares about the go russian people and the victims of the attack you're saying look i sent those a bad father and the agent and the president he is strong words like stupid you know i said other people were stupid it's going to get only going to do well why are you still not in jail. well. you see. i know what kind of person look he is. so i never do anything to finland be in prison. nevertheless i'm still the most persecuted man in biller it's.

now can you see those people are not stupid if this special benefit that i receive for my services to the people of the bill or it's only to announce to fifty cents a month well what it is used to be a dollar but now it's just fifty cents with the so what don't you think this is stupid because i was the poverty line well even if you are ready to live in poverty you still have to spend a couple of dollars a day are in employment benefit is twelve or thirteen dollars which is also a joke so your pension is less than the unemployment benefits yes and less than the minimum pension but there's just and then a fifth of for my special services to people of bill or else would you call a man can prepay or is such a bill if not stupid question well they're not actually stupid but they have to work in such a way that location would be able to see on the boss and you're stupid and he would be right well another reason you're free must be you have to look and sound doesn't

see you as a political rival when you question was well i think it is because i'm a lawyer but in the citizens and i observe even the clause where we have any relatives you know who say that also he can suffer criticism you know he can take it with you know why aren't you present. on story but lucas is not an educated man. i can be more delicate when i criticize same then he isn't when he talks about garage or the ukrainian president i don't call him names i'm just saying he's a not very educated man and i have evident. just to back it up let's discuss going here war it's someone with the francisco arena award and cisco arena strolled around saying you just heard you know sgrena died while she hundred fifty years before the city was even founded what do we call a man who says such thing and sort of says. the former president. well it

was life would be better off to take those great steps stay with us we'll be back here in this room i don't need. it i am.

did i kill innocents here a was a call to the base of course and that's never answered. i'm a song from the skull still with me i think of it every day. still the flashbacks from the memories. of so much so a long time in the series trying to tell. i was ashamed. i was ashamed that i had been wounded i was ashamed that i had been a hero. i got my arm i got my legs i'm alive. but in the mind. what i want to be our knowledge of our forces. and

i'll believe what i was going on once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but most older on the other side and i think i'm just in a good. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada as. a child hope for a shelter relieved a. mum.

welcome back to the spotlight i'll bring up in just a reminder that my guest here on the show today is that the clash care which the former leader the first president of the republic of belarus. mr sysco bitch will have already discussed the difficult economic situation that pelosi is going through divisive and the devaluation of the bell russian ruble their worth as the financial crisis and the devaluation of the belorussian ruble hit the bottom yet it's really right no means all the experts agree that they should have devalued had to go russian ruble going for more than fifty six percent you know when the prices keep growing off course they will through a couple of people in jail naturally they'll blame it all on them and will address the nation on television accusing them of all the hardships that people of dolorous have to endure it will all be a bundle of lies. but there are a lot of people in russia leeches who admired the belorussian economic model.

for that model use completely d.c. but you know it and i can prove it if you want to consider this but as the russian ruble and a bill are russian ruble both came from the soviet herbal that was the worst moreover we had in the nomination to increase the rules valued by ten but today a russian ruble is worth over three hundred belorussian roubles strip this means delarue says currency has depreciated thousand times compared to the russian ruble and not just to solve your trouble it will also note that we didn't have a black tuesday which our economy never defaulted but it was a gradual depreciation which. impatient people of belarus have endured what they how can we call an economy that slaughters its own currency like that success is

that good i don't know where you find academics who are willing to praise that system. look at how it affected the people's lives thanks to lucas shan co though who's as one of the lowest life expectancy rates in europe. since their districts he's completely supported yes i was a tip conference to say in a few look at the official figures of the statistics committee they say that we are flourishing our life is great apparently and this is served by the media to the naive russian audience russian journalists who come to look good to get a president. of information about how beautiful life and valorous is the year is like anti-crisis fund is going to run goes three billion dollars i think that will help the economy it will help but not for long the money will be used to sustain the repressive machine and down the opposition are stupid law enforcers are very well paid what europeans have already realized where the money goes so we won't see

any money from them left out of. your country men develop russians how are they reacting to the economic shock that the country is going through a lot of it well they're used to this sort of thing has already told you bill or who says in a perpetual state of shop our currency has depreciated by two thousand times was this in the papers you know at the way nothing oh this is in the peepers at people . for example and they tell us look they're only used in seventy percent of their cultivated land the core is collective farms used all over what they don't see though is that lease the winnies able to cover all eats needs using always seventy percent of produces more green than ever we don't have free media. just tried speaking to a television. as we're talking now over and medias monopolised are semi-independent

self censored newspapers have a circulation of fifty thousand a week and at the same time we get two million copies of sylvia bill or is telling us that the president is a saint and we've never had a better leader and that we shouldn't look for anything better lickspittle riders will drive you mad or is infected with the serve all mentality is people are actually no longer the russians they're looking. well whatever you call it servility or whatever the fact is that people are voting for lucas chunk oh no they're not all but most of them support. nothing of the sort i say this time and again no civilized country has recognized these elections because goals were not counted the people simply can't imagine the scale of the fraud which we're talking about people in europe do you know what sort of letters bill aris

writes to the european parliament. they say we have seen you use three commissioners to disperse demonstrations. but when we used water cannons and police baton to gain civilians would you condemn our actions. that's another lie but because the police was obviously just trying to beat people into submitting to this monster is government that has been feeling office for sixteen years and look where it has broad deloris i've heard that one of the reasons behind the opposition is defeat and the size location is tough measures of course is that none of the opposition candidates have so far put forward a solid program best they could come up with was. better this is entirely. wrong we are confusing two things not presidential candidates who are united by a common desire to change the political system in order to do that they would have

to get location gado the way that was their common goal aside from that they programs were a completely different look at sunny spring for example i was in his team and his program was great and the primary objective was to change the political system this doesn't mean doing the same as look at this very pro european is not quite good but we could never reach up to europe if the objective is to liberalize the economy but if we can save the economy without a free market the current polluter ships as free market can lead to anything and in a sense i agree yes sure yes of union well for a state in which villars use according to the constitution only we do need a degree of government control over the market how do you agree with the notion that lucas enters regime can only be defeated if the same tended it is nominated by

all opposition parties no one work and no i can't agree with that the people of our strategy was right that if we had a single candidate it would be a lot of very little air time and media attention when we had non on the other hand all agree that their political system needs to be changed and that was great as a way to make a noise but not to win what they did a way to get. lost in the six polling stations where the voting was monitored you cording to exit polls that other polling stations he lost as well he could have collected thirty two percent of the most of it with the margin of error off seven or eight per cent. the other seventy percent would still have to be split between nine candidates which leads to a runoff and we chumley knew canada. and when your. son has been getting more and more media attention lately people started speculating that lucas shango might be

trying to make him his successor. do you believe that's possible there whether one of the abilities to move to europe well i know this boy's mother and i don't think he can be raised right to become a good president because he's essentially raised without a mother was always that way with the so i don't believe in this theory it's focused at the same time i'm sure he would like this to happen although maybe a little while ago yes it was a last question after uprisings against not hurricane irene regimes seem to be a good side there is today i especially take into account the events in north africa as this effects and those that are well wasn't you know you had wars those completely isolated and unaffected well what i think is this bill or who suffer a heavier casualties in the world war two than any other country or a thousand people and we lost more people than anybody due to k.g.b.

reprisals and we had behavior casualties in the afghan war perhaps it's time to stop using our c'est cannon fodder we will find it peaceful way out of this situation because this bigotry cannot continue as law itself smart people and we will find a way to revive our economy and make it competitive i say about thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was they just laugh kid which the first president of the political public alpha male adults spotlight will be back with more of how can all follow what's going on in and out for the show and for that they are. taking place and. i am.

more than a month. in one of the most extreme environments on the planet this is and charge it up and people have to be aware that they are far away from civilization sean thomas discovers five make sounds arctic is so special and attractive for many the wildlife in antarctica is a both and fragile. expedition to the bottom of the earth on our team. most of them. tomorrow's top choppers come to moscow quick dash for digitized radar upgraded and automated guided by gyroscopes propelled by powerful new engines.