the most powerful of the notorious of soviet institutions. in one of these speeches and drop of said this that we need to understand what kind of society with built those one his own words in the context of those diplomatic times that sounded like a dissident phrase. was also elderly and in poor health he died after just thirteen months in office his replacement constantine cheney and co was even more fragile the sequence of crimean deaths was referred to by many as the gun carriage race which loosely means the most to the caribbean. in one thousand nine hundred five gorbachev was fifty four many thought he was too young to head the government the decision was made by competing influential alliances within the top brass each with their own motives element is broken or an elected government mikhail gorbachev as the general secretary of the c.p.a. susanka commit. the criminal go into nothing in a comfortable semi retirement they saw in gorbachev an inexperienced politician with peasant roots that they could easily manipulate. when gold which of

russia has the legacy of the soviet union and it will be marked by this stigma for a long time i come from a country in which the collapse of the empire was a difficult one the bloodshed in the fifty's and sixty's yeltsin sat take as much independence as you can swallow and another day you sat your free get out of here many things about russia were forgotten people forgot that the soviet system was dominating and instilled fear and then got scared of the country that neither the power nor the ability to speak as poignantly with other countries all this was forgotten and this new russia was not understood as i see it and in your country are people suspicious of russia i don't know what to say to that. your current president nicolas sarkozy said in his election campaign it's better to shake hands with bush than with putin who would you shake hands with but. first of all i feel uncomfortable talking about my president has changed a great deal he was in love with america it was an example for him he did not know russia is of gary norge and hungary was affected by the soviet union to a cer

who were under soviet influence basing european countries and the countries that used to be part of the soviet union but are now independent states did not understand russia and were afraid of it as eastern european countries have become e.u. members they have showed their fares and passed them on to the e.u. saying that russia used to be an empire so why should it cease being an empire and can we trust it now it's in peril past has been forgotten by now people have already understood russia is pursuing its own path but time has shown that georgia for example fear that russia will dominate is again that's why it wanted to access nato i think that such fears originate from some kind of misunderstanding of the breakup of the soviet union because it was so certain no one could adjust themselves to it immediately all the european empires have collapsed but they have collapsed after decades of preparation even russia itself was not ready. so you don't believe in russia's imperial ambitions just right i don't believe it i'd rather say there is some kind of a style but that's completely di

would you agree that israelis of russian and soviet our region are really less tolerant than the rest of the jews absolutely not i think that. israelis of russian origin may be more on the on the conservative side of the political spectrum but i don't think they're any less the less tolerant and i think having had the privilege of working with president clinton in his administration for eight years on these types of issues i suspect that his words of. not by you but the original report may have been just misinterpreted or misunderstood right out of the context so maybe out of it because this quote was all over the press not only lost a lot of the absolutely but i think i think the point president clinton may have been making is where where are the israelis of russian origin stand today in political life and nothing more maybe maybe what he means i'm just suggesting is that is that the russians who came to israel to live for good they want to be as the french say. least clear what i mean more and more jewish that the jews no i don't i think. that for many israelis of russian origin who

whether russia should be fear of it do you mean that piro russia and the soviet union which you were used to be afraid of are still alive. not only in europe the collapse of the soviet union it was not anticipated it happened overnight many countries primarily those who were under soviet influence based in european countries and the countries that used to be part of the soviet union but are now independent states did not understand russia and were afraid of it as eastern european countries have become e.u. members they have showed their fears and passed them on to the e.u. saying that russia used to be an empire so why should it cease being an empire and we trusted now that it's in peril past has been forgotten by now people have already understood that russia is pursuing its own path through so you don't believe in russia's imperial ambitions just right i don't believe it i'd rather say there is some kind of. but that's completely different thing what a country can forget overnight that it used to be a powerful empire but still washing people and specifically those in power of commo

its permanent secretary of the french science academy and the woman who predicted the breakup of the soviet union in nineteen seventy eight in her book pickle laps of an empire is here with us today by super bowl. thank you very much my dumbed down course for your time. in your recent book between two walls you talk of russia can we presume from the title do you think russia still hasn't found its place in the walt. since was not exactly what the book says is that russia has made these kind of decision but over the past ten years it's been pursuing two different paths rather than one is what i've been trying to explain is that atlas saw it in disintegrated russia rushed to europe but as you have did not offer a warm welcome says the beginning of this century a russia's foreign policy has been focusing on two directions rather than on one on the one hand courses on the west on the other hand because it was joe graphical position and decided to position itself as an asian country it gives it greater priest and in the world has been pursuing this policy for more than ten years now and its broa

not only new or of the collapse of the soviet union was not interested and it happened overnight many countries primarily those who were under soviet influence the eastern european countries in countries that used to be the heart of the soviet union but are now independent states did not understand russia and the word friend of it as eastern european countries have become e.u. members they have showed their fears and passed them onto the e.u. saying that russia used to be an empire so why should it seize being an empire and can we trust that now that it's imperial past has been forgotten by now people have already understood that russia is pursuing its own path but time has shown that georgia for example which has always been saying that it wants to save itself from russia that's what it wanted to access nato it feared that russia will dominate georgia again i think that such fears originate from some kind of misunderstanding of the breakup of the soviet union because it was so sudden no one could adjust themselves to it immediately all the european empires have collapsed but they col

an obstacle to peace with the palestinians off talks to mark levin from the national conference on soviet jewry about the diaspora and how it responded to the accusation spotlight is coming your way next here on r.t. . hello again and welcome to spotlight and today my guest in the studio is mark levin . the recent verbal attacks on the immigrant jews by former american president bill clinton have added to the rising nationalist divide in israel he accused them of not willing to find common ground with palestinians that bring peace talks in the middle east what do the serbian born jews have to answer here is mark levin executive director of and c s j which advocates on behalf of jews in russia ukraine the baltic states and. the world appears to be fostering a more tolerant attitude towards jews and vice versa the new exhibition in berlin on hitler and his power over the german people has been welcomed by the country's jewish community they see it as an important step to a greater understanding of the holocaust but in israel itself nationalist feelings are on the rise and saw the born jews

we saw weak whole soviet russia and to vladimir putin became president our countries became friends with the strong and now we're carrying on down that path with president dmitry medvedev russia's back on its feet and i believe that this country will keep playing a great rule in making the world a truly free and just place. venezuelan president hugo chavez speaking exclusively exclusively to r.t. spanish turning to other news now. the shortlist of four candidates for the top moscow seat has now shrunk to one president medvedev has picked deputy prime minister sergei sabean for the job and it's now up to the city parliament to give the final green light for more. well there's one final studs to go in this post as president has made his choice from the list of the four candidates that he was presented with on saturday so i guess about his choice of candidates and that decision now has to be briefed by the most state he will have ten days to make the final decision and elsevier annan himself was always considered one of the most popular of the four candidates are certainly a front runner an

at the end of the 1980's, soviet leader gorbachev ordered the troops to withdraw. today, he believes nato should learn from moscow's mistake. >> victory is impossible in afghanistan. the best you can hope for is to help the country get back on its feet and rebuild itself after the war. obama is right to pull the troops out. no matter how difficult it will be. >> how difficult was the process of withdrawing the troops from afghanistan? >> it was very difficult. once the decision had been taken to withdraw, the forces who were against a peaceful solution to the conflict attacked our troops. but we had thought through our withdrawal very carefully and were able to defend ourselves. >> just two years after soviet troops completed their withdrawal from afghanistan, the u.s.s.r. fell apart and gorbachev lost power. he had ended an unpopular war, but many russians have never forgiven him for losing an empire. >> some people like to put all the blame on me for destroying the soviet union, but that is just not true. i fought to save the u.s.s.r. until the very end. >> how c

materials that have helped build our civilization and still find innovative new applications today the soviet metallurgical industry was blasting past competitors around the same time heavy metal started blasting out speakers by the time the countries we crawled the us to become the world's top steel producer of the year of judas priest first album in one nine hundred seventy four russian metal makers have long been world class dimitri to know who is known as the father of russian metallurgy is nineteenth century discovery of crucial temperature points and still casting change the industry forever even earlier puzzles and no self in over her own place scientific base and metal alloy research and still artillery the russian empire may have been a metallurgical foundation but soviet modernization drives in the twenty's and thirty's build new hubs like big media ghost and helped ready the country for intense industrial demands in world war two more time production greatly expanded the geography of soviet metalworking setting the groundwork for a real explosion of output in the post-war years tha

we saw we can pull soviet russia and to vladimir putin became president our countries became friends stronger and now we're carrying on down that path with president dmitry medvedev russia's back on its feet and i believe that this country will keep playing a great role in making the world a truly free and just please. sort of a thought third from chavez the president of venezuela speaking exclusively to r.t. sister spanish channel to take over some other news now today and the shortlist of four card that is for the top moscow seats no strong two one over the past few hours president medvedev has picked the deputy prime minister. and for the job and it's now up to the sitting parliament to give the final green light r.t. sarah firth reports. well there's one final studs to go in this process president has made his choice from the list of the four candidates that he was presented with on saturday so it is about his choice of candidates and that decision now has to be approved by the most he will have ten days to make the final decision and house of yunnan himself was always considered

soviet-era technology. >>> and a weapon of war takes on a mission of mercy. the world war ii lifesaving venture of the u.s. submarine, all straight ahead "a second look". >>> hello etch. i'm frank somerville and history is filled with stories of shipwrecks and lost treasure and filled with stories of adventures who set out to find the treas, braving the elements and offcoming obtalcs. there is a shipwreck lie laying somewhere off the coast of marin county and over the year it's been the quest of more than one adventure trying to find it. ktvu's john fowler met one of them. >> up the rugged coast a few miles lays one of the most important unrecovered treasiers of the new world. hidden in the midst, guarded by sharks and frigid water, there waits a fabulous prize, the end of a 4-century-old story. it was a stormy november, the year 1595. spanish explore sebastian rodriguez anchored his galleon offshore from what we now call drake's beach. they claimed this land for spain, calling it the port of san francisco. suddenly a huge storm lupe, waves smashed the ship i

it was a closed military city until the fall of the soviet union and parts of the town still feel like they belong in a bygone era but the city is developing its transport hub outside investment is starting to improve facilities here and amongst the buildings you can still find a few done in the rough. place i'm about to visit is a real pure old institution it's one of the oldest buildings in the whole city and for more than two centuries it's been the center of the region's printing industry . books newspapers calendars magazines if you need paper they'll princes and they get through moving forty tons every week. there's been a press here since seventeen months to a living have some of the latest technology available there are still a few relics of a bygone age so i love this the fact that you get the. bits of history combined with. something that i guess would be about nineteen right with something that is spread out of the twenty first century. and in the mix room is a machine that might easily have used it days it serves for all the different it's . taken to mean the right entry in

destroyed the soviet system. change khai scheck, powerful dominant leader in china. could not accept the proposition that he had destroyed his influence with the mass of his society through his core rums, his ineffectiveness, the ineffectiveness of his military and wouldn't compromise with the communists and the communists had no intention of compromising with him. stalin and roosevelt thought they could force the nationalists and the communists into some kind of coalition government. that was another illusion, you see. and so you end up with a civil war in china. the greatest mistakes i see out of that postwar period come over korea. and korea, and kimmelson, leaders of north and south korea, they think each of them believes that they can unify the peninsula under their control and they're dying to get into a war with each other so in 1950 kim gets the go-ahead from stalin to attack. mao is willing to let kim launch a war. and sigmundry couldn't be happier because he thinks can defeat north korea, move up the peninsula, occupy the whole thing. -of-course the united

alloy research and steel artillery the russian empire may have been a metallurgical foundation but soviet modernization drives in the twenty's and thirty's build new hubs like big media ghost and help to ready the country for intense industrial demands in world war two wartime production greatly expanded the geography of soviet metalworking setting the groundwork for a real explosion of output in the post-war years that still underpins the industry in the post soviet space today. bush is among the world's leaders and digging up and pumping out perhaps the most historically coveted of all elements shiny number seventy nine gold. while the first to lose the all gold deposits in russia were found in the urals in the early nineteenth century the country's eastern regions have been the site of many gold rushes and now a longstanding extraction industry since much of the territory was underdeveloped in brocade and twentieth century gold miners conquered literally uncharted territory on route to making the soviet union the number two gold producer on the planet and gold digging in russia is no m

people of the soviet forces on the ground but it was not but fighting the counterterrorism operation was not the primarily objective because usually during dispense not sorties they would just search and destroy there and we just had to. load it up ammo radio equipment and the drug speech were used as a kind of cash to expand their operation and undermine and undermine their spirit of the soviet troops and corrupt and to corrupt them using drugs effectively trying to undermine the whole soviet principle of forces over there you're going to find me let's turn our attention to the collective effort to tell me why is nato so interested in helping afghanistan do you think well because of it nato has already failed. completely so for them the russian insistence this is this is a political. it's a diplomatic efforts to shift the responsibility of the nato failure to the to russia to share the burden of failure and to make it more collective you know not to nato because it has no strategic objective except of self expansion to want to do so nato is desperate now desperate for help at sea an

covered a hundred years ago and where nickel was produced in the soviet era. one. show me. you can see right through it but it's. the students look like seasoned digger says they flush the rock hunting for beautiful stones fires anyone with enthusiasm once they get their hands a bit dirty. the students and their professors in the praise of the professional digger. this is a captivating and useful experience they feel more confident this is obvious even from the way to. the skills they get here in the classroom. only through personal contacts that each small find is a delight for them like a valuable gift in a different sacks full of much bigger tour maligns were hauled from here to village fairs it's impossible to estimate how many of these were incinerated in to produce nickel. but you see what you've got there. oh yeah it's real big family well worth the effort. now there's a praiseworthy stone. well more or less how are we going to divide them among us. from time to time the pit steep sides reveal gemstone outcroppings this dangerous rift was discovered only a few years

were just a byproduct so to speak the break up of the soviet union in the economic downturn that followed in its wake eventually brought production to a halt demolish if pitt has been closed since one thousand nine hundred three its equipment is gradually falling into disrepair only heavy duty pumps are still in operation pumping out subterranean water from the pit. scientists say some seven hundred kilograms of emeralds valued at twenty four million dollars could be produced here each year but the pit remains closed meanwhile law enforcement officials say that up to fifteen thousand carats of euro emeralds are illegally traded annually supplied by informal miners who take emeralds from wherever they can find them most often it's from garden piles of refuse that abandoned mine shafts. files you see in the background have been flushed only once the second flushing will reveal that the ra still gemstones their so-called crude crystals that. these waste piles have been flushed three times but they no longer belong to anybody some call them the miracle field others the field of fools but. you