russian of two thousand and nine here are the numbers the ministry cut its growth forecast from three point six percent to two point four percent so let's get all the details on why rush the economy is struggling from our correspondent kitty pilgrim here she is and katie basically this revised forecast from the same ministry that did the original one so obviously there are some serious reasons why it would revised down by a third what's going on there yeah a good point a minute. amount is a third is pretty substantial i can tell you that it's really international internal factors that are taking that international of course i'm talking about europe the eurozone what's happening at the moment they are indeed in the midst of a financial crisis the cypriot banking system we recently had the ball call unfolding here in russia that will take years but they're all domestic issues to contend with as well. we've stood him many times and had conversations about it and i can tell you that this year it's already expected to go up to thirty billion

dollars some are saying thirty five billion sounds pretty substantial also want to talk about consumer confidence that's going down spending in consumer spending that's always been a real growth for the russian economy you know they've relied on that consumers love so. far as actually in february was its lowest point in three years so domestically russia's not looking as healthy as it once was in the early expert analysis actually from capital just to outline all these problems for me ok. recovery in investment spending the two are hoping that we're going to see in the beginning of this year following the political cycle last year has unfortunately not materialized and i think this is driven in turn by a combination of a global uncertainty you know we're going to have a repeat of session in europe this is rationing cyprus and just a lack of confidence here in the countries i think it's due a mainly by the lack of recovery in investment spending in the russian economy so

as you can see plenty of challenges ahead of sasha for sure right but i would have thought that actually the main challenge right now is inflation that's certainly what the central bank's been saying over the past week that it's the number one priority so what about you know there's a real conflict going on at the moment between president vladimir putin and the central bank is he wants the rates can't in order to write their argument is if they do that inflation will really get eaten was a real conflict because which side do you put yourself on an interesting enough today i spoke to mr mr chick or as we just heard from and he was saying that he disagrees with the central bank interestingly enough of. what the central bank things unfortunately from my perspective is that the central bank should keep interest rates high you know to to fight inflation. in my view this is not correct because the driving factors for the high inflation are actually none wanted to the

reasons the reason we have privation in russia is because we have high food inflation and reason we have high food inflation is because the harvest last year was was very bad. but i mean katie let's put it all in perspective i mean sure two point four percent growth is not quite the same as three point six percent of compare that to what's going on in europe you know negative one percent i'm sure many european countries would love to have these numbers. if you put it like that also unemployment as well as historical lows has something europe. at the moment double digits you look at spain you got twenty five percent going on so yeah bar having said there's lots of things going on here in this country that europe doesn't have to contend with have to outflow we just chatted about just now also infrastructure as well really needs working on roads ports in order to get it up to scratch for big sporting events that are around the corner of course we've got such as well on the way right thought so too with fifty billion dollars it doesn't come

cheap you know really and with with infrastructure comes investments as well actually mr tickle for saying to me earlier today about it's all about infrastructure and he said that actually infrastructure in russia is the worst in all of the brics countries so he needs to really focus on that and he was saying all the other general problems as well that we hear a lot about the red tape the corruption making russia more of a nicer environment for foreign people to come and do business with just getting rid of the corruption was his main point to contend with and he also spoke about the twenty eight world cup that will be held here and the need for improving the situation before before printing to contend with year certainly a lot a lot to look forward to now as well thank you very much business ortiz. pilbeam. moving on china's foreign exchange reserves have reached three point four trillion dollars that's roughly the size of germany's economy and that's an

indication that money is once again flooding china which is no surprise considering how much money the united states and japan are now printing in an exclusive interview to business r t a legendary investor jim rogers explained the consequences of all of this for the world's second largest economy. yes there's a lot of money going into china it's partly china's fault that their currency is blocking everybody expects the concert to go up so they want to invest this is causing problems in china because it adds to implosion you have all this money sloshing around it's trapped there can i get out so china is hardly the blame for its own problems whenever you have too much money sloshing around obviously some of it gets lent or invested in places that are probably not going to be good it's been demonstrated many times all over the world throughout history it when there's too much easy money too much free money a lot of it gets invested bad it's calm our investment by people in the economic

business and yes that's certainly going to contribute to ultimately too bad loans and bad debts. and let's not check out the markets on wall street which is actively trading the sour shares are lower out the last check and that's essentially some profit taking there considering that the benchmark indices ended the previous session at a record high disappointing retail sales for the month of march started the ball rolling and it was a similar picture over in europe all of the major indices ended friday's session with losses but for the week european stocks posted the biggest gains in more than a month on the currency markets the euro finally snaps its winning streak ending a lower to the dollar here in moscow the ruble shed value to both the dollar and the single currency which is no surprise considering a lot of negative news coming out of russia and of course the russian equities had

no place to go but down with all that negative external environment a major sell off as you can see there the r.t.s. and the almost two percent down the mine sex more than one percent in the red one of our billionaires just paid close to two hundred million dollars for legendary greek island of scorpios the island belong to the granddaughter of late greek shipping tycoon aristotle onassis who is best known as the place where onassis mayor jackie kennedy in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight the identity of the russian buyer is not being officially released but some greek newspapers claim that it's dmitri rubel of live a shareholder of the bank of cyprus and the current owner of a us monaco football club he ranks one hundred and nineteenth on the forbes

billionaire list. and that's all from us in business we're only two days left until the presidential election and then as well r t sat down with one of american rappers an activist it was a technique to talk about hugo chavez and how he stood up for the country in a way that not too many others dare to that interview is coming up after a short break. no the ceo's i would live. in eternal silence her invisible. every day is a struggle. for our children sleep soundly at night. we are palestinian women working in israel. we've done more for our kids

than our husbands. we are phantoms in this life. to least be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on all t.v. reporting from the world's hot spots fifty yard p. interviews intriguing stories for you to. see in troy t. arabic to find out more visit arabic all tito it's called. wealthy british style holds america is not on the books because. of the. markets finance scandal find out what's really happening to the global economy for our no holds

barred look at the global financial headlines join in to cause a report on our t.v. . international in the very heart of moscow. joining me now for an exclusive one on one interview is rapper political activist in the always thought provoking revolutionary immortal technique thank you for once

again sitting down with r.t. thank you very much for having me on your program when you go shop us passed away if you took to twitter to. discuss his leadership his legacy you sparked clearly some debates no doubt about it chavez was a huge figure in south american politics how do you believe his death will impact the continent well i mean when people talk about his death leaving a country divided let me remind you that we live in a very divided country right now. mr chavez earned the. relationship that he had with the united states on a nationalized resources when he came a vocal critic of some of the overstepping of. this country. now if any other country that we do business tries to say whether their. country you have some sort of relationship with or whether they're a client state they're going to find themselves in the same situation of having the

leader or anyone who's responsible for making those sort of decisions. that being said. i think that even though mr chavez was a very very inspirational figure especially in the latino community be that it was during the time i remind people when saddam hussein had been toppled fresh in people's minds when afghanistan had been invaded when there was talk of going into just about any other country and here was this upstart man saying you know mr bush you're an alcoholic you're a donkey you know you're a coward you won't lead your own troops if if you ever get in your head to invade venezuela he famously said you know i'll meet you right here in the savannah you know people hurled all kinds of accusations that mr chavez that i heard people say that he was anti-semitic and i mean anything they could do to defame him him not

giving israel a blank check it shouldn't be regarded as anti-semitism he in two thousand and nine came out and recognized the right of israel to exist actually that was downplayed in the news because what he added to that he says says i acknowledge the right of israel to exist but in existing she has to acknowledge the rights of the human rights of palestinians as well you know when you attach a statement like that to recognition i guess in some people's minds even the question that palestinians are human beings or that they deserve the same. writes as others is quote unquote controversial the quote unquote oil crisis that he created he didn't create any oil crisis there were several of the factors that are involved here with other people looking at it and saying how can we maximize our profits this quarter he simply decides to use up the political capital and economic capital that he has with his large oil reserves to make his ideas more popular in

latin america which i would say he succeeded in doing do you think that chavez's project his goal his aim and anti-imperialist socialist south america is in danger without him. i think it's in danger with or without him you know no i mean i think the interesting thing about him is that his great strengths are also some of his weaknesses. the idea that. this is going to be and it essentially gave money to the island of cuba or to let all the black america than the united states against all latin america probably would plan colombia added which is really frightening actually now that you take a look at those statistics but i think that when venezuelans look at it because i went down there twice the first time in two thousand and five where they were very very you know. motivated me when i saw people with a real revolutionary spirit of all walks of life and then returning again to see

their economy in light of the decline in the year. i came back about four five years later so when examining all of these factors i mean you can tell the people of venezuela were saying we're glad that you have this goodwill towards other countries but what about our country and that was some of the biggest criticisms that i heard of him of his not investing that capital that he built up to create a stronger infrastructure within minutes well i mean there are legitimate criticisms of the man he's not god you know to me he's somebody who is in a position of power who decided to troll the united states infinitely and very well in fact. really made his case in front of. the rest of the world and said a lot of things that they probably thought but didn't want to ruin their relationship with their foster daddy here to be able to say well speaking of the united states

what do you believe will be washington's next move in the region now that one of their well into their next movement of interest of all points is god so you know obama has already indicated that he wants to quote unquote turn up he in relations between the two countries between us and venezuela will washington try to take advantage of the current situation obama will play nice they'll talk about race but at the end of the day what they would like there is a government that's friendly to united states business and that is a knesset that wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't mean that corporate meads the profit margin of people that already have billions of dollars here is going to be put before the lives of people who are working to create the foundation of that structure there you know we're not talking about wealth redistribution here and this is the funny part when people go off on that. wealth redistribution you don't seem to complain about wealth

redistribution when it's all poor people giving their money to rich people you know why because you want to be those people you complain about wealth redistribution giving the poor people because you don't want to be those people that's what it really is it's an emotional reaction to something selfish within the confines of the deepest and darkest part of humanity because we all know that we have to pool resources that we have to redistribute people redistribute water you know let me nobody owns all of it why because that would be greedy. i think that when we look at what he actually was and what he was actually doing was trying to create a more independent latin american state now you know he attempted that through the blueprint of a ball a very revolution that was he successful to some degree and to some degree not but then again seem only about his vision was not complete either you know i mean he left out huge fractions of a society in latin america you know african people that was stolen and brought there to build latin american society indigenous people who were disenfranchised

who were colonized which is way too nice of a word for being raped and genocide and i think that when we look at that you know unfortunately it became the transfer of power from. us and that permeated racism in latin america and classism as well so i mean even we're talking about the original simone weil about his vision was incomplete so to see you go chavez pass before his vision would be complete is simply a reminder that revolution is an ongoing cycle that it can't be centered around one man because that's the recipe for failure this is clearly a good time for the opposition in venezuela to try to see if they can unify themselves but their complement our if they could do you think that it's likely that they will get support from abroad i think it's likely they've already gotten support from abroad you know someone once described they said coming to america. is in the sense that he. for latin american politicians to endure. they

have to understand that. this huge empire that exists right above their eyes they have to get the inner workings of it and unfortunately you know what the inner workings seem to detail time and time again is exactly what i said before i feel that. and having to repeat it again and again but i want to get into people's minds. they begin to understand that corporations will put the profit margin and will put making money from billionaires over the lives and the quality of life of foreign citizens and i don't think it's crazy for people to fight against that you're not a communist are fighting against that in fact you resemble the greatest amount of spirit that any american has ever had who fought for his rights and his dignity and

it's ironic because here in this country the profit margin is put before people's lives even in the food that we you know these g.m.o. they don't want their their foods labeled if you're so proud of something why don't you want it to have your stamp of approval on it that's it but in europe they do label food but i think it's an embarrassment too because they're leaving out the pink elephant in the room to eat those in the path that was like i said before and other arguments and interviews don't align you know it's for the simple it's interesting because it's mirrored so much in history as well you know when europeans first came to this continent or even columbus is journey people say oh they were escaping religious persecution they were escaping you know. semitism they were escaping. unjust laws and they always leave out one of the main factors and it's so embarrassing because this is a capitalist society why are you leaving out one of the main factors i know why

you're leaving it out because you're not proud of it you came here looking for money for opportunity to take people's land because they weren't considered human beings they were considered infidel by the church and therefore sub they were completely legal to be subjugated it's completely legal to subjugate them so i think that when we look at that perspective it teaches us to question what is our place in society and as. even though we may not like the image of chavez even though we may disagree with what his perspectives are. wouldn't we want our lives and our children's lives to be put over in consideration and take precedence in consideration to some rich sleazeballs bottom line you know everything that's bad is completely legal for us and everything that's good is being clamped down and claimed by some neo liberal of the already so they can

repackage it and sell it to you have manage somehow well through a lot of hard work right now to become an independent successful rapper you've tried very much start not to sell out not to sign your authority or decision making away when it comes to your own creativity is it becoming harder to maintain that that type of integrity in principle in today's day and age of the music industry anybody who's going to recovery out there knows that when you get over the first few first years it gets easier it's easier right right when you're weeding yourself off the industry cocaine and heroin because that's essentially what they are they provide. things that people get used to budgets sponsors it makes it more difficult then when you have to put up the money and take the risk in the investment yourself although the reward is much greater. if you're actually reaping the benefits of that by setting it up. in

a structured deal that is heavily in your favor where you take on the majority of the risk you put in the majority of the money so you're taking out the majority of the profit which is why i always scoffed at the accusations of of marxism or communism like look dude at the same time that i understand how to how that system functions i understand how this system functions as well you know i look at those things as being part of the building blocks of humanity there are stages of evolution that we're going through and unfortunately people are making too much money off of this stage of evolution of capitalism to stop and get off it and take us to the next level because if we're still here in a hundred years then we've basically put the nail in the coffin for humanity to the point where we can't. speak about healthy food without being persecuted by the companies that sell food that's bad for you they're making too much money selling

processed stuff that is going to be proven to give people cancer in order to stop and being taken taken off the market how do you think that can stop where people become come before profit do you think that that they will. the scene in in this country or is capitalism not set up that way some people say that it is i've heard this debate a lot you know what the exact question you bring up from people all the time what is it going to take you know what kind of crisis is it going to take is going to take a cataclysm that threatens all of humanity for us to look at one another and say it doesn't matter what color he is or what religion she is we're all human beings and in order for us to kill one another we have to find these horribly divisive tiny little things that we can expand or make seem huge when in reality we're simply separated by language you know and the inability to understand because we

choose not to understand the ability is perfectly immortal technique thank you so much for your time thank you very much for having me.

this land. torn apart by conflict. has changed. a modern islamic nation. and a peaceful one in stone islam the first of course a secular law a second. fashion. and so. in place of. traditions still. cannot go on the catwalk in a swimsuit it's. just a republican country on elsie. live

. live. live . live.

live live live. live. live. live. live live live live . he became a symbol of the nine hundred ninety s. he personified the russian mafia in the kremlin. it was a twentieth century arrest. in just a few years he rose from junior was a multibillionaire and senior politician. is declining was as rapid as his

meteoric rise and ended in exile his death is now as mysterious as his life. better. on r.t. . top stories from our t.v. us releases this.