always fall back as a december and it's been in negotiations ever since but will now seriously be on the table in the next months allow mug russia nato meeting to take place in lisbon and possibly even before that when they take secretary-general anders fogh rasmussen visits moscow well one the particular area in which both russia and they can cooperate is in the own going issue all of afghanistan and maintaining peace in that area and also in the ongoing fines against drug trafficking that comes out of afghanistan earlier this week several leading u.k. newspapers and made the statement that russia would be sending troops back into the country to help in training afghan forces now russia's envoy they say to be a ruggles that has flatly denied that he said that russia will no account be re entering afghanistan russia of course for a bit said decade long war in afghanistan from nine hundred seventy nine to nine

hundred eighty nine and to be free and i call it in the house said the russia has no wish to go back into the country what he has said russia will be doing though is possibly supplying helicopters to the ongoing fight in afghanistan and will also potentially help in the training of afghan forces and also in afghan and pakistan a police forces in their own going fight against the drug because but that training will not take place on afghan soil another area of potential cooperation is in the future discussion on the europe walled missile defense shield in these spiritual improved russian they so a friendship nato has said that it very much wants nato to be a russia role the to be a policy all of that discussion on how best to implement that missile defense shield across europe. reporting that will for more on this i'm now joined by me called. he's the political analyst joining us from moscow thanks very much indeed

for being with us here on r.t. so this reported call for nato to limit its military presence close to russia's borders what do you think of the chances that moscow's demands will actually be met here. well i think the chances are considerable in this situation limiting conventional forces in russia's neighborhood. is indeed a gesture of trust on the part of nato as we know the conventional forces in europe treaty has come to an impasse because of the on the willingness of the nato countries to ratify. even with dull dread firing and going ahead with this c.f.e. treaty i think a good move a mutual trust could look like reducing natal conventional forces presence and concentration in russia's neighborhood and i think there could

be part of progress of expected progress there need to are to achieve in lisbon in november yes so this is this is not just trust but it's also a corporation of course and we see that corporation extending now to afghanistan because we're hearing that in the british press as we heard analysis report there that there are rumors of russia assisting nato in afghanistan so how far do you think that assistance can go and what form could assistance take do you think. well in fact the article that i think you are citing right now from the british press is actually quite cautious about the prospects of russia's involvement in afghanistan and the author clearly says that. obviously not good to engage. taliban troops on the ground only talks about training afghan security officers in russia supplying helicopters to. troops and maybe. intelligence

exchange ente drug corporation border protection i think that is exactly how far. russia's participation in i say our mission in afghanistan could go not much further really but i think this contribution is already quite valuable and it is being appraised highly by the nato countries so there's no question of someone badly needing russia on the ground in afghanistan. in gauging taliban will be clearly be talking about the afghanistan issue in this upcoming lisbon summit the nato summit in lisbon which you mentioned a little earlier what else do you think will be coming out of that summit what are the areas of cooperation and improvement and an improvement of relations could we see in this forthcoming summit. well i think russia is looking forward to seeing what nato. daryn in its concepts and i think part

of the deal let's say in the good sense of this word would be for russia to see some positive signs in this in this concept and i think a positive sign could be there nato actually be years away from this collective defense mission or from the collective defense is at the core of the alliance as long as there's only one supposed threat that would defend against collectively in the in the traditional sense and that is russia so that could be a very good sign stressing corman missions instead of stressing collective defense but then i think some more steps are on afghanistan could be expected. as well as as well as potentially nato countries moving forward with troop reductions in russia's neighborhood that is all part of it deal in the good sense of the.

which would signify progress in russia major relations that we had to see lisbon came you very much indeed for joining us live from central moscow our political analyst there thank you very much indeed. my bullet well while nato has admitted it needs help in afghanistan already fears that the end of operations in iraq will plunge the country into crisis it follows revelations from wiki leaks which claimed torture is already widespread and whistle blowing web site also raise concerns that kurdish controlled northern iraq will erupt into bloodshed when u.s. troops withdraw. has more. a dawn raid a race against time to catch militants off guard in the iraqi province of kirkuk where in the suburb of duck cook and the police have just a few minutes to get into position before sunrise. daybreak's in the raid begins police under the supervision of the u.s. army go door to door searching rooms and checking residents against lists of unknown terrorists to kirkuk police dominated heavily by kurds have been remarkably

successful recently they have cut terror attacks by over fifty percent in the past few months these guys are very good they are very good and they're very good at intelligence and develop they are gathering intelligence and developing intelligence and the other submerged wrong place for not worried about it but others mainly the cities non kurds are here in downtown area around the divide with her charity turkey where are you with your own historic claim of the kirkuk is a unique city in iraq a true melting pot of all the different ethnicities in the country but this mixture continues to lead to extremely volatile ethnic tensions a two thousand and nine field report that was recently leaked by the whistleblower wiki leaks states that without strong unfair influence likely from a third party these tensions may quickly turn to violence after the u.s. forces withdraw. in terms of security when the us leaves it will be no independent security force right now the security is from the kurdish side of the city this is

the truth when the us leaves things will get worse it will be conflicts arabs will stand up and prayed and we should say with third and this will. by god forbid both wars will begin between the ethnic groups as. an example of this violence wasn't long in coming no more than five minutes after we finished the interview a roadside bomb targeting the police detonated in the center of the city. luckily for the police the terrorists missed it appears that despite the gains that the police are making. the american troop withdrawal could easily lead to a return to sectarianism and care cook for kurds arabs and turkmen alike the consequences of the u.s. led war have left the future of kirkuk very much uncertain sebastian meyer care cook for r.t. . well still ahead the south korean are to u.s. senators enjoying the perks of insider trading a look at how american officials seem to be using legal loopholes to fatten their

warnings plus. global warming is just that we talked to activists who say mother nature gave them a sign that they're right by sending salute two years ago all the details for you in just a few minutes from. the first recently discovered oil reserves in the eastern mediterranean looks set to become the latest point of tension in the troubled middle east of these four major competitors are staking their claim israel lebanon turkey and cyprus all want to peace with new clearly defined maritime borders the fights could be lengthy and bitter and despite unclear border demarcation israel has already gained the upper hand and started developing two sites. takes a closer look at the divisive deposits. prayer is a long time in coming more than we've been begging for a year yeah please lord don't let me down don't let me down and finally jackie

relations prayers have been answered the oil company he's invested in reportedly hitting bingo underground still talking about the largest amount of oil ever to be discovered in the state of israel there's a joke in israel that when moses led the jews out of egypt he took a wrong turn on his way to the promised land bringing them to the one spot in the middle east that has no oil but that punchline might need to change because it seems that moses might not have been so wrong after all in two thousand and nine israel announced the discovery of a first major natural gas field off its coast but the most recent reports from the giant live ethan natural gas site off the coast of haifa point to a potential for billion barrels of black gold we will be able to beijing for future . energy. it will be less expensive which is how important. from a political appointee we should we should be less dependent on the. import

of foreign oil but it's not only israel name came to the reserves greek cyprus to keep and lebanon also say the oil is and while the international law allows a country to drill in the so-called continental shelf off the coast the fact that israel and lebanon have never agreed on maritime boundaries makes it clear that israel in and lebanon begins i know the club about how its version think the border line will pass if and when they will have a negotiated i don't know that there is one has its own version or the impulse but they're not in the agreement on whether and because the two countries are enemy states is unlikely to be any agreement anytime soon both have threatened to go to war over the issue obviously this is an israeli company. as an israeli company and . will not be allowed to uncover into lebanese territory or will have any further connection with ration of lebanese gas

lebanon filed a complaint with the united nations after israel placed floating markers extending two miles into the sea and weighing in on the conflict hizbollah was the major political actor in lebanon. and his strongest supporter from the syrian iran. and it would seem if we take statements and public positions seriously which we are. they really interested. really creating tension israel has the upper hand for now it's already struck a deal with cyprus and is preparing to start extraction lebanon still needs to sort out the boundaries of its economic zone with cyprus and syria and it will be years before it has the evidence it needs to show that israel's fields extend into lebanese territory. tel aviv. by the way don't forget that's much more for you

on our website it's just log on and explore plenty of articles and features there for here's a look at what might catch arrive at the moment in a search of powers ford with its twenty fourteen winter olympic preparations and massive construction work real secrets of russia's ancient past and to. discover why not just the athletes racing to the site. and going against tradition find out why young couples in india face family for for taking money to put off parenthood online and r.t. . capitol hill insiders in the us are thought to be abusing their position to make some extra pocket money but wall street journal has reported that many in congress are taking unfair advantage of the knowledge of the markets. reports it's not even

illegal. the annual salary of members of the united states congress one hundred seventy four thousand dollars the profit they can make by trading on inside information priceless. a number of u.s. lawmakers and dozens of congress staffers have reportedly traded thousands of dollars worth of stocks of companies they or their crosses wrote last for under the u.s. law there is no conflict of interest here they're just plain cheating and it's not fair what they're doing currently all u.s. lawmakers and their highest paid staffers have to do is to disclose information once a year on their finances by the analysis of the wall street journal u.s. public servants have been phenomenally successful trading stocks at the peak of the wall street crisis senator spencer backus made hands of thousands of dollars betting against the market and he's

a media helps oversee he's the ranking member on the house committee on financial services. chris miller a top energy policy advisor to the senate majority leader harry reid nearly doubled his bet when his boss helped pass legislation that won't up benefiting the fur after his staff or his name was mentioned in a list of capitol hill stock traders mr reid reprimanded his aide. pocono spoke with chris mellon. my attempts to talk to some of those involved were time consuming and unsuccessful. we talk a lot about exporting democracy one of the bedrocks of a successful democracy i believe is freedom from cruel corruption the sense that elected officials are elected to serve the public not to and hence their own wallets or that of their friends or cronies or family congressman brian baird

offered a bill that would ban insider trading on capitol hill years ago but the act received the support of only nine out of four hundred thirty five members in the house of representatives and none in the senate and in this case you've got. the possibility of making great amounts of money in ways that aren't illegal and ways that are hard to detect congressman baird says annual disclosure reports are not enough to my knowledge there is no human being employed by the congress of the united states who has looked at our financial reports with a with an eye towards possible conflict of interest now there is no initiative to change the rules what for the rest of america it's cheating it's perfectly legal for the country's lawmakers why would they want to change it as it is now a public servant stock market activities are hard to track there are no investigators here on the hill doing that and some believe those senators and

staffers who have recently been in the spotlight are just the tip of the iceberg than a strike on r.t.e. washington d.c. . and bruce bean from michigan state university's college of law says the us has made corruption illegal well there's more on this in cross talk with peter lavelle's going to decide there's only one way to beat corruption democratically and that's through elections. congress has had its hands completely into this financial crisis in the late ninety's. there is no doubt that they're not going to jail or the only thing you can do to a congressman or a senator is not elect them i mean. we're marveling at the fact that there's almost one hundred seats available that my contested well i recall that there are four hundred thirty five seats up every year what cup what is it what do we call it when three hundred thirty five of the guys are in serious contests we don't call it

corruption but in this country there is no doubt that we have legalized what in other countries we call corruption. the institutions are set up to accommodate the congressman and the congress and make the rules. crosstalk coming away shortly here on well global warming skeptics in the u.k. have gathered to mark what they've dubbed climate fools day on this date two years ago snow fell in london as the british parliament was debating a bill to tackle global warming it was the first such early snowfall for over eighty years and activists claim the ironic coincidence was just more proof that the bill is billions of. one of those dirty thomas is reverend philip foster who

sees no reason to blame manmade c o two. there's not a particularly dramatic rise in c o two. and anyway a carbon dioxide does not affect the climate i think that's a fundamental statement that is the misconnection that the climate warmest or alarmists have made it there is climate change of course but that is a natural thing but no it isn't due to. actions anyway man's amount of carbon dioxide represents a tiny proportion of the shift anyway about four percent whether extreme events always take place always have and always will blame them on human emissions is simply. pointless because there is no real connection that we have today for the moment i'll be back with a look at our main stories about eight minutes from now meantime business is next with stephanie. for the. we've got. the biggest issues get voice face to face with the news makers.

writing. songs from silence to. keep don't.

welcome to the business bulletin the american company responsible for running operations that may be swapped for a russian company exon never has twice the government to raise subsidies for the oil and gas project a production house for the audit chamber says involving russian companies in similar ventures has previously raise production costs and cut costs but according to the energy minister at the issue of placing the operates a hasn't been considered as yet. top russian so produces a concentrating on domestic consumers to boost profits recent changes in tax bill and other government incentives have made the market more attractive this is also giving a competitive edge to russian companies over the european and asian pits but in a question of reports. top russian magill producer sever stout has opened two new

plants and the moscow region to supply cow manufacturers what do you is just one of a number of fans that are ramping up production to profit from growing domestic demand you have asked is upgrading its plant in that world mountains while i am m.k. plans to invest up to three billion dollars and the country to boost capacity. we are planning to produce ten million tonnes of metal this year we're going to increase the output by some twenty percent by twenty eleven and by another twenty percent the year after our aim was to restore the pre-crisis output recent changes in tax law have made it more profitable for russian companies to sell processed muscle to domestic consumers rather than exporting it in addition the state has gone for tax breaks to foreign carmakers if they buy supplies from russian producers it's apology of the government's plan to encourage manufacturers to produce cars from start to finish with locally sourced materials the russian market

is recovering has recovered enough and all sure enough straddle xed here to consume all finished feel and therefore make the russians still makers even better positional competitors compared to the global still makers. selling precise still in russia can be three times as profitable as sending it abroad but the market is being destroyed by government intervention worldwide the demand for still has yet to recover from the financial crisis and prices remain weak so producers here have little reason not to take advantage of the situation and i do not question the business on. my list of the top fifty most influential russian businessmen has been published the russian paper news the v.c. my commission the list. alexei millo russian roadways boss over to me yet couldn't and resell c.e.o. a better person at the top thirty seven experts compiled the survey from a total of one hundred seven candidates placing them in four categories of

influence a minimal moderate high and very high. let's turn now to the equity markets european stocks finished low on wednesday but follows some weak u.s. money for true data the footsie showed more than one percent but mine is that leading the declines. on the wall street is on the slide in wednesday's session follies got weak durable goods data and investor speculation that the federal reserve may take a more cautious approach to stimulating the economy. than here in moscow the russian markets have finished a low on wednesday with both indices shedding more than one percent all blue chips finished in the red with among the worst before its. russian railways has set the i.p.o. period price range for it to fifty tons contain up at seventy nine to ninety nine dollars per share the company could raise as much as five hundred million from the london based. on russia's biggest mobile phone operating deficit is considering

selling thirty percent of it says on the london stock exchange in march the company has already started discussions with banks to underwrite the offer but it still needs to get the agreement of some of its biggest shareholders. about one fifth of russian insurance companies are facing bankruptcy the insurance watchdog said out of seven hundred firms up to two hundred fifty are in financial difficulties how i thought major market players say the industry is in need of some rationalization. both or not as they will merge yourselves or leave the market it will make for market for healthy and good news you've heard the whole theory of the market of companies i believe hardly see five of them so a real cost to mars will nords wrongly be affected by these cooling of the market global competition this year could reach pre-crisis levels

according to pricewaterhouse coopers the number of cars produced this year could reach seventy million and here in russia it could rise to one point seven million cars. pre-crisis in two thousand and seven global manufacturing was about just under seventy million units and it looks as we estimate that it will come back to seventy million units globally in two thousand and ten so we're back to where we were pre-crisis book but there's a big difference because the bric so-called bric countries were just under twenty percent of the two thousand and seven production but it's going to be up to about thirty percent of two thousand and ten in other words has been a bit of a shift from the rest of the world basically to the bric countries. but of course you can always find. a website. with.

the official. video on demand. an. apology. for the full story. for. the biggest issues get. face to face with the news

makers. this is. the russian capital good to have you with us top stories now russia receding to prevent nato from placing major forces close to its border with a proposal that would limit the military presence in its newest member states hoping for closer cooperation with. european missile defense and afghanistan. the u.s. troops could his control. concerns intensified after the whistleblower website wiki leaks released documents highlighting cases of hostility between kurds and arabs. also reporting the showdown between israel and lebanon over recent weeks discovered

oil reserves in the eastern mediterranean with turkey in cyprus also staking their claims without a clearly defined maritime borders experts predict the countries are unlikely to reach agreement anytime soon. with another update in less than fifteen minutes from now in the meantime we talked to dr lee roth from he's a veteran from behind the scenes of u.k. e.u. relations to find out if membership of the european union is worth the cost that's our special interview next. dr rather and thank you very much for talking to r.t. now first of all tell me how much it costs the u.k. to be a member of the well that's a both a very important question and a very tricky question to ask in the first instance the treasury writes a check to the european union every fortnight to the sum of a two hundred million pounds now that's not the whole picture because that is.