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city of slovyansk book in soldiers' historical hotels of its culture in the city so it's in the sky called smalls. as a good up until the struggle for us to tropicana her to. god not sure what nato is in the twenty first century might think and so outdated. in the modern world and deciding on an afghan strategy and a closer ties with the alliance wrestles with an identity crisis says delegates in lisbon. what lies beneath our tea investigates the potentially catastrophic danger lurking out of the concert top sarcophagus coverage know both sides of the world's worst nuclear accident. and a get out of jail card for russia's minor offenders clients and community service consumer place time behind bars to ease the strain on the president's mood.

you're watching r t five pm here in moscow welcome to the program now to our top story defining nato is relevance today and in the future what to do in afghanistan and gauging russia now the key issues to be discussed at a crucial summit for the alliance in portugal the meeting comes at a hard time for the group of nations which is facing an identity crisis sixty years after being created to oppose the soviet union artie's a lorry mr has a story. it's the biggest and oldest military alliance in modern times but when you think about what its place is in the world today. the answer doesn't come easily and not just for one speechless american official

decades after the cold war ended with no common enemy originally supposed to define i defend western europe against the soviet union nato allies have been at a loss for a new one and at a loss for a clear purpose it doesn't matter what identity crisis for awhile we can severely by the seemingly endless afghan war with nato members growing weary in countries such as canada and the netherlands pulling troops out the power of the block is in question. many of the places in the world with. form. and perhaps the consequences of a growing group of now twenty eight nations driven together but still largely led by the interests of one states who's trying to. directly tries to use need. to fulfill american missions yet everyone feels the

strain and with goals not laid out since before the attacks on nine eleven which drove the alliance into war there's not much that's concrete to guide an organization seemingly in crisis which is just one reason why now when lisbon this meeting matters here at the nato summit the alliance will try to buy for modern relevance with the promise of new strategic goals but also here in lisbon are another group of international critics who believe that there is no place for nato and the twenty first century reiner brown is planning an anti nato protest you know i think there is no place for major i think there is no place for me. in the world because you can solve any of the globe. a problem for the military not and nato is now looking to an old foe for help solving its problems with all drop which. basically is one of the global players.

like the war on going war in afghanistan they're looking to russia for help with supply routes in fighting the drug trade and now an organization that famously touted a mission of keeping the russians out and the americans in needs the russians in afghanistan to help the americans get out i'm not sure what nato is in the twenty first century and i think it's i would dated and without a major rethinking of its goals policies and missions and alliances looking for a new place in the world may find itself. the answer. fumbling along without one boring mr r.t. lisbon portugal well let's stay with the nato summit and talk to germany based political observer christophe forstall who's in a potsdam now christophe there are a lot of key issues to be discussed at nato the identity crisis to decline in

european defense budgets so what exactly would constitute a successful summit for nato. is access for some good for nato very clearly is a summit with the differences within the nato organization are not too openly to be seen from outsiders and i'm not too much destructing nato's daily work which is quite serious there is the afghan crisis going on the so-called war on terror has new heights right now and we do have a lot of problems of budgets and political constraints and differences so a peace summit might be they somehow manage to cover it up but one of the key issues on the table is nato will it more from a military organization into a political one as some have suggested. well that certainly forms part of the

system and i think that will go through but we have a lot of differences for example is concerned the relationship to russia or we have had a close relationship under the presidency of excellence emitted if but how deeply that has reached remains to be seen the nuclear weapons not as nuclear weapons may lead the u.s. nuclear weapons in central europe that is a big problem and i don't think we're going to solve that there's the nato defense ballistic defense system that is also a big problem is specially chosen for german russian relations and i'm not sure that this summit can solve these problems so i have the problem with this summit i do not think that the approach is correct there are too many strategic differences and they're not really discussed it will talking about differences it's reported nato's new strategic concept does not include the removal of cold warrior nuclear

weapons from europe even though russia sees them as a threat now will that admission hamper improving ties with moscow. of course that will remain an obstacle though i do think that moscow is clever enough to find ways around it and show nato some of the more clever ideas how to overcome the problem but basically i see two things moscow's policy towards europe is in fact in the conduct of foreign policy a bit outdated moscow is reaching out to the governments not enough to the people and that means there is no not enough public support within the euro within germany for example for better russian ties and that's what people like me hope for and then there's another point out to say that russia is also. not in a position right now to be strongly defended is a new partner within nato by some of the nato partners and that's

a general political flaw of the situation and this to overcome would take years i think all right well moving on to another point the alliance is new a doctrine won't single out any one country as a potential military adversity so what exactly is the point of its existence who is nato in that. yeah the final document may not name iran but it was in the document before it was finalized or is being finalized in lisbon and that means we do have to deal with the very serious threat of a war against iran coming on within the next two years so in fact nato is looking for a more coherent strategy more balance between you know in the area and out of actions and many countries many partners of nato and members of nato are discussing should we be as outgoing so to say as we were and there is

a lot of. hard to say resistance doing more i don't think any possible iran war for example would be warmly welcomed by any way anyone but the u.s. and that is a situation of course with a big question marks also put not only behind may do a future role but also behind the next coming years one to three years all right thank you very much for your insight that was germany based political observer christophe. now scientists fear the site of the chernobyl nuclear disaster still has the potential to cause an even greater catastrophe concrete a bunker covering the area is nearing the end of its life and no one can be sure just how deadly the debris beneath still is artie's alexei ownership ski reports. almost quarter of a century since the chernobyl fallout a special confinement structure called the circle for gas is still preventing more radioactive emissions into atmosphere this structure the circus was built in one

thousand eight hundred six just months after the disaster that you know build nuclear power plant back then experts predicted that this would last for only twenty years until two thousand and six that is but it was strengthened and improved extending its lifetime for five more years the biggest question is how much nuclear fuel remains under the surface some experts believe that there is none as most of it did vaporize into the atmosphere and was spread around the chernobyl exclusion zone but many experts believe that there are ninety five percent of nuclear fuel still remaining under the surface and that could be tons and tons of nuclear material. we believe that the nuclear fuel under this account for gross is no longer solid mass like it was twenty four years ago that now is more like three layers of dispersed dust so should the presence of those crops we could see a very powerful explosion at the facilities as powerful as a nuclear one. in order to avoid another catastrophe europe invested in the

building of a new confinement in two thousand and seven french company another article was allowed to start the construction of an arch like steel structure to cover the facility three years later the project is underway with more than five hundred engineers building the new circle for girls next to the contaminated plant it won't be just the frame yeah it will be a technological complex as multi-functional crane system will be installed inside the new structure it was a final step in the new safe confinement should provide the safety environment for the works in far the project's initial cost was thought to be half a billion euro now sources in chernobyl report that figure has almost doubled but in the fight for the continent's safety knows is too much the new confinement is expected to be completed by the year twenty thirteen and is expected to last for

another hundred years the only question is what is the fate of the nuclear power plant in chernobyl some say that it may be dismantled under this new dome but that is only a speculation for now we only heard that this is a process which may take another seventy years and there are no technologies to this date which would allow this to happen. r.t. reporting from the chernobyl exclusion zone in ukraine and still to come in the program a new hope for russia's first time offenders reforms of the prison system could see fines and community service replacing jail sentences for minor crimes. now there's been a little sign of improvement of the situation in russia's volatile north caucasus according to president dmitri medvedev he's meeting security forces and local leaders in southern russia to discuss how to. bring stability for more we're now

joined by of course want to get the aggression over who's following the visit to a for us so the medvedev is painting a fairly gloomy picture there what strategies have been discussed to try and change that. all the strategy is that terrorism cannot be counted singlehandedly to successfully by terrorism is the task of many this was the top message during the talks all the north coke asian leaders with the russian president the talks most of which were held behind closed doors just shortly before the meeting started the president pay credit to those who provided the security on day to day basis. to their lives he visited military barracks and gave awards to offices of russia's interior ministry for their outstanding services and these officers of course are the people who know first hand how high the price for peace can be twenty ten was a very top year for them the number of terrorist attacks grew for

a forward to compile to two thousand and nine and as the national counterterrorism committee reported today over six to terrorist attacks were prevented this year and over three hundred terrorists were destroyed but as the russian president said today statistics in russia are something he wouldn't fully trust. just. statistics often misleading there's no trust in them i want to once again the attention of louis forces to this fact there is no trust in the statistics that often just a. ministry would. release this in the works now to make it possible to make the statistics exact. according to the statistics which the president doesn't find trustworthy enough the situations been relatively stable in the republic of chechnya while for example violence has been in the rise in traditionally peaceful carry over one hundred terrorist crimes what. redoubt there

in twenty this upsurge in violence the president described russia's biggest domestic problem. for example and a separate and to a terrorist group in the north caucasus which works along with the national counterterrorism community also the regions were formed together into a new federal district and the president pointed film of businessmen aleksandra. in the north caucasus now many analysts see these. as a new move. in the region and they said that. in the stepping away from military force approach and focusing on economic and social development in the region and indeed one of the main tasks the president assigned his new envoy with was to bring in private cash to your investments investors into the region the model of. the local economy was successfully used for example where romana invested over a billion dollars in hopes that

a similar model could be also introduced in the north caucuses they're considering creating a special economic zone there but so far no great success the region still remains very tense with a growing number of analysts welcome this shift in stalin's. policy but say they're facing a very tough. all right thank you very much it was our correspondent. reporting . now moscow says it wants a fair trial for a russian businessman to victor boot the president's aide says russia will continue to provide boots with consular assistance but has made no judgment over whether or not he's guilty boots is accused by the u.s. of arms trafficking and terrorism charges he denies after being extradited from thailand earlier this week he's now in solitary confinement in a new york jail booth could face life behind bars guilty his trial is set for january next year. well remember you can check out more stories on our website our

team dot com it helps keep you up to date and here's what it's all online right now down about lighting up a new survey reveals russia has more smokers per capita than anywhere else in the world find out about the calls to stub out the problem. plus customized classes for hitting the town hundreds of american men and roll in a pickup to learn all the tricks from meeting women for more head to our teenage daughter. russia's petty criminals and first time offenders may soon see jail time swapped for fines and community service it's part of ongoing reforms of the country's criminal code designed to put an end to unfair sentences and relieve overcrowded prisons artie's got that explores the alternatives in store for some of the inmates currently serving time. the fourteen hundred women serving time here

have one thing in common at some point in their life they all made a bad choice going up at all i went over to my friend's house to get some minor back that he owed me but he refused to pay up so he didn't have any says so his canary bird sitting there and i took it as collateral and later the police came and said i stole it after breaking and entering the price for a stolen canary bird that's instead of that i was sentenced to stray years in prison and i'm currently serving out my first. this extraordinary specter of russia's legislation has been questioned by many including the country's law makers a system of alternative punishment for a lesser crimes in the works with people found guilty of minor law violations facing fines and house arrest rather than jail time used up to get only you can't put someone in prison because they still two chickens are legal system no deals with these things and effectively there are harsh punishments for small misdemeanors and in some cases when instruments which are too late for me ger

cranes we need to balance out the system because despite recent statistics crime is on the rise. add that to overflowing prisons abysmal health conditions on the inside tougher integration into society after serving time and the true nature of this problem becomes even more evident even financially that reform makes sense according to official data over a million people are currently in prison did russia with twenty percent serving up to three years for misdemeanors substituting their jail time with house arrest will free up the prisons lessen the burden of taxpayers and most importantly not give people. a reason to use it. if a passenger following some. other certain circumstances because he comes out as a lifelong criminal but we have relevance to the backslide amounts to thirty to forty percent at the very least i mean almost half of them later become criminals.

but there is much to do before these amendments get implemented into the legal system the electronic surveillance bracelets for example will rely on russia's glowing ass positioning system and it's not yet ready neither is the legal system with law enforcement not yet capable of the required visual surveillance the proposition to stop throwing those found guilty of minor crimes behind bars is something that the women in this penitentiary can definitely get behind but even if the law is implemented the people serving time now may have to face the fact that they will have to serve and pay their debt to society in full without enjoying the benefits of an alternative punishment catarina r.t. moscow region and now to some other world news this hour an explosion has read here a coal mine in what is the one south island twenty seven people are missing five others managed to return to the surface with minor injuries all rescue workers are at the scene trying to make contact with the miners the country's emergencies

minister says the cause of the blast is not yet clear. in haiti protesters have clashed with u.n. peacekeepers on the streets of port au prince in anger the cholera outbreak in the country crowds through volatile cocktails and rocks while soldiers responded by using tear gas peacekeepers from nepal have been blamed for bringing the deadly epidemic into haiti something be un a strongly denies more than a thousand people have been confirmed dead from the outbreak so far. unusually heavy small has hit the chinese capital beijing reducing visibility and provoking disruption it's been caused by air pollution from a growing number of factories and villages built on the outskirts of the city two major highways linking beijing with the northern cities have been closed now health officials have asked people with respiratory problems to stay at home until the smog is dispersed by

a cold front expected on saturday. well ten minutes from now we talked to nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen about the alliance this future before that you're joins us with the business news after a short break. this is more a region is economically and socially one of russia's better developed provinces the region has a significant scientific and industrial capacity that will realize its full potential after the construction of this you go to valley i t park and tell ya he has completed the id parker has r. and d. projects in the spheres of automotive construction aerospace and oil chemistry high tech data center furbished with cutting edge servers and communication equipment will be constructed at the core of the park the project has been personally approved by prime minister vladimir putin the federal government is planning to allocate sizable funding for the parks construction investors will be given benefits such as property tax exemption low land rental prices and other

preferences of this immoral region government is open to mutually beneficial cooperation we invite investors to participate in existing projects and we are ready to give a hand of fulfilling your projects and growing your business in this small region. hello time to get the latest from the world of business trade between former soviet states has accelerator shop of us here at a meeting at sea i asked by ministers in st petersburg let's have the thoughts of dissent evidence of improved cool price the customs here and of russia by the rules and kazakhstan forms the new regional trade and as i thought you who reports there are hopes this round of talks will result some will thirteenth troubles. kazakstan are gearing towards full scale integration and speeding up the next phase of the

customs union the single economic space with a free trade area and a common external trade policy the meeting of the prime ministers of the three countries is taking place within the framework of the economic community which also includes kyrgyzstan to because from moldova and ukraine some of these countries are also showing interest in joining the customs union now the key document which is expected to be signed today is a final agreement on the single economic space of russia belarus and kazakhstan which is due to start functioning next year and to provide more mutually beneficial opportunities for its members in a free trade area now i'd like to remind you of the customs union of the trilateral union of russia belarus and council which came into effect this year has been designed to simplify the movement of capital between the member countries under a unified tariff and customs territory now the creation of the customs union has

stirred up the long lost her negotiations on russia's accession to world trade organization after russia said it would see the accession in a joint. account now according to russia's president would be a few questions remaining in the negotiations with the european union on the matter and they should be solved quickly at the same time the first year of the customs union has revealed some serious discrepancies carthy existing export duties on russian ballerinas almost brought the countries to an oil war bellers annually wise about twenty million tons of russian oil at domestic prices for two years is only a fraction of it at home most of it is being refined. to europe at much higher prices feeding the belorussian budget today's meeting may finally put an end to the conflict as the russian prime minister. a little has promised to lift all the duties for bella who is on russian soil once all the documents on the single

economic space are science or the customs union doesn't come without costs finance minister dream believes russian oil companies may opt to pay an extra fifteen billion dollars into it is due to harmonisation however couldn't so as national companies will be compensated for the cost by are that subsidies or a decrease in extraction taxes. quick look at the markets now thoughts is down more than a percent led lower by mining shares such as the london stocks they are private investors kept a nervous eye on developments out of ireland with mining stocks losing ground up to china lifted its ratio of banks. but it turned out both down about two and a half percent. here in russia the markets are trading higher in after the session they are to get this up point four percent in my sets has reversed to negative and

is stretching a quarter of a percent down most of the blue chips a losing on the might say it's because the biggest loser shedding under one and a half percent bucking the trend is more oil and gas. there is no point in privatizing russian technologies for the time being that's according to the head of the state corporation which controls several hundred enterprises in russia. is a show that in libya is that it's not reasonable to privatize russian technologies for the time being i would even say could be home for privatization would hinder the development of the enterprise under our control we first have to transform the enterprise into the joint stock companies create holdings and distribute companies between them and help them develop financially. u.s. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he has defended the decision to print six hundred billion dollars saying it will boost the world economy critics say the u.s. wants to. intentionally devalued the dollar in order to still

a competitive edge in international trade many developing countries have raised concerns that a weaker dollar would threaten their economies but presidential aide at a crowded bar which believes russia has little to fear what is important is that the rate of appreciation of the national currency is not. the rate of increase in efficiency or productivity and energy efficiency and other efficiency indicators. we believe that at least at this point in time the medium term perspective. would potential to increase efficiency even faster than the rate of increase in the real will you of robel this will keep us on the safe side it will not experience the negative consequence so for requests. that's all we have time for now but you can log on to a website for more news that's r.t. dot com slash business.