and sid ring that treaty and just as promised they said that it will be synchronous and they'll be no delay song but the day after they received this script they were to pick a show resolution approved by the us senate they would open their first session here at the state duma unlike in washington both houses of the russian parliament are for the duration council and the state duma will have to approve it ready fight for now this is a right to pick asian resolution a highly disputed document triggers the control of a seat of course russian legislators will count fully studied those were the republicans on capitol hill who insisted to include it to add it to the text of the main treaty john mccain a lot of it the documents have a particular this resolution says that new start should not contain the u.s. anti missile defense programs development well the russian foreign minister who has started the text of the resolution has already said that there is

a big question mark whether the u.s. were to vacation resolution has any legal force at all. because it will to do final draft resolution adopted by the u.s. senate states that a fully fledged global missile defense system is necessary in this regard i'd like to remind you that the treaty on ambiguously states there is a link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons treaty also says that any party can pull out if an emergency situation occurs and russia definitely believes that the creation of a fully fledged as a global missile defense system of the u.s. would be such an emergency situation but. well the state duma has started deliberations and today we expect that voting on the main the actual script of the new strategic arms reduction treaty in the first hearing the treaty all in all will cost three readings and we expect two of them will be off to new year. and in the u.s. there was a bit of a rough ride before the senate vote. to approve the treaty tell us more about that

. but yes it was a long start and even before the president still to deal with the signatures those had been more than a year old when times negotiations between the delegations of the two countries those were face to face telephone intense conversations between the presidents and then there was this result when this signed this major nucleus women between two nuclear superpower as with pomp and ceremony in krakow in april this year after that a lengthy very delicate process already be cation followed on capitol hill many analysts describe those debates more as a political game between the republicans and democrats to make sure that new start is approved democrats needed some seven votes from the republicans and all they received eleven extra votes were on the opposition party and of course they celebrated a tremendous victory but the russian side has been saying that guys look there are

there are no winners and losers both sides come out as winners by signing this agreement by working towards global disarmament and of course the russian side celebrated this really became by the u.s. senate along with all the americans. for doing so still more with the go to new treaty will have the support of the states do move or we think of all necessary prerequisites for that have been met to implementing this treaty will contribute to the security of our country under international stability that will contribute to nuclear nonproliferation and help our relations with the united states and the rest of the worms to go for a. while now wait and see what will be the results of these first session of the bus to reading which is now taking place at the state duma and perhaps by the end of the day will know what are the common solve the russian state deputies to these major red grammont and what they called these controversial ready geisha resolution away and whether they'll be russia's on so to that all right we'll check

back in with you for that artistic catarina groucho reporting live from outside the state duma. dimitri medvedev or former democratic party strategist and white house insider robert winner says he's glad that many republicans finally realized the treaty would make the world a safer place 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 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 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 and chuck hagel a former republican senator believes the u.s. in the u.s. believes the deal is possible because moscow and washington understand that there are areas where they need each other to cooperate. russia in 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 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 but 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 . dmitri medvedev says barack obama has certainly earned his vacation for pushing the ratification start of the start treaty through the u.s. senate at his annual meeting with the heads of the country's main t.v. the russian president also called for more opposition voices to make themselves heard in the country for more on this we're joined live by arena go go so what were the highlights of this q. and a session. of course that is as you mentioned the start treaty was of course the at the top of the agenda the questions that were posed to the russian president by the heads of russia's three main three major channels and the first course is a matter of fact concerning the start treaty to which the russian president expressed his contentment with the way things are going in that regard and even had

a message for the american president. well done barack obama he managed to push the style bill through the senate and he did it in very difficult circumstances this treaty will become of security and will come in use it's easy to work with he keeps his promises he's done a great job. so i wish him a happy christmas. but of course the bulk of the interview session which was conducted earlier today consisted of the questions concerning the internal policy and you instead of made a couple of very interesting statements in fact when asked whether or not he saw any political competitors or contenders in russia's political life at the moment he said that yes indeed he did see a lot of them mentioned by name almost all leading figures of the russian opposition in fact the rational position of course is to be stronger and more of a vital role in the country's political life and he also calls on the ruling united

russia party to be a little bit more competitive. and. should be responsible about the power they've been to. good with main political united russia should not just good governance of the smart and strong it should promote the right people and remove. the other party should be involved in discussing current issues and aggression which really being in opposition it doesn't mean being cut off from the public life. of people. and of course i'm talking about internal russian issues. could not go without a question concerning me in his case and the russian president we have to remember has a law degree and of course he spoke about this case from two viewpoints one was a president and another viewpoint is that of a lawyer. neither the president nor any other official

should express their position concerning or any other case before the verdict is announced as a lawyer i can say broadly speaking because if other people have also been committing similar crimes then where is the evidence if it's present they should bear responsibility. but of course this was the interview session which was really designed to. underline the at the end of the year. and of course there were other issues major news issues of the day which were discussed in this session and the russian president was asked the question of whether or not he was afraid that leaks may have to admit may be able to dig up some dirt on it on him and he said he's not afraid of any possible leaks from that website because it's a public figure he's of course used to all sorts of criticism of course he also spoke about foreign other foreign issues he spoke about relationship with poland he talked about the time when he the first time that he heard that a polish president has died in

a plane crash in russia he spoke about the shock and the grief that he felt and he of course mentioned that he hopes polish officials were understand that russia is doing its best in order to. conclude the investigation which is still going and of course there's the president to also talk about one of the loudest. news issues of the past summer and that of course being the spy scandal and he did explain why he was so quick to admit that indeed the spies arrested in the united states were russian citizens. to put. these are the first of all citizens of the russian federation they're not coming for the remotest of the contribution to the money and if this mass was never discussed in the soviet union or even in russia. the main goal was to save all people and we did it in any country that says it doesn't have a secret it is either lying or is a very small country. and of course this was not the first time that the russian

president has done this sort of q. and a session of his own of here he had done it for the first time in two thousand and eight he had plenty of issues to discuss then and in fact in this time around he felt a lot more comfortable or so it seems he even changed a little bit so he asked the question to the heads of t.v. channels whether or not they believed freedom of expression freedom of speech exists in the country and they are. yes they believe it does exist at times it is limited by the tour of the channels and because some things are just not there are just not suitable to be broadcast on television but of course if you have the russian president said that by the looks of it he's really happy with the way things are going in the country right now he did talk about a lot about modernization and he concluded by saying that he hopes in fact he knows the same but the same sort of discussion the same sort of interview format will

take place again next year or so after two hours of questions he said that he's ready to do it all over again all right artie's arena live for us near the kremlin thanks for that. stay with us. here on r t plenty more heading your way including a fresh fight for land in israel the government hold osing bedouin villages rooting inhabitants from the desert they've lived in for more than a century argue looks at the reasons behind the crackdown. but first tensions are spiraling on the korean peninsula as the north threatens to launch what it calls a secret nuclear war against its neighbor if seoul strikes first on thursday the south military held live fire drills some of the largest in their history exercises brought heavy military equipment fighter jets missile launchers and troops within thirty kilometers of the border with the north so most recent series of word games have come in the wake of a cross border artillery exchange that killed four south koreans last month foreign policy analyst steven go on this tells our team that souls military strategy is

imposed by washington and the goal is the end of north korea. the united states' policy for the last sixty years has been to seek the collapse of the north korean state and its absorption into the south. the lead government is more closely aligned with u.s. foreign policy goals on the korean peninsula than say the government's president's role in presidents kim. in south korea. president lee is often times seen as a puppet of the united states and the area around his office is called by many south koreans the news united states of south korea and south korea certainly seized on any opportunity it can to escalate tensions there is the sinking of the south korean war that cheat on that which was immediately blamed on north korea over north korea and denials and there are many in south korea who do not believe the

official inquiry then we have the artillery exchange that happened on november twenty third which has been blamed on north korea however the exchange was triggered by south korea. marine barracks and on an island that lives very close to the north korean coast you consider that you consider president leaves hostility toward north korea. it's his policy of confrontation the escalating war games and it's hard not to conclude that south korea is trying to precipitate a fight to pick a fight and trying to provoke its northern neighbor washington based investigative journalist wayne madsen believes the south korean leaders policies contradict the more conciliatory approach of his predecessors and may leave the poland the main lead the peninsula toward nuclear war last few presidents south korea had had what were known as sunshine policies with the north they opened up to the north they

they had cross border visits trade all that has been stopped by this present south korean president lee myung bok he's basically gone back to the cold war days. he's playing brinkmanship if the north attacks south korea the united states will respond. commensurately i think it you know it's very possible we could see this go nuclear that is probably something that would get out of control rather rapidly i think you would see then japan get involved obviously china we get involved where we would definitely see a lot of casualties the united states has always championed the cause of capitalism but now with globalization and i would sourcing under way the country is experiencing some less pleasant aspects faced with a huge economic slump one u.s. town is turning to an unlikely savior chinese students but authorities preassure to reports for some residents pride may get in the way.

millinocket maine once a booming mill town now. almost a ghost town the paper mill once a symbol of pride and prosperity in the region now a reminder of a time that has come and gone and international trade is what basically took the people of industry of the united states down it's not just here in the in the town of millinocket it's worldwide the chinese they're more clever than we are. you know and we when we do a deal with them we usually. get the sour end of it. today millinocket is a small town of five thousand the closest smaller movie theater is an hour's drive away many of the one spot selling businesses in town now stand empty and abandoned and very depressing for a lot of people who have had their hopes and hopes that they would something would come along that would change everything but it hasn't. dr cannot smith is the

superintendent of millinocket public schools after watching his town fall apart around him he decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. myths idea is to boost the school's population by charging chinese students twenty seven thousand dollars to attend his high school for one year and they have some skills that we don't have that we'd love to instill in some vaster this desire to learn and. getting good education it's a bold idea in a town where most few china as the reason there mill went bankrupt but smith argues that the competition the might have hurt the town's past can also help to reshape its future but we can't possibly compete with that labor market. you know one point four billion people i think the competition is good for us and we have to learn the job with economy work right now there are two hundred students that attend this high school even though it was built for eight hundred sixty percent of the

students here qualify for a state run free lunch because their parents' income is at the poverty level school administrators say that bringing in students from china will not only save the school it will save the town and bring it back to the days when the mill was booming. but not everyone in this almost exclusively white town is excited about the idea that their school might eventually have just as many chinese kids. as kids from maine some people will have an issue where they're going to be like oh my gosh they're not from here make them go away most students in this high school have never traveled abroad what they know about china they say they've seen on t.v. i think the chinese are going to be total shock i think like high tech and way more advanced than us think ten times more money and like in a better society and then you look at eisenhower like poor and nothing and those struggling to survive in town are treated the country they believe took their jobs

from them is now the one they're looking to for help preassure either r t millinocket mean. right now to some other stories making headlines across the globe the u.n. has recognized the ivory coast opposition leader on a sunday otara as the winner of the country's disputed presidential election income of la ronde barber both inter and declare that all nine thousand u.n. peacekeepers in the country are enemy combatants you know national body accuses good dog bo of obstructing access to the suspected mass graves of at least one hundred seventy three people killed in post-election violence is comes just a day after opposition knocked the country's only t.v. channel offline depriving the incumbent of an important propaganda tool. italian anarchist group has claimed responsibility for carrying out two blasts in rome on thursday melbourne of exploded in the hands of employees at the swiss central a and embassies injuring two staff law enforcement is launched an

investigation recognizing the glass as terror attacks italy's interior minister says the devices were similar to the mail bomb sent to fourteen embassies and office last month. the israeli government is routing arab tribes from the desert they've lived in for more than a century it says the bedouins built their homes without permission but activists claim the crackdown on arab villages aims to replace them with jewish settlements or policy reports. in the middle of nowhere the remains of all our kids village for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with a few bruises and a little more than an hour demolished sixty houses. from a club no this is my land i have a paper i have a document this is my land i ask this government how do i live and how can i afford to buy the same land elsewhere in israel and i can't they want me to sell my land i won't. and as long as he and hundreds of others won't the police will continue to

raid backed up by a government whose official policy states this is their land but i think the unofficial policy underneath use the land should go to the jews not. the big ones on a medic arabs who've lived in the negev desert for more than one hundred years but after israel took over in one thousand nine hundred eight they've been hard placed to prove their ownership of the land israel says it's built alternative cities fill them with all the facilities they could hope for but they keep coming back to the desert official printing what they're not abiding by the law they live inside graveyards with horses donkeys she was the animals mess all over the graves and make it difficult for us to move them but we have to because they need permission to build on the land and they don't have it. i think that the government would like to push them into the count troops were they could become simple workers so they

would like to give the land to the army and jewish settlements just look around here this vast uninhabited desert is home to only seven percent of israel's population several years ago the government launched an ambitious program to the value of six hundred million dollars to try and attract new jewish immigrants and israelis to live here it aims in the next three years to have more than a quarter of a million of them living. in the desert but just because the desert is it seemingly not big enough for jew and arab to melt or he has lost his way house and seven houses but he hasn't lost his result of i don't know how we are men of peace we don't use the gun the man who came to destroy our houses with other bad phases of this land we did not fight back when they came but the fight will continue because tomorrow when the sun comes up do you move will build again and in a few weeks these raids will return policy r t in the negev desert israel

stay with us here on our daniel bushell in the business update up next. welcome to business today is one of the busiest shopping days of the year as people hold last minute holiday gifts for family and friends reports just. last year let's go live now to a correspondent with the the cultural book. one of the biggest malls in europe but the you know all the shops with a boy. quite a snow we day as you can see really lends to the holidays there is rush hour rushing into the stores to the last minute presents for their families and friends for the country's biggest holiday and i managed to speak to some of the sellers who told me that this day. business shopping day the year well this time russians plan to celebrate on the biggest pale already forty four percent of the population claim

that they will spend more money on a presents for the coming new year and christmas rather than the one we had before and we still be consequences of the global financial downturn now in terms of entertaining programs like x. or a different. more than forty percent of the population will spend money to well an average russian is a rising to give away about four hundred dollars on presents and one hundred fifty dollars on proper ations for the celebration table still russia ranks only eighteen and a list of countries where people are ready to send money on this holiday for example in luxembourg and all swiss loans we believe in this rate saying people are ready to spend from eight hundred to one thousand two hundred dollars each in turn zopa be fine stag of course it's right is upon some time dollars to one thousand dollars

but. nice to visit this one of the. shopping mall in europe i was told. this year. like. it's. great you know the snow and get some shopping done our correspondent in a culture thank you very much indeed companies in russia face billions of dollars in fresh taxes after the government complained it likes money to modernize the economy the finance ministry says it's lost a staggering three hundred twenty five billion dollars from various tax breaks and incentives since two thousand and five officials they need more than twice that amount in the next ten years so it creates a world class high tech sector. and some of the stock market is europe slipping an afternoon trade off to fitch called portugal's credit rating raising fears e.u. members will have to bail out the country in the run gold has slumped more than five percent meanwhile the company says turmoil in the ivory coast will hurt fourth

quarter production. one half a percent into the red but should still end with a full team straight week of games trading volumes are low however as investors travel away for the holidays. gazprom has lost half a percent in the last hour. expects to reduce the price for russian gas in talks this afternoon to have been preferred shares have also tumbled as investors cash strong gains from the past few days but knows nichols gaining off the time oleg deripaska. to resolve the minus shareholder war. that's the business join us in fifteen minutes.

this is nature and discover is. the. communicate with the wind. test yourself and become free. see what nature can give you.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china cooperation to rule the day. three thirty pm in the russian capital good to have you with us here on our t.v. easier headlines russia's foreign minister voices concerns about the u.s. position. treaty stating that moscow will pull out of the deal up washington installs a missile defense shield in eastern europe russia lawmakers are currently considering which has been held by both sides as historic. president. obama's success in pushing the start treaty through the senate summing up the key events of

two thousand and ten the russian leader also said the country has a healthy opposition and it must be allowed to speak out. threats of war north korea has warned of a nuclear strike on the south by the scale of souls latest live fire drill. bell and his guest discuss what's being called the new exodus christians leaving the holy cross coming your way next. the latest. from. the future of.