russian businessmen picked up two to peers before a u.s. court to hear charges of gun running a day of to be extradited from thailand. victor boot pleads not guilty in porch strickly denying all the charges u.s. officials have leveraged against him i'm sure in a fortnight in new york with that story coming up. also this hour a call to start u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton urges the senate to ratify a landmark nuclear deal with russia as republicans threaten to block its progress. and forty years ago the soviet union paved the way for today's satellites shuttles and space tourists with its revolutionary luda tanks.

with twenty four hour news from russia and from around the world this is r.t. in moscow good to have you with this russian businessman vic to boot has gone before us federal court for the first time just a day off to be extradited from thailand during a brief appearance he was told the list of charges he's facing dubbed the merchant of death for allegedly trafficking weapons around the world will go on trial of allegations he on terrorists moscow says the decision to hand him over to the u.s. is extreme just in justice and promise to support him by means which is being held in a high security prison in you you were reporting on brings us the latest. we know the russian businessman will also be appearing before a judge at one pm new york city time as you mentioned he's being held at

a federal prison the metropolitan correctional center in lower manhattan where several suspects terrorism suspects have been held in years past following the september eleventh attacks picture bood is being. charged with and accused of smuggling missiles and rocket launchers to colombian rebels and also conspiring to kill u.s. officers or u.s. employees the victor boot for his part has denied all charges if he is found guilty he faces up to life in prison but some experts that have weighed in on this case say that boot a former soviet officer has extensive knowledge of russian intelligence and that is in fact according to some experts what u.s. officials are after because they have been aggressively campaigning for his extradition from thailand for more than two years the russian foreign ministry is quite upset over this and this has impacted relations between moscow and washington to say the least so the russian foreign ministry has called this grieving justice

essentially saying that a russian citizen should not have been extradited from from thailand with the russian government knowing beforehand other comments that have been made by russian officials also allege that the u.s. put a lot of political pressure on the thai government to meet a lot of back door deals. despite two rulings in thailand's criminal court saying viktor boots guilt was not proven the government has still decided to hand him over to the u.s. i consider this unprecedented political pressure on the legal process. government this is an example of striking injustice we as a state will continue to give all necessary support to boot as a russian citizen the u.s. state officials say that they followed. procedures they hope that what is happening right now with the activity surrounding viktor booth that he would not empower for elation between moscow and washington in any way we have.

deep relationship with russia it is guided by our mutual national interests. i don't expect that this will have any impact on our relationship it is so fully consistent with both our. bilateral treaty obligations with thailand and fully consistent with international law not even victor boots white was notified that her husband was going to be extradited to another country wife has been living in thailand giving interviews to the media ever since he was arrested back in two thousand and eight two thousand and eight and has remained firm that her husband is innocent of all charges against him she says that her husband is a businessman and all of these accusations are false victor boots why you.

finding out that he was actually went to the prison wasn't even able to see him she feels that her husband was kidnapped stolen like i you know. it's hard for me to talk about but what happened was totally unexpected for both myself and victor's lawyer the thai cabinet held a closed meeting where a political decision was taken to extradite my husband to the us the extradition took place within four hours of the meeting against all the rights and laws of the country the only law that exists in thailand is u.s. influence i guess this decision was paid for. that had to be extradited quite quickly because of the possibility of an ambush or an assassination that was on the way but you know details are coming in quite in sporadic senses not everything is quite clear not everything has been made. apparent and transparent by u.s. officials when i called the justice department tuesday to ask them several simple

questions they replied to me saying no comment at this time. marina porter. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has called on the senate to approve a kill arms deal between moscow and washington before the end of the year republicans who made significant gains in the midterm election have been stalling the ratification of the strategic arms reduction treaty that's a blow to the obama administration which made the weapons agreement one of its top priorities but he's going to come has more now from washington. the informal republican leader on the new start senator jon kyl said the treaty should not be considered until next year he is saying there are other important things for the senate to talk about like the economy and that's bad news for the treaty the administration is making a last ditch effort to appeal to the secretary of state hillary clinton defense secretary robert gates leading security experts in the country they're all saying the failure to pass the new start treaty this year would endanger the u.s.

national security they give two reasons for the first americans can no longer track russia's strategic nuclear arsenal the other main reason is a weakening cooperation with the washes that could follow if the new start treaty is not in place joe biden and hillary clinton made it clear that the new start treaty is the centerpiece of obama's reset of relations with russia a policy that the administration credits with producing critical cooperation from moscow on and he ran here's what he said for anyone to see that we can't postpone it or we can avoid it is i'm a free vastly underestimating the. brand that is posed to our country so we hope our friends in the senate will bring this past history and then i can. inform the russians that it's now their you know their turn to do the same which they told us they intend to do and many believe what's on the line

now is the well advertised reset and not ratifying the treaty could put the leaders of cooperation plans on ice a lot of observers say that for many on capitol hill the fight is not about the content of the trade rather about scoring political points the republicans already said their number one priority will be to have obama voted out of office in two thousand and twelve so for many capitol hill observers the whole debate on stark now comes down to this question will some republican senators the landmark. his story he'll just for the sake of denying obama his arguably biggest foreign policy achievement the trigger will cut nuclear arsenals of both russia and the u.s. by a third it's meant to increase the level of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers. well kate hudson from the campaign for nuclear disarmament says nuclear weapons are too important an issue to be made a pawn in political games we were among the many people around the world who really

welcomed president obama's speech in prague where he outlined his vision of a world without nuclear weapons and of course a vision which president medvedev shares and i think it's absolutely reprehensible if senators in the u.s. congress are obstructing the passing of this very important treaty the new start treaty for party political point scoring reasons i think this is far too important on a global scale for them to stand in the way like this many people globally including i should say former cold warriors people like henry kissinger and george schultz many other leaders across the world now believe that it is just too jane shuras to have nuclear weapons and that is the trend that is taking place in the world towards disarmament and away from nuclear weapons and that is the trend which the u.s. senate and the u.s. congress should be going along with and following the leadership of their president . meanwhile still ahead in the program for here on r t a ticket to the moon.

four decades ago the soviet union caught it techniques and tools to explore the moon a surface revolution in space. britain says it's ready to help that hit on and with billions of pounds of direct loans at a meeting of european finance ministers chancellor george osborne said it's in the u.k. it's interest to support its closest neighbor the meeting comes amid fresh market turmoil and fears that some smaller economies like portugal and on and are unable to service their massive debts the e.u. president will the eurozone is actually facing a fight to survive trying for cost says the euro has been put to its greatest test . this is the beginning of the end of the euro and the euro was built it saw it came in at a time of high expectations it was

a time of economic euphoria as though growth would never end and growth does that and this is more than a domino effect in europe this is a global economic crisis and nothing has changed since the crisis began in two thousand and seven other than this until banks dumping trillions of dollars in trying to save a failing system it's you cannot have a currency that's going to cover all the bases of all economies equally if you look at ireland the biggest problem right now in today's news next week in my piece. what we're seeing the beginning are going to be currency wars and trade war and when you equal trade wars was currency wars. you start looking at real wars it's happened before and it sort of folding in front of

us again we see we see italy we can see portugal's playing greece the smaller company countries opting out of the euro look everybody that it's the law i've day that remembers when the euro came on back in the late ninety's and early two thousand is how inflation skyrocketed in those countries this is a scheme that could never have worked from the beginning we dated work when data had been. or more on all of our stories you see here on screen at the moment all available at all dot com that's our website here's a quick taste of what else you'll find there right now if you look at the extreme situation christians in israel are caught in the crossfire between jews and muslims as they get targeted by radicals. or online the russian police to turn into

teenagers suspected of killing a man by throwing a color wheel from the tenth floor of an apartment building for more on that story and kind of all the features had to be called. on our time for some world news in brief this hour for you here on r.t. clashes have escalated between protesters and police in greece the fifty arrested and one injured near the american embassy attack and there's more than twenty thousand people in the commemorating one thousand nine hundred seventy student uprising against the military dictatorship at the time the test is preventing anger at the u.s. support for the hotel which then leads. germany has stepped up security at airports and train stations across the country after receiving intelligence of a possible terror plot to minister said he had information about an attack planned for the end of this month comes off to german security forces intercepted a mail bomb sent from yemen small. explosion in gaza has left one person dead. it is not yet clear what caused the blast but there are some reports it may

have been an israeli air strike has been a response until the problem is when. you k. now heavy rain across the southwest coast of england has caused flooding and landslides it happened in the county of cornwall with some people trapped in their cars and houses train services in and out of the region are suspended after a mudslide blocked the line main roads are closed. the russians may not have sent a man to the moon but on this day forty years ago the soviet union guided the first unmanned rover to the earth's closest neighbor automatic remote control robots also known as lunar tanks one of the moon's surface revolutionizing space exploration what is more of an ocean has this report back in the nine hundred sixty s. the lice were on day and night within these walls. the soviet union had come up with a plan to send an unmanned rover into the movie but the question was how would it

move around their familiar surface once it got there the solution was finally found at the institute when steve goutam first we want to do use caterpillars we used to make turnings and we loved tanks but it became clear that wheels were more reliable caterpillars good gets dark that would ruin the whole mission and we couldn't afford to make a mistake or you know what one popularly known as the lunar tank was the first ever remote controlled barbara to land another celestial body. initially slated for a three month mission it wheeled lunar surface for eleven months during this time it traveled more than ten kilometers taken over twenty thousand images including sound with its own footprints. every lunar morning once in twenty eight days when the sun's rays touch the lunar held solar panel it would wake up bape. a

lonely sound in a silent world and set off a new adventure. exactly wait what had was decided far away at the mission control center in the crimea. just left of going to was one of the five women hooked in which also include and never get or in ten operator and two engineers snoo my luna hoods camera film the moon surface that incident black and white pictures back to earth with a delay of more than twenty seconds months or so we had to judge the situation using this picture aboard a lunar ford stood still we got basic info on what was going on outside with stones the course of the movement of craters and other such things after that the drug would choose the next day or what not much to. the first steps were difficult but in time it seems the teams work became more creative what's more. we once on women's day we wanted to get our wives flowers but we didn't have time that there was so much work so our navigator suggested drawing

a flower like shape on the moon with the rover and we present the women with the pictures even told journalists that you could see the shape through a telescope but of course that wasn't true. never did it will have to send in this last pictures back to. the luna hold finally stopped in its tracks it's still there to this day but the little rovers taps were a giant leap for mankind and the tracks it left on the moon's surface will forever remain a trail blazed for future explorers. thoughts or even we look forward to checking out the lunar supposed areas which were during the soviet era and we know that water based on samples we found that we had that one day they will allow us to set up an inhabited lunar base for a lot of them are young enough. back. the nine hundred sixty is the two superpowers who are sending both people in machines to the stars and back with only one go to outdo each other billions of dollars spent in the race to leave one another behind

the case on its old friend for a phone flying safe now you know nice nations against the big go to both to go to get where no one has gone before. original the same petersburg. sixty five years since the end of world war two the efforts of those who fought still regarded with huge gratitude and pride but the painful memories from the past continue to cost a shot at. those so many years of. sing song the prisoners. are still a lot. as well for. those so many years and. some are hoping to find. others hate their executioners. for just. so

many years of. memory there's still a moment. as well. as. hate. and you can see that full report in ten minutes from now on. with the nato summit just around the corner we sat down with one of its key participants to get his view on what could come out of it the slipping him president says partnership with russia could play a big role in the announces future and also discusses his country's battle with the financial crisis and whether any regrets about it joining the e.u. that's all in a special interview coming up next i'll take. the

president of slovenia thank you very much for being with us today it's my pleasure the nato summit is coming up in couple of days and you have played an active role in promoting closer ties between russia and nato how much do you think nato has to change in order to recognize the value of fresh partnership there has to change and nato in a search for a mission for a long time after the ending of called ward the legitimate question was if nato is necessary at all but the mission was never completely defined and i think that it

cannot be defined without a true partnership with russia and we don't have a cold war anymore and we have to figure out what to do this new partnership means and i think that there's been in the coming days we should come closer to that different mission mr president present me to propose to european security treaty do you saying it actually nato leadership into a concept review president medvedev proposal was was an excellent beginning and that the agenda of the a lot of creative thinking in nato and i think it contributed to the new stuff. the concept of nato which is much more open and which is which is much more appropriate for a variety of partnership between nato and russia and i'm talking about the assessment of security threats commitment to the chart that of the united nations and also the

possibility to establish partnerships with regard to mr defense what do you expect to see new strategic concept announcement anything new or or something that you definitely do not expect to see well i think that we should see a meaningful step towards partnership with the us and i think that that's the key in the new strategic concept the platform which should be used to teach the concept offers would be appropriate for reaching agreement on security so that's reaching agreement. and nuclear weapons i think that these are all security challenges which have to be addressed is through us that huge strategic concept talking about more about one slovenian concept this living is dependent on. specially now that the commitment to its rules is under review by the be our houses the union has been affected very badly by the current financial and economic crisis

and that has had an impact on the system and you were told to call them crowd and to reach many even members but not all be long and now we are in a situation where we have to find a proper financial stability mechanism a mechanism which would be appropriate for the management of financial crisis of the future you know it's the one is gross domestic product grew up the most among the sixteen nations sharing the euro plus down employment that has hit through the one hundred thousand mark do you ever regret joining the currency what are the main pros and cons almost three years after the end. you know your old people have totally accept that you don't see the country they know that obviously. monetary. inability to be a national guard and see is a problem with the market that markets are low the solution is seen better

adjustments to. improvement in our competitiveness and the necessary changes in our economic and social model which will allow the competitiveness to grow in the us and social stability to continue. anglo-american push against budgetary criteria you see this as a power shift from brussels to berlin there has always been a division of power so to speak and i think that we should not forget the european union is not a state european union is a system of the states and in that context good germany as the major contributor. and a major power. in. egypt in the.

exercise or. solutions. and also e.u. has. a regime with russia but the details are they not a ground what do you think would be a good step step in this direction but i think we need politico determination first i think we need to change the political awareness about this but the indian. patient and i think this has a patient has to be overcome freedom of movement is a human right we should never forgot that. part of europe well certainly in a cultural sense in the political. sense yes but i see certainly russia as a part of european space it has been so for centuries supreme asli you've called for a multilateral framework to consolidate energy supplies to the e.u. markets as of today not much has been done in that perspective how do you assure

you consumers of that security i think we need a much wider multilateral outlook because energy security depends on the multitude of players always there russia is a key player a key supplier a key partner and most of us in europe have extremely good experience with russia because. russia. for thirty years. has worked perfectly so there is no reason why we should be in any way comfortable we need russia in that mode to that sort of framework but we need this is where both consumers and suppliers and that has not been done because we have worked on specific projects more than stream solid and stream the book and other projects but i think the time is coming to look at the whole picture and to work. cooperatively range meant for the future well you've touched upon south stream how would the development of south

stream change the energy sector in slovenia what exactly do you expect from it we see the multiplying effect of the gas pipeline because the gas pipeline brings not only gas savings other economic activity you see things. there based electricity plants which we need them others need in the region and we can develop that to use and next you can achieve you know this is an opportunity it's really a basic opportunity and let's look at this opportunity is in the call put it the framework with more confidence than we were used from before mr president thank you very much for this interview.

if. the ship would be soo much brighter if you knew about sound from finest impressions. from stunts on t.v. dot com. for your commits are comfortable shuttle bus will teach you to this moment just a few hours observing virgin forest and scaring to scorn bears in your directly. on the move. crater. scorching soil and toward there are included. a photo with the wild lunar rover for free.