a day after his father was released from a russian prison. but he has been reunited in the. defense spending at the pentagon amounting to eight. hundred ninety six. charges of. prison break in two thousand and eleven. the first time in my life. we bring you the story of a school boy thrown behind to show support for the country's deposed leader a top story.

from. nine pm this is international. has met his whole family in the german capital the former oil tycoon flew straight to. being let out of a russian penal colony on friday following a presidential pardon lots of reports now from outside the hotel where he is believed to be. on the how to cause he's first full day of freedom was a day of reunification with family here in berlin his son told us the son pavel who'd flown from new york told us that the whole family had been reunited and that they were all very happy he really appreciates all of the support that he has received through these years and all the people that have cared for him here for

two story over the past ten years his mother has been here in berlin quite a quite a lot in the recent past she has been receiving cancer treatments here and a bill in city hospital. they would want that was a fact the whole reason behind because of course he being granted the presidential pardon on humanitarian grounds was the the ill health of his mother's press secretary of the russian president dmitry peskov who is the the spokesperson for the to me of food and now he said that because of course the remains of russian citizen he is a russian citizen he's free to return to russia whenever he would like and live there should he want to be also said that he's he's free to stay here in germany should he want to as well it's is pretty much as simple as that and no peskov also outlined the letters that were written by her to called ski to vladimir putin he said there was to one of them was a personal letter to president putin the of the was the official petition to be to

be released from prison and that it was that petition that resulted in him receiving this pardon this release on humanitarian grounds due to the serious ill health of his mother we'll get a glimpse into what could be coming next on sunday he's holding a press conference at the berlin wall museum where he may outline what he plans to do now that he's out of prison initially had said he just wanted to spend time with his family enjoy the holiday season but perhaps he might have some some old further reaching plans in a mind to now at that press conference he said almost certain to. sank. to thank the the former german foreign minister. again sure seems to have been instrumental in making sure the holocaust killed come here the german chancellor in a statement from the chancellor spokesperson angle merkel spoke first and she paid she paid tribute to the work done by mr gained share in bringing holocaust skee

here to germany and she also praised the work done by the german government behind the scenes in making this possible and well could be called holocaust skee it's a germany. where he is just behind me in the outlawed hotel now enjoying his family reunion political analyst an expert on russian german relations alexander ross was one of the first people to greet quote a kosky on german soil speaking to us r.t. he shared his impressions of meeting the former tycoon his face didn't change in the past ten years i haven't seen him for ten years. i think he didn't lose his humor he. he still. in a very strong mood to. i would say i don't know i don't think that he is going to involve in politics but that's my personal opinion i don't but he has a lot to say a lot to tell not necessarily on his life in prison but on his sorts

of the future and the present state of russia here i think you seeing yourself already has a kind of philosophy or a second solution eaten who has something to say and the whole lot of people will listen. when mr arar also told us he thinks it was neither a mystery or a surprise that mikhail khodorkovsky chose burnin as his destination. the reason why what of course he came to germany is very simple because his mother is here in hospital she's very very sick and this is not a secret and asked putin to release him because he wants to meet his mother before it's too late and. as it happened mrs p. was not here when the sun i drive but she's in germany. left on to

germany for russia but of course she's now. well the western world's been debating what lies behind become khodorkovsky is released politician paul hampel from the euro skeptic alternative for germany party believes there is no hidden agenda in president putin's party. the people of germany don't do know very little about myself what a ski i mean he was known as an audit guard who had been put on trial in russia and send him to jail for the last ten years that is all you know the people in the west end would have forgotten so quickly what has happened after the break of the soviet union the fall of the soviet union i mean it was in times of boris yeltsin there were the all the guards which have taken over power and were most influential in russia until president putin came and you know be criticizing today the influence of the only guy in the ukraine for example but we welcome somebody a representative of the group who has been in prison russia i think that to the

first bet it is to the russian people as well that the other guys have no influence on russian policy anymore since the last ten years. and we'll be bringing you more news and perspective on the concorde of course is released are up but they here in r.t. and on our website r.t. dot com. the pentagon has secured a six hundred thirty billion dollar budget for next year even though it's failed to account for the money it's received since one thousand nine hundred ninety six a whopping eight and a half trillion dollars of taxpayers' cash has gone to defense programs none of which has been ordered it is black budget as spot concerns over a potential fraud is gonna check on reports. the pentagon is almost certainly the biggest source of waste in the u.s. government of reuters investigation says since one thousand nine hundred ninety six the pentagon has spent eight point five trillion dollars in taxpayer money that has never been accounted for and nobody can say for sure how many billions of that amount were wasted on goods and services that were never delivered on over payments

to contractors and many other things what does congress do about it nothing and national security expert steve miles serious here with me to help us crunch the these numbers eight and a half trillion dollars on accounting for a lot of money this is the kind of thing that you would think would bring capitol hill to a screeching halt they would be hearing this kind of almost daily you know various committees looking into it none of that just leads to massive waste and there can be all sorts of fraud that you don't know about just one example when the inspector general looked at iraq which was you know a lot of money but in the grand scheme just a portion of the money the u.s. spends what they found was about fifty billion dollars of the money the u.s. spent there was wasted about six billion dollars was completely lost they had no idea where it was completely unaccounted for and put that in perspective that's about the amount of money that other countries would spend on their defense in the year total and that's just the least pocket change that we lost in the one thing i

found very interesting in this report is that the pentagon apparently using the standard operating procedure to enter false numbers or so-called blogs to cover lost or missing information in their accounting in order to submit a balanced budget to treasury so they can write a note we think it is probably the most shocking part of this is that they get to the end of the day and they say oh there's money missing what do we do we'll just put a number in there that says it's there and we'll sort it out later i mean again this is this is the type of operating practice that if you did it in your own business if you try to do it with your own taxes for the government they haul you off to jail what contributes to the massive waste is the fact that for two decades the pentagon has dodged an odd. which means nobody checked if the numbers in their accounting make sense congress has just passed the budget that allocates around six hundred thirty billion dollars to the pentagon roughly the same amount as last year how much of that will be wasted taxpayers will never know in washington i'm going to check on our. washington needs to wake up and stop cracking down on

unaccountable overspending at the pentagon and that's the view of a todd u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor i have actually been in this position when i was the director joint operations that shaped headquarters for reasons that i did understand my pay was suddenly reduced and it took a year older at least straightened out and then subsequently i was paid money that i had actually earned but for reasons that no one could explain had not been paid to me from my point is that you're dealing with billions of people and a lot of instability a lot of movement and it's a difficult system to to work effectively this is an enormous problem and this is something that absolutely must be addressed and addressed in a forthright manner at the moment no one on capitol hill seems terribly concerned that u.s. intelligence expert gordon duff says no makers have become increasingly corrupted by that time to the military industry. we have so many

defense entities that have gained so much power in washington over the past ten years certainly the i consider the phony war on terror as been an opportunity for the defense industry to buy congress the pentagon it works much like the federal reserve we have overt and covert policies we have so many black budget budget projects including nuclear weapons development projects that when dark is early as one nine hundred ninety one we have heard of none of the advances we know that were achieved during the strategic defense initiative in the eighty's and ninety's the o's of all gone dark but they're continuing to eat funds and we're watching much of the military budget used for sustaining a top heavy military and air force for every third person is a general. well in

a few minutes here not international the festivities. capital to keep public order. special patrols. to the story and much more. down in the final. and the rest. will be.

egypt continues to pile criminal charges on the else did president mohammed morsi he's now facing trial over a prison break in two thousand and eleven during the uprising against hosni mubarak's regime and any public show of support for morsi could lead to serious attention from the authorities however young the offender true reports now in the

story of one fifteen year old who suffered. mohamed buckra waits at home for the return of his fifteen year old son did it jailed for taking a pro morsi ruler to school teachers notify the authorities when they saw the four think it symbol which commemorates the bloody august dispersal of sit ins in support of egypt's ousted president. the first time in my life that the child is locked up in the military prison for having a ruler there is even and the rest warrants out for me for inciting my son to take the ruler to class but even if they look my son up we're ready to keep fighting islamist supporters of morsi like mohammed say they are in hiding fearful of showing any allegiance to the ouster of muslim brotherhood president. since they cleared the sit in some men started shaving their beards and the women to go off their new cabs anyone who is against the coup does not sleep in their own homes they spend night at friends or even in barmes they're not even arresting are to

this but normal people the checkpoints because they look like islamists with a beard even the simplest expression of support for mohamed morsi like a piece of stationery puts people in danger both from the communities and the state hundreds of morsy supporters have been arrested and many face trial after july's overthrow by the military security forces say the crackdown is necessary to secure the country but human rights organizations say it's part of a wider clampdown on i the military backed government is determined to enforce new legislation banning protests without police permits so now leading secular activists are on trial to be jailed under the new normal. again to let the breakdown of political activists is normal and natural because it's easy to accuse them of working for a foreign agency and charge them with treason attacking people in killing them is part of a political game played by the state. that the government insists on restricting

and controlling demos to keep the peace. egypt's dissidents are determined to keep protesting no matter the consequences boccieri for r t after shaikh. well this is a photo of khalid in his classroom apparently shot on a mobile phone if you look closely you can see him giving a four fingered salute a sign that can now apparently landed tippins in jail regardless of age or gender mohamad chairperson of the british egyptian for democracy group says that the detention of the fifteen year old is fall from an isolated case so this fifteen year old child along with many many children are now placed in prison just because they have things simple symbol it's a symbol was for fingers on a yellow background and he's actually placed in an adult facility alongside suggs and rapists and criminals in fact this is actually outrageous what we're seeing is

the military regime. going absolutely mad because a child is reminding it of its atrocities and the clear violations of human rights are taking place and is as you know at the moment there are many many children as well some of them we know about some we don't know anything about because once they're in prison you don't get access to a lawyer or medical attention. back in the u.s. i saw one off at all if you don't call me look at the study here but it's just more than a hole for people living in former soviet states wish the union had never disappear even two decades after its historic come. also there are a lot of other group and we can make the satiates documented their journey through central asia in search of media outlets willing to print the u.s. diplomatic cables so you can watch the movie in full right now on the website. dot com. see street interesting. strategically you should

try. a longer covert team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents about how the united states is trying to. make your local media more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance and pressure. the country blocks the way to information freedom. media stuff on our two. largest consumer p.c.'s and i see it with me in the country is the federal government simply saves property of the united states government. this the united states suffered damage when it was going public has to realize it can't just buy. just throw it away. for instance belongs to the united states environmental protection agency and i found this on a dump site here this is here it's not

a waste of love and it produces of these lives when i should be able to look at these and i believe that this should be responsible for from cradle to grave. fatal from mexico department of mental health from america incorporated also belongs to the washington metro area transit authority properties of a dentist aids page trend and trademark office. time now for some other world news here on r.t. international and these are live pictures from the international space station where the first space walk to replace a broken coolant module is under way now to nasa astronauts have been carrying out the job for over five hours now it will take three separate space walks to be completed the pump in an external cooling loop shutdown last week and if it's not

fixed the failure of the second module might. to be abandoned of the damage caused all non-essential equipment to be temporarily shut down and forced the crew to halt several experiments and we'll keep you up to date with those developments there in space here on r.t. international. hundreds of farmers from the greek island of crete marked on the country's parliament in athens outraged by a new property tax they clashed with police and threw oranges at them in defiance of new legislation which was introduced by the government as part of a sturdy measure the farmers who previously only had to pay income tax claimed it could put many of them out of business. hundreds of protesters attacked a police station in hamburg and threw stones at cars after a rally over the possible eviction of refugees from a nearby center a number of arrests were made and authorities declared the entire city a danger area warning of more demonstrations the cultural center has been occupied by refugees for over twenty years but the building is now under threat of collapse

. seventeen people have died in a series of attacks across iraq a senior military commander was killed during a search operation for al qaeda fighters in the western province also in the west government opened fire in a police checkpoint killing four officers while in the north two soldiers were killed in their camp by mortar shells r.t. is keeping track of the violence in iraq in a special project that you can view on our website r.t. dot com. holiday season and the scott. capital is in full flow and so is the alcohol which accompanies it special patrols and so called is being deployed to maintain public order and help those celebrating a little too hard on the surface reports. in the streets and pumps of their timber and the festive spirit is alive and well. and with the city's bars and he tells filling up the holiday season provides

a much needed boost for the local economy. that. the scottish new year is known as hogmanay and the celebrations held in the city of renowned around the world of being a hot ticket. basically we have the tradition is that you're go round the houses and you take or you take a glass of whisky and some gold to keep you warm and wish to have a drink and i think new year's eve was invented by the scots but it's not all cause for celebration and violence and police start it's a busy period and in edinburgh this year a number of schemes have been put in place to try and provide support for the people here corson a little too mary safety zones and to say called these buses will be an operation to try to take the strain off the local services the scottish ambulance service

says the buses will be there to treat those who suffered a minor injury or have simply overindulged so that the city gears up for a busy holiday season and as that midnight countdown is party goes here in edinburgh i asked to try and enjoy the spirit of the event just easy on the spirit . sarah firth r.t. edinburgh. one of the most anticipated competitions at the winter olympics in sochi is the ice hockey tournament and what's definitely going to be key to the action is the parks well the brand new equipment has just been presented to the bolshoi on the black sea coast by a man who knows how to deal with one of those vladislav tretiak was named the best player of the twentieth century by the international ice hockey federation and he was in the host city sochi helping make sure everyone is ready to face off when the

action starts. looking. good save as the end of twenty thirteen approaches artie's breaking the set looks back at the main events that shaped this year. the most inspiring international diplomacy stories of the year an agreement with the wrong and six world powers of the development of the country's nuclear program and while it's only a tentative six month agreement a warm relationship between iran and western powers is a much needed step toward stability in the middle east finally the most inspiring story of two thousand and thirteen has to be edward snowden in this courage to come forward and reveal an out of control and unconstitutional global spying machine infiltrating all of our lives has changed the world as a result of snowden's actions we now have documented proof of just how severely the intelligence community has violated our fourth amendment rights and now we have the

knowledge we need to fight back. the that. bring you more updates with the news team and all of our top stories in just over half an hour from now in the meantime people of l. takes a look at what twenty thirteen rule for the russian economy and what awaits it in the coming year all the money in the short break. we've reported on this ratio before debt to g.d.p. growth going back to the one nine hundred fifty s. it was almost one to one so marital issues are dead and they get some some kind of

g.d.p. kick as a result of it but it requires more and more dead to quibble equivalent same g.d.p. dollar of growth and what we now have is clearly a case of zombie banks and zombie corporations that would not survive if they weren't being transfused. with more debt continuously which means that good businesses are being crowded out by zombies and it also means that you've got a. total loss of competitiveness this is the worst thing really that quantitative easing as does the american. right to see. her street. and i think you're. on a reporter's. instrument. to

be in the know. why is the price of gold so high. demand global demand do you think oldest money. know the value of the only place we have to live of the water that we need to survive it's not compared to i mean gold we're not going to eat gold we're not going to be. we're not going to drink what clearly what amal is and is in a desperate economic situation absolutely right what we're wrong to do is say therefore any kind of economic development from the outside is going to be a benefit their only purpose is to extract as much money as possible to feed into the global financial system. with part.

of political economic system that's extremely or splintered. first was a question whether mining should even be carried out altogether can it be done in a way which doesn't destroy people's was resources in burma. well you know those are pretty serious questions mining is not a what a moment problem it's happening in asia in africa and south america in central america in mexico and it's even happening in canada and the united states. well welcome to on the money with the business of russia it is business i'm people of well as the russian economy and as the year president vladimir putin has made it abundantly clear the government can do much more to stimulate growth and attract

foreign investment russia does exist in a real world but there is still much to be done at home to expand the economy. to discuss this and more i'm joined by my guest chris weaver he is the senior partner with macro advisory and we also have been heiress to use the editor in chief of business new europe all right ben if i go to you i think you're on the first program of this year if not the second one in a nutshell in a few words how is the russian economy ending this year or this year i think it's been rushes. in so much is it's been the worst year was in a crisis year for the last decade and a half and so we're puttering out of the year slowly with very disappointing results across the board and everyone is looking forward to next year because can't be worse than this one always can be worse in a few and a few words a few sentences how would you describe russia's economy as we're ending the year i

would actually agree with ben there compared to where we were the start of the year looking for three three and a half percent growth or think of the optimistic end now we're now ending the year according to the world bank's forecast maybe about one point three percent so very disappointing compared to what had been expected and there does come as a result of a big drop in investment and which lower level of consumption than we've seen in previous years ok gentlemen i don't know if you agree with what i mean or vitamin or putin agrees with you but let's listen what he had to say about the state of russia's economy. that and and of course we are feeling the affects of the global economic crisis but let's be frank the main reasons for the slowdown in our economy are internal rather than external in nature in terms of the size of its g.d.p. russia is doing well and counts among the world's five biggest economies but in key

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