as long as germany has the political will to stand behind it which i which i question we should not do that but as long as we do it it will probably can go on for another four five six years and what about the german people and what is their political well in the german population to carry on supporting. so so not really but the political class almost unanimously it wants to support it so there are some dissidents but it's part of the german reason of state that we're good europeans that we're good citizens of the world but. for this we've forgotten and that was my what my dissertation was all about fifteen years back but we forgot that germany also has interests national interests of its own which of course we should cooperate and of course we should be good partners but we don't have to do everything and so the political class is firmly behind the euro so in this case it doesn't matter what the population is thinking are you one who believes that as a concepts the euro is fundamentally flawed basically within

a currency area have to have flexible factors of production capital labor goods industry and we don't have that in continental europe labor is not moving freely capital is moving freely goods are moving freely but as long as you don't have fully flexible markets you don't have an optimum currency area and also between germany austria the netherlands the benelux states we did have a defacto union currency union for decades they just did and they just followed the bundesbank and nobody talked about it worked perfectly but within that region you basically had an integrated market but to throw together greece and spain and italy and portugal and ireland and germany is sheer lunacy i mean sheer lunacy and they said we thought together so will grow together but that is not promoting growing together the other way around would have been better to liberalize markets

to keep national currencies to be able to just to shocks like this so what should we do you know that should be your easing be slowly but steadily dismantled should we wait for the u.s. to collapse and i say ideally i would go back to a core europe and i would let the drachma return and the pursuit to return and the lira return and we still would have a european union it's not like it would be the collapse of the european union quite to the contrary if we allow those. countries to set their own economic policy again and to be sovereign in their currencies we would do europe a service we're doing europe a disservice by having this artificial currency imposed on it it can only lead to political tensions like in greece where the greek population now has to suffer taxpayers germany has to suffer the only ones that didn't suffer in greece were the banks because they were fully rescued so that's to me is a deal that is not quite equitable

a european central bank or recently said that countries leaving the euro is a would essentially be committing political and economic suicide what's your no not at all i mean it's of course very difficult to leave because you would have to do a lot of administrative measures you would have to prepared very well and of course international capital may be shocked for a moment but in the end was the right supporting measures it would need some preparation it would need careful planning it would need careful execution but of course you could return the greek to the drachma and you could support it you still could support it with credits i mean the european union could step in with credit for it and distillery period but we just would not underwrite the euro we would underwrite the greek economy as a sovereign but integrated nation are you a fan of detroit's mark for the torch marks sake no i'm a fan of the deutsche mark because it was a good currency in the bundesbank was a good institution and i think the rules that we had then were good rules for

germany and also for europe i mean what what happens if you have a strong economy like germany's of course the doj mark would appreciate over time which again would help the neighboring economies to export more so it would give purchasing power to the germans and so good by itself being neck mechanism of adjustment in the end a market mechanism that would help if you have a crawling peg or something it would help adjustments to come more easily into just words that would be good for everybody but hasn't european. more stable than the deutsche mark was in the ten and twenty years leading up to the euro race introduction and lower inflation right as well isn't that a measure of the european crisis successful currency well we have to talk about that inflation if it's really low if the official inflation rate measures all that is to measure but in the end you had wage inflation you had goods inflation in spain in italy in greece that leads us to the current problems if we had to trust once in between meaning revaluation of the market devaluation of the position which

we didn't have so what we did was postpone adjustments. and create unhealthy structures and unhealthy developments saw as long as history and happy to was not just going to interrupt that now and pressure more of the top stories we're covering today russia is hopefully getting relations with britain back on track foreign minister sergei lavrov as you can see here he's holding talks with british counterpart in moscow now holding a news conference this name says he had a meeting with the russian president dmitry nearly this is. the russian leadership it's reaffirms it's our system policy to proceed with a comprehensive cutlery she says with the united kingdom. the still developing the greens is there and president with did it and prime minister cameron have already achieved during their recent meeting in ruins. mr hague destroyed us a letter from the british prime minister addressed to the russian president.

reaffirming that this long our president confirmed that he is also determined to hold his followers see this we especially mentioned that are a car peroration interested in investment has a good foundation and promising prospects especially as regards. developing business scar peroration education science. yes a little bit more social things that directly affect the goal of more nice in the russian economy which is our priority to use these quite soon in about a month or so this moscow's will cost and another and meeting of intergovernmental committee for treated investment and we have agreed that both parties will prepare for this meeting considering the possibility that we have to do all of that we have discussed. your dish and only the matter of culture and humanitarian exchange is

important to us we have agreed to use a poor and the plants that we have quite intense plans for the next two years and those plans include this issue organizing an exhibition in the united kingdom. it's on the yuri gagarin street which is basin we all support disappeared in the annual book fair in london in there will be an equally important to us equally important events here in moscow organized by a british colleagues. traditionally we covered in much detail. matters on the international agenda problem we've pointed out some problems that exist today in europe which was primarily in terms of strengthening security and stability in europe. in this context of course you know about this russian president dmitry medvedev soonish it if he is signing european security is ready to

stop us if we think that the principle of indivisibility of security will be reaffirmed by every wise and machine even practically implemented in the way we handle them solicit our affairs in europe to suit. their sense we discussed our relations with the european union to day president reaffirmed that the european union is our key strategic partner in a way to take this relationship between very positively and as we want this to expand it as much as possible to be sure and course nobody put it this way and this includes the promises that were long made about visa free travel in europe data shows that even though the united kingdom is not part of the zone we believe that the you know our relations to you will be able to provide more convenient so that. these were convenient conditions for our people especially those in the gauge until cheryl in educational exchanges rugrats a national weepy to special attention to the t u r elations we will need to fill in

the russian nato council this is another structure that place a very important role in security affairs called russia and we would log on to see the principle that was the principle of the interviews ability of security that was declared in the russian that it causes but rather the e.u. clementon problem then regional problems of all we covered but most of the solutions you see to us the things that have to do with the situation in the middle east are approaches we share the same approaches on this issue also that we agree on the real issues of iranian nuclear program got a school police situation on the korean peninsula some of the nation at the end that matters related to the international community is further activities in afghanistan's on afghanistan over to mr haygood myself have agreed. with joint statement by the foreign minister's office you countries that want to still be handed out to you. leave selfish there's the take

a look at it and on the whole i think these talks or quite constructive succeeds i received an invitation from mr hague to visited to visit london and share this with the near future i think he meant for six months overseen will go the next year will coordinate this trace i accept this invitation with gratitude thank you. thank you very much well it's a great pleasure to return to russia as foreign secretary of the united kingdom and i'm very grateful to minister lavrov for the invitation to visit at an early stage of the new coalition government in britain and indeed to the president who have just visited as well as governments where you face a number of extremely serious challenges ranging from nuclear proliferation to international terrorism the fragile global economic and vironment the threat of irreversible climate change and that's why i'm here in russia today because we

cannot address these global problems unless governments like our own work together on shared interests and seek to narrow differences where differences arise and this is the spirit in which britain views russia as an important partner in international security and in trade and commerce a country with whom we seek frank and productive relations our countries have had some serious differences in the recent past and of course we always come to new to discuss those we don't shy away from discussing those today but we should be able to acknowledge our differences remain and apply our minds to them patiently through dialogue and through diplomacy britain and russia also have significant areas of common interest as the foreign minister has just been explaining we discuss the trade and investment relationship between britain and russia which is very important to both our economies. both. governments are determined to

improve these economic relations further for the prosperity of all our citizens and we have agreed a new knowledge partnership between britain and russia that will promote u.k. business science and education as key partners in russia's modernization and that will identify and tackle barriers to trade. promote opportunities for new investment stimulate contact between our educational establishments and the british government will encourage u.k. companies research institutes scientists and students to look for new opportunities with their russian counterparts we will also continue to seek to attract high quality russian business into the u.k. as well as support u.k. investment into russia the u.k. is consistently the largest foreign direct investment investor in russia with cumulative investments for almost thirty billion pounds while russian companies

account for thirteen percent of all international public offerings on the london stock exchange so we will work to build on these strong foundations and we also discussed our common interests in ensuring stability in afghanistan and have indeed agreed a joint statement on afghanistan covering a coherent political strategy transition tackling illicit drug production and supporting the government of afghanistan in the cheating and hands of cooperation with regional partners we have discussed the crucial issue of nuclear proliferation and of working towards peace in the middle east on proliferation it's essential that britain and russia work together with the other members of the ether you plus three to encourage iran to cooperate fully with the international atomic energy agency and to restore international confidence in the peaceful intentions of its nuclear program we also share

a common interest in the stability of the. stability and denuclearization of the korean peninsula and we welcome the important role that russia has played in the six party process which we hope will resume again soon and we discuss threats from an international organized crime groups whether these take the form of drug trafficking organized immigration crime or cyber crime countries such as iran will need to work together against them so i'm very grateful to foreign minister lavrov for the constructive spirit in which we have discussed these issues today and for his kind invitation to visit russia and i look forward not only to working with him and his government on our common interests in the years to come but indeed as he has said on his visit to london which i've invited him to undertake in the early stages of next year thank you very much for the offer of supposed to do it but of up it was you have

a serious question it's from both the senate. and the president but don't go in there i have a question to mr hague so what is your i did you know with the position of london which shows no control my space. you don't need that human i watch you go what's your game level you know videos most you. well we have yes we have discussed that this morning and really it is covered by what i was saying area that earlier that we have serious differences we've had serious differences between our countries in the past which we don't shy away from discussing and we acknowledge why differences remain and we will apply our minds to those through dialogue and through diplomacy and so we are not here today to announce any change in that position but it is clearly there is a lot of progress that we can make in the economic area in the knowledge

partnership that we have talked about and so we don't forget that we have differences and problems but we work together on them patiently in a businesslike way that is really the spirit in which we are approaching this we have to become a group selected system still really and could show us causal problem with russia and he used in the us we do you have problems in our relations and you cannot imagine if you hear of countries that have no difficulties whatsoever and this includes the problems related to the so-called within and cold case we reaffirm our position that we are really cheap toggery notions of based on our laws and so this position is well known to the british side in the future we reaffirm it is with women that i mean just the fact that we do you have problems in your relationship between our gantries it does not mean that any other area of cooperation should

suffer because of it and we agree on that because that spittles. your question please. the pressure turned over my name is he quoted as i don't know if that's my question is he president of. the german chancellor talking to us this russia is in need of a closer cooperation and not to gratian with the european union and what's the free distribution on the us. i think you are discriminating against the british press. well the pharmacy level has referred to the importance that russia attributes to the partnership with the european union and indeed we are able to discuss between bilaterally between the u.k. and russia many of the issues concerning european cooperation we will be having tomorrow a meeting of the nato foreign and defense ministers talking about our own strategic concept. and i hope that it will be possible to have

a meeting of nato russia council. in the near future so we welcome closer cooperation between nato and russia but we have to do a lot of work on the position of united kingdom i suppose he basically b.b.c. thank you b.b.c. representative please. foreign secretary two years ago at the height of the russia georgia conflict david cameron called for russia to be suspended from the g eight he also said that russian armies cannot move into other countries while russian shoppers continue to march into selfridges is that the position of the british government today well again we have discussed georgia as i say we don't shy away from discussing differences we have a. i think a true it was a true description to say we have a frank and productive relationship so suddenly we have discussed the situation in

georgia today. and in particular the role of the e.u. monitoring mission and implementation of previous agreements there will be there will be disagreements between the u.k. and russia. on issues such as those arising from georgia a lead is be clear about that and we are not saying today that we have abolished all differences between the governments of the united kingdom and russia already several subjects have been brought up in this press conference where clearly there are differences of view but it is important to work on the issues that we've also set out on afghanistan on iran on the middle east peace process on nuclear proliferation in general indeed on climate change so i can say that we have come to complete agreement about all issues with regard to georgia but the again

this means that we must patiently apply ourselves to dialogue and diplomacy and that is what we're very much personally committed to you i would have put it it's the moves was the you know only one affirm that we did discuss the situation with georgia primarily see context of the crisis to do things that emerged genes in the body in august two thousand and eight is a result of the georgian it chad wants. south assaidi in the local cities and going to mix lets you clear attack on the russian peacekeepers we also discussed the cost of war the situation was somewhat different because belgrade was only political some knew the way people questioned them from the greenman reached out to journey end of the conflict of lupul said list so i fully agree should the switches during once again i repeat them when we have to normal countries to normal governments here and we are respected is having it bring medical discussion of all the issues including those areas that we don't fully agree with but as regards specifically

what was your question the question us and you don't remember who the prime minister prime minister cameron saying anything like that. but if we busted you up most of it thank you and the last question to the petitions journalists. thank you have a question for the british foreign secretary first then from this level of. one of the conditions that the russian government has make clear for an improvement in relations with the u.k. is that britain resume cooperation on counterterrorism with the f.s.b. the federal security service are you prepared to do that and question for mr lavrov the previous government believes that the f.s.b. was involved in the matter of alexander litvinenko so why should britain now cooperate with it. well only on the question where there is no change in the u.k. position on this issue as i indicated in response to the earlier question so there

is no change on the above that does not stop as working together to combat international organized crime which we have discussed on drug trafficking on immigration crime on on cyber crime but no the have not come here to announce any change in the u.k. position on measures taken around the let me and co case. and i think it's. still our role for the rest of your post which. is that on that i just want to clarify that the russian reside here is never made any conditions of the machine suitable for the normalization of our relations with britain our positions who did exactly as we told you to see whether we don't consider remaining problems as an obstacle to everything you know like you tube which are there and no talk of conditions through requisites like cooperation with the f is being noted there is

no such thing this is a initiation that the previous british government made and we just you know the decision it was as an objective last year and we just warned them that for years without contradiction between the federal security service no more hands you know their british guy. ports it will be difficult for us to maintain the copper ration against terrorists because you know rush air the f.s.b. coppery it's all anti-terrorist activities that. suspicions you mentioned the federal security service was in some way involved in the death of alexander litvinenko that you so that we are ready to coppery you know order to establish the truth using the you know of course we are ready to do so without violating our constitution and our laws and just recently we reaffirmed our readiness have to get into this affair we need all the materials

that british investigators have on this case that's all. where we have a news conference there with the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and his british counterpart william hague and takes a first visit to russia since he became foreign secretary new coalition in the united kingdom just to give you a couple of quotes from that news conference a lover of said our cooperation in trade in investment has good foundations european union is our key strategic partner he also went on to mention the middle east saying that we agree on the issues of the iranian nuclear program and william hague's party said two countries facing extremely serious challenges we cannot address global problems and there we work together very wide ranging issues discussed finance terrorism security and even drugs and of course we'll have more on this now next hour here on r.t. . culture is that so much i'm afraid we're going to need to get

a lot of people you're young enough to look at news and alternative media outlets are challenging the dominance of traditional heavyweights in all languages why are viewers looking for alternative. leap. and discover it's easy. to. lose the communicate with the wild. test yourself and become free legal. nature can give you. the. wealthy british style role to. play. in the. markets financed scandals find out what's really happening to the global economy

for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines soon into the report. taking

the drug fight too far the head of an anti narcotics foundation accused of using tough treatment techniques is jailed but his supporters say he got results was. after years of frosty anglo russian relations the british foreign secretary rides in moscow as both sides attempt to build bridges you really should check. to know that a terrorist suspect being tried in the sport. you know does it bother you does it concern you that this is going on right here you know. after the media panic over guantanamo trials being held in manhattan the first detainee hits court but the silence is deafening. and the britons better off on benefits we look into why the u.k. has more people sitting idle than any other major country. america's silicon

valley's found this one last government involvement more private accounts in russian startups but not everyone agrees we examine the high tech situation in the business bulletin it's twenty minutes time. or more welcome to you live from our headquarters here in central moscow this is our team with me and you said no way it's two pm here in the russian capital eleven am in london and first this hour there's long been tough rehab for drug addicts but cannot bring them and forcing them into extreme treatment is a step too far for the russian courts or even the euro's an area which is plagued with a severe narcotics problem waste its own war on drugs but spite enjoying widespread public support three people have been convicted of abduction and top.