the global economy. today. these are the images. of canada. today. oh jeez available in the ground. the ritz hotel motel the millennium hotel in chile you can see. the initial marco resort hotel the same. with resort

the. riviera hotel in the central hotel but. the russian president pledges and drastic measures in a bid to create a better investment climate in the country. the centralizing power and corruption goals voice need to be made to here at the international economic forum in st petersburg join me now and for more details in just a moment the. u.s. congressman cut funding for the libya campaign and the president gets the constitutional go ahead for the ongoing war. without. this week. after. leaving tens of thousands of people with their wages.

this is live from moscow now russia must modernize its economy in the next few years regardless of who is in charge president medvedev outlining the country's direction at the. top business leaders he's also warning about the government's role in the economy along with corruption threatens development must be tackled. reports from the. well there are certainly a lot of obstacles and president medvedev knows that became very clear and has for real with his whole term as president that he thinks modernization is the way to go into the future with russia 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 of buffalo and it's called.

if the studio. choice is not only a major green you will of outdated elements in the economy but all public institution these we need to hesitate to say sorry about many bad habits we can focus only on the step by step development question that would be a mistake with which we should focus on the following improvement of the investment climate in russia to create new jobs in the regions the creation of police and other security forces the improvement of the effectiveness of the jurisdiction system and finally the modernization of government applying lowden approaches in the centralizing power which 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 have for us and officials that are corrupt. the noose around the neck of those

who practice corruption should be toilets and and the whole of russia agrees with this without exception which 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 or dismissed from public service. but joining me now here in st petersburg to speak more about modernization and the challenges that process facing especially in terms of the economy is danielle trey's ranges 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 monitors ation corruption decentralizing the government. what are the detail problems if you could tell us briefly that are hampering this process the bus ride well he has touched on some very familiar themes sweep through a lot of of the problems of corruption the need for police reform the need for the judiciary and so on. just find that life that's part of the trial but the problem

really has been implementation in many speeches and many programs so that they'll say it's less clear ground level that this has really changed the way that your approach for business throughout the civil rights how do you think those not steps to begin to be taken where does it need to start at the lowest level it's the start of the whole of the civil tenuously so i think everybody knows the most effective techniques for fighting corruption so if proving the effectiveness of the state that is to introduce more political competition will love. at the same time was increasing freedom. of course sometimes we exaggerate in the west that the restraints on the present russia some of the saturated fat still to have was genuinely independent of publications such television channels with help tremendously the question is whether the breach if at this point is here to take

more risks introduced elements of political competition and media freedom of course that all will add to the push for modernization as well tenuous reason thank you very much for being with us live here at the economic forum we'll 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. and our reporting right that one business team is also keeping track of what's coming out of the international economic forum much as it is also. president medvedev announces that the government is planning to privatized more of its assets and move toward a more open economy more live from st petersburg coming to. you with r.t. now china may be the world's emerging powerhouse but its leader still sees the global recovery as slow and fragile and more form is needed hu jintao has been

speaking at the economic forum in st petersburg as we've been reporting this a day after failing to agree on a major energy deal with russia dr bao she is an expert in russia china relations he told us he is optimistic about the deal but will just take a bit more time. negotiation will be tough there will be a lot of terms that need to be determined negotiated it takes time but i'm basically optimistic about finding a deo ultimately because the fundamental factors are there this two economists are highly complimentary to each other so it must be if a deal is signed it will be a win win situation russia need to be more diversified in terms of the market. wants to also wasn't a right to fight its supply of energy sources for instance it used to depend heavily on the middle east so we all know that ricin disturbance there so so tiny is hunger for

a new energy source and certainly if this if this the rich and china can buy a large. amount of gas from russia they have to again to stable and long term reliable and the da resources. u.s. congress members are threatening to cut funding for america's military campaign in libya which is 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 to ninety days rather before asking permission and that runs out this weekend he's gone a chicken explains. 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 and only 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 speed you know to this day the administration has refused to say war when it comes to their actions in libya they call it kinetic military action as a result of that kinetic military action civilians are bombed every day as 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've 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 international community but here in the glass 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 cost 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 top of the hill observers say it's mostly political games that the lawmakers are playing to score points by snubbing. a presidential candidate who actually told the majority of them will vote for more military spending as they always do but there is a small bipartisan group of congressmen ten people in it who went further than what we knew 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. reporting right there we can now of course live to the u.s. capitol and get more from the voice of russia radio host comment russell. so it's just a just a few hours now before the friday's white house briefing and meantime obama is getting sued by congress members for what they call illegal military action in libya is this all possibly just bluster because america has been gunning for for gadhafi for decades. is it all bluster do you mean the lawsuits or the actual nato nato actions now that the lawsuit itself. no i mean not at all i mean you've got a you've got this congressman dennis crew signature i mean this is a guy who's you know in his presidential run you know proposed creating

a department of peace as opposed to a department of the defense own and then you also have ron paul who's actively always just been actively opposed to military intervention by the united states and other than basically in other people's affairs is the way he would put it no i don't think this is bluster at all this is a group of congressmen who really believe that the u.s. should not be involved in this and they're suing i mean this is a legitimate lawsuit where they're suing to make you know to get us out of it you have no but if any loss you can have any effect i mean surely the white house can just pass it to the side. it probably won't in this is unfortunate because the issue of the you know the war powers resolution is not going to actually come up with the war powers resolution was obviously put in place in one thousand nine hundred three after vietnam after these long extended for reasons for vietnam in north korea now. it's never actually been ruled whether or not this is constitutional whether or not congress has the power to to do this and this is one

of the reasons why presidents just you know completely defy it you know left and right clinton did bush did and now obama is as well the problem is that when there was a prior lawsuit during clinton's foray into the former yugoslavia dennis crucifixion of a group of other congressmen even at that time filed a very similar lawsuit saying that it was illegal and it went to a district court for the district court said end of the individual congressmen did not have any sort of standard ok so this is our last year that didn't really come to affect forgive me for interrupting but let's just talk about some of the angst on capitol hill about about the money that's being spent i mean there's a threat that they want to cut the budget for libya it's only ten million dollars a day or so that's what they say is congress really likely to cut the relatively small funding for libya when it's allowing billions in iraq and afghanistan. well i mean you know the reality is i think still a majority of congressmen are going to support the the actions in libya and

afghanistan and so on you know there are there's not a lot of peace talks of we you know shall we say in congress i mean minus these few congressmen who are doing this i mean when boehner gets up and says that you know this is an issue i mean the reality is there's been or is somebody who supported prior prior you know interventions and prior actions military actions so no i mean congress is not going to you know in mass come and say that we shouldn't be doing this and try to defund it and besides obama is currently using discretionary department defense discretionary funds to get around it anyway so it's a question of how effective it would be and let's talk about the military hardware that's being used in libya a lot of american made missiles and bombs and of course fighter jets as well i mean how much is the american military law be involved do you think in perpetuating the war spending merry go round on capitol hill do you think. as much as they ever are i mean that's the whole reason they give a lot of money to you know these congressmen who and i mean you can you can see

this actually just right in the metro here in washington d.c. there's constantly constantly advertisements for military apparatus planes tanks whatever have you met on the metro system you know these advertising i think it really demonstrates how much money and how much push that they really do know i mean of course that it works in you know to their benefit we do live in a military industrial complex type of world where they have they have the purse strings they have the power now if i can very briefly i'm running low on time here but according to the u.s. media president obama like to use the time is it kinetic kinetic military intervention in libya saying that america is not at war with france and england against against gadhafi loyalists how is the american media showing america's intervention in libya. well you know again the i think a lot of them see this is a you know as a kind of a political thing in terms of the divide between the republicans the democrats as

far as our actual intervention in libya i think they're mostly a kind of you know they feel sure that nato when like you said france and britain and other countries are more involved that it's not really a unilateral action by the u.s. but i mean certainly we are very much in there in our you know our we have a large you know we have a large military presence there to begin with in terms of bombing you know these installations and so on i mean but right i don't think that the that the u.s. media tends to kind of see it that way that the reality of the situation as president obama continues to downplay america's involvement in libya live from the u.s. capitol that's all we have time for voice of russia radio host common russell so chance he thank you. and coming up here on r t it's a woman's a world at the bottom of the earth to join a russian filmmaker during her eleven month research expedition in antarctica to hear why she's been drawn to work in icy isolation. the

u.s. judge is casting doubt on the charges against alleged russian victor boot calling the prosecutor's evidence against him thin boots accused of smuggling arms to colombian rebels labeled by the u.s. as terrorists and is currently awaiting trial in new york jail his lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the charges claiming they don't prove new the arms would be used against america it was extradited to the u.s. from thailand last year when he was arrested in an american sting operation in march of two thousand and eight. let's bring you up to date now on some other top stories from around the world at this hour demonstrators have taken to the streets in towns and cities across syria in a fresh round of protests against president bashar al assad's regime there are reports of police opening fire and a number of deaths and injuries meanwhile the european union is set to adopt a third round of sanctions on syria over the government's a violent crackdown on protesters current sanctions against syria have been imposed by the e.u.

and the u s. 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. bailout meanwhile germany and france say a quick deal is vital to stop greece's debt problems spilling into other countries . north korea is accusing seoul of forcing citizens to stay in the south warning that it could worsen relations between the two countries but seoul says it won't extradite the group which defect. 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 fisherman who had asked for asylum. china is on its highest disaster alert level after days of heavy rains forced more than half a million people to evacuate their homes in central and southern provinces

officials say over one hundred people have been killed by the floods and sixty five are still missing the downpours are expected to continue into next week army troops have been mobilized for the relief effort. while israel has been holding back millions of dollars of palestinians money leaving thousands of people without any wages it's tax revenue that's supposed to be passed back to the palestinian people but since the political groups hamas and fatah reconciled the payments stop parties policy has been meeting some of those who are suffering at the sharp end. i look 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 out of 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 keep the ministry get 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 million dollars for this ministry exactly five hundred fifty pounds and. ask everyone to remember if they were freed the situation should still. palestinians fear that tel 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 this salaries to the hamas terrorist paid for the same bank account so i don't want to find these terrorist only in order

to kill me but palestinians insist the money's for ordinary workers it is. sore because on one hand 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 to the hand 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. feel its interests. and israel's other big worry is one that concerns the rest of the world as well as we report dot com and you head of al qaeda with renewed threats for both israel and the united states for terrorism expert tells us online how the world still needs to stay on. feeding the fishes in

a totally new way. right here is baring all for. me. i twenty one minutes past the hour here in moscow to work in some of the world's hottest conditions you need to man up and muck in or in the case of one. it's bringing an essential woman's touch to the tough life sean thomas has been to meet her. as a filmmaker olga stefano the likes of the penguins and seals but for her and arctica is about something much greater so that i shot the film even though it seems like this is a naked land make its. way it's nothing special sound like and it's no more than what happens inside of you when you are here for the whole here and there are moved

from all other external factors is a very valuable experience not that i'm saying through an antarctic winter is serious business and so every member of the 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. and the 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 so she's definitely made our existence heck last year of course there were some difficulties and attractive girls with fifteen men for eleven months so there was some difficulties but we've learned to manage them all this experience in a wintering outbuilding house and gave her a true rare opportunity to experience and document life here in antarctica now she's working to expand on her project and find an audience for her work but she just felt that we could get the minute brand now and 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 part will probably be called this season and it will feature all the antarctic summer and we want that. to debut her documentary olcott invited some special guests the same antarctic winter team who are the subject of her film the fact that makes her slightly nervous you know she watches. i love and . respect them they're close and dear to me and they have such huge background knowledge they know people in the film they know the 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 and there may be some. professionals actions by a couple of members of our team but to show that the way it was to show that the way she saw. a unique look into a world that is inaccessible to most in antarctica sean thomas r.t.

. and in just a moment here business bulletin wraps up the highlights of my day two at the top four in some people's. i matras on behalf of the r.t. business team wrapping up day two at the st petersburg international economic forum a land where the sun this week is not going to be setting but we'll be back tomorrow with plenty more the highlight of today indisputably president medvedev keynote address to the assembly here talking about modernization and innovation as

the main the main focuses of the event to end the main focus for the russian economy in the years to come he pointed out yonder x. and mailed out rule as a shining examples of home grown businesses that have done well on the foreign market examples that others can follow also talked about the ten billion dollars state backed private equity fund something that he believes will bring more innovation and spur growth here in russia also expanding the thirty billion dollar asset sale program of state assets into private hands something that he thinks is also going to be a good deal for the russian economy. is still bullshit government doesn't need such loans amounts of property but it has only days to skate you fool privatization of major companies the implementation of these plans is necessary at the very modest the government has until the first of the scale of trying to time as they should in order to resolve this i'm sure we'll be able to go through with it in

a movie transparent way to attract effective front events does generate sufficient funds for the russian budget. and speaking of transparency openness that and. are two things that he says will be government priorities when it comes to dealing with the economy because he believes those are the things that are going to help spur on this and innovation to head to head and head with that russia's accession to the world trade organization something see says it's going to definitely help the economy of russia. who businessmen of. businessmen have a say good market just like parachute mostly only works when they really finicky and the case with russia is that we will fool. economy is not open but you know that's why we'll know barry is with foreign investment and looking forward to finalizing our membership in the for the c.e.o. and you know e.c.b. but it's the. president medvedev also said that state capitalism is not

something that's going to work for russia but that the role of the government should instead be doing what it can to help foster innovation and foster foreign investment in the country and come up with a good atmosphere a good environment for businesses to thrive in russia that's what he said is going to move the economy forward along those lines he believes that the country needs less regulation less red tape to get businesses up in off the ground in russia and also he believes there needs to be more efficient development in the country now along those lines we have had lots of business ago on here at the economic forum besides just the keynote speeches from president medvedev and chinese leaders out there i've also been some updates on our russia's energy deals with foreign companies gazprom nafta and american shell have agreed to jointly develop new coil resources and some of the hard to get areas of russia and in russia and abroad this is a deal that could help gazprom and increase its presence in europe countries also planning to jointly develop in the arctic but the deal or check that there's been

a bunch of news about a major deal that could become the agreement of the decade the failed arctic tie up between ross nafta and b.p. other countries were planning to jointly develop the arctic but the deal collapsed is b.p. and other in this rather russian partner they are opposed to the agreement despite this b.p. says that it is optimistic about prospects. we were not successful. in a set of commercial conditions that were acceptable to all of the companies involved i think the concept though most strategic partnership. is good for russia good for. the energy markets and good for all of the companies and. he says it is still looking for a partner to help develop the arctic and as soon as this as soon as this year possibly and energy.