three volunteers to video for your media project a free video done to r.t. dot com. the end of the soviet era twenty years after its fall but still an equal measure of the love and hate for the days back in the u.s.s.r. . libya's soldiers of fortune including former terrorists head to syria take their revolution to present a sad story. and pakistan looks to beijing for support after last month's deadly drone attack leaves ties with the u.s. in tatters. clare broadcasting live from moscow you're watching our carriage. well in this day two decades ago the world's largest country ceased to exist the fall of the soviet

union meant the end of the cold war and the birth of a dozen new states but twenty years on the collapse of the u.s.s.r. raises unanswered questions he explains. even today many generate their own explanations for the fall of a global goliath but some putting it down to the role of just a few. ok for two reasons. the nineteen ninety one august coup was a turning point in the country's history with images of yeltsin standing on a tank creating a new hero yet for most here even that wasn't seen as causing a fatal crack in the soviet union. very sudden and. shocking i mean there were people even months before who were shoring us that this was going to go on forever so all the billions and billions and billions that the us and put into intelligence and forecasting all proved to be completely useless the collapse

of the soviet union was not so much a revolution rather it was a peaceful divorce of former republics longing for independence but the breakup led to long lasting and painful consequences pushing your savior is going to tell you the collapse of the soviet union was the biggest geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century. and in that assessment let him or putin is not alone older many russians began enjoying freedoms never imagined in the u.s.s.r. sixty percent still believe the collapse did more harm than good twenty years on russians still seem undecided over how to treat of the legacy of the u.s.s.r. in moscow most soviet names have long been a race from the streets and people's memories but some symbols of the past stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades never happened this morning a man to work or and go who wasn't so took six years some thirty million dollars to

restore but even the government would consider taking down what is among the most famous unofficial symbols of the u.s.s.r. . and strong worker and a portly collective farmer were a symbol of crisp air a chance to billeted in a country with a planned economy everyone knew they would be provided with their metaphorical hammer and sickle. and knew exactly how much to produce with nine hundred ninety one changed all that the post soviet economies were shattered their deficits skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years of soviet union there was a possibility before for your you know to continue with a no for terror and political regime but through the brillante economy in the market in the same way as the target. but among the political elite many didn't want to support the drive to modernize and in turn save the union instead they

wanted to destroy it and during that descent many republics were plunged into ethnic violence after gaining independence. when it was clear the union was falling apart it seems you have no national minorities started dragging the blanket to their side but i was at that time in georgia forcefully included self-assertive an uprising or into its territories similar ethnic clashes between armenia and azerbaijan claimed the lives of over thirty thousand people one thousand people were killed in the transnistria conflict russia remains on a peacekeeping mission there at least a thousand people were killed in a post breakup clashes between georgia and south the search here and over one hundred thousand word displaced into g q stan the consequences were the worst sixty thousand killed and over a million people displaced even mosco itself didn't feel secure after the fall of the berlin wall the world brith

a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato set about creating a new wall made of missiles the allies steadily moved towards russia incorporating former soviet republics but leaving most out of europe's new security framework the west broke a number of promises to russia often russia could have expected that there wouldn't be a nato expansion that. that. russia itself would perhaps even join nato or become . a new system of european. collective security the full of the year ceasar put an end to the cold war era forever a fundamental shift in global geopolitics with just a few are now calling the shots and without a powerful counterweight today's world remains far from secure sixteen grandchildren are a team full scale. former russian prime minister getting it from

a cough was one of the few people watching history unfold from inside the corridors of power in moscow they say he shares his views on the dissolution of the u.s.s.r. . the key thing was and it was brought to go which i was attention and i did tell him about it too in the presence of others that one should have started with an economic treaty if we had signed a treaty establishing a single economic space i think it would have been a step towards preserving an upgraded modernized soviet union which could have freed itself from the darker parts of its legacy that's why we should have started with an economic treaty and many in fact were ready to go along with that even the baltic states were ready to go along with the idea of preserving a single economic space of course it wouldn't have been enough to put it would have been a huge contribution to averting dissolution there's nothing today that can be similar to the soviet union in any way but integration is one of the driving forces of globalization and it's taking effect everywhere we go along with these forces and

today we can say that the trans nationalisation tendency in business as well as integration process is at stake level by the driving forces of today's reality so if we succeed in going along with them and this agenda will not differ much from that of the west but it will additionally focus more on the national interests of each state i think it will be a great advantage. you can have more of a former prime minister of guinea primakov subversion of events in just over twenty minutes time here on t.v. . former libyan rebels are now chanting for syrians to follow their revolutionary path hundreds of mercenaries some famous said to be former terrorists ready to pick up arms again to help overthrow president assad ati's oksana boyko reports from tripoli. a butcher my dad me the owner of the ski pop shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. tell us

it is economics if we give him enough in the world that syria. other syria. you can make it a lot of the people in syria. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop perhaps even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we don't want in syria and its soldiers we have. and our people such as syria ladies and gentlemen only this subject we have all we have enough but i think yeah we want we. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as liberators to being called occupiers shipley residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of the young man who looked on the channeling enemy willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next

logical destination. your sort of we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of all along we will make sure that what happened in libya repeat itself in syria by libyan man over the portraits of shaky bar i know ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli be some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. with the help of allah we can all be luck to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world. and it seems that che guevara's a deal for exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a boy and marketplace for soldiers of fortune they move from one revolution to another motivated by personal gain some by conviction others by the venture if i put out in the vision of freedom and for now at least in the freedom to leave by the gun. as

a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with mercenaries may not be such a genuine. video women and children in syria gunned down by snipers very bound on you tube while it's still unclear who is pulling the trigger there are terrorists who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country or from libya or from. pakistan foreign fighters have been brought in here by the cia and the other western services. one man's terrorist could easily be another man's freedom fighter but for the united states it's now one day hiking but hodge one of the leaders of tripoli militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratic leader who according to our to store says that

a group of several hundred leavin rebels to syria just last month. we can do to support the syrian people because they are facing the same situation as before and . it comes to be when. the syrian people to get their freedom i think we should do what the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard down for centuries a save gars against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenaries in the middle east has got to its new and no less bloody chapter in the wake of r t tripoli. pakistan has its eyes on the east for future partnerships with the president of the country's friendship with china it's after a rocky year with america where ties of it all but destroyed from the raid to kill osama bin laden without informing islamabad through to last month's deadly drone attack or to pressure experience. the top ranking diplomat from the hu jintao

administration has said that this visit is very important marks sixty years of diplomatic ties between china and pakistan and he's hoping that this trip will bring that relationship to a new level to an all time high the leaders from both the countries talk about security regions in the area and obviously all of this comes just one month after the nato military strike on a pockets than afghan checkpoint that actually killed twenty four pakistani soldiers all relations between pakistan and the united states as a result of that incident or i don't know all time low so many analysts are saying that this meeting could be a sign that pakistan is actually shifting towards depending more on china as opposed to the united states beijing express their solidarity with pakistan after that incident and actually a pakistani diplomats said that china has backed all of our efforts referring to that nato air strike both china and pakistan have

a lot of mutual concerns they they have a very strategic partnership one of their major focuses on their mutual neighbor india another major focus is trying to work together to counterbalance the united states influence in this region recently china actually invested two hundred million dollars to build a port in pakistan where they're hoping there can be more energy trade between the two countries china has also worked with pakistan in the past few years to build nuclear reactors in that country last just last month pakistan and china actually participated in military exercises together so this visit is just yet another signal that the two countries are moving closer together and you know time will tell what that means as far as the united states influence in this region will shortly we continue our look at the most significant events today we focus on

japan's earthquake and tsunami see to the correspondent. arrived in the middle of the nights no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center and that and this was inside the local government offices and though people there who just lost everything all they had were the clothes on their bank whatever positions they had with them at the time the earthquake struck and clearly the houses have been destroyed and they will all they had been in the early since it was was a cardboard the seat of cardboard to lie on. witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . or going head online for more world news that r.t. dot com how dollars make you seem deadly suspicious the security advice in the united states that says payment cash could highlight use of terror suspects. and

hope floats south korea sends for military and aid on its way to the struggling neighbors in the north and the details that are to dot com and there's a wealth of video reports as well on our egypt. is he. eating. down the official anti application your i phone or i pod touch from the top story.

live on the go. video on demand. ati's my broadcasts. are as just read now in the palm of your. question on the dot com. more of this hour's world headlines for you now a suicide car bomb has exploded outside the rocky interior ministry in baghdad leaving five dead injuring dozens more detonated an explosive laden vehicle that a checkpoint leading up to the ministry during the morning rush hour a wave of bombings has struck iraq since the american troops pulled out this month . a south korean delegation has been allowed into north korea in the death of the late leader kim jong il former south korean first lady and the carmaker under crossed the heavily fortified border to pay their respects north korean leader died from a heart attack dying days ago two countries are still technically at war room visits

require government approval. there's been global condemnation of the christmas day bombings in nigeria that killed nearly forty people deadliest forming it was in a suburb of the capital which struck a packed congregation as they left church a second attack followed shortly after outside a church northeast of. explosions or for the elsewhere radical islamist sect says it's behind the attacks. tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in yemen's capital to voice their anger at the deaths of anti-government protesters security forces opened fire on peaceful protesters on saturday killing thirteen and that led demonstrations to swell called vice president to quit the fleet to arrest the killers we can't balance prompted president salo to vow to leave the country already signed a deal to end his decades of victory. when r.t.

is remembering the ten key events of twenty that. today we turn to japan's massive earthquake and tsunami that killed more than ten thousand people it also caused a series of explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant that put the world on watch fearing an atomic disaster artie's i bet it was in japan in the hours after the tragedy struck. i was actually on my own the camera man and producing the fees is so they had to wait and i went with a flip camera a laptop when i was there i got a satellite phone and so on the road i was trying to do long lines whenever i could set up a satellite phone trying get a link. and only when i actually got there that was when i fully understood the full force of the tsunami i didn't i didn't appreciate that until i actually saw

the sea of their legs. and i remember actually at one point setting up the lab to want on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road and just being dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience definitely. to begin with very strange if you were in a building suddenly you. could feel yourself shaking slightly and it's difficult to walk in a straight line for about thirty seconds and gradually these three days i actually got used to the tremors as strange as that sounds suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film a stand up. and the police and the emergency workers saw me just a sound saying. it was all in jack things but i could understand there was the can see fear and panic and also they were shouting tsunami literally yelling in my face

to get back into the car there's no news crew there chanting and then to get back into the garden and go inland as fast as possible because there was this. as the threat of another another tsunami there's been a tremor the tide receded and they thought another tsunami was coming so and then in those moments when we were racing inland as fast as we could weaving our way in between all the deborah. remember looking around and thinking hang on a minute there's no shelter the. whatever was he was destroyed in the previous tsunami and there's no high ground and the only way we're going to be safe is to actually. beat the water. i had to take a taxi to sendai from tokyo it took about ten hours because all the transport links were down and arrived in the middle of the nights no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center. and this was inside the local government offices and the people

there who just lost everything all they had were the clothes on their bank whatever positions they had with them at the time the earthquake struck and clearly their houses have been destroyed and they will all they had been in the relief since it was was a cardboard sheet of cardboard to lie on and i spent one not one night that i was pretty unbearable because it was very cold there's very little food around there were rations but people would all they had was just a cucumber and a slice of bread so that was that was one meal actually. on top of this was also the fear of radiation because the situation in fukushima was just going from bad to worse and i was always in my mind it was a very real fear you could see it. amongst everyone else also. there wasn't any visible panic like it was in japanese culture to panic and such but more

there was certainly fear this is a town of all right around tough way between tokyo and fukushima i'm still one hundred fifty kilometers south of all of the nuclear power plant but already the radiation levels here over double that of those in tokyo going to make me think one young family one young couple with a newborn baby actually just. i think we cold also been born to cover the before the before the earthquake and. the mother wasn't particularly well some of the she was very weak and obviously she wanted to stay put there from sendai but they had left they just didn't trust what the government was saying that the sister situation in fukushima was under control and they just wanted to get out they were heading heading to take you by whatever means possible. then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and the different reactors in in fukushima one morning the happening very quick succession and suddenly. everyone

was very scared. so all the news crews were. to suddenly packed up and left and that really difficult for me was i was on my own i didn't have anyone else to consult. and i just realized at that point ok i'm going to get out this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast norene like by that their bridges lie strewn all over the place here walls collapsed over here is a fallen down such as the force of the tsunami this is also the point where we're going to turn back because the dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's plain how obviously when i left japan. i felt great relief because covering the story being very stressful i barely eaten up any sleds but the story for me wasn't over though until when i was back in moscow. the next day i had to get to the hospital rooms checked for radiation and

thankfully i was clear. and we have more on the years ten key day with events as witnessed by ortiz international correspondents here also watch their accounts of what they saw by heading to r.t. dot com. now let's get the latest business news with kate. hello will malcolm to the program here and i'll say christmas is the most poles of the wild but in russia the festive season has only just begun despite. the u.s. facilities lying down and as marina closed found out russian men are at the full front of the seasonal spending. new year's eve as when the russians give gifts and this year they're going all out at least eighty one billion dollars will be spend this this and the fifth of that

will go towards presents consumer spending is expected to increase by twenty eight percent and muscovites will withdraw twenty percent more cash than any of the month of the year that's about five hundred sixty dollars each if you are a russian woman then you can look forward to a particularly lavish gift as man will spent twice as much as i serve partners so what kind of gifts are we're looking at what the most popular items are expected to be alcohol then we have a choice and finally household appliances so not all that romantic on the christmas tree and the russians are not the only ones refusing to tighten their belts many experts had predicted americans and europeans would trim their spending but it's turned out to be a different story most surveys now suggest we will see an increase actually the average american is expected to spend up to twenty two percent more while in the

u.k. some shops already seen an increase in sales more than last year but this may be because it's been such a tough year for ordinary working people now about the holiday season this year so feel that they have an excuse to finally spend some money on themselves and their loved ones. let's have a look at the markets now japan's nikkei and as high as it was catching up with broad gains in global markets after friday's holiday shows of machinery manufacturers and other exporters advance the most construction machinery rose point eight percent meanwhile markets in hong kong australia and singapore are all closed for holidays while european traders are enjoying boxing day the first of markets all gaining the most in four trading sessions to mizzen the u.s. economy will recover continue to recover helping boost global output.

despite the lingering global financial uncertainty russia is still aiming to chart a further five percent more foreign investment in two thousand and twelve presidential aides. said he expects investors to start bringing their cash in the second quarter of next year investment into russia grew around twelve percent the shit but most of the money was short term credit which doesn't provide fundamental support for the economy. by not restrict in cyprus we got the first tranche of a credit package from russia before the year the country agreed at the weekend to take a two and a half billion euros from moscow to support its economy or the top poised pricewaterhouse coopers can place that around fifteen percent of cypresses g.d.p. is from foreign companies using the island as an off shore find out. the majority of the firms are affiliated with. take up to twenty percent market share some developing countries including those in

asia and south america is makers believe their pain is a global player which will boost both the firm's reputation and sales. we had to sell our boat and in russia for the original not so much version and maybe able saw there is wood for that that's why we have all of people in from out west market trends over twenty years yet to sell and been our dog isn't the seller in the range a one thousand or one thousand mark are so old that we bring gas to a twenty percent market share so in twenty years time. and that's all from a finale back about fifty five minutes to join if you can.

lose. the.