balancing on the brink of breakdown cyprus again weighs a levy on large bank deposits as a struggle to satisfy the e.u. to get a rescue package ahead of monday's deadline. british police investigate the death of russian oligarch boris berezovsky found dead at his home after reportedly losing much of his money in recent years. no trial no food to get low hunger strike enters its forty seventh day with lawyers raising concerns that they're denied access to inmates as prison officials play down the scale of the protests. in moscow and beijing a powerful partnership agreeing to double oil supplies to china as the new president visits russia on his first official engagement abroad.

one pm in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t we begin in cyprus where the clock is ticking with only monday to go to gather the money needed to secure a vital e.u. bailout and a dramatic u. turn the government decides it will try to dip into people's private bank accounts those with deposits of more than one hundred thousand euros in the island's biggest bank contre more controversial move has still to be signed off by parliament and the troika of creditors as artie's tessera cilia reports the mood in cyprus is one of panic and frustration. a week ago d u a group of the i.m.f. in brussels hammered out a bailout plan for cyprus is failing banking sector tim goodman euros was the offer on one condition cyprus puts up five point eight billion euros how by imposing a one time levy of up to one point nine percent on all bank deposits if not the

deal will solve a limit as to why some protesters just outside the parliament cypriot politicians voted a resounding no effective say no to the troika down to ten billion euros the island quickly turned to moscow it's believed that in russia businesses and wealthy individuals account for most of the foreign money is invested country but russia said its would not help cyprus out before it makes a deal. in the end cypriot officials made a u. turn and are now bending over backwards trying to seal that original bailout from want to put together a package pleasing enough to the forgot they've agreed in imposing a twenty percent levy on deposits above one hundred thousand euros in the back of cyprus and four percent for big deposits in other banks while also passing bills to impose capital control on banks creating a solidarity fund and restructure its the backs of those produced a fresh wave of anger spilling over to the streets. all during that week of

dramatic political and economic maneuvering citizens were already on an emotional in houla coaster panicked cypriots rushed to a.t.m. sick trying to get their money out of the fact that some left empty handed as machines run out of cash. recipient stick to the streets shocked at the larsen felt this is really a particularly jersey number trying to rethink the site of the year in. protesters condemned the so-called troika the european central bank e.u. commission and the i.m.f. for the first time to be hers and strew with the. demands a red line the next one is all going up like this particular instance is that the european union the euro zone have taken a step forward beyond their previous policy where they always said individuals will not be harmed we will not take money out of the minds of pensioners and actually they don't match what we see is that if you're a big member then you will be left alone and you will be bailouts and if you are

a small member you will be deleted arrest to further complicate matters banks of the country will remain closed until next week and the european central bank have given an ultimatum that there is no deal with the troika by monday the twenty fifth emergency liquidity funding will be cut off causing another round of panic us citizens fear the worst trying to get hold of whatever cash they could frustration mounts most conversations now are about nothing else but the predicament they're countries in north korea talk of the time. what are you going to go with more. support from you but the real support. to be able to. say you. believe it would you know what everybody else or couple next couple know they don't go before people. in your club. and whenever they could they don't

think twice about joining the crowd. over time is associated with the you know. people's unification into one thing i think those are. all over the past few days maybe cypriots have been telling me that they've seen or read about the impact of the economic crisis on the people of neighboring greece but it's not a really felt feel to them well not until the past week or so they share similar language a similar culture another wondering are they going to have to share a similar social tragedy as well. just are still the r.t. nicosia cyprus. so persis president and treasury chief will be in brussels sunday to meet the euro group and the i.m.f. to see if the numbers add up so they can get final approval for their plan european parliament member nigel farage says the e.u. leaders pushing to read people's bank deposits is unprecedented theft from people

desperate to keep the euro afloat at any cost cyprus is now the fifth country out of the seventeen that's needed to be biled out and that is why the germans extracted the terms that they did but i must say even in my diaries predictions in this parliament over the years about the way the e.u. bosses were behaving never did i think that they would in a completely unprecedented manner resort to stealing money from people's bank accounts and they know that once one country goes the whole deck of cards will come tumbling down and countries like germany will realize absolutely vast loss. as one trillion euros so they are prepared now to do anything literally anything to try to keep the euro afloat and that is why they've now resorted as i say to what can only be described as theft and now they've done it in one country they're quite capable of doing it in italy spain portugal or anywhere else but the message that sends to

people who've got savings in banks in those countries certainly if i was them is get your money out don't invest in the euro zone do not invest anywhere in the euro zone you've got to be mad to do so because it's now run by people who don't respect democracy they are propping up a euro zone which in the end is going to collapse in disastrous failure of they are prepared to do anything to do so i think that this decision this german dominated and led decision is the worst decision we've seen so far in this whole euro zone crisis. berlin insisting cyprus revamps its banking system and start being a tax haven germany taking the toughest stance on the cyprus rescue deal slamming nico see his decision to create a solidarity fund made up of pensions property and future gas earnings journeymen economist terry bean says berlin has its own agenda and of a looming general election. but don't forget that we are heading for elections in germany rescue packages that we have gone through in the past have been totally

unpopular with the german taxpayer and going ahead now with a simple solution to what we've got in the past you just cannot sell it to the german taxpayer i guess that's an issue as well also you don't you shouldn't forget that those negotiations go she asians with cyprus are very complicated every party has to keep up its bargaining power and so we just like game theory you know you have to be on guard you have to bluff and god knows what will happen and the us germans we're not saying that we shouldn't help cyprus but the germans told that at the end of the dying day the money the loans the guarantees does not support the people in cyprus it's supporting the banks that supporting the bank owners that supporting wall street and supporting the big one people and that's the whole issue here british police now looking into the death of the south exiled russian tycoon

and kremlin critic boris berezovsky chemical and radiological experts now at the scene at his home near london where he was found dead saturday saying it's precautionary measure the sixty seven year old is thought to have lost much of his fortune in recent years and deaths resulting from expensive court defeats also reported in britain he was diagnosed with depression more from r.t. sarraf earth. use of the death first broken by boris berezovsky son in law on a social networking site now it's thought he died at his home in ascot and. police have said that they've launched an investigation into the death of a sixty seven year old man and that death is being treated as unexplained cause a huge amount of speculation surrounding this boris berezovsky the russian taking you know larger than life character there's been talk of health problems of the speculation about suicide and we can actually listen out some information from a very prominent russian lawyer. for two people who called me resolve ski had

died one told me it was a suicide and the second person said he might have died of a heart attack i previously heard from people close to you that he was practically broken orderly depressed person i know called me and he had even asked to borrow five thousand dollars for a ticket he was also serious. as he said there is a heat amount of speculation at this time surrounding the death right now the circumstances of the death the remain unclear he made his fortune after the breakup of the savior then we saw him have self-imposed exile and he sort of asylum in britain in two thousand now in the last couple of years he's had a very high profile court cases a month which is the spectacular falling out he had with fellow russian oligarch roman abramovich called cases very interesting to listen to the reports from people

who were there in the courthouse when boris berezovsky was told that he had lost that case against him in a brother that. he had so certainly that was a massive blow. it seems both personally but also financially as well of course and it does seem. to fall in on somewhat. all of the times over the last couple of his with a school case is now the russian president's press a pass a test of has said that the president was sent a letter by boris berezovsky in which he was to think of this and see. that it was true. some time ago maybe some two months ago but it's sent a letter to putin himself saying that he admits that he made a lot of mistakes putin to forgive him for these mistakes and also wants putin for a chance for him to return to this lead to did exist. as we said it's been

a tough few years and it does seem that have been a lot of financial problems but of course this is all speculation what we do know right now is that the thames valley police have launched that investigation they cordoned off the area around his home while that investigation is ongoing no confirmation of the name yet but of course we'll stay the story and bring you the updates as a when we have. more on top of developments following the death of boris berezovsky with updates for you on line. when verizon askew left russia back in the year two thousand he became one of the kremlin's fiercest critics earlier on our team my colleagues kevin know it and he said now we talked about the ups and downs of the tycoons relations with moscow and his recent appeal to return home. he's a convicted criminal here in russia to put it simply not so much a controversial figure in the sense of of scandal surrounding him but controversal because it's flat out he does not get along with the kremlin sarah touched on this a little bit it was no secret he was an outspoken critic of the kremlin about the

system in russia and i think the british gave him didn't go well the russian rather to it didn't it and it hampered british russian relationship so it went straight to the top it's very unclear to russia to this day why the u.k. so protective bitters of ski lots of talk in past years that it had to do with his investments with his money which makes it even more interesting because it's swaying that this is most likely had something to do with his debts with owing lots of money high profile court cases the most recent one of course with. he was ripped apart by the judge was made and wasn't his character he was indeed and this is been going on for some time so it's been it's been happening slowly this letter two months ago according to the two. main president dmitry peskov that bitters off he was asking for forgiveness this is interesting asking for forgiveness for these convicted crimes money laundering he's also involved with some shady people at least as

a scene in russia in london. also in exile connected at least in russia convicted of being involved in terror acts he's a former chechen militants so it's a very intricate circle of people. stay with us here on r.t. still to come energizing old allies china's new leader uses his first overseas trip to deal to seal energy deals with russia and call for the two to work toward balancing world influence more on that still to go. after the mirror image of iraq after inflation. twenty day taxi trip through the country. the road full of dangerous. clear evidence from north to south. the roots of iraqi tragedy. after the

war waiting for peace. talks e r t. sigrid laboratory. was able to build the world's most sophisticated. fortunately doesn't give a doing about anything mission to teach creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only. thanks for staying with us quarter past the hour now the hunger strike at guantanamo has crossed forty seven days a critical point when serious health repercussions could occur prisoners' lawyers

are sounding the alarm but are struggling to draw attention to a protest they call unprecedented in scope duration and determination officials insist only a handful of detainees are involved parties gaieties shaky and explains it's getting harder to verify any information. despair among guantanamo detainees is growing as now even their lawyers are being denied direct access to them attorneys say they had a visit scheduled for early next week with one of the prisoners who's been on strike since the beginning of february lawyers have been informed that the only flights to the prison the u.s. military flight was canceled. there are. plans right now we get. this right. not only are the attorneys struggling to find out the true extent of what's happening in guantanamo now but we journalists are as well this friday captain

robins who ran the spokesman one ton among responded to our inquiry he wrote us quote we have twenty six hunger strikers with receiving. tunnel feeds meaning they get nutrition through a feeding tube last friday robert to rand wrote us there were fourteen people refusing all food while their defense attorneys had been saying there were many more we cannot independently verify any of this at this point we're just relying on what the officials and detainees lawyers tell us we're certainly in touch with the attorneys and will continue to press the officials for answers in addition to the inquiries that we made with the defense department we also asked the department of justice for their perspective on what's happening and they basically told us that it's none of their business that the military oversees the facility and referred us back to the department of defense defense attorneys are telling us that these sorties have created conditions which make it nearly impossible for them to do their job and defend their clients so frustrating there is nothing that we can do we have sent e-mails to the. department of arms to the commander.

asking them. to talk to us about. her oh response we have been told by the department of justice that they will not talk to us they were. part of. norma's talked to us in the meantime in washington the officials tried to downplay the hunger strike but they seem to have a good idea of why these men resorted to such a desperate move and yet they have no solution to offer they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think turn the heat up get it back in the media but it was not on the status of the detainees that general john kelly who's command oversees guantanamo came to discuss in congress he was there asking for money to renovate the prison the upgrade of the camp is estimated to

cost taxpayers almost two hundred million dollars as washington schedules renovations at guantanamo the international community continues to. and president obama to comply with his own promises and to shut down the infamous prison we have no right to hold people indefinitely without charges without a trial and without people having access to a justice system that's against every principle of law which exists in the world the un commissioner for human rights responded to our request for comment and said they have quote repeatedly regretted that the u.s. government has not closed guantanamo bay four years ago president obama ordered to stop tortured guantanamo but the u.s. says indefinite detention itself is a form of torture british resident shakur armor was cleared for release six years ago yet he's still being held captive here's what he writes please to me in the old way here they destroy people mentally and physically without leaving marks half of the men now in guantanamo have been cleared for release many others never formally

accused of a crime three months ago the state department closed the office in charge of closing the prison there's a growing sense among the detainees there that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in washington i'm going to check out. human rights groups around the world have long campaign to get guantanamo closed but the international condemnation still hasn't resonated on capitol hill this despite barack obama's pledge to shut down the prison four years ago artie's iraq has been of takes a look. the story around the closure of guantanamo bay prison has stuck to president obama ever since he promised to shut it down and here are some of the key dates on the way first in january two thousand and nine and when obama was inaugurated he ordered the prison to be shut down within a year and banned some of the interrogation methods after the us government admitted torturing some of the detainees was calls another exactly since in may the same year the u.s. senate refused to fund the closure of the jail until the president provided more

details as to what to do with the detainees then in mid october would appear the situation that changed when the congress approved. allowed to some of the detainees to be moved to the u.s. for prosecution but then it all you turned again at the end of two thousand and ten when the same congress approved the defense spending bill which prevented us trials for guantanamo detainees in january two thousand and eleven despite his campaign promise to close that obama signed the defense of the relation plan which ruled out shutting guantanamo bay down and prevented the transfer of prisoners from the camp in march obama also signed an executive order resuming military trials for more detainee's a move seen by many as a complete reversal of his former policies in december two thousand and eleven the president feel to veto the national defense bill being the way for prisoners to be held indefinitely and without charge and extending the ban on moving them from the camp and finally in july last year the pentagon voiced its plans to lee forty

million dollar fiberoptic cable from the u.s. mainland to guantanamo not exactly a sign washington aspiring to wrap up its operations in the controversial detention center. more expert analysis and opinion on what's happening up on tunnel on our web site r t v dot com also a click away the behind the scenes ties between the cia and syrian rebels groups a report on claims about the role that u.s. intelligence is playing in syria's civil war plus. the flurry at the front line are ukraine's military has been mobilized to keep the capital from moving or keep the capital moving after a surprise invasion of snow. china stepping up its energy security with russia to help moscow agreed this week to increase oil supplies to beijing along with other multibillion dollar deals the country's leaders also pledged to work toward a more fair world order they say let's get some details from our teams xan thomas

for all of this thank you for joining me here xan so the chinese president said his visit to russia far exceeded his expectations can the same be said do you think for a lot of your perspective well certainly if you look at russia and china they share a border they're lockstep in terms of how they see things on a geo political scale and this is. first trip as president. away from china and where does he choose he chooses to come to russia and this is considered an important strategic move a symbolic move showing how insync these two countries really are and they used to be not so. not so lockstep but politically if you look at them form a very powerful bloc on the u.n. security council there have the same ideas about syria libya iran even north korea and then in terms of trade it china is now russia's number one trading partner that used to be germany but just to give you an idea how much that is in two thousand

and twelve eighty eight billion dollars of trade between these two countries alone so it's very important for russia and china to be working together and in this trip they decided to promote cross border infrastructure and many significant give them . and moving away from politics towards economics energy was a big focus of the trip right certainly in fact ross nafta is set to triple their exports to china over a certain amount of time now that time hasn't been determined yet but they want to start exporting forty five to fifty million tons of oil per year to china and that's set to make the largest oil company in the world just give you an idea of how much is happening now there's only fifteen million tons of oil about three hundred thousand barrels per day being shipped from russia to china right now russia is a huge energy giant china is a huge energy consumer not just oil but gas as well a memorandum went out about a gas deal that doesn't have any real specifics but just creates a partnership between russia and china when it turns to gas exportation as well you

know both russia and china are members of the so-called brics group of countries including also brazil india and south africa. is this this new partnership going to be significant does it seem in terms of the development of the perks countries on the global stage certainly does in fact if you think about what the brics stand for you have this model polar leadership right now in the world that everyone looks to the united states as like the default go to country the most powerful country supposedly the brics basically was created as a an economic or a trade relationship between these developing economies but now it's become an actual political. forum as well and these countries standing up and providing their voices to other countries around the world to help be problem solvers if you will so that there is this. less of a focus on the singular pole leadership and more multiple poles developing around

the world as well so china and russia. she jinping said that closer ties with russia will make a safer world and that's what some of it he said in his trip all right thank you very much for that insight john thomas. well from the north to the south by taxi one man's journey we have more on that here on our t.v. stay with us after this short break. jorge rios an argentinian student at seventeen other similar students from foreign countries all paid a private company between three thousand and four thousand dollars so that they get to take part in a u.s. state department work study program he was promised forty hours of work per week at

a common fast food restaurant with a decent salary but the reality he claims was quite different he was actually only given around four hours of work per week but was expected to be on call twenty four seven like a surgeon i guess in case of some burger emergency he says he was forced to live in accommodations that were provided by the restaurant real six plane that he had to sleep in a child sized bunk bed in a basement with seven other people in filthy conditions and for this service he had to pay the restaurant three hundred dollars a month overall real swallowed up paying the burger joints to work for them what a way to not make a living though this story sounds funny on the surface many foreigners in work and study and work in travel programs do experience exploitation upon arrival in the usa i've even personally met some of them so i know but more than that in a time when millions of americans are struggling to put food on the kitchen table why are companies searching for thousands of exploitable foreigners to work for two dollars an hour cheaper it is corporate greed and their absolute disrespect for

americans that allows this to happen just pay the extra two dollars and have americans work for you to cheap corporate pigs but that's just my opinion. on the road to bass for this morning the u.s.

army is beginning to withdraw from iraq. in december twentieth levon after nine years of occupation the last american troops are finally leaving the country. every guy got in about it i don't know what it meant i deserve the iraqi's anger towards the departing invaders who once dreamed of being liberators that departure resembles abandonment and escape despite the optimistic speeches. cease. there's loads.