really. the. breaking news on our team lands in germany after being released from prison in russia after president putin signed what he called humanitarian principles we go live to shortly also. it is. the idea. that people don't deserve access to knowledge because people cannot deal with. a wiki leaks associate producer of a movie which shows just how hard it can be for whistleblowers to get the truth in print. and syria's embattled take their ambitions for autonomy to a new level demanding a seat at next month's international peace talks in switzerland the top stories this.

hour from a studio here in moscow was just turned nine pm this is r.t. international so after a decade of incarceration we call khodorkovsky is free russia's most high profile prisoner left jail and travel to germany on board a private jet that's got the latest now from who is in berlin so what is the latest you're hearing from the german officials that. well the latest is that mikhail khodorkovsky is here in the german capital we believe but we can't confirm yet that he is in the market and along the hotel just down from the brandenburg gate in fact very close to where our studios are here now the reason we believe he's in that hotel is because former german foreign minister hans dietrich genscher was seen leaving not hotel now just again she has been instrumental apparently in securing

a visa for mikhail khodorkovsky to allow him to come here to germany now we heard from russian prison authorities earlier on friday that said as soon as he left prison he was issued with a german passport with a father with a russian passport in order to allow him to travel but it appears that mr again she has been working behind the scenes along with the the german government here working with the russian government in order to push through a german visa for for him to allow him to come here to to live in now in terms of statements that we've heard regarding mikhail khodorkovsky arrival here a spokesperson for angle or merkel the german chancellor said that mrs merkel welcomed me here to germany and the federal government recognized the work that mr again she had done making this possible now they also mentioned the the work that had been done behind the scenes between russia and german authorities in order to to make this happen in order to get because what it called ski into the country

now from his own people from his own press. spokes person can see an earpiece spondon who's been working for me she put forward a an open letter that's been issued by mr holocaust in which he lays out exactly what happened from his side he says he put forward a petition to president putin on the twelfth of november for release on humanitarian grounds and that he was very glad that that it being granted he goes on to say that part of the petition said he didn't admit any guilt for the crimes that he. he was incarcerated for for those ten years he thanked his supporters and there was in that letter quite an emotional moment where he said that he just looked forward to spending time with his family now that was again reiterated in a in a statement by his spokesperson saying that they the whole family which is looking forward now to getting together and spending the new year's holidays of course a very important holiday in the russian calendar they were all looking to spend that together as

a family we're expecting that is his mother and father will arrive in berlin perhaps on saturday also that his we're hearing that his son has either is on a flight or was about to get on a flight from new york here to berlin his wife is another part of his family are in switzerland apparently they're all looking to come together here in germany and spend those holidays together as it stands though we have heard of course here in the german capital we believe he's in the hotel just near to us well where i'm broadcasting to you now from the headquarters of artie's video agency ruptly they have crews all over the city of macau how to cope shows up anywhere we'll be able to bring you pictures as soon as possible and put to find out a little bit more about what went on before he arrived here in berlin there was plenty of that as well about where he was going we can now hear from my colleague you go to his funeral. prison work and of course you spent his last days of imprisonment situated around

a thousand kilometers of north west of moscow in the town of six years it used to be part of the system during the soviet times was quite a confusing the here where we are some people were talking about him driving off and of course others were talking about this helicopter which took him off directly to germany whole thing came as a complete surprise to everyone including of course his words and his family members you know i can't talk to him because he doesn't have you know what i am in moscow right now. and i don't know anything except for is being said on the radio first of i haven't accepted what has happened yet has been too much for me since yesterday i'm still feeling lost and confused i guess i still can't believe it was also significant is that all the events that have been unfolding day happens in less than twenty four hours then the president broke the news that because of course he asked him to be pardoned we did it on the next day and apparently just a few hours after that me cause of course he went free from jail. well we're

closely following developments now that he has been freed these are the latest pictures from outside his family home in the moscow region we've been getting reports that members of his family plan to join him in berlin where he arrived on a private jet earlier so those are the pictures we have taken earlier of outside his home and our cameras are also camped outside of his hotel there in berlin now these are live pictures from there stay with us and we'll bring you pictures of him arriving if and when we get them. let's now take a closer look at how relations with the russian nor panned out over the last ten years were back in february one thousand nine hundred seventy became chairman and c.e.o. of the private corporation you course which produced a fifth of russia's oil he then became the country's richest man about six and a half years later he was arrested on fraud charges around the same time and linked to the privatization of state assets he was eventually found guilty in may two

thousand and five getting nine years in prison he appealed and had one year taken off that sentence then in december two thousand and six there was a second case against the former tycoon he was charged with embezzling three hundred fifty million tonnes of oil now those proceedings also ended with a guilty verdict in a fourteen year sentence but the court counted time already served well for more on his release i'm now joined by martin mccauley he's author and russian affairs analyst so martin why has. gone to germany. well one is reminded of. the soldier needs during the bridge an era he was deported from the soviet union and he went to frankfurt he went to germany. so when i heard about holder being released i should say i was astonished mazed at the decision. the first thing was i thought willies in fact stay in russia is the

agreement that he can stay on as a civilian. and not a person who will vote in southern politics in russia or willing fact go abroad and stay abroad will he lose his citizenship association did or is it limited to come back so all these questions are up in the air now so the first country that one would think of from a russian businessman going abroad would be actually belive and germany because de to get was foreign minister of the west german foreign minister during the bridge near and afterwards and his close ties or was it close ties with russia and with russians and so on and it appears to be in some deal. between him and the new german government so he will shortly do it short so he's there now but even

though he's a broad could he still be a political challenge to push. yes because we don't know whether he's agreed not to engage in politics because if you go back to suffer of and there is talk of who were sent to gorky because they couldn't really deal with him when he came back to moscow the agreement at the beginning was he didn't you would not involve himself in politics he was a civilian and so on and he was to stay out of politics later on of course he didn't get involved in politics so. from a business point of view may in fact take up his business life because obviously he has a lot of skills and so on but he not be up to up the pace on the actual economic situation the president and the oil business and so on but one would expect him to get involved and not right now many people's ok where he's in prison. yes short story carry on prison he always gave he always gave interviews and some of the

interviews were quite critical of the put in iran and the put in regime and so on so forth so will you continue this abroad or will you in fact regarded as he can to stay for a while and engage only in business and then perhaps later return to russia we don't know yet of course the big question is why was he released before the sentence ended many called this a p.r. stunt ahead of the sochi olympics or perhaps is there more to it is it perhaps a sign of change in the country. what we get out because yon of who was prime minister when he was arrested in two thousand and three say's it's connected directly to the lympics story that putin doesn't want a p.r. disaster and that therefore sochi has to look really good there must be no reason no demonstrations for the pussy riot people arrived the amnesty for all the greenpeace people there out there all those things are cleared away but i don't see

really a direct link between her recovery and sochi because no one's going to demonstrate it for his release because the vast majority of russians don't really care and he was one of the richest not in russia and the average russian doesn't like oligarchs he doesn't like these people are very rich very supportive many ways abroad but the other point of view is that russia needs following direct investment it needs a climate in which foreigners will invest in russia the russian economy this year has slowed right down to something a one point four percent and put in on the twelve said that something like fifty billion dollars has already left russia this year because of lack of faith in the future of russian business and the russian environment and so on so this may be linked also to improving the f.b.i. environment so that foreigners would see right we can now invest in russia and is a safer place to invest because as long as he was in jail the average business one

of the west said that could happen to me or one of my friends and so on and now he's out and they may in fact come back and say right possibly the environment is better than russia desperately needs for the investment it needs as as putin pointed out the labor productivity is half or two thirds behind western leading western countries and saw the need for in technology the need for an expertise you have to invite in people and so on you have to create an environment you must establish the rule of law. extremely important otherwise if you invest a million dollars is it safe so this may be one of the measures to improve the environment the environment so that farmers will come back and invest in the russian economy because the normas opportunity is there russia has enormous raw material resources it needs to upgrade its infrastructure railways roads everything it needs to mindanao out of money and expertise and this may in fact

improve that environment khodorkovsky it'll be interesting to hear what her because he says to western businessmen. when they ask him should we invest in russia she would like to go into russia and so on he will be very important here in his views will be very important. to russian affairs model because he lived in london thank you very much for that and we'll be bringing you more news in perspective on the concorde cost has really struck the day here on r.t. international and on our website dot com. spawned a vigorous attempts of whistleblowers to expose the wrongdoings of governments is often quite difficult for them to find media outlets willing to publicize the truth media stand a recent movie backed by we can leaks highlights the struggle. spoke to the film's director. it's been described as a wiki leaks 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 it. 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 and 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 to work in weeks and in that attempt to get the material out to the public and people will realise that there were. some interesting things happening in the way that the media were actually reacting to it the team travelled 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 do it's. still going to us resign your bills your figure. but. most of the other. question is to get out you may not get to get at them but with. another thing traditional in case after case editors would initially show interest and then back off. and not. to me it was surprising. not as much based on the idea that these countries are bastions of free press and. but i was more surprised about. in their limitations i was surprised that many of the of the editors and journalists 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 the fear of. having your funds or something else does actually physically influence your ability 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 challenging i reckon it's 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 of 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 a little stick 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. and you can watch the movie online right now saw a website on t.v. don't call me well still to come here an aussie international a fresh push for independent serious cuts to model seated next month's international peace conference on syria as they continue their quest to set up a nation of the rundown of the stories coming up short. length of. the. league play it was terrible they are looking very hard to take a. little longer look at you that had sex with the perfect

there's no. telling what. was. going to look. a bit. syria's kurdish minority wants a seated next month's international peace conference in geneva they're pushing for autonomy in northern syria and have been fighting to protect their homes from radical islamist rebels but the kurds are the largest ethnic group without

a country in the middle east and are mostly spread out across a region they call kurdistan they make up key minority groups in turkey syria iraq and iran with the total population estimated at around four million and as reports the kurds have their sights firmly set on long awaited independence. 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 and 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 ankara side. 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 pursuit fina forty five kilometers from aleppo say all it does is make them tougher fighters they are 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. . european union's long term credit rating has been dealt a blow start of them pauses downgraded from aaa to double a plus this despite holland's recent signs of recovery being used as an example that the block is going in the right direction but still reports many ours are still looking abroad for better options. 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 the sugar company 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 flop fronts or for sale signs a shadow of what this used to be this is the center of. town for the

review hundred year old great. 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 are now 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 violent on high wages with high skills and so forth completely deserve it but that is starting to draw these little bit of attention within the population as well the european commission statistics office figures show thirty five thousand more people left our land that arrived last year making arlen 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.

said we want. you. to flee 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 had 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 who go on it's a londoner canada has just completely crossed the world so i made a very easy 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 or so your r.t. our land back to our top story now here in r.t. after a decade of incarceration. is free russia's most high profile prisoner left jail

and travel to germany on board a private jet let's get the latest now from marty's peter who is in berlin what more do you now know at this stage of the day peter. well i can give you a brief run through of everything we do know me arrived here on a private jet he was brought into the city and police escorted moat a piece escorted motorcade along with four former foreign minister of germany hans dietrich genscher he is believed to have been instrumental in negotiating this deal as well as the german governments and russian governments working together in order to get. a passport first russian passport then a a change in visa to allow him to come and stay here in germany now we understand he's at the high profile hotel just near the brandenburg gate here in central berlin what we have heard from mr we haven't heard him speak directly but we have heard a statement has been put forward by his his press secretary his spokesperson saying

that he thanked those that helped and to do that supported him over the years he was incarcerated he thanked those that it aided in getting him here to germany also said he was pleased that president putin is accepted his. appeal for release on humanitarian grounds and then ended by saying he just wanted to spend time with his family and he hoped they could all be together for the new year's holiday and a big family reunion probably here in berlin so that's all we know right now for sure and we bring you all the latest as we get it here on r.t. thanks very much indeed for all of the live in berlin well i will be back with more news for in just over half an hour from now in the meantime it is breaking the set stay with us r.t. to national. 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 to take care of the al qaeda problem for them for free could be really enticement 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 a google rifles and bayonets pointed at the right targets but that's just my

opinion. ok pas somi goes i'm not a martin and this is breaking the sat so much the duck dynasty controversy that the mainstream media is trumpeting there is actually positive news to report a panel appointed by obama just released its recommendations to scale back the n.s.a. and the document they recommended forty six changes to add transparency accountability the agency but most importantly they suggest scaling back its authority to snoop. every aspect of our lives so time to pop the champagne and all those right not so fast this is only good news if obama actually decides to embrace the advice and here's the cold hard truth even if the recommendations are adopted it's not going

to prevent mass surveillance and the president's review panel did nothing to answer the questions raised about the constitutionality of the n.s.a.'s global spying tentacles so walter nice gesture for members of the administration to condemn the n.s.a. as attack on privacy until there is action to end unabated surveillance on the entire planet i'll be here break in the set. of the. games a. very hard to take. lightly that you ever had sex with that you're right there are those. that believe.

that. if you're a regular viewer of the show you know how big of a fan i am of private mercenaries none more so than the security firm blackwater which has since changed its name multiple times no doubt due to the company's association with black market gun dealers shady cia ties and war crimes scope other than hiding out nabu dobby for the last couple of years where is former c.e.o. eric prince been since all this went down while pushing his new book of course serially this week prince one. the daily show to tell his side of the story of course instead of tough questions from stuart prince was given a platform to spew his revisionist history sixty minutes style you may remember during the height of iraqi occupation in two thousand and seven blackwater murdered .