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t. dot com. you're watching our t.v. time now to have a look at our top stories for this hour defining and nato's role in the modern world and deciding on an afghan strategy and closer ties with russia well these are the key issues at the alliance a summit in portugal which comes as it faces an identity crisis. party investigates the potentially catastrophic danger lurking under the concrete bunker covering the site of the chernobyl nuclear disaster the aging structure protection area is nearing the end of its life. and of russia's petty criminals and first time

offenders may soon see jail time swapped for prions and community service it's part of the country's ongoing reforms to ease the strain on prisons. as the nato summit kicks off in lisbon we talked to us most and about russia's role in the alliances future that's in spotlight coming up next. for the full story we've gone to. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. hello again and welcome to thoughts like the interview show on r.t. i'm going out and today we're talking about the nato summit in lisbon the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen says this summit should be

a breakthrough in the alliance this starts with moscow on on time with sound effects there duction of the much discussed agreement can now be a matter of hours but have all the disagreements be settled on me we're asking one of the most influential man in russian parliament be chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the federation council mikhail margelov. the nato secretary general says the lisbon summit will bring a new reformed organization he wants to reduce staff and change to teach you concept of the alliance to turn it into a more effective body the reformed alliance will have to deal with challenges to global security like the threat of missile attack it's very likely the summit will approve the new and to missile defense shield a long time point of discord between nato and russia. welcome to the show thank you very much for coming well first of all why is

president medvedev who has been seeking some particular girl or is it just a sign of goodwill inside of moscow well first of all for us for the russians issues of national security are always issues of national consensus and president will be of who represents all the citizens of russia has to respond to what people want from him and people want from him more security for. the russian federation. that is why it's so natural to build bridges with nato which is of the strongest supernational organisation on the european continent in the end in the atlantic region as well as nato has its operations in central asia in some other parts of the world we have to talk to nato we have to build docking mechanisms with nature we have to be partners with nato that's why president india goes to lisbon but prior to that recently the nato parliamentary assembly has passed

a resolution promising i quote to support georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity calling south a city and a part of the i quote again georgia's territories occupied by russia and calling on russia to withdraw its troops and quote georgian official avel of course already called it and now the heavy blow and moscow does that mean that the end time russia nature of nato which you have been talking about since we were kids that still that well actually when we were kids were talking about and the soviet nature of russian but what is important to say here is that russia is not the second improved edition of the soviet union we have till till a different country even the in our nation building we are facing as still to the different task russia has always been an empire under the tsars under the bolsheviks now we have building democratic sovereign nation state which is not an easy task but we are trying hard and that's why i don't think that the need to is

an anti russian organisation with all my respects with all my respect to my colleagues and counterparts in of the nato parliamentary assembly. i should correct them russia has never questioned sovereignity or independence of the republic of georgia we wanted and wants to be friends with georgia and the problem is that not russia but russian peace. skippers were attacked by the judge by the georgian troops which resulted to what we have today as a reality in southern caucasus ok now never mattered not to connected with the ex to ex addiction of it to boot to united states and a your colleagues in the lower chamber of parliament in the state duma they called to us the tightening to to to to see said very nice the relations with thailand to be to be tougher on thailand as a retaliation to their extradition of two to the united states do you support this

idea by the way it's a it's a popular liberal democratic fraction came out with that idea well you know. needless to say that these people are neither liberals not democrats they're more radicals and this is one of their radical approaches which i'm not surprised to hear i don't think that we have to cut our ties with thailand it's an important country in asia it's an important member of apec and i should remind you that president will be at it has recently visited apec summit in yokohama in japan and we have close ties with thailand now what's happened with this gentleman with mr bush i think should be. you know should be discussed by lawyers it should be discussed by diplomats it should be discussed in a quiet manner and mr bush should answer all the questions of the court of the.

questions which to my mind will not be easy i just want to add that foreign minister lavrov called it a call to what happened with boot absolutely illegal and then under and president did pressure from the united states and i should say that presidential advisor sergei p. which has said that russia does not want to justify mr. but before the investigation is over and before he answers all the questions of the court ok movie gives meeting with a comedy prior to the produce summit in lisbon russia has had to stop the s. three hundred sales to that we've actually caught all our diaz in the other the military sector will do you think that there is a chance that the three hundreds may may go back to the region as a retaliation as russia's response to to to well to

what happened in thailand where the pressure where were for example with the the problems that we having with the reset process well i think that if mr why didn't john wanted to reduce the number of iran the fields in russia he did their job very successfully particularly with his will with one of his exotic statements prior to the v day to the ninth of may he said that russia and the u.k. have to pay compensation for the people of islamic republic of iran for the occupation of iranian territory by british and soviet troops during world war two well should we remind mr when the image of that so it's really intriguing of one nine hundred twenty one is still valid and we can come back. ok good good point ok let's move to another part of the world to eastern europe record from the polish foreign minister wratislaw of sikorsky russia should recognize that mr house will

be a major threat in the twenty first century we and poland we in poland i'm sorry believe missile defense is necessary and we are glad that the rest of nato is coming around to supporting it and quote do people the politicians in russia share this concern and do they share the belief that the myth sounds on the major threat to the twenty three century and i was going to do something about well actually we knew that missiles are becoming one of the most serious weapons during the first day of world war two when russian katyusha were attacking fascist troops nazi troops and we knew that missiles is a serious thing during. the cold war we all remember the missile crisis the missile cuban crisis nineteen sixty two we did not have any illusions about missiles and we know they are dangerous that's why from the very beginning when the republican administration in washington came up with an idea of let's set

a new project of missile defense for is to europe we came up with our proposal proposals to use a russian readers to stations and russian. possibilities in and an arm of year to be integral part of a new international a missile defense system which will be used on principles of equal partnership and this is all a message to nato today we believe in equal partnership we believe in fifty fifty partnership and we do not believe in a younger orsini of brothers anymore do you think something like that something something like this need new defense system this new alliance a joint anti missile system somehow that will be maybe. discussed in lisbon this week and i hope it will be discussed in lisbon this week because we have to move forward in our relationship with nato we have to do something creative we have to do something positive and we really need breakthroughs like we have to do some

joint operations in areas of concern i think we showed great example with our american partners in afghanistan where the famous anti-drug operation which was executed together by russians and americans and i think we can do more we can do more combating piracy of somalia sure's we are doing more redeploying our helicopters from china central african republic to sudan to south sudan to support the referendum there we we are looking for new areas of cooperation and of course the missile defense system can be one of the areas of joint cooperation you mention of ganis and i'm sure that afghanistan will be one of the seven to discuss this weekend and lisbon no doubt russia who were there and the reason for me to say so is that yesterday russia's air force commander general alexander is there lynn said

this listen the defense minister today is studying the possibility of using russia's military transport aircraft for nato's afghanistan bad cargo and ground so said their us defense minister is doing his homework while the president is going to lisbon so you also sure that they're going to discuss that well no doubt the issue of expanding and broadening of our cup ration on the afghanistan will be discussed in lisbon i think that. the new realities are now on the table americans are buying russian made military helicopters to be used in afghanistan we are ready to train pilots and technicians for these helicopters we are working together on combating drug trafficking from of against and in afghanistan we are working hard on provide. opportunities for nonmilitary and military transit for our partners. from the alliance and i think that russia expresses its readiness to be involved more except deploying would troops on the afghan territory

the afghan syndrome for the russian society is still an issue so so you sound pretty optimistic on the eve because we talking on the eve of the decision that may may be taken and portugal you know optimist well i am well as usual i'm cautiously optimistic but i should say that for the russian political class even during the most difficult days of our relationship. with nato particularly after tragic events in southern caucasus in august two thousand and eight it was crystal clear that fighting against taliban in afghanistan nato is defending our southern flank. says mikhail margelov chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the federation council spotlight will be back shortly right after a break and i hope nato secretary-general mr anders fogh rasmussen will be joining us from brussels that's in that couple of minutes so stay with us we'll be back.

here is that so much i can tell you but you know they're even more so because they were different i mean we have to be to the second world war major nazi leaders were put on trial for war there is no down such crimes were committed.

welcome back to spotlight i am al green of in just a reminder that today we're talking about the upcoming nato russia summit in portugal here in the studio has me how many elephant joining us from brussels is nato secretary general mr angus from rasmussen mr rasmussen how thank you for being with us thank you mr rasmussen the lisbon the lisbon summit is expected to discuss nato's first new strategic so this is a concept in a daycare decades you call it one of the most important summits in the history

of our alliance that's worth what you're quoted to have said how does this document define the relations between nato and russia. we want to develop a true strategic partnership between nato and russia and to achieve that goal. we want to develop practical cooperation between nato and russia in areas where we share security interests and i hope the nato russia summit in lisbon will take such important decisions. will vin made so rushed the council become a permanent body in the near future but actually the nato russia council is already a permanent body it was established in two thousand and two in rome where we

discussed the future relationship between nato and russia and it has served us well since then but personally i do believe that it has not yet reached its full potential so i would like to further develop political consultation and practical cooperation within the framework of the nato russia council as the rest of us and while we were waiting with mr merivale of two for you to join us we discussed the the missile threat the anti-missile defense and so on and you said in one of your interviews i quote once again the big decision will be to invite russia to carve parades in new clear defense how have you already received an answer from russia to this invitation and how soon could russia and nato reach an agreement on that something like a joint nuclear defense missile into mice and anti-missile defense. russia

has not yet given. a clear answer. to to that but for good reasons because nato will decide to develop a nato based missile defense system at the summit and of course we can expect the russian president to give an answer just a few hours after after a nato decision but what we will do at the nato russia meeting in lisbon is to initiate a joint analysis of how. nato russia cooperation on research defense could be implemented and that would be a very very positive step forward so. i think the nato russia meeting in lisbon will be a very positive and very productive meeting. mistrust and soon if you allow me to ask you

a question and sharing foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the russian parliament for the last ninety years and i was present in two thousand and two and put out to get the bar in entirely when the agreement between russia and nato was signed for establishing the council after there we take part in different discussions on how do we really see the partnership it between russia need to what is your vision how do you see it. in reality would be a kind of general de gaulle a way of russia joining the political organisation not joining the military realisation or is something different on monday i will be chairing my committee meeting in the federation council and i will be asked a lot of questions please help me to answer them. yeah i understand very well your question and i'm pleased to get this opportunity to exchange views with you. what i envisage is two separate systems a russian system and a nato based system but systems that corporates for

instance in the area of exchanging data. and information that is of course of our most importance if we are to make our systems effective and give them better coverage so exchange of information and data will be an important element in this practical cooperation but i don't envisage one merged system but rather two separate systems that corporator. mr rasmussen. my friend and your friend or your colleague mr gore's in the russian representative to nato he said recently in one of his interviews i quote the problem is that nato countries haven't come to a conclusion how the anti-missile defense should look like and how much it will cost not all of them if you are even convinced that missile risks are

a reality and quote well at this upcoming summit do you think the nato countries will have a common approach to this and try to lift thing or if you will still have different opinions. we will have a common approach and all decisions within nato are taken on the basis of consensus so the decision we will take will be a decision supported by all twenty eight member states and i consider the threat a real threat we know that more than thirty countries in the world have missile technology or aspirations to acquire missile technology and some of them can also hit targets in the your atlantic area so the threat is real and against the real threat we also need a real defense and we can defend ourselves through a linkage. of existing u.s.

and existing european missile defense systems we can give protection to the whole population and we have also studied carefully the costs and actually the costs. connected with the development of this missile defense system are very modest so it's technically feasible and it's economically manageable. centrum ergo it has not a question your excellency what we see during the last fifteen twenty years is the extensive development extensive growth of need to nature as it is it is expanding absorbing more countries exulting absorbing larger territories how do you see it of the cooperation between russia need to in the long run say in fifteen twenty years do you see russia as a strategic partner that means what. first of all i had to say

that nato does not absolve the contras. our our our door remains open. for european democracies that fulfill the necessary criteria to become members of nato but it's a voluntary organisation and our open door policy is based on the fundamental principle that each individual country has a right to decide its alliance affiliation itself i also have to stress that our open door policy is not directed against russia and our open door policy is does not constitute as threat against russia on the contrary our open door policy has contributed to stab allies. the situation in eastern and central europe after the fall of the communist

dictatorships and sanctions to this that police asian. the economy has also prospered in eastern and central europe and russia has profited from that russia has profited from peace and stability along western border and russia has profited from the economic development through more trade envoy and more investment in eastern and central europe and this is the reason why i'm quite optimistic about developing a true strategic partnership between nato and russia at a strategic partnership which involves. political consultation and also practical cooperation mr rasmussen only five countries are reported to contribute to nato military birgitte these are the united states france united

kingdom greece a no brainier the list includes a country like albania and excluding a country like germany you still optimistic you you you don't see this as as a trace of the upcoming financial crisis in europe. i have to stress that all twenty eight allies contributed to nato so budgets. and as far as defense investments in the individual member states. is concerned. some countries invest more than others but all twenty eight countries contribute to the nato budget obviously it is a challenge that member states are faced with a budget constraints we have to deal with that and the way we will do that is to

prioritize our our investments. we will at the summit in this burn give priority to ten necessary critical military capabilities and in the coming years we will focus our investments on these. capabilities which include missile defense cyber defense and tactical and strategic airlift so the paradox is that you will see a strengthened alliance as a result of the economic austerity. thank you thank you for being with us mr aston things here are just a reminder that me hurl my gal of chairman of the foreign affairs committee the federation council of russia and anders fogh rasmussen nato secretary general who are joining us our spotlight today will be back with more first on common fun of what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t.

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