the how would be sure to tune the hotel hotel will show his the groom who took the show would. be hotel. slim hotel evergreen the old hotel to be. called springs resort and spa tied to hotel royal she plans ambassador hotel. the evergreen close a hotel in thailand tyee london hotel telling us of the time for.

her to. tell me touch your room the photo guru how would. she ever told. the russian president pledges that drastic measures in a bid to create a better investment climate in the country. decentralizing power and stifling crops and goals voiced by me here at the international economic forum in st petersburg joining me from now in just a moment for more details. you know cash u.s. congressman cut funding for the libya campaign and that's the president gets the proper constitutional go ahead to the ongoing war ninety days of action without sanction this weekend. and the palestinians are out of pocket after israel

holds. tens of thousands of people without. a very warm welcome to you this is our live from moscow now russia must modernize its economy in the next few years regardless of who is in charge president medvedev to be in outlining the country's direction at the annual some petersburg form of our top business leaders he also warns that the government's larger role in the economy along with corruption threaten development and must be tackled to use and he said always integrators workforce and he said hello it all sounds very grand but how does the president actually see modernizing russia happening and tell us what are the obstacles that lie ahead as well. but there are certainly a lot of obstacles and president medvedev knows that became very clear and has for

real in his home term as president that he thinks modernization is the way to go into the future with russia and he clearly outlined all of the obstacles that the country is facing first let's take a listen to what he had to say about modernization as a whole for russia and it's because. at the studios no choice is not only a major green you'll have outdated elements in the economy but all public institutions east we need to hesitate to say sorry about many bad habits we can focus only on the step by step development that would be a mistake with which we should focus on the following improvement of the investment climate in russia it's create new jobs in the regions creation of police and other security forces the improvement of the effectiveness of the jurisdiction system and finally the modernization of government approach isn't the centralizing power. of course one of those bad habits so to say as the president phrased it that he was

talking about was corruption it's no secret that corruption is widespread unless of course in many other emerging economies it's widespread as well and the president clearly wants to fight it this is the morning he had for us and officials that are corrupt. the thought of the noose around the neck of those who practice corruption should be tightened and the whole of russia agrees with this without exception we have corruption is very difficult to deal with the government should be purged of corruption in a more decisive way for that purpose we should enhance the way those suspected of corruption are dismissed from public service. well joining me now here in st petersburg to speak more about modernization and the challenges that russia is facing especially in terms of the economy is daniel trees might he's from u.c.l.a. thanks for being with us i'd like to begin with. the president's speech of course once again we heard the trend of modernization crops in decentralizing the government. what are the details problems if you could tell us briefly

that are hampering this process just like well you touched on some very familiar to us we've heard a lot about the problems of corruption the need for police reform the need for the judiciary and so on to prove that five of them are for this was part of the general but the problem really has been implementation the many speeches and many programs that failed so it's less clear the ground level this has really changed the way the bureaucrats for business throughout the such a rush how do you think those steps can begin to be taken where does it need to start at the lowest level it needs to start a whole local civil tenuously to i think everybody knows the most effective techniques for fighting corruption to improving the effectiveness of the state and that is to introduce more political competition that hold up. at the same time as i

think restrict freedom of press of course sometimes we exaggerate or in the west. the restraints on the press in russia such as read it but still to have boys genuinely independent publications that television trials will help tremendously the question is whether it would be to first point is prepared to take more risks than he has in the past and also of course in cooperation with the prime minister who took that introduced elements of political competition and media freedom that have become still. certainly russia last ten years another thing i have you written about is the exaggeration of craps in russia because really in all emerging economies it's a big problem why does russia take so much flak for it what's the exception well in the west people look at russia and they always seem to have in mind russia's nineteenth century history a very evocative literary descriptions of corrupt officials gogol's all the federal

of the writers and this gives the impression that corruption russia is really something quite unique to impossible to fight effectively of russia this was captured by its history my approach is to look at russia here and to other middle income countries. when you do that you very quickly find that all these countries almost all these countries have serious problems with corruption they have problems with their political systems that quality of democracy that sought to russia to me seems awfully unique in this respect which doesn't make fighting corruption any more any less essential the president also mentioned that it's expected that five the end of this year russell will finally pass this accession to the w t l what will this mean for ordinary votes i mean it will really affect them yes i think the w t o of russia's admission to the public t w t o will not just be about free trade

although obviously various will be produced it'll also be about investment i think . it's likely to create a sense of greater possibility of russia to encourage a bit more western investment in the country especially especially if it's accompanied by serious economic liberalization by friends and reforms to prove the business climate and some of those reforms quite naturally associated with. that and of course that all will add to the push for modernization as well daniel treason thank you very much for. i here at the economic forum we will continue our coverage over the rest of today and tomorrow as the world's modern innovators top business executives and world leaders gather to debate the challenges facing the modern world and of course the economy. much much more to come over the weekend here on our team from the somethings but international economic forum and. business team is also keeping track of what's coming out of the

form in some people's book will have more on the financial world's money was there in around fifteen minutes time right here on out see. the u.s. congress is threatening to cut funding for america's military campaign in libya which is a racking up a bill of at least ten million dollars a day but the white house is refusing to ask for congressional approval of military action which is required by law the president is allowed ninety days before asking permission and that runs out this weekend. sheds more light on the subject. u.s. lawmakers are saying that president obama has to either stop waging war in libya or ask for congressional approval the lawmakers claim that the military action will violate the nine hundred seventy three war powers resolution if it does not and by friday and they mean this friday ninety days after the intervention began under the u.s. constitution to wage a long term war the president needs to get authorization from congress analysts say

the obama administration will certainly find a way to get around the requirement by referring to his rights as commander in chief as well as certain legal speak you know up to this day the administration has refused to say war when it comes to their actions in libya they call it kinetic military action but as a result of that kinetic military action civilians are bombed every day a group of international observers is now in tripoli including a former u.s. congresswoman cynthia mckinney we spoke with her a few days ago she said they heard and they counted eighty nine blasts in just one day those are civilian neighborhoods eighty nine bombs dropped in just one day there is a lot of concern that the voices of those who are caught up in that war in tripoli go unnoticed in the national community but here in the us it seems the voices of the majority of americans those who oppose the u.s. military involvement in libya also go unnoticed by the white house the

administration continues to stress the good cause that they pursuing leiby of but some analysts say the administration also seems to be in denial when it comes to the will of their own people regarding the issue as well as constitutional procedures legal experts say there is not much congressman can do to force the president to comply at least with the u.s. constitution because there are ways to get around ways the obama administration seems to be using extensively most congressmen now criticize president obama for as they say ignoring congress but capitol hill observers say it's mostly political games that the lawmakers are playing to score points by snubbing. president come the day to actually vote the majority of them will vote for more military spending as they always do but there is a small bipartisan group of congressman ten people in it who went further than. they sued president obama on the grounds that he's violating the constitution but everybody here knows that the lawsuit is certain to be dismissed on procedural grounds because the u.s.

supreme court has determined that members of congress do not have standing to file such suits and this is where it hits a dead end and it makes me wonder whether or not u.s. lawmakers actually have the capacity to effectively represent the people. right then and still to come for you on the program here on our. woman's world at the bottom of the u.s. we join a russian filmmaker during her love and a month research expedition in untaught a good to hear why she's drawn to work in i see isolation. and u.s. judges casting doubt on charges against alleged russian gun runner victor boot calling the prosecutor's evidence against him thin boots accused of smuggling arms to colombian rebels and labeled by the u.s. as terrorists and is currently awaiting trial in a new york jail here's the lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the charges claiming they don't prove bood knew the arms would be used against america it was extradited to the u.s.

from thailand last year where he was arrested in an american sting operation in march two thousand and eight. all right let's bring you up to date on some other top stories this hour and a top saudi official says that yemeni president ali abdullah saleh will not return home though it's unclear where he will stay there was no detail as to whether the decision was taken himself to government demonstrators demonstrations excuse me have been taking place in yemen for over three months now to force him to quit he flew to saudi arabia for treatment after being wounded in a rocket attack while. syrian security forces have expanded their assault deploying tanks into northern towns the violent crackdown on anti-government protesters has already forced over nine thousand to seek refuge in turkey the syrian army's actions against its own people have been denounced by turkey's leader human rights groups say more than fourteen hundred have been killed since march. greece has appointed a new finance minister in

a major government reshuffle to try and stave off a catastrophic collapse of the economy leaders are trying to force through deeply unpopular cuts which sparked violent street protests this week greece needs to secure billions of euros in a second and i.m.f. . france and germany are desperately trying to secure private funds to help out as the major economies struggle to keep the euro afloat. north korea is accusing seoul of forcing its citizens to stay in the south and warning that it could worsen relations between the two countries but seoul says it won't extradite the group which defected by boat last week saying they have asked to resettle in the south in february the north responded angrily when its neighbor refused to send back for fishermen who had asked for asylum. but israel has been holding back millions of dollars of palestinians money leaving thousands of people without any wages tax revenue that supposed to be passed back to the palestinian

people but since hamas and fatah political parties are reconciled the payments have stopped has been meeting at some of those who are suffering at the shop and. we are gods the palestinian ministry of finance his job is to check everything that comes into this building but he has no control over what goes out least of all his salary which is paid by the ministry and sometimes comes long overdue my salary comes later it's like my life starts i simply cannot do anything i have a wife and four children to feed and when i don't get paid on time it makes lots of problems for me and my family. i want to leave the ministry gets its money from the israeli government it comes in the form of customs and tax treaty said television been collecting on goods arriving at israeli ports and destined for palestinians the arrangements in one thousand nine hundred three is part of the oslo accord giving television control of the international borders between israel and the

palestinian territories with the money transferred each month to the palestinian ministry of finance which uses it to pay wages except now we're talking about seven hundred. pages can. ask anyone of the military if they were free the situation itself. palestinians fear their tell of of could again choose to withhold tax money like it did last month israelis argue they have every right to do so if they suspect the money could be used for buying weapons. to the hamas terrorist paid for the same bank account so i don't want to find these terrorist. palestinians insist the money's for ordinary work as it is. sore because it's a punishment but on the other hand it's a punishment it's a collective punishment that would mainly weaken the moderate elements within the

palestinian society and play into the hands of the extremists the relationship between hamas and fattah is a turbulent one but both groups are trying hard to work together ahead of september's planned declaration of statehood no doubt israel will be working even harder to. should it feel its interests are threatened policy r t. and israel's other big worry is one that concerns the rest of the world as well as we report at r.t. dot com when you ahead all through the renewed threats for both israel and the united states a terrorism expert tells us online how the world still needs him to stay on. and. also at r.t. dot com feeding the fishes in a totally new german way why this scientist right here is is is bearing all four palooka when moments.

you with live from moscow it's good to have you with us now to work in some of the world's hottest conditions you need to man up and muck in or in the case of one arctic walker it's bringing an essential woman's touch to the tough life thomas has been to me. as a filmmaker olga stefano the likes of the penguins and seals but for her and arctica is about something much greater still that had. even though it seems like this is a naked land make it's down to cliff's nothing special snow like his snow but what happens inside of you when you are here for the whole year and are removed from all other external factors is a very valuable experience of staying through an antarctic winter is serious business and so every member of a winter team has a specific purpose and they rely on each other to make it through is one of only

a few women to have ever been allowed to be a part of this experience. olga ended up on our team was a big bonus for us it's the first time such an intelligent young woman with such high professional objectives has been on the winter team she's definitely made our existence heck last year of course there are some difficulties and attractive girls with fifteen men. so it was some difficulties but we've learned to manage them all this experience in wintering of building a house and gave her a true rare opportunity to experience and document the life here in antarctica now she's working to expand on her project and find an audience for her work but she just can't get the minute right now i am putting the finishing touches to the second part of the film the first one is already finished it's cold weather in the winter the second carriage will probably be called this season and it will feature of the antarctic summer we want that. to debut her documentary olga invited some special guests the same antarctic winter team who are the subject of her film

a fact that makes her slightly nervous you know she watches. i love and respect them their close and dear to me and they have such huge background knowledge they know people in the film they know their winter season firsthand they have been through this themselves. as for the thoughts of those who have seen the film. this film makes a big impression on me there may be some shows that expose unprofessional actions by a couple of members of our team but to show that the way it was showed it the way she saw it spectacular. but a unique look into a world that is inaccessible to most in antarctica sean thomas. you can follow more of a short discoveries in the world's coldest continent with his videos and blog at www dot com.

one of the most extreme environments on the planet. and people have to be. special and attractive from the wildlife. and. expedition to the bottom of the earth. making it the most of the few minutes before us next with an update on the economic forum in st petersburg that's coming your way in just a. welcome

to business here in r t i'm your host thanks for watching we start with one of the most important russian economic events of the year in st petersburg international economic forum. the city of st petersburg has always been called russia's window to europe but with the economic forum underway it has become the window to the whole world our treasure house the details on the second day of the fall. here in st petersburg president medvedev wrapped up his speech to the st petersburg international economic forum in the focus of his entire speech was basically modernisation talking about making russia a modern place to do business and improve the investment climate here in the country he said he focused on the success of the i.p.o.'s like jaan decks and mailed out rupe talking about how the russian i.t.

companies can make it happen and also focused on the ten billion dollars state backed private equity fund that has been established in addition to that expanding a government sale of thirty billion dollars in state assets something that he says needs to be done in order to improve the economic climate he says russia does face some challenges there is too much regulation need to root out corruption and need for private business to dominate the russian economy and the role of the state should be to make a suitable environment for business to be fostered and established here in russia now to talk more about all of this i'm joined by peter lukian now from al's capital to give us some more perspective on this thank you very much for being with us thank you so how would you rate russia's id industry right now what do you think can be done to strengthen it pull the industry itself is very high and it's only you know by a number of estimates are ten years old in terms of the environment of software development so forth so in terms of strengthening it it's it's made tremendous

strides already but it is we always focus in silicon valley it's a lot about management in addition to education so really that's those are the two areas where russia could strike the stuff you know like medvedev highlighted in his speech he said mail dot ru young successful russian i.p.o.'s do you think that there could be repeats of that do you think we could see more absolutely i think so there's really sort of russia is interesting in two ways in that it's a large enough internal market that there are opportunities here domestically but as well there is tremendous tech. call talent that allows companies to be globally competitive and be able to say compete in other international markets now your firm does have a strong interest in russia skolkovo project what kind of projects and results do you think we can see from that all in general when a government spoke of style and innovation in developing capital it's great for that to happen and so we're very supportive of what is the skolkovo idea is i think

that there's still a lot of implementation to happen but the main idea is to have businesses start a company creation happen and have watched printers understand that there are tremendous opportunities out there and that they can be the next evolution and go out there and make make it happen now there is a wide spectrum of i.t. in russia but do you think there is any gap that needs to be filled in terms of russia's id sector well again it goes back to management i think there's tremendous technical talent here at the end of what we've seen over the period of the ninety's where people who are had technical talent sort of grew up over time became good managers because they went into other industries and now you see that those people sort of coming back and i.t. but i think there's still a gap in terms of product development talent marketing and sales skills and that's where some of the business schools here locally as well as internationally can help and in terms of criteria what do you look for in investing in russia. it's just all

about people same in silicon valley we look at you know quality of people and they're certainly very you know strong. people here people skills and we continue to see fantastic opportunities where we actually saw you know several years ago it was sort of a trickle in terms of the deal flow and now we're seeing you know two to three you know companies per day coming to us looking for funding very good thanks very much for your insight you know again i'm from the capital that's it from here for st petersburg for now stay with us throughout the day on our team. now is still staying with the news from the same. peters before long the russian oil company will snap says it plans to select and used a change of partner to develop the arctic shelf this year ross nets had been planning to jointly develop the arctic with b.p. but the deal collapsed as another of b.p.'s russian partners. opposed the agreement despite this b.p. says its relationship with a.o.l. remains solid. not successful in reaching the very

center of commercial conditions that were acceptable to all of the companies involved i think the concept though of a strategic partnership like this was good for russia good for. the energy markets. good for all of the companies involved. russia's major financial corporations systemic aside for a net for energetic and a jet expansion the companies planning to spend five billion dollars to buy businesses ranging from agriculture to chemicals c o a systemic more than outlines the cornerstones of strategy. how special strategy is very simple we have to return the cost of equity if we use the course for everything which in our case is about fifteen percent so that's the kind of returns we're expecting and we we have to do whatever it takes in terms of for investing in new projects and divesting

existing assets to deliver this kind of return to our two key markets our russia is a primary market we're ninety percent of our investment is concentrated and also india which is because global markets at this point so do those are the markets we're going to be looking for to both expand the existing businesses that we operate in and also new projects. now let's look at how the markets are performing all prices have continued to fall this after the major losses of two days ago the certainty of the commodities market is an inflection of investors fears that greece's debt troubles are for. from all fronts european stocks are back from early losses but the markets are stable due to fears. but due to fears about greece's situation and that the greece's interim has put across the eurozone and continue to rattle investor confidence the dax has climbed to more than half a percent and in the by this hour footsie is flat to positive here in russia markets continue to trade in the red the salwar beyond scares off the sun down at

the mines it's almost been one percent in the red investors wary of the damaging effects of greece's escalating economic crisis. that's all the business for this hour we'll be back with more from the st petersburg economic forum in just under an hour's time.