president putin says he is ready to sign a pardon for russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky who spent more than a decade behind bars for embezzlement and tax evasion. amnesty international says hardline syrian rebels have established a new form of tyranny and forcing a reign of terror with secret prisons where children as young as eight allegedly tortured. and pride and prejudice london rejects an offer to fund a food banks despite hundreds of thousands of people in britain going hungry.

for most of the center here in moscow which just turned ten pm this is r.t. international president vladimir putin says he will sign a motion to pardon the jailed russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky the businessman who spent more than ten years behind bars for embezzlement has reportedly already filed a petition to be pardoned pursuit of reports. well the president was hosting a media conference which lasted over four hours but the biggest news came after it's finished he was surrounded by journalists and someone asked the question about me and suddenly the president said that the former had asked him to be released and he says the man is already spent over ten years behind bars and he is ready to sign all the necessary papers to wear them free if you don't know who the kospi recently wrote a petition asking me to pardon him he spent more than ten years in prison this is

a serious punishment he cites humanitarian reasons saying his mother is sick and i believe taking jew account of all the circumstances it's possible to take a respective decision and in the near future i will sign a decree to pardon him artie's managed to reach. the mother by form listen to what she had to say rather really with. the news came absolutely out of the blue last time i spoke with him was back in august and he didn't show any intention of filing a petition i totally support any decision of his he needs to be said for his children and even grandchildren grew up without him. because of course he used to be among the wealthiest people in the world and among the most influential in russia until he was arrested back in two thousand and three charged and found guilty of fraud and then in a second case was found guilty of money laundering and in that in this latest announcement from the president what we did with applause by human rights groups

would reportedly came as a complete surprise to us and even his family members. and their i sorta range of opinion about whether putin did the right thing or not. people are debating whether or not they expected this especially on social networks for me personally i've been covering russia for the last eight years i was shocked first we should say that this is probably a p.r. attempt at the putin administration head of the olympics to gender some good press coverage some goodwill towards russia but also i think to deflect a little bit of the tension and anger away from the e.u. in the united states over their recent losing the bidding war over the ukraine with russia i just want to be the devil's advocate and say even if this was a p.r. stunt ahead of the olympics what's wrong with that like the olympics in itself is

essentially why do countries want the olympics they want the investment they want to improve their country why does it have to be a bad thing you know i think it can be seen as a clever move and i think this can be seen as a magnanimous gesture it will at the very least reduce the talking point criticisms that can be directed against russia it's a sign of weakness as the west will interpret it. first you have to understand the reason for the propaganda campaign on the gay rights issue the holocaust. the rioters and so forth these are attempts to isolate russia her while at the same time it justifies the sort of new cold war with the missile defense in poland czech republic turkey etc i disagree i think that the release of mr hodder will be viewed positively in the west i mean the strains of anti putin nineteen russian propaganda you know the l b l g b t rights issue is one this completely separate from mr holder. ok ok well what i say let me just. have

a way these people become celebrity prisoners have a navy that well known people in the west and this is a great gesture of surprise from putin but is it is it actually a genuine change in direction for the country or this. no i don't think this is any genuine change for the country if we're talking about a move away from law and justice we roast russian citizens in both of these cases feel that their crime and their punishment was well deserved and i think that this could create a little bit of domestic backlash because the russian people will question why they haven't. served out there for sentence but i have to agree that i do not think that this will be received positively in the west i think that nothing the russian the putin administration does can please. the west this point. when i say that so far in london it hasn't quelled the anti russian side to men in fact

people after this announcement and you can debate it until the end of time whether it was expected or not a lot of the western journalists found the most interesting thing that putin talked for too long today even despite this enormous news whether or not you expected it or not and i think putin is in a very very difficult position because it's a lose lose position if he didn't do this he would be criticized if he did this criticize he said today he envied obama it's just for that reason well investors are expressing their opinion on the presidential pardon through the markets being tells us now what is it is that they are so happy about what khodorkovsky might get up to once he is. the my sigs index going to over one percent it means that the index is now on its longest winning streak since september got telecommunications financials oil and gas stocks all right using by one point three percent on average in international investors have been calling for more transparency in this is

another stage inclusions campaign to make russia a more desirable place to come and invest at least house the idea of twenty thirty and it's been the year to fight corruption with tons of asian also featuring putin's target is now the proof is in the numbers our capital outflow a constant battle for the russian economy which has been stalling out with the rest of the globe of course by demonstrating that russia is becoming more transparent this is a way a chance of more money being being spent here most importantly tempted transfers to foreign accounts now let's talk about what is next for once the richest man in russia now one would presume that despite his company you getting auctioned off due to tax fraud and or investment crimes he still some of his billions somewhere but where that is the question could he have a bank account in the states where a lot of his family are perhaps somewhere more exotic attacks apart eyes are we don't know are his billionaire days over was all his money invested in ucas is gone

now of the ten years in prison will he be eager to start investing in weeknight in his business career or will he want to retire leave russia and spend the rest of the days with his family there is no forget when he was at the helm russia was a different country and chances are he has no power or friends left. if you could have been there would just remind you how mikhail khodorkovsky ended up where he is now let's have a look at the background to all of this what in february of ninety seven he became chairman and c.e.o. of the course oil company's one of the world's largest state all companies back then producing a fifth of russia's oil well by september two thousand and three he was the wealthiest russian and one of the richest men in the world and it was that that time he was arrested on charges of fraud linked to the privatization of a formerly state owned mining and fertilizer company is found guilty in may two thousand and five and sentenced to nine years later that year an appeal reduces sentence by year a second case against him began in december two thousand and six on charges of

embezzling three hundred fifty million tonnes of oil he was found guilty in december two thousand and ten and sentenced to fourteen years but the court ruled that the time already spent behind bars should be included well the surprising announcement came out of putin faced a tough q. and a session lasting well over four hours the subjects journalists push to morning including developments in ukraine the newly adopted and the steep for prisoners here in russia as well as the strained ties between moscow and washington. told us about the president's responses while the media conference itself was attended by over thirteen hundred journalists and of course they discussed a huge variety of topics that edward snowden was. the former n.s.a. contractor of all leaked scores of controversial documents on u.s. surveillance programs across the world he received temporary asylum in russia as exact whereabouts are still unknown due to security reasons. but we are now after snowden's leaks and america was shocked to learn how telephone had been wiretapped

. she's absolutely fine so don't worry. what are russia's relations with the u.s. after the leaks. ok. you want to know how my feel about mr obama after snowden's leaks i feel jealous i feel jealous because he can do these things and get off scot free still there is nothing to be happy about but on the other hand there's no reason to be frustrated however tough the criticism against the us may be all these measures have always been aimed at tackling terrorism but there must be some clear rules and certain agreements including those of ethics ukraine was another issue discussed the country's been going through a rough time in the past few weeks with the protest taking place warthe for and against moving closer with the e.u. moscow is giving a fifteen billion dollars loan and according to the president that is being done primarily to help the country called the severe economic problems it's also

experiencing and why they want to put an added he doesn't think that integration with the e.u. is the core of the current wave of protests. those who are pushing forward the idea of signing an association agreement with the european union these people would govern in ukraine not so long ago. was a foreign minister also headed the parliament to machinegun is a former prime minister you schenker was ukraine's president why didn't they sign these papers when they were in power no one was standing in their way they could have gone ahead and sign them and there'd be no problem today i have legitimate downs that the current protests are about moving closer to the e.u. it's an internal political struggle and signing or not signing this document is just a pretext. now another reason why news about that of course such a surprise is because the amnesty that their authority is currently are working on and that should affect up to twenty five thousand people that was discussed and for

the first time during all these years no one actually asked a question about us either during the actual conference themself but they did talk about. benefit from the upcoming the end of the so called arctic thirty peace activists who were arrested in the russian water and are being charged with what we're going to should expect seeing these charges all of these charges lifted against them and the president did comment on the organization itself. their ship it entered our exclusive economic zone was not responding and they tried to scale the platform after an attempt to stop the second boat started ramming our border guards is that a civil discussion about protecting the environment it's just self p.r. or an attempt at blackmail racketeering or someone's order to disturb our work on developing resources what happened should serve as a lesson and unite us along with greenpeace in joint efforts to minimize

environmental risks instead of just making a fuss. the president also spoke about recent diplomatic breakthroughs like the one with the syrian chemical weapons arms deal and the breakthrough or would be iranian nuclear program and also spoke about the need to protect traditional values saying that can serve being conservative isn't it about keeping society from moving forward but it's more about preventing it from rolling back when it comes to vladimir putin's comments on ukraine brian becker director of the antiwar answer coalition i spoke to a little earlier he believes the battle to win favor is well underway. i think the russian government is well aware that the united states and the nato powers are attempting to incorporate ukraine as they have with most of the former soviet republics into a western or u.s. dominated sphere of influence there's a geo strategic tussle over who will have dominance or influence in these important countries. president putin said it was an act of brotherly support for

a brotherly nation perhaps but we do know that in fact that there's a major contention between the west and russia over where ukraine will land and i think that's really the sub the sub story the context the back story for what's going on here what you want the international line from moscow more news coming away after a break. what defines a country's success. baselessly years of economic growth. for a factual standard of living.

dramas that can be ignored. stories others through a few posts in those. places changing the world right next. to the picture of today's. edition from a stupid. joke to. children as young as eight years old are being held and tortured across a network of secret is the most prisons in syria that's according to shocking new reports that the jails are operated by one of the fiercest rebel groups the islamic

state in iraq and the levant its practices laws are so harsh that amnesty international has acquitted it to a reign of terror smoking or behavior deemed anti islamic can lead to link the sentences these detention centers and even worse so the masseur and understands are national research have told us what people face in these jails there is widespread torture torture of adults including and also children the most common form of torture is a flawed game of flogging against detainees take place on a daily. on a daily every day basically it includes flogging against children we have witnesses former detainees who told us that they have seen children as young as thirteen to fourteen being flogged scores of times their detainees are sentenced to

death at a trial that does not exceed three minutes which is. outrageous really one former detainee us that he once counted the number of lashes falling on a child he counted until ninety four and he stopped counting any more. well though on paper and his son forces are united in their goal to topple president assad in practice there's precious little unity fighting between rebel groups for territory and power is now commonplace and it's the moderates taking a beating just last week for example the secretary commander of the free syrian army was executed by radicals because of he's got a chip cohen reports washington's commitment to the rebels in syria means it's willing to talk to even the most hardline groups from washington it's willing to negotiate with the so-called loving front just days after the front kick the western backed supreme military council out of their headquarters and seized their

warehouses we can't engage the islamic front of course because they're not designated and you haven't yet the islamic front includes groups that are demanding a hard line shari'a state to be a strategic mistake if the us administration or europe or their allies would be engaging in a partnership and a partnership meaning they would be collaborating with organizations that are the hardest and have not committed to become moderates or recognize the fact that if they come to power or part of power they will recognize human rights that did not happen while washington is revaluate ing whom to support in the fight against assad all qaeda linked groups have made significant gains in the north of syria where they've pushed out other rebel forces in the name of allah the gracious and merciful. when you're firing rockets it's allah who fires them with your hands these strikes are only a drop in the ocean the lines of these lawmakers state are fulfilling their all

from iraq to lebanon on these islamist forces are better trained and better armed some of them got their training fighting against the u.s. in afghanistan in the one nine hundred eighty s. when the u.s. was arming the anti soviet mujahideen in those days some got their experience and their arms fighting against the u.s. in iraq much more recently washington says the islamic front that it is willing to negotiate with does not include designated terrorist groups like job at a loss and the so-called islamic state of iraq can live on but on the ground in syria there are so many different groups that the labels could be relevant. residents of the town of hadera near damascus can't name the exact rebel group that executed over eighty civilians there including children earlier this week. the u.s. has supported the syrian opposition on the premise that washington would be able to do different shades of extremists they would figure out which ones are less extreme but even the report that there was no battle over the warehouses between the

islamic front and the western backed supreme military council is one indicator of how blurred those lines are and how flawed is the assumption that one can distinguish with certainty between those groups in washington i'm going to. see where all these radicals coming from the answer is from almost everywhere even the most secular european states of identify the citizens fighting in syria or the behalf of radical rebels and that's really starts to worry you officials who know that. excuse me those islamists who come back one day and all these people over looks at the concerns. the number of europeans heading to syria to fight in the country's going civil war is currently topping the e.u. counter terrorism agenda speaking at a meeting of security officials in brussels the belgian interior minister says as many as two thousand the citizens may be involved in the conflict his french counterpart saying well those numbers on the increase statement reiterate findings

by the international center for the study of radicalization there are a group based out of king's college in london they suggest that since april of this year the number of europeans going to syria to fight they have increased three fold the findings suggest that up to eleven thousand foreign is from as many as seventy different countries may have taken part in the conflict at some point eighteen percent of those coming from western europe the majority of that eighty percent from britain and from france but also a contingent from right here in germany in fact in the german state of the interior minister has been proposing a nationwide campaign to try and tackle radical i say should this after a study that found that jihadist recruiters were using universities to try and recruit potential fights is this is all adding to the reason why why the issue of

europeans heading to syria to fight is topping the counter counterterrorism agenda because well the leaders of european countries don't know what will happen when these people return home and will they return home radicalized as potential homegrown terrorists. will be spending a lonely christmas in a cell that has this case the same transferred from cambodia to sweden to denmark. she had to say on a website. and another. from the two thousand and ten b.p. oil spill in the gulf of mexico dolphins caught at the epicenter of the disaster still dying the details on that right now at r.t. dot com. britain is being accused of putting ideology before common sense that's after london turned down the e.u.'s offer to fund food banks despite

having more than half a million miles of the going hungry. 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 provide the carriage 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 ali boyko has been to meet one of the unlucky many. on. the group. i was having to go to somebody else to and help me so. i'm just 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 this. to somebody else. well 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 the 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 the issues around food and not enough to eat 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 it's starting to move back to. the

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 that main stream and to many of those struggling to make ends meet the only lifeline left is charity where surviving still fall. some of the month of. london. when he's in the team you just have a half enough not me time international here not international look at what spawned god is booming economy stay with so many cameras on the brain.

the parliament of yemen has put forward a motion to ban drone attacks in the country the motion is now awaiting approval by the president and it's probably impossible to enforce unless they could build a really big net or something isn't it strange that now after years of drone strikes in their country the parliament just wakes up to the fact their systems are getting blown up from the sky and we fear yemen doesn't have a ton of cash and i could see how having the well equipped and funded us military to take care of the al qaeda problem for them for free could be really entice and i

mean it must be scary to be a politician with lots of power hungry terrorists about this would be the first time in history that a stronger foreign power fought a weaker states battles for them but the problem is that according to the huffington post a former u.s. state department official in yemen says that every year drone attacks create eight from forty to sixty new terrorists why they create terrorists because according to the human rights watch seventy percent of the people killed by drones in yemen are civilians you know if the yemeni government is really free from washington's grasp and really wants to deal with their al qaeda problem. they'll have better luck doing it themselves with the good old rifles and bayonets pointed at the right targets but that's just my opinion. on the money with the business of russia is.

lazy i'm going to. want to so that i could money to buy seeds. dies or to none of the money i have for seeds and i spend it for books. or pen and school uniforms my kids need for school. sick i'm going to be. so i have no money left to seat on the day no matter how cheap i might be. demoted you know to my much my duty to my. community has a borehole that isn't easily accessible by.