says he's not interested in politics or business. and. economic. top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly. says

he has no interest in pursuing politics or being involved in business he's been holding his first major news conference since being released from jail. reports. during that time while he was speaking to journalists he expressed his gratitude to those who it supported him throughout the years that he was in prison and expressed his gratitude to those that it helped him and once he'd been released he paid specific gratitude to the german off for a season to form a jury in germany foreign minister hans dietrich genscher who provided him who helped him to get a private jet out of russia and help them with that he obtained here and now with regards to his political future he was peppered with questions about math and missed a lot of cause he had this to say you know. i am grateful to germany and german politicians for playing a role in my feet the last thing i want is any problems as

a result of these humane concerns for the people and country which i'm thankful to so far i've been assured that there are no such problem is i'm not planning to be involved in politics which i've already made clear in my letter to president putin and confirmed many times i'm going to devote myself to social issues the struggle for power is just not for me appearing on the net a smart blue sooty fielded questions from a a whole host of journalists packed into the berkeley and wall museum just not too far from where i hammer i am right here in central berkeley and in amongst those questions he did appeal for some kind of privacy for him and his family. said that he didn't have any concrete plans to exactly what he would be doing right now be time line it's seen him come here has been such has moved at such a whirlwind pace from when he was told apparently it to in the morning his time in the penal colony our penal colony on friday morning in russia that he would be set

free. it's all moved at such a pace that saw him arrive here in germany just to live at that first press conference to speak to the the world's media in tell him how he feels and basically he's saying that he needs a little bit of time to readjust to life outside and pay thanks to everybody who helped him along the way. has led a life of extremes going from one of russia's and indeed the world's richest men to a high profile criminal let's recall how he ended up in jail well back in february ninety nine hundred seventy became chairman and c.e.o. of the private corporation you cos which produced a fifth of russia's oil within six and a half years he's one of the country's richest men he was arrested on fraud charges around the same time linked to the privatization of state assets he was eventually found guilty in may two thousand and five and given nine years in prison and an appeal saw a year knocked off that sentence when in december two thousand and six there was

a second case and he was charged with embezzling three hundred fifty million tonnes of oil he was found guilty again and given a fourteen year sentence but the court counted time already served when all of this brings us to this week which saw president putin ahead of his release on friday he was waiting to be let out next door gets to put russia's president made the surprise announcement of his pardon on thursday the decision was made on humanitarian grounds after a quarter cost his letter to putin describing his mother's ailing health he then flew to berlin and met his entire family what the media camped outside the five star hotel where he is staying legal expert and blogger alexander mccurry believes western attention on this story is out of all proportion. any conflict between the russian government and a businessman start the acts the reflex response of the western media is to support the businessman beyond that of course mr holder cos he had lots of people involved in his businesses from abroad in foreign investors all sorts of

people about car and he was the he was russia's richest man and he had connections with the united states connection to germany and of course mr holder because he ran a full moon to be effective public relations machine he had lawyers all over the place spokesmen all over the place who became involved in spinning his story despite the fact that it's not just the russian courts that have said that he's guilty of that people consistently overlook the european court of human rights has repeatedly said that he's guilty as well but that never seems to get reported. one of course of course his former employees he was convicted to life in prison for murder. he was found guilty of ordering the murder of a mayor of a siberian town it was in a dispute with you cost over tax free to form a oil tycoon mentioned but you can when describing how he'll fight for the release

of political prisoners in russia but political commentator alexander class of told us that these sentiments are inconsistent. with that of course you mentioned. enough in some others later simply because he has his own understanding of call the judicial process works and what people should be tickled responsible for or not and if you have a court finding a person guilty of murder i think it's very difficult for anyone to then say well he's guilty but he's not actually guilty because he's a political that was not i find it quite order should elect find that also all in one sentence somebody says that he's not going to be involved in politics and basically in the same press conference says well yes but i will be involved in helping political prisoners in russia. and there be plenty more news on the concorde koskie throughout the day with analysis both here in r.t.

and on our website on t. dot com. other news now here in r.t. international a suicide bomb attack on a primary school in syria has reportedly killed several children it's the latest atrocity after 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 address ortiz arabic channel went down 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 address but officials are saying the atrocities against the civilian population are continuing our 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 organon an asian 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 the 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 address the dad led taqiyya 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. he's an industrial town with a lot of the us residents working both in the private sector and for government to agencies horrifying crime must have been committed in this town houses were set on fire with people trapped inside and. 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 which is now the only hope of the families waiting for news of their loved ones inside the town. r.t. well western powers have indicated next month's peace talks in geneva may no longer involve calls for assad to be removed from power is feared extremists could take control of the country if his government falls washington says it's willing to meet members of the newly formed islamic front group which is implicated in the bloodshed in a drone we spoke with an advisor to the u.s. congress who warns extremists cannot be trusted well first of all it would be a strategic mistake if the us administration or europe or their allies would be engaging in a partnership and a partnership meaning they would be collaborating with organizations that are jihadi and have not committed to become moderates or recognize the fact that if

they come to power or part of power they will recognize human rights that did not happen that would be a mistake of the size that was done in afghanistan and may be done again with a party band next year number two if the united states will engage or has engage some of these organizations probably in the goal of a very tactical engagement to make sure that those forces are not going to bring more foreign forces from the outside including al qaida but again i'm very skeptical so we have to have a better strategy to engage with the more moderates with the seculars and also with the minority is that exists in syria today. coming up at r.t. international fire and water. which you can fit into your house. if you think it apparently few people would but these are pictures of a magic trick but something that makes ordinary texans who live near fracking sites think twice before turning on the tap at home or not for you shortly.

but first president putin held his annual marathon q. and a session this week which lasted for more than four hours bombarded by dozens of questions he shared his thoughts on the hottest topics of the past year and that is you know a person of was that they'd never met personally but is revolutions truly mean 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 including those of ethics. ukraine was also discussed

it actually said it rough in the last few weeks with mass protest of all in favor of against moving closer with the e.u. moscow is giving key of a fifteen billion dollar loan to help because of severe economic problems and according to putin integration is not the core reason behind the wave of unrest. those who are pushing forward the idea of signing an association agreement with the european union these people would governing ukraine not so long ago. was a foreign minister also headed the parliament to machinegun is a former prime minister who was ukraine's president why didn't they sign these papers when they were in power no one was standing in their way they could have gone ahead and sign them and there'd be no problem today i have legitimate downs that the current protests are about moving closer to the e.u. it's an internal political struggle and signing or not signing this document is just a pretext like the current amnesty which should affect up to twenty five thousand

people coincides with the twentieth anniversary of russia scott's addition 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 steps on the organization itself. through their ship it entered our exclusive economic zone was not responding and they tried to scale the platform after an attempt to stop them the second boat started ramming our border guards is that a civil discussion about protecting the environment. it's just self p.r. or an attempt to block my little racketeering or someone's order to disturb developing resources will happen should 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 topics touched upon which you 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 and lasted over four hours you're pissed off r.t. moscow. meanwhile rallies go on in ukraine despite assurances from the government that the country still plans to move closer to the e.u. we've got a report coming up for you from central yep that's just ahead. down the stand here correctly that you don't believe that ad what snowden performed a public service may be in the best interest of the united states but at least and be a best interest of humanity here countries don't want to turn over their playbook to the other side and that's essentially what's happened here it is true that it is heard a big debate about the role of our intelligence services in the united states i think that debate was coming anyway after nine eleven but i don't think we've had

sort of anything in the interest of humanity served by this episode. do we speak your language i mean some of the will not advance. news programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little too much of angles stories. for you here. ulty spanish find out more visit actuality. dot com. infertility birth defects and cancer whole potential side effects of chemicals found this week near fracking wells in colorado scientists claim they also discovered substances capable of disrupting homans but u.s.

companies are pushing ahead with the exploration and it's going to change can reports residents living near wells have almost no one eyes in this struggle for a safe neighborhood the local government in texas tells steve lipski that the water from his well water that he can set on fire is safe to drink and to use in his home . you can't get in here how. you make it but steve has the assessment of other experts who say he's well is it ticking bomb in his backyard loaded with methane and other contaminants why the starkly different assessments steve claims that a fracking operation nearby contaminated his well and that texas energy authorities are shielding the gas company they don't want the world to know that it really is this bad they don't want it in official documents it could be that the fracking allowed gas from lower formations into the aquifer and subsequently into steve

lipski as well the gas company denies the claim the lips case sued the range resources corp but the firm counter sued and won in cause and effect to have intensive ground water is incredibly difficult to prove my view solace are is an engineer who worked with the federal environmental protection agency is not surprised that the state oil and gas regulator sided with the gas corporation conceit that the rights it seen come in survival. from oil and gas production issues really put him in charge of also regulating the protection of groundwater from our going down swells and there's an even haren. conflict of interest and that determined to fight for his home father of three steve has been shipping fresh water from the city on trucks at

a cost of five hundred dollars a month but the family now faces another blow from the fracking corporation of four point two million dollars lawsuit for defamation steve lipski is dream house and it's a beautiful property has become his nightmare several of his neighbors apparently have the same problem but they're reluctant to speak out after they saw how the gas company went after mr lipski they shouldn't expect much help from washington either why do you sell us are says the environmental protection agency has not put nearly enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a reporting favor of the practice phillipe schemes were advised to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack this guy thousand feet deep if it were

pretty much standing around on top of the one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some contaminant in the border area and they're able to trace it to this frack him and we've got the offices to head who cares invest in a few loss of fee for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leaves his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes going to check on our tea party county texas. meanwhile a new energy boom heading for the british countryside is yet to receive a warm welcome a government report has laid the groundwork to open up vos swathes of the u.k. to oil exploration including shale gas drilling now the light blue on this map shows how much land throughout the u.k. has been earmarked u.k.'s energy minister has hailed this report as the next step in unlocking britain's fracking potential friends of the earth helen rimmer believes it's time to stop before it is too late. we've only had

a handful of exploratory drilling sites across the u.k. but already we've seen huge local opposition whether it's been in the southeast the mainland or the northwest where we're saying that now and i think with the government's new licensing round which is going to open up another two thirds of the country to potentially to fracking we're going to see even more opposition and i think the government is going to have to put a moratorium in place like it had done previously and actually listen to the concerns of communities because there's a very loud and clear message. so the arabia and its eastern neighbors team up to let the gulf know who is boss as we report on our website that countries are creating a joint force of over one hundred thousand combat troops i don't know why they are making a show of strength. to has access to woodward snowden's documents he's got four alarm systems in his butt to keep the secret safe but that wasn't enough to prevent intrusion small details on that ability but.

these are. braving the elements in the want to just stand on u.s. soil giants. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some of the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines. oh it's. ukraine can still move closer to the e.u. next year if the blocks weakens the trade and association deal that announcement from the country's prime minister still didn't appease the protestors in central

kiev crowds are once again gathered there is. a report. tens of thousands are back in the streets of ukraine's capital kiev to protest on this sunny day that's after several days of relative calm and that you would be suspicious on the ground here that the protests in the independence square may dispersed by itself sooner or later obviously today is the prove that this would not happen at least in the nearest future in fact we've heard from the opposition talking from the state that they're planning to keep the protest alive at least until january the twelfth they're definitely planning to spend the new year's eve at the independence square so this is a clear indication the anti-government protests would be lasting for some time here in ukraine this week represented something of a turnaround for ukraine at least economically with the article which president is going to moscow and signing several agreements with russia particularly gaining fifteen billion dollar bill in the ukrainian eurobonds as well as receiving a much coveted discount for the russian gas almost one hundred thirty dollars per

month discounted still despite many experts saying that this would help the this would greatly help ukraine economy which has been suffering ailing and pretty much in a pretty fault state this what happened to survive at least until the next six seven months the opposition is not happy they're describing it as a sell out of the country and they are unwilling to keep protesting as long as it takes to have the government resigned and the president to step down. in this week has not been offered by the e.u. to help subsidize its food banks and on them told brussels such funding would be better delivered by member states individually but that has provoked anger in a country where the use of the charity handouts is rising dramatically as aussies or smith reports. just a stone's throw from the seat of government in westminster is something that's becoming a more and more common sight in the u.k. this building's used as a food bank handing out emergency supplies to families so poor they can't afford to

eat as the cost of living rises the number of people turning to food. it's fundings tighter all the time but nevertheless the government has turned down a potential twenty two million pounds in funding for food aid why because the money comes from the european union britain we've got a government with a very anti european ideology appears to be more keen to. warn europe to get credit for something than to get money which can how fate hungry people are if you are starving you need some food and you upright to die and this government's refusal to cry in the carriage is literally taking food out to the merits of the hungry the european aid for the most deprived fund amounts to two and a half billion pounds but the position britain's taken means the country will receive just two point nine million and instead of using that for food aid as

intended it's expected the government will spend it on helping unemployed people find work all well and good to say critics but there are people who need survival basics now and this money is meant for them. i mean that with a news team with wolf in just over half an hour from now the meantime an in-depth discussion on the n.s.a. spy scandal with a white house security veteran that's next and will deploy. they're calling obama's happy smiling sophie photo with the danish and british prime ministers at the mandela funeral an international incident but before we rail on obama for doing something stupid a funeral we need to clear one thing up the washington post says that this action occurred at the memorial service after the funeral was over and trust me after about three hours of serious lectures at

a conference or some sort of super long wedding most of us would just be banging our heads against the wall out of boredom and i'd probably check my email about seven times obama's place know i said most of us but the president isn't supposed to be like most of us because he represents all of us it's one thing when you're fourteen and too stupid to realize that selfie photos at the wake after grampa's funeral is a bad idea but it's another thing entirely when one of the most photographed and powerful people on the planet takes a selfie at the memorial service of someone he claims to respect although i might sound annoyed this sophie is pretty much irrelevant this is just a big error of etiquette there are plenty of real concrete things with real consequences to be bad at obama over like our being religious wacko rebels in syria or signing into law the n.b.a. i wish with all my heart that we only had to be angry with obama over some minor etiquette errors but sadly they're just a drop in the obama bucket but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to worlds apart ordering and major overhaul of intelligence operations once every ten years is seemingly becoming a new american tradition last decade was brought about by nine eleven this time around by public opera or over the extent of anastase surveillance but are these reforms really after whipping as they're presented in the media well to discuss that i'm now joined by michael allen who worked on national security policy for both the bush and obama administrations mr allen thank you very much for being on the show if your book blinking red you describe what you called the most momentous overhaul of america's national security infrastructure since the second world war

spurred by nine eleven and the iraqi misadventure but i wonder if that sweeping reform really brought any substantial change because previously the intelligence community was criticized for inadequate communication among various agencies and as the boston bombing revealed that communication was still inadequate the cia used to be in believed it still has the dominant role within the intelligence community so what has really changed as a result of that major overhaul that you describe in your book i think you're on to something and that's one of the central questions in my book blinking red which is all the institutional reforms and new intelligence agencies that we set up after september eleventh and after the intelligence failure in iraq whether they have done a good job as we say here in the united states connecting the dots trying to collect information and connect it to each other if they have some sort of effect that

might give us a warning of a terrorist attack like in boston or any islamic extremists that might be coming after the united states or our allies well one thing that has done. and the plea changed is the massive infusion of money since two thousand and one the united states has spent i think over a five hundred billion dollars on intelligence during that period and american officials have long claimed that you know the main outcome of that exorbitant spending was the lack of any. additional catastrophic terrorist attack but of course many other countries that have the same result for much much less i wonder if these. you know all that spending has really led to any increase in efficiency of operations or rather what they've had possibly an opposite effect because we all know that when money is not an issue efficiency is usually not the

first concern well i would disagree with you i don't think it's exorbitant spending at all when you look at what happened in the united states on september eleventh to have two of our biggest buildings in new york knocked down the pentagon attacked and another plane that was heading for washington d.c. that was very appropriate spending and i think we've seen the results of it you mentioned other countries other countries are not the target that the united states is for islamic extremists and so i think the united states citizens have gotten what they've paid for when they because we've been able to for you all and prevent numerous attacks on the continental united states and in europe with some of our allies because we're spending so much more money on intelligence and because we're able to have a more capable intelligence service going after threats to our country well you just mentioned nine eleven and that was of course.