mean how you hold it confiscates that he's not interested in politics all business ahead of his first news conference in a decade the former oil tycoon of course russia's was high profile prisoner has been reunited with his family in berlin for a huge surprise really. also this hour radical islamist rebels in syria allegedly massacred dozens of civilians during a battle in the suburbs of the capital damascus. and crowds gather in central kiev where antigovernment protests have raged for over a month now as ukraine secure was a fifteen billion dollars economic rescue deal from russia.

the latest news on the week's top stories you're watching the weekly here on our international with me. and welcome to the program. says he has no interest in pursuing politics or being involved in business he was speaking ahead of his first major public appearance since being released from jail after ten years we're expecting his news conference to begin any minute in berlin and while we're waiting here let's now speaks to us he's a piece of all of us who is there in berlin for us as well that pieces so what more do we know about. these plans. well what we have heard from him earlier on sunday is a lot about what he won't be doing in the future he said he won't be looking to enter politics that he has no interest in chasing me out of you cos the now bankrupt oil company that he presided over also says that he has no plans right now

to enter a business saying that he he has enough money to be able to live on and he has said that he hasn't made any decision on where he will live he said he needs to discuss that further with his wife of course all these things have come about and such as a whirlwind you can understand why perhaps he hasn't made some concrete decisions of ways future will lie he was in this time last week of course he was in prison and didn't look like any time soon he was going to be released before the end of his sentence so there's been a lot of changes for him in just one week but we'll be looking to that press conference just well not too far away from where i am here in central for some more concrete plans on what he wants to do for the future but if some day was all about the television cameras and the journalists saturday was all about his family now the whole reason that president putin granted this pardon to me. was on humanitarian grounds due to the serious ill health of holocaust these mother now

his mother and father have both made it here to berlin to be with their son as well as these own son pavel who flew from new york in order to be with his father and we spoke to some of his family members about what it was like seeing him free after ten years of incarceration and it's such a shock to me as to can't believe i'm going to see him now i feel like it's one of my regular detainees thrilled to be here and we were there with you today because my father is free and. my family is finally we go with it and we're very very happy we're going to be. well the press conference that we are waiting for is taking place at the berlin wall museum near checkpoint charlie here in the german capital and perhaps that's symbolic of new changes and new beginnings in the life of me of course the choice of that location a piece of just to remind us how he actually ended up in bad then. well it all has

moved it will wind pace on thursday there was we heard from president putin that he would be signing the release document for me cohort of course ski on friday he just started it was immediately with immediate effect because of course he was released that they led us to well where would he go would he do his room if he was going to moscow there was rumors he was going to st petersburg and then it all came out that he was was going to st petersburg but from there he was getting on a private jet and flying here to berlin now the man behind organizing that plane i'm guessing in the visa does seem to be the former german foreign minister. now missed the game show it seems has been instrumental in this and has petitioned for for many years to try to get you to come here to germany it also seems that it was behind the scenes work by the german government and german chancellor angela merkel to make that happen and to get him the visa which he needs to to arrive here in

berlin. what must have been quite difficult is of course the holocaust he was a convicted criminal he was convicted of serious financial crimes in russia despite what may be said about him being some form of political prisoner that's the reason that he was in jail he was found guilty by a russian court so when he eventually got here we would have heard some comments from him saying that he was grateful to speaking through mr gans you're actually said he was grateful to jerk to russian president vladimir putin for setting him free and he was looking forward to meeting up with his family and spending the holidays together so we're all looking now towards that press conference that set to get under way anytime soon it's said to be a short one though only half an hour's the duration that they've been there for ties and that it will be be taking place but i'm sure a lot of those journalists who are there and myself included will be wanting far more out of mr hart of course given perhaps we can get in thirty minutes but that's

what he said so all i use on the berlin wall museum waiting for me what of course his first press conference in ten years as a free man absolutely if he said looking forward to our items he's peter on a line from there sonny berlin thank you very much for that. and we're waiting for this news conference to start as peter dressed said and we'll bring you all the highlights right here on our c or on our website. and to other news now a so side bomb attack on a primary school in syria has reportedly killed several children is the latest atrocity up to dozens of civilians were massacred earlier this week by radical islamist rebels government forces expose the killings after taking back parts of the town of entre his arabic channel when that to talk to eyewitnesses terror still fills the hearts of those who witnessed the militants entering the town about drugs they saw panicked disoriented people running for their lives and they ran

themselves they will never forget the despair in the eyes of those who were forced to stay behind we have no reliable way to communicate with the people trapped inside but officials are saying the atrocities are. continuing the people are being butchered and even burned alive and every bit of news coming out of the town is doing a new blow to those whose families are still being held by the militants everyone working for the local authorities was to be killed regardless of their religion organ aman ation they were all taken to be killed they took everyone even those who supported neither the government nor the rebels they were all either tortured killed or used as human shields the things being done in a drawer unthinkable they're slaughtering children and throwing them out of windows and no one's doing anything about it because the syrian authorities say they have evidence confirming that massacres have taken place and addresses the dad latakia and many other areas which remain under the control of the armed opposition the

situation in syria has now deteriorated to the point that international norms of combat are no longer being observed. reason why i was drilled down with a lot of the us residents morgan both in the private sector and for government i don't know you did the horrifying crying must have been committed in those houses were so don't fire a reality people travel. day from the syrian army which is a position just outside the town that continues to carry out surgical strikes as part of their effort to liberate address which is now the only hope of the families waiting for news of their loved ones inside the town. of r.t. . western powers have indicated next month's peace talks in geneva may no longer involve calls for assad to be removed from power it's fair to extremists could take control of the country if his government falls the u.s. says it's willing to meet members of the needed formed islamic front group which is

implicated in the bloodshed in ad and we spoke to a political analyst who believes peace is unlikely the u.s. continues to support that. in recent weeks there's been a shift in the relationship between the united states government on the one hand and what is now being presented as the new islamic front and we see that the united states is in fact negotiating and establishing a dialogue with the leaders of these terrorist organizations i should say that in this particular case the people who have dialogue with the terrorists they have blood on their hands they have provided funding most of the military and logistical financial aid has been china holds to these al qaeda affiliated organizations and that's what we have to address there can be no peace as long as

the west military alliance supports the terrorists. this is asking to national and still to come on the program washington's global spyware will be looking at automated gas or hopes to get in return for snooping for america that late. president putin how he's an enormous and q. and a session this week or which lasted for more than four hours been bombarded by dozens of questions he has shared his thoughts on the hottest topics of the past year and as he was a half hour they never met personally but it's revolutions surely made an impact on the world. answering a question about edward snowden the president didn't reveal his exact whereabouts but he couldn't resist humoring his own relationship with barack obama and u.s. surveillance tactics. 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 and clued in those of ethics. ukraine was also discussed that actually said it right from the last few weeks with mass protests in favor of against moving closer with the e.u. moscow's giving you have a fifteen billion dollar wall to help the cause of severe economic problems and according to putin. is not your reason we've often rest. you would know those who are pushing forward the idea of signing an association agreement with the european union these people were governing ukraine not so long ago. it 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 down to 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 like the current amnesty which should affect up to twenty five thousand people coincides with the twentieth anniversary of russia scots dushan members of pussy riot and greenpeace activists from the so-called arctic thirty are expected to benefit so obviously this issue was also mentioned including the president's stance 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 them their second boat started ramming our border guards is that a civil discussion about protecting the environment is just self p.r. or an attempt at blackmail racketeering go them or someone's order to disturb our

work on developing resources if you like that or how to ensure that serve as a lesson and unite us along with greenpeace into an effort to minimize environmental risks instead of just making a fuss. of course these are only a few to alex touched upon which and also talked about recent diplomatic breakthroughs like the syrian chemical arms deal and the iranian nuclear program the conference was attended by over thirteen hundred journalists alas it over four hours is going off r.t. moscow. ya. know. if you got nothing and you got no opportunity. to start to construct your terms. no longer be in bed.

don't want to be gangsters in a lot of. drug dealers they don't want that blow without the time that the kid came be we can see. you just needs a hundred dollars and i was in the hood and what they kill somebody with thirty round clips they keep but it fell right. out i said what about the. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young. this is a media lead us so we leave the baby. by the sea motions to cure the other your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with the guess that you deserve answers from. politics only mark t. .

this is the international welcome back america's global spine at his even a bigger than fast thought their latest need from edward snowden has revealed norway's been sharing intelligence with the glass on russia's politicians energy companies and ordinary people. are investigating why nations are so keen to help washington. we knew that canadian and u.s. intelligence services were close but it was snowden's latest revelation speaks to just how close he gave the canadian media a top secret four page memo a recent one dated april twenty third team by the way that says canada has set up covert spying posts around the world and conducted espionage against trading partners at the request of the us national security agency edward snowden has also

revealed that although the canadian intelligence agency employees twenty times less people than the n.s.a. it has done a lot of work for the n.s.a. apparently including spying on foreign politicians and diplomats during the g. eight and g. twenty summits this document says the see as e.c. which stands for the communications security establishment canada shares with the and i say their unique geographic access to areas unavailable to the u.s. now for course it does not give details on what those areas are that could be the spying posts that canada holds toward the n.s.a. around the globe that could be about the ork to the exploration progress of which is interesting to a number of share of stakeholders due to the region's energy resources the fact is that those agencies are so secretive that there is no way of knowing where that information goes and how it's used do you have all these corporate people working inside n.s.a. and so they've got access like snowden did working for booz allen he had access to all this information too so i mean certainly the corporations themselves with the

people that they have working in these positions could look at that data and gain. leverage for example if they were if they were bidding on a certain contract for or against other competitors around the world that's certainly possible now william binney was an n.s.a. official twelve years ago that's when he blew the whistle on what he saw as the agency's indiscriminate data collection over the years the data collection has grown dramatically and with it grew the list of intelligence services cooperating. mitigation to the traditional five by where you have five english speaking countries spying together on the rest of the world from edward snowden we learned about nine more eyes in europe helping the n.s.a. some more than others there are many questions like what are they getting in return but when we learn about spying on trading partners it's becoming clear that it's not just about chasing terrorists in washington i'm going to check on our team.

meanwhile a federal judge in america has ruled b. and it's a secret gathering of personal data is unconstitutional the government can now either appeal or delete all the data gathered on the five plaintiffs has filed the case and chris kids are in the secure online messaging service and moved his company to avoid the prying eyes of u.s. intelligence he agrees the extent of n.s.a. spying is reasonable. it's not a strong argument compared to the right of people to have privacy in their papers from unwarranted searches so what's what's basically happening the argument the government's making is that the method data that they're collecting which is all the information about the phone calls who called who at what time how long the call was all that information they think that's fair game that they should be able to grab as much of that as possible most people who who look at this you know from a situation like a normal person would say it's just like wiretapping the reality is this they don't

need to do a dragnet on everybody if they really care about terrorists i mean most people would say yeah if there's a suspicion or a reason for people to to be surveilled like this go to a judge get a warrant will cooperate everybody i know in this business would cooperate with a legal warrant to search but when you go on a fishing expedition to catch every fish in the ocean and then throw ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of them back in the water that's that's not good. ukraine could still move closer to the e.u. next year of the block sweetens the trade and association until that announcement from the country's prime minister still didn't appease the protestors in central kiev crowds held once again gathered in central care but the opposition could be less united and it seems as if he's an ex a dash of skill. he used to deliver

punches in the boxing ring and now he's given up his world champions belt to succeed in politics but all habits die hard core likes to use boxing language even in his politics his party's name is the ukrainian democratic alliance for reforms which abbreviates to the ward which translates as a punch. i call to victory in a courtroom battle i make in my personal opponent. hearing the status of a living sports legend in ukraine klitschko made a rapid rise and politics with your sporting making it into parliament last year when known as a politician of relatively mild views he raised many eyebrows when she nearly provoked a major brawl by directing the ngo fired up protestors at security officers during a rally. ukraine cannot be controlled like one controls the situation in the boxing ring the chaos is too big in the country now i

like klitschko but you can't use force to change ukraine. another card in the opposition pack is our sea needs a new axe foreign minister relatively young but experienced in politics he took the reins of former prime minister yulia tymoshenko sparty when she was put in prison gets a new has been vocally advocating her release. in order to release the . prosecutors are building. the secular government to support the claim to the government the president's ability to though not everyone is buying it should tymoshenko walk free his days at the summit of the greats politics will be numbered and last but not least i looked at a new book the leader of the nationalists were the movement gays migrants jews and particularly russians have been in his crosshairs all along he wants to surrender us ukrainians to servitude to eternal slavery under moscow. did new book supports

your integration for ukraine but many say his values are incompatible with the european ones the western powers fake well anything will work if the if we can work with them together and elements and you radicals are ok i think it's a dangerous game i think it is basically represents interference into ukraine's affairs the european union is actually prepared to raise the stakes or cry in the european countries on the fringes and basically risking a sort of a civil war in this riding the tide of you know my down anger the troika of ukraine's opposition looks like a solid unit but appearances can be deceptive when the storm settles and the twenty fifteen presidential election draws closer the lack of a clear opposition front runner could play into your local which is hands and these three men would hardly miss a chance to grab at each other's throats to be their one alexy russia ski r.t. reporting from kiev in ukraine. and the last nagar live to me what

are called skis a nice a conference in about len syme lessons. i perfectly understand you had it not been for the efforts of many many people both in our country and in iraq than there were around the world i would have been here today. which. was more than my or supposed venus that was more to the launch of my cyprien months my release became possible because mass media including media organizations you represent thank you very much with pneumonia seriousness when i think that the intention of the media which in the illusion that the receiver makes it possible for a lot of people even though which is a few who are unjustly incarcerated today in russia.

reason was that preserve their life years bone loss of bush and how much and for their release. i mean yeah and i would like to express that of my resonated to euphoria this yet each night you see it and i personally. look at it in that but very grateful for the support i received from my friends my age my business my partners and of course especially in my family was through these ten years had it not been for the supported it would have been very difficult for me that those are your supplies under these conditions very thankful to mr hahn history. and his efforts this year. it was banks to him that we reached more of a point. where what he would share you could case the

septum used in the suit him slim in the suit you which. i'm sure was a damaged their lives so from the stands if not hundreds of people we see the beginning of the end of this case and i'm very thankful to pro on bill americal for their role. she played in the so in. my release i found out about her role when i was already in i had access to these sources and all for information that most of you know which to take for granted that you know there needs to media facebook twitter got there about stuff like that you're nothing like that existed when i went to prison . yet. there are many people and organizations who played any role in this process anonymous through me grateful to all of them apologize that i

cannot name everybody one of the reasons being that i'm not familiar with it although. i would like to thank the museum the museum on the wall and the director for this opportunity to holds our press conference here. and for remembering me that what you see me and my fellow prisoners throughout those years were good thank you very much exclusive i'm very grateful for the. i had to be this was a new forgettable. not only this section of three which groups it has to do use with the you could say yes thank you for a simple thank you. yet you should

also i would he like having thanked everybody presence here i have to apologize that i will not be able to go into details that much. as they are still have friends left in prison. there were three more doc on my prisoners my friend put on lead to. nowhere it's a mania if you wish people are still in a situation as i read earlier today. you know when the state is los to the unnamed only should representatives of. law enforcement say they still have your question as remaining for people who are left in russia and i hope that after what the president said. at the press conference. the issue off the third case is over but probably

some people in law enforcement still things differently he he also it's true there are other political prisoners left in russia that had nothing to do with the you cause case and i would like to see something. you know there was. don't take me as a symbol. of the fact that there are no political prisoners left in russia it's. a symbol that the efforts of society there are supposed to bring about the release of the new place full of people who nobody. here really just for those we just have to continue working. on them but it's to make sure that there are no political prisoners left in russia second and in fact around the world with. this is we have. speaking there live. and our

correspondent there is following his news conference that will bring us an update on what else he had to say later and let's now get some perspective on his story from a legal expert and a blogger alexander. joining me now live from london mr mccurry is so welcome to our see nice to see you and talk to you as well so i may have thought of how sad is that he doesn't want to be involved in politics or business and won't of fun as the russian opposition or do you make of the decision well i think that's probably what i think that's what we want our i think that's i mean clearly some sort of deal has been done whereby he will leave russia. the problem is drawn to the third you cause case is dropped i'm sure it will be dropped. down to the whole affair and i think that's really what's happened. there are poor that germany

is former foreign minister hans dietrich met twice over the past two years to discount. rate what's in it for germany why is there such attention to this case in germany. i suspect we're germany has a very very strong economic and political relationship with russia and i suspect that a lot of people in germany wanted to resolve this matter it was harder to get to get it out of the way so that they could continue with their relationship with with russia without it's a matter of being there to act as a sort of a problem that we've all been activation if you wish only less interested in sending by really saying that mr hodder cost care thing well i come back to what i've said previously mr khodorkovsky applied for a pardon there was no compelling reason to keep him in.