misty for the ex tycoon president putin's decision to pardon mikhail khodorkovsky may have caused. the reaction of. the syrian kurdish community presses for a seat at the negotiating table the upcoming geneva peace talks hoping to grab the opportunity to secure their independent rights. and on the cover a team of wiki leaks journalists make a road movie about their mission to blow the whistle here what international we talked to one of them about how the leaks changing the world.

it is friday morning here in moscow it's azzi international with me rule research from everybody here thanks for joining us today first of two a developing story for you here on the program the european union's credit rating has been dealt a blow standard and poor's has downgraded it from aaa to double a plus he said it's due to the weakening cohesion within the block and the overall credit worthiness of all member states of the move comes after france italy and spain suffered credit rating cuts in recent years plagued by the sovereign debt crisis and despite the downgrade s. and p. said the overall outlook was now stable more in the story a bit later. for the meantime though one of russia's highest profile prisoners for more oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky is set to walk free president putin said he'll pardon him after getting his appeal for clemency khodorkovsky has spent a decade in jail on tax evasion and embezzlement charges announcement of his

release came as a big surprise as artie's and he said now a reports. he may well be one of the most well known prisoners in the world but the idea of a pardon for former russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky was unexpected to say the least bad really was. 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 set free his children and even grandchildren grew up without him a four hour q. and a and not one question about for the record ski and then this if you don't know who the coastie recently wrote a petition asking me to pardon him because he spent more than ten years in prison this is a serious punishment he saw as humanitarian reasons saying his mother is sick and i believe taking jus 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 the former c.e.o. and founder of the oil company yukos built a fortune that made him russia's richest man after the collapse of the soviet union snapping up state assets at a bargain price in often dubious circumstances other koskie fall from grace began in october two thousand and three when he was arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion he and his business partner plateau never dev were found guilty in two thousand and five and handed eight year sentences four years later fresh charges were brought against the two men and twenty ten both were convicted of money laundering and embezzling two hundred eighteen million tonnes of oil worth twenty seven billion u.s. dollars. holder called skis here by sentenced to fourteen years in prison. word of his pardon and imminent freedom came as something of a surprise for all sides including apparently his lawyers debates are raging over

whether this is a pay our start a smart move but most intriguingly about what's next for mikhail khodorkovsky. and he's now a r.t. moscow now it is thought that khodorkovsky could be free by the end of the year but what will his role in russia be after that foreign affairs analyst martin seif says he will never be the man he was in the one nine hundred ninety s. what is not going to happen is that he is going to be a credible figure in russia he was significant in the one nine hundred ninety s. because of the twenty first century for two reasons first of all because of his vast financial wealth and political clout from putting together you cosyn the first place and he doesn't have the yukos conglomerates as a base anymore so that's gone and secondly it was a figure from the one nine hundred ninety s. he was able to amass so much wealth so far as the all the guards did in the chaotic

yeltsin era right after the collapse of communism this is now ancient history in russia and in europe as being a result of the reaction to the news of khodorkovsky pardon chancellor merkel said she's been discussing his release and is glad it's finally happening and the head of the european parliament martin schulz called president putin just progress while across the atlantic though it's all quiet on capitol hill as guy nature can reports . the reaction in washington to the news about the upcoming release is very muted it would be fair to say there is no reaction other than perhaps a written statement from senator mccain who's been bashing president within three years and he wrote this russian president vladimir putin's announcement today that he may pardon me uprising and welcome news well first of all sent a mccain misinterpreted the president's announcement a little bit he did not say he may pardon he said u.s. media said that the decision had to do with the olympics the slate for example ran

an article saying that it's because of pressure from the u.s. that president putin is pardoning. but again no official comment here in washington . and russia. hasn't gone unnoticed by activists in america but they're calling for president obama now. to a contractor. who of course has faced a witch hunt from washington for. seeing the. full story coming your way. from now on the program syrian kurds want their own delegation for next month's peace conference on syria known as geneva two last month the group declared an autonomous government in the country. one of the world's largest ethnic groups without their own state but as aussies paula syria reports history could soon be in the wake. discriminated repressed and divided for years the kurds were the scapegoats of the middle east but now the fortunes have turned resilient and

hopeful history is on their side for four thousand years kurds lived in iraq now they're enjoying defect autonomy and many believe independence is not far away but is now practical is not run by a powerful state in baghdad that. strongly believe that we are moving towards. a full independent kurdish state in the north of here across the border in turkey as much as twenty percent of the population is kurdish they fight for independence has long been a thorn in and her side but as long. always called for a kurd fighters they have more weapons and they'll never give them up easily but it's in syria where the kurds faced a toughest fight they were caught up in the middle of a bloody civil war their territories are being claimed by al qaeda their villages raided their people killed residents of this kurdish village of pursue fina forty

five kilometers from aleppo so all it does is make them tougher fighters they're prepared to die to protect their land and their people. now every night they want to restart the clashes but now we're well prepared because we made new bunkers so we have more ability to them before if they attack us we are ready to defend ourselves but if they don't we want to attack anybody. with such a strong fighting spirit and even stronger desire for sovereignty the kurdish influence in this part of the world is growing and arguably it might be only a matter of time until a new state appears on the map of the middle east policy or r.t. . but while that state is not established yet let's take a look at the so-called code of star in a region where the majority of kurds live it's actually all across this area here along the border and for middle eastern countries you go to turkey over there syria iraq and iran and the total population of the code's all over here is forty million

now the ethnic group has taken control of large parts of northeast syria right along the border there and one kurdish political activist says the civil war there has actually played straight into the hands of the kurds. the kurds in syria was emboldened by the fact that the arab spring came about and the regional powers busy with internal strife with. this debility of their own government while the sunni are observing. the different factions in syria are fighting each other and the government is weak and the kurds have found an opportunity to run their own issue and grab onto whatever they can and will territory. historically speaking tonight who they would take is not very happy because what they can see if . the because in syria both of them have some sort of autonomy turkey fears that this will translate into or encourages. the kurdish

population to demand the same rights or similar rights. and turkey is certainly worried and began building a wall on the border with syria and many see it as an attempt to divide the kurdish majority on both sides of the fence. from the syrian kurdish democratic union party he believes ankara's actions at the end of the day will simply backfire. because i would think that if turkey's government keeps supporting militants in jihadists and facilitates their entrance into the kurdish regions into the central areas of syria then the kurds that live in turkey won't stay silent also if the jihadists attack the alawite dominated regions turkish the whites will also take actions turkey's cooperation with terrorists will have consequences if you play with fire you get burned as they say turkey is interested in stability in the region and supporting

terrorists is not in the interest of turkey nor is it in the interest of the kurdish in arabic people in the region are still ahead for you here on r.t. international when for sale signs are popping up like mushrooms. in ireland the principle stares the squeezing people out of the country leaving only just stopping emigration stops in that way. if you. start to construct your own. gears don't want to meet gangstas you don't want to be. they don't want to blow you know the time that the kid came to be we can see. you just me as i was and i was in the hood.

but i said. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young . i. thank for joining us here on r.t. international law a world update soon for now though american activists are calling on president obama to pardon edward snowden who of course is still in russia around

a temporary asylum u.s. auto already is want him to stand trial for leaking details on the n.s.a. snooping well the plight of whistleblowers has been documented in a new film called media star and it's shot by a crew of wiki leaks journalists and it costs light on their dangerous mission to seek any new media that will publish or even broadcast their wiki leaks secrets reports. it's been described as a wiki leaks or road movie following the journey of a group of wiki leaks associates across central asia searching for media outlets to help publish secret diplomatic cables with making me do. something which which i would like to call an acid test and our acid test was one of the u.s. state department cables where you give these cables to certain. publications and see how they react to it most of the publications had difficulties in

responding to publishing secrets that had to do with the united states with empire in our world johannes wall strong helped direct the movie although a feature film wasn't the original plan initial goal was to actually distribute this material that bradley manning allegedly makes that we can fix and then. attempt to get the material out to the public and people will realize that there were. some interesting things happening in the way that the media were actually reacting to it the team traveled through central asian republics from kazakhstan to us occupied afghanistan. all in an effort to partner with local news outlets to redact and then publish relevant cables. diversion was then get the bulls you were to do more with. the other. question

is to. get. another thing traditional in case after case editors would initially show interest and then back off. the not. to me it was surprising. not as much based on the idea that these countries are bastions of free press or not but i was not surprised about the on the. in their limitations i was surprised that many of the of the editor is journalist that we met. in the central asian republics they would would actually explain that there are certain things we can publish in certain cases we can actually see where were fear of. having your funds got down or something else does actually physically influence your ability and in reporting on. what you know in this particular test the

material is american. but it's hard to tell to what extent it's a question of fear particularly from the united states or if it's a fear from the local regime a censorship of sorts that johan is believes exists within the western world as well the idea that censorship is something that exists in. third world countries and speak but not in the enlightened west that idea i think has. been very challenged by we're critics the main point which which we're trying to make isn't that you know there is there is somebody which is more censored than somebody else the main point is that there is there is a certain degree of censorship everywhere and what would you say is the biggest obstacle to freedom of speech and freedom of information these days it's the biggest obstacle to to freedom from a speech is the obstacle which isn't in our minds it is the the

idea that the people don't deserve access to knowledge because people cannot deal with it and that idea in my opinion is there is not just elitist dick it is. it's incredibly insulting but in making a film about the boundaries of press freedom johana says he discovered a world that's moving away from old boundaries one of the most amazing things which has happened with them. with these releases and particularly if we speak about the n.s.a. documents it is. is that the censorship that we had just a few years ago has become irrelevant in the next hour on r.t. international will bring you the first part of this movie if you can stick around with us. strategic. undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents.

pressure. to information freedom. now a fresh snowden leak reveals the netherlands spain and germany have joined the so-called. club working hand in glove with the intelligence services of the us however it's still unclear how the collaboration with these third party states works as previous leaks revealed the u.s. has been closely watching as a target not as a partner just. visor to the u.s. justice department she says the n.s.a. spying as trust among. the n.s.a.

has spread its reach into so many other countries including our. which is completely unnecessary destroy. their economic relationships with other countries all for the purpose of gathering and storing a bunch of. innocent people all over the world who are suspected of doing absolutely nothing and i think we. are not among the five countries some of whom have. helping the n.s.a. gather the. world. because again and their tentacles are reaching. and in just a few minutes here on our teams are national locked and loaded people of l. and his guests all jumping all over each other in a hot discussion about a politician for snowden and all the issues about the n.s.a. and his broad reaching spying nobody interest cross-talk lost for words at all.

it's not that we should cut a deal with edward snowden we should praise him welcome him home for exposing what what i call incipient fascism is like they don't need to strike a deal at all the whole premise of the charges against said word snowden are bogus and the man has broken the laws and these arguments that which are quite eloquently made make it to the jury make it to the sentencing judge but he has broken the law. on screen on online as well as plenty of stories for you including at this hour lighting up sydney skyline in a spectacular show a stained glass mosaics projected onto

a cathedral to celebrate the christmas holidays check out the brilliant footage it's in motion section dot com. and more eye catching footage for you available on our. channel there goes the rocket is carrying a billion dollar telescope in boston on a five year space mission its job to bring back to earth a three d. model of the milky way. right to see the. first trip. and i think that your. orders. are moments before the altie was updated for now from voting on bankruptcy just

a few years ago. things are actually looking up for ireland but while it recently exceeded its international bailout from the i.m.f. it's not stopping young adults from extending the country statistics showing emigration numbers from the emerald isle are only rising as people look to leave continued austerity behind. reports despite painful a steady three years and counting the irish capital of dublin is relatively bustling but the same can't be said for all other parts of the country carlo wants him to be are you sugar company death at the forefront of industry now stands empty this sound is only one hour away from dublin but niles apart in terms of the economy even if you just scratch the surface a look around you'll see a lot of these boarded up houses or shop fronts or for sale signs a shadow of what this used to be this is the same true. for three hundred year old. history here.

while the government heralded arlen's exit from its international bailout as a success many find little to celebrate with others having long moved on in search of greener pastures people with skills people with jobs and i live in the country we thought that we put behind us the black plague effectively of immigration in the country and now it is back growing sectors of this economy which are importing workers from outside of ireland on high wages with high skills and so forth completely deservedly but that is starting to draw these a little bit of a tension within the population as well the european commission statistics office figures show thirty five thousand more people left are linda didn't arrive to last year making arlin go from having had the highest net immigration levels in europe to the highest net emigration in just six years if we see one that. i believe it said we want. you are really really here and when young

emigrants do come back it won't come as a surprise if they're just back for the holidays like feel one who just arrived from perth he left two years ago after completing a science degree and went on to become a videographer in australia there wasn't anything sort of keeping me here besides my immediate family really all my friends you go it's a londoner canada they're just completely across the world so i made it very easy for me and while the holidays draw back the irish to their native land it will take more than a bailout exit to keep them home does are still your r.t. arland. other global news in brief for you here comes the world update a gunman a shot dead four people that an airport terminal in the philippines capital manila a local mayor his wife and their baby are among the victims a family was waiting for a car outside the terminal when the attacker wearing

a police uniform approached fired at close range and fled with a motive right now on. although eight hundred people have been injured at least five of them seriously after a part of the roof collapsed during a performance at the apollo theatre in london police say everyone trapped inside now been freed when the roof caved in it took parts of the balcony with it seven hundred twenty people people inside at the time and the venue was built back in one thousand one. of the mexico right here parents clashing with teachers who were trying to regain control of an elementary school in the town of san pedro. last september the teachers from the national education workers' committee went on strike against education reforms and were removed by colleagues from a different union they tried to regain access to the school but met in a few rated parents with rocks and sticks one hundred seventy riot police had to

intervene. or let's get into it here on r t i was promised the issue of a pardon for snowden taking center stage edward snowden the former n.s.a. whistleblower he's going to be the hot topic for debate in crosstalk coming your way in a. 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 to be fair yemen doesn't have a ton of cash and i could see how having the well equipped and funded us military 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 or the good old rifles and bayonets pointed at the right targets but that's just my opinion. please. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle and it's a whistleblower edward snowden has always maintained his motivation was to force a serious conversation about the all encompassing surveillance state well he certainly has achieved this so with mission accomplished is it time to cut a deal with him or even grant him

a pardon. to cross out edward snowden i'm joined by my guest mary fan in seattle she is a professor at the university of washington and a former federal prosecutor in washington we have ray mcgovern he is the co-founder of veteran intelligence professionals for sanity and in new york we cross to timothy car he is a senior director of strategy at free press all right folks cross talk rolls in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it if i go to you first in washington isn't it time to cut a deal with mr snowden i mean he's made his point everybody knows his name if you can if you're literate you know who he is anywhere in the world we certainly know a whole lot more about the n.s.a. i mean isn't it time to move forward in reform the n.s.a. in the intelligence community and let this guy off the hook he did everyone a huge favor peter i guess i would have problems with your phrase here elegy here

cutting a deal. no didn't live up to a solemn oath to protect and defend the constitution the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic a u.s. district judge now has reiterated the fact that. the n.s.a. as he put it has indiscriminately and charlie invaded our privacy in direct violation of the fourth amendment it's not that we should cut a deal with edward snowden we should praise him welcome him home for exposing what would i call incipient fascism is like when the government has all kinds of information on all kinds of people and can use it for all kinds of purposes ok timothy well there are voices in the n.s.a. that think that they the government should talk to mr snowden i in principle i agree with ray don't get me wrong here but cutting a deal is what's being talked about meaning no more leaks and you will clear your.