collapse the soviet union. i'm not so sure about i think the important event as far as to collapse the soviet union was deal was coup or the attempted coup which we can go because of position and strength and. power. in the opportunity to precipitate the breakup i don't think global political from is necessarily. how to lead to the break up of the solving i think those reforms necessarily or very likely to lead to the end of the soviet common system but don't think that society has to break up with the soviet so richard where do you come in on that ok because i mean to this day in in the new russia there is an argument in who is responsible for the breakup of the soviet union was that boris yeltsin looking for power at any cost and he chose the russian federation or got a bunch of it and got a bunch of fending off a a political rival and that was. well i think the two are interconnected and i would also make a point perhaps is a minority point of view the nationalities question was also played a very large role

in mind in the eurasian union whether he meant in the end the political union there maybe forty one out of time gentlemen we'll see what that'll happen in ten years so many thanks my guest today and province in here in the studio and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at the scenic simon rostock. in. wealthy british style. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. plug the mission and free the credit patient free plans for charges free. range month three per treif studio type friesland download free broadcast plug in video for your media projects and free media and on the r.t. dot com. player .

in mind in the eurasian union whether he met in the in the political union there may be for a little bit of time john will see what that'll happen in ten years from many thanks my guest today and province in here in the studio and thanks to our viewers for watching us here to see you next time and remember. plentiful and free the credit patient free transport charges free. range month three per cent free her stereotyped friesland download free broadcast plug in video for your media projects and free media and dog r t dot com. players .

in mind in the eurasian union whether he meant in the end the political union there maybe forty percent of time gentlemen we'll see what that'll happen in ten years no many thanks my guest today in province in here in the studio and thanks to our viewers for watching us here on c.n.n. it's time. to.

s first step towards exiting the union most e.u. members have agreed to control their budgets three states requiring consultations with their parliaments first. libyan authorities asked the u.n. billions of dollars of assets claiming the war torn country doesn't have enough cash to implement reforms huge sums of money were seized by the west after sanctions were placed on libya's former leader. stay with us here on r t cross talk coming your way next. and you can. follow in well the rostock on peter lavelle almost immediately after the collapse of the soviet union twenty years ago the commonwealth of independent states was established its original intent seen by many as a vehicle to witness the amicable divorce of the u.s.s.r. two decades on it is an organisation in search of a mission. to cross-talk the commonwealth of independent states i'm joined by stephen cohen here in the studio he's a professor of russian studies and history at new york university and in providence we crossed in a quiet petro he's a professor of politics at th

in mind in the eurasian union whether he meant in the end the political union there may be for a little out of time gentlemen we'll see what that'll happen in ten years from many thanks my guest today and province and here in the studio and thanks to our viewers for watching us here to see you next time and remember rostov. to. the world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the few jerks covered.

the soviet union disintegrated. was it as much of a surprise as it was for ninety percent of the russian people. when they. came to the state bank in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine prior to that so i worked my entire life. toward bank foreign trade bank were often interacted with western businesses so i realized we were moving towards a dead end. so. since my college years i've been friends with violence in public of who was the head of the pricing committee and later finance minister and later got involved to the ninety ninety one coup. so i big trouble lots of information from my conversations with him. in fact there were serious reforms in the works in this government they included three key aspects. the first the pricing reform because pricing and been wrong ever since industrialisation. i see. what then there was only government property and collective property. you know there were a few workshops in collective property producing consumer goods like clothes for example and some apartment blocks were colle

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 is on that 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 just 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 wondering about their you know their actual political culture

the treasury employees' union, for example. and both patco and the treasury employees' unions were two of the unions pushing hardest for one thing to be included in that bill. they wanted the right to negotiate over pay. and that bill did not give federal workers that right. they were, that was one reason why they were so disappointed with carter, because they believed that carter should have given them that right. and, in fact, it was after 1978, and they realized that no law would come in to give them the right to bargain, that they tarted to think -- started to think the only way they could get it was through militancy. they would accomplish by walking out what the congress had not given them in the 1978 bill. but your question is super, and it gets at one of the real cruxes of this story which is what happened in the carter years that many people in labor felt were so disappointing for people in labor. not just public sector folks, but many in the labor movement. and that helped to fuel ted kennedy's challenge to carter, the

in the eurasian union whether he meant in the end a political union there maybe i thought it was out of time gentlemen we'll see what that'll happen in ten years no many thanks my guest today and province in here in the studio and thanks to our viewers for watching us here to see you next time remember. and. mission in free cretaceous and free zones for judges free. range humans free risk free studio tied free. download free broadcast clothing video for your media projects and a free medio dog hearty dot com in. twenty years ago the largest country in the world to serve two cases of. flu. what had been trying. to teach began a journey. where did it take to. get up sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. download the official anti application to i phone all i pod touch from the i choose outs to. watch on t.v. life on the go. video on demand ati's minefield costs and r.s.s. feeds now in

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 the fate of democracy in russia there are different opinions about the condition of democracy in russia whether and he has very strong opinions as i was and for good reason he wants to go down in history as the father of russian democracy in the west we attribute it to yeltsin but that's not true now if. democracy flourishes in

now what the federal reserve said. it said unionization has about the same effect on investment as a 30 percentage point increase in the corporate tax and two more, brenda, there's a 2010 study out. unionized firms have profits that are 10 to 20% less than nonunionized firms. in study of 510 firms. the growth of unionized firms was zero. brenda, aim i'm not sure how much of a message this says about unionization, it will be flat-out horrible for employment and for the economy. >> brenda: interesting, susan, what are the goals, do they help or hurt jobs? >> you know, the goals of the rules are only affecting when cases wind up in a hearing in front of the nlrb and that's 10% of the cases aen so this is not a broad new wide sweeping mandate the nlrb is giving unions. a lot of times if you look at the rules, they're incredibly byzantine and a lot of hoops to jump through and bad for employers and employees and for the unions and so they're trying to streamline and reduce amount of uncertainty and waiting time and reduce the amount of litigati

many of the building trades unions. specifically endorsed nixon. >> and seafarers. >> and the teepsters. quid pro quo for the teamsters wars the dropping of the final offer selection legislation. but the afl-cio was just intensely distrustful of the mcgovern wing of the democratic party. they were owe palled at the -- at what had happened when the scoop jackson wing of the democratic party seemed to dissolve before their eyes, they were very troubled. it's quite astonishing among -- when you compared the labor movement of the 1960's and 1970's with today, not only has mike said, you have such an enormous decline in the portion of labor -- of labor represented by organized labor, and of course bill made it true, it had -- the labor movement has shifted even within those limited bounds. far to the left as you have a much higher percentage of public employee unions and their political views are much to the left of where the old building trades were or even the industrial union. as a result of which you see quite a shift in

where opinions still split about whether breaking up the union was the best choice for its people. live from moscow you're watching r.t. very warm welcome to just joined us is now one am here my name is kevin irwin and our top story activists in syria claim twenty seven civilians have been killed by government troops over the last twenty four hours it comes as the primary team of arab league observers arrives in the country their mission is to include a peace plan intended to ensure the regime ends its crackdown on the opposition damascus denies committing atrocities saying it's fighting an armed insurgency orchestrated from abroad backing up that claim hundreds of fighters from post gadhafi libya have allegedly flocked to help bring revolution to president assad libyans are now openly voicing their support of the syrian uprising as exam a boy heard. a butcher and a dad meet the owner of this keep up shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad jealous of its economic the biggest game in the uk the city. of the city if. you can't make it

comrades in the soviet union. and he was really taken aback when people in the crowd dared to challenge him. >> that was in a top aide says gorbachev was basically blind it to. gorbachev would say, don't they mud if they lead the soviet union, there will be no an cor and no economy, and the aide comments, he doesn't get it. >> and you know, the democrats in russia at the time, from yeltsin to the intelligence ya, they were outraged by what happened in the baltics and blamed gorbachev. he surrounded himself with people -- the interior memberster and the head have kgb, who were hardliners. and he didn't condemn what was happening but he pulled back because he was going to lose his credibility in the world. ... he really did want to affect a change. >> and he does "that line that is in your book that covert tough, when pressed to get rid of those hard-liners and the old communist party and the repressive apparatus to something like, have to keep that lousy rapid dog on the leash. otherwise it will turn on us and turn

they were talking about replacing the soviet union with something like the european union when you spoke about gorbachev you mr medlock once said i quote it's very unusual to find a leader who will risk is own leadership in order to change the system doesn't work well your boss of that time mr reagan cold called russia the soviet union the evil empire do you personally believe that russia was the evil empire and it took gorbachev's wit and he's power to change it or were this it you know wasn't as evil as reagan portrayed it well reagan never well he used that term in one speech and it was a speech to the domestic audience. one thing reagan understood the month that he did not conflate the soviet union with russia one thing he was very appreciative of russian history he was very respectful of the victory in world war two but we were very much aware of stalin's purges the fact that stalin killed probably as many soviet citizens as hitler did now you're going to be more maybe more so now you're going to call that about nine empire well it isn't him higher in the sense that you have various

and the reformed soviet union. when the inevitable and can fit caution people not to be triumphalist about it. but the way of american politics when election was looming, people thought that he would get reelected without any trouble, but this other some guy named bill clinton came on and began to eat into his phone numbers. not only did he claim victory for the cold war as his annual address to congress in january of 1992, but the republican party convention in houston, which i also attend because i was a white house correspondent. he had went to the crowd chanting u.s.a., u.s.a., when he claimed they had won the cold war. it prompted bill clinton to say that flake claiming before the time because there are other

but first let's see what russians think about him the last leader of the soviet union. is now eighteen years old his name is forever linked with attempts to reform the soviet system. and his policies have received different assessments through the years the russian public opinion research center asked russians to define his historical role fifty one percent of the respondents said his opposed to show who was thinking about the betterment of his country but made a number mistakes sixteen percent called him this honest man who must of modded the collapse of the country and another twelve percent see him as a brave man who took responsibility to oversee vital reforms in the country gorbachev attempted to create a more open and prosperous country through the paula says of glasnost and perestroika back to peter that's what russians think about the legacy of mr gorbachev well our sophie shevardnadze interviewed mr got a bunch off and this is what he said to her about what he thinks his legacy is. going to ensure i think it is a united world. we move personas a world where we s

that set up the soviet union. the soviet union was finished. in 1991, all the leaders of the republic in the soviet union, and agreed they would settle the soviet union, a commonwealth of independent states but no common center, nobody in charge of their foreign policy. it would literally be no role for gorbachev anymore. gorbachev still felt he was in the soviet union in some form, that they would see and wrote a long letter that they would all day in the kremlin as a figurehead in charge of foreign policy and -- [talking over each other] >> host: delusional. >> guest: james baker was secretary of state at the time went to see him. other foreign visitors. this was two days before the end. they saw gorbachev expanding on possibilities of the soviet union expanding on a role in the world. and with a deadpan face, not literally but figured raising eyes to the rising heavens this guy doesn't get it. >> guest: >> host: addition to the yields and/gorbachev tension you have a group of communist party functionaries leapin

used by the right wing let's admit right i mean if you think about the unions where they stand in our political system they are the biggest donors to the democratic party and occupy wall street movement doesn't want to be associated with either party right now right they want to distance themselves from both of them so maybe maybe occupy wall street needs to distance itself from the unions because they're representing part of what they're trying to fight well right now as far as i know only to unions as you know you and i after we have actually endorsed a candidate namely president obama a lot of unions are going to wait until the process continues the democratic convention and so on but they're going to do you know people are going to do to endorse him are not of the on the interest of their members of the interest of the rank and file workers that they represent and you know they occupy people some of them are democrats some of them are republicans but i think there are you know there needs to be autonomy the newsy independence for movements like the labor movement within occupy i c

and the soviet union. i will not going to the background of cultures, but andropov's, general secretary a party at the time, made a comment in september of 1983 that if anyone ever had any illusions about the possibility of an evolution for the veteran, those illusions are completely dispelled now. in the early part of november, but in the second and the 11th, nato conducted an annual command post exercise named able archer, which was to practice procedures for releasing nuclear weapons in the event of a war. soviet intelligence monitoring this very closely, as would be its practice. on november 8 or november 9 in the middle of the exercise kgb residences abroad received an urgent telegram mistakenly reporting an alert at u.s. bases and implying that the alert might not be the beginning of a countdown to nuclear war. according to one report, the staff of the general of stol ordered some soviet missile forces and other measures were taken to enhance the readiness of soviet air forces in central europe. oleg,

they are he' not the little guys. and union government leaders are picking the ritzy hilton in san juan puerto rico to hold the annual convention reportedly funded by union dues. so not a peep out of all the occupy protesters, the so-called rich corporate fat tax. and charles payne along with dagen mcdowell and adam lashinsky, and charlie gasperino. >> occupy wall street, if niece occupy kids are defense greed and people taking advantage of things, they have to be against some of the unions, particularly the big union bosses. you can argue greed by unions kill the auto industry, the trucking industry, you know, hurting the airline industry and the bosses in the unions, forget about it. they, really, really do live a life that only the 1% could even recognize. >> neil: dagen? >> where do you think that this, this hipocracy comes from? what did you say in the intro, rich corporate fat cats, how many heard if you heard those two words, fat cats come out of the president's mouth. >> neil: as soon as i hear that, i don't listen to t