censorship as many societies during times of crisis or war have russia's had that and times america has had that at times i mean it's the republicans in the empire no doubt but he was one of my books i call him a republican emperor because yes he was an emperor and he but he is he took power based on his skills and by the way he took power based on the desires of the french people the french people and they probably cite overwhelmingly ratified him as emperor and i have never read any where the vote was rigged he was extremely popular and becoming emperor because you know france was under attack from from some of the other countries and europe ever since the days of the french revolution in england and some of the old regime was in europe were trying to force the french to accept the bourbon king back again. and france's economy was it was

a basket case it was just completely in the tank the revolutionary government and the director had been totally unsuccessful in taking care of it so they wanted a strong leader they got a strong leader within one year he had to fix the economy he reorganized and they had more equitable the education system he formed the bank of france he were ever he went he opened up the jewish ghettos and removed the you definitely are a fan of new guy as well but it's not a common thing about a lot of this comes from serious study you know you have you got to realize i read an awful lot about well i'm sure i'm sure will but still i'm going to ask you my next question because there are big because we are more king these days that two hundred used since the historic russian campaign of the bonaparte to end here in this country the russians are convinced that first of all the code had lost this war definitely and that and that it was the russian campaign that actually was the beginning of a. the end of napoleon was the emperor and it was the it was here that he is glory

and arrogance actually and so is this effect do you believe that really the russian campaign was the main cause of the put in the in the probably inflated probably disagree with the word arrogance and we can talk about that all night but after but absolutely otherwise completely agree of course the russian campaign was the single biggest reason why the polling in the critical use a single of the biggest single ladies i mean there there were there were other factors there the confederation of the rhine which was the german confederation was beginning to lead to a sense of german unity and with that came believe that why do they need to be under the auspices of the french empire the spanish ulcer obviously was was another . the military problem for for napoleon but there's no question about of the single

biggest reason for the ultimate decline of the polian was the campaign of eight hundred twelve he was he was a pretty clever kid and he was a smart politician so do you think today looking looking back at history that it was absolutely necessary. fronts to start this campaign was of the adventure well it absolutely does to syria is a strong thing but nothing is ever absolutely necessary there's almost always a way you can you can try to find something you know afford to have an independent share that at the eastern borders or from it wasn't it wasn't a question of independence it was a question the continental system with alexander had agreed pearl xander first russia had agreed to participate in the continental system which was an economic blockade of great britain who was the main adversary of napoleonic france. it wasn't working real well and it wasn't even working real well and france and

alexander was under a great deal of pressure from his family and his nobles and business class too to say the heck with with with this and to reestablish legitimate trade with england there was already smuggling going on all across europe the system was working in some respects it was actually putting pressure on great britain but it was also putting pressure on the continental europe so it was becoming less popular than they could be. that said. couldn't polian have somehow managed to work things out with alexander well he tried but he may have tried too late there were negotiations back and forth and it wasn't just the continental system it was also the dutch here warsaw that the russians were really really unhappy vet napoleon had created this this. duchy of warsaw which was then closely allied with france. both sides prepared for war it was this some makes this one incident russia did.

all absolutely they both sides knew it was coming neither side wanted alexander did not want a war and he told the poland he would not take the first step now who knows if he ever would have the polian to settle down a child instead that alexander could have attacked oh of course it was they could have across that i would alexander made a very concerted effort he got into an alliance with with the sweden he finished up the issue with with turkey with the ottoman empire where there had been a conflict and he boba lies his troops and he made certain demands on the poland he he demanded at one point that napoleon abolished the duchy of warsaw while be turning his back on the poles who he had promised to to to to protect. both sides made demands that they ought to have known the other side wasn't going to be able to take but there was room for agreement alexander could have been

a little more willing to give in and the polian could have been a little more willing to give in and it might very well a worked out they had a pretty good personal relationship after til sit in heaven they actually did have a good relationship polian and eighty nine after he at the battle of wagner where he defeated the austrians was actually very generous to alexander who hadn't really been much help in that campaign even though they were allied but he gave us a significant chunk of territory to to. to russia two to alexander. and the final analysis on the poland just had to make the decision that he did he want to fight he wanted to fight on russian territory and not fight in poland our german says david markham president of the international of polio and society spotlight will be back shortly we'll continue this interview in less than a minute so don't go with it.

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screen starts on t.v. don't come. welcome back to spotlight i'm just a reminder that my guest on the show today is david mark am president of the international napoleonic society as we can see the code the napoleonic code it is written all of your ties is that it is something i thought that a point like. a bunch of french stuff but but it does have a i do mean a volleyball you know and and ok the ring is an eighteen thirteen forty franc piece too so you know so is it authentic authentic and ok so we we've just started talking about the eight hundred twelve war of france which napoleon afford against against the russians now let's take a look at the history of the french invasion of russia back in eight hundred twelve

here's this report from spotlights union they did neither. the battle of the bloodiest in the napoleonic wars is recreated every year at its historic location with people having the chance to hear the poland's cannonballs and smell of gunpowder the french army invaded russia in june eight in twelve for nepal and by then an undefeated military genius with almost all of europe on the his control that was a natural step and satiate in his imperialist to capital had at first things went well for the french russians not ready for a major battle kept on retreating the battle which eventually changed the course a war happened on the seventh of september in the village of burden on the in moscow the russian troops were led by me. to huge on this question in the greatest battle up to that moment of the quarter of

a new and soldiers involved seventy thousand became casualties ever since but those of us been considered one of the most brilliant russian military leaders napoleon was so impressed by the russians he described them as invincible though absolve me had to retreat the battle left the french so devastated they could never recover their losses the full moon and more school seven days after the battle several things could spoil the joy for him at the time st petersburg and not moscow was russia's capital beside the moscow in the pool and it was abandoned and burned so was knocked over at the french get any supplies in the poland waited in vain for the russians are to capitulate the lack of supplies the coming of russian winter and the constant guerrilla warfare contributed to the eventual defeat of his army this trample archon moscow which looks very much like the one in paris is the main symbol of russia's victory the war lost by the french quarter now when the poland's

reputation as an invincible military leader. it also reshaped dramatically european politics at the time that was the beginning of the decline of french control of the country. david well i hope we both know a little bit more about the war now but the question that i don't think anybody knows the answer to me can give us a good napoleon have a chance of winning the borg russia was their show. oh absolutely once had the russians decided to give battle early on in the campaign which was what napoleon had anticipated that was normally the way that what they want and you know if it ever was because they don't want to or is it with the wars and in my own right that the wars of that's that period of time in history they wouldn't wouldn't buy like taking territories they will most of them the one by armies by

a pretty compact armies you know was that major battle and that battle decided which king was what it might have been more than one battle but typically it was battles and one side wins and the other side loses when the polian came across the name and river at eight hundred twelve he had what was probably the largest army in the history of the world up to that time numbers vary but it was somewhere around six hundred thousand roughly a third of which were french and the rest were his allies so it was too late they call it the grand are made of the great army and has even gone as even this street and parents living knew they were going down the linear one of the measures three and you know so i had to totally are but graziano who were the two commanders of the russian forces in the west at that time given battle or had napoleon not made some delays that allowed them to slip away then the polling almost

certainly would do what i think any russian historian would tell you that at that point the polian power was so overwhelming that on the field of battle but of course there are the russians are not idiots they they and they know that and they and they even warned napoleon literally the czar and others had warned we're not going to do that we're going to draw you into mother russia we're going to make you extend your alliance of supply lose lose this symbol i'm gonna lose there that no radio is going to mean the line of command is there anything you're going to lose. some supplies you're going to have to leave men behind to guard your your lines of supply communication which means by the time you do end up fighting us you're not going to be six hundred thousand dollars unless you were even worse than today well you know yes yes absolutely absolutely although in the traffic in moscow wasn't as bad. at any rate so when they finally did fight

at bora deano and the point was right about one thing there's no way that politically the emperor alexander could have allowed the ground are made the polian to take moscow without a fight because they couldn't surrender that city so to saw who was by then and command of the forces did pitch battle at burra dado and by the normal ways of determining who wins and who loses. the the ground army won the russians lost and the russians lost because they had to retreat they had to leave the field of battle the polling was left holding it and then he had an unimpeded way on and to moscow i should say it was well at least it was a draw but we had to trade because otherwise it would have lost is only because i say something close to i say the in the polling clearly won but that it didn't

matter because because there was really nothing that was going to happen in his favor ok he gets to moscow had moscow not been burned by the by the russians which was a very smart move in my opinion for them to do that he might have winter there got reinforcements it might have been ok but between being bloodied badly burra deano and then not really being able to effectively stay in moscow he wouldn't know that russia wants or you know this is a major reason for that is aster however. what's not as well known is that the russian summer extremely hot actually caused a lot of casualties caused a lot of horses to die had a lot of men to die there was there were there were problems going in as well as going out but of course the the images of the russian winter in the soldiers freezing and all this stuff. clothing i mean they didn't have water clothes because napoleon never expected to go even to smolensk one and the worst case

smolensk would have been as far as he was going to go i have already said that it's in the opinion of many many historians he betrayed the the interest of the french revolution you don't agree to that but another thing about betrayal many people say especially the russians say that napoleon i mean this stories have betrayed you know maori because because when the army started retreating napoleon. left the army and rushed rushed back to france did you think that was a betrayal knowing first of all it's not true that if he didn't leave when they started he didn't leave the army until they had crossed the barriers ina and were relatively safe on the other side of the bear as even getting into poland at that point he had been gone long enough there had been uncovered a plot against him in france. and so at that point he and a few close advisors decided to to to leave the army where he was no longer really necessary i mean he he had the army what was left of it was compact it was now

forming into a reasonable force it could continue moving moving west on its own he was needed in paris you have to remember he wasn't just a commanding general he was a commanding general alone and then took off yeah you could say he betrayed them but he was also the emperor of the french and he had to get back and run his country i looked such a big fan of the russians or alexandra zero of napoleon but still. do you think that it was these so responsibility from the po we have been. the party i mean the bloodshed of these napoleonic wars what should it what was it a collective guilt of the of the countries involved maybe including the russian empire i would say absolutely a collective guilt in fact i would say the poland has less skill for most of them if you look at it if you if you look at the some of the old in the poll the poll when it was just because he one of them is not right well because he gave his name to the whole epic most most serious historians call them the war of coalitions

there was a series of coalitions that each time that was a different set of countries. russia and france were allies for for a number of years. and they say this goes back to the french revolution they couldn't stand to things they couldn't stand the french revolution had taken away the king's illegitimately is in there in their view and then they couldn't stand this upstart bonaparte who had managed to come in and take over and become emperor a trying to be like them from their point of view and so you have a constant sort of coalitions being raised to try to force france to take back our bourbon king and if you don't believe me look what happened anything fourteen eighteen fifteen that's exactly what they did they didn't say ok france you have this this terrible the pollie and we beat him now you decide who you would like to have as your leader and what kind of government no you will take louie the tape whether you like it or not it's an interesting thing like at that time all the

kings all the leaders of the major european countries they were good friends and usually i was going to say they really related a lot of what they all went to war nowadays they all hate each other but they try to keep that's a. very good story while i would rather have that many each other and have tasted anything let me be good and good buddies and relatives of that war and you see david you see the polian skunk with the project aimed at creating a united europe so does that mean we can compare it with today's european. the union which is led by france and germany by the way lots of people actually believe that napoleon was the forerunner of a unified europe that he was the first stage in the development of what became modern modern europe but it wasn't necessarily totally determined by what he was planning because as i said he did not start with the possible exception you could argue of eight hundred twelve where it was a kind of a question of who made the first move the other coalitions were moves against him

by various forces and then he wins and he ends up taking territory and he did have a vision at least he said when he was in exile st helena of a unified europe with with one system of weights and measures and so for that i was joking and one leader namely him you know which is fair enough he was not the only one who had that kind of hope thank you thank you very much for being with this was a thrill listening to you and i have just to remind you that my guest today was a bit more akin to president of the international in the podium in this time the spotlight will be back with more than a comment on what's going on in and outside aggression until then on t.v. and take your.

serials rumbles declare civilian airports are there along with the latest target and warn that international flights shouldn't stray anywhere near the country's two largest cities. actions speak louder than words in israel as the country launches a massive more propaganda campaign along with emergency drills. plus the sponsor getting attention for all the wrong reasons at the london paralympics anger among disability activists as a forum which they say humiliates them as a key backer of the games. hello and welcome to you r t i'm karen tara broadcasting to you live from our

studio in moscow now civilian airports in syria all are in the crosshairs of the country's largest rebel group the free syrian army in a statement made on its facebook page the group said that the airports in damascus and aleppo were hosting military flights as part of an alleged arms smuggling network for the government later this month the rebels were handed dozens of lethal u.s. made anti air missile launchers the delivery felt to have been carried out by the rebels and western backers and yet turkey drew a strong condemnation the editor of the independent website syria tribunals says the rebels those tactics are beyond the pale. the rebels saying that they are attacking civilian airports now is just one more step in revealing that actual terrorist nature because it's against every law in the world to attack civilian airports for whatsoever reasons i'm actually surprised they are still enjoying this

support when the international community sees they're able slaughtering people civilian people in the street and throwing them from their office and still support them this gives the wrong message to the rebels that whatever they do they will still enjoy this twisted support at the moment the free syrian army is not heavily armed well enough to win any battle against the syrian army or the syrian official army just like what has been happening in the past months but it is definitely heavily armed enough to harm civilians and to endanger the lives of many syrian people. the syrian rebels new threat to target airports isn't going down well with the international community including russia in moscow our foreign minister sergey lavrov reiterated that the path to peace doesn't lie in arming one faction or the other. or has the details. meanwhile russian foreign minister officials have already commented on this latest development the deputy foreign minister again not a good deal of sad that perhaps like this is

a direct result of the irresponsible policies to arm syrian rebels in the meantime here boss russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov was talking to you here in moscow and he wants again reiterated that if international players are really interested in trying to board and to bloodshed that they should apply pressure on both sides of this conflict as it says it's your those demanding that could be chill ation of just the government forces in syria one of the saints on urging the opposition continue fighting since this position is based on the fun with these forces already to pay an extra price which will be a huge number of human lloyd's to go abroad he also sad that when it comes to goals international goals in syria russia has absolutely no disagreement with the west russia also wants to see syria as free democratic stable state where the main disagreement lies on the means of what shipping that goal and whether it could be

done through violence and on with this international intervention or whether it could be done through diplomatic efforts and internal syrian dialogue that's are. there only recently returned from syria she says what she witnessed can only be described as a split among the country's opposition. who wasn't only along ideological lines but gender too and her article on r.t. dot com oksana explains how very different matters and the women's approach to the conflict is you can read that and much much more at our team dot com. what's usually seen as a celebration of both physical and moral courage has been marred by controversy the

disabled community is finding it difficult to swallow the fact that london's paralympics off sponsored by a company they blame for damaging hundreds of lives parties laura smith has more. the paralympics are the ultimate display of troy over adversity a showcase for people who've overcome their disabilities and achieved something amazing but hanging over this event is a shadow cast by may just sponsor at toss it's the firm the government's paying to assess disabled people's ability to work but it's blamed for humiliating the vulnerable and forcing people off benefits as part of the country's austerity drive they are making money out of other people's misery quite naturally the old many of them sponsoring the paralympics is i think it's really lost on them and he seems to divide people into the deserving to save and the un serving tony bradstock went

through an at orsa sesame and which resulted in him losing his entire income for six months he says he was made to feel like a criminal and the process resulted in him attempting suicide. intercession is going for the world and. this was a. strictly so explosive watch explosive what more occupational health doctor a shade took a break from all this because i couldn't find any wire to cook with a roof over my head. anyway i'd say he's not alone pressure groups a thirty two people died a week after being found to work by at aust disabled people and other activists have travelled here from all over the country to protest against actresses sponsorship of our live next day you really see it in their admiration for the paralympic themselves but say an organization in their.