he was one of the best people i've ever known i do not understand maybe it's frayed but wanted it have to happen. the russian premier league football referee. just one of the forty four killed monday night one three four carrying fifty two people from moscow to northwestern russia crashed on this road missing the runway by a kilometer twenty four hours later the crash claimed another victim when one of the survivors a young boy died in hospital. when i heard the little boy in the hospital died i was shocked it's awful my late husband was a pilot he had landed planes at this airport many times it's very personal to me. the site of the crash has been cleaned up the roads have been reopened the wreckage of the plane completely removed but there are still career marks evidence like this for us that reminds people of the tragedy that struck on monday night and for those who had been here to witness the horrific scenes they say that those memories are

unlikely to go away. i didn't sleep for two days i couldn't even fall asleep i can't recall and people screaming and pulling forty's away from the plane. you'd get me was one of the first that the scene his house only metres away from where the plane came down. i heard the explosion and ran outside the lights went out i ran to the site and we started rescuing people trying to weigh a man two women and the pilot that he was dead the firemen arrived and we helped them the man we dragged away called his wife and he asked me to get his phone from his pocket saying he's still alive but still in the hospital. while all the bodies have been recovered the relatives of the victims still have the tough task of identifying their loved ones investigators say all possible scenarios are being looked into but initial reports suggest bad weather and pilot error are the likely causes of the crash a suggestion that didn't sit well with some locals. it's easy to blame the

pilot because he's dead i think the airport itself is to blame family and friends are waiting for answers but all they can do now. he was only thirty eight. only thirty eight is remembered those they've lost. yes are cilia r t russia scary a region. and reports suggest seven special forces officers have been killed and at least sixteen others wounded during an anti terror operation in russia's volatile north caucasus fierce fighting began when over a dozen militants hiding in woods broke through a group of russian federal forces moving in on them are going off as more. this operation is still continuing it's been going on for two days it's all happening in the troubled republic of the biggest in the caucasus in a forest area so perhaps events complicating the operation for the special forces

it started with the authorities surrounding a group of militants but they tried to break through and that's reportedly one of the police officers were killed the authorities have also deployed havey old artillery including tanks and helicopters to assist them in this operation unfortunately the north caucasus is called the cradle of terrorism. and president an economy that is if there's been saying many times very it's one of the key goals of his administration to strengthen security in the caucasus authorities have been able to hold some successful operations in that region including the republic of dagestan just last week we found and destroyed an underground weapons factory with numerous holding explosive devices with remote controls also last week the limited personal it will be have been searching for since last knew it was plotting

terrorist attack in moscow all the other new year's eve and all that just shows how important it is to strengthen security in that region because it really does affect security in the entire country. as you got going off the reporting for us there now coming up a firsthand account actually war withdraw. u.s. president obama says thirty three thousand american troops will withdraw from afghanistan by summer twenty twelve but said his country will continue to pressure pakistan over fighting terrorists. and the former soviet republics remember the millions of people who gave their lives to win the war against fascism wednesday marking the seventieth anniversary of the nazi invasion of the u.s.s.r. . on to greece now where the prime minister has won a crucial parliamentary vote of confidence in his newly reshuffle the government he must now navigate the nation through

a series of tough spending cuts and sales of national assets in order to secure a new e.u. bailout and avoid a default but as artie's sara firth reports for the millions of anxious greeks who feel their voices are going on heard the future has never looked so bleak. it's considered by many to be the best place of democracy but increase now whitening the gap between me and the people in the government is preaching explain. we are a mix of people that have no political dollars and we are here all together to say that we cannot be on the vice president we cannot hold. the measures the canonical measures that they take for us without us and we want to take our lives but these demonstrations are held on the central square now on a daily basis with some of the protests turning violent the trade has to stay the suffocating take as nothing compared to the

a stage the measures that they fail strangling their economy the people are being refused very right to judge what policies are going to be implemented upon them and of course the greek government is an accomplice to this of popular sovereignty i mean we're not one of anymore in the proper sense a sovereign country when we are a mess can't dictate policy when the european when we used to be and the european union as we are you may have the so-called troika can come and say listen these are these are the measures you're going to implement you are going to implement them whether you like it a lot we can say in a way we're facing a very peculiar form. by the european union the european central bank and the i.m.f. they finance chiefs the desperate not to see the first year raising suffering default and they're rising concerns about the crisis that could trigger. i think very

chance of a domino effect if. the whole this is their problem and this is the reason why the europeans are helping greece but in fact we are here pingers because they don't want this domino effect and because they want to take all very short of greece. sixteen percent to the quick what full sun employees western economic conditions here in queens to you is a dream it seems is a. if the government one person who the people were. the office would be full of where people were not there were uprising there were there would be a lot of violence in the streets but people have said that when that turning out into the streets and then millions and the government continues to push ahead with the protégées measures well then they deign to have democracy any more the government is trying to govern but the people refuse to be governed in this way every day that disconnect becomes more and more dangerous bizzare piece about the

reef tops and athens really a world away from what's been happening on the streets facing a question a lot of people of the not asking is just when will clean streets boiling point lenny when he was on the streets of athens to witness the violence will know that it's already past that point the question a lot of people are now asking is really how much further does this guy sat say at the end and keeping on the story as pressure on greece to take radical action on its debt intensifies blogger michael snyder warns that a greek default could trigger a global financial crisis just like the lehman brothers bank crash did in two thousand and eight the greek crisis has the chance to be another lame and brothers moment because what you have in greece is a situation where they're just kicking the can down the route if greece defaults it's not going to just the same respond to start all of your. banks all over europe

or very much exposed to greece and now banks in europe are very highly leveraged for example when lehman brothers collapse they were leveraged thirty one to one which was absolutely horrible now german banks actually hold a lot of greek debt and there are leveraged thirty two to one at this point so greece goes down it's going to ripple effects across the entire world and there are experts also wrote the financial industry that are warning that this could set off another two thousand and eight style crisis. u.s. president obama has confirmed his decision to pull thirty three thousand troops out of afghanistan by the summer of next year it's part of his effort to restore public trust at home where the war running for nearly a decade now has become increasingly unpopular but as you can comments the american leader did not address many of the tensions on the ground let's start with numbers there are around one hundred thousand american troops deployed in afghanistan right now thirty thousand of them were added by president obama two years ago now he says

by the end of next year the u.s. is going to pull out those thirty thousand troops the drawdown will start this year with some ten thousand troops expected to be withdrawn by the family for many analysts say it's not a groundbreaking move from a strategic point of view after all he is pulling out what he added at the beginning of his presidency but ahead of presidential elections coming up next year it might be a face saving let's take a listen we're starting this drawdown from a position of strength. al qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since nine eleven together with the pakistanis we have taken out more than half of all kind as leadership and thanks to our intelligence professionals and special forces we killed osama bin laden the only leader that al qaeda had ever known here in the u.s. the pressure president obama faces with regards to afghanistan mostly has to do with the enormous war spending and the number of casualties among american troops president obama was elected of the war and but ended up waging more wars and

spending more of taxpayers billions on inconclusive battles overseas that's what a lot of americans are frustrated about what doesn't get enough spotlight here is actually the results on the ground if you listen to american military officials they're cautiously talking about progress fragile progress as they put it but various reports on the ground say insurgency is growing among the afghans after one of the recent strikes that killed a significant number of civilians including children even the u.s. backed afghan president karzai had to make a harsh face saving statement warning nato that if they continue telling civilians the whole of the afghan population treat them as occupiers here is what he said a few days ago. people can no longer tolerate attacks in their homes in that one do that again god would be furious to take unilateral action industry got what some find worrying is that these upcoming troop withdrawals the u.s.

has actually stepped up airstrikes including drone strikes in afghanistan is thought to be part of this twenty first century intelligence war strategy you know when you have no troops on the ground no deaths of your soldiers to justify at home so it becomes possible to wage a war without having to face all these accountability issues in the speech president obama actually kind of bragged about how they operate in libya with not as single soldier on the ground as he put it from what he was saying long. conclude that of galveston has become an all school war for washington which is now looking to carry out operations like it does india and pakistan with airstrikes the so-called undeclared wars so many afghans are worried that less proves the doesn't necessarily mean less bombs on their homes experts say apart from civilians killed another thing that contributes to a growing insurgency in afghanistan is the failure to effectively deal with the drug issue since the invasion in two thousand and one drug production there has

increased enormously so many see america's war on terror as a double edged sword when its fighting and provoking terror at the same time commentary from going to church account from washington d.c. there and while the u.s. the attention in the u.s. is focused on the withdrawal plan from afghanistan the number of contractors in the country has been steadily increasing ivan eland to says it's possible some of those soldiers will be simply replaced by private security personnel acting away from the public eye. well i think the american public is fed up with the war sixty four percent of the american public and a recent poll said that they want the u.s. forces to be begin pulling out but of course the real challenge is to hold the territory when the u.s. leaves and that would fall to the afghan forces but the afghan forces are incompetent and corrupt and now they just don't seem to be better much better after

ten years of training so there's one hundred thousand contractors in in private contractors in iraq which equals the number of u.s. forces there what happens with those are off the public radar we concentrate on the people in uniform and that's what this speech was about tonight and certainly the troops are coming out for political reasons so that it's not out of the realm of possibility that they're kind of doing a shell game and replacing the forces the military forces with contractors and former soviet countries have been commemorating those who died in defense of the u.s.s.r. in world war two marking seventy years after the nazi invasion ceremonies have been held across several states to remember the her wisdom and huge sacrifices made in the find against fascism russian leaders including president dmitri medvedev and prime minister vladimir putin laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier by the kremlin wall the ceremony marking the importance of preserving the memory of the bravery sacrifice and her

wisdom of the time another in belarus remembered those who were the first to face the nazis on soviet soil at the breast fortress you cut through you know got children talked to some who witnessed the historic battle. but you would like any careless child i had plans that evening i wasn't afraid when they started shelling i only remember that something exploded in my bed was thrown into another corner of the room. not only four year old guy. noddy was unaware of what was happening his father an experienced red army officer was also caught flatfooted that night seventy years ago before i was at this house with my mother and my father who was delayed to defend the breast fortress this was our window on the first floor my father was sure there could be no war this is what the party get saying he thought it was an earthquake he grabbed his accordion and ran outside my

mom stopped him totally and this is war. the war for which the nazi military the very marked had come up with a name for long before blitzkrieg but a siege they'd planned would last just hours instead was to go on for weeks in a fierce battle with those who defended to the death but there was no warning when the nazis invaded on the night of the twenty second of june one thousand for one the bombardment of the garrison by surprise that army officers were spread out and was on the wrong then i mean initially but even this didn't stop them to finding the fourth and fifth battles until the last survivor stories of the heroic resistance quickly reached different fronts soldier me loss of received the news far away in the republic of corny in northwest russia it was a deep grief silent pain for all people trapped here everyone knew that the german

army was much stronger every day we receive reports that the enemy marched another hundred kilometers deeper into our homeland the nazis were in a hurry a gateway to vast country they bore him to the breast fortress with devastating intensity up to sixty six missiles a second archive footage from the time shows the fortress silhouetted in heavy smoke hundreds were killed in their sleep during the first minutes of the attack among them. small children some survived the night only to be buried alive later this is my second mother when the nazis rounded up refugees scattered in villages nearby this woman saved me the germans dug a mass grave into which they were about to throw women and children and this woman pushed me and my mom under her skirt when the german slaughter everyone around and left this woman took me out from under her skirt crossed me and said i just did

what god told me to. after nine days of fierce fighting hitler's forces captured most of the fortress but their losses amounted to almost nine thousand there were reports that isolated defenders remained resisting the nazis as late as august one hitler and mussolini personally visited the site of the battle it's claimed that a stone hitler picked up from the remains of the fortress was found in his office after the war. i'm often asked what was the biggest award for you the one most valued from that war the most precious award for me was that i stayed alive everyone was fighting like true heroes but few survived but you know what could i understand it four years of age nothing it's only now that i'm a father and grandfather myself that i realize what a life is worth now i'm a fierce pacifist i hate war i don't understand how one human being can do violence

to another i've lived my life never doing any harm to anybody. our team. back with a look at your headlines about it minutes but next hour to laura and it talks to british historian dr michael jones who's written extensively about world war two he shares his knowledge about why hitler invaded the u.s.s.r. and how the soviet people managed to win the war. today marks the seventieth anniversary of the start of operation barbarossa

hitler's code name for germany's invasion of the save the union it became the largest ever military operation both in terms of resources deployed and also in casualties datsun michael james is new book tells the story of the red told me during the second world war dr james thank you for talking to today let's start from the beginning of operation why did decide to invade. always wanted to invade the soviet union the reason he gave out was that the soviet union would actually attack germany underneath that justification to his military with two main factors the first was hitler's hatred of communism of bolshevism but underneath the real truth about this war was race hatred and if one reads mind hitler's book it's clear that you always want to carve out living space in the east and do so at

the expense of the people he regarded as racially inferior he he thought in terms of a war of survival and it was going to be the survival of the fittest and it didn't take and started to realize the consequences and of course the red army was caught deeply unprepared in nine hundred forty one your book is about the sort of human story behind the red army but how did it. developed militarily. it's only the beginning in one nine hundred forty one the red army was hunted. by the autumn of one thousand four he won the last between two and three million tons of killed in this thing and should. i think few of our own is in the world could have sustained that level of punishment and still carried on fighting and it was not. this high come on to believe at that point the soviet union. and what was it that kept

the red army fighting that's the sixty four thousand dollar question an extraordinary mix of. brutal leadership tough leadership from stalin but it was also. profound outreaches and what was at stake was not just the communist system but russia as a country and it really did become a culture of it was certainly by the end astounding drug that that to try and better equipped and i believe there was just the science or the technical side germany could very well have won it either in one nine hundred forty one nine hundred forty two but it was love of the model and it was this extraordinary determination to carry on fighting that the germans underestimated to hit wants to . quit campaign was crucial but it didn't work out like that's a toll that well the germans blame the weather although again you could use props in that one coming but they were caught by surprise and then they said the weather

rolled them but in fact i think the weather was part of the story and the other part that was much harder for them to acknowledge was that an army seemed to feed to demoralize them last in a matter of weeks and five days turned itself around and started fighting and resisting with stupendous power and the first turning point was outside moscow the germans expected to take the copper till they would later than they thought. but they still thought that would on the war and it was the strength and determination of resistance that cooled by surprise what were the consequences of the ultimate failure of operation. well it destroyed the german army it destroyed the lot that throughout the war the majority of germans resources were concentrated on the front and even off to d.-day more free for which is this division its military divisions were fighting on the eastern front so it was where the biggest

battles took place because casualties took place under. the rug and more casualties in the sequel so the place kaushal its bets so it became a war of attrition and ultimately it was going to be germany's that would lose that war and that mocked which had behaved with a deal of decorum on the western front behaved in a completely different way in the east didn't it what do you put that down to well after the war the german claimed it was fighting a clean war and it was it was the units behind the army and it was the us that were doing all the on pleasant stuff that was not true that some soldiers on the eastern front would do you see them behave decently but many were infected by the race proper conduct towards the smallest towards the jews and the german army by the participated in atrocitus atrocities against the jews against the russian civilian

population or certainly knew they were going on and justified i mean the justification was we were fighting a brutal war with survival. bit but war with darker than any other war in the twentieth century indeed possibly in human history the role played by the union to facing its vastly under priest. in the west why is that so one pot it's the legacy of the cold war surprisingly history is normally written they say by the victor is that view of this part of our history is very strongly determined by the germans so there was an underestimation or an unwillingness to recognize the soviet union but i think the other reason is the scale is so small i mean we're talking about twenty seven million and the civilian the military council to i think

the other read some is simply it's big the people who struggle to really comprehend it that's michael james thank you very much thank you.

i'm broadcasting it direct from the heart of moscow our team had with us let's take a look at your top headlines now. the death of a boy survivor brings the number killed to forty five after a plane crash in north western russia as investigators start to turn away airliners black box reporter. terrorist operation in russia's north caucuses is underway with reports suggesting seven special forces officers have been killed and at least sixteen others wounded fierce fighting began when the over a dozen militants broke through a contingent of federal forces moving in on. the president of the european commission. says that you will be behind police in helping it through economic

crisis. so on promises of reform it follows the new greek government's victory in a parliamentary vote of confidence despite widespread public opposition to the proposed austerity cuts. us president obama the thirty three thousand american troops will withdraw from afghanistan by summer two thousand and twelve but said his country will continue to pressure pakistan over fighting terror but citing the libyan action president obama said today airstrikes and drone attacks could still be here. now as the moscow international film festival opens with a world premiere of a hollywood blockbuster. its organizer of this brings the festival to a whole new level.

how again a wall comes to the spotlight they interview show on our team i'm al we're not all bad today my guess is killed a lot of. dozens of famous actors and directors have gathered in moscow today at the opening of the moscow international film festival for the first time it's so staying power world premiere of a hollywood blockbuster polarizing say it's a sign of recognition of the event so do commercial movies really bring the festival to a new level we're asking could a lot of the event program director. film festival has always been a place to show the best russian and for newbies almost fifty years ago the legendary federico fellini brought his eight and a half year to receive the grand prix prize this year the event opens with a pami of a hollywood blockbuster for the first time but critics say can.