culture is the same of jargon girl you know the nerd even more so because it'll work tell a different story also home again on the brink after a less than successful election in allegations of organized crime including organ trafficking and hair. hello again and welcome to spotlight reentering the show on r.t. by al green of enflame i guess which is just take man it's. a decade after the u.s.s.r. disappeared from the world back the former soviet republic of the latter became a member of the news but has been sixteen years since the head of states out of the lab in the public was on an official visit here in the last what brain said he promotes now now and one of the goals of the large delegations out politicians and

top business was that he brought along well i asked the state secretary of the latin foreign ministry and this tasteless. top russian businessman are forecasting a significant improvement of relations between russia and lesbia they say the new generation of politicians on both sides is ready to leave behind old preconceptions and prejudices and it can already be seen in some important deals with gazprom has agreed to cut gas prize for letter via brega is ready to support moscow's bid to lift the visa regime between russia and the. us to take on this i welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us. well first of all this was the the first visit to let me present to russia since nineteen ninety four right for its rights and the. the letter inside already called

it the beginning of normal bilateral relations normal dialogue this is a quote so what force the two countries to review their relations when she's well i think it's a question of time the peeress visit. took place in ninety. four when our president took moscow with the main. task to sign agreements of the past agreements with throw off russian military forces. this is a visit it's looking into the future. we have had quite a difficult time behind us. and we seize. and is to say new. level of relations i think we have we have managed to do it the two presidents as far as i heard they spoke russian this

was the working language of the visit does it mean that the lights be an allergy to all that's russian is oh. well i think the president is a very. pragmatic man oh man when he's he's going to proselyte he's speaking english when he's going to moscow he's speaking russian but he's speaking language we can communicate and understand he chose her as quickly as possible so that so charles so so and. this is not only the choice of the president the government but also the choice of the people you represent can you say that the latinas today the ad to choose to with the russians is better than it was like fifteen years ago i wouldn't turn so that fifty years ago left me and had

. a different path if you told russians let's answer russians living to go living in riga in other cities of flats here and there are no quarrels on an ethnic base no not at all well i think the task of the visit is was not to settle their relations between russian selecta and buttinski let's hear but to settle new level of relationship between our two states well let's speak about here east fears. are always something that that makes may make it difficult to establishing good work in relations recently wiki leaks has disclosed the existence of a nato contingency plan for a possible. russian aggression against the baltic states well do you think that latvians really fear still fear a possible russian invasion is it

a fact of life in your country or not oh i think the question has been answered by the latest nato summit. nato summit adopted a new nato security strategy. it confirmed but. politico is a military is a defense alliance and all the states have obligations to defend it chose article five is still valid. nato is a seat time stated a necessity of cooperation of closer cooperation with russia. that's announcer i think since fear is a member of nato since life is a member of european union i would say we haven't any fear this from nobody well of course we have to. have fears from

economic challenges from new international threats like international terrorism but well that's a challenge. facing any any country including like you you're mentioning the economic challenges was well as a member of nato led to size and distance spends spent quite a considerable sum on defense well this reset let's call it so in russia latin relations that we are seeing today do you think it may convince the let me leadership to scrap some costly defense programs i wouldn't link the reset policy and our defense spending so i have been cut quite substantially in the last two years. due to economic constraints. but we are still. lacking to have two percent military or defense expenditures of

g.d.p. so we are spending less and that's. a commitment of nato states so i think this is not a lot linked to. a reset is not linked to the level of military expenditures in latvia and we have to holler our. commitments as a nato member state well as you mentioned the relations between the russians and the lat let me end but still according to the kremlin the main problem in bilateral relations is the status of russian speaking people in latvia the so-called non citizens the rian augustine agency recently published published figures there are seventy nine different as i'm quoting reality and the rights of citizens and non-citizens and forty seven professions often been for the so called

non citizens is it true it is a good game to change actually no. i will say very simple. when people respectively be latvian so russians are going to. go to the shop to the daily charm to the medical care. to social. agency they have no difference in treatment well so those persons respectively who they are but they are korean sort of think russians if the person hasn't. or hasn't get a citizen chip. this person concept ploy to be civil servant let's apply for being policeman or to be elected to their party that's

a major difference and the rest well you kind of course the professions of of civil service you can name in fifty very very asians but at the very end it remains only civil service and that's a difference. you mentioned the equal treatment but there was this this news story in the news recently about the doctors that the that that they were members of the ruling party and they declared there and the willingness to to give medical systems to the russian speakers because they called them occupiers tell us more about the story and what was their reaction to that comment pleat mistreatment and count promptly misinterpretations all over the use of this yeah i know you're a journalist laughs such and such facts but the fact was was. mistreated by one journalists and then published by by many others well if one doctor

somewhere in america consider he's not a member of the party he's not a member he's not a deputy he's not a minister if you consider that he may have some difficulties in treatment that's his own problem. well as a as a party supporter of one of the ruling party here he was thrown out of his party was and money he donated for the party was a return back to him really well this doctor this american doctor that we're related to he called the russians he called them occupiers while this problem this question of occupation it seems to be close to being so today when the when the two president decided to to. it's a commissioned officer story is to tackle these difficult difficult questions and this is one of the main results of this visit the latter in

a visit to moscow well. do you agree that the question of soviet occupation is still divided the two countries and how soon do you think this commission may do something to start solving the this problem well. i wouldn't say that this is a mean main result of the visit well we have quite a number of results. but certainly it is and it was acknowledged point both presidents that it is a question not not an easy question should be somehow discussed. and positions are opinion should be exchanged and so it was has happened already today between two presidents i think that starts off of this political dialogue even. concerning these difficult issues but it is

essential to start a dialogue about this issue i think this first step. most presidents endorsed the creation of a historian commission i think that's a good step ahead and even. if you are on a on a difficult task you have to make a first check this first step was done today and i hope we will move ahead and settle the issues of the history of interpretation of history we are not trying to rewrite history but we are trying to become closer by interpretation of historical events and interpretations. some time not only interpreted by academicians but also by politicians but certainly i can emissions can be very helpful in interpretation. i should stress that if we want to suck

salts issue then the question about all carbs and openness of squats essential part of says tyler and i hope very much we will have also progress regarding accessibility it says august take the paid secretary of the last partners. will be back shortly after a break we'll continue this interview in less than a minute so stay way. it can hit dr swan's policeman swines ministers why i just. didn't find me if i could just live through the night that i would get my kids out of here because i knew that what was going to happen was that he was going to kill me many victims don't understand that domestic balance includes verbal abuse

psychologically piece physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million women are affected by abuse every year those are my only two options that i saw at that moment. kill him in jail or he's going it killing the. wealthy british style stock. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy because a report on. welcome

back to spotlight i'm al gore now in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is on this week when he's the state secretary of the light foreign ministry you mention just mention politicians having a chance to interpret historical events do you think it's right well you're a politician today of course but you're also a human being and you have your children your grandchildren studying history would you like them studying history interpreted by politicians. well i think. well if you are not thinking about your history probably it will be a very difficult to sink about your future so we can't separate from our history whether we like it or not but we have to be clear on that. and therefore both commissions and his politicians should have some more clarity about it i

wouldn't say that all the politicians in latvia and russia even after a successful work of turin commission will have totally the same opinion or totally the same interpretation of historical events well but i think it would be essential if we would come closer in. explaining historical events validating historical events. coming closer of their opinions of the politicians of both states and certainly if academicians would agree on on these events that would definitely be very helpful there was a lot written about the relations on the eve of the visit to moscow and many journalists expressed in the. a new theory that if russia is recognized

as a country occupied lightly here it means that there that latvia could seek compensation do you do you agree do you confirm what can you deny this point of year i would say the. i would say that. toric issue should be regarded as the roads are and this is not only the issue between. latvia and russia this is an issue between latvia and poland this is an issue of russia's own history and i think that is essential to bringing more knowledge about. tragic complex difficult issues of twentieth century and we have to start. i think a good start is a half of the victory we shouldn't try to reach immediately some finish but

we have to stop and what's essential we have to start both and we have to start to cover this first step was done today i hope very much it will be successful your excellency both moscow and riga have already labeled this visit as successful well as far as i know your yuruk coming minister that an economist or a he was coming to moscow in order to try to convince gazprom to cut the gas prices for latvia was this attempt successful. well. i should say that was no not the only issue but of. minister of economy and a number of ministers who. came with the president to moscow we have signed a number of four agreements by the bilateral agreements. i should mention first and

foremost the agreement in some double taxation agreement on our cooperation in combating or organized crime cooperation in mental math has. facilitated travel in the border regions cooperation in matters of tourism and so on and so forth. and we discussed quite a number of various issues with president prime minister putin. and we we discussed the issue so transit and transportation of investments of gas supply also so i hope i hope very much sir. well due to this visit and then not only due to this was it but. we will have also in the near future an adequate. understandable price of and that your resources says so so you think this may

happen yes that the prices may be cut short of to mystic and this is the result of the visit. i should stress that we have quite a number of results ok and now how much will bilateral trade increase next i know you talked about it and in which areas. well there is a very positive dynamic owes us still we have quite a different different you know about trade. and well it's mostly due to the fact the russian statistics is counting the transit through life here we are now. but nevertheless we see the very positive dynamic this year. in gross if our mutual trade. gross of the

trade total trade volume has grown by twenty seven or twenty eight percent so we can expect. also in the next year we may expect the gross of the trade in. traditional. branches traditional goods like it is food. like sprouts other fish products meat products diary products various. goods. chemistry pharmaceuticals so we can mean can expect increase in bilateral trade in practically all the branches and we hope very much that. the signing of double taxation is

a matters that really will stimulate. the business community in both countries and it will increase activity of business community it will increase investments while we still want to go shooting. the agreement on protection of. mints so we haven't landed diest yet to a common position but i hope very much we will do it in the nearest future speaking of investments your extensive i'm sorry for interrupting but i know that two thousand and nine there was a significant cut a significant decrease in investments russians to latin letters to russia what was the main reason are all russian investments safe enough in that area they are. safe and so was the reason that they are safe enough and actually the well cumulated investments didn't didn't decrease. the biggest investment so it has been done

they are still there. there are quite to many smaller investors probably have been hit in both countries by economic constraints and they were not may be able to carry out all the plants they have envisaged before but i think this is physical so encouraged quite a many. business people and we saw today in the morning when we had a business forum. about well two hundred fifty business men participated in this business for own both from left and from from russia and i think definitely i'm very confident that they will find a common business you mentioned this agreement that you signed with the russians about facilitating the the cross border trips for people living along the russian latvia border well russia has been working on these abolishing the

abolishment of the visa regime between russia and the shotgun countries do you think that latvia is is is ready to become an advocate of the abolishment of the of these as with russia well actually which is supported since support has been a really today by our first and. we are supportive to to this. these are free for perspective for e.u. and russia. and then we have to carry out our homework. quite a number of homework should be done in e.u. countries in russia in order to achieve a real result freedom while in. it reason freedom doesn't mean only a possibility of parole it's a must commits to go to you and i'm allowed to spend the nice week or month

in the summer time or in new years eve or to go to fall for far less to go to moscow or petersburg no well it means that business community should be safe in both countries by by conducting their business activities they shouldn't be by the by overwhelming rich registration procedures and well documents say fifty readmission issues of all these issues should be should be settled and then we will have a real reason freedom thank you thank you very much you know see for the centurion just a reminder that my guest on the show today was on grace and t twenty is the state secretary of the last korean foreign ministry and that's it for now we'll talk like that with more for the time comment on what's going on in and out of the shop until

then stay on our team and take a thank you thank you very much. cause

he's top stories at the start debate nears the end the u.s. senate expected to vote on the ratification of this start nuclear on sconce treaty in the next forty eight hours it ends millions of delays and efforts to amend the punch which would have some of the deal to reduce russian and american nuclear omes by then and signed by both presidents in april. russia and india secure multibillion dollar deal and in a trip to new day about president medvedev as two of the so-called bric nations cement relations nuclear power trade and investment were just some of their greenland sealed. also prime minister putin meets with both fine representatives

and was there help to eliminate extremism following recent violence after a party talks moscow final was killed by rival. poland rejects moscow is reported to the april plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five others but aviation experts say the russian probe was open for a minute while the nato leaders rather because the former prime minister of the country claims the wrong body was buried. up next also his debate cross-talk and today people have asked his guest if self proclaimed independent kosovo poses a threat to its neighbors after recent allegations of organized crime made by the against the country. will. remain the latest sign.