on the soviet union's first on loss president celebrates his eightieth birthday. also consider the man who put pressure on the policy towards democracy president dead of his wish to be back in the water had the highest award in russia. gas discuss how the legacy of the father of russian democracy is seen both in russia and the sun. take it. slow and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle as he turns eighty mailed out of a child's legacy sees him loved abroad in loath to home as glasnost and perestroika become distant memories of we ask how will history judge the man who seemingly ended history. can. you discuss the legacy of the last soviet leader i'm joined by stephen cohen here in the studio he's a professor of russian studies and history at new york university and his latest book is the victims return survivors of the gulag after stalin in london we go to geoffrey hosking he's an emeritus professor of russian history at university college london and his latest book is rulers in victims the russians in the soviet union and also in london we have lagged sobel he

to discuss the legacy of the last soviet leader i'm joined by stephen cohen here in the studio he's a professor of russian studies and history at new york university and his latest book is the victims return survivors of the gulag after stalin in london we go to geoffrey hosking he is an emeritus professor of russian history at university college london and his latest book is rulers and victims the russians in the soviet union and also in london we have lad sobel he's an analyst at the securities and another member of our crosstalk team on the hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk that means you can jump in anytime you want stephen i want to go to you first here as got a bunch off is eighty years old today and let's talk about global legacy and then let's go to specific to russia what is his contribution to history at eighty years old remembering his rule ending the soviet union well one contribution is already recorded in history he set free the countries of eastern and central europe that's done where they go from here is up to them what's not settled or written history is t

union the soviet union as distinct from russia. and once there was no no more any will from moscow to hold the thing together by means of the communist party then the other nationalities starting with the baltic and carrying on with georgia and armenia and so on they started to go their own way and at that point the communist party of the soviet union really lost much of its or isn't it now gorbachev perhaps could lead to say in the early months of one thousand nine hundred one have split the communist party and lead a kind of social democratic wing of it himself and that might have been successful but significantly he didn't do that so i think really the evidence suggests that the communist party of the soviet union was really unreformable ok vlad you want to jump in on this one yeah i would i would i definitely agree there is this going collusion and i would press that the united russia party is in a sense a revival revived communist party because you know it's the party of the officials of the of the state you know some wonderin

he carried out the reform did not work or it worked badly what do you think about that i think the soviet economical so dysfunctional so wasteful it was impossible to reform me the only way was actually what is a and concrete call ups and disintegration of the soviet union and i would actually argue that the economic factors was really very much behind the disintegration of the soviet union because you couldn't carry on market county to implement market reforms on the basis of central control in from moscow you really had to devolve power to the group the various three probably this is the seed of this integration and we're seeing similar such processes in central europe as well in czechoslovakia in yugoslavia so you know i don't i don't believe that the idea that the economy could be risky would in some fall i think is delusional if i can add on top of it he would use a good economic reform here frankly stephen here and then having political freeform simultaneously they create high expectations when the shelves are empty i mean it is certain point there is a collision and there was a col

pictures of the cattle car, those are all soviet cars but the soviet insignia on it and this was allt before hitler started deporting people. he was not a very imaginative person. they were very thorough god knows but stalin had been doing all this dividing of people into acceptable and unacceptable groups for 20 years for the nazi's, the division was by race, soviets, was social class. >> we will be back on mosaic a great change is at hand and our task is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. those who look only to the past or the present, are certain to miss the future. do not pray for easy lives. pray to be stronger men. ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. when we can all breathe easier. we're fighting to make every section a smoke-free section. for a day when even vehicles quit smoking. we're fighting for clear skies over every city and healthy lungs throughout the country. the american lung association isn't just fighting for air. we're fighting for all the things that make it worth breathing. join us

power over is forty centimeters long the soviet one was four meters. so it was much larger significantly design of the original duno codes was the subject of serious scientific debate and extensive testing when the program first emerged in the one nine hundred sixty s. an elaborate top secret artificial moon surface was constructed for the purpose and soviet crimea chassis size and shape vary greatly as did the distribution of on board equipment perhaps the most important aspect in question was how exactly the rovers would move walking crawling copying tract and we'll designs all had their pluses and minuses defenders and detractors cylinder partners designers are hoping the answer many of the same construction questions at the center of their lunar x. prize campaign as industrial designers their job is to find the overlap between form and function like their soviet predecessors four decades ago they've narrowed the field to do to most attractive mobility options wield like their first prototype and a second walking model. for now the stepping cylinder

on a visit to the island home of the former soviet station. spacecraft return to orbit they're banking on the tried and tested expertise already invested in their design and construction. of space tourism competitors. because it's history's first multiple. so this is it. for use on a single flight mission for ensuring up to thirty. nine hundred sixty military launched a program to provide a million surveillance station in lower. consisting of a service module and the reusable reentry vehicle were to be launched on the heavy lifting. stations flew under the names two three and five in the seventies and work with advanced observation and communication equipment even modified artillery to protect against enemy satellites the original project was divided in later discontinued to stations in the return capsules again to test. three or four people. every person. planning is the most suitable. tourists to work in a comfortable environment. everyone will have their own work and the window. to the. capsule will be the first part of the complex to fly w

discuss the last soviet leaders main achievement as you turns eighty that's to come but let's get the wednesday business up next the matrix . i know you're watching business r.t. live from moscow and the news just in french oil nato teller's buying a twelve percent stake in russia's independent gas producer novak i'm to boost it to nineteen point four percent in the next three years this takes valley was not made public but judging by overtakes current michael capitalization it could be worth around three and a half billion dollars now totalis also joining overtaken the strategic partner in an ambitious project on the your mouth and inside that meeting with president of bet at the head of the french oil giant christophe de margerie said the unrest in northern africa in the middle east is only making russia more attractive. to the fundamental rules that are now taking place in orland gas producing countries gives a signal to all investors they should be going to russia as russia offers much sweeter conditions for investment you can walk down one prices continue to wobble close to the h

twelfth two thousand and eleven marks the fiftieth anniversary of an incredible achievement to put soviet science and innovation not just on top of the world but beyond this world all together. it was that day in one nine hundred sixty one that saw the unprecedented launch of man into orbit the soviet cosmonaut yuri got in making history aboard of us talk spacecraft going in became a hero and the whole world caught space fever but behind the scenes the technology that made man flight possible had been a top priority for over a decade with both peaceful and military objectives siggy could go along with talented specialists like but he should have told masterminded the soviet rocket program that emerged after the second world war as with their rivals in the us this soviets first developed rockets based on the german v. two that it was known as the r one first tested in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight soviet engineers work simultaneously on original designs that would create new rockets in quick succession within a decade to first of the now famous r seven family would be ready to lau

ups of the soviet union and troughs departure his critics say he plunged the country into a destructive and chaotic reform the effects of which are still being felt today. still says russia was in desperate need of change. but when he said we realized from experience that it was dangerous to wait much longer that we have to take a risk because we couldn't postpone as we needed changes i don't agree with people to the perestroika failed it didn't fail it was disrupted the rails stopped but still perestroika achieved a lot inside russia we had democracy free elections freedom of conscience private property freedom to travel abroad everything looked also glasnost there was so much openness the entire country was affected people realized they had finally got some freedom an opportunity to act in foreign affairs we put an end to the cold war we normalized our relationship with the u.s. we reunited germany we didn't send our tanks our troops there all our units in eastern europe stayed where they were it wasn't always easy many things did not work out the way we planned at the beginning when

and the soviet union is first and last president celebrates his eightieth birthday. consider the man who put russia on the path towards democracy. and well throughout his time in power gorbachev played a pivotal role in bringing about the end of the cold war the reunification of germany liberalism and destroy the and the soviet union archy caught up with them and that interview's up next. because mr gorbachev it's so great to have you with us today good to see you again but this regard richard if you're turning eighty do you ever think the world will look like this on your eightieth birthday. it's not easy to surprise people like me those who lived to see their eightieth birthday have seen a lot in life eighty is a lot we should thank god for giving us so many years and because it eighty you already know a lot you've experienced many things i can view life in a primitive way today laughter safer today compared to the late eighties with us this war if we look at the middle east for example in most countries where people took to the streets demanding resignation of the

they didn't give it to the new york times they gave it to the soviet union they're not whistleblowersthey're spies. what it meant or what manning has been charged giving away is i think of such a nature destructive to our foreign policy just destructive to our national interests that if he did all of what he's been accused of doing not charged as you point out i do i do think he deserves to be executed yes he's been tried in the media just as the rosenbergs were tried in the media here he's been held incommunicado charges have not yet been pressed and yet he stripped naked every night i mean he's being held in a way that would be humiliating and considered a form of torture why because they're trying to do what yes when you when you look at when you keep people. relieving of torture when you humiliate people when you degrade people it's a form of psychological psych ups terror and just as ethel rosenberg who they knew was in no way involved in any of this. to the extent that it existed the way she was held in a in a particular way threatened with death hoping that she would abandon he

we would do you blame yourself for the fall of the soviet union. no i fought the best i could to defend the soviet union but i failed why do you think the c.i.s. fell apart it is practically nonexistent. that's because of the political situation we had in our country after nine hundred eighty nine the elite played a role there after nine hundred eighty nine we had the coup first they tried to overthrow gorbachev using political means but they failed because people supported gorbachev i always went to ask during the coups what if you were isolated what did you feel. i knew anything could happen it was not just a feeling i knew it. they tried to provoke us and get us to start shooting and then they would document that and have the right to shoot back and kill us. what were you afraid the most for your life your country. you. know for my family and of course i thought that it was not going to be just my family other people may suffer too i knew there would be bloodshed. especially if you consider how big our country is it takes our country a while to

on a soviet union. president celebrates his eightieth that they've become got a bunch all sensitive a man put a brush on the paul so both democracy. now but i suspect it's for us good to see you soon news of last night's football. that's right a few surprises with chelsea coming from behind to beat man united plus we've got a cricket hat trick to enjoy it you know what that is alex going to say i don't really know what is when a bowl a gets that three batsmen in a row from three boards that makes it clearer. picture is coming up in a moment the staging for the sport. hello there thanks for watching the sport and this is what is coming up. staying alive in our last go get a vital win against an armory get to remain in the cage tell playoff. class leggins losing day the brazil world cup winner carlos face to face is an easy use to eat in the russian cup. chelsea he's you know it's the police basically leading this team was a stockbroker. first i did on the moscow have kept their garden cup hopes alive aft

on the last leader of the soviet union celebrates his eightieth birthday mr. brown behind the constellation of state says the ship and the promotion of free speech bought some making him paid in the way it was struck to back new york city or for this. his destiny golf how the legacy of a father of russian democracy is seen both in russia and on the other side of the atlantic costal is up next. keep. following well across town peter lavelle as he turns eighty neil got a bunch of slaves each season loved abroad in a low thin home as glasnost and perestroika become distant memories of we ask how will history judge the man who seemingly ended history. can. you discuss the legacy of the last soviet leader i'm joined by stephen cohen here in the studio he's a professor of russian studies and history at new york university and his latest book is the victims return survivors of the gulag after stalin in london we go to geoffrey hosking he's an american professor of russian history at university college london and his latest book is rulers and victims the russians in t

in the last leader of the soviet union celebrates his eightieth birthday. the consolation of state censorship and the promotion of free speech in some accusing of paving the way for destructive reform. thanks for being with r.t. tonight coming up next complete change of subject the history of the car bomb and how it shaped the face of terrorism in the twentieth century. when i had a bombing of a school minor minor people might have amassed. a homemade explosives slipped across the atlantic into the hands of the ira. the world's first full scale car bomb or was now ready to begin. and the material to make the bombs was lying around in every farmer's barn in ireland. shot o'callahan was a senior ira bomb maker at the time.

at a soviet union's first of last president celebrates his eightieth birthday. considered the man who could wash all the cars she wants to moxie and off throughout his time in power going to talk played a pivotal role in bringing about the end of the cold war the reunification of germany liberalism and perestroika in the soviet union we'll argue caught up with him and the interviews up next. because it well mr gorbachev it's so great to have you with us today good to see you again but this regard you're turning eighty did you ever think the world looks like there is on her eightieth birthday. it's not easy to surprise people like me but those who live to see the eightieth birthday have seen a lot in life eighty in the last we should thank god for giving us so many years because an eighty you already know a lot of experience many things i can't view life in a primitive way because he's a laugh a safer today compared to the late eighty's. if we look at the middle east for example in most countries where people took to the streets demanding resignation of their lea

union reformable now when introduced elements of private enterprise into the soviet economy what the private enterprise did was to suck goods out of the state economy and create an economic crisis where there were desperate shortages in the cities so that the way he carried out the reform did not work or it worked badly vlad what do you think about that i think the soviet economy will so dysfunctional so wastefully thought impossible to reform me the only way to what is there and complete collapse in disintegrate.

spoke to the former soviet leader about his legacy as interview is coming up next. well mr gorbachev it's so great to have you with us today good to see you again well mr gorbachev you're turning eighty did you ever think the world will look like this on your eightieth birthday. it's not easy to surprise people like me those who lived to see their eightieth birthday have seen a lot in life is a lot we should thank god for giving us so many years and because it eighty you already know a lot you've experienced many things i can view life in a primitive way that is a laugh a safer today compared to the late eighty's. if we look at the middle east for example in most countries where people took to the streets demanding the resignation of their leaders these leaders have been in power for twenty or thirty years it is unbelievable mubarak has ruled egypt for twenty nine years for gadhafi we are all confused about the actual date when his rule began so i think we were right when we said there should be a limit otherwise people got tired of the same leaders in addition afte

it was intended to be a dream project for soviet ukraine. the birthrate in prepared was higher than all of ukraine people were given homes and there was a great demand for a workforce. to everyone work and light good. but this happy existence came to an abrupt and on april the twenty six nine hundred eighty six with the explosion over reactor at the power station the very same otto used for building the plant spare no effort was known to be used in the clear up of the world's worst ever. manmade nuclear disasters the blazing reactor was bombarded with sand and led measures which at first seem to panic driven but which were related deemed highly effective by the international atomic energy agency this action helped to contain the radiation and enable construction of the circle for goods and structure built around the reactor to seal it well for several months after the cast of feet the lessons of chernobyl have been learned by experts worldwide since the catastrophe and will have been of assistance to those battling the latest serious nuclear

and the last leader of the soviet union celebrates his eightieth birthday the whole global child was the money behind the consolation of state censorship on the promotional free speech that some accuse him of paving the way for destructive and pale to performance. there's the headlines coming out of the history of the kabul and the face of terrorism in the twentieth century. my name is bob baer. i used to be a cia station in the eleven on during the civil war. it was chaos. but the real threat was always car bombs. but until now the car bomb secret history has never been told who invented it who developed it and who killed.