end of this week it seems the only thing that could be in the way of the ratification are partisan games political bargaining which have nothing to do with the treaty itself and its content speaking of bargaining at some point the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell came out and said republicans won't want any democrat initiatives if they don't extend tax cuts for the rich so you get a sense open the expand the willard billing culture on capitol hill and the substance of the treaty whether it's good or bad for america has long stopped being the focus of discussions here in washington to the point when it could become a threat to the u.s. national security a world without buying u.s. russia arms control treaties is a more dangerous world the obama administration is going out of its way to have the deal ratified the president's arguably major foreign policy chief meant is on the line not only does the start nuclear arsenals of both countries by a third it's also seen as a symbol of trust between the two nuclear superpowers russia has cooperated with us

on critical issues to our national security like iran sanctions transit to supply our troops in afghanistan working on securing loose nuclear materials and the relationships and trust that are built from the new start treaty spill over into a whole host of other national security issues that are of vital importance to america these shoe of trust and america's reputation globally was addressed by the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee every senator has an obligation to ask that question of themselves over the course of these next days are we a credible partner can other nations rely on us what happens when the present united states negotiates a treaty and he comes back here and the rest of the world sees that a treaty bogged down not in the substance of the treaty. but in the politics of the

day and if the treaty does get bogged down this year chances are the new senate which is going to be more republican and obama hosts tile will put off the new start indefinitely maybe for months or even years get a check on our t. washington d.c. let's put a democrat party strategist robert when he told me the main reason the treaty is not ratified yet is down to republicans election cycle mentality. it would be stupid for the republicans to continue to block it but then again they want to block everything in the past republicans used to work with democrats now since a new game they've been wanting to kill everything republicans have learned that sound bites can win elections instead of good governing something has to change we have to get past two year old election cycles and think in terms of the good of the country something has to happen to help us to good governance but good governance in the world not just united states includes passage of the start treaty i think

perhaps by embarrassing the republicans from trust stopping them from playing politics which is dangerous it's devastating it could cause terrorism to succeed they will come around and pass this treaty coming up on our t.v. tonight gets behind the scenes. a russian girl accused of spying whilst working for a british m.p. has been released on bail i've spoken to her and i'll bring you all the details chairing the program. and the upcoming launch that will take the next international space station crew into orbit and go about a few to. survive here the most recent country to convert to the euros having a rethink about whether it should stick with the currency parliamentary speaker richard simmons says that they need a plan b. in case they have to switch back to their old money here other than slovakia needs to shore up its financial defenses if the european debt crisis worsens later the country's premier said the bratislava had never considered dropping the euro and

denied talk about reverting to their former currency but you're a compass novelist of the institute of economic and social studies told me at the time there was no need to switch to the single currency. i don't think the euro was a third of your false logic here i don't think any. scenario would. work if we didn't join during the eurozone let's look at the czech republic. very similar country with their own currency and they are doing pretty well today in slovakia many painful structural reforms happened in the last years we had to save our old owned banks in the year two thousand and one and it cost us almost ten percent of g.d.p. so now this like people don't really understand why they should send money to irish banks when we had to foot the bill for our own banks by ourselves there is also an issue that. all the talk about the european solidarity doesn't work in slovakia you have to mention that the slow people are the poorest one in the eurozone so all the

people really don't understand why they should save their richer richer brothers everybody thought that the greek crisis is just irrational exuberance on the part of private markets the irish crisis shows the eurozone has a huge problems especially you're banks have a huge problems right now and the eurozone tries to pretend that they can guarantee that of everybody but i don't think it's terrible i think sooner or later some countries or some banks have to default because i don't think that that spear. strong enough or the economies are strong enough to foot the bill for the banks so i will say people have to start and we should buy the paper processes for these before there's been granted to the young russian woman arrested in london almost two weeks ago on suspicion of spying twenty five year old cats. there's no facing deportation worked as an assistant to british m.p. mike hancock the u.k. city says that she used her position to gather information about the country's

nuclear facilities that spoke to. seemed quite an unexpected decision she seemed to be shocked by the whole process very relieved obviously to be back home but she says she's really had no time to even turn around to sort of think about things and think about what the implications are this is not. yet it doesn't seem she has been released but she is on and very strict bail conditions she told me that she wasn't able to meet with anybody without the express permission of the home secretary so she wants to meet with anyone give any interviews talk to anybody she has to apply in writing through her lawyers to the home office and then with five days notice and then they will decide whether or not she is allowed to meet with them so really conditions that amounts to house arrest she's also reportedly not allowed to have any contact with her boss mike hancock the member of parliament or indeed anyone

that she worked with during her time in parliament she says that she's also going to do her best to comply with the terms of her not to anybody and she still only this time that i spoke to her at the time before that she's done absolutely nothing wrong she says that she was just doing her job working for mike. and she also said that time that she had no evidence presented really quite difficult for her she and her lawyers are trying to appeal against something that they they really don't know what they're dealing with. perhaps not straight away because she did sound extremely tired when i heard this morning but she does look set to carry on this fight against her deportation. almost two weeks ago now so she spent two weeks in a detention center some distance from london and the original news that we received was that she was to be deported on the basis presence in the u.k. wasn't conducive to the public good with the grounds of her deportation she'd been

working inside the houses of parliament. and as a parliamentary. distant mike hancock is a member of parliament for an area in the south of england for two and a half years so she's been issued with a parliamentary posse to undergo the security checks in order to get hold of that this is a girl who is quite tall with no legs she's blown she's russian she wears short skirts and high heels according to her colleagues and she certainly did on the occasions that i've met her and so this is perfect fodder for tabloid headlines and sure enough they didn't they didn't know the chance like that. so it remains to be seen what's going to happen in the development of this story. is that alleviated is going to stay in this country on bail for at least a short time and then and then we'll have to see what happens so london correspondent laura course you can also keep up to date with all our stories on our brand you look web site as well as you'd expect all the latest news from us but a whole lot more blogs analysis lots of interesting information about russia or about our child it's all of our to go home online so now it accelerates into the

twenty first century is a story we brought you yesterday russia's motor industry showcasing its first eco friendly hybrid cars to take the streets for real in about two years time where you can get a sneak preview. when i was sixty for the song kind of went what a swiss woman defying the age by any way to become a mother for the first time with little help from some russian friends again about a story about one dot com. russia will buy at least one mistral helicopter carrier from france the country's currently growing the price which will be the largest military deal between russia and nato countries. can offer as the details of this long negotiated transaction.

at this point it really does seem very this deal is going to be sealed at least that's according to russian officials moscow looks set to bind the mistral produced by france this is a huge. helicopter carrier ship it's also cabled to transport dozens of tanks and other transport vehicles the negotiations on this deal have been continuing for around a year and first washington has concerns on a nato member state selling. wittman to russia you know with the restart of relations between moscow and washington the situation seems to have changed previously the french foreign minister who's visited the moscow just recently he said that there are no you know obstacles remaining in this deal and it's incompletion moscow wants to buy at least one mistrial and may also get the license to produce more on its territory now itself thought to just one mistrial costs around eight hundred million euros dollars although the final price for this deal

still hasn't been decided but russian officials say they expect that the final details and the documents will be finalized on this deal before the end of this year. the wiki leaks founder has been granted bail by a british court but with strict conditions and sons will stay in jail until another hearing the next two days as prosecutors are appealing the bail decision talk to extradite assange to answer questions over the rape allegations which he did nice sweet his chief prosecutor canceled a previous arrest more and saying there was no reason to suspect that he committed an assault the wiki leaks site still operating and continues to publish confidential american diplomatic cables to get some insight now from journalist should be times he has joining us on the line from london tonight indeed very good evening to thank spring on r.t. this seems like today's battle has been won for now but what about sweden's appeal how much of a spanner in the works is that potentially likely to be. well it's excited so many

journalists from around the world that have been outside this courtroom journalist like myself and people on the streets here supporting him everyone thought that he'd won a pay one this bail application like his mother left the court everyone left the goods and then it cern's out that they've appealed the decision the crown prosecution service here automatically has to act on the swedish authorities decision and now it seems like he's one bail but he's going to be in jail for forty eight hours very confusing situation how ironic that we're talking about justice in the british courts when he leaked so much about getting justice around the world there is a suspicion isn't there that sweden is bowing to american pressure by resurrecting these m. sex crime charges that were kind of overturned one. can it work and is it still working you think of getting a sound extradited to the us will it work at the end of the day. ironically it's not really a conspiracy theory one might say because hillary clinton said that if it.

committed a crime against the international community i don't know what your view is and listeners around the world think. but does the of the american government have the right to call everything against wiki leaks a crime against the international community. i think the problem with this coverage here is being that we're not really covering the torture and kidnap it's a kid from this country that's been exposed by wiki leaks has sweden been involved with some secret cover up and you're covering other stories about the british court system just a little bit of russian spies british justice is in the door everybody says to you promote independent journalism of course yourself a suggestion is that this has been hunted down for telling the truth as you say it's a test of free speech is that. well i mean i should say i'm a member of the frontline club it's the front line. that's putting up the bail i think that's where he'll be living journalists around the world are of one opinion

i think all those journalists speak to that there is an attack. ironic that perhaps we should be also covering bradley manning after all if he's the source of the documents he knows what justice he's going to face of even the publisher of after which it is just a publisher presumably would you know expect the editors of the new york times the guardian and dish spiegel to also face. a whole other story isn't it as you're saying you know why so much attention on a subject really quickly how do you see the situation unfolding now what next you think about twenty seconds. i think what's really important now is that the daily wiki leaks information is brought out and the next week the leaks are supposed to be about the bank of america so we'll hear a lot more about business news from wiki leaks regardless of genius are just critics but i think that it is a term zeal for journalists thank you for being on the line from london tonight appreciate it. prime minister has been named as the head of the math like

albanian group responsible for smuggling human organs drugs and weapons why a council of europe inquiry the two year program taken by britain's guardian newspaper head of it for me says that she has been violently controlling the heroin trade in the region for the last decade some members of his. hooper also accused of smuggling individuals into albania after the one thousand nine hundred nine cost of a war where serb prisoners were killed and their organs harvested now the revelations come as touchy declared victory in the first parliamentary election since the software claymation split from. top level american officials are expressing their grief over the death of veteran diplomat richard holbrooke president obama praised him as a true giant of foreign policy who quote made the us stronger safer and more respected nicknamed the bulldozer holbrooke died at age sixty nine after undergoing heart surgery he's best known for pushing the u.s. agenda in the balkans during the bosnian war the dayton agreement acclaimed by

america for ending the conflict is one of his best known achievements but political writer della johnston says the accord was orchestrated by holbrooke using questionable tactics. the reality is that the united states helped start the boston war in one nine hundred ninety two by encouraging is a beg of it's the bus and muslim leader to pull out of an agreement that was made between the three ethnic parties that would have prevented the war and then in order to finally stop it holbrooke had to turn to slobodan milosevic who desperately wanted to make peace in order to get sanctions lifted from serbia so in fact the united city used most of it to make peace and hope of its own account of that makes it quite clear that it was mostly rich who saved the peace accords by making great compromises at the cost of buses served most of it didn't get any credit for that but in fact was in close

a vote in holbrooke went and sat down in the tent of the albanian separatist just so he combined this on the street with the next door nary a degree of ingratitude and when milosevic died in prison how gurk made a comment calling him a monster so i feel that although one usually with specs the did right after they die holbrook in self set an example of insulting the person that he owed his expense to write his death. couple of top world news stories in brief to bring you up to date with tonight almost one hundred people have been injured in rome as tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators protested against silvio berlusconi's success and winning the lower house vote but police are used tear gas to try to stop the angry crowd from clashing with authorities the prime minister narrowly survived by a margin of three votes the decision came after berlusconi already gave the necessary support in the upper house critics say mr berlusconi supports been

weakened after a series of scandals and budget cuts. a fire at a clothing factory near the city capital of bangladesh's killed at least twenty five people and injured over one hundred witnesses say the blaze broke out on the two top floors of the building at lunchtime when most of the workers were out of the office soldiers from a nearby military district helped in the rescue operation an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway. ten twenty pm moscow time now the next space bound rocket stands poised for wednesday's blast off russia's soyuz will take a crew of three a russian an american and an attorney and on the twenty sixth mission as it is the international space station artie's peter all of the reports now on the rockets journey to its launch site in kazakhstan. hereward baikonur the final preparations underway ahead of the launch of the soyuz t.m.a. twenty rockets which will carry cosmonaut to me. and astronauts. and katherine

coleman up to the international space station for the rocket has received a blessing from a priest from the russian orthodox church in line with tradition here at baikonur that's not the only tradition they have here many many traditions and superstitions if you will to be carried out before the launch one of those traditions as the the astronauts and cosmonauts visit the cosmonaut museum here and by can also they get to look at those who have gone before them they brought back from space. museum they also sign a board with the picture of the soyuz t.m.a. rocket on it and write a little message of a memory of what they were about to do with this mission now there's been plenty of former astronauts and cosmonauts say it's a lend support to the mission crew. liable to what the weather is it doesn't matter what you know it's just a very robust strong system that can withstand just about anything nature can throw at it and you know it's been flying since the sixty's and it was a rare exception or service and some of those who have been up there before say

it's those little things that can make life hard when you're up in space i think probably the biggest challenge for me you know i think it sounds kind of trivial but it was the lack of variety of the food after you know you know one month it's ok two months it's ok and then you know three months you know exactly how many brownies are in the desert have been you know exactly how many heaters are in the meat. because it's all the same so that's how it's looking here at the moment in baikonur the astronauts are currently tucked away so they can catch any sniffles colds or coughs it's very cold here in baikonur of course they if they do get sick they can be pulled from the mission and the whole team of. coleman would be removed from the mission and replaced with the crew so they desperately trying to make sure that that doesn't happen they're all tucked up nice and warm and that's how it looks at the baikonur cosmodrome. by. coming up tonight an exclusive interview with

the president of finland for you but next on the agenda we'll update you on the day's big business stories in a few moments here on r.t. . hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on. beasts in which bright. moving. from still crashing. down time on t.v. dot com. to

business precious metals of gain for a second day as investors bet against the tumbling dollar the federal reserve wants to boost economic growth by increasing the amount of money available to banks but investors fear the injection of billions of extra dollars into the markets will bring inflation gold has gone back over fourteen hundred dollars an ounce the price this year has now jumped by nearly a third and is heading for its tenth straight year of growth the price of silver has also started to rise in the past few hours. let's check out the stock markets now wall street is edging high after a better than expected rise in u.s. retail sales for november best buy was an exception however its shares slumped over six percent after the retailer unveiled lower profits. europe ended mixed as investors cashed yesterday's mining gains miners and longman were top losers on the footsie down over three percent each but the almost recovered its losses by close

of play. in markets have ended the second day in the black but my six had a late surge to go back over sixteen hundred points although i'm less predict a topsy turvy week for the index. gazprom swung into the black after early losses to close a percent higher today investors were encouraged by the meeting between company head alexei miller and bell routes that it will lift toys with the key transit state to europe but may just rosneft call phil as the price of light sweet hold on the eighty nine dollars a barrel. russia's biggest miner meanwhile morris nickel has sold its entire stake in u.s. metals company stillwater nickel sold thirty seven million stillwater shares to the public at nineteen dollars fifty each and the remaining nine million to u.b.s. securities the russian mining giant says it's selling shares to focus on its core operations. to keep b.p. says it will invest three hundred million dollars next year in russia's joint u. more peninsula the energy firm will spend two thirds of the budget on development

of the field and deposits of its gas subsidiary role spend the investment budget is part of the company's ambitious plans to double gas production within a decade retail news now the world's biggest retailer wal-mart is leaving rochelle wal-mart has long been trying to buy its way into the market but says it's failed to find enough attractive targets the company has closed its moscow office saying there was no reason to remain despite its continued interest in russia almost is the second big international retailer to leave this country this year after france's call for failed to make its business profitable and while this may be bad for russian shoppers i'm listening it's probably good news for domestic retailers. it's still poised for the. company since it basically eliminates potential but still very large compared to all the concerns about large buter. exiting the market ungrounded in in my view because none of the russian retailers the public wants.

right now at least the prices that mark is offering. go up faster than expected the central bank is concerned the poor harvest will push up the cost of food and therefore inflation. as if to prove the point the price of. almost in the last week alone. one hundred rubles per kilo which is roughly the same. stories on our website as. business.

for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. in india. the move. to. the gateway hits the ground in a period truly. close. to go. run to the colonel was

a photo retreat. this is obscene the international broadcast from moscow thanks for choosing us these are our headlines no christmas break for the u.s. senate until the new clear cut treaty is ratified as democrats wrestled a harness republican support for one of president obama's most crucial foreign policy of course. the biggest naval deal between russia and a nato country is on the horizon with moscow set to but least one helicopter cut it in front of the year of negotiations. a russian woman accused of spying while working for a british. she gives her side of the story. next fast trains trade and energy we're talking about russia's ties with this northern neighbor finland our interview with president. coming right up.

thank. you thank. you. president hello and thank you very much for being with at to day so you've just stepped off a high speed train line between helsinki and st petersburg how do you think this connection will change the alliance between the two you said it's i think the really impact these people will come closer to each other of course the many so good now will. the country which is the most popular among the e.u. countries to give the recess but. that's just one point but now the point is there that it has to be very popular already now to be said to them i have access to their female but now we think also that perhaps with these.