earlier my colleague carrie johnston spoke to our correspondents for the latest you can sit in a garage over from moscow and going to church accounts from washington now that the treaty is approved they will go on to the president's table for a signature that is just a formality but only then it will be considered officially ratified and only when the two countries have their trivial ratified it will come into effect what will follow we all know they will start dismantling the bombs and traveling through each other to see that the other side is complying with their obligations under the treaty is the key stark negotiator in the us rose good to miller said the whole verification process will start some time in spring as as of the russians russian lawmakers made it really clear that they have no objections to the treaty and they will ratify very very soon now that the u.s. senate gave its approval there are no obstacles remaining there. but that's a cost to moscow now to your country in there so it's now russia's turn to follow suit to the proof in the production treaty what we've been hearing so far but i

mean you can't use the votes were counted a lot to be outcome and of course the crimean had been watching carefully all those heated debates pro and cons on capitol hill the first reaction came from the kremlin and the foreign ministry said that russian lawmakers would of course need some time to study the resolution cation resolution but as for the rest will be no problem with russia indeed the vote was more about america's credibility abroad president medvedev the sure it will rock obama from the very beginning that russian lawmakers would say yes to a new start and most importantly most of you saying you start does not draw a line between winners and losers both sides come out as wieners by working towards global design a month. before the treaty was cleared for. there were many obstacles in the way when that. that's right carrie despite all the huge support that the treaty has

received you know the country's top security experts are saying that it is a win win deal and number of republican senators who are going out of their way to on the minded as many say just for the sake of denying obama is arguably major foreign policy victory and the treaty could have easily become a victim of political games on capitol hill at some point it got really nasty and you could say is that it was all about politics and no substance so more on the data on the day of the vote and the excruciating detail of debates before that here's my report. on this resolution are seventy one twenty six nays two thirds the senate president having voted in the affirmative the resolution of ratification as you agreed to. and with this approval russian the u.s. will start the new year with a treaty that has become a symbol of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers and glad that

democrats and republicans came together to approve my top national security priority for this session of congress the new start treaty. this is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with russia both states have some very significant reductions underway over the next ten years the countries will cut their nuclear arsenals by a third down to some fifteen hundred fifty deployed warheads on each side the deal also limits the number of delivery vehicles and launchers but even with those cuts both russia and the u.s. will still hold more than ninety percent of the world's nuclear weapons so many agree that the value of the new arms reduction treaty is not just in reductions but i think it's also important to say that the significance of the treaty is much larger than the implications for arms control it really does give a lot of momentum and boost to the broader u.s. russia reset and i think puts obama and medvedev on course to cooperate more

closely on a whole host of issues and it may well be that this is seen as a turning point in which the russia us rivalry of the past is finally laid to rest for weeks and months the president of the united states all members of his administration the military all living former secretary of state and of defense were calling for senators not to ruin this reset opportunity for us russia relations and the message did resonate with many senators every senator knows when you're trying to get things done relationships matter and the relationship between the united states and russia has been critical since we fought together in world war two and will be contin and will continue to be so this is an on parallel opportunity to enhance that relationship and to say by signature and by ratification of this treaty that yes the united states of america

wants to work with russia despite the huge support the treaty has. sieved on many levels a number of republican senators nearly sabotaged it their actions provoked an avalanche of criticism from the country's top security experts who feared that the treaty could become a victim of political games on capitol hill the arguments the treaty adversaries brought up on the hearings ranged from there's no earthly way to do all of this within the time that we have to even more on substantial ones like we don't have to have this treaty if we don't have a nuclear treaty with the u.k. anglin we don't have one with france in the final days of debates on start some republican senators trying to rewrite the deal which would have actually killed it you know they wanted to take out the line in the preamble which makes the connection between offensive and defensive weapons stuart straitjackets the united

states missile defense capabilities but all of those from the military who testified before the senate said the connection between offensive and defensive weapons is obvious they also maintained it's not started to step through make the us weaker the treaty itself explicitly says either side can pull out of it if at some point they deem it threatens their national security and for russians this new start is about balance and equality and they will be in it as long as the u.s. respects that balance. through the established basis of the contract the principles of equality parity and the equal an invisible security of both parties this becomes the new gold standard for the conclusion of our agreements the agreement not only strengthens the security of russia in the united states but has beneficial effects for international stability and security in general in russia the outcome of the vote in the u.s. senate has been well come from many in moscow it's a signal that the u.s. and russia can now open

a new page of cooperation russian lawmakers made it clear they had no objections to the treaty and would pass it as soon as the u.s. did advocates of the treaty see the outcome of the vote not so much as obama's victory but a victory for the whole world which on the one hand is going to have considerably fewer weapons of mass destruction and on the other hand to nuclear superpowers former adversaries actually trusting each other and looking toward ending hands to provide their security going to check on our team washington d.c. . i've been to political analysts from the independent institute think tank in washington says the nuclear cuts deal is an important step and even those who put up objections to it recognize this. they arms control has always been sort of the central. pillar of the relationship ever since the cold war is on and that's still the case because the most important thing in the world is these two huge arsenals

which dwarf any other countries' arsenals the treaty does allow russians and the us to cooperate war and i think the general. better relationship is good if there's a potential nuclear accident or something like that as we had in one thousand nine hundred five we had good relations back then and i think that really prevented an accidental nuclear war i think this happens on many senate is that they dig in their heels they tried to put up the price on what the administration has to. pay to get the treaty not in physical cash but in programs handed out to their constituents and everything they pretend to be on the line so they can get more playing hard to get and then when the treaty comes they don't want to be seen as having missed a chance for a historic vote on a major treaty lawrence korb a senior fellow from the public policy research organization center of american progress in washington believes the treaty helps address the danger of nuclear

weapons falling into the wrong hands. i think it's significant for two reasons number one it helps us get our relations with russia back where they should be and get the russian help of things like stand and and iran and the other is that the real danger to the security of the united states is a nuclear weapon or nuclear material falling into the wrong hands and this treaty is a first step to dealing with that problem what it is is forget all of the countries of the world including russia the united states signed a nonproliferation treaty which they agreed to all the countries wouldn't develop nuclear weapons they would reduce their eyes and really we haven't had anything for a decade so we're still moving in that direction. and sticking with the same topic alice slater director of the new york branch of the nuclear age peace foundation says the treaty will serve as a key trust building measure. it's all in the back cutting deployed weapons those

are the ones that are on notice ready to fire from twenty two hundred down to fifteen hundred and that's good but what's even more important is that we re install our ability to inspect each other's nuclear weapons facilities which expired with the last start treaty last december we now we haven't even been able to see what russia is doing in russia can't see what we're doing so this is a new start allows us to have inspections and verification and this is very important to build trust so that we can actually go to disarmament and the other very good thing about start is that it shows that the u.s. and russia can make a deal and that we now have to move forward. of course will be bringing you more common tendon ellis' of the start treaty approval from leading experts throughout the day plus you can always have your say on the issue on our website or t. dot com. china says it will help struggling european economies

combat their debt crisis the offer came at an economic forum in beijing the e.u. is china's largest economic partner but cooperation has been challenged by europe's ailing financial health economist marco peter pully says beijing support is not a permanent remedy for the block. this extends china's political influence in europe by making a lot of european states dependent on china to buy to buy their debt but it doesn't get away from the fundamental problem in europe europe has a big big sovereign debt crisis and bases if you like a patch to try and help the situation until the europeans managed to put together some some proper reforms some proper fundamental structures to to help the euro stay together moving forward and to date they've been very much dragging their heels in and patching up greece and ireland rather than coming to the table

to put together a fundamental reform of how the euro actually operates next hour max kaiser and co-host of stacy herbert look at the financial scandals in the debt ridden european union and on the other side of the atlantic. i'm here in london where the bankers are demanding their year end bonuses and the government is asking them please mr berger don't steal any more of our money and the bankers are saying wait a minute if we can't steal your money we might leave and the government is saying no we want you to stay still money meanwhile the i.m.f. is asking people ireland to suffer more austerity while the i.m.f. is redecorating its large headquarters in washington d.c. .

and the us may indeed be resetting their relations but the countries still fail to see eye to eye on many issues the us was one of the few countries to vote against a resolution condemning the glorification of naziism that was adopted by the united nations tabled by russia and the stasi a trick you know looks at the possible reasons behind the american decision we have one hundred twenty nine countries saying they want to fight against the glorification of not citizen and then the united states says no but we don't want to sign up to that document this is especially interesting because the united states obviously fought against naziism in the second world war and this is one of those rare opportunities when we have countries like iran and israel even agreeing on an issue which almost never happens but here is the united states who does not want to go along with everyone else over the last several years there have been documents leaked and declassified revealing us cover ups of nazis right after the second world war of course of particular interest here is the waffen s.s.

the so-called protective squadrons of the nazis that were really a militarized group that helped carry out the goals of the nazis by doing things like ethnic cleansing to all sorts of work crimes and these were the people that the united states ended up cooperated with in the wars in the years after the second world war of the most important interest here though is of course the voltec waffen s.s. because the united states was really copulating tightly with people located there to try to fight the soviet union and a lot via for example a baltic state as one of is the only place in the world right now that sees former s.s. soldiers as war heroes this is something that the united states is really so far staying silent about and strangely especially when the cause is so straightforward as fighting the glorification of naziism. an associate you're going to reporting for us there and you can get more from our t.v.

with the latest news analysis and blogs always there for you on our website here's just a taste of what's at r t v dot com right now. former spy girl anna chapman isn't biding her time in russia as she joins a political gift movement find out what she's up to now and what her stance. and christmas is well and truly coming to moscow as fifty scientists from around the world are in the capital for gift giving spree still don't believe example just log on to argue dot com and see for yourself. it's a disease that many believe belongs to biblical times but for those struck down with leprosy it's a very present problem many russians affected are confined to remote villages with

little chance of rejoining society. reports. lost amid vast families russia's old village has no streets but houses with its own fire brigade ambulance service and kindergarten it's a home for many people affected by leprosy away from the eyes of a public with little understanding of the disease when the first patients arrived they have to know they were packed into just one house but now there is this a building big enough to house two families given the patients more privacy and dignity by larry like the vast majority of people in tennessee has been he could believe but says it's not the ethics of the disease which made him stay but people's reaction. sometimes it's like a man in a snake you see a snake and get frightened but someone who knows the snake a snake catcher is not free he knows which ones bite and which dying's and how they

bite a snakes don't use white out of the blue the same with letters if you hear this word you get scared once you know woods what's that is different. most people's knowledge of the disease comes from engine bible stories if you realize that they're most likely. all that after treatment for myself or is a no longer infectious in any case the condition is extremely rare it's that ignorance which stops many of the residents of feel unwelcome in the outside world . most of all snarky old too but where will we go there were many cases when people were discharged and they got on ok until the neighbors around downs about their disease and. we don't want to leave next door to the so and so's we've got kids who sometimes cure leprosy patients have to move out to a laser where nobody knows. one of our avon now was among the first to receive

multidrug cetera before leprosy and the you were ceasar in many ways she was lucky to be treated at all at a time when diagnosis was hard the telltale patch on her food was missed by most doctors right there but i'm going to look at my hands it's remarkable i did this and we were all the time and brine in the cooled bharara found her killing tarrasque show also found a has been and i live it offered her and many others the chance of a relatively normal existence now woods hope centers like these will no longer be needed in the last decade they have been hardly any new cases of leprosy in russia however doctors say the reason need to keep institutions open even if they're virtually empty. if we don't leave any signs how what where and why it will be very difficult for men kind of just start combat in leprosy all over again it's possible that one day due to poor living conditions and things like that the

pandemic will return to you for now those still living in terror scare no longer needed medical care but a change in attitude in the outside world a society where people care and don't stare acts on a chill what r.t.e. staff are full of region and now for a brief look at other major headlines from around the world. south korea has begun its largest winter time war games ever exercise involves jets tanks and artillery all using live ammunition just thirty kilometers from the north korean border the south's navy is also involved in unrelated maneuvers off the western coast of the peninsula it comes a month after north korea shelled an island response to a similar exercise the war games have recently come under criticism for what many see as unnecessary provocation. japan has fired its ambassador to russia but this is an. as cited it was his failure to warn the

japanese government of president medvedev recent visit to the russians for the islands japan has claimed the territory since world war two embassador was temporarily recalled after president visited the islands last month moscow has expressed indignation at japan's demonstrative reaction to the incident. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is in turkey to garner support for his country's nuclear program his visit comes as a part of a broader regional summit but often the job is to have a one on one meeting with the turkish prime minister he stumbled will host the second round of the six party talks on iran's nuclear program in january after a meeting in geneva turkey maintains good relations with tehran and together with brazil it negotiated a nuclear fuel swap deal in may although the agreement was rejected by the united states and if diplomatic effort fails to resolve the iranian nuclear dispute israel

would have to step in with a strike so says a senior israeli military analyst the full interview is coming your way in less than ten minutes but here's a taste or. israel wouldn't like to attack israeli leaders understand the possible horrendous results of such an attack however if diplomatic pressure economic sanctions don't work and iran is getting too close to a bomb then i think that the european intelligence communities and the united states they're going to close. to launch an aerial strike on their nuclear facilities. and in a few moments the business news with daniel bushell. welcome

to business a host of political and economic deals have been signed during president medvedev trip to india these encompass the defense i nuclear power sectors as well as oil and pharmaceuticals our correspondent allan overcover looks at some of the business highlights of the two day trip. well president. india has resulted in about thirty deals worth billions of u.s. dollars first of all. experts together with aeronautics ltd has agreed to jointly develop the third generation aircraft a project that would be worth from eight to ten billion dollars and by the year two thousand and seventeen india wants to have about two hundred and fifty aircraft in

its arsenal also during the. vacation system has proved to be successful and the two countries have agreed to increase investment and trade. twenty billion dollars by the year two thousand and fifty one of the major deals to emerge during president medvedev visit has been in the energy sector. india state run oil and natural gas corporation are investigating a merger of the oil and gas businesses in russia in the new deal the indian firm would acquire twenty five percent of the joint venture the potential merger will include three companies. and imperial energy will give n.g.c. a stake in the russian firm's annual oil production of twenty five million tons of interest in the huge trips to fields. in asia hong kong has risen for a third day on reports the u.s. economy grew falls to the previously estimated crude futures rose post ninety

dollars a barrel overnight helped lift energy stocks petro china is zero point six percent oppose nikkei is closed on thursday for a public holiday. here mosco has just opened continuing a good week is a pretty flat trade before the christmas holiday for the six figures you see the closing the index opens in about five minutes time in economic news. russia's g.d.p. grew four point two percent in november a year on year which sits g.d.p. growth to three point seven percent for the first eleven months of twenty ten but twenty eleven looks like it could be a bad year for russian ro ways the national operator expects profits to slip ninety six percent and blames government imposed restrictions on tariffs but while the money might not be flowing passengers and goods will the company predicts double digit increases in. now world prices have hit thirty year highs and the rally

is set to continue the two biggest global suppliers brazil and india have both said they won't be able to meet demand for the third straight year and another soft commodity arabica coffee is about to reach a record as colombia has had its poorest harvest for thirty five years the new year holidays in russia will cost the economy up to twenty seven billion dollars according to analysts f b k the ten day break from general first most of the country shut down including virtually all nonessential services and production however russians can help the country's budget by doing what comes naturally in the festive season duty on alcohol goes up from the beginning of next year so that every liter of vodka sold contributes three dollars to the state. gazprom may become the main sponsor for russia's team at the olympic games in london and sochi venemous daily reports the gas giant is in talks with russia's olympic committee

which was asked gazprom to finance preparations for the games the sponsorship could cost up to one hundred twenty million dollars and gazprom is expected to receive advertising space in exchange but officials called the deal a donation and say no contract will be signed. that's the latest to join us for the opening of stock markets across europe next.

it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition it's the language tell you that the best did beat the beat. the thing is. are still unaware of what's going on in the land still asking how much blood. i don't know anything about the alaska. on our cheap. download the official t. up location. i pod touch from the. life on the go. video on demand tease minefield comes and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. questions on the

dot com. broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow this is our teachers in. washington and moscow hailed the new nuclear treaty passing the final vote in the u.s. senate after months of delays and wrangling russia and u.s. agree the start deal is just a new symbol of trust between the two nations. but some differences between them remain with russia disappointed with the u.s. and voting against a u.n. resolution condemning. the initiative. was still adopted

as it was supported by one hundred twenty nine states. in beijing china said it would help. crisis experts warn the move will make the continent more dependent on beijing. next we'll look at iran's nuclear program and the concerns surrounding it and our special interview. with. military and intelligence analyst and author of the book the secret war with iran dr thank you very much for joining us. so to cut to the chase is israel planning an attack on iran well i put it i would put it this way israel wouldn't like to. is really neat is on.