the parliament here first state dinner then the federal counts on this could happen early as tomorrow but all the best of what amendments us has made to the ratification document is called the ratification resolution it's in the hands of russian legislators now we have learned there are some amendments we don't know how significant they are and it all depends on on that significance because that is the deal breaker right tomorrow we'll go to the state dinner they'll study it and see if those terms and conditions set by the u.s. are the ones that they originally agreed upon if they're not it's a very significant changes then and they may not end up ratifying it at all if they minor changes than they could end up voting on it tomorrow not just then but also the federal council because both houses of parliament are very keen to push this but a vacation through as soon as possible so is president of yet if he urged and hoped both house of commons would do that as soon as possible and that's because russia wants to honor the original agreement there but that the ratification process not only in the u.s. but in the in russia will be synchronized and this is what russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said earlier today. look at the going to split it into the

sea as the president agreed ratification will be synchronized we have passed all the hearings in the committees of the state duma and federation council the foreign ministry has kept lawmakers informed on the senate plans for its ratification resolutions this is very important because on each text depends what wording our legislators will use in the russian ratification law for a little girl i just saw one of the clock back just under twenty four hours that new start treaty eventually was approved was named by seventy one votes to twenty six in the u.s. senate getting there for more support than was expected year. well karen bass thought they had seventy so it's one more vote than big ben they expected but actually the treaty deserved more votes everyone has been saying that all the previous arms reduction treaty has received no less than ninety votes of approval but this was a special year and congress was not at its best the number of senators were going out of their way to undermine the treaty many say mostly for the sake of denying

obama is arguably major foreign policy achievement although the country's top security experts were saying over and over again that it's a win win deal at some point it got really nasty you could say and something was rotten on capitol hill it was all about politics not about the substance of the treaty but really we have to give credit to those senators who've been partially defending the treaty on the senate floor over the seven days of excruciating debates and to the president of course who was fighting very hard to get the treaty passed here's what he said after the senate voted already. glad that democrats republicans came together to approve my top national security for the 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 or nuclear arsenals along with russia. you know there was a lot of doubting russia to whether or not u.s. senators would be able to overcome all the politics and get down to the substance

of the deal here's what the head of the most foreign relations committee said on this. the fact that the senate has been working on the truth is ratification so long and so thoroughly means that the results of the vote are relevant and can now be questioned by anyone the american writer for creation took place despite all the speculation surrounding the procedure which was based exclusively on the interests of domestic politics it's great that an obsolete majority of the senate including a major group of republican senators decided to rise above for interests and act for what's best for the united states and in this case in global interests. while the trade is war way through the senate it was tough no doubt but it made it. or alive russia has been keeping a close eye on it all the way along the line in the debate process we just heard about there from gary in the us congress what was russia so interested though in

their twenty's passage through the washington machine. very very keen both sides being keen for this to reach the stage for this new treaty to be ratified because it marks a very significant step in the road to reset of course it's been a year since the last treaty expired and that was agreed upon over twenty years ago and so this really reasserts that both sides are on the same page on the long road to a nuclear free world that's the long term goal obviously not only will this reduce the arsenals but it also mean that russia can monitor the u.s. arsenal and vice versa so it's all about transparency and so russia was very keen that it got went through the u.s. senate i'm sure the u.s. senate will be very keen that it gets ratified here you're going to last when the bloody you're talking about how we got this far the treaty got worse far if and when it is finally fully ratified now here in moscow when are we going to see some concrete evidence of that treaty and those cuts taking place. ok ivan soon enough

the u.s. can negotiate or are start said they might start a verification process this spring you understand that only when both countries have their treaty ratified it will come into a fact now that the senate gave its approval its russia's turn and there really are not many obstacles left as my colleague in moscow said russian lawmakers generally made it clear that they had no objections to the treaty what will follow we all know they would start dismantling the bombs and traveling to each other to see that the other side is complying with their obligations under the treaty both countries have some very significant reductions underway they will cut their nuclear arsenals by a third down to some fifteen hundred fifty warheads the treaty also limits the number of delivery vehicles and launchers but even with those cuts the countries will still hold more than ninety percent of the world's nuclear weapons so anyway that the value of the treaty is not just in reductions but in the trust and cooperation that comes with it and of course it's meant to be an indication to other countries

that the two nuclear superpower words are committed to the goals of nonproliferation duragesic out of washington. for your thoughts and bring yourself to your respective parts of the world tonight good morning i should know this time from a democrat strategist robert we know joins us live from washington d.c. again busy studio in washington tonight mystery of the human to last been said about the significance of this treaty but could it really make the world a safer place that's the big question isn't it. well we think it will and one of the debates that made no sense was the republicans saying that it wouldn't when this allows inspections on both sides and that's really what counts as reagan always said trust but verify and this treaty gives a very strong verification apparatus and you know i heard you mention earlier about the politics involved it was an amazing development that the president would get seventy one votes when only sixty seven were required for the supermajority and the

reason for that is finally the republicans have decided on but only after the election that it's time to govern not to play partisan politics but those very republicans the people who oppose the trains in dragnets faints a lot of occasion for so long ago to have the majority of the new senate and this room in the new year is there any danger that that's going to slee effect the fulfillment of the end of the day of the agreement by the us well they won't have a majority in the senate they will have a majority in the house of representatives and the senate is who confirms treaties so that's an important difference that senator harry reid will still be majority leader and still control sixty three votes to thirty eight to fifty to forty seven in the senate so that's something that important to understand and when when you look at the tax bill the don't ask don't tell the health bill the government running we passed it all i believe what president obama said yesterday and i was at the news conference with him i was an attendee at the news conference that this

portends a new day and hope for bipartisan governing really can be the case because with power comes responsibility and the republicans in the house will have power they can't just stop the government or they will look in the mirror and see what happened to the democrats happen to them and could this part do you think over of koodoo of the nuclear states now to join the process of putting bad nuclear. well this is a very strong argument because how can we ask iran to be zero if the united states and russia are at twenty thousand nuclear weapons so the fact that we're willing to cut is a moral statement that the world will pay attention to and it gives credence to the dream from reagan to obama and all the secretaries of state in between from both parties that perhaps someday we can have a nuclear free world that really is the objective that we all want and everybody makes fun of the dream but i think we none of us wants to die well military parts inside it we like to say the cooperation in other areas now between the u.s.

and russia but people talking about this for the cement thing the relationship i believe that's true in drug policy there's for the first time cooperation now as you know for the millions of russians that suffer from drug addiction because of afghanistan drugs and now there are joint efforts between russia and the united states and nato in afghanistan there is hope in many areas in trade russia has an enormous oil wealth united states until we get to green energy which is one of president obama's objectives is going to need to have cooperation with russia in what it provides to the rest of the world for oil so that the united states can have what it needs from its various sources in the world there's a need for cooperation and on the rare fronts and hillary clinton we believe has done a brilliant job as secretary of state in working or agreements with you all right robert wayne a democrat strategist thank you for your thoughts there from washington d.c.

it was a pleasure having a but it's a pleasure. thank you i was siting on the start treaty has been labeled by president obama as being the most significant document in decades on friday russian president dmitri medvedev will give his thoughts on this and the year's other key moments and be at the annual meeting between president bed and the heads of russia's leading t.v. channels we will of course be covering that if you want friday i will be available any time when a website r.t. dot com talking a which is what we're talking about a new look website this is what's there tonight for your christmas well and truly coming from moscow a couple of days to go now if you are celebrating the twenty fifth as fifty centers around the world hit the capital for gift giving he watched the seasonal spirit come alive. the chapman story broke yesterday moving from being be a world renowned sexy spy to a leading role in russia's next generation politics the details wrong line right now at our t.v. dot com. north

korea says it's ready to use its nuclear deterrent and what it calls a sacred war against the south the north defense minister statement was reported by state media that the minister accused solar deliberately stoking tension by staging successive joint military drills with the us next to the north territory he said the latest exercise one of the largest in the south history was an outright preparation for an attack against pyongyang the maneuvers involved heavy military machinery fighter jets missile launchers and hundreds of troops and was held just thirty kilometers from north korea the series of war games comes in the wake of the recent cross border artillery exchange that killed four south koreans foreign policy analyst steve go and told me that seoul has designs on its northern neighbor . i think that appealing. very few options

must recognize that north. it is a military pipsqueak in relation to south korea whose military budget is many times larger than the north koreans and south korea is integrated with the preeminent military power in the world today the united states. so the options available to pyongyang pyongyang are very limited. the best they can do is to develop what deterrence it can but it's clearly being provoked and it has been provoked for some time ever since the current south korean president lee myung bak has come to office lease policy is to confront north korea to seek its collapse and to absorb it into the south will take for example the life fire exercises south korea has conducted forty seven live fire exercises this year alone. there was a forty eighth ones that has been carried out yesterday. that was initially

scheduled but one south korean officer said when the head anyway because of the tensions on the korean peninsula which only makes sense if the intention is to escalate and aggravate those tensions the united states policy for the last sixty years has been to see the collapse of the north korean state and its absorption into the south. the league government is more closely aligned with the u.s. foreign policy goals on the korean peninsula than say the government's president's role in president kim i believe the vice chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff had mentioned that it's very important that the united states control this escalation so that it doesn't get out of hand i don't believe that peeling yang wants to retaliate but if it's attacked it really has few options but to retaliate but at the same time recognizing that if it does it will be pulverized

a blow to the to the whole. the idea of a nuclear free world is the idea of threatening small powers with nuclear weapons as the united states does president obama speaks of his dream of having a nuclear free world but that's a nuclear free world which is free of nuclear weapons except in the united states one of the principles of nonproliferation is that you don't provide smaller countries with a motivation to acquire their own nuclear but. the united states has targeted strategic nuclear weapons on many north korean sites and it's because of that that north korea's decided to acquire the target so if you want nonproliferation if you want to nuclear free world you have to stop threatening other countries with war and invasion and nuclear annihilation so as to buy the subject from an exam room so official institute of oriental studies he told us he believes china and america's

respect involvements with north and south korea could lead to a global conflict. will be nightmare for many countries and first of all for the six countries we who met in the six party talks we share the common border with giving control and chang also and of course china can be involved because they have the treaty alliance to reach a business career first and they demonstrated the recently. read in the stool prevent the collapse of north korea and it will be true supercar you will treat united states and china. it's possible. for a world war can start to careen finish will unfortunately. looking ahead on this channel tonight x. american soldiers he once proudly signed up to say they come to tell us how they eventually found their actions hard to justify. did i kill innocent kids or was it

a call this of course and that's never a. moment sharpless cosco with me i think of it every day. of the flashback to memories. so much so the long time. i was. i was ashamed that i didn't. i was ashamed that i had been a hero. i guess are my go my way i'm a lock. but i want to be out in all those are fortunate. that i believe what i was doing not once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but you know most soldier on the other side and i think i'm just not good.

at one time leprosy struck fail because it meant a slow death but today it is supposed treatable and curable yet for russians diagnosed with the disease there's a nother problem to overcome that's being isolated by society of his exam like a cho very porous next to most living with a condition and it's the. last image fast families rush as old as lap the village has no streets only one but houses with its own fire brigade ambulance service and kinda got and 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 fifteen no 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 larry like the vast majority of people in tears kay has. 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. nice which one's body. and how they bind to the snakes don't use the wind out of the blade the same with levers 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 . or 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 feel unwelcome in the outside world. and 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 mountains to laser nobody knew. but a very vital no was among the first to receive multidrug set up 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 read that but i will look at my hands it's work that did this and the war all the time in bronze in the cooled bharara found her killing terrorists should also find a husband and i wanted it offered her and many others the chance of a relatively normal existence you know was 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 the

death of shalit empty. if we don't leave any signs of how what where and why it will be very difficult for many kinds of them just aren't good batting leprosy all over again it's possible that one day due to poor living conditions and things like that the pandemic would return to the now those still living in terror scheme no longer need a medical care but a change in attitude in the outside world a society where people care and don't stare acts on that if i chill what are stabber full region. take you around the world bring up to date on some top world news stories this hour first of its obese interior minister say that the kids may be behind the two parcel bomb explosions at embassies in rome one device went off at the chilean embassy injuring the person who opened the package a few hours later the swiss diplomats residence was targeted again it was the man who was wounded this time seriously the minister said the blasts were similar to

the mail bombs said to fourteen embassies in athens last month. in time president george rebel has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity the agent general was convicted of murdering dissidents during the country's military rule between one thousand nine hundred six nine hundred eighty three up to thirty thousand people were told to been killed during what's known as argentina's dirty war it was first sentence of life in one thousand nine hundred five but had been given special privileges which are now revoked. when i drama in romania's parliament after a man threw himself off the chamber balcony dramatic pictures there he wasn't seriously hurt the parliament building engineer was protesting against austerity cuts and jumped as the government face to prejudice vote ballot was abandoned the opposition and police left the chamber and the ruling party choose not to cast their votes. twenty four minutes past nine in either of moscow we've got the latest

business news with quick mccann in less than a minute from. in some petersburg oldies available in hotels a story of a little ambassador. hotel a trip palace hotel a true story to tell you go to never tell center. ski lift you see if. you visit. i don't welcome to business with make create

a macand i will go straight to our top story volvo and die in their beds have an al substantial new investments in russia automotive industry where prime minister put in attendance the many companies still an agreement to build splinter back at the gas factory. output will be around twenty five thousand vehicles annually truck make a volvo says it will pump an additional one hundred fifty million dollars into its assembly plants and coal government government says it will continue to support the industry with further measures to stimulate demand and. despite sustainable growth the government has plans to for the support of the water industry in the near future especially reserve fund will be created to ensure demand. that's why in two thousand and eleven we will continue to stimulate demand with the federal budget earmarking over seventeen billion rubles. there's been another twist in the battle for control of north. also which owns twenty five percent of russia's biggest miner has called for nor neko extraordinary general

meeting to elect a new board when you produce a says it has concerns about plans to sell an eight percent stake in. a multinational commodities brokerage. offered twelve billion dollars to buy back its twenty five percent stake in the miner the offer was promptly rejected but another major shareholder. has told the wall street journal he believes that decision might change as the offer was quite generous timing predicts there will be a resolution by spring. let's look at the markets stocks in europe finished mixed in the last trading session before the holiday discount retailer metro is one of the year's busiest shopping days to travel is top four in london as airlines clear their flight back after snow chaos and fitch ratings agency has downgraded portugal's credit rating of the country finds it more difficult to raise money in the markets to its borrowings here in moscow both theology and in the black trade

was extremely weak as many investors have already left for the holiday season energy mage's finished lowers the negative trend for drawing profit forecast for next year m.p.'s was down for the second day after denounce losses from the suspension of its business in turkmenistan would be one hundred sixty million dollars. it's been a relatively quiet session with russian equities taking the lead from foreign markets john davis from where about asset management explains the russian market itself is just trading kind of sideways so there was action on the day all global markets emerging markets or hardly correlated so what happens in russia people spend the morning trying to see what's happening in shanghai and they spend the afternoon looking to see what's going on with the futures markets in new york. that's the latest business news but remember you can always find most henri's on our website that's r t dot com slash this.

it's not like. the book.

hello this is the arctic. and it's half past nine tonight in the russian capital these are all top stories moscow proposed to ratify the reduction treaty with washington already approved by the u.s. senate. praised by both sides as proof of a level of trust. and peace on the edge of north korea says it's ready to unleash a sacred war on the south angered by cells of massive military drills right across the border. and russians in

a remote village feel their battle is no longer with the disease but with the stigma which society imposes on. next an r.t. american veterans talk about their missions and war in the regrets they now part two of our special report coming up. there was one particular incident there still disturbs me today i wish i could take the. given. we went to an area near the baghdad stadium came into our area and actually stopped about seventy five meters from front of my vehicle that tells you how far the vehicle came into our perimeter. and. which is we.