they refer to the clowns american criticism and legal action against russian officials saying washington shouldn't be literally anyone on human rights when it's legalized torture and indefinite detention. also later in the day we're bringing you julian i sounded christmas address as the ed so we could leak smoke six months of asylum in the ecuadorian embassy in london. time magazine named the bronco bar pass and i'll be here calling him the architect of a new america but critics say they need action not words from the president on issues

like gun control. or watering all see live from moscow hello and welcome to the program. legit putin has defended russia's position in the latest round over human rights with the you was the president has washington shouldn't be pointing the finger when it's all record of violations goes far beyond anything moscow is being accused of let's now get the details from on t.v. north hello there you go so what's going on there. well the road between moscow and washington around the moneyed ski act and russia replying to it which lawmakers are currently working on and which meet potentially include a ban for american story russian children it's been dominating the news it's been

one of the main issues in society and on the political elites for the past week or even more so it's no wonder why this asked this question was asked as the first one at the very start of the conference and talking about the markets the act going to put in said that it continues a series of anti russian laws passed by american lawmakers since it was approved shortly after a decades old auntie's saw a lot of the jacksonville any character was abolished and. the problem isn't even in sanctioning russian officials who are using international according to the president russian officials should store their money in the russian banks he said the problem is in the attempt of washington to intervene into russia's domestic problems if there are. human rights in russia including in the prison system which is something which should be dealt with by russian authorities and which should not

be a subject of intervention by a country which according to the president. not only according to the president but it's a fact that the united states even use prisons like abu ghraib and guantanamo where the coalition's of human rights happen on a daily basis including pieces of torture and some where some prisoners because of the cost are kept behind largely without even facing any charges and according to the president the this attempt by the united states to influence the polls or criticize the human rights situation in russia is unfair unfriendly and the only scores of relations between the two of them is going on here but it's not that i see one that i didn't. but what. about going to in the u.s. and american legislature about human rights in our three sons in

detention centers a very good deal but they have their own problems. i've already told but talked about. very well known. in the world one town of. god then you should leave. their vision for many years without a situation where you could scream. and cry of st george's and only as they're going to. make a life for you. just imagine that we have really believes in our own country. and they are. going to whine like i. knew them when they promised to close guantanamo. bay i mean we've had all this drama and maybe they continue. the so-called secret of the cia even the. finest.

just to explain a bit about the money ski act itself it's named after sort of a minute russian lawyer who died in prison before a court could make a decision on his face he was suspected of large scale tax evasion and he's seen by many in the west or especially in the u.s. as a victim of various human rights violations and the money needs sanctioning russian officials suspected of being connected. to human rights violations in russia a lawmakers in moscow have been working on what they say is a proportionate response. draft which also me included a ban for americans to adopt russian children this has been quite a serious issue over the years there have been cases of abuse so even deaths of russian children after they were adopted by american couples and the president has spoken on this as well saying that it's not even the problem isn't even in these cases he said that the moment in the majority of cases everything everything happened smoothly and the children are fine they are adopted by decent people but

he says the problem is that in the lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to prevent these cases from reoccurring he said that this is also because of a lack of serious penalties and jail sentences for those stalin guilty of abusing these children the president also reminded of the recent agreement on adoption reached between moscow and washington and the said that this deal was signed on a federal level but when it comes to each state individually in the united states they have their own rules and laws and if this act is supposed to allow russian officials and monitor what happens to the children after their right to the united states now de facto they're often not allowed to be even to be present at court hearings which the president is also strongly criticized called unfair and derogatory and this so far has been pretty much the most important issue. doing

this for us carter and it is set to continue usually the big a few hours up to four hours and forty minutes and i was the record in two thousand and eight so i will be bringing you more obviate as it goes on absolutely many thanks indeed for that update we'll talk to you later on live from moscow. and you can watch a live video stream from president putin's end of year q. and a marathon with the press on our website r.t. dot com. we're going on now the editor wiki leaks julian assange just said to make his christmas speech later on thursday marking six months since he knocked on the door of the ecuadorian embassy in london that dress has already sparked my speculation over what kind of most socially world's top whistle blower has to deliver out is laura smith now reports. later on thursday julian assad is doing something which is usually reserved for heads of state queens the pope people like that he's giving a christmas message from the balcony of the ecuadorian embassy where he's been

holed up for the last six months and in fact this speech will mark his six month anniversary inside the ecuadorian embassy now the last time shooting ourselves appeared in public it was back in august and he had to organize a kind of a rally around the embassy so speeches by politicians and other supporters as a kind of a cannibal atmosphere was balloons and all that kind of thing and then he came on and made his speech and he made a couple of important points one of which was to urge the u.s. to end what he calls the witch hunt against wiki leaks and he also called for the release of bradley manning who is of course being held. on trial in the u.s. accused of leaking classified documents to wiki leaks so those are two things that he may mention again when he talks later on thursday he also may talk about

his most recent bid to run for the senate in the two thousand and thirteen australian federal elections he's made that announcement and he's said that wiki leaks is setting up a political party for which plans are significantly advanced and they have received significant support from notable australians he says that party is designed to promote openness in government and politics and also to combat growing intrusions on individual privacy one of the things i learnt during the interview that he gave me a couple of weeks ago was that uniform is increasingly unwilling to talk about his personal situation he prefers to stick to the wider issues and so that is why one of the things he may talk about could be the continuing blockade of wiki leaks by visa master card and pay pal that's a case that's ongoing at the moment and also a possible further leak that he mentioned to me they're talking about leaking more documents in the new year watch this space he said. and as

a sound remains look within ecuador's diplomatic mission washington hasn't stopped its prosecution of the whistleblower us as we can expect a lot of kristinn hrafnsson. well we know about the ongoing. investigation and the secret grand jury in alessandro in virginia there is. an ongoing attempt to find an angle to bring charges against julian and possibly all those working for we believe as a very serious matter of course very shameful for the obama administration not to stop that for the man who was right even taken four years ago to increase transparency and what we have seen is totally the opposite witch hunt against whistleblowers. that has no first place in history it will continue to work as we have done despite the difficult situation that has been in the ecuador embassy now for six months but probably it was their house arrest that hasn't stopped us we have continued to work

. the economic blockade has not stopped us either even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that's a battle that we have decided to turn into an all out war. in two thousand and eight election as to someone who had the most influence on global affairs although at that time he hadn't had the time to exercise all that influence but then president obama also received the nobel peace prize in two

thousand and nine ers shortly after his election although i guess at that point he hadn't made much peace in the world the award was seen as much more of an advance credit then and you know college meant of actual achievements on the peace front later president obama went on to spend that credit sending more troops to afghanistan and carrying out regime change in libya under the arguable banner war for the sake of peace as far as his person of the year titled critics argue president obama was time's choice by default their shortlist this year also included the egyptian leader mohamed morsi and the pakistani girl malala yousafzai who was shot by the taliban for advocating for women's education president obama may be the person of the year for the time magazine but for advocates of gun control in the u.s. he still has to earn that title to president obama had a news conference where he was asked why no meaningful action has been taken on gun

control in the last four years of his presidency although one of his campaign pledges was a ban on assault weapons he basically said. we including waging two wars and quote it's not like i've been on vacation he said those in the u.s. who suffered in numerous incidents of gun violence would probably not be satisfied with such an answer but the president pledged to finally take more active steps in the coming months he said the administration will come up with a more definitive proposal on gun control but people have heard those words before and nothing happened getting a semiautomatic weapon is not a problem in the u.s. adam lanza who killed twenty small children and six adults at an elementary school last week fired from a semiautomatic bushmaster rifle it's a military style rifle a powerful weapon and its sales are on the rise in the u.s. in the last four years the market for such guns grew thirty percent and journalists

and activists don't divonne says the actions and policies of the u.s. president speak louder than the words of time magazine and. time magazine's editors giving them giving him the award can only be you can only guess impute whatever motive they have to them in terms of what he's actually done we have to look at his policies in terms of workers getting jobs nothing in terms of giving people who are in foreclosure relief not much in terms of peace making he started more wars than george bush and so you know we have to look at his policy rather than what some magazine who may be going to the f.c.c. or some other regulatory agency for relief for the many t.v. stations that time inc owns rather than that we need to look at his policies well go back to two thousand and eight when he was given supposedly because of the influence he had on international affairs and within four weeks of receiving that said he had no comment about israel's war on gaza that ended up killing fifteen hundred civilians it's pretty meaningless and the thing that's most revealing is

they themselves pulled an electoral college over a popular vote scam when they said it's the editor's choice and not the people but the people voting for the president of north korea over the president of the united states. and so i had figured this out wild wind for peak i think nations security council denies that israel hold on new settlement construction on state to build more homes and the palestinian territories didn't have the chest. it's perched atop a judge rock and a view from the ball scrabble and stretches far as the eye can see kept for a city that chilled all of siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even before it was bypassed by the chance i bear in railway but the ball's cremains a spiritual center. was

scenes like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of orthodox worshippers implicity water to commemorate the baptism of jesus. in the fifteen eighties the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies the ball supposed to be their stronghold constructed on top of the city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian fire was the oil of its time bringing in a third of all russia's state revenue but the balls location head of the for the russians are the russian aristocrats who led a revolt against the tsar and eight hundred twenty five known as the decembrists worse than hair and drove. there they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at

least once they made it from paris to siberia but the city also served up some bit of irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is the office was nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole family had been exiled here they lead a fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or go outside themselves whilst leaving this ordinary normal countryside lifestyle they even had those of us but within the year of his family would be dead.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard to compose a big picture. there

will surely else he is good to have the words the u.n. security council has criticized israel for pushing on with that settlement plans and putting the two state peace talks of triscuit in addition to the construction of six thousand new homes proposed earlier reports are coming up the approval of over three thousand other houses and jerusalem on the west bank israel's building in occupied palestinian alliance is seen as illegal under international law policy and israeli officials say that they proceed on with plans to build six thousand new homes this defines criticism from western powers who fear that the move will hamper an already famed hopes for a peace deal between israelis and palestinians you'll remember that it was just last month after the de facto recognition of palestinian sovereignty at the united nations that israel made its new announcement in terms of settlement building it said that it would expand settlements in the occupied west bank as well as in east jerusalem and at that time there was international and quiet the point needs to be

made that israel continues to build in utter defiance of international law and as well as of united nations resolutions so critics are pointing out that is also sort of missed with settlements is part of the reason why it's becoming increasingly isolated by its partners primarily in europe but that's not to say that washington is also not losing patience the united states has said that it is deeply disappointed by israeli construction plans in an unpredictably sharp reaction the a bomb administration has shop and its criticism of israel saying that these construction plans run counter to peace the point also needs to be made that mixed month january israel will be holding condom interim elections which is why many all suggesting that these are nonsense by the prime minister netanyahu are a means of trying to garner domestic support as well as change the reality on the ground one of the options is that. in like minded people.

creating a situation world by the number of certainly will be such a significant one that eventually the solution will be more or less let us get the big to the sixty seven borders and let the surplus remain there are the palestinians to rather than evacuate them to new areas which would be annexed to israel most of the international community see the settlement construction by television as illegal certainly the palestinians see it as a real obstacle to creating a viable capital in east jerusalem policy r.t. tel aviv almost a quarter of the population of the european union are a triscuit sliding below the poverty line that's according to the blocs main statistics agency and while some e.u. citizens are tired of being suffocated by austerity others grow weary of having to

stretch out a helping hand piece all over takes a closer look at their unsettled region. around one hundred and twenty million e.u. citizens all right risk for falling below the poverty line now in response to the the measures that are being taken to try and halt the european union and the euro zone in particular as economic downturn we've seen violent demonstrations in countries like greece where we're seeing clashes with police and also strikes across the country also in spain and as well elsewhere across the union now these on what we have seen though is these aren't just students or activists that are being demonstrating against the cuts that have been implemented upon them but people from all across society as not just the faithful have started to show that they be satisfied with the way things are going the politicians have already started the finger pointing of just curious to blame silvio berlusconi in italy

saying little he's going to run against to be the leader of the country and he's pointed a finger squarely towards germany where i am right now saying that it's up to berlin to recognize the european central bank as a real central bank in his words otherwise swell countries like italy are going to have to pull out of the euro zone in fact well there are those here in germany that would say that it's all germany that has to pull out of the year is this going on as we look towards twenty thirteen and that difficult task of trying to solve the eurozone and the european union's crippling financial problems. there's financial troubles that have increased the calls from spain's wealthiest region catalonia to break away from central government madrid however has stressed it has the legal power to stop it from even holding a referendum on independence the warning came hours before the region's pro

separatist parliamentary majority has signed an agreement calling for a public vote on this self determination to be held in twenty fourteen and the european partnership for independence says qatar learning is ready to be on its. it does come from the determination of civil society from or from the citizens of course i don't know which from two thousand and nine to two thousand and eleven shown they this is nations by outlaw organized popular referendum to hold ballots to personally i like more than five hundred the v.p. why they voted yes because i learned that allow for a positive scenario and allowed to tap debates about stuff of a nation and human rights universal rights in all catalonia i told her aloud to explain to people about economical side and about all the benefits that i was as in depth of the movie and they were better people so at this a scenario just created a verbalized open majority for endeavor than that it has been showing the last

official recent polls and actually as well as the last elections was now in the parliament of the past and odia we do have a majority of our members of the parliament which are four in that at that and they are willing to call for the youth referendum. and up next we'll hear from the basket a rush about the future of relations between moscow and brussels with. the legacy no one should be proud of heaps of scrap metal littering pristine arctic landscape buildings tilting over their foundation pipes spewing black smoke over the snow covered peaks the traces of the soviet industrial activity on the showbiz bergen archipelago don't make

a pretty picture beguiling principle here is the worse the better local like to tell the story of that back and so it's time when the originals were visiting there and were they all when expressed and they were and it will tell us. and how prosperous this was well times obviously i can't wear this so it lags still attracting a region tourists or barons work i would then cons watch native cash that's why when. our goal is common it was uncovered here a few days ago and started drawing it that way the local administration. knew. where that can do nine hundred eighty s. there was a burgeoning mining community there the soviet union was determined to maintain its own costs. are located halfway between north america and western europe bergen archipelago is part of norway with a special status that allows other countries to set up industrial bases here in the

middle of the cold war it served as the use of western most outposts now it's one of the soviet union slask preserved relics. of the soviet union if it was cut off from any financial support for two decades curious for western tourists and i think it could be even more appealing for russians travelers to keep its presence on spitsbergen russian film until a coal mine here but in terms of profit is far behind local shops so we claim or bill it is a big hit the defunct arn curtain still helps keep the money flowing. it's a rush. the local administration is increasingly under pressure to bring the infrastructure up to more than standards if these modernization efforts are not very popular with tourists. coming to

a very authentic place like. it should stay the way it is that would be my wish i mean that's the part of the you know authentic tradition. like to have it in a shiny condition to be on those this time to change even for the better is not always good for business something that even a local band has become attuned to when they try to add morning russian songs to die repertoire the audience called the wanted to hear it was a song comfortably familiar.

hello again a welcome to spotlight the interview show on our tape i'm older now and today my guest here in the studio. russell is getting ready for another rough set the agenda is pretty much the same as six months ago and the visa regime and the new framework agreement. to go see a show stop moving move on now discuss it with the bastard to russia turnaround. russia and the european union are getting ready for the anniversary summit in brussels the troubled eurozone common security and reason free travel on our own agenda topics that may seem quite straightforward have many pitfalls they all connected to big politics which makes finding a consensus complex a russian official talking about.