all the while the lunar rover the first free. and. the so cool. to.

this is r.t. coming to live from moscow a look at the top stories thailand approves the extradition of viktor brought to the u.s. where he's accused of arms trafficking the russian businessman is expected to be handed over to american officials at a tie airport later on tuesday who faces life imprisonment if found guilty. fighting against time the u.s. congress tries to approve the arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington before a new members are sworn in with a man i suspect have to hear your motives and you congressman are seen as likely to separate by you just to score points against president obama.

human rights activists demand transparency and us attention practices in afghanistan to ensure washington is cleaned up its act following claims of detainee torture and abuse and one of the places in focus is a power want attention facility formerly known as were two detainees were beaten to death in two thousand and two. a brutal mass murder that shocked russia so were these arrests the gang leader following the slaughter of twelve people in a southern region across the dog investigators suspect the attackers of record tearing a local official has also been taken into questioning. as we have live here in our next al gadhafi stock show spotlight and today he and his guests talk about the new strategic arms reduction treaty between russia and the u.s. which some say could be strangled birth well it's coming your way in just a few moments.

hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview show on our team m algernon's and today my guest in the studio is paul saunders. the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton and secretary of defense robert gates say ratifying the new start to agreement is vital for the russia us reset processed as well as for world peace but with

a republican majority in the house of representatives some skeptics say the good will feeling of the reset process may be running out in washington to such fears held water i hope they exist director of the nixon center also tourist who asked the question. the u.s. leadership is trying hard to push through the new start treaty through the congress president obama has been meeting with republican leaders and he says they too want to get the treaty signed but inside the g.o.p. not everyone appears to be in agreement some republicans have held up the voting saying they still have questions about the treaty if no action is taken soon new hearings will be required to treat the wretched occasion for at least two years and with the new start treaty becoming the plank ship for the whole reset process would it be a blow to improving u.s. russian relations. loomis owners welcome to the show thank you thank you thank you very much for being with us well first of all could

the new start treaty become a casualty of the new political situation washington is that possible well it's certainly possible i don't think it has to happen by any stretch of the imagination certainly there are a number of senate republicans who have questions about the treaty but i think if the obama administration is prepared to work with them to answer their questions and particularly to deal with their concerns about modernizing the u.s. nuclear arsenal i think the treaty can still be ratified possibly during the so-called lame duck session that the senate and the congress has just started and if necessary after the new year in the new congress well you mentioned some of the republicans that have questions about the treaty but some of them seem to have answers well for example former cia had republican james woolsey you wrote in the

wall street journal recently i can't concessions to russian demands make a new start treaty on the except do you think that the the. new majority. in the house of representatives is already influencing negatively affecting the relations with russia or will it i don't think that it has yet certainly whenever a leader in any country suffers an election defeat i think it raises questions internationally about how effective that leader can continue to be and i think in many countries around the world people are probably asking that question. about president obama. but you know the fact of the matter is he's still the president of the united states there are

a number of things that he can do actually particularly in foreign policy without requiring. support or approval of the congress obviously treaties do require ratification in the senate and there are some other measures that require congressional action. and they are it may be a little bit more challenging. at this point i think it's more a question of people adjusting their expectations whether it becomes more than that i think we'll have to see. search of state clinton and secretary of defense gates to say i quote. the new start will advance critical national security objectives providing direct insight into russia's nuclear arsenal and creating a more stable predictable and copper to relationship between the world's two

leading nuclear powers and quote how would you explain the the the republican opposition to it well except being except try to be nasty to democrats do they do they hear what clinton and gates and say well i think there are a number of specific concerns that republicans have been expressing and some of them are related directly to the treaty others are not related directly to the treaty but do relate to america's strategic posture. in terms of the treaty specifically number of russian sorry of republicans were very concerned about the reference in the preamble to the treaty to missile defense and even mentioned james woolsey the former cia director that that's one of the issues that he raised. and number of republicans have raised expressing concern that the administration was so eager to according to this line of argument the

administration was so eager to sign a treaty with russia. that they were prepared to make concessions related to america's ability to deploy missile defense and republicans have traditionally felt that missile defense was quite important the obama administration of course argues that the reference to missile defense is in the preamble to the treaty it's not in the text of the treaty and they they argue that it's not legally binding now of course the russian government. feels strongly about missile defense and for its part has said that russia you know reserves the right to withdraw from the treaty if something had if the united states pursues a missile defense policy that russia believes is threatening and it's entirely understandable that minister lavrov or other russian officials would want to say

that but when they do say that it it strengthens the concern among senate republicans that the administration really may have agreed to some kind of limits on missile defense. many russian parliament sessions feel still feel pretty optimistic i mean perspective the start treaty because because they say that that according to the u.s. constitution it's the senate section of the senate which is responsible for party policy and democrats still have a strong hold on the senate so so is it really the way it works is it is is it really will it really help direct just say well certainly the ratification of treaties goes only to the senate you need sixty seven votes. the. democrats don't have sixty seven votes now in the senate and they have fifty they

have fifty nine ers. in the next congress there will be several if you love fewer. you know when you look at the congress more broadly including the house of representatives the congress has certainly important influence over foreign policy largely because it's the congress that approves the budget. and it's the house of representatives specifically that has to first propose the legislation on the budget so if you're talking about foreign aid or defense spending or really any area of our foreign policy that requires spending money there's no question that the congress complain important part of the house foreign affairs committee chair. and. like to.

just says about about should rethink that reset policy with russia and quote well it has as straightforward as that how would you explain the fact that republicans cat except for the problems well you know i certainly wouldn't i don't believe that republicans are monolithic on foreign policy i think that's the first thing to say is there are different views in terms of ileana ros leighton who is currently the senior republican on the house foreign affairs committee and in january will be the chairman of the committee when the new congress comes in you know she has expressed concern for quite some time about russia and the u.s. russian relationship and russian conduct she's expressed particular concern about russian domestic affairs. she's also been quite

concerned for some time about iran in the past. about russian assistance and dealings with iran. more recently of course russia has been more supportive of the us position on iran but i think there are a number of people who hope that russia would do more than it's done these of iran and for many republicans i think you'll find that these two issues iran and the governance issues i guess if i can describe it that way our particular concerns another particular concern would be russia's conduct towards its neighbors and certainly the war in georgia obviously there are different perspectives inside russia about why that took place but i think you'd find that many people

in washington including in the congress were quite concerned about that. russia's role in that conflict well you know you mentioned it well i mean you mentioned ileana mentioning yeah but according to to a majority probably russia. russia has been giving up its positions can send you out to the states we've been as now you still washington as we could be all of the rainy and she's nuclear issues sanctions so on and so forth so so why why is there's miss been so so so much concern why is she so angry i mean i mean it sounds unconstructive i mean to me well you know i haven't read a lot of her recent statements so i don't want to focus too specifically on her but and certainly better than what i consider to be what you know rather a rush certainly has on iran recently supported the united states on sanctions and

of course president made of a day of signed this decree. banning the sale of the s three hundred missiles to iran which was certainly i think a major gesture toward the united states i think a number of people recognize that one challenge though i think is that there was over the period of many years of longstanding perception that developed related to russia's cooperation with their wrong on the bush era nuclear reactor two arms sales from russia to iran. russia obviously in the past had often. really reluctant to support the united states on iran and i think it takes. on one level it just takes some time for people to. move

a little bit away from those longer held views says paul saunders of the executives' director of the nixon center spotlight will be back with can do things to be in that and the minutes and. hungry for the full story we've gone to. the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers.

and welcome back to spotlight i'm al gore in love and just a reminder that my guest here in the studio today is paul saunders the executive director of the nixon center where we're we're talking about russia's relations with the united states and the possibility of of a change in these relations are the deterioration of these relations if republicans of the republicans that are gaining more and more power in american policy partakes lately will start influencing the foreign policy more and more we just came to a sort of a conclusion at least this is how i got it that will republicans it's the worse moscow x. the better or the better in moscow it's the worst speaking about the concessions were made early round here. i'm not sure that i would necessarily have that but the so-called reset in the u.s. russia relations is considered president obama's biggest foreign policy achievement or it was consider at least let's take

a look at some of the bilateral issues result in reported by spotlights you know in the demeter. even though the reset button pushed by hillary clinton and sarah gale of ruben two thousand and nine had their own russian wording the symbolic act did bring about a new prove month in bilateral relations a major accomplishment is the new start treaty signed in april of two years of negotiations document calls for a big cut in nuclear weapons and is now a way to enrich if occasion another facet of the improvement in u.s. russia relations is moscow joining with the sanctions against iran moscow decided not to so weapons to iran and i should live close to the country around thirteen billion u.s. dollars another sign of the thaw in russia u.s. relations the school duration on afghanistan including russian's agreement to allow nato supplies to transit through the country the obama administration has also

signaled it's ready. to remove russia from the jets and then it command that dates back to the nineteen seventies when the us used it as a trade weapon to push for easy integration from the soviet union the louis scene is in a hurry due to aggression is membership of the don't believe. us mid-term elections have brought about concerns over the future of the reset the republicans the obama administration's policies. military didn't agree with me but this is certainly was certainly a reminder of the time when both parties thought that the better is for the better right is it a fact of the trust or are or are not necessarily you know i think. foreign policy like domestic policy can be an issue where there's a certain amount of domestic politics let me just make one point though about the

new congress and the u.s. russian relationship which i don't think many people have focused on outside the united states and it's about the democrats the democrats lost about sixty seats in the house of representatives and the democrats who lost their seats were primarily the moderate to conservative democrats and actually those were many of the democrats who were more supportive of the administration's policy toward russia many of the liberal democrats who are left in the house are precisely the democrats who have the greatest concerns about russia's domestic governance and moving forward next year i think we will find that it will not only be republicans who have questions about the administration's policy i think the democrat minority in the house will also have

a number of questions but as we mentioned. and the republicans are also very diverse there are there are no consider themselves but there are people who view the wars in iraq and afghanistan as the overseas equivalents of the high cost big government programs they rejected tell this is a quote from one of the papers who has more influence today if we take the because they have the right in both parties as they were in both parties. capitol hill what also who has more is moving ahead sure sure i think there will be a real debate and i'll speak more about the republican party than democratic party i think there will be a real debate in the republican party over american foreign policy precisely on this question of cost this election cycle in the united states we really saw the so-called tea party faction. it's not really formally of the

party evenly that they just found platform quite well and there was clearly a groundswell of grassroots public support. and primarily behind a message of limiting government limiting government expenditure and this lines up with what people often call the more libertarian wing or the also the economically conservative white fiscally conservative wing of the republican party they aren't identical to libertarians and fiscal conservatives but both want to reduce expenditures and some of them want to reduce expenditures for the entire government including the department of defense not all of them do some of them do ok above my promise to lead the death i told the senators he said that

the senate should vote for the cation by the end of the year. and going to is he going to keep this promise you are well just to wind up with this part of the interview what would you say yes and then well you know that's. great it's a great promise to me when you're promising what other people will do what would be the first thing that i would say to them that was good question to ask i mean you know it's a it's a brave promise to make. i think if the president is willing to do what needs to be done to get republican support then i think it will happen when he makes statements like that however he he risks one of two things the republicans deciding that he really needs it to happen and raising the price would be one thing. or it doesn't happen and then he made a promise that he doesn't deliver on presidencies all of. you know that's what he

gets paid for is to make these big decisions sure but it was a fairly risky promise to make i think there is a good chance that it will happen but you know it's not a certainty and a lot of it depends on him and what priority he's willing to give to the treaty let me listen to the russians and see what the russians think about copulation between their country and the united states spotlights you lady or another has tried to find it find it out in the streets of moscow. hi there well recently barack obama i think meet the new the difficult aeration in afghanistan he said there's been a great company rationing between the two countries transit issues in recent months well let's try to find out what there is between russia and the u.s. we need to be strengthened i think in the areas of advanced technology and innovation in technology because they're better developed in that area. in

cinema talk graphy because their quality is much higher than ours i wish we could reach their level. in aircraft building in the auto industry i don't think we could really work together in other areas because the competition is way too high i'm talking mainly about science is that you could get in hydro power engineering. in military cooperation and mainly in politics countries should find global issues together. while the sunday times do you think that if russia in the u.s. would stop ideology ising their relations because let's hope operations would develop way faster do you well there you know there's no question that i'm not sure i would call it ideology but i think i would focus more on psychology on both sides and there's no question that the psychology on both sides plays an important part in holding the relationship back as

a matter of fact i think that our reporter just now was merely quoting russian foreign minister lavrov this is nearly what he said in japan sure sure sure and you know there's no question like i said that it's an issue there's a lot of mutual suspicion on both sides i think there's a tendency on both sides when. americans see russia doing something or when russians see americans doing something if it's something that they don't like there's a tendency to assume the worst without necessarily having complete information and it's a problem for the relationship you know how do we get beyond that i think there are two ways one way is time. because. there will be a gradual generational transition and another way is by succeeding together at doing things that matter to people in both countries u.s.

special representative ghana. and pakistan. i quote the nato summit in lisbon this weekend will mark a turning point in the prosecution of the war in afghanistan as it lays out a road map to end combat operations by twenty fourteen nato in afghanistan and quote do you think the summit will will really. show us the way to annex it out. of the. well you know twenty four first thing i would say is twenty fourteen it's called from from twenty ten and a lot can happen in four years so. that would be my first comment but for russia a country that's getting ready to host the olympic games in twenty first time is running i want to get out of. it depends on what you're trying to do when you're

trying to build the lot and for roads and buildings then maybe it's not very much time but. when you're waking up every morning what new thing might go wrong. very long. and the challenge in afghanistan of course is the very complicated situation. so so we'll see. so you are you are really a well informed optimist but you actually make who you really are the. best thank you a little like you thank you for sharing your views with us and just a reminder that my guest today was paul saunders the executive director of the nixon so that's it for now from all of us would be back with more first on comments on what's going on and outside russia until then stay on our team and take care thank you.