i've. breaking news on r t one member of pussy riot gets a suspended sentence after an appeal hearing in moscow city court the other two will remain in jail for two years for the publicity stunt in russia's main orthodox cathedral. a fierce reception for chancellor angela merkel during her visit to greece with tens of thousands of protesters pointing to her as the source of their economic misery. and israeli prime minister netanyahu appears to go all out for reelection as he orders a snap poll at the peak of his popularity citing budget. thank

you for joining r t we go now to our top story moscow city court has freed one member of punk band pussy riot while the other two participants of the performance in the country's main cathedral will remain in jail artie's polly boyko is off the court for us. ali what are the recent developments there. well as i speak the the defense team for pussy riot is emerging for the band members who are going to stay in jail but what we learned in recent minutes is that you could see it in some would say that one of the pussy riot band members she's been released on a two year suspended sentence of probation that means that she's going to walk free from the courtroom in a matter of minutes and the same can't be said for her to fellow band members they

are going to be sent to prison for two years their sentences once overturned they remain the same now as it in the some would say that she fired her defense team last week in take one of the appeal in the first hearing and she now had to. new boy representing her today who argued that because some would save its didn't physically have time to join in the punk prayer protest in main cathedral back in february she shouldn't be sentenced to two years in prison so that was the situation and that's why she's been released today. all right polly boyko live in moscow. now to talk more on the pussy riot case we're joined by investigative journalist toni call sling. told me oh thank you for joining our two now we've heard some experts and observers say the browns lawyers

are more interested in both setting the women free so does this decision really come as much of a loss for them. well of course is. a harsh sentence many people will see the whole sentence but really we go to look at this case you know whether it's actually just about public to see whether it's about freedom of expression i mean you know there is obviously we want freedom of expression but what's happened here is the jury has decided in this case that this wasn't actually to do with that that they had freedom of expression it's just that they shouldn't have been doing it in one of the internationally most important cathedrals in the world and i would say that it is important that some sort of punishment here this is this is a little bit harsh you know ultimately there has to be some also some kind of look at whether there is or of much artistic merit in this i'm actually quite a punk fan myself a lot of punk music but as far as this goes this is an appalling i don't know

anyone who's actually gone out and bought this record of this band i think you're absolutely right a lot of what's happened here is just simply around published and this kind of thing taking place in a cathedral simply cannot go unpunished what we if we were publishing it will be saying is that if nothing sacred left in this world anymore all right now one of the band members got a separate lawyer ahead of the appeal hearing that is some would say rich and it turned out to be quite beneficial for her as she was free to show the other two have followed her lead do you think. well certainly it would make sense for them all to have the same lawyer i would have thought it shouldn't really depend should it on a lawyer as to whether you get freed although i would like to see some at least some maybe some further appeal potentially in this case but let's not forget what's else is going on around the world around this case because you have got loads of problems at the in a way you know the part of the punishment is to stop these people cashing in on the

free published to the got you know this published the stunt there's been two prizes awarded to these people one from the lennon oh no fun which is a prize for peace which i find incredible since this has been such a divisive case and also this is been awarded of course by yoko ono are not convinced but john lennon would do with the thought of endorsing such a protest you know certainly with the dubious music that these girls were doing in the cathedral the other is the luther prize which has been awarded boy of the city of wittenberg which is where protestantism started and what's happened is the city has awarded the prize for the people of the city and they are protesting against that saying you know we don't actually endorse this sacrilege i think there's something really a bit sad about a band an organization that defines itself by opposition to the church and it's quite clear through this court case that's what this is about we've even had the desecration of all for dogs crosses across eastern europe in different parts of eastern europe in support of pussy riot so this is actually about i think an attack

on the cathedral an attack on the church having said that i think you know that the sentences are pretty harsh and there may be some kind of appeal charlie our bus ride certainly has become a registered trademark how ethical do you think it is to turn a protest movement into a label and very briefly. i think that's absolutely fine but i don't think that this is going any kind of positive message at all to it this this band you know if we were going back to the real punk days with bands like the clash joe strummer would be turning in his grave if they were if there was some point of course you know he would endorse this kind of music the political message is a negative one is an anti church one and and actually the message of most of the punk movement certainly which started here in britain was actually a very positive one it was about social justice social change and challenging authority corruption within your thirty's and i actually don't think that done that at all had he said that i must add the caveat that the sentence is

a pretty harsh one two years in jail and i think you know other groups will be thinking twice about whether to go along down this kind of publish the start line all right investigative journalist tony girls link thank you for your time. no problem thank you. i riders and four for more welcome from the greek people for anger for chancellor angela merkel on her visit to athens while the german leader praised the government over its austerity measures and army of riot police held back tens of thousands of demonstrators just streets away r.t. sara first now reports from athens on why more calls visit so infuriated the people . it was supposed to be a conciliatory gesture but in the end it seemed a need to serve to add fuel to the fire of austerity anger clashes are breaking out between the riot police on the protesters on the street that are going on. because they're hurting the country it was supposed to demonstrate solidarity but all it is

high like the divisions there remain in the country itself between the people and the politicians and between the euro zone countries as well the bad blows between greece and germany runs deep greece largely blames germany for the tough measures they faced this seen them caught in a devastating economic spiral and they germany's rhetoric may have softened recently weeks of knives i think given all forgotten their portrayal of the start of the euro crisis the bad ones of the bunch it's all very good. government. to the people the people are suffering only. jobs. for the working people of large chunks of the greek population looking increasingly isolated from the political class they're far from alone from greece to spain to

italy a stereotype that has poor year is an economy to their knees and with unemployment particularly amongst year is youth now reaching epic heights people have simply had enough if they're. looks like a familiar sight because it is one we've seen many times before in recent years since square with standoff between the riot police and protesters. along the streets and people standing around this is the result of years of austerity this is one of thirty means in real terms a population that is being pushed to its breaking point you can see all of the side streets of these pants standoff happening perhaps this will be the wake up call to eurozone leaders as the crisis drags on and on the protests have grown larger and more frequent where there were one schools to ease the pain of the cuts now many

people simply want out altogether you have to leave or you have to have to break with. generally we have to break with the system but before people have to break with companies to be important. it's not only the burden on the people but. it's has been three years of history of you know three years of general strikes. and we're going to go like that so r.t. . sociology from the university of the aegean says that even merkel supports a shaky greek government all that much stability. we are in the fifth year of recession we're in the third year or was there at the measures they're asking us for even harder austerity measures this a thirteen billion cuts mainly in worker servants wages and pensions so people are really really angry and i think that there's also

a lot of anger against mrs merkel who is being seen as a representative all the rest of them some of the konami a gratian against greece or this protest i think no one that's ok mrs merkel comes here so things are going to be better and i think that the situation is not very stable despite all this attempt even by mrs markham to solve some form of support to mr prime minister some of us in reality the greek government is not so stable since it is sitting on talk of a huge social crisis as a huge social crisis i can easily turn into a political crisis and on the other side of the european union austerity war in spain is battling to keep its wealthiest and most productive region inherent hundred strikes back at catalonia as independence bit and an intensifying standoff with separatists more on that after the short break.

the mighty volga that runs deep through the russian soul has provided inspiration for songs and poems and is the country's main north south entourage and decades ago schumann ingenuity connected it to the don't revert to the west the vulgar dawn canal is an engineering marvel within a day a vessel can pass the canals thirteen looks ten million tons of shipping does so every year. another concrete giant is this finished fifty years ago it's the biggest hydroelectric plant in europe. it powers the local city of volgograd and sends lots more electricity to moscow the hydroelectric plant behind me is a potent example of how much the volga can provide but harnessing the river like this isn't without its cost. fishermen have been watching fish stocks for years they see this damage the downing of the river has done especially to russia's

prized sturgeon the source of caviar put in there because of the hydroelectric plant has done significant damage because it's stocked fish swimming up river to the spawning grounds. within a year all these houses would have gone fallen into the river depending on how many of the hydroelectric plants turbines are on the water level can change suddenly and dramatically too suddenly for the banks to absorb. control of the river flow by the planters made building the boulders floodplain more attractive serious floods are less likely but the water that is put into the drains is taken away from the fish that need it now but last the voice of the voters of color jay might start being heard. the first time in fifty years the rules will contain a point on maintaining biodiversity in the river will still have a chance to bring the volga back to life. meaning that the mighty volga is treated

with the respect it deserves. and welcome back to the program of care and. the israelis are to head to the polls some eight months earlier than expected as prime minister benjamin netanyahu has announced not election he said the coalition's failure to nail down the budget is behind a rush the polls are expected to be held at the end of january or the beginning of february which gives less time. netanyahu has potential rivals to strengthen their platforms a move also comes just ahead of the us presidential election the outcome of which according to some middle east experts will have a major impact on israel's politics. is taking advantage of situation in the budget is. that to pass

a budget is difficult but you could have done it but this is the best time for respond to you because the coalition today in israel is in shambles so he catches actually a moment in which from his point of view within three months he will end and he can make a huge victorious i think the zero another element the element before bomb. has actually linked himself almost totally to much involvement in the elections in favor of me read to him he's an old friend of mine the holding similar suv with the ripples issue is all in all his relations with obama are very sour i believe that if obama would be elected this will become also an issue in the elections and i will not meet a possibility it wish obama in direct way would also try to influence their elections it is worth meanwhile in the u.s. reports uncover more of mitt romney's sharp business practices. the strain add to

republican on a nominee who only smoked one cigarette in his life apparently had no problem with pushing millions of them on others if it meant good business. catalonians bid for an independence referendum has been torpedoed in the spanish parliament with m.p.'s flat out rejecting any idea by far spain's wealthiest region and spend plunged into how vast debts were not going up in horror areas but as the bills mounted so did in turn all support for catalonia as independence with a vote to hold a referendum passing last month but trade has been hostile at basle with one. things that police mind raid polling stations and seize ballot boxes if barcelona presses ahead with a vote more now on the stand off with not a care from the european partnership for independence thank you for joining us now it was a spanish public prosecutor that said police might raid catalonian polling stations

if a referendum is held would in madrid dare do such and such a thing. it was the spanish i mean a tennis association well these were there who don't want us which is the vice president of european parliament know who they will go down because you know we do need to understand that we are in a european context and the european you rope of the you know the rupee and you know it was actually creates a void. type of democrats to proceed to use the spanish prime minister has also called the effort quote delusional adding he would never allow a breakup of the country especially during a crisis that's all and somewhat final doesn't it at that step so we also have to understand that that right now the spanish saying they're running decide the next road complained so de need to p.p. needs to to have that salmond on hard but obviously he doesn't have the final voice so because sex has been it has parliament and we have some variety of our destiny

and and also we have to have this and we are you pm and now i think there's a great thing there's a great things too to say from the international community now the prime minister also said that while separatism runs contrary to europe's efforts to solve the financial crisis the a greater unity is cutting and running in rough times are really the solution. well. to get better it's always it's always a right time to actually improve and it's not there's always an expert saying one thing and there we can give five ten hundreds after x. for saying and saying the contrary what is important and is efficiency and actually europe would be much more efficient and it would look we in a lot of benefits without saloni honestly really out of reach can trees being free to devore local day you'll not progress now analysts have said that if catalonia

were to leave spain as is both would likely go bankrupt without aid as that a risk worth taking. well again i'm in that at the moment this cannot be opinion seeing a change sides and the reality is that it all goes be your own or does it all goes down to democracy it is really important to understand that in europe it will get stronger what is going to be the europe for which it was built upon the fundamental principles of equality freedom justice and peace and that is that is that the ground from which to view it and now obviously we all europeans and we are one disunity and we do believe europe needs to review day more than that actually now it's it's it's running

a state are deficient states wants and that we. just not as very briefly i do want to ask you there is a lot of pressure coming from a dread briefly do you think we could see barcelona back off. i've got to tell you and you know actually you foster three have. seen said they will not buy it by the by the force we have no to back it up we're not going to do it now not on the twenty first century you can treat this also we have to understand that the fuck you are of wants to be of reference for the for the world about human rights. we cannot test millions of europeans you will be until we totally not allowed to exercise one of the universal rights which is a solitary nation grant all right i'm not against spokesperson for the european partnership for independence thank you thank you. republican nominee mitt romney

has taken a slight lead in the polls ahead of the second u.s. presidential debate previously romney stated that he considers russia to be one of america's principal rivals but it seems that his business history of false or tobacco addiction there makes trading with the enemy ok candidate you can has the story. today as mitt romney views russia as america's number one geopolitical foe but i don't know what views mr romney had on russia twenty years ago but we do know that back then he did his best to get russia to smoke more so some twenty years ago he's a boston based consulting firm bain capital was helping tobacco titans to move forcefully into the new russian market the soviet union just collapsed while she was up for grabs according to the person who worked for romney in russia at the time someone named. hope i pronounce his name correctly romney was very excited about the smoking market in russia mr garstang and he reported to mitt romney directly about his efforts to promote smoking there in the one nine hundred ninety s.

tobacco market in russia skyrocketed which of course led to more smoking related deaths and candidate romney has apparently made his modest very modest contribution to that but obviously for him it was more about money than anything. it's just business even if it killed by the way mitt romney himself never smoked except for the one cigarette he said he had when he was very young he explained is that to do to smoking saying it's a religious thing mr romney is a mormon and mormons have a strict health code but apparently believes his faith never stopped him from pushing cigarettes onto the nation he refers to as the pope in washington i'm going to. time for business is following all the market action for us so it's the middle of the week merino what is happening today hi karen well there are concerns about the financial stability and health in spain as well as in greece and also its earnings report season so in the next couple of days we're expecting to hear about

that coming from asia in europe and investors and all in a very optimistic about that as you can see from the figures the footsie is shedding over a third of a percent similarly of one of the german dax and if we stay with us there is another piece of news that is not helping and that's right now and that's the fact that european banks may be forced to sell four point five trillion dollars worth of assets through two thousand and thirteen and that's the verdict of the international monetary fund which says i've asked what will happen if your fails to solve the union's crisis the thirty two percent from the previous estimates and earlier the european central bank president mario draghi committed to do everything possible to save the eurozone and if we stay with the europe we of course know and we've been reporting on the violent clashes in athens due to the trip by anglo merkel there in greece and of course will greeks are protesting enough murias over the latest austerity measures which is a condition for the next bailout the way that they're want to see but we've been

talking to analysts and they say that greece has to accept the losses and restructure its that what i've proposed is the establishment of a berlin club in the emerging world you have the paris club when an emerging country gets into trouble what happens. the emerging country comes to the paris club with its creditors and they discuss and debate and they restructure the debt the haircut the losses to the creditors i think that should be. angela merkel should invite all of the developed country finance ministers and politicians to berlin they sit around a table and they start to him and allocate the losses around the table and in doing that i think you then start the clean balance sheets because the simple fact is today there is more credit market debt in the world today than there was yesterday than there was last week and then there was at the beginning of the crisis. our analysts like a lot of other international markets will start with a rush of this time around we see that the arts yes and then my succession at an

around a half a percent there are basically tracking losses that was soon all over you know overseas we had wall street that had losses sharp losses in the by followed suit and of course in europe but another thing that russian investors are reacting to this oil prices will take a look at those. next edition but what i have to say is that oil prices are dropping from one week high and as because we're expecting the report to show that stockpiles are on the rise in the u.s. which is of course towards a biggest crude consumer well let's move on and take a look at currencies what's happening there when it comes to the euro we're still seeing losses against you was dollar it's weakening the ruble this hour is gaining against the currency basket which has been and contrast when seen in the previous couple of hours right now let's talk about goldman sachs because the company has now quit as an advisor to megaphones two billion dollar initial public offering the investment bank is reportedly unimpressed that the plans of the company's key shareholder and that is small enough because he wants to place his shares in an

umbrella company something that is warren goldman sachs and many see goldman sachs quitting as a blow to russia second because mobile operator which is planning to sell twenty percent of its stock by the end of the year. all right and all the news alexander know about as currently in london meeting with international investors as the country is seeking to find funds for its challenging all of the pauses the energy minister says that russia needs one trillion dollars for a total investment in the energy site there by twenty twenty and i think caught up with alexander novak and spoke to him exclusively and this is what he had to say about the tax incentives that are offered to boost production. first of all we've created a set of stimulating measures to boost the development of new all deposits in siberia and secondly for the existence of posts that are unprofitable under the current tax system but we've got to be able to explain five percent on top of that

we will take steps to stimulate drilling of hard to reach reserves on the shelves as you can see. and this is how business likes to sour and in the next edition the movement with be here with you karen that's it from me all right thank you marina and coming up is the latest edition of peter lavelle's debate show cross talk that's in a few moments. motion would be soon which brightened if you move soon from phones to freshen it's. nice clean stunts on t.v. don't come. to music sigrid laboratory to

mccurdy was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dog. while. cali just offers an air show and an issue. was a matter you. must have the residents never profit from the performances notion of coming or shouldn't get there when you look up and there's one check in on you he's the alpha beta gamma you with all the the fine now trying to treat each leg out with out there know what's going on so you can pinpoint. the dirt right now. shells become income mortal danger and

a piece of art still sticks and fan base jacket in making to come from free. of bombs and. on our team wealthy british style holds a spot on. the. market . so why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports. and you can. see. a low in welcome across uk i'm peter lavelle syria a civil war within and the deadly reality of seeing this conflict spill over into the entire region because much of the blame for the current situation lay with corn .