are you until next time this is. the official. pulled from the. video. feed with the palm of your. comb.

the e.u. commission chief has written to euro zone nation leaders saying the bailout fund may need to be increased yet again as fears mount that europe's sovereign debt crisis could involve italy and spain also a little relief on the u.s. front where investors fearing another recession have led american stocks into wall street's worst day since the in the three years since the global financial crisis began. anti-government protesters in syria reject president assad to korea legalizing opposition parties as activists say more than one hundred have died since the weekend and continuing assault by troops on the restive city of hama reacting to the bloodshed the un security council condemned the government's deadly crackdown on demonstrators and called for an internal political dialogue to end the violence. and. a french court has ordered an investigation into possible misuse of

public funds by the new international monetary fund chief christine legarde when she was prances finance minister she took over from dominic strauss kahn of the i.m.f. just last month after he stepped down from the post after being charged with sexual assault in new york. coming up our interview show spotlight today speaks with mikhail slip n shook chairman of the board of trustees of the lake baikal protection fund about the threats facing the world's biggest fresh water resources . for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news make a. fresh

water lake by. thursday. just. to be ready. for the. program to protect police but what. is the chance. the world's deepest leak. but it may come to an end at any moment the factory spitting out water deadly chemicals strayed into the lake undermining its unique ecology the russian government has set a goal to help. again but. here's where private investments could help one of russia's richest man cares about by call and he's ready to pump in cash aid

development and the environment. thank you for being with us today we're going to discuss a very important. not only to russians but the entire world as well. is something every person on the earth admires. in the same category as. the pyramids in egypt or the eiffel tower why did you decide to protect play by call when you're from siberia but your hometown is very far from the lake so why does it attract you so much. the question is very much to the point which i'm glad that you're familiar with the subject indeed it's quite far from lake baikal. is in western siberia whereas lakes is in eastern siberia but she reason actually goes back to my childhood when i decided to be

a traveler for this purpose i studied geography at mosque university so this is actually what you majored in you know you know i hold any green geography i always wanted to be an oceanographer. i know practically everything there is to know about jacques cousteau and all russian oceanographers but somehow i never became an oceanographer and specialize in environmental protection instead and then in the late one nine hundred ninety s. . as you know russia was going through a difficult time so i saw this movie wall street became a financial sort of book that we're going to use today i'm a doctor of economics. mostly. so when i finally managed to put together these two things. for the world in my ability to finance this work i came up with this idea to use near submersibles to explore late because . it's service several purposes. and it has

scientific value and in the same time it helps raise awareness of the problems by call residents are facing. a special status and there are fifteen different agencies in charge of it because they don't have one authority they would all submit to apart from the president of course. because they require special attention but. mention this dive to the bottom of like. it was a unique project and was actually worth putting in the guinness book of records by the way they actually put this in the book of records yes they have put it in the russian book of records. those were the guinness book to other than being a record just for the fact of it did the buy called have any practical scientific value. we have four institutes working on this project in each his own research

program in the course of three years one hundred seventy five dives took place and most serious point to a guy called up one hundred seventy five yes hundred seventy five. of course in the one nine hundred ninety s. exploration was conducted with prices submersibles in the number of dives was much lower. today mir is the best research deep submergence vehicles they're equipped with state of the art equipment presented agree search in the can dive to any depth and there are environmentally friendly which is also important for three years two submarines have explored lake baikal and spotlights. reports on these unique that's all right. then we are submersibles are quite a rare product of corporation between the jewish society and the west you run the cold war they were developed in the soviet union and built in finland in the eighty seven during the twenty four years of their existence they participated in some

historic expeditions in the made nine hundred ninety s. then we are vessels were used but american producer james cameron to phone the wreck of the titanic in two thousand and seven the submersibles carried out a dangerous mission in the arctic when they went forty three hundred meters under the ice together some pools of soil and water russian scientists on board one of the vessels planted a symbol of clegg on the seabed of the north. the most recent big expedition. one of the two subs has been too late by col three years in the room russian scientists have been diving to the bottom of one of the oldest and certainly though i just didn't deepest fresh want to bodies in the world than the subs searched for new fission plants and examined the level of pollution of my calls one. school that i would still have shipped what does the bottom of lake baikal look like. nobody had actually seen it prior to your expedition did you make any

breathtaking discoveries there. there were many discoveries and i believe more will be made later as we still haven't persist all the data we've collected. to give you just one example during the first day of the echo sounder device show the bottom of the depth of four hundred meters which while we expected it at a thousand six hundred thirty four meters i was puzzled but it turned out that there was a thick layer of planked on reflecting the signal at four hundred meters but then the same things happened again and the depth of one thousand meters. has layers like a party it has a natural filter that keep it clean. players form because of different temperatures possibly we don't know that yet all we know is that there are thick layers of planked on and fish feed on the plant on and so on and the cycle goes on you know

you can africa has this in georgia structure but fish live only in the upper layer of two hundred meters because below that level there's too just too much hydrogen sulfide lake baikal is a unique ecosystem because it's water has enough oxygen even at the bottom of what we just saw that these pictures show the bottom of lake baikal and there's fish at the bottom indeed there is in fact there are some in demick fish like to start their day the surface then go to the bottom and return to the surface in the evening using different things along the way the squid how can it handle pressure difference somehow it can. it should explode this species unique because it's ninety percent fat in the past people used to drive it and make candles of it so there is fish. and this is because in the fall when the surf is closed down the upper layer becomes heavier than deeper layers and layers mix there were other discoveries as well for example we have discovered a large number of living organisms that hadn't been known so far it will probably mean nothing to you and myself but there are some discoveries. for instance.

they call the bottom so nobody had been able to collect them in the past and a species a sponge that would be. so but. i think the most outstanding discovery were guess hydrates and at the bottom of lake baikal. also it was interesting to explore the geological history of the bottom structure. to think that lake baikal had always been that way but it's not true that there used to be three separate lakes there. your expeditions attract a lot of media attention including television and part of that is because many v.i.p.'s are involved in this work the president and. prime minister putin james cameron just as we speak to them it was mostly an adventure. but did their

participation in your project have any practical value for your work. because. protection fund organized those expeditions one of the projects lives rather than science was to raise awareness of the problems with the lake among world leaders. so when prime minister putin joined the expedition to get firsthand experience of the bike how. but i say to you so you ask him for money you should never ask anyone for money i earn money. but what about the fund did he promise to give you a billion or inject it was different we wanted him to see how people live it late by calling into perhaps introduce him changes to the legislation. that following his submersion some funds were allocated for research a play by karl and i'm very happy about it going president george was the first president ever to do that in lake baikal. and i just couldn't i was prime minister

so this yes. he was the first top level official to do that. which he refused to boost your we should anyway didn't go in president said he realized how interconnected we all are of course we are divided by national and initiative borders but i say the selling which is the largest river that flows into a bicultural has its source in gold therefore the women go only handles the sailing effects they buy cause i have a good idea you died with the prime minister say to the depth of a thousand meters just after a while he asks what are we going back to the surface do we have enough oxygen and you ask him will you give us the money yeah people ask us about that. the dad is free is going back to the surface they have to pay for says. the chairman of the board of trustees by culpa section spotlight we'll be back shortly after the break

so we'll continue this interview in less than a minute. last time the close of team was in the cool guy richard herman flock from all over the world. cold to have a few centimeters to their self-confidence. this time r.t. goes to the amore region. for the gold rush still gets people high doses. for an ancient tried to fight to save its culture. where cranes are protected in the first and only unofficial nature reserve. of the whole region. was a close up on r.t. . or.

which brighton. bounce from finest impressions. who flew stunts on t.v. don't come.

welcome back to spotlight i love you know of and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is me how you sleep in shook the chairman of the board of trustees of the lake baikal protection that. this must have been what we did in mississippi. we just now saw mr cameron the film director on the screen here took part in your expeditions and as far as i know you have become quite close with him. he suggested using mere submersibles other russian technologies to help with the oil spill in the gulf of mexico but for some reason that didn't work out but you do you know why what happened. mears are indeed the

best and the most reliable submersibles there for levels of protection the only problem is need a carrier ship for them other than that it would be easy because they can be quickly delivered anywhere in the world. sea so you also need a mother ship yes you need a mother ship so that's one reason but actually even that is not a problem i think the main reason why the idea was rejected is because of some commercial considerations in arrogance probably british petroleum was reluctant to use that russian technologies anyway i think they managed to deal with the problem but this is a big lesson for the future we must be aware there's commercial considerations they have a very negative effect on our life. over the years you said they are very safe and i think they are safe if you invite presidents and prime ministers for pleasure rides there must be no danger involved otherwise they would

have never allowed you to do that so they are very safe except that when we dive at the north pole i think the guys who dive there. we're real heroes because getting back to the surface through an ice whole nation twenty by twenty meters from the depths of four thousand two hundred meters is technically a very difficult thing to do but they did it. wasn't so difficult you have powerful computers t.v.'s and all that was the problem let me explain radio waves can propagate underwater we have a sound waves. and those have the reach of one point five kilometers at the most. of course we had a team that traveled by helicopter. transponders to help the guys down there find the ice hole but still those three kilometers at the bottom when they were diving they were without a radio link. you mean they could be carried away. right they could have been carried away by the current. would have been very difficult to find them because. the man who designed mir said it is unlikely that somebody will be

able to repeat that before the arctic ice melts away did you find any artifacts at the bottom. by call or. unfortunately i didn't get to dive at the north pole even though i took part in the expedition but in lake baikal we devoted two dives to looking for artifacts and we did see something real way cars dating back to the time of nicholas second so the bottom six hundred meters below the surface but we weren't able to lift anything to the surface don't have any mementos it's home from the bottom to you there should be something you know when entering. found it so he's got a souvenir carol but it was something i wanted to take from the bottom plate by cause as good as a bell from the titanic. you know they say the biggest threat to a bank. back in the sixty's get us to move made a film about it yes by the way. so this struggle started

a very long time ago back in the soviet period. and it's not clear who's right and who's wrong on the one hand you're a businessman so you understand what business is want on the other hand your head of the bike all protection front is it possible to reach a compromise say is it possible to provide other jobs for a thousand people working about like i said earlier the lake has an effective system will definitely be able to cope with the pollution that comes from the cape but this doesn't mean that the lake should be used to the benefit of one company there are a huge number of business opportunities we're not using such as tourism and when we see steel pipes we're smil lignin within twenty kilometers of the mill we know that lake baikal cannot be clean so of course then the oil has to go on the problem is how to provide jobs for the people because unfortunately it's hard to find a job in eastern siberia. it's a matter of government policy so they came up with this crazy idea. there is this

law and. we turn this paper mill into another. will kill two birds with one stone. first will shut down a plan that causes damage to the environment and second will boost tourism you call it a crazy idea but i think that the whole idea of setting up those gambling zones was crazy in the first place so in this context your idea is just following the general trend anyway this way we'll be able to shut down the paper mill people. if we manage to make a scene out of moscow which we haven't been able to do so far that's not my job anyway i like your idea i know it is far from moscow far from big cities i think it's realistic in addition i'm sure that the airports. today will immediately add new flights to asian countries which will be very helpful because the way it is now all habs are in moscow to get from tomsk to tokyo you have to go through moscow did

you know that. how do you attract. very remote place. on the other hand people from moscow do fly to the dominican republic. it's a ten hour flight. there is a government program for tourists and you create. the infrastructure is already there next year they will start building hotels convention. so little by little this problem. is being resolved. yes it takes five hours to fly from. cuba right then there will be tourists from southeast asia japanese companies are already developing a route. with a capacity of ten thousand tourists

a year i'm sure the people from southeast asia who have never seen snow be interested in going there just sit to see the snow. on the eastern shore and there is a slope near the paper is functioning. the only problem is. coming from the paper no need to shut it down you say that. comes from the paper. because for tourists. there waste into the lake. geneva by the way your music. and i ask. for because the water is very clear and they told me that the water there is clear because. it

turns out that lake geneva is even. i'm not sure about it that's what they told me. to go there and anyway the only kind of tourism that exists in the by co area today is people live in tents burn fire is like you said litter the shore so i'm sure that if we have properly organized tourism with the rules and proper oversight they will be one of the best places in russia an old russian people will want to visit it. another problem another issue another thread to buy call our hydro power plants as far as i know there are three day already built they say that is no longer able to swim. and then to lake baikal because of the down they say that the water level and why call has risen by a meter that is causing problems to have told you when we die we discovered three levels that separated at six hundred meters and eight hundred meters that means

that bike has been changing present time since the change of the eco system the biggest problem at the moment is that he should produce to fry fisheries used to be state owned but now they are being privatized no private business man will ever produce the fry and then release it into the river unless there is a government order we should pay attention to. river i do not think the situation may have more impact than it has now. there is a government program or a decree regulation saying that level of lake baikal can only change within the range of one meter is that something that hydro power plants control. and they don't like it because they can generate more profit with bigger fluctuations. do you do something about. i think any changes to lake baikal are bad for the eco system not like business people.

against free enterprise. the dams were built back in the soviet times. what humans deal natural so it's going to is the same kind of situation as with a paper mill any change to the eco system means that the amount of fish will decrease and in addition this causes problems for people living near the lake so we need to achieve a compromise we need to regulate the situation. in the east i don't get it but if the water rises in such a big lake way meter or even half a meter this means thousands of square kilometers to get flooded with just that to happen ever. the water level rises because of those dams then brask dam another student going to be changing depending on their seasonal needs for power generation and uses on i think they should pay for it. but let them pay to do just that but if they want to change the water level only because they should pay for it with the group what with the river but if they want to thank you very much for being with us

and just a reminder that way guest of the show today was me fail sleeping chairman of the board of trustees of the lake baikal protection and that's it for now from all of us plus life will be back will president obama on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take it as a. that

looks. good on the fourth quarter. this is true he still keeps its secrets but now it's time to reveal the shooting to the soviet files on. the mission free accreditation free transport chargers free maintenance and free risk free studio tied for free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media oh don the r t dot com.