economy to collapse and a minority now believes bailouts are the only way greece will survive well those are of course the figures for now but that can change at any time so do feel free to participate in this web let us know what you think r.t. dot com. as greece struggles to control its economic crisis the e.u. turns up the heat on iran over its nuclear program the european union has announced a series of financial sanctions including plans to stop importing iranian oil from july meanwhile iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad announced that the islamic republic would soon reveal major advances and its nuclear program he also warned that europe was playing a risky game by cutting off trade with tehran because e.u. consumers account for around twenty percent spoil our part the spanish ambassador to iran said that sanctions will hurt more than any other state and madrid based journalist. says the e.u.

embargo serves only the interest of the us. if you would we're seeing here is not a decision that comes actually from european countries to spain never want to do some bargo to to prove to be put in place this is something that comes externally from the united states pressure on the european union i mean it's not just display no need to also greece imports lots of oil from iran it could be hard hitting away that would bring them bankrupt in the coming future that would be a complete disaster for the european union and for the euro and that's going to happen because of the. political move it's now become an economic issue and can have even more. destructive effects if the iranians decide to sekhar told the strait of hormuz or even if they now decide to beat europe to its bye. bye bye north of their oil now because we need to find alternative

suppliers if they cut the supply now we want to be able to find them there will be a huge research from europe. and civil society is stepping into the front line of russian politics with the aim of keeping the upcoming presidential election fair and transparent leading figures and members of the public are joining forces at most importantly they seem to have the support of all five candidates as well as the voters are going off has the details. it doesn't take long to find videos of alleged violations during the recent parliamentary vote in russia just a couple of clicks is enough and scores of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the allegations are still to be proven in courts tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets demanding fair elections but marches presidential votes just around the corner events are unfolding quickly with . people want to vote responsibly and to know where their votes go what they want

political competition independent courts and media forming the voters' league is not our achievement the idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists and bloggers activists artists writers and other public figures and statements made tedious like t.v. host and now activists who want to get lady advocate for the head of a charity fund and blogger who does any of the bianca also known as dr lisa. or other school martha ordinator of the blue buckets movement fighting for equal rights on roads for everyone. our league is an opportunity to gather people who are not indifferent to what's happening the more people with a similar position there are the better the league's main goal is to ensure fair elections is published a list of initiatives on the web divided into groups that everyone can be

a part of public discussions and online votes are the key instruments and letters have been sent to all presidential candidates asking them to cooperate with the league and even though the project is less than a month old everyone has so far agreed including pledging that appeal to another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak you have to go on willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand league observers we've also arranged to. together unified database to keep track of the election political news according to its founders around ten thousand observers are needed to ensure a fair election in moscow alone. it's great that the civil society wants to be more active but it's clearly important not to cross the line and observers not only are positioned it is serious so if the mutations are not to teach sides in the political process. the league's founders say they'll shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into

a political movement gleaming keen to work with all candidates equally there's no doubt society has changed more people want to have more influence on russia's political life perhaps that's why it took less than one month for the vote was leaked to establish ties with both the authorities and the opposition and with the help promise from candidates the league just may secure enough access to effectively monitor the vote in march as long as it avoids taking sides and protects its neutrality is going off r t moscow. take a look at some other stories from around the world israeli airstrikes in gaza strip one person dead and four others one that warplanes fired missiles at three different areas just after midnight on saturday the first hit a field east of gaza city with another landing near the israeli border and a third near the city. the israeli army confirmed the strike saying they had targeted sites belonging to terrorist organizations. police in bahrain are fired

tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters in the capital manama no injuries were reported but we can say at least one protester was detained violence has been on the rise over the past few weeks as the country heads towards the first anniversary of a brutally crush protest against king how mobs rule. in britain five newspaper journalists have been arrested over alleged payments made to police and public officials rupert murdoch the owner of news international says he's committed to keeping the tabloid newspaper the sun writing the investigation is part of a country's phone hacking scandal that came to light last year it revealed that for some journalists it was common practice to monitor the private e-mail messages of celebrities. legendary pop singer whitney houston has died at the age of forty eight the six time grammy award winner was found in a beverly hills hotel room on saturday the performer struggled with drugs and alcohol problems later in her career and and urged rehab last year with ortiz have

yet to determine the exact cause of houston's death. the. afghan children were killed by nato airstrike this week according to the country's president in a statement tomic karzai can damned the aerial attack by foreign forces officials launched an investigation later claiming nato forces wrongly targeted civilians after receiving false reports of militants in the area it came just one week after the united states announced it might stop combat operations in of ghana's. and earlier than expected but this strike could worsen an already strained relationship between karzai and his western allies amid mounting afghan death toll investigative historian and journalist gareth porter says the expansion of u.s. and regular troops in afghanistan is to blame for the growing number of civilian deaths. price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on

best imperfect intelligence and worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and mistakes that are made which will result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the television has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of the response has been to lend more and more i d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find to kill u.s. nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops how we can lease has in the past published manning more afghan war revelations which were allegedly obtained from u.s. army private bradley manning the twenty four year old has spent more than a year behind bars awaiting trial in the u.s.

is now been nominated for the nobel peace prize but forward by a slam the parliamentary group which said he should be recognized for exposing a war crimes cleric stop playing an activist for manning's cause things the accused deserves the prize no less than the current u.s. president did. bradley manning is accused of the greatest act of civil disobedience least in my lifetime. and what he is accused of is leaking documents and video. that has led to the end of the iraq war has led to pro-democracy rallies and uprisings all over the world and i think it's much deserved that he receives this nobel peace prize if obama gets the why should he obama has done very little for peace even though he promised it and obama is also taking credit for ending the iraq war when actually that's not the truth the iraqi government did not want to allow legal immunity for u.s.

troops after january first and the reason that they didn't want some unity is because of what they saw in the cables and the videos showing civilian deaths that were being covered up in the corruption by the u.s. government. and a little later r t will take you high up to the clouds as we share the serene secrets of hot air ballooning before that though i'll bring you the top stories of the week.

welcome back you're watching our tv's are the top stories of the week the arab league is set to decide its future efforts on syria as violence escalates and the u.s. gathers a coalition of the willing against damascus hundreds of people have reportedly been killed across syria over the past week. the spirit of revolution returns to egypt on the first anniversary of the bard's state with thousands of protesters calling for an immediate step down by the ruling military council but are clinging on to power which they refuse to give up i'm still

a police june. people breeze have marched on the streets in anger all right a new set of the government struggles to keep the country's economy afloat parliament is now due to debate draft bill on the scaredy measures managed by the e.u. and i.m.f. . and russian civil society take center stage in politics as a group of public figure steps up to monitor the upcoming presidential vote backing from all of the candidates and the goal of the so-called voters in need is to ensure a fair and transparent election. if you like to enjoy the channel experience of being lighter than air while getting a bird's eye view of the world there is nothing quite like a hot air balloon up next we'll take a ride in the oldest type aircraft known to man. people couldn't fly for a long time i don't think because they didn't think it was possible we can learn how to do that without machines anywhere if we want to.

destroy your arm while people here are a man ticks but they have generous souls like sunni's is something out of this world and in chanting experience disease in the skies would brings these people together so they come here from all over russia and the world are. always people stick together because of both the love of ballooning and that none of them will be able to do it singlehanded each person is a zone of responsibility those on the ground are responsible for the ones in the sky together they are a close knit team. it all started in the late eighteenth century a balloon with two passengers in the basket was launched from a paris suburb one pm and fifty four minutes on november the twenty first seventeen eighty three was piloted by the latter devil and marquis de long after flying

across the french capital they landed safely in another suburb twenty minutes later the king of france for stowed them the title of count being the first humans to fly in the air and granted them the right to hand it down to successive generations of balloonists. since then anyone going up in a balloon for the first time has to pass an initiation ritual to be awarded the title of count by the pilots. that she was killed which elements do you know count using really earth water to fire. what else in the. the air. was gone through all of them to. earth and flew in the air. and in the air and if taken off without fire.

fire is the main driving force of any hot air balloons the first timers have their hair ends burnt as a sign of respect for fire champagne then comes into play as a symbol of water that is used to extinguish the flaming has finally the initiated tell the head sprinkled with earth as a good luck charm for future flights. the first balloon launch in russia came exactly twenty years after the french debut in eighteen zero three a balloonist from paris flew a russian balloon passenger over moscow according to one theory emperor alexander the first but altered the launch he wanted to know what such aircraft putting those

designed for warfare were capable of doing in the mid twentieth century ballooning was no longer popular in russia almost no military balloons have been in use after world war two yet ballooning today remains a recreational activity for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. p.r.c. gorski russia's oldest spa resort today it is popular among both russian and foreign balloonists a you find both mountains and lowlands the city is just over one thousand five hundred kilometers south of moscow mt elbrus europe's highest point is only seventy kilometers away the mountain stands nearly five thousand five hundred meters above sea level. the first ballooning competitions in the caucasus were held here russia's southernmost region that was

in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. a pilot had to be a professional to stay. balloon and keep it at the right altitude you can never tell how the air currents are going to behave. only nine pilots turned up for the inaugural event thirteen years ago nowadays it is an international festival that attracts both russian and foreign balloonists the aim is to restore the to former glory. vitale. is a former air force pilot on the first balloonist in the caucasus the crew holds him in high respect he was the first russian take the risk of launching a balloon in the antarctic. were made a sectional bosco's and a balloon that featured the colors of the russian flag for most a we went to paris. from there on to santiago. finally reached told us the nation terrorists in chile was a well southernmost city with. the

usual polish it was on the cell phone was host to a number of stations belonging to the united states but very many people in high places outside our country from the presence of russian blueness there extremely objectionable we paid before we arrived in chile. we were able to fly to king george oil and only after two failed attempts. to get in the end with winds of eighty meters a second we did manage to launch a balloon but not before everything that could be broken was broken. and all of them. as far as i know only four men in the world including myself have ever launched balloons in the antarctic. vitale was trained by alex of one of the first balloonists in the former soviet union he's been chief referee at

every blue competition in russia he found. on to the country's first balloon one a factoring company russia has a total of forty professional balloonists that make frequent flights. that are ga each exercise is performed within a radius of two hundred fifty meters other balloons start trailing behind the hair a minute later. before each launch the referee tells contestants what they're supposed to do just like with passenger aircraft balloons a check for any technical folks prussia taking off alexander's wife vera shares his passion for flying she was six years old when she first saw a balloon since then her cherished dream has been to pilot one. address the theme come on everyone can purchase the payson critically gifted with no matter how old you are better and how welcome to come here with children very many men bring their

wives along they don't come here is simply to look around and go for right now they help a lot. now they are a to learn of a monitor's the ballooning competitions she records them a new verse wind speeds and alternative flight paths and schools them accordingly. the admission of the first balloon to go up for stubber pole it is a heads as soon as it touches down to the final it will allow to cross on the ground the jump on the pilots is to keep in mark as precisely as possible. the first building to go up is called the heading balloonist lingo it is piloted by the judge then the other contestants need to mimic kids maneuvers by approaching it all moving away. only few partners can cope with such difficult competition the professionalism of

the talan also has earned the couple the title of arrow good. of russia but alone us founded russia's first company manufactures balloons aleksandr to learn off made his first balloon in the late one nine hundred eighty s. it's lining born inscription saying the first soviet made mungo feel. ballooning has gained enormous popularity in russia in the past two years this can be seen from the growing number of orders for balloons placed with our company. itself i don't think the shape of balloons or even the wicker baskets is going to change the balloons of the future will offer a more comfort to in-flight pilots with. things like better navigation smoother knobs and delicate thin cords instead of course ropes tools void getting entangled

. knots that sensors will give way to radio signals reporting temperatures inside the envelope with dust and all that will be mainly intended for the spectators the balloons are most likely to look like the ones built by the brothers montgolfier for a long time to come. all it had was a basket and a burner. one saying costs full two minutes after that it should be changed i mean you should be two tanks at all times one of them an active duty and the other as a backup. to just wind up with this right here is where the baskets are born these tubs are

filled with water. the liquid is used to soak willow. canes are here. but we are using rattan pam to make of this particular basket today on the gumball dream us a call fused to give school children classes he was a teacher by calling and dre even held a scientific degree for fun one day he decided to weave a small with a basket today he's head of a company which makes much larger baskets. in the old days we used to make balloon baskets in russia today the firm storks of the tropical rattan poly used it's more popular because it's more practical it's imported from europe and southeast asia. because soaking process takes three or four hours the material is not put to any particular test to see whether it is ready for processing but then i don't need and

. the see whether breaks or not if. it's a simple as that doesn't if you've just so ok your let's get down to work with a work is a handy craft with a long history it was all the rage a nineteenth century russia where was used to make all sorts of things from furniture prams and suitcases to hunt bags and toys the traditional craft somewhat faded in the twentieth century but it is being revived today although this is a slow process only a few workshops can handle major deals involving with a work family but a human nowadays basket wickerwork barely differs from. its yes same technique has been used for hundreds of years i have seen how they do it in the czech republic. what their methods are very much alike. andrei shares his team's motto

there is no place for unimportant things in aviation bus gets a made in strict conformity with blueprints the job takes three days on average every small detail is important from the ropes to the framework few within a found in this trade men's hands a stronger. than last evening our products retain the warmth of our hands we know i'm sure but if you are in a good mood while waving a basket. is a good product. wealthy

british style. is not i didn't find. the. markets why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports on r.g.p. . russia would be soon which brightened if you knew all about song from feinstein pression some. news from star totty dot com.

it. can. change. the envelope is the most important. the safety of all those on board depends on its quality designers make a computer model of a balloon envelope once the blueprint is finished they use it to cut out

a pocket of material these are used to make parts of the loom. elena cooper is a seamstress by trade. she's worked as a tameness making dresses and overcoats when ballooning got a new lease of life she switched to the ambitious task of making balloon envelopes elaina's bloom several times including flights aboard balloons of her own making. zenith all those lost balloons during a festival in off cobia it was a very long time ago i even flew over the kremlin and it was so much fun will do such fine some bands but back in one thousand nine hundred one or one thousand nine hundred two. it was amazing. blow. with it that's a nice.