the spanish. visit. the russian president. some of the most pressing questions from local foreign journalists international will bring you live coverage of. that will ultimately sum up all the country's political. of. the u.k. government accused of putting pride in ideology before its people as the country refuses a helping hand from the e.u. to feed the poor and needy. abuse torture executions syria. washington's attempt to make friends with radicals that have risen to.

the headlines live. welcome to it more than a thousand journalists are ready to grill the russian president on policy decisions that mocked this year vladimir putin will begin his traditional annual news conference any moment now those are live pictures for you just to the side of me and while we're waiting to cross live let's have a chat with. a very quick preview here on the program the russian president opening himself up to a thousand journalists domestic and international expectations for today. these news conferences have become some sort of a tradition for the president he has been holding there for quite a while now at the end of each year another thing we've gotten used to is their extended to last year's conference lasted around four hours expected that the president would. it was short this time either among the hottest topics that we're

expecting to be discussed is the upcoming amnesty in russia which should affect up to twenty five thousand people ukraine with the latest developments there concerning protests and the association agreement to the e.u. ends the fifteen billion dollars moscow is giving to hear also diplomatic breakthroughs like the syrian chemical arms deal and to the breakthrough on the iranian nuclear program relations with washington russia's economy edward snowden is another thing which happened this year as well definitely some journalist is going to ask about his whereabouts and his well being and we are really expecting a whole lot of questions on a huge variety of topics and silver thirteen hundred journalists have registered for this event also usually not everyone asks serious questions giving the president the opportunity to show his human side the conference is set to start at any moment now we will be bringing it wife and i'll be bringing you details as it

goes on and wrap it up throughout the day. is going to thanks very much for that. as i said and as you go to was saying we are standing by for the russian president's live conference where he will do q. and a with a thousand journalists both from russia and around the world stand by for that will cross live to it in just a moment for now though here on our international britain has ditched the e.u.'s help to feed the poor despite half a million citizens including children turning to charities this year to stave off hunger and the opposition's criticize the government for gossiping with pride and ignoring the problem laura smith reports. just a stone's throw from the seat of government in westminster is something that's becoming a more and more common sight in the u.k. this building's used as a food bank handing out emergency supplies to families so poor they can't afford to eat as the cost of living rises the number of people turning to food banks

increases with its funding tighter all the time but nevertheless the government has turned down a potential twenty two million pounds in funding for food aid why because the money comes from the european union very britain we've caught i government with a very anti european ideology appears to be more keen to. warn europe to get credit for something than to get money which can how fate hungry people are if you are starving you need some food and you cry to die and this government's refusal to cry in the parish is literally taking food out to the merits of the hungry the european aid for the most deprived fund amounts to two and a half billion pounds but the position britain's taken means the country will receive just two point nine million and instead of using that for food aid as intended it's expected the government will spend it on helping unemployed people

find work all well and good to say critics but there are people who need survival basics now and this money is meant for them my colleague polly boyko has been to meet one of the unlucky many. on. google. i was having to go to somebody else to try and help me so. i'm very sick on top of diabetes he has a heart condition and emphysema as part of the benefits shake up andrew's disability living allowance was taken away because the government deemed him fit to walk living on his partner's wage alone has pushed their budget over the brink over the past eighteen months they've had to turn to their local food bank six times it's humiliating at first but having to go through. to

somebody else. to say please can you help me and need some food the stereotype of who goes hungry is changing rising inflation and energy prices coupled with stagnant wages means that incomes in many working households kaante even cover the essentials this is a food bank that andrew had to turn to our three told his local doctor that he couldn't afford to eat now it says here that hunger isn't just a third world problem and the figures confirm it this year between the months of april and december half a million people had to turn to food banks for emergency supplies that's almost double the figure from last year this winter the british red cross started collecting food aid to help the u.k.'s hungry for the first time since the second world war as a humanitarian organization we were more or more concerned about people suffering from food poverty with and also says that we were seeing more and more people

presenting with issues around food and knocking off too late we have made cuts too deep too far and they are now having very very serious social consequences but at the moment things show every side of continuing to get worse not getting better in time we get a tour of andrew's local food bank we see volunteers delivering bags as well as clients turning up for emergency supplies when asked not to film the customers because of their distressing circumstances there is a sense that if feels like he's starting to move back to. off to war situation where there is a big divide coming in those that have. more and those that don't have much less food banks used to serve a tiny minority there's now one in every area the mainstream and so many of those struggling to make ends meet the only lifeline left is charity where summarising

still fall. of the mountain. london. making money from those in need is a scheme adopted across the atlantic skies are something that he knows all about. workplace is gaining popularity sonic drive and restaurants around phoenix have added a new item to their menu of workplace benefits short term high fee payday lending the high interest landing four thousand five thousand percent loans this is the growth area for banks they destroy the economy because of the chrome pleat crash and money velocity due to the complete absence of responsible central banking i once again poor the people up there to learn their song that is becoming popular now joe. joe.

you're. an american you know your accounts to do should show that you know their slaves. it's all the international live from moscow the russian president vladimir putin has approached the podium now for his annual question and answer session with the media let's bring you this live coverage and listen in impression those who have not planted with you since last year you know you remember as how we were with you last year during the press conference and. in the twinkling of an eye the past. was a really tough year we've worked very hard and it was and of course you are well aware of the main indicators. and of course of the economic indicators first and foremost but. anyway i have

a recent date i will give them to you and then we'll move on. to your questions to the free for all to free discussion. to start with. the g.d.p. growth. has. one point four but so i expect it will be one point five by the end of the year for inflation six point one percent below than last year we had six point six but overall it's good. for agriculture output index six point eight percent. they were cultural workers have helped us. to move the economy forward because last year we had minus five percent now we have plus eight.

meets the difficulty is in the industry in the production agriculture has been shining. so we have twelve point eight percent that's for housing we had. what we had last year six point six. and we had a five point five percent increase in real wages which adjusted to inflation you. asked for real disposable incomes. in your two thousand and eleven we had cereal point five last year was four point six and this year it's three point six. as for the retirement. pay. we had nine thousand seven hundred ninety last year now it's ten thousand seven hundred forty

two roubles we have a trade surplus. significant traits of last. one. one hundred forty six point eight billion dollars so these are the overall figures. but i would now. i'd like to ask mr peskov for my press secretary to. start the discussion to start the q. and a. i'm reading to all of you again we start our q. and a session. and i'd like to give the floor at seeing the journalist from the kremlin pool they have been working hard. they've followed the president in all of

these trips. of course you need to please those who help us alexander to the g. of. a from the talking magazine mr putin. will previously you said that it's enough to subsidize the korean economy so what is the reason for such a generous aid to ukraine right now. to get spanked any payback from them what kind of economic or political guaranteed you have. provided for us to offer such assistance and will ukraine join the customs union you. were seen a post which said ukraine. ok please ask your question i guess it's going to be roughly the same and i'll try to respond to both your questions.

you know with blue cross from the ukrainian agency. thank you for starting with ukraine where are you i didn't start with ukraine you start it. your kremlin journalist raised this issue so here's what i'd like to clarify the world for three years you've been suppressing. ukraine know with high prices for garrett's for natural gas and now you for come up within discount does it mean that previously the prize for natural gas was unfair for the. brother for your neighbor and brotherly ukraine. so how do we move forward. with. these fifteen billion. did you paid

for ukraine to say no to you v european integration and how much more. serious some serious talking right now how much do you need. how much do you want to pay so that ukraine looks away from europe well think you for the refreshing questions. so i'll start to reply to. the journalists who asked the first question yes basically this is the same question so why did we decide to take such a decision on providing financial assistance on a discount on natural. gas prices so without any irony. we often use. expressions. for nation fraternal country and

we see that ukraine is in an economic social and political situation. the situation in which. was due to a number of reasons but this is an objective assessment of it and if we really believe that this is our fraternal nation. and we need to. use the same attitude we need to support ukraine in this situation this is the main reason i show you why we took these decisions. but. we're also worked very closely with the previous government of ukraine headed by mrs. by mrs to machine code and it was her government this signed the. contract and i still believe. that

it's there i cannot make grounds for these prizes. and. the experience we've had we are the european partners the formula for natural gas prices the same as for our european partners so no one was trying to suppress ukraine or. put some pressure on it. and from the very beginning if you want to be independent you have to wave for that and you have to comply with the rules and regulations which are widely adopted in the european union and that was the rules and regulations. on which the contract for natural gas relied on it so why do we offer a financial aid to ukraine right now well when i talked about subsidy it's ok you

can do it but not at our expense. and that i referred to that we're talking about. you know there's no. disputes. third party said countries shouldn't address us asking to lower prices for natural gas for ukraine. if they want to help them please their welcome. we've taken these decisions who have some challenges in the queen economy are due to a number of. which arose due to number of reasons i would don't want to analyze them and we do have some domestic reasons for the you some difficulties in the economy and i talked about that in the annual address of the federal assembly. but there are also some external difficulty yes we see that the external markets for ukrainian experts are flat out ukraine sells roughly the same number of

products to the european union and to russia roughly worth seventeen billion u.s. dollars but the structure of these products is different out of seven seventeen billion products that ukraine sells to russia machinery and equipment accounts for seven billion only two. yeah well if you take talking of europe it's five billion that cultural products. so how much your ass let's you know i could tell you if you use your brains. anything would become obvious. what i mean we have nothing against ukraine's association with europe starts we'll have to protect our economy because if we open the door was within the free trade

zone agreement. would not be. so. if. ukraine is open and opens its borders to the european goods it means that the. all of the items of machinery will. will be exported to russia. but the cultural products. the share of agricultural products will not grow. yes in the ukrainian experts you know why because the you has a lot of limits in poor it's a cue to something to sanitary reasons they know how to do it. while the documents that there were supposed to initial had no preferences for ukrainian.

produces. if you talk to the farmers in germany or france or portugal. and just tell them they would have to slow down their output ok there were agreed to that and they will protest and again there were those no money mentioned in those agreements. so under these conditions. we've decided to take action with. regarding the fraternal relationship with the cranial people. and that's in the interest of the crimean people and also we were. guided by programmatic reasons it's not the first time. gasper on what has twice signed some attachments to the

contract to postpone payments first so there was a. postponement. and then to november it's been done again we realize there are some difficulties. we in terms of payments so why should we. kill. partner no we won't do that. we hope that we'll be able to find some long term arrangement that will allow us to keep this prize to. keep in our corporation a lot of years ago when mr kuchma was president it we proposed using the pipeline he craning pipeline system and a joint venture would still be under the ownership of ukraine we propose there to

set up a corporation that would include ukrainian russian and european partners everyone said yes but it was still a failure. but now we've. launched the north stream pipeline. and it's the price for the. pipeline system of ukraine is going down due to that the same is happening in the production sector which. we used to buy almost all the helicopter engines for the armed forces in ukraine. and we've proposed different ways of cooperation we were unable to come to an agreement so was there. now we are building a second plant near st petersburg for the production of helicopter and these are

next generation engines so where will you crane manufacturers sell their products will they sell them to. europe i doubt that maybe that's possible but this is very challenging. i also referred to the structure of their exports and i mentioned seventeen billion and seven billion accounted for machinery and equipment. and as for europe they sell agricultural products. that's five billion but if they accept the standards of europe they would be able to sell anything to russia just read the papers. well they'll be just an agricultural. appendage so. that appendages could be

different but i want it so they have no preferences in selling their agricultural products to the european market i'm saying that it's these concerns that matter most to the ukrainian government to the kremlin leadership. you can't just hope to become to reach a level like that in europe you can't just expect that to happen of its own accord you can move on to these standards you can move to these economic rules they're good but it takes a lot of time and investment you need the cash and it's not just fifteen billion you need hundreds of billions. yeah. that's what's needed to upgrade all of the facilities fifteen billion is just to support the budget so that you can pay salaries pensions and different benefits.

but this is also very we were driven by pragmatic reasons we support the crania nation. these are the fans of the national welfare firm not one of our reserve funds. yet. and our government has one hundred seventy five billion us dollars ever also for five point five billion in gold reserves gold and currency. five hundred fifteen billion in gold and currency reserves so we will get a five percent a coupon yield. and those bonds so we'll be floated on the irish exchange. and b. to be capital will be the manager of those.

so. indeed about range minutes but has nothing to do with the euro my darn with all it's happening on i mean those protests protests we just see that ukraine isn't tough situation and we need to support it and we have the resources for that and we'll going to use them. so given these special relationship crane and. willing to maintain our corporation we decided to take those steps and the export that i just mention of equipment then machinery this is the legacy of the corporation which existed in the soviet union there are a lot of. components of it but there are a great canal head of advantage that we need to leverage and to develop further and

we can do it for the benefit of the ukrainian and the russian economy. so. ultimately the ukrainian economists in experts need to calculate and take the pragmatic decision whether they want to go one way or another we don't insist on anything we don't pressure them but these fifteen billion was i said that's the money that we gonna get back and we're going to get five percent. and they're going to be playing the irish exchange. and that's all going to be. accordance with the u.k. law or. so. but that's kind of support for their. friends as for the natural gas discount well we can either.

extensive this discount. or eventually as i hold we'll be able to reach some long term arrangement i think you're. going to. let us continue and live a little bit from the central city sector here to the floor to the interfax kindly now. interfax agency i have a financial question on russia recently we have seeing at quite a number of licenses i recalled by the central bank from a number of large banks and each time this had to do with systematic violation of the law by these banks so i was wondering why this kind of purge so to speak was so. ultimately so. sad and. doesn't this feel that these banks may have had some kind of administrator first

source why did they violate the law previously and it was only found out later. and what if the central bank will not be able to ban. the licenses from other banks because. you just won't be able to pay. to arrange the payments on insurance payments and the depositions you have almost sounds heard your own questions it's not the first time that they say that licenses are banned for financial institutions that are virtually defunct they say serious other decisions are actually man's to make the russian financial system more healthy and i don't think i have to comment any more on this it's clear that dysfunctional financial institution.