week here on our team that the big one on saturday the biggest secret indeed in russian politics was finally exposed is no certain that prime minister vladimir putin will run for the presidency in two thousand and twelve speaking at the ruling united russia party convention current president dmitri medvedev made the announcement while agreeing to head the party in parliamentary elections he also said he's ready to lead the government if they win he's innocent now a witness the historic speeches first. the wait is over but i believe it would be right for the convention to support the candidacy of lighting mayor putin and the presidential election i. mean. i. know that. this applause means i don't have to explain what kind of experience under thirty putin has. i the issue here is i'm going to say

something else about it because there's been a split within our town and i can see that this is a well thought through decision. putin is running for president was. i like to express my gratitude to you for supporting my candidacy to run for president it's a great honor of good will may just. be sure but i think that the numbers and with the parliamentary elections coming in december i'd like to ask all russian citizens to support the united russia party with dmitri you know that was. not the issue here you. know you but i was just what i'm convinced to become prime minister continue to thoroughly modernize our society i the tandem now running on a platform of taking russia through the next decade promising more growth and stability with their party united russia in december's parliamentary elections and

next year's presidential run both putin and medvedev have their work cut out united russia's popularity has been falling in recent years by making such a. tender as you say they send a political message to the russians as a result of the best of the world that it. is not outdated it is not absolute this is i will. construction which can work for years you see it is quite effective and so was the announcement even the delegates there were certainly taken aback when the you know. of course everybody expected it but it must count as one of the best kept secrets really in recent political history the west has already started emphasizing how much the moon lacks surprise i'm sure that some of the opposition political commentators have mentions are you proud to say is of course the risk of political stagnation and after all these country members very well the era of the

seventy's in the eighty's especially one the communist party leadership didn't really change that and they all stayed there until the weight of five years old now i would rather disagree with those who predict stagnation in russian politics for one simple fact. and this is a healthy meaning a so-called western style democracy might not be the way for russia something we are seeing the u.s. especially push for across one of the world's most unstable regions i think it's really disgusting how the u.s. is use the arab spring to try to use it to put in their new dictators their new friends and their fictitious democracies to be able to control all and control these populations. countries like russia just want stability and stability is something russia knows this dynamic duo can deliver at least so far russian g.d.p. has almost doubled the level of loss in russia alone russia not only the capitals

has improved but putin and medvedev want to take it to the next step with the reshuffling united russia already under way new faces transparency less corruption and more growth are all part of the platform the intrigue is dead and now the real work begins united russia has to convince the country they are the party. to move past stability towards further development and so the west russia has a right to its own style democracy and he's now artsy moscow. to get a bit more perspective on it i spoke to a carter young nice political analyst to the voice of russia radio station in washington he told me putin is a figure that russia needs right now during these uneasy times lattimer putin will have his hands full once again soon as the office of the presidency simply because he's got to start creating jobs just like other presidents other prime ministers have to do across the globe at least got a start the russian economic engine. going again reset the economy there i don't

think he needs to change or so at this point he has been very consistent as showing himself as a very strong decisive leader and he certainly has done the same with his protege obviously president and this is the kind of political intelligence this is the kind of smarts that i think people respect whether they're in russia or the u.s. is shown to be very decisive very strong and has a vision for russia and i think that whether it's the u.s. or russia or any other country when you have a leader who has a vision and the strength of the people can see that's the that's the individual they want in office. well as i said biggest story of the week certainly for us syria russia what do you think about what are your views r.t. dot com as a place to let us know we're asking there what do you think will happen if president with prime minister putin do switch jobs at the end of the day this is really telling is almost half of you it's been quite calm snatching for the last few hours say the reshuffle tandem will be a success because it will give people what they want just over

a quarter of you think the swap with anger voters and strength of the opposition and again split again obviously from the twenty five percent saying it will attract foreign investment to russia but not much will change otherwise thanks but it is no if it was still time online to change that scores well. history was made this week at the un as president mahmoud abbas delivered the palestinian bid for statehood and received a standing ovation as he addressed the general assembly cheering crowds gathered in ramallah to give him a hero's welcome as you arrive back from new york addressing the rally he declared the beginning of the palestinian spring when he spoke to the u.n. assembly on friday jewel and seems played out across the palestinian territories but words quickly turned to violence on the west bank border culminating in clashes between police and palestinians are mid east correspondent paula has got the story . and historic movement after decades of struggle tens of thousands celebrated

his palestine after president mahmoud abbas to the place to the united nations to recognize a palestinian state but as feared it wasn't all cheers alongside facilitations violence clashes have erupted across the west bank as fears grow of a third intifada we're here in ramallah where there is a standoff between the israeli army and palestinian protesters just a short distance down the road there are tires burning everywhere the army is going to using a new found device known as the scream at which unbearable sound now be it you ation here is very very tame the clash of great across the way thank you. one kind of thing and has been killed now what we understand happened is that country hundred israeli settlers started burning the trees belonging to palestinians in the village the army was called in and the result was one palestinian shot and killed in the mix. for months the israeli army has been preparing for these exact scenes and palestinians what we tell of it will now use these clashes as an excuse to beef

up its army presence in the west bank and possibly even punish palestinians by withholding tax money it collects on their behalf for weeks the army has been planting land mines on israel's northern borders to prevent the columbia checkpoint scenes from unfolding here the mines are not necessarily there to deal with people who have peaceful intentions but mines are a legitimate form of defense many countries have mines on their borders for that reason but locals are outraged now they are throwing mines. maybe it's more comfort for. ripping them at the heart of the clashes are israeli settlers and palestinians both main claim to the same piece of land jacob taylor has been farming deep in the hebron hills for more than twenty years he says this land is his and he has the papers to prove it we are the only people in the world that have got approved document

a document that these in. the measure know it these ads that the cloyd the bible but not so what makes the same claim he insists the land has been in his family for some eight hundred years but now this is the closest he can get to it and it's eating him up watching jacob farm it it's a very hard feeling with. nothing or even if we don't resist with force it's enough that the surplus as we said stop the army will come immediately and arrest us this fence cuts through. meaning that white now i am standing inside palestine. and as i walk through here. i'm now in israel it's one thing to declare a state and another to determine where its borders will be policy artie muller political activists know day told us that r t the despite the impending veto palestinians regard this bill as a major breakthrough. as palestinians we have

a very heightened sense of national pride at this moment and even though we know the veto is most likely coming out very much for the other it really makes no difference but there is a very high sense of national actually meant at this point because for one faster of those very disappointing years of the so-called peace process the political leadership and the popular popular public opinion are in line and they're in an on one side of the political debate if you will going back to negotiations is not something palestinians oppose on principle but if we go back to negotiations with our occupiers and that's what israel is without any terms of reference without israel clearly committing to international law clearly committing to its obligations according to international law and relevant u.n. resolutions then it's purely pointless. coming up who will be the first to face charges over crimes against humanity will it be on behalf of colonel gadhafi or

president sarkozy who now faces possible legal action over the military intervention in libya was. a booming drug industry destroys afghan lives and fuels terrorism but little being done to stop it good report coming up from kabul. the finish priest being temporarily defrocked and for speaking out against one of the world's most wanted terrorist daku maarouf. denounced the cover center website which he believes is a mouthpiece for tomorrow's deadly campaign for the human rights activist your back when says the authorities the sheltering militants by protecting websites activity . actually your home or is only repeating what is said about the activities of all of this terrorist organization by united nations by the usa by russia by the international media so actually you are morally cannot repeat the same information

in finland which is said in the international media about these terrorist organizations the person who is responsible of the website it is me he has organized some migration off militants from turkey to finland and now he is facing charges he's prosecuted in finland over the same time he has a very strong support on the highest level of the finnish. and also in the finnish government for example the minister of development of finland had hoped always very close partner to make i was told so the situation is really strange finland east actually protecting these militants and they are all going to sing their activities on the territory of finland a lot more on a website as well r.t. dot com about that including you are more laurie's blog on the controversial website and. following for a while within he claims centers already written some two hundred insulting

articles about even if you are all about growth you want to get more acquainted with that story that r.t. dot com. libya's transitional government forces have stepped up an offensive on one of gadhafi is last strongholds of sirte that's after saturday's attack failed to defeat the colonel's loyalists meantime some western leaders are facing accusations at home over the galatea of their military intervention r.t. don't you bushell explained and examined the reasons behind the claims there are some upsetting pictures coming up in his report as well. for injects foreign minister roland jamal says he's ready to defend gadhafi in the international criminal court which is issued a warrant for his arrest but nato will have to point the colonel first libya's deposed leader isn't hiding for good reason. if they find him they'll kill him like bin ladin some states are now claiming the right to kill against all international law. images like these are moving french lawyers to turn against the government

because sarkozy faces lawsuits over the birth of ordinary people in libya lawyers here in france accuse the presence of committing crimes against humanity this lawyer calls the libyan war renew vietnam with the us sprayed tens of millions of liters of toxins on crops in the sixty's and seventy's causing brain disorders miscarriages and birth defects to this day. so they're using missiles with depleted uranium which causes cancer in tripoli i saw people crippled by nato attacks office workers who have nothing to do with the fighting that's why we're seeing president sarkozy for crimes against humanity nato first denied bombing this residence where thirteen civilians including four children died then called the place a military command center this journalist went to see what it really housed books

videos spiderman toys and cultural and everything is nothing nothing military in another attack. wife or child or grandchildren were reportedly killed in their home nato is accused of deliberately waging a campaign of terror. bombings targeted libya's electricity water and food supply after five months of deadly nato bombs and thousands of deaths people will stop supporting the regime because they simply cannot take it anymore. western leaders of poised for their first big legal challenge over libya if they stop the cases coming to court all together as chickadee it will prove once and for all that western justice really used by politicians not the rule of law the new bush or r.t. powers. looking at just bit later in the program a barking way of fighting pollution from caffeine. is a very good. i still pulling that way. it's not only more environmentally friendly

but also they for you can't always rely on we called them the all when they called wild dogs will never live. births to come but before the talks of a possible greek default grew louder this last week league reports suggested that some of the eurozone finance ministers already regard the country's economy as a lost cause the army of reportedly given e.u. countries six weeks to build up a financial fire wall to protect themselves from the shock wave of the greek default comes amid rising fears of a double dip recession now after the world's markets or their worst week since two thousand and eight james made waves a senior economist at the new economic foundation think tank he told me believes we're seeing the beginning of the euro's pain. the cat is out of the bag and to be quite honest the statement is quite close to simple statements of the facts greece cannot supply or simply repay its debt under under current circumstances the growth isn't there the debt is far too big in that simply no earthly way is going to be

able to repay this debt on any plausible time scale certainly not by twenty twelve which was the original kind of hope that the european nations the divisions in place right the way across europe now with countries completely unable really to agree on any kind of way forward out of this mess other than the essentially tried and tested and tried and failed methods they passed last year which essentially is give a bit of a bailout to certain countries then impose austerity measures we are certainly i think in the early stages of disintegration of europe the deep rooted structural problems inside the euro system the imbalances that built up for the last ten years so i'd be surprised to see the euro continuing in its present form given the situation we're in at the moment the greek debt crisis over but it might turn out those unlikely to affect russia's economy that's the view of the russian finance minister we've got an exclusive interview with him next hour. the debt crisis does spread it does not affect us too much at least directly because our banks do not

hold any of the great doubters juba's french and german banks on the other hand will suffer greatly because they will not bombs on their homes that would not be cleared this will cause problems with him these banks problems with these banks credit some overall problems on these markets because banks are after all the leading players will go. and have a high profile killing shook afghanistan this week the country's former president an advocate of peace talks with the taliban was assassinated on choose day in a suicide attack who had no dinner but he was killed by militants who had hidden the explosive device in his turban claiming to be a taliban envoy about it would lead the country in the one nine hundred ninety s. was a key figure in current peace talks with the militants thousands of mourners gathered in the afghan capital kabul on friday for his funeral the following followed a string of high profile targeted killings including the murder of the current president's half brother in july with the taliban stepping up its attacks right now

in afghanistan one of the main sources of income is in full bloom but nato isn't doing anything about that is that if he gives his skin off. the penalty for drinking beer in kabul a sixty whips on the back publicly it is a very traditional muslim society or is it there are dozens of people if not more for doing drugs right there under this bridge in the center of the city with the water just coming in staring at them all these insane conditions we still rubbish being for on the way here where we're standing right now this is just incredible to see it heroin all. it's all cooked mixed injected or small to the right i'm on these piles of rubbish and not one policeman anywhere near. but that's not all we were told these people don't just come here to do drugs and many of them

called us home. and we don't have any jobs we don't have any kind of thing to do if you can save on. the help of a study commissioned by the u.s. state department shows each family has at least one drug user all bits are now found in breast milk and all kids even newborns have morphine in their blood there's no doubt that the area of plantation some with narcotic crops has increased since military hostilities started afghanistan i believe that the war was the root cause that forced afghan people to turn to poppy growing their own ninety percent of all the opiates in the world are produced in afghanistan interval cleans the markets global trade turnover has long surpassed the five hundred billion dollar mark or russia is one of the worst affected streets with around eighty tons of heroin thought to anyone resettle in the country that. it's tragic that despite the enormous resources nato has put into afghanistan including military force drug

production is just phenomenal moreover the head of nato military committee personally told me fighting drug production is not their goal there is no such directive. many experts find this a bit strange given the fact that a large part of the revenues from drug money is used to sponsor the taliban nato is key enemy in the region meanwhile the international community and spends billions of dollars to fight again it stands drug traffic but since nato has no legal right to coordinate the funds are spent with very little positive results while officials say that multi-billion dollar afghan drug network has the whole world in its grip you've got this going off party kabul afghanistan. small world news in brief now four explosions have rocked the city of kabul in southern iraq at least nine of being killed about one hundred injured. two of the explosions happened here a government office that was issuing id cards to iraqi citizens no one's claimed

responsibility for the attack so far. ninety two died in a plane crash in nepal it was carrying to risk to mount everest when it went down killing all but one passenger instantly and that surviving victim then later died in hospital i would have says report the aircraft clipped one of the houses in a local village before crashing no casualties reported on the ground. for huskies in one remote arctic town the work doesn't stop once the snow has melted in a bid to reduce the number of cars on the road there and the pollution of course they cause the other to spitzbergen was introduced in the original concept artie's traveled north to find out a bit more for us. that's what it really means to put the shoulder to the will contrary to popular opinion huskies don't go on vacation once the snow melts my dogs are pulling over to one of the cars to talk to me are not people who are. in fact in the world snow than most see the doc time is

a year round phenomenon dog where the only means of transportation around the archipelago until the mid one nine hundred sixty s. and while by now cars and snowmobiles have replaced them in many parts of the north here and sprays we're going to ask is a still cooling the way locals say it's not only more environmentally friendly but also safer you can always rely on the way to deal with the cold while dogs will never live. like most of the residents of norway's longer beyond robert wasn't born here. he moved in his mid twenties fleeing big city congestion in hope of reconnecting with nature he says who king his jeep behind his barking theme every two months is the major change in his life plus it keeps the dogs fit the story beats they know they need the exercise every day so. yeah when it's in peretz with the tourist then i'm going out training in my car

some two thousand residents along here beyond is little more than a white place in the road they may not be any traffic police but the rules of the road on no less strict the local authorities have already closed some of the archipelagos routes to motorised traffic with more restrictions to come. the loping force behind a partial car ban is very for thick also an average joe of love or she like it is driving to smoking invasive and damaging to the environment if there are no smoking areas where shouldn't there be. no in driving areas here small boat docks our culture in norway many other places also here in the north. and i think today we are living in big tones we need the silent truth where we can leave all what's around us in our normal days we need to rest our brain as the occupier of

the tries to attract more tourists some suggest that the her restrictions may have a commercial appeal with people around you won't reporting increasing traffic critique many may be in need of a car free refuge like this russian traveller whom kolosov and muscovite who endures hours long commutes to work sans the absence of honking horns to meet him instantly fall in love with the place the most amazing moment i experienced is of course the traffic the lack of traffic even early on january first in moscow you cannot find that if you cross like you see here to ban cars in the favor of dogs it's an absolutely great great idea and this would probably attract more and more tourists down here going to the dogs is obviously not an option for every city but here has definitely don't feel like a pit feel kind of we got our sea long gimpy and spitzbergen archipelago. well we're talking of motivation in a few minutes time

a special report for you about the death of america's car building and make sure to update its going away every shortly life or was.

this was a city. of about one hundred ninety thousand people and we had eighty fouls and people working for general motors. or a job that depended on general motors. general motors is if it's not relations you it might be your neighbor or somebody you knew so it's kind of a family run business you know myself i'm third generation my father was working there and you have a lot of two three and four generation families are there first let's understand that. this is a man doesn't know where. he should. it is gong to want a. man to work with. i think for a long time this notion in america that bigger was better was simply an undisputed

fact in the twenty first century smarter it's going to be better general motors simply became too large for their own good and so many brands that they couldn't even keep up with they just basically became a dinosaur. he .

follows one thirty am here in moscow you're watching r t with me kevin though in this is our news review of the week top job intrigue ended president medvedev and prime minister putin on saturday revealed that they could swap jobs off the twenty twelve presidential election pledging that will continue to work for russia. emotions run high too as palestinians bid for statehood at the u.n. last week with standing ovations in new york but clashes at the border in the west bank. the border the story about a finnish priest speaking out against a chechen terrorist website and now finds himself defrocked a disgraced with his plays ignored by the mainstream media. and great to false inevitable top officials know it's leaked reports reveal the recession could go even deeper than the first fifty. next what used to be a high.