it's in process but it all depends on what amendments have been made to by the u.s. senate 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 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 on 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 that they could end up voting on it tomorrow not just them but also the federal council because both houses of parliament are very keen to push this but a vacation through as soon as possible and so is president of yet if he urged and hoped both houses problems 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 russia will be synchronized and this is what russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said earlier today. look at the goal of this because you want to see

you know 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 when for me it would go to just 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'd been parsley 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. the democrats republicans came together to approve our top national security for the for this session of congress to do 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 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 is what the head of the most foreign relations committee said on this. the fact that the senate has been working on the treaty is ratification so

long and so thoroughly means that there is still some of the votes are relevant in the 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 absolute majority of the senate including a major group of republican senators decided to rise above forty interests and act for what's best for the united states and in this case in global interests. 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 gani in the us congress what was russia so interested though in their twenty's passage through the washington machine. with a very key know both sides being keen for this to reach the stage for this new treaty to be ratified because this marks a very significant step in the road to reset of course it's been

a year since the last treaty spied 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 early last when the bloodier talk about how we've got this farther to go thus far if and when it is finally fully ratified now here in moscow when are we going to see some concrete evidence of the treaty and those cuts taking place. ok ivan soon enough the u.s. can negotiate or astarte said they might start the 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 it's russia's turn and they're really

not many obstacles left as my colleague in moscow said russian lawmakers generally made it clear that they have 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 many agree 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 superpowers are committed to the goals of nonproliferation which is you can live for us i'm joined by chuck hagel a former republican senator in the u.s. mr hill for example so much for being with you tonight you are a republican those are very said but you wanted this treaty to be ratified why.

well i think what we've just heard from your announcers and into your. contributors to a clear analysis of the treaty and what it does laid out pretty clearly is it is about the credibility of the two nuclear superpowers going forward and sensually being on the high ground of dealing with other nuclear powers and those countries who would like to be nuclear powers in driving toward eventually a nuclear free world and if we would not of ratified this treaty in the united states and hence has to be ratified in moscow then we would not have the credibility not have the standing in the world to lead on this issue so for those senate says to oppose the treaty even so low what do you think finally got limit changed their mind up to so many months of wrangling and dragging their heels. well

when i was in the senate for twelve years on the senate foreign relations committee intelligence committees i never impugned or questioned the motives of any other senators but i would say this in answer your question i think the realisation that the a mince knowledge base was all in favor of ratification those over the years for the united states government who had responsibility for nuclear weapons and for strategies and for foreign policy all were overwhelmingly in support of this if for no other reason than it was clearly in the interest of the united states as well as russia so i think in the end. which is always supposed to be the case in theory that knowledge and information won out over politics what is good i mean do you think for president obama now that he's succeeded in pushing this treaty through his. well of course this is

a significant accomplishment for this new president but i think as he indicated this was an issue that was about the future of america the future of the world this was a treaty that was about the interests of our country far above the political interests of any president or any member of congress or any political party yes he deserves a great amount of support on this and acknowledgement but so do a lot of people but like in any country or in any institution it requires a leader he's been immensely focused on this issue and i think his leadership in the end was was very important like all past presidents leadership on these kinds of treaties now there's no denying a crucial this is in cementing russia and america's the reset button the button so off talked about how much further do you think the reset can go now. well

russia and the united states have many common interests and we are working together . on so many of these common interests all over the world whether whether it's iran whether it's north korea economy energy europe nato less than we are are bound together as global citizens of the world and russia is one of the leading nations of the world as is the united states we need to cooperate we need to get along we are not always going to agree let i think the ratification of this treaty for our side and i assume will be done in moscow soon i think is a very significant relationship in hampshire and builder for both of our countries and i just know we've just got about a minute left mr haygood how is this report the way you did it is there a grassroots support from it from the public. yes the public in the united states

has been supportive of ratification of this treaty and i think it is mainly because of the understanding that most americans have that this is clearly in the interest of the united states i think most thinking world citizens would agree that a world without nuclear weapons is a better world and anything that can move us in that direction is going to be important and we had verification. paragraphs in this treaty as we have had in past treaties so that both countries could be held accountable and we had verifiable measurements of how well each country was doing so yes the american people were in support of this and i think the american people are are much relieved that the senate passed this yesterday chuck hagel a former republican senator who would like to have you on the program tonight thank

you for being with us thank you. democratic strategist robert winter spoke to me he says he believes the new treaty was d.z. for the senate to ratify but that it could bring a nuclear free world a little closer one of the debates that made no sense was the republican 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 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 all but only after the election that it's time to govern not to play partisan politics 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. the signing of the start treaty has been labeled by president obama as being the most significant document in decades on friday the russian president dmitri medvedev will give his thoughts on this and the year's other key moments that will be at the annual meeting between president woodman in the heads of russia's leading t.v. channels we will be covering this for you on friday and of course it'll be available any time and i web site as well as our dot com in fact if you had there now as it was plenty to watch these are a few we've picked out for you tonight christmas well it could be coming to moscow very festive where there's a fifty something around the world at the capital for a gift giving spree watch the singles come alive without the dog and the protests today if you can catch it you might read student chapman moves from being the world renowned sexy spider to a leading role known brushes next generation politics what you think about that let

us know it the discussion comment but the story if you see it now on 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's defense minister's statement was reported by state media there the minister accused seoul of 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 involve heavy military machinery fighter jets missile launchers and hundreds of troops and it was hell 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 analysts stephen cohen has told me that solar has designs on its all but neighbor. i think that peeling. has very few options you must recognize that north korea is a military pipsqueak in relation to south korea whose military budget is many times larger than north korea's and south korea is integrated with the preeminent military power in the world today the united states. so the options available to p.r. pyongyang are very limited. the best they can do is to develop a deterrent and 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 it will take for example the live fire exercises south korea has

conducted forty seven live fire exercises and 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 that 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 side of. the league government is more closely aligned with the u.s. foreign policy goals on the korean peninsula then. the governments of president's role in presidents kim i don't believe that peeling yang wants to retaliate but if it's attacked it really has a few options but to retaliate but at the same time recognizing that if it does it

will be pulverized 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 deterrent the united states has targeted its strategic nuclear weapons on many north korean sites and it's because of that north korea has decided to acquire deterrence so if you want nonproliferation if you want to nuclear free world you have to stop threatening other countries with war and invasion nuclear annihilation three top world news stories and it's a nice interior minister says maybe behind the two possible explosions he's in rome one device went off at the chilean embassy and the person who was opening the package then

a few hours before the swiss diplomats residence was targeted again it was the mail handling was wounded this time seriously the minister said the blast was similar to the mail bomb sent to fourteen embassies in athens last month. president george wein then 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 hundred seventy six and one thousand nine hundred three up to thirty thousand people who taught children killed during what's known as argentina's dirty war he was first sentenced to life in one thousand eight hundred five is going to be given special privileges which are now revoked. maybe i should see a dramatic picture is high drama in fact in radius parliament after a man threw himself from the balcony wasn't seriously hurt the parliament building engineer was protesting against austerity cuts and jumped as the government faced the country while the ballot was abandoned as opposition m.p.'s left the chamber and the ruling party in the end chose not to cast votes. i want time

leprosy struck fear because it meant a slow death but today it is both treatable incurable yet for russians diagnosed with the disease there is another problem to overcome and that is being isolated by society of his example i could show reports next to my don't those living with the condition that stigma. lost amid best families russia as old as leper village has no streets all in one 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 but larry like the vast majority of people in tears kay has been khumri he

could believe but says it's not the ethics of the disease which made him stay but people's reaction who do know the road sometimes it's like a man in a snake you see a snake can get frightened but someone who knows the snake a snake catcher is not free in nice which one's body and which is dying and how the binds of the snakes don't use wind out of the blue you will see the same with letters if you hear this word you get it once you know would swats is different. most people's knowledge of the disease comes from engine bible stories if you realize that they're most likely immune or that after treatment for myself or is a no longer infectious in any case the condition is extremely rare. it's that influence which stops many of the residents of feel unwelcome in the outside world . most of all snarky old so where will we go there were many cases when people were discharged and they got on ok until the neighbors sort on downs about their disease

and because we don't want to leave next door to be so and so. we've got kids sometimes you will not proceeding from patients having to move mountains to laser nobody knew. but a very vital no was among the first to receive all drugs that are before leprosy and they were sought 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 cold barbara found her killing terrorists she also found a husband and i wanted it offered her and many others the chance of a relatively normal existence you know it's 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 of how what where and why you would be very difficult for many kinds of them just aren't going bad in legacy all over again it's possible that one day due to poor living conditions and things like that the pandemic will return to the now those still live in interest no longer need a medical care but a change in attitude in the outside world a society where people care and don't stare accelerated a chill what r.t. stabber whole region. sports a couple little over twenty minutes tonight here on our team the tally has got more on the departure of one of europe's top football managers are set to leave into milan after all but it's a thursday night business from moscow in just a minute here. for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. would

be soon which brightened if you knew all about songs from pundits to question its. stance on t.v. dot com. our welcome to business will make or in america good to have you with us both up and down the bears have an hour substantial new investments in russia's car industry with prime minister putin in attendance a german company sealed an agreement to build splinter bands at the gas factory near. what will be around twenty five thousand vehicles annually while the swedish

truck make of almost says it will combine in this hundred fifty million dollars into its assembly plants and cultural region the government says it will continue to support the industry with further measures to stimulate demand and cheap loans. despite sustainable growth the government has plans to for the support of the auto industry in the near future a special reserve fund will be created to ensure demand returns 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 norsk nick russo which owns twenty five percent of russia's biggest miner has called for nor neko extraordinary general meeting to elect a new board elenium producer 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 mine or the

offer was promptly rejected but another major shareholder of argument but has told the wall street journal he believes that decision might change as the office 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 of travel is top four in london as airlines clear their white back. 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 finance its borrowings here in both the odds and in the black trade was extremely weak as many investors have already left for the holiday season energy mages finished lowers the negative trend for the wrong profit forecast for next year m.p.'s was down for the second day after the now lost us 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 davies from where about asset management explains the russian market itself is is just trading kind of sideways so there are actually on the day all global markets emerging markets or highly correlated so what happens in russia people spend the morning trying to see what's happening in shins and in shanghai and they spend the afternoon looking to see what's going on in the futures markets in new york. that's the latest business news but remember you can always buy most ois on our website that's arteta.

it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language usually you visit the first day pete pete. and culture. the thing is that the have the dozens are still unaware of what's going on in the land still asking them my dear klutz like. i don't know anything about them alaska the great. an archie.

it can hear dr swan's policeman swines ministers why i just pray that if you 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 violence includes verbal abuse psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million women. are affected by it every year. in jail or he's going it killing me. for the. biggest issues get. face to face with the news.

from. the future covered. with washington already approved by the u.s. senate and praised by both sides as proof of a new level of trust. ready to unleash a sacred war on the south. across the border. in the remote that it is no longer with the with the stigma.

now we look at iran's nuclear program the concerns surrounding. with me i have dr win in bergman a senior israeli military and intelligence analyst and author of the book the secret war with iran dr thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. most welcome 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 attack israeli leaders understand the possible horrendous results of such an attack the possible intervention of hizbullah and hamas possibly syria condemn nation from europe the ballistic. anger from from the united states in.