russian president pledges drastic measures in the bridge create a better investment climate in the country. the centralizing power and stifling corruption call for spites me to mediate if you're at the international economic forum in st petersburg during me at least an hour for more details in just a moment. no consensus no kara she u.s. congressman say they'll cut funding for the libya campaign unless the president gets the proper constitutional go ahead for the ongoing war. bombers ninety days of action without sanction runs out this weekend. plus the e.u.

moves towards new sanctions against syria and pushed its fear to be a build up for a libya style intervention. international news and comment live from our studios here in central moscow this is . russia must modernize its economy in the next few years regardless of who is in charge prism if it has been one in the country's direction at the st petersburg forum of top business leaders he also wants that the government's large role in the economy along with corruption threatened development and must be tackled reports now from st petersburg. but there are certainly a lot of obstacles and president medvedev knows that became very clear and has for real with his hometown 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 must take a listen i had to say about modernization. and it's a call. to pursue your people more choices not only a major green you'll have outdated elements in the economy that will probably institutionalised we need to hesitate to say story about many bad habits we can focus only on the step by step development question that would be a mistake would be which we should focus on the following improvement of the investment climate in russia to create new jobs in the regions creation of police and other security forces this improvement of the effectiveness of the jurisdiction system and finally the modernization of government drawing modern approaches into the centralizing power. of course one of those bad habits so to say as the president phrased it he was talking about was corruption it's no secret that corruption is widespread unless of course in many other words if it's widespread as well the president clearly wants to fight it this is the warning he kept us in the

cells that are. in the noose around the neck of those who practice corruption should be coincident and the whole of russia agrees with this without exception corruption is very difficult to do with a government should be purged of corruption in a mood to sort of way but young for that purpose we should enhanced the way those suspected of corruption was not dismissed from public service here. joining me now here is a few years for just bit more about modernization and the challenges that russia is facing especially in terms of the economy is they all trace friends 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 corruption decentralizing the government. what are the details problems if you could tell us briefly that are hampering this process that's why police such on some very familiar. with a lot of health problems the upshot of the police reform it's the judiciary and so

on. it's climate that's part of. the problem really has been commonplace many speeches and many programs that male so it's less clear ground level that's really changed the way that you're safe is. the supply how do you think those spot steps to begin to be taken where to see me to start at the lowest level that sort of whole of civil tenuously so i think everybody most fights technically fighting corruption if you like the state that is to secure support political competition although. at the same time it's increasing freedom. of course sometimes for exaggeration the rest of the strengths of the present are saturated but still. to have was genuinely independent publications television

channels which helped tremendously because that is whether the future for this point is there let's take more risks introduced elements of political competition. media freedom of course that all adds to the push for my say so as well tenuous is a thank you very much for being with us here after 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 face the challenges facing the modern world and of course. and this team is also keeping track of what's coming out of the international economic forum that president he'll be with us to bring a small in just a few minutes from now here on. 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 up. u.s.

congress members are threatening to cut funding for america's military campaign in libya which is racking up a bill of ten million dollars a day but the white house is refusing to ask for congressional approval of that military action which is required by law all the president's allowed ninety days before asking permission and that runs out this weekend not he's going to come on as more of this. 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 in all convinced they did ministration has

refused to say war when it comes to their actions in revia they call it kinetic military action as a result of that kinetic military action civilians are on their very day a group of international observers is now in tripoli including the former u.s. congresswoman cynthia mckinney we spoke with her a few days ago she said be heard in the 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 or in tripoli go unnoticed in the international community but here in the uighurs 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're pursuing to be a 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

presidential comply at least with the u.s. constitution because there are ways to get around ways your comment ministration seems to be using extensively most congressmen now criticize president obama for as they say ignoring congress' protests but all of the observers say it's mostly political games that the lawmakers are playing to score points by snubbing. the president candidate who actually volt 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 then. 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 supreme court has that term and that members of congress do not have pending to file such a suit and this is where it hits a dead end and it makes me wonder whether or not the west lawmakers actually have the capacity to effectively represent the people. kind of in washington 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 reconcile of the payments stopped being meeting some of those who are suffering at the shop and. i look we are we've gone to 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 and least of all his salary which is paid by the ministry and sometimes comes along 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 treaties or television collecting on goods arriving at israeli ports and destined for palestinians the

arrangements and 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 for a million. instead of. one of them and if they were free the situation itself palestinians fear their tel of of could again choose to withhold tax money like it did last month israelis argued every right to do so if they suspect the money could be used for buying weapons the salaries to the hamas carries paid for the same old soul idled world cup finals these jurors olney in order to kill the palestinians insist the monies for ordinary workers it is. sore because on the 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 hands of the extremists the relationship between hamas and fattah is a turbulent one both groups are trying hard to work together ahead of september's planned ration of statehood no doubt it is wrongly working even harder to thwack him should it feel its interests are threatened policy r.t. or minor. well let's bring you up to date on some of the other top stories this here on r.t. in the world of a greece's appoints a new finance minister in a major government reshuffle to try and stave off a catastrophic collapse of its financial system leaders are trying to force through deeply unpopular cards would spark violent street protests this week he said is to secure billions of euros in a second e.u. and i.m.f. bailout germany in france a quick deal is vital to stop greece is spilling into other countries.

north korea is accusing seoul of forcing nine of its 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 defected by boat last week saying they've asked to resettle in the if ever the north responded angrily when its neighbor refused to send for fishermen who 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 france and sixty five are still missing the imports are expected to continue into next week army troops are being mobilized for the relief effort people. like sort of protests have flared up in syria against president assad's regime with sixteen people reportedly killed in clashes on friday meanwhile the e.u.

is planning a third round of sanctions because of the government's crackdown on protesters. let's cross live to washington and i understand we can talk to antiwar activists brownback and he's in our washington studio brian thanks very much indeed for joining us here on r.t. what with more and more civilian lives being lost in syria each day now is the time isn't it for the international community to act and put a stop to this. well i think we have to have a very sober estimate of what's going on with this the if it adopts these new sanctions the third wave of sanctions they're incrementally escalating the u.s. and western european intervention into syria i think that we're going down the road as we went in libya where one step leads to another step there climbing the escalation letter they have a very sort of selective concern for the lives of protesters and democracy movements or movements that call themselves democracy movements you take bahrain

they're they're they're condoning the crackdown and peaceful protesters i think what's really happening is that syria syria has been targeted by the united states and also in principally by by france and the u.k. for regime change and i think they see this growing protest movement and the possible slippage of the country in the direction of civil war as an opportunity to overthrow what has been considered to be an independent government in syria but what would then replace the current regime in syria if it was overthrown. well i think that the goal of the those who impose the sanctions is they get rid of the current government and bring their power our client regime another words a regime that is loyal to those who became its benefactors and patrons on the international scene in other words a client of the western nato powers who of course historically as the colonial force in the region and including in syria ruled the roost until the arab people in

syria were able to manage to take control of their own destiny so i think they're looking for a limitation of an independent government and the replacement of it with a proxy or puppet government in damascus isn't that the right thing to do because of those concerns that if the regime these overthrown then the country could descend into civil war and that could in fact drive other volatile neighbors into a regional conflict a much bigger conflict what you see in syria the moment is not a good argument. well i think that what we see and what we must recognize is that when the western powers are intervening in syria or in libya or as they did in iraq it's not because they have great tender concern about the situation of the people in those countries or in the region they have their own interests those interests are basically to have control over a region that has two thirds of the world's oil rather than being

a stabilizing force i think we can see and i think we can see it clearly from the last few months that the dictatorships and regimes that were put into power and financed by the west and by the united states and the west european countries those governments themselves became the force the catalyst for destabilization because the people reject those governments you mentioned bahrain a little earlier why is the west seems to be more concerned about libya and syria of the brain and yemen at the moment why isn't there such interest in those countries. well rain is the side of the u.s. fifth fleet that's where it's housed that's where its bases are it's considered an outpost an extension of american naval power in this geo strategically part of the world in the case of yemen for the last thirty years the yemenis government has fundamentally functioned as a proxy for the united states and for western powers so i think we can see that there's a selective demonization of some regimes sort of turning away or winking at other

regimes at the very last second the united states said they to support of the overthrow of mubarak but that was only when mubarak's days were clearly numbered because of the mass movement similarly in yemen the goal though is to keep the institutions that were loyal to america maybe without the figure of saleh in yemen or mubarak in egypt but they maintain that sort of neo colonial power that extension of american military power in this region let's talk about the developments there in washington where you are at the moment u.s. congress members are running out of patience with obama's actions there later at the moment and time is indeed running out for it to be a legal military campaign do you think they really will have the guts to stand up to him on this for what america really has had it in forget after for so long no. well you know article one section eight of us constitution says only the u.s. congress has the right to declare war that's been whittled down as we all know for the past sixty or seventy years congress adopted the war powers act in one nine

hundred seventy three saying the government must report within sixty days to the congress and to get approval from congress for the continuation of military hostilities that's what we see happening now in congress the obama administration has mounted an absurd defense against its requirement to comply with the war powers act saying the bombing of another country in this case libya doesn't constitute quote hostilities as associated normally with war which of course is just an upside down version of reality will congress do it historically congress has been very weak in the face of executive power but the american people by a margin of two to one now according to the recent polls are against the war were sponsoring and people are having antiwar activities all over the united states starting this week live from the u.s. capitol brought back a thanks very much indeed for talking to us here on r.t. . to work in some of the world's hottest conditions you need to man up and muck in or in the case of one and thought it work

or it's really an essential woman's touch to the tough life l.t. short of us has been to meet her. as a filmmaker olga stefano vote likes the penguins and seals but for her and article is about something much greater that. even though it seems like this is a naked land make it still needs to quit it's kind special snow like anna snow but what happens inside of you when you are here for the whole year and there are moved from all other external factors is a very valuable experience. 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 boulder is one of only a few women who have ever been allowed to be a part of this experience. and it opened our team was a big bonus for us it's the first time such an intelligent young woman in such high

professional objectives has been on the winter scene stephanie made her existence take last year because there were some difficulties and attractive girls with fifteen million for eleven months so were some difficulties but people are. told his experience in winter had billing 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. 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 part will probably be called the season and it will feature of the antarctic summer want . to debut her documentary olga 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 bam they're 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 i get will with you but. as for the thoughts of the. those who have seen the film approaching this film makes a big impression there may be some shows that expose a professional americans by a couple of members of our team which showed that the way it was just showed of the way she saw it and it was spectacular. but unique newark into a world that is inaccessible to most elantra to push on thomas or achieve. and you can follow more sean's discoveries in the world's coldest continent with his videos and blog got. a website. rather 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 what makes antarctica so special and attractive for many the

wildlife in antarctica is the place if you live in the front of. the expedition to the bottom of the earth. but social told us there are no tea cold concrete is next with an update on the second day of that economic forum taking place in st petersburg in a moment stay with us for. how a welcome to business here are top stories today russia's most important financial event of the year the st petersburg international economic forum. the city of st petersburg has always been called russia's window to europe but with the economic forum in full swing has become the window to the whole world art is not as a wraps up the second. 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 and the main focus for the russian economy in the years to come he pointed out we are indexing mailed out rule as a shining examples of home grown business it have done well on the foreign market examples that others can follow also talked about the ten billion dollars state fact private equity fund something that he believes will bring more innovation and spur growth here in russia also expanding the thirty billion dollar assets sale program of state assets into private hands something that he thinks is also going to be a good deal for the russian economy. government loans amounts of frequency but it has only through skate you fool privatization of major companies is that the implementation of these plans is necessary lead to very modest. to the first of the

scale of trying to time as they should in order to resolve this issue will be able to go through with its chance to earn money to attract effective trying the best is and generate sufficient funds for the russian budget but you medvedev also said that state capitalism is not something that's going to work for russia but after all the government should instead be doing what it can to help foster innovation and foster for investment in the country and come up with a good atmosphere that 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 business is up and off the ground. russia and also you police are going to be more efficient development in the country now along those lines we have had lots of business go out here at the economic forum on the side just the keynote speeches from president medvedev and chinese leaders. there and also the summit. now russia's energy deals with foreign

companies gazprom nafta and american shell have agreed to jointly develop new oil resources and some of the hard to get areas of russia and even russia and abroad this is a deal that could help gazprom that lease its presence in europe countries also planning to jointly develop in the arctic but the deal check out there's been a bunch of news of a major deal that could become the agreement of the decade the failed arctic tie up between ross nafta and d.p. the other countries were planning to jointly develop the arctic but the deal collapsed as b.p. and other in this rather russian partner they are opposed to the agreement i described as b.p. says that it is off to a mistake about prospects we were not successful in reaching a set of commercial conditions that were acceptable to all of the companies and i think the concept of a strategic partnership like this was good for russia good for.

the energy markets. good for all of the companies and. now it says it is still looking for a partner to help develop the arctic and as soon as this is as soon as here possibly and i energy should minister sergei schneider because radko highlights the nonetheless it triggered investor investor interest in the russian shelf and b.p.'s chief is also positive about this so it all lot of important economic news going on here in russia and being highlighted at day two of the st petersburg international economic forum. russian markets closed low on friday sinking the most insane week as oil it's often have four month low you have to guess at the down point seven percent in the my six thinnest one a quarter of a is that in the red now let's have a look at some individual sam moves on the rise next oil companies were among the main loses on more crude prices with tap nafta and four percent lead was as an aft of asking open. three and a half percent supported by news the company may start assembling green cards for

the new russian start up you'll not be our last call rocketed twenty five percent after the company's shares were included on the r.t.s. index is based on the. sold the business news we have for you but you can always find more stories on our website just logon to our.

to a substantial degree and one form or another socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation over most of the nations of the earth and the shadow is encroaching upon the frontier. leave early twenty first century military bases a network of military bases all around the forms of the empire that the united states is trying to get its astonishing most americans have no idea there are more than a quarter of a million more than two hundred fifty thousand u.s. troops stationed on these bases all around. we don't have power bases in america we don't have any british base we don't have any korean base we don't have any french bases or you know we just all american bases in crossed out bases of

a lot of the noises i would north of doesn't bother us at all because they're all bases but for other people it's almost like a cancer here for these people since to into world war two the spaces i've been. working here to provide a safe and secure environment for everybody. the questions they are thing else you get everything you needed. to be soon much brighter than if you remove the sun from first impressions. his friends starts on t.v. dot com.