up to this point there's already been a lot of controversy of course in the past eighteen years and of the recent past few days leading up to today and it's been reported that he had met with kremlin officials prior to this and he was granted a holiday for him to think about retirement basic which basically means a voluntary resignation and because according to russian law there are two ways that a federal official of a region could lose the post and one is it's either but one by seeking dismissal and the other is of course by the order of the head of state and we know that in this case the order had come from the russian president was a very highly anticipated decision not just in political circles muscovites themselves have been there waiting for a decision for the decision to be made by the president now currently the president is in a shanghai and listen to what he had to say. i decided to dismiss the mayor of moscow the decree i signed states that i as president have lost trust in you. and it is a legal reason for his dismissal it's happened for the first time but i do not rule

out that such cases might happen again i cannot work with officials i can't trust. talk to us about the legacy that's been left behind often what kind of legacy. will legacy of this club is very visible there prominent here let's just talk about the landmarks that he's left here moscow people credit him for having given moscow a facelift one of the most famous landmarks here is the role of prize the savior it's beautiful a lot of tourists go there and of course he's credited for that but i'll be other had you have this structure behind me the peter the great satchel which must. see as one of the ugliest structures here in the city and it's quite funny that the contrast of these two lead bars is very much like the contrasts in his career the polarize opinion that he has created because of his populist policies and because of the way he is over the last eighteen years so really you've got two sides of the

good and the bad that this god has done in this career and here's what some of the things that people had to say about him. when he came to his position there was curious what he did do something but you can't stay in one place for too long or he's aged strong family ties played against him the city now looks neglected he didn't reconstruct the roots he preferred building hotels you can sell a hotel well you can't root the result traffic jams in this but i can say with a luzhkov is good or bad he's a very contradictory person. there are many things in moscow i'm against that the newcomers who are now like hosts who are making us feel like guests i'm against barry kirk instruction of moscow but of course to many things you're accused of like social programs for example but the future prospects do scare us but we will move. so right now we're expecting so movement in the political circle

a shake up be a political structure here in russia also the consultation for the nomination of a new mayor will be done by the united russia party pretty soon now for a bit more. background on why this guy was such a controversial person and here is a report filed by my colleague that i get up it's about. the constant feature of the moscow mayor he's a legendary cab has been the subject of amusement throughout his eighteen years in power selling his custom made silver capped it's an auction of kindly granted a moscow nursery home the one million u.s. dollars each raised he's mayorship meanwhile needs more than just one cap to cover the bald spots of his career he started making his fortune on the economic crisis of the late ninety's rumors of money laundering have haunted many of his multi-million dollar construction projects across the capital there's lots of problems in the city namely there is no affordable housing for the most provides or

there is a problem of people cheated by the construction pyramids these two and others have to be dealt with before any question about future employment of them to be discussed while the country was losing money during the recent economic downturn in two thousand and nine income increased however the mayor claims it's not his money but he's wife's and about doing that he's russia's only female billionaire she was a property development company and many claim its list of political clout that lands her the deals both in washington abroad is known free strong anti-gay stance never authorizing and even cracking down on gay pride parades now sure parts of our society with healthy morals do not accept they just don't accept other over the last summer may blame him for mishandling the severe smoke situation in moscow the city of short on toxic smoke for almost a month as wildfires rage well he was unlucky out of the city with awful mccarthys

it's one of course every specialist should be responsible for what they are interested with you said up with if for example the mayor of moscow comes back from holidays but a next day after the small. the theater has dissolved which was the case this time and i think it is unacceptable he should have been here half an hour after the smoke looks like has been concentrating a lot on his house rather than that but this city's residence. i don't drink maybe i'm missing out on something but for more than thirty years i haven't had a drop and the money that the russian government annually are located through improve infrastructure rarely make it to the ramshackle roads of moscow he's also been criticised over the deconstruction of the city's historical and architectural heritage after his long grown foot prints we'll see in the streets of the russian capital and then the art see. now a boat carrying jewish activists attempting to reach blockaded gaza was forced to

divert to the port city of ashdod in israel by ten israeli warships among those on the aid boat is a holocaust survivor and an israeli about who lost his daughter in a palestinian suicide bombing richard cooper spoke to those on board about how the ship was made to change course. we've heard that the best for world order we understand in international waters but the crew and passengers were ripped from the boat at being taken to asheville we hope they will be released. immediately and will suffer no ill treatment at the hands of the israeli authorities we believe the blockade is illegal and illegitimate and we wanted in any event to make a career balik statement m r o protests against the collective punishment of the people of gaza and the political challenge of the blockade of gaza and to the continued occupation and instability in the west bank as well as

a declaration on behalf of many jews that the israeli government perceives for the policies of occupation are not being conducted without the bolt or in our name and are not in our interest and we do not believe they are in the income of the state of israel itself. now this time the london based group jews for justice for palestinians organized the voyage it says it wants to show the not all jews support israeli government policies towards the palestinians this attempt to break the gaza blockade comes almost four months after israeli commandos stormed a turkish aid flotilla nine pro palestinian activist died in that raid a un report released last week described it as disproportionate and brutal. well from a strictly controlled communist ideology to an era of innovation and a new generation of open minded people that's how russia's president has described

china after you visited the world's biggest technology fair in shanghai expo two thousand and ten. friends and future innovations what better place to come together then the shanghai expo where russia and china are the stars of tomorrow let me go to the main message of russia's exposition in chiang use that we're establishing a friendly relationship with china for decades to come. president medvedev opened russia today and met with steve think being deputy chair to who lives in the tower and the man seen as china's most possible future leader lange the grounds for what could be a partnership that shifts and shocks global power that has spent most of the day together and took a good look of what china and russia have to offer. process pavillion is a favorite this time around with its top tech and energy companies putting on their best show so it was up at the start of the year at this expose we're demonstrating

the latest results in science and high tech and showcasing cooperation with our chinese colleagues but it's all part of a bigger picture russia's push for rapid modernization when you go to this exhibition is a unique chance to speed up the modernization of our economies in institutes and of its development is certainly the choice of our country who are following this path and will do everything for our economy to modernize change and in-depth to modern life. and russia understands china is a great way to start made in china had a significantly different connotation just a few years back that's right take a closer look at the backs of your i pads and i pods they were most likely assembled here russia states china is the friend with whom to solidify a partnership bringing them into the future and past reporting from shanghai and these are now a r.t. . north korean leader kim jong il has promoted his youngest son kim jong un to the

rank of general and what's seen as the first step of a power transition and came before by a country's ruling workers' party gathered for its biggest convention in decades no official announcements were made on the issue of succession has been shrouded in mystery but as a tease could there be a lot of reports that practice is not uncommon in north korea. for centuries everything is global that kind of information is available. line but there remains a spot of mystery in the world wide web that is north korea that many are pretty trade secrets like ross i finally got access to ships he was one of you to visit the place and hopefully will share his impressions a alex so tell me you were in my gang what's it like what's your biggest impression be honest with you when i was going there i felt a little nervous having read all the stories about north korea in the western media that it's scary place it's all to different sort of scary things when i arrived

there i thought it was nothing like that but the one thing which rescue the most of the first days and first hours being gone yeah i saw a building on the other side of the road from my hotel and had no curtains on the windows and i asked one of them on our systems why is it like i said well if you have curtains in north korea it means you have something to hide so i got the impression that this society is open to its own government whilst its government is closed to the rest of the world that is the societies close to the world as well while detention is turned on north korea for the first workers party meeting in thirty years there are rumors of a man change but that according to those in the know is premature for those of the two of you i don't think we should expect any dramatic changes right away because power north korea is built on the principles of succession and continuity kim jong il became a leader first and foremost thanks to his image of a true follower of his father's legacy ideas and not to some distort of the foundations or is the person to lead the country's policy into

a sharp turn so obviously the same is going to apply to kim jong il successor. north korea's nuclear ambitions troubled the west and the secretive states tightlipped policies and everything has been successfully used as a tool by countries such as the united states. the united states in particular need a bad guy in the region to justify their military presence in the southern part of the korean peninsula and japan and for deploying their missile defense systems there which they've done somewhat more actively than in europe until now the us and allied military presence in the region was justified by the soviet threat but it's been twenty years without a soviet threat however the united states is not going to give our military alliances a stablish during the cold war and now it is very convenient to have a bad guy in pyongyang that can be used as a scapegoat for everything. to north korea the soviet union was the very opposite of a threat especially in the korean war of the early one nine hundred fifty s. the u.s.s.r.

came to see as many socialist states in largest possible was happy to aid its fellow communist regime against u.n. troops but the veterans of those battles only recently got the chance to talk about their memories for them it was yet another war they didn't exist for. i was there for a year and a half and when we came back we couldn't talk about it couldn't even hint those that died were buried and the notes to their families would read killed in the course of duty where when how it was not open for discussion it was hard but it was top of their of course seventy seven out of seventy eight green cities were destroyed almost completely and yet everywhere i went by saw people trying to rebuild homes roads everything we'd see women on the road carrying their kids and their belongings to a new town and would give them lifts we weren't allowed to but we did. when the

eastern european communist bloc fell apart its influx into the north korean economy plummeted despite the fact a close relationship is maintained by moscow n.p.r. the veil of secrecy is not helping to boost economic development north korea remains one of only five communist states in the world and by far the most mysterious country on the map gas units are r t moscow. victor is a professor at the school of public policy and management he thinks north korea's isolation skewed world opinion. say that north korea is the enemy of the international community is not fair north korea has been isolated for over half a century and cheering this time there have been few visitors to that country so a lot of the speculation about what is happening in the country is purely based

on external knowledge of what is happening in the country yes the countries definitely poor that. mound nutrition especially among the children the isolation there's not help the image of k. and. all efforts to engage the k. would be most welcome it has chosen it on the path of socialism definitely. the country does not worry about what outsiders think about what it does and despite all the strong pressure being exerted on it. k. itself has stood with two. nuclear program and it will hold to negotiations are

coding to its own position and there is some reason lucian in the six party talks. the nuclear arsenals of the world's main powers are generally considered to be ultra secure and welcomed it even so as some claim they can be protected from extraterrestrial meddling a group of former american military officers say aliens have been showing interest in the u.s. and russia's nukes fit decades cedrick moon investigates. perhaps few things say normal or routine more than a daily dose of coffee a cup of calm in what can on any day be out of the ordinary. out of the ordinary like nuclear holocaust out of the ordinary. let's say there is an attack from where it doesn't matter. if that were to happen if nuclear payback

wouldn't happen. but. that's the claim made by the men in this room are missiles began going into what's called a no go condition or on launchable essentially they were disabled detailed in this report full of court sanction sworn affidavits the witnesses have described these craft s. disc shaped or cylindrical shape or spherical if you think what's being said inside this building is completely ridiculous you might want to consider something my name's robert hastings thank you for coming these are men who might know what may have gone on their former air force missile launch officers missile base officers who say u.f.o. spaceships flying saucers make nuclear weapon systems go haywire in one thousand

nine hundred sixty six according to a launch officer david sure his missiles were temporarily activated just as his security guard was reporting a bright object moving from missile to missile to missile. and it's not just in the united states also. in russia the idea like in one thousand eight hundred incidents that have been in then soviet ukraine given the fact that these incidents have gone on over there including one incident of their missiles being temporarily activated when a u.f.o. was hovering above the missile base identical to what occurred here i think we can rule out that who whoever our pilots in these craft are either american or russian . maybe they're right maybe they're wrong. maybe there is no way to ever know but if they all are right and in out of the ordinary day is about to unfold. remember the saucer. moon r. t. washington d.c.

. all right let's check out some other stories now making news around the world and the german government's decision to extend its use of nuclear power plants has resulted in protests in several cities. previous policy to cut all atomic stations offline by two thousand and twenty two. alternative energy sources are not well enough to vote up to fulfill the pledge but a green activists say the decision is based on the interests of energy corp. pakistan's interior minister has criticized the recent nato airstrikes on pakistani territory saying he would protest strongly to prevent it from happening again nato helicopters launched as strikes from eastern afghanistan reportedly killing more than fifty suspected militants that followed a rebel assault on a small afghan security outpost near the border u.s. marines have also been involved in an operation against taliban rebels in the

afghan town of marjah. and that is business news with stephanie is coming up in just a moment stay with us. 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 the. park can tell ya he has completed the i t. park or has r. and d. projects in the spheres of automotive construction aerospace and oil chemistry high tech datacenter 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 but it is this some more regional 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 and welcome to the business bulletin as we've been reporting in the main news the matter of moscow yuri luzhkov has been dismissed by president medvedev this cough the group has ruled the city for eighteen years and with it he said appalling conditions for construction business r.t. spoke to the head of penny lane real estate about the impact of his departure on moscow's real estate market. we expect very long period of time when everybody is frozen nobody is approving giving any permits everybody is stuck waiting for new orders from the new czar they are all worried

if they could do something wrong there will be worried whose orders to follow is they do not really know who will be on top tomorrow before everybody is stuck with no job going on. i believe that this would be huge harm to the industry. bad that russia's top banks have reached twenty percent of the loan portfolio the highest level since the beginning of the crisis the international finance corporation part of the world bank says russia needs to develop a market for bad debt so banks can clear them from their balance sheets timothy crouse from the i.f.c. says the company proposes to jumpstart the system with a two hundred million dollars fund. i think that some of the banks here that are trying too hard to collect their loans are not paying attention to their core business and their market share will shrink and they'll be left holding paper that's not worth anything i think the thing is to create a market so you have

a market you need buyers and you need sellers so we have plenty of buyers here capitols not the question i see provides financing we also try to match the buyers and the sellers right now we don't have enough sellers there are not enough banks that want to sell their corporate loans so there's loans to small businesses they'll sell retail loans credit card loans things like this but they won't sell corporate loans yet there's too big of a gap between the price banks think that they should get thirty forty cents on the dollar but buyers that are coming into the market they're not willing to pay that yet there is no track record yet we need a precedent we need a first sale to occur and then prices will go up after that when people see that you can actually collect on bad loans in russia why hasn't the bad that's markets in russia emerged naturally off its own accord it's a little bit of a cycle psychological issue i think no one wants to admit that they've made bad loans it takes a while to get prepared for this and i think once banks think it through once they

see that they're not making progress and restructuring corporate loans once they understand that they're not going to make much progress it makes sense for someone else to give it a try someone that specializes in this business liquidity has a longer goal stop being the bank's main problem do you really think that clean a balance so how banks lending i think it will because banks don't have to allocate capital to the bad loans that are sitting on their books if their management doesn't have to devote time to the bad assets that are sitting in their bank they can spend time doing what they do best which is to originate new loans there people can go out and figure out which corporate lenders are the ones that are most credit where the which can be their best clients allocate capital to that that's what they need to do. now let's have a look at how the equity markets are performing european shares are mixed on tuesday hedge fund manager man group is leading the decline on the footsie its shares fell three percent after reported

a sharp drop in pretax profits mining stocks and oil companies are also low on softer commodity prices and here in moscow both markets are edging about a quarter of a percent lower in late afternoon trade most of the blue chips are in the red on both the bourses spat out because the raised earlier losses on the my six on russ telecom is listen making gains that energy majors continue to drag the stars of the t.v. . in economic news russia's central bank has kept its key interest rate on hold at seven and three quarters percent for the fourth month in a row bank officials say the risk of inflation is at an acceptable level they are also previously stated that the possibility of a rate hike this year is very small. the world's largest element in producer wants to increase its sales in asia by fifty percent by the end of the year as a first step the russian companies signed a letter of intent with china north industries corporation or no rinko to acquire

a stake in its sales and marketing subsidiary under a long term contract riso will deliver up to two million metric tons of aluminum alloys to asia per year worth more than four billion dollars rinko will invest in resource production in siberia to increase the volume of hi tech out of million production cells on the chinese market. german engineering and electronics firm siemens plans to invest five hundred forty million dollars in its projects in russia over the next two to three years the company intends to build a number of plants to produce electronics equipment across russia but also plans to build a wind farm in the country's far east it will build all the generating equipment from start to finish in a joint venture with risk. and state corporation russian technology. and that's all the business is for now but join me for more in about an hour's time and of course you can always find the stories of you log on to our web site that's r t

dot com slash business.

live from the russian capital this is r.t. your headlines now the mayor of moscow is fired after eighteen years in power the president says he no longer has confidence in the capital's top box. a group of international activists on a jewish organized aid mission to blockaded gaza is forced to end its journey by israeli warships. the russian president ends a trip to china by meeting the man widely predicted to be the next leader of the people's republic. and the secretive north korean leader kim jong il promotes his son to a general and a possible first step towards a hereditary transfer of power. well next heart he discusses international policy

with the head of the state duma foreign affairs committee konstantin thanks for watching. hello again or welcome to spotlight on r.t. i'm melding of and today my guest in the studio is. russia has joined in with the u.n. sanctions against iran and stop the delivery of weapons to the country is threatening to sue moscow if it doesn't fulfill its obligations will discuss the reasons behind russia making this u. turn on relations with iran and the possible repercussions with the chairman of the state duma international affairs committee. rushing.