Baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky after more than a decade of imprisonment. Ryan chilcote joins us now with more. Around half an hour ago, he walked out of jail. That is right. ,bout 20 minutes after 12 00 russia is four hours ahead of us, this was up in the far north of russia. He was released from a prison there. He spent the last decade in prison. Some of that time knitting gloves. He was before he went to jail russias richest man about 13 billion. The principal owner of the countrys Largest Company called ukos which eventually was optioned off and became the main of another will company. Vladimir putin yesterday told russia reporters that Mikhail Khodorkovsky had requested a pardon. He said it was going to grant it. We learned about an hour ago that that pardon had been granted and we got the news that he indeed has been released from prison after 10 years in russian jails. Ryan, do we know where he is going . The thinking is that he will now go to germany. President putin yesterday said that he was being released on humanitarian grounds. That he had requested to be released so he could go see his mother. His mother is in germany where she has been fighting cancer. His family says he wants to spend time with his mother and with his family. Is,date question in russia will he return to politics. He was the first and last hall of famer to really take on president clinton back in 20 2003. The word from the family is he has no intention to return to politics. Looking at a quiet life, possibly in exile in germany. We are going to have to hear from the man himself. Somewhere warm, i would have thought. Was a time at which putin was really tightening his grip and making sure that his authority was unquestioned in russia. That is exactly right. Onsident putin came to power december 31, 1999. President yeltsin then retired. He passed over the reins. He has been cementing his power in the three years preceding that. The oligarchs were named. Mikhail khodorkovsky was in 2003 actually funding the political oppositione communis and another liberal party called yabloko tha broke what many people believe was a gentlemans agreement between president putin and his other government officials and the oligarchs. If they wanted to keep their money they would have to stay out of politics. Mikhail khodorkovsky said that he was going to continue doing that and he didnt care. Many people told him he would end up getting arrested. Like you said, when he was arrested, in october of 2003 at gunpoint on a runway in siberia, it was a shocker probably for him and every single journalist covering russia at that time. We will get there. More on this later. Thank you very much indeed, Ryan Chilcote on the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The European Union has lost its aaa rating. Dinner and pours cut the eu to aa plus. A victory is in berlin with the latest. What do we make of the timing of this . The timing is perfect. It comes right in the middle of the twoday meeting of the eu leaders in brussels. It is probably the only thing that would really grab their attention. At any other time, people probably wouldnt have noticed that the eu, a supranational institution, has been downgraded to aa plus. For theost of borrowing eu might rise a little bit. If you look at the markets right on the 2021 notes is down by about one basis point, about 1. 75 . Not exactly a lot, not a huge thing. The real interesting thing was the reason why they have been downgraded. One was because we have seen a worsening financial position of some of the eu Member States. Also, the eu budget negotiations have gone so tense that there is a risk according to s p of some eu Member States not supporting the eu. That is the reason they are giving the downgrade. It is that i find the most interesting. This is a criticism of the sort of Common Thread that has ultimately run through the European Union now beginning to be teased apart. If you look at what merkel said yesterday, you have to wonder about the more europe argument that is being pushed. Well, what exactly are you referring to . Which statement from merkel . She was talking about this idea that we need to basically move europe forward. She had a vision for how that was going to happen and you look at what s p has said. This almost feels like a political statement from s p. There is a it is a very political statement. Particularly where it is coming up the moment. It is going to put the brakes on i dont think anything that s p is going to say will put any brakes on the European Union integration. Angela merkel did say and she was referring to the specific agreements whereby European Union states were supposed to agree to various measures to continue reforming. Said we were moving forward millimeter by millimeter. That is exactly what is happening. It is happening millimeter by millimeter. That Banking Union isnt really going to be set up for at least a decade. David, thank you very much indeed. Moving onto our top corporate story, bae hits turbulence in the middle east. The deal with the united effort parrots Arab Emirates fell apart. Now, our Bloomberg Aerospace and defense reporter. Was always going to be seen as a bonus. Cameron had been pushing pretty hard. Why are we in a situation where abu dhabi is saying there is no pressure really on the uae tab. To modernize their fighters but they are very much in a buyers market. Everyone wants to sell especially to the middle east. They are just waiting for the right terms. They have a list of things they want. There are some other arrangements they want on technology. They are not going to buy until they are fully satisfied. How much of a setback is this . Is it a big setback in terms of money or because they came out saying they had almost secured the deal . It is more the latter. I was a bit surprised at the second half of the year how optimistic the noise was coming on this deal. Having gone through this with seoul a couple years ago, they were the front runner. The uae says, we are not really interested. I thought there was a bit of a rational exuberance here. I wouldnt say it is a huge shock, but the messaging was certainly somewhat confusing. Very briefly, u. K. Has a long relationship with saudi arabia. That is a longerterm story. That is interesting as this is the second year they have not been able to close what they call the salon contract. It is about pricing and price negotiations. S hasead of bae system said repeatedly he won not sign a deal that doesnt make Financial Sense for the company. For the second year, not to get this done, it is a bit worrisome. Thank you so much for all of that. Systems. T from bae lets go to shopping of a different kind now. Bleak numbers, with just a few days until christmas forcing many retailers to offer steep discounts. With more from london, caroline hyde. Sentiment, not that good. We brits spend more than anybody else so that is serious. It is serious. Usually in britain we go a bit bonkers for christmas. Ramps up by usually 40 in december. That is why the likes of john lewis start their Advertising Campaigns in the beginning of november. That is why we see all the streets lined with lights six weeks ago. They want to start getting us into those shops spending early. We spend far more than the United States and we spend earlier than the United States. There is an air of desperation on the high street right now. If you look to my right, Marks Spencer is currently offering up to 60 off of gifts. 30 of clothing. Others are slashing their prices by 50 . Over the road, they are offering 30 as well. The list goes on. H m, selfridge, evans, all of them slashing prices just desperate to get us in and start spending. And caroline, are there still hopes of a lastminute rush . I know i havent done my Christmas Shopping for one. I shouldnt admit to it but i havent. At the moment, we have christmas coming up on a wednesday. That means we have got five more days of shopping. Many are going to be finishing work this friday. That gives them for Straight Days of shopping. We are going to rush into the shops and get those lastminute bargains. That is what the shops are counting on. Marks spencers is having a oneoff sale this weekend trying to get us in to spend our cash. We see wages rising slower than prices. Energy utilities are eating into our disposable income with higher bills. One promise comes from visa isope, that monday the 23rd going to be the busiest shopping day of the year. Billion pounds spent on the high street. George osborne says it is turning around. Maybe the retailers can hold their nerve and we will start spending over the next four or five days. Certainly there are bargains to be had. Caroline, thank you so much. Surprised. I think the shops will be open and 45 minutes time. It is kind of quiet there still. I shop on the 24th of december so it is always empty. Ok, lets find out what else is on our radar. More than 80 people were hurt in london when part of the Apollo Theater ceiling collapsed. Fire Officials Say heavy plaster fell from the ceiling during the performance. France is looking into taxing web video according to a newspaper. Authorities are preparing a report that calls for creators of video content to contribute to the financing of film production. Sites likeinclude youtube. Overstock. Com may become the first big u. S. Retailer to accept bitcoin according to the Financial Times. Starto expects to accepting the Virtual Currency next year. Perhaps by the kindness of the Second Quarter. End of the Second Quarter. Coming up, the eu loses its topnotch credit rating. We will dive into the implications next. Welcome back. We are live on Bloomberg Television. Deals the eu a below. The Company Blames weaker cohesion among the group and did. Deteriorating financial profile is. For more perspective, lets welcome the chief european economist at me the whole international. Ray to have you on the program. We are trying to assess the implications of this today. It is unclear to me exactly what they were looking at. Was this a surprise to you . The timing was a surprise. Perhaps they are already applying the new standards for financing changes in ratings. The timing is surprising because i dont see any new signs that point to decreased cohesion. Perhaps you can argue in the. That was four months ago. Perhaps they are looking at polls that have been coming in. The timing is a bit surprising. The assessment also, because the compared is very low to the size of the budget. You really have to go into a worstcase scenario to imagine that European Countries will not make good on the obligations on the Capital Market obligations of the eu. When you talk about cohesion, there is one thing that the last couple weeks showed us. Europe needs time. We were maybe six months ago thinking that we would get the foundation over solid banking. We lacked details. We dont know what is going on with it. There has been a little bit less of a will for reform to come together. Maybe this simply reflects the fact that prices are looking less serious. Germany was always against this. Certain things in 2012. The crisis meeting, seemed very serious. Ecb saidghi of the things and now the crisis is looking less threatening. Because of that, germany is taking a less cooperative approach. Progress on the single supervision. They are making progress on the resolution. Harmonization of all these areas. Discuss howwe can over asolution is funded period of 10 years. It wont be fully into effect until 2026. It is a very long time. Theyre going to fund it with bank levies over the tenyear period. It is obviously a lot more gradual and a lot less impressive than what has been promised. Is this just a reminder that maybe markets are a little too complacent on europe . I have a lot of investors coming on this program saying we are in a much better place than we were a year ago. No one is talking about a euro exit. We are also, because we are not really going ahead, there is a danger that we may be violently surprised in 2014. Of course. Complacency is a big risk. I think if heads of state extract the late then we will not have any further challenges, they will be making a big mistake. Nowmost important thing is that the ecb will be taking over, supervision, several Banking Systems have been recapitalized. The sovereign risk side of things. It is not just that banks. Is a mistake to think in terms of banks causing risks for severance. It is also severance the cause risks for banks. The Banking System went down because of the sovereign. There wasnt a banking crisis to speak of. Had to be bailed out because of the sovereign. Banks tosis is to move the macroeconomic stimulus, Structural Reforms and making the whole Economic Framework more consistent with the goal of going back to growth. And you so much for all of that. Now, over to you. Some of the company news that you need to know about. Talks with alitalia. The struggling Italian Airline is seeking a new International Banker after air france said it will not inject fresh funds. Deutsche bank is forfeiting 221 Million Euros and a derivative contract with monte paschi. That is as regulators in germany and italy investigate the transaction. Teenage mutant ninja turtle come back. The television revival of the cartoon by viacom has pushed a Hong Kong Company to the best performing stock among the worlds toymakers this year. Demand for Action Figures rose sixfold in the First Six Months of this year. They are back. Still to come, as we countdown to christmas, the tales are red hot at londons worldfamous Luxury Department store area or are they . We will tell you how harrods is investing heavily. We will be back in a few minutes. Welcome back to the pulse. Right, to the markets now. Manus cranny standing by. Having a markets fairly good start to the day. We have had the best week on this map since april of this year. European stocks are up over 3 this week. Financial services insurers and telecoms have been the real drivers. Week,tandout names of the media set. Consumer confidence in the u. K. Dips. It is strong in germany. We wait for the overall temperature of confidence to come out. Gdp also on the way out of the u. K. Equities arent reacting to taper tantrums but Foreign Exchange is. Have a look at this. This is the indonesian repeat. Dollar is generally stronger. What we have got here, the indonesian repeat at a fiveyear low. Just off a fiveyear low. Then you add in the malaysian ringgit. Down 1. 5 this week. Down from nine straight weeks. Emerging market currencies have a variety of issues. Karenf them have got account issues. They have structural issues. Taper is really beginning to have an impact. Look at Something Like the turkish lira. That is at a lifetime low, record low. This is dollar round again. The impact of taper is being felt. Back to you. Thank you very much indeed. Breaking news coming out of cathay pacific. It is going to buy 21 boeing jets. 7779x deal. New gdp coming after the break. Good morning. You are watching the pulse. We are live from bloombergs European Headquarters in london. U. K. Data breaking out. Gdp has come in exactly in line with estimates. 0. 8. Ever the less, a fairly strong number as we work our way into 2014. We are looking at strong numbers being generated. We have had some fairly Weak Consumer Confidence data over the last 24 hours. That was released at midnight. The pound is up a little bit on the back of this. 1. 63 is where we are trading. What is happening in the british economy is a question that needs further investigation. The sense is that we are actually on the road to recovery. Maybe this is a little bit unbalanced. The consumer is leading but that it doesnt point to that. Earlier this week, we talked to jim oneill, formerly of Goldman Sachs asset management. This is his take on the rebalancing that could actually be underway. Interesting things going on in Small Business growth. Profit and nonprofit. This might be something that we will only be able to look back in hindsight and say, what a big structural change that was. The jury very much still out on that story. It would be nice if it actually happened. Thats talk to our next guest and see if she agrees with that analysis. Kathryn parsons is the chief executive and cofounder of a topany that offers courses teach anyone to code in a single day. Good morning. Jim oneill thinks that what we are seeing is restructuring of the british economy. You probably have a finger on the pulse. What do you think . Absolutely. It feels like there is a movement going on at the moment in the startup scene. Growth, it is a great time to be in technology in london. You can see it because investors are moving from the west coast of america to london. They are looking for the next big deals here. Is it just london . For me, there is a lot of hubs of technology. Ideally everywhere becomes a technology sector. Berlin has a very lively scene. London has a very lively scene. It is st