president medvedev and i'm going to discuss iran's nuclear ambitions on the sidelines of a summit in azerbaijan with five nation state claims to the caspian sea energy treasure. making a start a bomb a presses for the key arms reduction deal with russia to be given the go ahead from congress but republicans threaten to stall it president obama is trying to push his arguably major foreign policy achievement through the senate i'm going to check out washington d.c. i'll be back with more and it became a moment. in the dog questions raised over america's justice system as russian businessman victor boot says he was pressured to confess to crimes he insists he

did not commit. with twenty four hour news from russia and from around the world this is. good to have you with us for the first time since backing u.n. sanctions against iran over its nuclear program russia's president has met iranian leader mahmoud ahmadinejad and it was those suspected atomic ambitions which were the focus of the talks held in azerbaijan the two were meeting at a summit of the five nations bordering the caspian sea all of whom have claims to the seas vost energy resources. reports. of a meeting between the president's offer russia and iran issue of you want of the biggest highlights of the summit since it's the first time that the met since russia back to the year later set off during sanctions on iran and also cancel the

shipment of the s. three hundred air defense systems a move which was strongly criticized by iran and caused a significant a significant chilling in relations between the two countries after the meeting with her that this was a. positive meeting and that both presidents who are not afraid to talk about complicated and even unpleasant issues and of course iran's controversial nuclear program was discussed and moscow says that it's keen to get a clearer picture of iran's of views on the situation and also explain its position in order to try to move the dispute from the deadlock it's currently in russia and iran our neighbors in the caspian region and to moscow says that it's also keen to continue cooperation with iran in many other spheres like peaceful nuclear energy just remind you russia built the bush era nuclear power plant for iran and also even a military trade as well if these arms the sold on this don't fall under the latest

set of the same president that when the new job iranian leader said to that these this latest set of sanctions is ineffective and also called the international community to stop what he called was aggression one talking about iran's nuclear program if it wanted to this a long standing dispute to finally come to an end well let me just tell you a little bit about the caspian sea itself first of all the caspian sea is extremely rich in natural resources we're talking about up to twenty billion tons of oil and gas that's comparable with the deposit in the persian gulf also up to ninety percent of the global sturgeon catch is done here as well and during soviet times the sea was shared between the soviet union and iran but after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. new new independent states emerged in the region and obviously everybody wants a piece of the poor i would however the see still hasn't been officially divided

and this is the third such summit of the summit off the caspian nations it's meant to figure out how to divide the sea and to build up enough fissile status for the sort of full to see so. the decisions at this summit are quite important and do affect the lives of millions of people living in the. countries. europe is going to have their will for more on this i'm joined by dr saeed mohammad marandi from the university of tehran after the recent cooling in relations between iran and russia do you think moscow and iran of now succeeded in building bridges at this meeting well it's always a good scientist see leaders speaking to each other but i think that the iranians are certainly still striving to figure out if the russian president is going to be a reliable partner the russians over the past before during the past decade or so

had developed much stronger relations with iran but from the iranian perspective it seems that the russians have been more or less bowing down to american american pressure over the past few years and in iran the question really is. is the are the russians ready for more stronger relations and can the iranians try to trust the russian president or the russian government isn't that a sign though that there is now restored trust in the president has said that iran is now ready to return to international talks over its nuclear program meaning that perhaps russia has been a successful broker in bringing iran back to negotiations. well no i think the iranians from the very start said that they are willing to negotiate in fact on four different occasions it was the five plus one that left the negotiating table despite the fact that they really don't say it in public the iranians have

always been saying that they are willing to talk to the greatest problem is the trust deficit that exists any run with regard to the five plus one especially after the attack iran declaration which as you recall the brazilian and turkish president came to iran the brazilian president had a letter from obama saying that if you come to an agreement with iran we will support it and as soon as the brazilians and the turks came to that agreement with iran obama. went for further sanctions and effectively slapped the turks and the brazilians in the face and spit on the master word so for the iranians obama has you know he doesn't he's not trusted now and i think that the iranians while they're willing to talk they need to feel that the other side is this. you talked about slapping on those sanctions those further sanctions clearly work then haven't they because iran is now talking about going back to the negotiating

table and that is because of the sanctions and. no the iranians bay said that they are willing to go to the to speak and talk that's that's been true in the past as well the sanctions really have no effect in fact they have an adverse effect because they're putting iran in a position where they feel that they have to dig in they can't give up their nuclear rights under such pressure because that would be humiliation so in stead of having a positive effect the only thing that it does is that it makes iranians more suspicious of the five plus one and especially the united states and less willing to compromise but at the end of the day if the par five plus one changes it added to it and it's highly unlikely that this will happen because it's all we can already hear noises coming from washington that seem to show that they are the that they intend to make it fail but if the five plus one does change just added to it then there are ways to move forward with iran giving up its nuclear rights that there

are always two sides of the story all saying the five plus one there's all the countries you change our attitude they're saying of course iran should change its attitude let's move forward and and i want to ask you how do you think know whoever is not really being cooperative how do you think iran can go about convincing the international community that its nuclear program is actually for peaceful purposes that's what's bothering everybody how can iran convince everybody that it is for peaceful purposes. well if you take into account that the nonaligned movement is itself it consists of more than half of the countries of the world and the organization for this conference together there are over two thirds of the countries of the world and both of these organizations and their member states have given their full support to iraq as nuclear program so the international community as a whole does have faith in the iranian nuclear program iran's main problem is the united states and it's not so much the nuclear program as the americans general problem

with iran which has gone back for over thirty years if it's not the nuclear program it's iran's support for syria or hezbollah or the palestinians and so on and so forth so for the you know the i.a.e.a. has never shown any evidence whatsoever that iran's nuclear program at any time in the past has been anything but peaceful the iranians actually gave up enriching nuclear enriching uranium for over two years and got nothing in return and so the iranians believe that every time that they give concessions to the americans with the appease the americans the americans only become more demanding so from here on the iranians say that no we're going to continue enriching uranium but if we are if there is a way in which we can show and be more open we will do that but at the same time you must excuse shouldn't expect iran to be too open when americans are constantly making military threats against the let let's leave it there for the moment thank you very much indeed dr mohammad marandi from the university of you driving out of

there thank you. president obama has addressed a bipartisan meeting in the white house where research republicans to approve a key arms reduction deal with moscow before the end of the year following gains in midterm elections republicans have so far been stalling the ratification of the new start treaty the deal aims to cut the number of russian and u.s. nukes by a third well let's get more now from our correspondent guy. he's in washington ghana what is president obama said to the senators then. well there was this that obama said down with senators both democrat and republican to once again explain why the treaty needs to be ratified now is that what's at stake now is the u.s. national security and there is nothing more important for this lame duck session as this senate's time in office is running out the start treaty tensions reached their peak earlier a key republican stark negotiator in the senate jon kyl said that there are very important things to do now in the senate and shouldn't ron rush on the treaty

ratification what's on the line now is arguably obama's major foreign policy achievement obama once again made it clear the start treaty is the milestone of the reset in u.s. washable nations there we said which as has been paris lee reminding resulted in critical cooperation from moscow on of ghana's then and iran's take a listen to the new start treaty is also a cornerstone of our relations with russia. and this goes beyond nuclear security russia has been fundamental to our efforts for strong sanctions in place to put pressure on iran to deal with its nuclear program it's been critical in supporting our troops in afghanistan through the northern distribution network it's been critical in working with us to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world. to enhance european security. there is an understanding that further cooperation plans could go sound without

this treaty this key trading place to start is not just about reducing both countries' nuclear arsenals by a third it's seen as a symbol of trust between the two nuclear superpower us tonight obama is flying to the nato summit in europe where if you meet with the russian president medvedev will be talking about expanding russia nato cooperation in of ghana's than about the possibility of participating in european missile defense for example on the letter issue everyone understand it's difficult to even consider the possibility of such missile defense cooperation without the start treaty in place when experts and politicians have been saying that is not the contents of the the treaty sparking debate so exactly what is causing this problem well bill many capitol hill observers say the debate is really not no longer about the content of the treaty but rather about flexing political muscles as far as the content is concerned it's been chewed over and over again on dozens of hearings held by different senate

committees the country's military unanimously testified in support for the treaty a number of foreign sectors of state both republican and democrat former defense sector it's all said having started is in u.s. national interests it doesn't make the u.s. vulnerable so there is a huge five protestants support for the treaty among experts but not on the hill today we heard the head of russian state duma foreign relations committee. say the treaty is too important to be a victim to political bickering take a listen. it will be a responsibility for the american port it will be the responsibility for the senate and the port of the senate which will oppose this certification and i do not want to believe in this perspective because it is too dangerous it is too unforgiving and forgivable so to see in terms of the global security where both the united states and russia have

a special responsibility which cannot be related to the interests of a certain political parties which may be the case in the ongoing discussions in the streets. and many capitol hill observers here in washington say the whole debate star ratification debate now comes down to the question whether some republican senators are ready to undermine a lame mark treaty which the most experts represents common sense just for the sake of picking obama gonna thanks very much indeed for that going to church can live in washington. well nato has points for a crucial summit in lisbon this weekend to map help missile defense strategy in afghanistan and the entire role of the alliance the presidents of russia and the u.s. will meet that russia's envoy to nato says while moscow and the alliance are moving closer on some issues coming grandel nonproliferation and missile defense still needs work donna johnston a political writer are skeptical about the chances of future cooperation. i don't

see how really they can work together unless it's completely on the terms that are said by the united states and i think that this offer is simply to quell any objections that might exist in europe that were offending russia but in fact i think it's a perfect example of the way the administration says two things that are opposite all the time we want to be friendly but we're building up our defenses we we're going to get rid of nuclear weapons we're going to develop some more i don't see that the united states has decided that it's pointless to have confrontation with russia why then is it building up forces in the arctic. bringing in canadian and scandinavian forces who is only purpose could be to confront russia over resources in the arctic the united states is carrying out military maneuvers

in the baltic clear whose only opposition could be russia and the black sea so i don't see it really that the united states has decided that confrontation with russia is pointless again it's a double thing they say one thing and they do another and it's impossible since it's a big bureaucracy the pentagon you don't really know exactly what the policy is. russian businessman vic to boot says he came under severe pressure from u.s. authorities to admit charges of arms trafficking in terrorism he's now in a new york prison and has. rejected all accusations against him. to boot although russian officials say that doesn't mean they think he's innocent reporter nor joins us from you for more on this trip to bruges some accusations of rezone marino what's he been saying about the way he's been treated. that's right he does have some accusations of his own two russian diplomats had visited victor boot

in the prison he's being held in federal prison in lower manhattan and according to one of those russian diplomats. during the extradition flight u.s. officials tried to pressure him as you mentioned to admit to the charges that the u.s. has leverage of that against him the charges that he has denied and he said that the u.s. officials that were aboard this chartered flight from thailand to to new york to the u.s. said that in return they would give him some privileges do some favors for him and denied he did not given that this is according to the russian diplomats that are met with him they have also said that being held in solitary confinement in the federal prison he's jet lagged is a bit you hydrated he wants to be moved to a better. he asked the russian diplomats to try to help get his wife here to the united states is wife of course is in thailand where she has been for more

than two years has been arrested in addition he was denied any bail options because according to victor boot all his funds were confiscated in the two plus years he's been held in a thai prison and we did get to hear from one of the russian diplomats that did get to meet with victor boot here's a little bit of what he said. according to victor boot during the extradition the americans attempted to convince him to make a confession of the crimes he had never committed and promised some kind of privileges in return rejected all these offers. we also did hear from the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york earlier on wednesday right before it went into went to court they had essentially laid their all of their charges the u.s. charges against victor the head of the d.a.

also spoke about mr coote about the investigation that spans several countries in years to get. into prison and subsequently into the united states which should be noted is that when they brought at the top of this press conference when they started speaking of victor boot they called him the so-called merchant of death and they said that after after oh you know laying out all the charges painting a picture of a man who sides with violence and sides with war they said that victor boot of course is innocent till proven guilty and he will have a fair trial somewhere wondering how that could happen after the picture of a villain has been displayed all over us mainstream media but as for the charges that are pressed against victor boot here they are. now stands charged in this district the southern district of new york with four charges one conspiring to kill united states nationals two conspiring to kill united states

officers and employees three conspiring to use and acquire anti-aircraft missiles and for conspiring to provide material support to the fark. victor boots next hearing is scheduled to take place sometime in early january tell us what is russia's response to the sound they get a sions. well the aide to russian president dmitri medvedev did speak out about this saying that the charges that have been pressed against viktor bout are extremely serious and russia wants to make sure there is a thorough investigation now because russia is assisting victor boot a forty three year old russian citizen with help from the russian consul that does not mean that moscow believes that victor boot is not guilty they just believe that

there needs to be a thorough investigation into the charges that have been leveraged against him. the russian official the presidential aide also says that russia believes that are narcotics dealers human traffickers armed traitors all deserve unconditional condemnation and just underscore the fact that as a russian citizen victor will get the assistance of his country but there needs to be a fine line and differentiation between the fact that russia at this point just wants to make sure that no laws are being violated but at the same time are willing to to see all the evidence that is put on the table let's take a listen to what the presidential aide had to say. i want to stress that the u.s. authorities are very serious. russian citizen we have nothing to conceal we don't consider this case. anything of the we want to see this investigation.

all the questions raised by the u.s. he will be given. that doesn't mean we are claiming he's innocent. russian officials are also accusing the u.s. of a double standard because we have to remember victor boot is accused of smuggling weapons to rebels that would have been used to kill americans but in the meantime russian officials say washington had provided georgia with weapons that were used to kill thousands of civilians when we saw the war the military conflict break out in two thousand and eight thanks very much indeed for that that's marina reporting live from new york. well up next it's the latest from the world of business with stay with us for that. hello and a very warm welcome to the business news russia is aiming to spend twenty billion

dollars on us roads and twenty eleven almost nine percent more than this year but the government recognizes it's still not enough and wants additional help from the private sector nicole has to tell us. russia manages to combine a number of the worst problems in transport just getting from a to b. can prove torturous made all the worse by the sheer size of the country motorways a far and few between and the roads often badly patrolled moscow is a case in point it has the fourth worst traffic jams of any major city in the world it's a very unorganized dry things there is what is the main point is missing in my eyes mr ted j. painted the city but they say meet of try to understand the base of the traffic is . interconnecting system which which i was a huge investment is also needed to build just one kilometer of road in the capital

can cost up to three hundred million dollars the sums involved is such that the government needs private money if it's not to put too big a dent in the budget and wants to improve efficiency private companies have a lot of know how they have a lot of experience of similar projects when they come here that of cost to be on earth to money but it's just the size of the market attracts them and those contracts we are talking about a contract run for ten years fifteen years or twenty years the time it takes to make a return on an investment is a major deterrent is to investors even when construction companies can be found to join a public private partnership they find it hard to convince the banks to provide backing this is where the world bank can lend a hand generally will be a lot of institutional work for which we will be basically. providing support to the company in the future if they are there once we go further down the road there raby possibilities of financial or to once the roads

a built people will still need to find a place to park on a time consuming problem. the government may be able to help by changing the legislation so developers can land inside the city rather than just renting it this would provide added incentives to incorporate proper traffic management and shopping malls and business districts would be adequately supplied with parking spaces freeing up the routes for people who are trying to get somewhere nick who isn't a small t. let's take a look at the equity markets u.s. stocks a shot the highest j.s. investors continue to bet on a rescue package for ireland and anxiously watch the beginning of trading for general motors shares oil market sentiment general motors started actually trading on the new york stock exchange on christmas day up eight percent on pace for one of the biggest u.s. initial public offering said about oil is trading at the games on the dow jumping

three point one percent while boeing is up one point eight percent to cisco systems gaining one point six percent. let's take a look at the figures in europe european stocks are heading higher today session that softer japan's nikkei finished on a five month high thanks and come on it says the fueling foot says rise for essay bismillah thirty's or for the day off more than one hundred percent on good interim results. and markets finished top in moscow tracking those global trends over the chips are high on the benchmark minus six for a prank was again the top gain of two point six percent in the black and not far behind up more than one hundred percent. russia zero have been chris that profit by four to six percent in the course at a more than one hundred fifty six million dollars hearing him say can see continued strength for the next six months about fries and prizes for fashion lies is driven by growing demand and stagnant supply. well russia is currently last fashionable

for investors then brazil according to the deputy c.e.o.'s verifying whether mark rubenstein from metropole i've seen disagrees he pulling a sara compelling reasons why some investors are picking brush over all they march in markets it will look at their relative valuation russian equities now a valued at a nine a half p. versus brazilian about fourteen so this is much you know it's a big difference and of course what accounted has accounted for that discount as being their political risk premium which has been evaporating my view quite rapidly over the past sixteen months i think we will see more funds coming out of many other emerging markets coming into russia brazil seem like a very obvious kind is because capital controls the two x. the more expensive china is much more expensive than russia and that could take some money out of that the current science out of russia as i'd mockery bolland is

a much stronger person alice expected if you look at the data market data out of russia for the past several months it consistently has been above the expectations of the market so i will not be surprised to see alice revising their marker forecasts for a shop boards in the near future. that's all the business is fernald but you can always get more store a small website our team dot com slash business.