russia's third richest man announces he's running for the country's top job with presidential elections scheduled for march for of says he's determined to capture the middle class and liberal vote. thousands gather in central moscow again this time in support of the ruling united russia party. talks resume on a new bailout for greece in a bid to ease its debt burden but skepticism remains over the efficacy of the rescue measures. and in the u.s. the occupy movement sets its sights on closing west coast ports while on the other side of the country campaigners face arrest in new york. six am in moscow i met treasurer good to have you with us here on r t our top story this hour one of russia's richest men metals magnate metallik has announced he's

running for president next march's election broker of says he'll attempt to unite the liberal and middle class voters in a single block many of whom took to the streets across russia protesting the outcome of parliamentary elections or he's really gluco has more. we have is number three on russia's rich list kind of a jack of all trades not only does he have a fortune of estimated eighteen billion dollars he's also an avid does good ball player in fact he owns the new jersey nets basketball team he's an avid skier and while in the french alps he's actually been involved in a high class prostitution scandal of course french authorities later house cleared him of all charges and extended their apologies for except if this is not his first story into politics he was the leader of the right cause party in russia just earlier this year he left to that party however due to disagreements with other party members hold though at the time profit of said that he did so because of the president from the kremlin and of course in the upcoming presidential election some

have to run against other candidates who have already said they're willing to run for the presidential elections and that of course is the premise of argument which in the end the head of the fair russia party now mikhail prokhorov did not specify what exactly is going to be on the he's election campaign he said everything that he has to say he will state in due time to the announcement that we will run for presidential term has made it into twitter is our worldwide top trends so that is quite an accomplishment already so we have just to wait and see in order to find out what exactly has in store martin mccauley a russia specialist at university of london things progress will bring some fresh blood to the presidential race it makes it interesting because he's a very good mathematician these are finance here he's a businessman he's a sports personality he's internationalist so therefore he's a name that people who recognise he would bring some. useful vigor if you like to

the proceedings one would expect him to articulate some views from a purely economic point of view he hasn't much experience of politics but he could argue about financially can argue about the way ahead for russia and he may in fact i've tried. the new urban class who most go into. places like that the young professionals the under thirty five's and so on they want a voice they want politicians. will be there for two or three years we need new blood. made cycle for that because being extremely rich man he's not to the crux of the poor guy because he was really going for the. young professionals who are the people who would like to be. protests have again swept across the russian capital this time though in support of the ruling united russia party thousands of people gathered to show their support for prime minister vladimir putin and president dmitry medvedev this after

a series of mass protests against the outcome of last sunday's parliamentary vote artie's media coaching of the house the latest several thousands of people who came here. in the square which is right. moscow these are the memories so that united russia policy various again stations the youth groups that support you know russia and its leadership prime minister vladimir putin and president putin. this really comes after a series of other demonstrations in the center of moscow following the parliamentary elections that took place on the fourth all december the results part of france the that has been going on for several days now they're. wrong and violations people have been coming to the streets. and you supported. the biggest protest so far to place only saturday around twenty five thousand people and the number given by the return ministry gathered in one of the mosque in central square still waste their frustrations their number one. recount basically people one of

the new parliamentary elections to take place in russia. untie wall street protesters in the u.s. are now trying to paralyze west coast ports but while they fight for their cause on one side of the country on the other riot police are starting to arrest demonstrators in new york or he's got a cheeky and has the latest. thousands took on ports from california to alaska to disrupt what they described as an economic machine that benefited the wealthiest individuals and corporations and that's been the occupiers message from the very beginning they marched on board saying san diego los angeles o'loghlin portland seattle tacoma anchorage in alaska the protesters have managed to disrupt the work of major ports on the west coast being opened the port was almost entirely shutdown same in portland again l.a. they blocked tribes from approaching the board by doing that the occupiers hold to

keep the message of the movement alive they are getting a government a city now a bit about wise for the protesters say they want to cut into profits of goldman sachs goldman sachs owns one of the world's largest transportation and shipping outfits so for the occupiers it's a way to make a point to get back of the jain bank which was very much contributed to the financial crisis in new york occupiers says marched in solidarity with their fellow protesters on the west coast they took their message to goldman sachs directly marching around the banks lower manhattan headquarters almost two dozen people got arrested during what looks like a peaceful demonstration so far as the orders have been quite successful in cracking down on these a peaceful protesters across the united states dismantling their camps a big thing demonstrators around five thousand protesters have been arrested in the last three months those arrests don't even make it to the headlines in the work

they've become business as usual dozens of demonstrators get arrested every week over the weekend seventy people were arrested in san francisco now as occupiers are being forced out of their occupied locations in the plaza seen in parks all across america members of the movement want to make sure that their message doesn't vanish together with those tense. occupy activist christin snelling the says the movement is getting a lot of support from unions and workers. today we decided to shut down four terminals one of which is the s.s.a. terminal which is owned by goldman sachs tagline that we're using address the issues of repression of labor and also in addition to that i.o.w. is the most one of the most powerful unions in the country and the e g t is effectively trying to break apart that union if they fall then all other organized

labor throughout the country it would just be a domino effect in regard to support we do you have overwhelming support from the rank and file workers their official nonsupport is not necessarily indicative of nonsupport from braintree file workers rank and file workers were not given a chance to vote on whether or not or to the action individual local i.o.w. doing in branches how they voted to support this in portland they voted to support it and here in oakland the local tavern he voted to not to have their workers not cross picket lines in international austerity inspectors are in greece to decide upon a second lifeline for the debt crippled country things got a vital cash injection in november narrowly avoiding default but the risk still remains this as cracks widen in the e.u.

after a new deal to save the euro zone was spurned by britain artie's ever press kind of has the story. it's not easy running a business even a small one like this german company which produces isolation materials for gas turbines loans taxes sound competition it's enough to keep any business moves ahead busy but meanies to wonder why are rules different when it comes to the big book or in this case the you. don't even know when a business takes a loan and comes paid back in and says it's bankruptcy. i think a state which keeps accumulating debt has to do the same it's no different from a company in that sense you don't borrow money if you know you can't pay it back but for some reason often this doesn't seem to be the case for the eurozone and let's take greece for example besides billions of euros which have already been allocated to bail it out even leaders have approved yet another tranche the aim is

to pay off its three hundred sixty billion euro debt preventing it from going and taking others with it but many fear the tactic will not work it's all about physics review no matter how strong a material is like this piece of metal with the right amount of pressure it will break. and unfortunately for the euro zone the laws of physics are called universal for a reason meanwhile the pressure is rising the latest e.u. summit in brussels showed the economic crisis is creating cracks in the union britain walked out of a deal put forward by germany and france to revise the e.u. treaty and create a fiscal union with a tighter grip on finances but analysts to warn the integration may take too long with some countries facing a possible referendum on the deal i actually think this fiscal union won't get off the ground because i think there's every chance the euro is going to crash and meanwhile inspectors from the so-called troika which consists of the european

commission the european central bank and the international monetary fund are looking to provide afghans with a new one hundred thirty billion euro bailout i would call it lying circus the banks who are trying to save their necks were put on the line with bad loans to corrupt governments and. waiting and expecting european taxpayers to pay their bills especially the bonus bills sure christmas is big in europe but bailing out. the euro for the sake of the banks is becoming one expensive present the dozens of protests that have rocked the e.u. this year alone are a clear sign of discontent over austerity and listen and it's highly unlikely the new set of handouts for greece will be greeted with a lethal cheer eager to skim off germany. giant google's been accused of

seriously compromising u.s. national security on its maps application it's revealed a top secret airbase used for testing unmanned aerial drones investigative journalist ross baker thinks the scandal proves it's time for a serious debate on individual privacy. what the news organizations that that spotted this saw and have published is a photo that very clearly shows what seems to be a drone the super secret drone on a secret air base near yucca lake in nevada and of course this is the type of technology that the united states government is desperately trying to keep away from prying eyes we know with this recent development with iran having commandeered and then taken down a drone and now they're reverse engineering it and learning about all the parts that then governments are under pressure like never before how are they going to keep their secrets and so what we see here is a public company like google has

a very very good technology you can go right to their maps and just zoom in for example i am in new mexico right now and i went to look at the los alamos national laboratory i have to say for some reason that one does not show up with zoom if you cannot see it we're seeing more and more of a conflict because governments themselves are extremely hypocritical they want to know everything about us and of course those drones are doing the exact same thing that the google satellites are doing their zooming all the way in and they can actually see people's be equals and who is doing what you taking pictures of everything so they want to be able to essentially prying into everyone's lives and have no one brought into what they are doing so i think we're going to have to have a national and indeed international conversation about the importance of both privacy and the need to know and try to figure out how we're going to sort that all out in the public interest. president obama has met with iraq's prime minister al

maliki at the white house ahead of the final withdrawal of u.s. troops from the country before the end of the year the pair outlined a broad agenda of future cooperation between the two countries for more discussion on this we go live to the founder of the future of freedom foundation jacob oram berger thanks for being with us so what was this meeting about was it really about closing the book on an almost decade long war or the future of iraq. well i think it's designed to create a myth or a fake appearance of what's going on there i mean this nine year war an occupation has been an absolute disaster you killed countless number of people with this invasion occupation you've got us regime that is dictatorial in every sense of the word they're incarcerating people without trial hold in that men definitely. i mean it's part of a dictatorship that just happens to be democratically elected and there's people there that are never going to accept

a regime that came into existence compliments of a foreign empire that went in there invaded it without any cause do you think this is the end of washington's military commitment to the country what do you think the future holds for the relationship between washington and baghdad well obviously you washington is interested in maintaining a close relationship so they're already doing what they do with all these other dictatorships in the middle east they're starting to furnish them with armaments and weaponry the same type of partnerships that existed with the egyptian military dictatorship and others around the the region and all this can have. anything but just a bad into i mean this is this is part of the problem with u.s. foreign policy they get broiled in support needs regimes and then what happens with if iraq decides to go totally independent and oppose the u.s. government then what happens with all those arm is it's just another recipe for

a giant mess and what do you think would be the future of the relationship between the two countries if after all this iraq decided to lean toward say iran for example. that's a fascinating question because i mean that that relationship between iran and iraq was close in need li after the invasion and the installation of this regime and this is what saddam hussein was was trying to avoid. a you know you regime there that we don't want itself with iran that's why the u.s. government aligned itself with saddam hussein during the one nine hundred eighty s. to prevent a regime from kemah and that would align itself with iran and so there's already indications of that relationship we look at obama when he goes into iraq he doesn't spend the night he doesn't give any advance notice because it's not considered safe same thing with biden but when the iranian rulers visit iraq they give plenty of advance notice they travel around the country openly they stay days at

a time there's an interesting question is what is the u.s. government's response going to be if iraq starts showing true sovereignty and independence and start to align itself with iran so it given the status quo we have now what do you think if you were in charge would be the best way forward best way forward for the american people is to have a total revaluation of u.s. foreign policy i mean this pro empire militarism invasion occupation assassination kidnapping foreign policy i just is so sorry to interrupt but just in terms of iraq what would you do terminate off war natives same thing i do every regime terminate also foreign aid and stop meddling in the affairs of iraq in every other nation and mularkey said that today he said he stands for a foreign policy that does not interfere with the affairs of other countries well i wonder if he knows what the u.s. government did here in iraq all right take

a boy maria thanks very much for joining us here on r.t. . the u.n. says nearly five thousand people have been killed in syria since the beginning of the uprising against president bashar al assad in march latest figures come after clashes in the south of the country claims some twenty three civilian lives with reports of new fighting erupted in the northwest but a rainy a masry a professor at the university of balam and in lebanon thinks the credibility of the numbers should be checked well there are definite questions on the credibility of the syrian human rights observatory particularly when it comes to the number of victims that they are victims of the government atrocities and many a time anyone who dies in syria they claim that these are victims of the syrian government atrocities you could say we haven't met several different banks factions here working to have the united states and france and turkey and certain members of the league of arab states that of course working very strongly to push for an allied government in syria government that would do its wishing as

a government that may be more akin to the jordanian government more i came to what he will but it wasn't egypt prior to his downfall so i government that that was not to not support resistance against israel a government that would work towards a peace agreement with israel a government that would open up its economies fully for the united states. finally this news block a famine themed credit card is hitting the u.s. markets just in time for the holiday shopping season but it relates to one of the most painful episodes in ukraine's history when a famine across the soviet union claimed three million ukrainian lives alone like syria's share of skew explains there are many who view the move by a us bank organisation as an attempt to cash in on tragedy. almost a decades on ukraine still mourns those who died in the 1930's famine in the u.s.s.r. known here as the whole of the more and it's a rare example where political forces more used to in fighting put aside their

differences to unite in common cause now the ukrainian diaspora in the united states is joining in remembrance in a rather peculiar fashion is the application for the whole of the credit card. will be able to allow the south asian. and one of our branches the catastrophic nine hundred thirty two nine hundred thirty three famine claimed at least three million lives in ukraine alone with several more million british across what is now central russia and kazakstan some one key of insist it was an act of genocide directed against ukrainians most school says it was caused by criminal agricultural policies of stalin's government but those behind the credit card project claim they're driven by remembrance motives only putting all the story debates aside you know what it's another good mechanism to have knowledge and more remember thanks to the political elite and civil organizations it is well known in ukraine. besides there

are only a few living witnesses left and they're already old. however it's not only about the intangible one percent of each purchase made with a whole the more card will be allocated to a special charity fund ukraine's main monuments commemorating the 1930's famine was built in two thousand and eight amid recession and millions of us dollars were used from the state budget people behind the hole the more credit card project say that the money they raise may be used to build more and more new mines and morial this apparently benign initiative however was met with an avalanche of criticism in ukraine and that's not only because there are practically no survivors left who could be helped with the money raised this political analyst says buying groceries with a famine inspire. card is a blasphemy. the idea is completely immoral it's an attempt to popularize a great tragedy and use it for commercial needs i can only think of a proven tragedy of the holocaust but the jews are not putting that on

a credit card in fact such an attempt was made by a u.s. company in two thousand and nine the blue card but it had no direct reference to the holocaust and it's not so popular across the atlantic where the whole of the more card will be more successful can be seen when it hits the market in late december just in time for christmas shopping. see reporting from kiev in ukraine. sierra's news will be back with the headlines in a few minutes stay with us here on r.t. first though with the middle east peace process facing more charges and ever r.t. speaks with an influential palestinian politician was stuffer barghouti about what's next for the region.

what more have dr mustafa barghouti the president of the palestinian national initiative and a member of the palestinian parliament dr thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. well palestinians still push ahead in a statehood bid despite the fact that it seems a two thirds majority in support of it is highly unlikely there can be no vote in the security council now because the united states or the obstruct of that. denying good committee that i ask for has american pressure paid off. from one side i mean many companies are doing what the united states and israel want. but at

the same time i think many of them feel shameful about it we've seen an example of that of the french what the newness call france is that will opportune in the security council voted for us and. many companies like spain and france. and belgium and others have the people on our side their governments cannot go again. the will of their own people but if the people are with the palestinians why then is it so difficult to get a two thirds majority in the security council because the united states still has the power of pressuring many countries because their israeli lobby is playing its cards pressuring many many world leaders because of the hypocrisy of western politics you know they speak about freedom of the syrian people respect of human rights in libya but they feel total knows that this is also needed for palestine

once you have membership in the general assembly you will have access to the international criminal court how do you plan to use this and do you think the israelis are concerned by yes they are totally concerned about this this is maybe one of the main reasons why they are trying to obstruct our membership in the united nations why because they know they have committed war crimes why because they know that many of the leaders of the. me. generals have committed crimes against humanity and i think we will do everything we can to give these guys one due to the court to the international court of justice when president obama came to power they were high hopes that the united states would play a positive role in the israeli palestinian conflict do you see his opposition to the statehood bid as a stab in the back totally we see it as a stab in the back but also we see it as a great failure big failure of an american president who failed to. respect his own

words he himself promised that palestine should become a member of the e.u. and by november two thousand and eleven and now he's leading not only not voting for us but he's leading a war against our membership what the american administration is doing and what the american congress is doing is in total contradiction with everything they speak about in terms of the principles of respecting human rights and of the nation and the principles of freedom you see the palestinian issue has become you know we. some kind of and raiment or some kind of a method to explore the variables or friends of each comes the course of what mr obama did and his administration has done has been that the united states has lost its position as a mediator in the middle east process just how difficult is it to go back to negotiations against the backdrop of the un statehood bid it's not difficult to go

to negotiations it's impossible. as long as allowed to continue to but settlements as long as government is the government we have that would be no negotiations and that's why i feel sorry for the waste of money. spending so much taxpayers' money on travelling and moving and coming and going without a new visa as long as the. people in the court the governments and the courts that as long as they don't decide to pressure. seriously to stop settlement activities we will see more progress while israel suffer if economic problems continue to mount in the united states i believe i believe so because united states is becoming weaker with the passage of. unfortunately it makes some forces in the united states like me will cause more aggressive. unfortunately the economy weaken this is dragging out the driving some people in the united states towards very dangerous

military adventures like attack and get out for instance because they think of the control of oil completely they would control the energy and this would become control of the economy of. china many other countries in this war dr mustafa barghouti thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. thank you. twenty years ago i just country. began a journey. where did it take. he's

. saying. to. susan to. six or six of them it's. coming.