the russian prime minister is grilled by the people in his annual public q. and a he defends the right to protest legally and val's to are pleased with the position of people. from minister didn't say that he wants to see cameras installed in polling stations in an effort to stomp out electoral fraud join me in a few moments more on this. lot to be a prudent oh a moment question and answer session. along with. board hearing human rights groups sound the alarm as the u.s. is calling for rising indefinite detention for terror suspects.

and moscow offered to help the year as a noun or even debt crisis but says only the new console of its problems as president medvedev meets a top technocrat some groups holds. stronger ties and ironing out differences when it comes to the energy sector between russia and the e.u. all join me for more details on that very shortly. and then business russian equity markets and in the black on wednesday with energy and banking stocks leading the game we'll be bringing you the figures and business bulletin when it's time. a very warm welcome to you this is a line from moscow now from the recent parliamentary election to russia's foreign policy putin told a whole grain. questions from the public including

a number of tough topics the prime minister's annual televised q. and a with the nation lasted a record four and a half hours. of ellison did then joins me live now at peace at the opposition's been claiming the results of the election were rigged what was pretty his response to that as well following the parliamentary elections at the beginning of the month we saw videos appear online allegedly showing electoral fraud taking place now these videos went viral all across the internet and speaking on. about the web a lot of the a putin said the due to the nature that it couldn't be limited and also said this if it could it wasn't the role of government to limit the internet and internet usage he did say that technology should become a bigger part of the electoral process saying that web cams should be placed in polling booths to make sure that everybody can see exactly what happens there.

but actually something only is breaking a very nuance in the election commission to install web cameras at every polling station in the country and they're over ninety finals and over these cameras should be on around the clock so that everyone can see what's happening at every station little rule out any allegations of fraud or yes. we're looking ahead to the presidential elections which mr putin will stand in next year he laid out his manifesto saying that he wanted to to modernize russia's economy and to grow and develop democracy in the country now. he also had some words for one of his contenders in the. presidential race. of saying that he was a worthy and a strong contender but stopping short of saying that he would give us the profit of his support of course that amir putin will be running against him going for that president george the president in march of next year now one final point on the

elections he did say that if not to be a putin saw that the people were not on the side with him that he would remove himself from office that he would step down voluntarily if it looked like the people weren't on site now but he did a televised q. and a session as you were saying lasted over four and a half hours same presumably there were a number of awkward questions as well. well in forward a half hours when you're asking all the people in russia to put their questions to one of the bell at the top well you're going to get some great questions and usually on earth some gems are safe for the half hours this time the longest that the prime minister has spoken for an address these questions this time out was no different what we what we heard was mr putin fielding a question about a ballot that had been spoiled during the parliamentary elections earlier this month and the ballot came from london and the whoever heard fill that ballot in or miss filled it in as it were had left a rather choice message for the pm on their ballot paper using some well colorful

language let's hear what he said. if you didn't run in the parliamentary election their name wasn't on the party list and yet everyone seems to hold you responsible for the results and. well that's normal news that would last a magazine published a photo of a ballot had an obscene message addressed to you i would not want to watch it right now. why not go ahead. why don't you ask the rest as a broadcaster. would you think i decided to. yes i've seen such i found it very amusing and i was even pleased because there's nothing new in your certitude i saw plenty of dirt thrown my way when i was president but i did not myself do you nor do i doubt my actions as far as i know the message or not but it was written in london and we knew very well why some russians live there so why they don't want to come up with me but you know they are obscene message to me simply tells me how much they want to talk about fashion but

they can't well i mean some of you know i'm not i'm actually grateful that they came in voters just like i was the choice. and aside from the elections peta whatever main points were taught about. well the prime minister was taking questions on foreign policy regarding the united states. and said that russia wanted to improve their relationship with america and work together with the u.s. however it was the united states side which really didn't want to take their relationship any further that they don't want didn't want to deal with sovereign nations like russia that they had their own type of partner they wanted to work with. a so you think you know they made up their mind on afghanistan understand but did they discuss the mission with their own eyes in advance but i don't know that they carried out their strike and we've been started pulling in other forces saying whoever is not with us is against us think it's we'd like to be allies with the

united states but what i see now is not partnership sometimes i think america doesn't need allies it needs service in the west. well staying stateside prime minister putin also heard some comments for us senator john mccain john mccain had said this to me as putin would go the same way as colonel gadhafi you know this prompted a response from the prime minister saying that well perhaps john mccain it should spend too much time in the prisoner of war camp during the vietnam war and this had affected his mind well elsewhere there was also statements made on. the jailed on oil tycoon now to me putin said that there was a possibility he would be looking into a pardon for her to cause all of this coming of course in a four and a half hour long q. and a session the longest so far in the ten years that led to me if it has been doing these beating his previous records in my five minutes of the new york. many

thanks peter all of a fair process that thomas k. . now tara south banks and america could be held in prison indefinitely without charge trial because of the senate passes a controversial bill which is already been signed off by the white house the house of representatives it could mean the military being able to take alleged terrorists custody that surely but now critics say would be a thong and right now the white house initially objected to the bill that made to change his mind john glaser from home think the administration. and. these provisions mandating military custody amounted to a restriction of the president's authority but in truth it's reasonable to assume that a veto threat was mere political theater because senator carl levin one of the provisions primary authors revealed during senate debate that it was the obama administration

itself who requested the inclusion of language mandating military detentions including u.s. citizens in that language so you could say the ministration never really changed their minds it was just sort of doing it for public consumption the bill merely codified into law this status quo i mean that is to say the government has already assumed that they have the power to detain u.s. citizens indefinitely without trial and that's what guantanamo bay is essentially the targeted assassination of. u.s. citizen and. proves again that the government has already in every practical sense dismissed the due process rights for americans the senate already passed a version of this bill and the vote was ninety three to seven so only seven senators ject to the literal aeration of the fifth

amendment it's expected to pass the senate it's already passed the house and obama is expected to sign it before the end of that week. coming up in just a few minutes a journey in time necessary to just acknowledge the three and see we take you to a fifteen hundred year old fortress russia's most ancient city. the eurozone still faces a bleak outlook with the prospect of a winter recession in spite of the efforts of politicians to come up with solutions summit in brussels president medvedev has offered russia's help along with closer energy ties saying moscow is hopeful of seeing the overcome its troubles. are silly is across the latest. the euro zone problem has been on the top the agenda and russia russia's role possibly in trying to help the eurozone nations one of the ideas put forth is russia contributing a certain amount to the international monetary fund now the amount has not been

specified by a president medvedev although there had been talk that it's in the vicinity of around ten billion dollars and you know there is the option also the contributing to the f.s.f. or even russia would prefer to contribute to the international monetary fund and again both sides reiterate the importance of this partnership russia in particular because the e.u. comprises about more than half of the foreign trade between the two countries and its foreign reserves are also a euro so it does see its interest in trying to support the country in the countries in overcoming the crisis that are in right now both sides did admit to and reiterate the ties between the two countries saying praising the success particularly of the north stream project and they say baby could be will expect continued continuous exchanges especially in the energy sector although they did mention that there are difficulties as well particularly in relation to the third energy package which is the legislation of the e.u. that requires the separation of the transportation delivery and sale of gas which

does become a point of contention because one of russia's russia's biggest company gazprom is in charge of all those all those processes and it would it would definitely impact the way they operate in terms of gas a live reason the e.u. although the e.u. said well they're willing to talk about and continue negotiations on how to add more flexibility so that they would take into consideration of russia's interests now another thing relation to creative business is of course the accession of russia to the w t o no this will provide more liberalization definitely lower import tariffs for russia certainly the e.u. will play a very big role considering that seventy point five percent of investment in russia is coming from the e.u. so to morrow the they will rubberstamp be w t o accession and that russia has to ratify that agreement so a lot of business and trade talks happening here in brussels between the two sides . pakistan is reportedly considering imposing a tax on the u.s. and nato supplies going to afghanistan through its territories was shot down last

month cross border a nato airstrike killed twenty four pakistani soldiers will ations between washington and islamabad hit a new low after the incident let's discuss the situation i would prefer the senior bowl to our bureau of best good journalism in london many thanks for joining us here on. the pakistani prime minister has said the country is seeking new rules of engagement with washington is that what the reported tense plan is all about and this so what with these new rules do you think well according to the report from the go and the rules pakistan's thinking of including to impose a tax on all trucks and tankers person through pakistan basically shipping us supplies through pakistan to afghanistan that's about two and a half thousand trucks a year according to the guardian and parks i'm talking about the turks of about one of thousand dollars per truck and that seems to be part of

a broader package that pakistan's discussing the violent for example or some park starting you spoke with suggesting that if the u.s. resumes its drone strikes which appear to be on pause at the moment after the nato attack that can only occur when we don't read the pakistani intelligence which of course is something that the united states will want to resist very strongly and now if this tax is imposed the cost of washington's campaign in afghanistan will rise hugely how big a blow you think that will be. i'm not sure the cost is actually that significant i think. i did some background on the some earlier and i think it's it's in the tens of millions of dollars perhaps around forty million dollars a year the cost of imposing the tax in terms of a war that is costing the united states upwards of a trillion dollars a year these are actually a small amount of money and of course the alternatives facing the united states

rather than going through pakistan where about forty percent of nato supplies are currently run will be far more expensive the u.s. could either fly them in which is a very expensive way indeed to bring in the supplies or it could route them through the far longer central asian routes but it does have available but that means negotiating many more countries and also of course the further north you go the more of that moment of the weather becomes particularly in winter so actually as a tax hike i suspect the u.s. may be assessing it and thinking it may it may be a fair price to pay to maintain good relations with pakistan but is there a risk that this is the thin end did the wedge if you like the u.s. might lose pakistan's support entirely any say what other options is washington us to have in the region. i think washington is in a very tricky space at the moment from a particular with with the tensions with iran at the moment as we see in the united

states just pulling out of iraq today and and all of the abilities that that gave them to the west it's like country they have they have failed with friends in the region but in terms of long term friends in particular access to military resources military bases and so on pakistan is still really the strongest ally in the region and particularly given its proximity to afghanistan these days in strongest ally in the region that pakistan is also recently stopped u.s. forces from using an air base on its territory was that also a serious drawback to washington. i think it is a serious drawback to see your drawings that were based there will no longer be able to operate our customs tribal areas are speaking with a pakistani source just this week it was saying that the issue with shams you sort of become the public face of the drones in pakistan and that's why i had to go but that same source told me in effect the bureau will be running that story later this

afternoon that the u.s. will continue to have access to at least follow of all the military bases in pakistan at least one of which will be capable of flying almost drones so although yes it's a public setback for the united states solution based they still have the ability to make use of military bases throughout history ok crosswords from the view of the journalism in london many thanks for speaking to us. now more paintings on the developments around afghanistan available on our web site on top overall to get our eye on other potential hotspots around come to town to have a series of bombings and the nation with the views of one i guess but he believes the so-called rogue states could just be the latest victim of the world's real axis of evil. class the latest addition to china's military might is inflated aircraft carrier which beijing says will be used for training and risks that shun to go see

trial. for some other well stories in brief this hour in syrian activists say the seven security officers have been killed by army defectors in the southern province of the royal meanwhile human rights watch has released report naming dozens of stealing officials their claims are responsible for the violent crackdown on protesters reports based on just a bit sixty testimonies of people who have defected from the regime the u.n. says more than five thousand people have died since the nine month long on rest began damascus play. it's armed gangs for the violence. a french court has found exit president guilty of diverting funds and abusing public confidence the charges date back to his term as mayor of paris he was convicted of paying gave salaries to former party members for municipal jobs that didn't exist shy or wasn't in court to hear the verdict because of his poor health he's been

given a two years to spend it sentence. the american flag has been lowered in baghdad in a ceremony marking the war's end in iraq and the withdrawal of u.s. troops a small contingent of u.s. soldiers remains in baghdad but will leave soon after the ceremony america claims to have left behind a stable country but many worry the military pullout will provoke even more terrorist attacks over ten thousand iraqis have been killed since the american led invasion nine years ago. time now to take a trip those of us back in time as we visit russia's oldest city. where people have lived in deadband for more than five thousand years a fortress with the ten tests to its history many battles have been won and lost for control of this prize because of its strategic position on an ancient trade

route today there in the army's advanced economy imposing edifice of russia's southern most city our friendly tourists rather than hostile and betas for many centuries the city developed between two natural walls the mountains and the sea on a strip of land just three kilometers long over the years different nations gave the city different names but all were connected to the word gate the reason perhaps is that a band stood on the silk road enclosed by strong walls reaching to the sea and the watch towers. in the years gone by it was never this easy to get to the night in call a fortress then armies would do battle storming the walls to get inside it has become a second home. he's the key keeper of one of the most beautiful cons castles in the region very near the north and it will almost forty years of my life i spent here all members of my family works here this is

a tradition for everything here is special for me i want to save every piece of it for the future. and the younger generation of dagestani man is following in his footsteps averaged a local historian meets dozens of tourists and tells this story of not in color some of the. what you see from here is the old part of data bint we call it this is the oldest city in russia in the past caravans used to come to the gates of this fortress they paid a toll and only after that could they continue their journey to the north. this place guarded one of the strategic passes on the silk route and was used well into the nineteenth century however a large portion of the fortress was destroyed in the nine hundred twenty s. during the russian civil war this is what's left of what was once one of the most of law and punishments in the caucasus the criminals were thrown into this post and the ground and left to die there from hunger new criminals were thrown their own

a regular basis but none of the bodies were after remove not even cost downs on the whole i speak in the city and overlooks the caspian sea too long walls and enclosed all part of dead bend and lead to the sea the locals are not only trying to preserve buildings but also their traditions for centuries dagestani man were known for their horsemanship they raised horses and sold them to the caravans coming to the city but now that age old tradition is being challenged by a woman. point your religion was at the beginning no one understood me all my brothers were who was mine when i was a bit into following them because i'm a woman it took me years to become what time now after just a few hours indeed and you can feel the history coursing through the veins of the narrow streets and if you concentrate hard enough you can almost hear the clatter of horses answering the old gates of the city but the republic is also famed for

its athletic and linguistic diversity being home for more than thirty languages and to discuss this more i'm now joined by the snow refer to dave payton thank you very much for joining me today pleasure a so i've heard that you come a long way from the states to this region of pakistan so what prachi over here a jury really. you know as you mentioned august on is the most ethnically one of the the most ethnically complicated regions in the entire world and it's actually for a long time been my passion my dream to come here to study. here and really a goal of mine is to introduce dr ston to thank you sunny so considered to be one of the most dangerous places in russia maybe and what do you think about it so you think it's safe enough to stay here. yeah i do think it's safe enough to be or fact i'm here with my wife and my three little children my my oldest daughter and my and

my oldest son they they both go to law school. yes it is dangerous at times in fact right here bill responding right right here there was a special operation a couple years ago were when i was sitting inside this cafe so i understand the dangers i mean i know when you live in dogs on long enough we'll you know see things hear about things but you know you have to take up a look at it from a comprehensive perspective. know there's dangerous places all over the world and really when you when you look closer. or at the situation here the dynamics you find that things like petty thievery things like violent crimes and armed robbery and rape these things are very rare here very rare you know versus a place like moscow and you know the chance to raise my kids with such probably strong family values as i get to do here and august on but to me that's worth it there are some dangers but it's

a good place the people are incredible you are thank you very much the hour was said dave hayden and this no go for that point here in this region of dagestan and meanwhile our team continues to bring you the latest picture of life down here in russia's north caucasus and the republic of dagestan. that's where the news is this hour hey aussie business tanks with caterina. hello welcome to a business update the. capital is still flying out of russia flow reached ten billion dollars in november forcing the central bank to once again raise the forecast for the whole year to an estimated eighty five billion dollars that's more than double last year's total anything we save at me to be capital says cash is down to a lack of structural improvements. the fundamental reason for a sustained difficult for free is that roughly equal the russian economy can digest all is much more near the camp and that you never see

a soul fixed exchange rate with a flexible exchange rate or the capital flight believes it has become important for later call for going to going to be development in the disappearance recluse bubble from developing bought another and also means that there are other options to invest also the pressure i'm sure but of the options to list aside the flusher. because bubble so no longer a very good option right so it's means the structure of the russian economy because of the labor market the reduced because i wasn't going to play with asians or he's not able to you but you didn't just look up the world is going to see generate all this crypto through saving expensive well. let's have a look at the market or a slightly higher after the last victim but the recent trend has been reporting is down lights we discarded trading at over ninety five dollars per barrel brant is up one hundred and five dollars per barrel stocks in the u.s. started high on thursday rebounding from the five sessions decline stocks are held by a better us jobs data some improvement in the bond markets dow jones industrial average

getting point seven percent so in the nasdaq is up twenty three percent european stocks are trading high after rebounding from a two week slow after a couple of purchasing managers surveys for viewed positively putzing is now one of the sun while the tax is gaining just under two percent on here in russia markets close in the block. on the back of those games in europe the odds he is gaining any a percent while the markets closed over one and a half percent in the black let's have a look at some index movers on the rise x. energy and banking stocks lifting lift of the indices on those day has reversed from early losses and ended over one percent in the black gas giant gazprom finished over four percent. of banking stocks roles on the rise of what's been closing over two percent in the black. cast belo rose is getting a one billion dollar loan from russia and its c.i.s. partners the money will go to fertilizer make. a key business for that country

government in minsk has put up fifty percent of the nuff oil refinery collateral for the deal. that's all for now but remember you can always find most always if you just log onto a web site www dot com. the close of team has been on the black sea coast for future developments depends on

the good way for. now are to go to the area or a place to many find champions and the most ambitious took. some has ruined the lives of many innocent families across the region. where the oldest city in russia is found clocking in more than five thousand years. to dug a stunning russia close up on our. world to the future of science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future are covered. more news today violence is once again fled up.