reporters there a bit later for you to. welcome you watching r.t. is eight pm now here in moscow this friday evening my name is kevin irwin and first kosovo's prime minister announces that the breakaway region has introduced customs control on its border with serbia that's a move strongly opposed by belgrade local serbs have been trying to prevent it by blocking roads leading to the two border posts our correspondent sara first is it one of them. well we're at one of the border crossings you renny and the road leading up to it remain bloke's by the protesters now we actually can't get too much play so when you go up to the front of that cross thing you're stopped by the buffalo we can see some of the k. four forces on the ground there in a bit i'm not sure how much but you can see you can also see of course the smoke in

the background now we go to places we could and it does look like there's some sort of fire happening on the other side of that but we couldn't get any information from the cable forces that with earlier today we saw helicopters coming across and . you like helicopters dropping off some of the police forces to these crossings but it's very unclear as yet whether any of the people being dropped off all right actually the ethnic albanian cause of a police forces we haven't been able to confirm that this of course all going ahead with the backdrop of the clashes that we saw in july when the course of a government had tried to take control of the place following prime minister. she's been on imports from serbia that resulted in the death of the policeman and also very concerned not to see a repeat of that violence so we had the u.n. security council calling an emergency meeting yesterday at the request of serbia

and russia and take a view of these control points going ahead despite the warnings from belgrade i'm from russia that this could really lead to further agitation. to further for full support of the let's get more insight of the story get the opinion of thoughts of political analyst alexander pov it surely was a line from belgrade himself to my very good interest provigil. to do studies customs post one of the implications for serbs on both sides of the border now the . well the implications are very bad they're horrible the fact since one thousand nine hundred nine when nato has come in on a peacekeeping mandate so-called we've had over two hundred fifty thousand serbs absolutely. swept out of course civil told cleansed and the rest of the serbs that remain know that if they're inside an albanian controlled territory they will probably be driven out as well so that's why they're doing what they're doing because this is a fight for their lives in fact and their existence and their future so is it so

your thought that this this situation's going to ramp up a lot in the next couple of days that. well you know this this situation isn't going away the situation has been going on for several months since july late july as far as borders are concerned and obviously it's not going away because nato has decided to help the albanians actually make their illegal state real and so the serbs know that the only choice they really have is to resist otherwise they really have no future so i don't see anything other than a stalemate that could only go in a negative direction there's some question as to maybe about the neutrality of k. for the nato led mission enforcing these un mandate it is meant to be neutral but then we have the cost of an prime minister thanking peacekeepers for their help with the unilateral takeover of the border controls what can we read into that. well absolutely k. for meeting nato have absolutely overstepped their mandate their un mandate is

clear they're supposed to be neutral down there they're supposed to be keeping the peace they're not supposed to be taking anyone's side they're clearly taking the albanian side these the session is the government increased tonight in the capital of kosovo and so this is bound to stir trouble and they've openly sided with them together with the western countries the western powers that are sitting in the security council so. touchy has a lot to thank for as far as they're concerned and they obviously chosen sides completely overstepped their mandate and only rushed in fact in china are are supporting serbia but they cannot overrule them in the in the security council so this is we just don't see a clear way to a better situation but only worse situation you were all surprised about the fact that the un seems to be so passive about this developing situation developing it has been ramping up much more lately you know what the un really. do you want and

again we have the security council we have five states each with veto power you would have three western states and two non western states on the security council with veto power so really if the west decides to support any unilateral action. you can't stop it and you can't give a mandate to the un to do anything about it because even the united states great britain and france will put a veto veto to it and that's been clear from the start so it's not surprising they've been sponsoring corso independence for years now and they're actually thinking that they're entering the endgame now and they're actually doing a hard push for it right now what you think efficient reaction to these latest developments is going to pay for their demand of course there's still so keen to join the e.u. . well that's the problem with the government in belgrade that's practically a pretty much a puppet government of the west but they always thought that the west would spare

them these kinds of crises and really now they're put in a corner they they have weakened their own army they've completely tied their fate to the west and so-called e.u. integration and now they have no alternative they've they've really worsened their ties to both russia and china and really they only have the worst to lean on and the west is leaning on them instead so really they don't have many options they can be verbal ie they can verbal to express their regret their protests etc but so far nobody sees what practically they're going to do and nobody really expects them to do much in the practical sense except encourage the serbs in kosovo to nonviolent resistance alexander what do you think at this time the main objectives of the mission in kosovo otherwise known as you legs. well obviously the e.u. mission has also overstepped its mandate it's supposed to be a civil mission that is status neutral now obviously day have completely put

themselves on the size of the albanians they're helping them put a real border between costs of war and the rest of serbia so their goal is clear now they're actually helping to round out costs are going to pendants as best they can now the only last obstacle to full course through independence is security council once again and russia both russia and china especially russia has said that they will never ever vote to expects cept also to accept whole course of independence unless serbia itself does and serbia is never going to accept it even with a proper government or i think your thoughts of the program pittel on as an exam the pub is joining us on the line tonight from pell grant you very much. well as ever we want to know what you think about all the big stories of the day this is one of them log on to our team dot com with a burning question today is what should belgrade do about kosovo what you think about that let us know this what you've been saying so far. there is putting out

the majority of you think the best way out is to simply take it back from the albanian still ten percent this hour no change there from last hour at least suggesting recognizing costa vo and joining the e.u. a little less severe there thing belgrade should repent trade all serbs and just forget about it and the minority there saying serbia should just build a concrete wall of the border as ever thank you for your thoughts what is your take on this story you can make that graph change over ports again it next hour you can have your thoughts at r.t. dot com. in libya fierce fighting is underway for the few remaining strongholds of moammar gadhafi loyalists rebel forces claim they've launched defenses on certain but it will lead backed by tanks and heavy weapons as well as nato air shield if an option is in libya for us with the latest for you. we're hearing from the national transitional council here in the capital tripoli that its troops have apparently entered the city of sirte some five hundred kilometers east of tripoli duffy's hometown and one of the colonel's last strongholds the m.t.c.

reports that at least four of its fighters eleven and other reports have been killed during these offensive seven others wounded and also there is information that forty could offer loyalists have been captured and since we're receiving reports that. information chief dr muesli brigade would have been one of them but this information is very hard to verify fighting over another center of gadhafi support bani walid some two hundred kilometers south of the capital tripoli continues meanwhile concerns grow over security safety of civilians trapped in the cities and the areas where the clashes between the rebels and gadhafi loyalists will continue meanwhile the u.n. is expected to ease sanctions against libya visiting the country on thursday british prime minister david cameron and a french president nicolas sarkozy have said that they would introduce a u.n. security council draft resolution which expects to abolish international arms embargo and freeze libyan asses that. had been frozen as part of

sanctions against gadhafi also stylish mission u.n. mission here in the country leaders of the two nato countries that played a prominent a key role in the libyan revolution that also say that nato mission here on the ground will continue for as long as it is necessary to protect civilians here in libya meanwhile some are skeptical about the real aims of this mission as it's more loops right now like back in the rubble and helping them take control over the rest of the country rather than protecting civilians so yes now a little bit far from its initial go. well as for the british prime minister as he departs to libya after celebrating the end of gadhafi is forty two year rule anger is growing in the u.k. over the arms fair that once hosted the colonel when he was stocking up with new military hardware critics say it's one of the world's biggest weapon resells flaws indeed and that it provided libya's ousted leader with

a means to launch his deadly crackdown on the opposition recently was artie's i've a bennett reports next some prominent dictators have been shopping around for arms in london. selling weapons could be a moral minefield but not here this is the world's biggest arms fair and a massive earner for the british economy the government's putting its conscience aside as international delegates shop for tanks rocket launchers and missiles so long as business is being done here it doesn't seem to matter who's buying this is guess list includes countries like saudi arabia and bahrain both regimes that violently suppressed demonstrations earlier this year bahrain was accused of opening fire on its own armed citizens in february saudi arabia sent its national guard in to help driving arment vehicles made by be a systems the u.k.'s largest defense company its products on display here would be

home in any bond film this tank can alter its temperature to change its infrared appearance but like the british government the company can't change its spots it says there are countries it will sell to but that doesn't include any here if a country's been invited by the british government here it's it's probably going to be on your list of countries who are able to sell to. make sense of. these right to sell to say was regimes like bahrain that have rigorous democratic process. that will try because. these protesters from the stop the arms fair. coalition they are angry it's going ahead despite the recent crackdowns in libya in egypt both former customers of britain using their purchases against their own people we're paying the price now in the mediterranean because we sold weapons deny all the countries voted out experiencing the arab spring i think

is short sighted it's bad for this country it doesn't make money it makes wars right here at this year's shoppers include fourteen countries branded all thora tarion by human rights groups a fact the government came clean on just one day before trade began i'm sure they're very a barest because of the one child in february. david cameron was going to egypt walking around terriers square trick laving his belief in human rights and freedom and democracy and the next stop was kuwait and it turned out he was travelling with eight arms properly executives but the whole purpose of the trip the strayed one of the big trade to a trade to make was weapons straight to the middle east the government says it's tightening restrictions on who can buy weapons that could be used for oppression and it claims an invite here doesn't guarantee an export license but defense is big

business for britain it generated twenty two billion pounds for the economy last year and the case now the second biggest weapons exporter in the world. with money like that's up for grabs turning customers away empty handed may prove difficult on the bennetts london. syria's regular demonstrations after friday prayers have turned into violent clashes with police according to various news reports around twenty protesters have been killed the bloodshed hasn't stopped thousands of pouring on the streets across the country taking the uprising against president assad's ruler to its seventh month the real story behind the syrian uprising is that the core of people of val's debate show crossed that zone in just a few hours is a quick taste before you. the syrian government has pointed out that the opposition so the elements within the opposition have been armed by outside forces particularly the united states as well as israel they claim that they have a confession from

a former general from syria who defected and he's going to be featured on syrian television are very soon i don't know anyone who believes the syrian government not only the syrians not by the syrian government i don't know any nation in the world who takes a serious word to syria the syrian government said if they are telling the truth then allow the media to syria allow the media into the square as a lot of myriad media to see the troops knowing down innocent people like pacifist people and our role is to soldiers if they don't allow the media because they know they can massacre and torture and brutalize a lot more people if they don't allow the media in nobody believes the syrian government not even in fact the people the syrian government. european energy giants have signed up to bring the long planned south stream gas pipeline a step closer to reality the pipeline would run under the black sea and be another

means of pumping russian gas directly into europe just like the nord stream network that was opened earlier on this month r.t. dmitri medvedev has the latest from sochi. the fact that gazprom has signed the shareholder agreement with its european partners companies from france italy and germany means that russia isn't the one step closer to realizing the transportation of gas from russia underneath the black sea to bulgaria and then eventually to austria and italy so directly to european consumers and this one step gives it an extreme advantage over a rival of project in the bucco pipeline which is outlined to deliver gas from central asia to europe and this has spurred concerns from europe for european or thora tease about the security of energy in europe and we have heard a comment from. the european energy commissioner saying that this makes

europe more reliant on russian gas and therefore this is jeopardizing energy security in europe on the other hand actually the fact that russia will be delivering gas starting from a twenty fifteen directly to european consumers means that actually energy security will be fortified as energy deliveries will be secured and russia won't have to deal with transit countries like ukraine which have created problems with deliveries to europe in the past also we have heard a lot of from kiev victory in the college the president has said suggested having the south stream go not underneath the black sea but through ukraine's territory making it cheap by gazprom and said there's no point in doing that because the whole goal of the pipeline is to bypass transit countries a business correspondent. much more about that developing story in our business bulletin in about five minutes time as well. next imagine

a community where you want for nothing life is easy and work is plenty well one such place did once exist in a remote russian outpost. but not anymore it's not even a place indeed within russia's borders anymore it's actually on a norwegian archipelago called spitsbergen he wants somebody the soviet dream a sister wherever was needs were provided for in a series of special reports for you oksana boyko visited what was meant to be homeowners of this example of a bright future it's one of the busiest seagull colonies in the arctic. restless as the northern sun the birds called the island in search of food for their young noisy and does only like old big families the sequels of the last reminder of the war in family atmosphere that once permeated this arctic island this apartment block was built specifically to house families and while adults were

out working kids were left to their own devices running down hallways and banging doors local residents usually referred to this building as the crazy house across the street was a dormitory for single female workers nickname paris given russian women's undying infatuation with everything french a bit further away it was a male dormitory also known as london supposedly for the gentle manners of its inhabitants during its best years the settlement housed more than a thousand people today it's a ghost town but the spirit of communism lurks in that band and buildings. this settlement was called pyramid because of the cone like mountains surrounding it thirty years ago it had the highest living standards soviet people could dream of salaries two to three times higher than in the mainland free food free around vibrant social life in many ways it was a task model for the brighter future that soviet people were trying to build. your

brand snowden most statue of lenin still peers into the nearby glacier most of the pyramids residents worked at a coal mine it was never really profitable to have maintained for the sake of keeping the soviet presence at this place archipelago half way between north america and western europe. not only an outpost this western most soviet settlement was also an ideological showcase for capitalist rivals and no resources for spirit to cut a dash a concert hall a library a rock band and even this half size olympic pool people here reliving the true salvia dream he had the best hopes tanked almost overnight when the soviet union fell apart all of a sudden the people of pyramid realized that their perfect life was just that a jew political pyramid based on faulty color me and shaky ideology in a few years the film arctic paradise turned into an island nightmare people who

were used to eating caviar for breakfast had to turn to hunting to put food on the table one of the family specked up and left abandoning pyramid in all its grandstanding glory this pillar was erected here with much pomp on the settlements thirty of her fortieth anniversary only to become a grave stone decades later when the last batch of coal was extracted from the local mine workers just laughed and here it was their way of raking over the coals for the life that always seemed too good to be true. are at sea pyramid spitzbergen archipelago and if you like sea war from there we continue our special coverage from spitzbergen tomorrow saturday to discover how an old soviet dream provides a means of survival today also more by the series as well at r.t. dot com a website. ok let's take a look at some other top stories tonight making the headlines palestinian president

mahmoud abbas says he'll ask the u.n. security council for full membership next week that's despite washington's earlier promise to use its veto power to block the creation of a palestinian state meanwhile palestinians and international activists have held a protest rally in the west bank scuffles that also broken out there were two people being injured the fighting between israelis and palestinians took place near a village where vandals set fire to a mosque earlier this month. multiple bombings in the south of thailand have left at least three dead and dozens wounded three near simultaneous blasts targeted a hotel a police station a cultural center and the country's border with malaysia muslim majority provinces in that part of thailand of witnessed seven years of rebellion now that have claimed almost five thousand lives but this attack is one of the biggest since the country's new government came to power back in august. denmark selected first female prime minister helle are falling schmidt's victory ends the decade long leadership of the story anti immigrant popular party campaign focused on the

country struggling economy stirring public anger at the previous government it was a close one election though and she now faces the tough task of forming an affective government with a very slim majority. just after eight twenty four here in moscow thanks for being with us you just twenty five minutes away with the latest friday night sport with kate but is business next here. hello and welcome to business here on r.t. our top story today is of course russia's international investment forum and saw see where the money starting to roll in as the eels get struck we have representatives from thirty five countries in the black sea resort looking for investment opportunities blood where putin made a speech at the form and the dmca outlines the main points for us. well indeed the highlight of the day at the sochi international investment forum was of that in the putin's view on the macroeconomic situation and what's interesting is that despite

the ongoing turmoil on the markets and sovereign debt when i was in europe and the united states this view was pretty upbeat that if a person said that russia's economy will come back to pre-crisis state in twenty twelve that is next year that russia will see inflation of no more than seven percent this year according to the central bank inflation will actually gradually decrease by around because of percentage point over the next three years and that russia will see a gross domestic product increase of four percent on average in the next with three years when it comes to investments coming into russia but in the future specified with the business certain type of investment that russia needs let's listen to what he said was a segment that you would only mean we must strive not only to grow the economy but to improve economic efficiency through the development of production and innovation we need to change the structure of the economy our common goal is not to be a safe haven for speculative capital russia should create all the conditions for so-called smart investments into creating and producing high tech. and

surprisingly enough political person also said that russia will most likely meet budget to have a balanced budget by the end of the year so we have a zero budget and next year the deficit might be one and a half percent but if the macroeconomic situation changes for example the oil prices grow we might see a balanced budget next year too well apart from the most important deal and that is of course the widely discussed shareholder groups we've gazprom and its european partners italy's any france's e.d.f. and germany's winter has also been a wide range of deals are connected with the cross in the region where sochi is located and what's widely discussed is an agreement between french back they could they didn't deploy course e.s.u. . all c.d.'s which has signed it is basically about to sign a deal with the results of northern caucuses that's a state owned tourism. providing it with ten billion euros to build

five ski resorts in the northern caucasus region but also the sochi investment forum is a perfect platform for companies to present themselves as developing and expanding and earlier business r.t. talked to the head of lukoil regularly head of you said that lukoil is planning to expand its operations purchasing upstream businesses in the united states and in asia and will also increase production overseas. musician east europe in the next ten years we will concentrate on projects like west to iraq that will significantly change the structure and volume of oil production in twenty fifteen we are implementing a project in the north of the caspian sea which will also increase in production we think that in ten years the company will increase hydrocarbon production by twenty to thirty percent. so indeed such investment poorman has so once again proven to be a perfect platform to talk about the macroeconomic situation in russia but also

sign major deals and make new contacts and share ideas. let's take a look at the markets now we'll start with oil brant rising was a slave trading at one hundred twelve dollars on easing concerns about bigger debts however this appoints in jobs data from the us is then it's in the game. in the us markets are extending weekly gains and that's ahead of a measure of consumer confidence that could show better results in september than the month before european stocks closed higher for fourth am it speculation that gordon that action by policymakers will be able to use the region's debt crisis banking shares let the gains on the front see. and hear russia the markets and the trading session in there right this white gains in the morning analysts say investors are russia where. hesitance make good moves as the finance minister summit kicked off in poland let's take a look at some of the index hoovers on the my sex energy majors were on the pressure with gas from just on the one percent of the right financial stocks were

also down would be to be losing point six percent and bucking the trend was burbank after reports it's part of ties ation is still possible this year. that's how business looks the sour buy for now.

thanks for your company. control. backed by tanks and heavy.