europeans can rest easier this winter with an uninterrupted flow of russian gas to keep them warm the nord stream pipeline will pump fuel along the baltic sea floor and straight to you customers without relying on transit countries like ukraine and belarus president medvedev is in germany and will soon start the flow. is there for life that you know you're there can you tell us if the pipeline can provide enough to keep the fires and are burning. oh absolutely now the pipeline is out as you have said is the longest one in the world it's more than twelve hundred kilometers long it's an offshore pipeline goes along the bottom of the baltic sea and when fully operational it will provide more than fifty five. fifty five billion cubic meters of gas of russian gas to european customers now today only the first half of this only the first one the first of the two pipelines will actually start working this second one will become fully operational by the end of next year so at that

point your customers will see all that russian gas coming for in in from russia now as we have also mentioned one of the most important parts is that there will be no intermediaries so the gas will not be there will be no chances for gas to be abruptly shut off in places like delaware's or ukraine another interesting point about this particular gas pipeline is that it's going to come at no cost for the european taxpayers around thirty percent. of the seven billion. of the seven billion project is being financed by the consortium shareholders nordstrom's shareholders the rest is being financed by international banks so customers in europe will be able to get more give us no extra cost and that will actually increase energy security in europe. now you know we're seeing some live pictures of president medvedev there in berlin arriving for the ceremony it's going to be an exciting time for dance prominent. time for russia but there's still some

way to go before this pipeline is fully operational is that correct. that is absolutely that is absolutely correct as i have just mentioned this is again just the first step of the pipeline now that the the pipeline was launched and the construction began in two thousand and five in russia the under sea the under sea for the undersea portion of the pipeline is actually going from we bought it all the way to germany and today only the first the first pipe of the two pipes will be turned on but the second pipe is already seventy percent complete so there is not much time there's not too much time left to wait for the european customers before the rest of the bible will start working and you can actually hear the. the opening ceremony of the presidential state visit which will of course coincide and include the opening of the north stream pipeline a very very i think of very interesting and significant event for europe and for

russia alike all right thank you very much you know that as we can hear there of the russian national anthem playing live you just from berlin president obama's for that's another chance we'll keep you updated as more information comes. in business r.t. in twenty minutes you can discover nordstrom's journey from pipe dream to reality then later this hour former german chancellor gerhard schroeder who is now chairman of nord stream tells us why this means that everybody is a winner. also the. the european union needs russia geopolitically but the reverse is also true of it's not a question got kind of the time has come to start cooperating and start looking back on body logical differences or niches in a situation where you could ship gas to china all of a year and you are you know i hope russia never has to make a russian government is evidently pro european or europe cannot keep pushing gusher away it hurts russians pride we have to keep in mind all russia has the alternative

leadership he us or europe has no such alternative to europe's geopolitical position will alleviate food or if it manages to enter a tight partnership with russia under the same time grand a session a turkey or that would be a sound strategy again or into the future by us the rest of us worth debating. gerhard schröder the former german chancellor and chairman of nord stream project talks more darting around twenty five minutes time greek leaders are struggling to decide who should become the new prime minister to lead a crisis coalition george papandreou has agreed to go but is locked in a raul with the opposition leader over who should replace him athens is under enormous pressure to act fast and push through cuts before it can get more emergency cash sarah furth has asked greeks how they assess the mess that their end . as the year anything crisis rumbles on greece is once again found itself the

focus of international attention and it seems like everyone's had an opinion about the situation here in the country we decided to come to the square which is really beat me up and it's so much of this year a crisis if the find out what the people of greece have to say about it all. the camera and. let the people of greece take it away alone we are angry. all the people who. are saying. everything is. actually it's like they're trying to frighten us. hi my name's vicky. needy and i've been living in greece for ten years now my grandfather fought for this country and it saddens me that. right now there's

a chance you might lose everything that we know in this country and there's really not much we can do and i want. all the european snow but old. but. why do they lend his money plus don't they want the money but the thing with the situation right now and greece is that we don't feel real secure about anything but our salaries our health and you know in my aids thing about the timber i'm going to make and the decisions i have to do from then from now it's really sad because. everybody here things that you know the things could be better there are something more than that there's something more there there are great because there is a lot of fun employment in greece now. that the people in greece out a very skeptical about the euro i think ok there it's better we are in euro.

of course definitely but there are still some serious problems. because a lot of people lost they lost their jobs you don't know what. you can do you can plan your life i'm twenty years old and i don't have a job. i have to leave with my parents i don't have money i can leave i hope for everybody to be calm and. try to get out of the crisis and i really hope everybody can help us to do that is a european country in greece and europe is a good quote a greek word i hope something can be done so we can save this beautiful country and be able to pass it on to our grandchildren and the children after that the people of greece have stepped up to the mike and had a chance to have a say the question now is whether anyone is going to be ready to listen to them

whether decisions again to keep being made behind closed surf. syntagma square and. still ahead for you this hour when a confrontation is not an option. we'll look at how israel's military muscle flexing and. foreign policy is turning its own people against signing up for service. and why russia is restive north caucasus is rising from the ruins with a powerful p.r. machine hoping to attract thousands to the region. for activists protesting against washington's plans to use a new south korean base for the u.s. navy have been arrested at the site opposition to the base comprised mainly of local residents and civics groups has centered on environmental concerns as well as fears of destabilising korea china relations we can now talk to activist matthew hoey whose friends are among those arrested matthew thank you for joining us can you tell us how visa for south korean protesters been charged with anything and why

were they detained in the first place well or more leaders of virus this. are the lifeblood of our international scene. just as we are holding this resistance and it's year. annual conference known as the changing process it's the republic of korea a un disarmament is being held ten minutes away from a site. for members of the resistance brothers song. who is a religious and peace leader here in the village. he was the leader of our international team and amateur filmmaker known as. and young still kang with my very close colleagues went to the hotel with a conference was being held we have video of them simply holding signs in front of the hopes now for him since been arrested. this adds to the total number of people

in prison including the mayor of the village he's been held without bail for three months can you give us an idea of how big the protests are at the site and what are those demonstrating hoping to achieve. well learned village of eighteen hundred equal just two weeks ago we had well over a thousand city this was a small five person demonstration they went to the conference to deliver a message to deliver a statement about their concerns at the naval base the disarmament leaders and then to ask this moment there's large rallies being held to say what people can eat station where they're finally being detained and also at the gates and me it will be about a five minute walk from where i am right now now there is more than a significant presence from the u.s. on the korean peninsula right now how much more of a significance would this be with this new base you know it was take into consideration that this is going to be one of the largest military bases in the world a naval base has the capacity of those bases twenty large destroyers to aircraft

carriers subs will be outfitted aegis missile defense system where her hair less than three hundred miles away from the chinese mainland is a very attractive location for the united states military as an official at a conference the other day told me the u.s. new twenty fourth a storm with no secrets that u.s. ships will be calling this home now quick question previous nonviolent demonstrations relating to this naval base have been met with a strong crackdown from authorities could this situation turn violent in the future do you anticipate any further arrests. they've been buying for five years they've been beaten they've been incarcerated the mayor is apparently in prison initially there was a vote of just eighty seven people that led to the construction of the base village protested they held another vote ninety four percent of the residents said they didn't want the base the government said that they weren't going to abide by that the results of that vote recently the provincial government demanded that

construction be stopped the military said no what i fear is that the villagers of just about every illegal often are fighting a very sound rational nonviolent resistance the government simply isn't listening in the now is playing fair. all right i fear is that i don't really mean it as a ration really quickly if you wouldn't mind some experts believe that this could spark a cold where cold war like tensions in the area what is your take. sometimes i i think that maybe not next year maybe not five years down the road the idea of a changing missile crisis comes to mind rapid escalation between u.s. and china u.s. ships and subs of those three hundred miles off the shore here and share it with me is the island a target all right thanks very much matthew hoh you international corner of the campaign to save j.j. while. russia has issued a clear warning to israel over a possible attack on iran the foreign minister was responding to the israeli president's suggestion that

a military strike on iran is more likely than diplomacy sergey lavrov said any such attack would be a serious mistake with unpredictable consequences the u.n. nuclear watchdog is about to report on iran's nuclear activities where it is thought it will reveal a computer model of an atomic warhead and other weapons related work israel's main ally the u.s. says it will focus on diplomacy but is ready to keep all options open political analyst ivan eland says washington is unlikely to support israel's push for an attack. in china when mao and the chinese got nuclear weapons mao made direct threats to nuke the united states and of course lyndon johnson explored military options etc and of course they didn't take the chinese nuclear weapons out so i think you can deter this we have thousands of nuclear warheads russia has thousands of nuclear warheads i think the iranians could do what japan has done because japan has taken it all the way up to actually building a nuclear weapon they haven't done it they've shown they have the capability it's

or maybe that's what iran is trying to do maybe iran and never build a weapon they've shown that they can design a warhead that will fit on the missile getting the missile over here we've seen north korea had a lot of problems with that so we're not in the panic mode yet but i think what the foreign minister said there is absolutely correct there's no good military option here if you want to make sure you get all the stuff you have to launch a ground invasion which would make the invasion of iraq look nice and right and it look easy runs a much bigger country the terrain the people there are not in a good mood towards america or you'd have a lot of a lot of problems and of course they could attack by air israel or the united states could do that and that's the that's the fear i think but there's just no good option. it's israel's increasingly tough talk that is driving away the very people it would need to defend itself that's on top of the recent aggressive foreign policy moves such as the ground invasions of lebanon in two thousand and six and gaza three years ago policy or reports on the israeli conflicts that are

repellent its conscripts. for years it's been the cornerstone of the country's security but these days there's a real risk these rady defense forces could be left defenseless conscription is at an all time you know about fifty percent of. jewish males. serve in the military. spend most of the year and a half he was in the army trying to convince his superiors to release him as they eventually did but only after he'd wasted months searching around he says doing nothing while in uniform after the four of. because of this feeling that there would be sorry if i would. later i realized that i just couldn't pick. with a friend. and a growing number of israelis agree with him friedman made sure she scored low on her army entrance tests so instead of serving as

a soldier she's now doing civil service working as an art in structure and a center for the mentally disabled i have a lot of fans in the army and they saw. how they were when they first came to them in how they are now and it's brainwashing actually and they just keep you down from your identity and make you a basically a soldier ten years ago the refusenik movement started in israel youngsters refusing to serve in the army on political grounds add to that the nearly fifteen percent of potential draftees who don't serve because of religious reasons and a recent series of scandals also so public trust in the military decline the state it's about to stand so. this video posted on you tube says a true israeli doesn't evade the truth in other words a true israeli avoids conscription fifteen or twenty years ago an advert like this would have been unthinkable in those days not serving in the army was something

shameful but now young. does have role models like activia nodded a former girlfriend is ready model barbara fady who evaded service and gave it. a violation of human rights. by israel's absolute disrespect. it's crystal clear there's no question about that study showed that by twenty twenty the number of military age jewish israelis who will not be serving will be the highest the growing trend has the military why we need it won't have all the troops it needs especially now as the region heats up and the army needs all the soldiers it can get. her daughter to dot com for more on all of our stories plenty more there for you as well. as the u.n. claims it has discovered a secret nuclear facility in syria r.t. hears from others who insist it's nothing more than a textile factory. and history comes alive in red square

a major reenactment of the moment so that soldiers marched tackle the nazis as they made their move on moscow seventy years ago we got the video and the significance of the event at r.t. dot com. more world news for you at this hour. michael jackson's doctor has been convicted of killing the king of pop the jury took two days to find conrad murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter by administering a lethal dose of the painkiller propofol there was an emotional reaction inside and outside the court as the verdict was delivered or a faces four years in prison and has lost his medical license. a woman who accused the u.s. presidential hopeful herman cain of sexually abusing her has gone public with her accusations bialik said of the republican groped her when she asked for his help finding work in the one nine hundred ninety s. it is the fourth allegation of sexual misconduct against the candidate cain denies all the charges but it's not stopping support from ebbing away. was president

is cruising towards a third term in office with most votes now counted in the election. secured over sixty percent of the ballots so far that's more than double his nearest rival conservative fabio god day out who's rejecting the results and accusers ortega of voter fraud. well for many rushes caucuses has been synonymous with violence for years its biggest battle now is convincing people that times are changing and for the better attracting tourists is a key goal with luxury ski resorts among the developments taking place. over reports the p.r. is paying off. thank. you. and these glamorous and extravaganza shows are the morgan face of the caucasus where anxious traditions survive for attention with the razzmatazz of twenty first century life

and for many started hand with the beautiful game not long ago a local football club that dystonia and gene was barely known outside the region now it regularly makes international headlines with its doubles on the global transfer market for a second i'm starting from scratch i've won all the trophies possible in europe as a player he reckons starting new plus i've played a bunch of problems before and he told me a lot about russian football and i do look forward to joining the team the words of the camera man star striker and more importantly the record price they were prepared to pay made the local team one of the most ambitious clubs and the world and a mission is almost everything and the caucasus discovered a land of opportunities finally for the world cross albine sports results in january as the northern caucasus is coming. and there actually more than a dozen ski resorts ham but all currently stand empty and the states now aiming to

turn that around france has already signed up to the project with one important condition the dresher guarantees the repayment of funds if the security situation worsens or if there is a major incident the first brand new how it's also due to the residents of the upcoming ski season so there's not much time left to boast people's confidence in the safety of a holiday in the caucasus and that sense of a much harder task than building five star accommodation. indeed terrorism anti terror raids and armed attacks are often the first things that come to mind when you think of the caucasus because that's mostly what we hear in the news. but real life is as always much more complicated there is another side to living down hand that's barely even heard of beyond the region but which is well worth making the effort to discover you i never thought it would be mostly in such a sure is a moment of time what's happened in some kind of miracle i can't believe my eyes

and it's not just soaring skyscrapers and business centers popping up hand celebrities have been too and while some like actress hilary swank may have been forced to explain her visit the full ousts only have to put the region on the front pages the p.r. machine spinning and full speed because where the stars go the cameras follow my do not push no r.t. reporting from the north caucasus. in a few minutes away talk to the chairman of nord stream gas pipeline project more of that now in the business update with current. karen welcome to business here and thanks for joining us as we have been reporting on r.t. russia is set to start pumping gas to europe through the new any belt north stream pipeline where across the lawn to you throughout the day but now they pull explains how the world's longest underwater gas tank came to fruition. russia has been selling gas to europe for half

a century with the first pipeline running to austria completed in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven trading survived a long list of upheavals even the depths of the cold war failed to disrupt supplies however the breakup of the soviet union brought a new set of problems much of the energy infrastructure became the property of countries bordering russia with their own political and economic ambitions this resulted in a couple of so-called gas wars with ukraine and the old bust up with bella ruse which is where nord stream comes in the pipeline runs beneath the baltic linking russia directly to germany it's the longest subsidy pipeline in the world at over twelve hundred kilometers and it bypasses all transit countries that nine billion euros it's undoubtedly expensive but a pipeline last for up to fifty years so there's plenty of time to make a return to the immediate benefit does it provide security of supply to europe which gets twenty five percent of its gas from russia and after thirteen years of

planning and two years of construction the first delivery is about to be made nick poole business r.t. . and energy minister said. why the north day is destined to be a financial success. but despite the fact the project was developed in unfavorable market conditions it had no problems in the truck to six point four billion euros of investments and it did not involve any financial help from either russia from any european countries the projects budget in total reach seven point two billion euros involving companies from russia and eleven you countries in this respect we think that has already proven to have been highly economically efficient. but let's take a look at the markets now oil is trading at the highest level in three months where prices little ten cents one day light sweet is currently trading at around ninety five over ninety five and a half dollars a barrel well brant is that one hundred fourteen dollars

a barrel asian stocks struggle for direction with most major indexes ending lower japanese and korean shares closing to read out of the euro zone debt anxieties exporters among the leading decliners in tokyo banking stocks were supporting the hang sang in the beginning but then the hang seng closed flat stocks in europe open higher would investors continue into i advance in italy and greece banking stocks among the main advances always banking group rose three point eight percent societe generale is up three point seven percent and bought a phone group is up one point four profit beat analyst expectations now is moscow where the markets are gaining in early trading at the r.t.s. is up around a quarter of a percent of them isaac's is up nearly half a percent and here's a quick look at some share moves on. energy majors are mixed with frost they have down over a percent. of the block and russia's biggest lenders bank is gaining point eight

percent this hour. to be capital believes investors should look to liquid energy stocks for a potential good buy. so this is probably no time to be fully in the market if you're interested i think it's good to be invested in the more liquid stocks. and you know on desktops if you're in there since they're russia because judging by the results we've seen over the course last quarters and they're still getting more and more convinced that russian oil companies have so-called. become aware of the legislation from locals or the how to actually continuously make more money in the event the consensus. questions are quite good and the world price seems quite the quite robust three irregardless of the situation in the global markets and we've seen an interesting observation actually the budgets in the middle east seem to balance as in russia at a much higher price given that they financed they the social stability from the budget so they are going to limit the supply and they will president as they have

so oil and gas folks probably the best to put both in terms of liquid c and the outlook for the main commodity. and that's it for now a stay with us for headline is with shawn coming up right after this. if. you.

feel. to be limited. to subsist some. six or. six. if anything.

with us. the world's longest line is said to start pumping gas to warm up western europe without relying on transit countries. in germany ready to flick the switch to receive supplies later on tuesday. it is a race for the rescue funds in greece with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition scrambling to form a government with enough power to resolve the crisis the eurozone has given fifteen weeks to sort out. on top of. its young people are increasingly turning their backs on the army many have told our country to severe.