russia and germany russia will be known as the senate as the country's leaders agree to use food as a diplomatic weapon. america's longest war u.s. involvement and the policy is vietnam a cell from stray shoe with the growing human and financial costs build its. first five years together in orbit and the us mark the anniversary of their joint space flight and the four in cold war relations the. russian

aircraft maker sort of class decide its biggest foreign contract worth almost one billion dollars next week that and more coming up in our business program. a very warm welcome t. this is a life from less habits occurring closeness between russia and the west was on show at a joint russian german summit in the city of that amboy president to me that medvedev and chancellor angela merkel. to person. i mean the smiles they got some business done with dozens of agreements signed our correspondent dana bash is following the story. in the windy city of where you could turn berg it was very much a case of the madrid if and merkel or a malema sure if you like is the su country's leaders were all smiles their

personal strong relationship really highlights the country's two excellent relationship the moment historically delivered to agree to chatted with mr medvedev in fluent russian he with her off to a top local restaurant where they enjoyed off to perth but later promised it was not to both who predicted that germany would lose in the semifinal over the world cup now there was talk of a trio of world leaders forward looking leaders barack obama rich madrid if i call a transatlantic troika if you like moving the world forward on security and defense issues with food as the unifying force let's listen in. let me draw your attention to the fact that germany is number one on the list of russia's partners we have long time relations which have not been spoiled even by difficult chapters in our history. when it comes to russia and germany's relations with other countries it's

not like in school where you have just one friend we can have many friends germany and russia have their own issues they're completely different in nature to transatlantic problems it's useful for us to be able to discuss them together the room for dialogue doesn't exist in the same degree with president obama as it does between us but the u.s. relationship is still very important and i think president medvedev also would like to read to read that this conference is no way should signalize about relationship with president obama. well we have two options either the three of us going to need some hamburgers we'd rather treat our friend barack obama to some kind of european grizzlies could design as i think the burger will taste best for me. so after all john siemens of germany really takes all of russia's modernization in boxes today a place to join russia silicon valley a joint new project being built on the outskirts of moscow it will also modernize

washes train system its trains which are outdated and yet crucial to the country really relies on its trains a lot of parts of the country and thirdly wind turbines will build wind turbines an eco drive in a country which is also trying to become more environmentally friendly the other big issue was iran of great wall concern at the moment as it continues to suggest it's moving towards a nuclear bomb but what if the precious saying that he believes iran is continuing to get close to building a nuclear bomb and he promised to work with the united nations security council to stop tehran. iran nash such an act iran is an active and proven trade partner but it doesn't mean that we are indifferent towards the way these limit republic is developing its nuclear facilities we are also concerned with some military components of its atomic program iran should find courage to begin fully

cooperating with the international community to iran should do this even if it doesn't like some issues it's currently facing a friendly relationship between the two wrapping up what has been a very successful summit a very successful meeting between the two leaders and also business leaders and political leaders germany and russia really two of the strongest partnerships on the world stage today. or relations between russia and germany are now in a position where they can get real business down healthy paying a federal offense or in chief rushing global affairs website. seemed a very friendly but it's more important to me to almost every every month and they have a lot to discuss so i would say the most important think about russian generalisations is that we don't need to break truth because every meeting used to be assessed according to breakthrough achieved or not so in russian jorma relationship it's so

intense and so close that we don't need breakthroughs we do what we need just discuss business. and a former k.g.b. officer says it's the developing friendship between moscow and washington which allow the reasons why a scandal dealt with quickly the full interview with a likeness of banco this coming up in about twenty minutes time but here's a quick. yes because if we take the broad dame's any such small office chances for war me either way we can see it i believe as a first step travel and reputable elements and always if you have to solution and i'm happy ending for both countries relations seem even if you're going to compromise for the solution it was a long time believe me quickly these events are the top level of intelligence where you during the cold war it used to take years to be fast and it was. a tux and afghanistan reached an all time high the bloodiest month for foreign

troops since the start of the war itself the longest miniature campaign in u.s. history is a pos in the vietnam war and still there's no and science in this to report. it's the comparison that cannot be avoided by press pundits and now politicians last month afghanistan surpassed the. place that both ambassador holbrooke and i are all too familiar with as the longest military campaign in american history committee chairman senator john kerry brought up the failed u.s. war of decades ago at a crucial time in america's current one. conflict a moment when questions about strategy and progress abound at a hearing on governance and the u.s. civilian strategy in the region the man in charge of it all a vietnam veteran himself tries to make the lesson of that history

a fundamental difference between those two wars since you mentioned it mr chairman and this war our national security interests are. state with the safety of the u.s. at stake as richard holbrooke claims you might think congress would have crossed their t.'s and dotted their i's by now and fighting their longest battle as they're supposed to the united states constitution requires that before the united states goes to war that there be an act of congress but just as in the vietnam war we've never followed that procedure with respect to the war in afghanistan and we centrally drifted into a war in a long term commitment a long term commitment that appears to be wearing on lawmakers who want to know this wouldn't be helpful for the president to at least lay out a flexible timetable for when the u.s. is getting out beyond the july two thousand and eleven date to start withdrawal u.s. president obama set it's given no assurance that this should be an open ended occupation holbrooke emphasizes the u.s.

is committed to no calendar very leery of setting a date certain made here for the salute withdrawal but still the end game is unclear civilian and military operations in afghanistan are proceeding without a clear definition of success the ambassador is banking on the success of reintegrating the taliban starting next week but little about afghanistan appears to be in u.s. favor it's not where you choose to fight to defend the american homeland it's the most remote logistical place in ited states has ever fought ancestry but just who can put an end to this fight and the absence of withdrawal dates if military and political missions fail the congress has the ability to stop the war by not funding it as u.s. lawmakers and officials talk strategy and tout successes in afghanistan this comes amid escalating violence in the region deal with the bloodiest month in the nine

year conflict with one hundred international troops killed forty five have been killed so far in july with. all of those deaths coming in the last day or so for r t m or lester washington d.c. . us is just he needs afghan troops to take control which will be far from easy afghan war veteran a date in the best who shares his experiences the overall strategy is just to pass over leadership from the americans and the coalition forces to the afghans but die experience when i was just in afghanistan a few months ago in the afghan national army training center again national army is going to be ineffective and i'm able to take over the leadership from the americans now while you really hear a lot of talk about the iraq surge working through past raqi the leadership of the iraqi army but the iraqi army is light years ahead of where the afghan army is and the afghan army is is ineffective in every possible way so you tell we're going to

gain momentum and unfortunately unless there's peace talks and peace negotiations the situation will always be a quagmire. also come on the program last from the pos. the scenes apollo got became so popular that alongside with your memorabilia the special brand of cigarettes was created just to mark the occasion. all first five years after the historic norm salty loads of the significance of the event and so much of this board. arrives to remember find out how an amusement park turned from fun to fear for visitors in st petersburg he were left helpless and dangling and now that. the suspected killer of prominent russian human rights activist and tiniest has been identified and placed on a wanted list that's according to present to be the fed if you outline the course

of the investigation after a meeting with the german chancellor angela merkel. first of all i would like to say that the investigation into this case is in full swing second such cases are immediately resolved only when the perpetrator is caught red handed third the killer estimate has been identified. full he has been put on a wanted list and finally the investigation moved continue to hunt those who ordered this serious crime. but as a year ago today since the estimate of those kidnapped and murdered in the north caucasus region she was a human rights organization and morial of russia chechen republic she was well nigh invested in the cases the kidnap torture and of easeful forces. well for more on all of the stories we're covering as well as videos blogs and interviews

you can always log on to our website dot com has a taste of what's online right now. a fine kick in germinal to pose a valid done by ukrainian animators and a special world cup edition of the cartoon well in advance of the tournament they correctly predicted the team's in the final of the school and even the red card. classes find out what's in store for russian farmers who is struggling against the country's worst heatwave in forty years. it's a thirty five years ago today that the first ever international space mission was launched two spacecraft one solve it and one american blasted off and they did

docked in orbit on the apollo soyuz mission the event wasn't only the beginning of space cooperation they between the two countries but also a warming in cold war relations he's cutting us out of a report. it was a turning point the launch that keenly from a cold war species into new heights to rockets blasting off half a world away from each other would bring the soviet union and the united states into the same orbit. when so use nineteen and the apollo craft docked i should a whole new chapter in space exploration the first ever joint project between two better rivals it was a giant leap for the men on board two like i said he was the second pilot in the se use crew. when we docked with apollo it was one of the most significant moments in history of russia and the u.s. before everything was secret all the details of our space programs every detail to see was a poor project we could finally passed

a barrier. lady still remembers all the details of that flight from the technical to the happy banter between them and the american astronauts on good you were showing the guys different cities and places in russia and when we were flying over the us brand was showing us florida i remember he said this is where all the pensioners go to live thirty five years on most of these men will once again get the chance to meet and share memories of their historic link up with my brother alex one of the series commander is in the united states for the big day. the launch was during the height of the cold war so this project wasn't of just technical and scientific importance but was also a great step towards cooperation between russia and the u.s. there were no losers. there are plans for alex and his apollo counterpart thomas stafford to meet president obama but not until the friends have had a chance to catch up with each other but it was over meaningful symbol to the

people of the world when we opened the hatch benelux together and showed to the world the way you are the space race said in a way the joint space project had a huge impact on both sides of the atlantic a time when rocket launches captured millions of imaginations worldwide media conceived watch the c.u.z. reach into the sky and vividly remembers every emotion it stirred goldfields i was in the fourth grade and it was a huge celebration not just for the school but the entire city we got handed balloons flags and went to meet the cosmonauts and then later on we were all outside again to watch the actual launch i remember my dad who worked in the launch but he told me that this was the most important event of the century. thirty five years on and this a usable a project still fires people's feelings some are even banking on it the scenes

apollo became so popular that alongside the original memorabilia a special brand of cigarettes was created just to mark the occasion back in the day these were credibly popular and were almost impossible to find on the thirty fifth anniversary of the docking they are once again missing from the city stores katherine as are the artsy moscow. or wall salma rockets blast off successfully elvis have less happy ending ten long lines that were left hanging by a thread literally went to an extreme through a wall and our rocket like touch and waste ended in tragedy was it just to one of st petersburg's amusement parks were in for a nasty shock as a cable snapped on the ride leaving them suspended in mid-air seventy meters off the ground luckily. the sport just in time to free those stranded this isn't the first safety scare the paul two years ago

a twelve year old girl suffered serious injuries after a trampoline accident also involving a stop cable. it had as a date the news from around the world in brief this hour and faulty equipment may prevent b.p. from running a pressure test aimed at stopping the massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico the company was supposed to test the strength of a new cap that could finally help stop the disaster but the cap it's self is going to show them the company says it doesn't know when it will be fixed the new delay follows a string of failed attempts to contain the damage maybe three months after an explosion destroyed the deepwater horizon rig. an iranian nuclear scientists who claims he was kidnapped by the cia a year ago has returned home i merely says he was severely tortured to give up information about iran's nuclear program he also claims he was offered fifty million dollars to stay in the u.s. all monday he went to the pakistani embassy in washington and asked to be sent home

to the u.s. insists imedi had travelled to america of his own free will and live there for. the foreign ministers of india and pakistan a meeting in oslo about is the two countries look to improve strained relations and revive peace talks the discussions are aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the deadly attacks in nearly two years ago by which the indian government blames on pakistan based minnesotans the indian foreign minister s.m. krishna is the most senior official to visit pakistan since the mom by plot in which hundred and sixty six people were killed. ninety one years ago a train loaded with the russian empires gold reserves set off to the. the bolsheviks another destination even today no one knows for sure what became of a school where it is so off he carries out his own investigation in

a special program coming up in three hours time that has a quick preview. the train carries away the russian empires gold reserve. to save it from the soviet. five hundred tons of gold. dozens of. six hundred fifty million in sars room a. train that is still awaiting the arrival of a. century long way. ministry of the building. more news of course ways available on our website don't go away now latest business news on the way with cutting.

and i welcome to our business program thanks for joining me this hour there are some government will spend five and a half billion dollars in skolkovo innovation center which is intended to become russia's version of silicon valley during the meeting with chancellor merkel in here in bourg president medvedev said he hoped the modernization process would be quick i was counting on support from german partners countries have already agreed that german engineering giant siemens would join skolkovo and create a new research center there a bit of said he was encouraged by the strengthening of trade relations despite the difficult economic conditions. in january to may two thousand and ten to return a bit between russia and germany grew by almost fifty percent the economies are recovering the main traits it does it was a recovering according to our data german investments russia's economy accounted for around twenty billion dollars that makes this very happy you. look at the

markets now u.s. stocks have opened down for the first time in eight days that are to report on jobless claims manufacturing and inflation provided a mixed picture of the economy now on the flip side banking giant j.p. morgan became the latest company to report strong quarterly we sell. our european markets have also gone into reverse london and frankfurt are now down about half of the standard barclays top was over forty thousand two point two percent and there is gaining almost over eight percent right. now russian equity markets have also slipped into red all the major blue chips are losing on both of course says bucking the trend is gasp wrong that is the point eight percent of the r.t.s. group's hydro the biggest loser on the rise extending over two percent. now to get some insight into what's happening on the markets i'm joined by david buick . park live from london hello david thanks for joining us.

david just out of the u.s. appear. to have put a dent in that summer mood with all markets turning red now how bad were the figure . well they were disappointing rather than bad we had some sort of warning about this and equity markets have been heading off in their own merry little way tending and trying to ignore the quality of the economic data which actually hasn't been very good really from the last friday well the first friday of this month when the employment data was again disappointing yesterday we only had a very modest rise in retail sales point five percent which again we expected much stronger figures and if the economy was really about to select another gear and today of course manufacturing output and industrial production figures to clear the empire state was desperately disappointing and is a pointing towards some kind of a return to recession or if you prefer a double dip notwithstanding all that as you so rightly said it's now seems to be

a war of attrition or a battle between the second quarter earnings which at present turning out to be substantially better than people thought six weeks ago today of course we are looking at j.p. morgan chase who showed disappointing results from their investment banking but people were thrilled that their write downs or impairment charges were less than four billion dollars and that they posted revenues of twenty five point one billion dollars on a profit of around four point eight billion dollars which was for the last more than acceptable shares a fairly flat and i think we're going to be more interested in what happens tomorrow with bank of america merrill and also to a lesser degree with citi group we had of course yesterday. wonderful figures or should i say on tuesday from intel which has set the tone for people to say well i'm prepared to hang in with the equity markets but i think because they were oversold some six weeks ago there is perhaps a little bit of mileage in them unless of course the quality of the economic data

continues to be very disappointing david the euro is holding at a two month high against the dollar and equities on the continent have enjoyed a strong run we've seen that does that mean worries about europe's public finances are receding somewhat. i wouldn't put it any stronger than that the fact is what's been encouraging in the course of this week is that. in the case of portugal and greece quite short some. six months we did today have a two point nine billion euro fifteen year paper that was issued by spain with a fairly fancy point six five percent which gives us reason to be more encouraged that many of the austerity programs which will have to be introduced. may actually start to be affected but of course that will inevitably to some degree affect

growth and i think this is because the euro was so badly damaged about four to six months you need a bit of rest when the news is slightly better and where a few months ago there was no chance of seeing all the twenty seven or even the top ten. from the same hymn sheet. came under severe pressure. but the main. way it is we've had some rest bites but i suspect the autumn will bring more. and perhaps. now what my last question is what major factors do you think will move the markets in the near future and. it's the war of attrition between the quality of the earnings we get through this weekend with reasonable results from of course citigroup and bank of america and then next week we have a whole slew of people whether it's tobacco companies such as some of the technology companies such as microsoft people like honeywell. some of the drug

companies if they continue to be better than expected numbers for the second quarter that we were originally expecting. a modest gains if they. points in any vein together with a slew of further discouraging economic data in the united states suggesting that we may return to a double dip because what is worrying was the comments made by chairman greenspan of the federal reserve yesterday that the economy has taken a softer no chance of interest rates going up and more stimulation required this was not the kind of rhetoric or language that the market wanted to hear because it doesn't mean that the economy is really as robust and buoyant as perhaps the president of the united states and his advisors would like his two thoughts thank you very much david thank you for this r.v. that was daily value of b g c partners in london taken talking in our program.

and that will keep you updated this hour do log on to our website r.t. dot com slash business and you'll find more stories there and i'll be back in less than one hour with.