ukraine scraps preparations for a trade agreement with after its parliament rejects a bill which was one of europe's main conditions for the deal. for u.s. soldiers to remain in afghanistan a wrangled over at a key gathering of tribal elders. and the. drone program trigger a major concerns with activists warning no guarantee they'll be used for peaceful purposes. live from our studios in moscow this is r.t.

with you twenty four hours a day. ukraine has decided to hold preparations for a trade agreement with the e.u. it comes after the country's parliament rejected a bill which would have allowed the jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad auntie's and has more on the tricky relations between brussels. it is a sharp turn around for ukraine's aspirations to sign the e.u.'s association deal next week in vilnius now the ukrainian government says that it has suspended all preparations for signing this document during the eastern partnership summit mostly as the statement from the government says to nullify any potential economic threats to ukrainian economy if this association deal is to be signed basically this means that ukrainian government believes that the ukrainian economy is simply not ready for signing this association deal the first vice prime minister of the government going to boycott the former energy minister specified that government is looking to

create a three way commission consisting of ukraine russia and the european union to understand the mechanism of how the ukrainian called economy should work should it eventually sign the association deal this turnaround comes after numerous warnings by experts that ukrainian economy would simply not handle going into the european association at the moment because most of its machinery and heavy industry would have simply collapsed simply for the fact that the korean factories are employing different standards than to the european union and they had to be more denies completely which could have cost more than one hundred billion dollars so the ukraine now takes a break to think it over to think how it could eventually nullify the threats and risks to its economy. well for more on why ukraine and the e.u. need or may not need each other let's talk to european asset manager erich krauss erica and unexpected move from ukraine that was so close when they decide in this deal so why did they stop so quickly now that i was

a bit surprised myself i was quite pessimistic on the outcome that is i thought they would sign with europe because the problem is everybody talks about what you create needs and doesn't need to do but the issue is that you got a government which is representing the interests of the certain economic groups and they are looking to survive but. the problem is that ukraine is in dire economic straits ukraine is that say three to six months from these are. just downgraded by moody's again and kept on negative rate watch which meant that they were soon going to be in in the in the sea they cannot raise money in the markets they're running a deficit they're having a lot of trouble keeping the parents of stable so the problem is the european union offers a lot of words offers a lot of you know lots of thousands millions of pages of documentation

where they don't offer is what new ukraine deeds and that's money. and just ok and that money though clearly here's a country that is virtually bankrupt surely the european union doesn't want to start bailing out a new member would be crazy for the for ukraine to join and that wouldn't that's absolutely the point. the thing is that ukraine is not vital to the east it's part of a geopolitical chess game. and they'd like to take that piece but they're not going to spend a lot of money or they can't they've got portugal they've got greece pretty soon they've got france and they've got to these are their core interests ukraine is core russian ship begins in ukraine a thousand years ago. is a vital part of the eastern european russian russian speaking states

and russia has the means it's and the willingness to provide real support clinton's aides started of course for the gas price or eric can ukraine then create a relationship where it can keep both sides happy if other doesn't. but i think its main focus is going to have is going to be russia there is an obvious complementarity camp interrogate. opening the ukrainian borders to the e.u. would be suicide because as the as was said earlier in the program their export capacity is simply not up to european standards as the europeans import would flood him in wiped out what remains of ukrainian industry now if at the same time ukraine could no longer export to russia it would be a basket case but nevertheless when there be many ukrainians very disappointed about this they see the e.u. as maybe some sort of salvation it with a rush huge benefits for ukrainians on that just briefly. but i would say that

ukraine is two countries and the western ukrainians are go. disappointed because they see themselves as basically polish that's the problem ukraine and the other half of ukrainians are russian you've got two countries trying to coexist within one g. or plead with the one national states and it's going to be complicated eric thank you very much for thoughts great to talk to you live here on r.t. erich krauss thank you it's well ukraine's position has boosted i should say the opposition has boosted the parliament's decision to reject an agreement allowing convicts to get medical treatment abroad and that's a key requirement to a potential e.u. trade deal and that opposition turn even more angry when the government said the talks on that deal was scrapped will discuss the repercussions ukraine is now facing with r t s i have across the. i think young a covert on the one hand is playing political political hardball he's looking at a very cruel political reality he's looking for clarity on compensation for losses

that ukraine will encourage that ukraine industry will incur upon entering into some kind of free market relationship with the european union this in particular in relation to gas prices on the one hand and the impact of products and how competitive or competitive ukraine will be incidentally if we're to enter into a relationship with the european union like that that's on the one hand on the other hand which is as a legacy we all know that young was moscow's guy and is much closer to moscow than he is to brussels and i think medvedev made it very clearly on a coach that he wouldn't be allowed to have a foot in both camps and you know russia would would take certain positions and adopt certain positions towards ukraine were they to get into bed with get into bed with brussels what about the i.m.f. he's in effect told them where to go to the i.m.f. has made demands on coverage that he sees as politically untenable they've asked

him to raise utility prices light gas electricity water by forty percent in ukraine that's politically untenable for any prime minister to to do on the other hand the i.m.f. approached the new coach with loan conditions for the next tranche of cash that they would like to offer ukraine and he's looked at the deal said absolutely no way not under those can not on the conditions that your bring to me what about the ukrainian people themselves what do they make of being part of the e.u. is it really what they want is it perhaps that mythical city where the streets are paved with gold sure sure but i think again we need to remember that ukraine has has two distinct cultural elements to it on the east in the west and i think people on the west and western ukraine look more closely to the european union and in east ukraine to look towards moscow but having said that i think if you do what's you're not seeing reported in the western press quite a bit is that the millions of ukrainians who emigrated legally and illegally to the european union and wash dishes and work there for years in all sorts of. odds are now finding it more difficult than ever to get to work to keep work and to send

cash back home and i think what you're seeing in ukraine is a realisation that in fact in europe the streets aren't really paved with gold. u.s. troops may remain immune to afghan laws and still be carrying out military operations after their combat mission ends in twenty fourteen that's what a draft security deal suggests the afghan president said he wants it to be signed after the elections despite admitting there is little trust between him and washington the loya jirgah council of elders has started debating the draft and according to the agreement up to sixteen thousand u.s. soldiers will stay for ten more years and possibly beyond will be playing a support role for afghan forces while still being able to carry out military operations against al qaeda and its affiliates and also includes afghan homes under exceptional circumstances and that's an issue which has been extremely difficult for afghans and here's another stumbling block the deal gives american forces immunity to afghan law placing them solidly under u.s. military jurisdiction solutions or he's

a candidate in the upcoming afghan presidential election says the government is not considering the will of the people i think the afghan president was trying to use this as a personal game the people of afghanistan. are others who are involved in this country we're tired of or we're tired of bickering and we're also tired of being playing politics with the lives of people of afghanistan on one hand the president wants to portray himself as a patriot on the other hand he's not able to even take care of corruption a rule of bringing rule of law and good governance that's what the people are suffering from he's trying to distract the people of afghanistan from what he hasn't been able to do to for this country. meanwhile it's claimed washington has paid more than two hundred fifty million dollars to middle eastern companies which are funding terror groups in afghanistan and that's what an internal u.s. government report has revealed he's going to investigate. the u.s.

special inspector general for ganesan reconstruction found out that the pentagon has hired forty three companies with suspected ties to terrorist networks the data come from the pentagon's own classified investigative reports and commerce department list of terror connected companies now the list of these forty three companies including a road construction firm presumably owned by a leader of the connie network the network was blamed for an attack on the u.s. embassy in kabul that killed sixteen people two years ago the u.s. army has carried out a classified investigation and said there was evidence of a direct role of both the company and its owners in the facilitation and operation of the hakani network and that approximately. from one to two million dollars per month close to the network to finance its activities the inspector general said i've seen the information quote and it made my hair stand on and he said well not just his united states government subsidizing the taliban al qaeda

network those groups that are trying to shoot and kill our soldiers from these spectra general members of congress have heard about billions of dollars simply wasted in of ghana's that now they have evidence suggesting that u.s. taxpayer money. bruce are suspected terrorists the same networks that the u.s. is fighting despite these findings the pentagon has resisted permanently blocking the companies from getting more u.s. contracts because his lawyers say they can i use the evidence against these companies because the evidence is classified a special inspector general for reconstruction pointed out what he called the absurdity of it he said we can probably attack them via drone on monday and will issue them a contract on tuesday in washington i'm going to check out our team. when i spoke to retired u.s. air force lieutenant colonel karen cattell skin she says the one key part of the

deal the loya jirga council will never agree to. i think that they won't approve it as written number one and i also don't think the parliament which also must approve the deal will approve it as written and of course remember from iraq that was the sticking point in iraq jurisdiction over abuses in criminal acts conducted by american soldiers in the country itself so that's a huge problem it's a it's a sovereignty it's a clear sovereignty issue and it does galvanize people so i don't believe that the loya jirga or the parliament later will approve that aspect of the life here in moscow within twenty four hours a day coming up this hour first steps to freedom some of the failed greenpeace activists so you reunited with their loved ones while the destiny for the rest of the optics. still hangs in the balance a special report on the oil platform storming case just ahead. the first e.u.

states are on their way to launching the drone program that's off the leading members of the bloc signed an agreement to invest in new unmanned aircraft technology plans are launching activists who say it's difficult to determine whether the drones would be used only for peaceful purposes or to this report. well the group has been dubbed drone club and their intention is to develop a new generation of unmanned aircraft over the next ten years now the reason that they're doing it this is that they believe they're being left behind when it comes to drone technology by countries like the united states and israel and currently both britain and france do operate drones they use the american built to report drone interesting lee enough though germany has said that they are opposed to the use of any kind of weaponized drones and the european defense agency has being quick to point out the known weaponized uses for drone technology however the use of drones particularly by the united states in countries like pakistan and yemen

and the widespread civilian casualties that are being caused well that's left drone technology as a very emotive issue and here in germany and see war activists on topic about the decision to develop them here are very very concerned i think that the very nice phrasing that they've tried to say it's just for to control human trafficking over that mediterranean airspace and so forth for surveillance purposes i don't see them necessarily helping migrants coming from africa from that because it didn't help just to save any of those people so there is no control about these things they can see it being used for humanitarian purposes but actually they could be used for lethal purposes well this comes after a recent u.n. report that was somewhat damning of drone technology in fact referred to them as being a danger to global security and that by using these type of weapons it encouraged more nations to try and acquire them. a mass exodus is bringing christianity in the

middle east to the verge of extinction they continued bloodshed in countries like syria and iraq is causing christians to flee their homes or face sectarian violence the details on this story coming our way along with others in just a few minutes. we

speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you. a little turn to angola's story. here. the spanish find out more visit. christians in the middle east are facing increasing sectarian violence with the civil war in syria and instability in egypt and iraq forcing them to flee their homes u.k.'s minister for faith has called on western governments this week to protect christianity from becoming extinct in the countries where a mass exodus is taking place. reforms. for many christians in the middle east the

arab spring has been wintry at best the international society for human life says that for an alternative week five acts of religious discrimination in the world today are perpetrated and carried out against christians nowhere is this more kinky felt than in the middle east and north africa if you look at syria for example we tend to say of the total population is christian a third of them have already fled from the civil war that started two years ago and that number continues to grow off to the murder of father best in years nasa last june two thousand and twelve the threats and the persecution of christians escalated so much so that many today say the night me facing the questions of syria is the same night me that the questions everyone has been living under since the invasion in two thousand and three. a homo i believe it is all systematic and planned foreseen christians to leave in iraq for

instance less than two hundred thousand christians remain we do have concerns we do hope we can stick to our land syria which is the cradle of christianity we also hope that the pope and heads of christian denominations shall call for denouncing violence and adopting dialogue in all this to the see the question town outside damascus was attacked by rebels tens of soldiers were killed and many residents fled it's still not clear how many of them have not returned to the village and where in syria they have been displaced only i visited the town of homes where syrian soldiers took me to the frontline and showed me the damage the rebels had carried out against a local church one hundred this is the church unfortunately it was not like that before look at this destruction in mass and from here the explosions were coming down on people praying of course people started crying out for help from us but who

. the priest was raised here and they were captured here in the church elsewhere in egypt to be muslim brotherhood supporters have blamed christians for the armies of the president mohamed morsy more than eight hundred christian sites were attacked and some fifty two churches razed to the ground one in iraq after the american invasion back in two thousand and three half of the iraqi christian population. middle eastern countries and americans think tank the pew poll says that christians face harassment and oppression in one hundred and fifty nine countries maybe three . countries on the face of be a point to see on television. we have plenty of stories for on our website right now including the extraordinary sight of a brand new island off the coast of japan. it's created a mask it's one of. the smoke billowing into the air

a bird's eye view video just a click away. of the world's leading oil producers is. drilling activity the spot public this time head to our web site and find out what the british have to pay for those critical messages on the company's facebook page. several more greenpeace activists have just been granted bail by court in bringing the total number to twenty six eleven have already walked free. and the others will too once the bail money is posted. reports now from the city the saga over the greenpeace activists detained for their protest against arctic oil drilling does continue new developments thursday as russia's president vladimir putin weighed in again on the issue reiterating his position that he actually praised the greenpeace

group's goal. which he called noble but he condemned the environmental group for its tactics on the block. when the platform was being stormed it created an emergency situation this could have pledged not one mistake by operators that. they should not have been distracted from their work. can be accomplished by any means but at the same time the state should be leading the un secretary-general meanwhile ban ki-moon also spoke out on thursday he urged russia for more leniency towards the activist saying that environmentalists also have a key role to play in society now all of this comes as the courts here in st petersburg continue to grant bail to activists as you had mentioned six more received a bail were released on bail on thursday just two to bring our viewers up to date thirty of course had been arrested back in september when the greenpeace activists stormed the gazprom oil rig out in the arctic the russian security forces later

stormed their ship the arctic sunrise arresting all thirty those continue to be released a toll now on bail at twenty six people and of course on friday the courts here in st petersburg will continue to hear the bail hearing so the story does still continue there. the e.u. is considering a generalized guidance to fracking the controversial technology which has been raising major concerns among environmental experts and activists across the globe let's take a closer look now at the practice and its risks well the method involves breaking up rock at least one kilometer below ground opponents say there could be grave environmental consequences warning the use of explosives in chemicals contaminates water supplies pollutes both the ground and the air but advocates of the technique say it will help to solve the energy crisis and create more jobs e.u. members are deeply divided on the issue while energy giants are pushing for widespread exploration and he's probably boyd has been following the resistance of

europeans to fracking in their countries. a number of european countries have had large scale anti fracking protests take place recently as sort of the prospect of more drilling has been rolled out across europe but one of the largest anti fracking stories to take place over recent months happened in accra mania where locals actually formed a human chain around an area where u.s. oil giant chevron was given the green light by the remaining in government to begin exploratory drilling now i travelled there to cover the story and i spoke to a lot of the locals there and they are all most of them farmers they live off the face of the land and for them they were genuinely frightened by the prospect of their groundwater being contaminated their food not being safe to eat they were talking to me about having to safeguard the health for their children and they see

it as government siding with large corporations and not protecting the interests of their citizens who are talking about genuine risks that they see from this technology fracking has been associated with air pollution water contamination water depletion earthquakes and of course climate change oil and gas companies have spent billions of dollars really selling a story about how fracking is safe and the reality is quite different i think that something that anti fracking campaign is an protesters in the us and in europe are no doubt reassured by is that large scale protests and citizens' opposition to this technology really does work for example france has just held a ban against fracking because of the environmental risks involved. well news with me in just about half an hour from now in the meantime max kaiser is off the leash

again getting his teeth into the bitcoin boom and china's big ambitions that's right after the short break. but you know that these volatility of bitcoin is what makes some people extremely excited about these. new digital currency avdotya people extremely wary of bitcoin and that's one of the reasons why i caution people this is a very high risk environment and it's really not ready yet for for your average everyday investor to trust their savings to it and in any way anybody who puts money into the system now should expect that they could lose all of it.

will go to the future. this means show will in the fall the technology keeping the most cool metro rolling the modeling in surveyed said makes me weighs in the oil industry under dream team of robots who places too dangerous for humans. to need unfold the latest news and innovation is here and said no. we've got the future covered. if you. need the opportunity. to start to construct your current. no longer be bit gives don't want to be gangstas it a lot of. joy deal with little ones that will go turn a kid came be we can see. you just me because i was right probably the hood. or some very very wrong clue.

but i said. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young. welcome to the kaiser report imax kaiser the bitcoin barbarians are at the gate nipping at the feet of the command control dollar reservists taunting the bread and circus pushing political clown tyrants mocking the corrupt regulators and party officials who hate any payment system which they can chop up like a lot of cook like a credit card and despise any currency through which they can snort that line of coke yes the big calling barbarians are here and the bar for us relic loving hordes

are letting them through the gates because all the great. cities are our lever is obama is a friggin schmuck. stacey stacey stacey yes the empire scrambling and it's lashing out and people are sick of it people are sick of being taxed to death they're sick of being spied on they're sick of being stolen from by caesar who's desperate and hungry and angry that he's losing his power he's an old man and he's lashing out at everybody and bitcoin is rising dramatically as people find a way to get live outside of that system but we're going to start with that crumbling empire of cesar's tweet from james mcintosh he says cia is building data base from western union and others on money transfer all over the world no privacy left yet there's a direct correlation between the stunning revelation.