the russian state energy company ross nafta and british petroleum have announced a major deal to jointly develop arctic oil and gas fields cream it includes a stop swap between the companies giving both b.p. and ross enough stakes in each other. nuclear arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington is approved by the russian parliament in the second of three readings the start pact which was signed last year has already been given the go ahead by the us senate. rough justice despite no extradition treaty between washington and kabul afghan terrorist suspects are being sent to stand trial in u.s. courts critics say the process could mean america is in breach of international law . allows a new start treaty now awaits final approval for russian deputies next i'll go and

i'll discuss its progress with the head of the state duma foreign affairs committee constantine that's our interview show spotlight here on r.t. . hello again or welcome to spotlight the interview show on r.t. . and today my guest is. the united states ratify the new start treaty like in december last year they added a resolution which allows the u.s. to develop its nuclear missile to muscle if necessary russian m.p.'s are now developing their own resolution to balance the rights so far this new arms race is out of folding only on paper but where will it end up we're asking the head of the state duma foreign affairs committee. the new year has started with new challenges

for russian foreign policy alexander lukashenko won the presidential elections in bello whose and harshly suppressed opposition rallies shortly after europe is unhappy and is preparing sanctions against minsk moscow has so far of frain from any criticism but has stopped pumping oil into the country however the biggest issue is the start treaty ratification by the russian duma the document is called the whole mark of president obama's reset policy and the biggest success in recent russian u.s. relations. because the chair work until you know do you agree that this that the the the question of the ratification of the new arms deal with the united states is the main is the biggest foreign affairs issue at least for russia this this month definitely years and this for two reasons one is the. this treaty

east to replace the previous one start one to reach was conducted ninety ninety one the latest h.-o. the soviet union existence and that previous treated included not just the united states and the so you can union later on russia but other nuclear parts of the former soviet union like ukraine the other russia and kazakhstan this treaty is out of question right now this is fulfilled but we do not have anything else on the area or for strategic armaments and this is bad because we do not know what the other parts of the other board does we have no possibility to stewart to verify the the existing stocks stockpile so for warheads and curious the missiles and the so on and so forth all of the treaty is really important for itself but the second reason is that this is definitely one of the most touchable result of the

reset program in relations between russia and the united states and we could see how the opposition to mr obama in the states tried to block the certification for the simple reason they consider it is a big success for mr obama indifferently this is a mutual success not just for him but for mr miller for his will well on friday the state do a pass the amendments to the starts start treaty really the cation law conditioning russia's possible was drawn from the treaty is that the rushers aren't certain. the to the u.n. resolution passed simultaneously with the treaty ratification yes and no the option of withdrawal he's in the still there is a certain article number fourteen and of course this is equally legal for the for

the united states and for us or each part may we draw from the treaty any time secondly we have already warrant our american partners while signing the treaty there was a you know a literal statement by the russian federation published the same day the treaty was signed in prague that russia made his draw from the treaty in case of the. state of affairs for four and the missile defense systems in the world will change in equality if we saw these option exists since the very first day of the treaty existence now in our amendment to the arithmetic asian law not to the treaty itself but to the writ of occasional law about the treaty in our amendment we. current are the. syria tickle or maybe a hypothetical situations where russia may consider it's possible and necessary to his draw from the treaty to believe that our american partners and

friends have done the same type of analysis and definitely they have their own list of terms and conditions of being inside of the treaty or outside of it so nothing dramatical dramatic has happened no definitely not and for me you know this is the kind of all the early warning mechanism now we both understand the degree to equally important for the russian for the united states and most bars are related to proceed with the realisation of this treaty but already you know we really see two dollar american friends look this will happen or this may happen. in case you do all these or that and this is for for me this is a fair play and they believe that this is really important for our american friends to know for sure what will happen and kids they will continue to do will their strategic plan to missile defense system when the two presidents were just about to

sign the treaty we were talking and talking about the future ratification we all talked about about the fact that it should have been ratified simultaneously by the two parliaments now the synchronicity is broken i mean the americans are already rather flooded the russians are still considering the ratification well well as far as i understand this have this bill because of these these amendments these resolutions that are attached to the treaty by their side why do we need to do they had self-esteem to you to your colleagues across the oceans of what you are completely right the way the two presidents agreed or on the. british occasion was more a borrowed of the original the original format of the certification yes we are ready for the treaty in point and this is of the way both presidents presented the door due to the congress and to the federal semblance of russia later on

unfortunately our american colleagues in the senate decided to amend the british occasion document on the american side and in certain cases they see this somehow interfering in the. in the body of the treaty which to my mind is not good and i know that that was done not for the reason that we could self head to be commented had to be interpreted but for the reason republicans and democrats were competing each other during the second half of the previous year the election campaign will do it will do that to the congress and bosporus could. would drive door to door door through to see whether this equivocation would be rude or bad for their own political internal political services then got a moderate common sense there about politics welfare who cares more or less more or less we could have we could have it worded this development because now they have

passed our amendments and our amendments balance the very man most and real are again in the same position we were on the eighth of april when the president signed this treaty in prague well despite attempts by some of the republican senators to sabotage the new start treaty it was finally ratified by the u.s. senate in the summer it's now up to the russian parliament to give the green light to the agreement spotlight. has more on this. the signing of the new start treaty was the most dramatic episode in russia u.s. relations last year it came at the end two years of negotiations on the key arms control deal and became this symbol of the reset in relations it was two were serious test when it came to really find a document in the u.s. senate there had been strong opposition to the agreement from republicans who were convinced the treaty hampers u.s.

security it took months of wrangling between the white house and republicans the democratic defeats in the vendors mid-term elections didn't make the task any easier for president obama's administration the u.s. senate finally ready find the new start nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia most months in a seventy one to twenty six vote it is now up to russia to really fight the treaty russian lawmakers list said this would not be a problem but things appear not to be so easy as the u.s. senate added eleven pages of resolutions to the treaty it's now being considered by russian lawmakers who in their turn have been working on resolutions of their own. the treaty has been criticised by cool new these dempsey's who claim it ranges russia's national interests however they represent a minority need a parliament and then you start is expected to be finally ready five hundred twenty feet the genomic. mystical search of mystical child

a you you said that we as americans both need this there this agreement as a working documents ratified but in one of your recent interviews you say quote russia needs dark three more than the us do and quote did you really say that misquotation why yes i did say that and then they confirm it now and the reason is quite simple the united states is a much richer country than russia but the related or not richard jones of comedy or money definitely and americans can afford to spend much more money on defense including nuclear armaments and their way these nuclear deterrence existed in the previous decades than was concentrating their efforts just on offensive weapons not on defensive weapons is not enough for our american partners

any longer and they want to add certain elements to the previous deterrence concept by the world being until missile defense systems and by developing new types of non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction strategic weapons reach me reach let's say north korea or iran or any other country which they could space consider as an enemy from the territory of the united states so this is a completely different situation which demands much more money and reach i believe is not affordable for russia so. for us to keep the united states within the requirements and commitments of the street here is much more important and president bush the predecessor to mr obama i believe was on the way to ignore completely russia as a partner in the questions of global stability and to start

a unilateral process or for securing the to the defense of the national defense of the united states the pro-choice mr obama is quite different and he is ready to make deals with russia and to to to sign agreements with russia on through to stability for the reason a bomb i believe that the united states needs russia as a partner and they believe that mr obama is much more right in that the session than mr wolf was says because they didn't cause such of the head of the state duma foreign affairs committee spotlight will be back shortly after would say have a great stay with with us we will continue this interview in less than a minute then go. faster is that so much of a nightmare for you to be sitting on the market munching and. increased violence

and radicalism is tearing pakistan apart can a country that is so polarized. they would turn to is filled with joy. with parades and marches. inspiring people with enthusiasm. but it was everything really good and wasn't allowed to sit down. though she shared her thoughts only with her diary it all became evidence in the trial but counterrevolutionary activity. believe the evidence was. condemned to labor. the diary of a soviet school on. repairing a broken. highway construction and humanitarian aid. buses

shady officials talk of the spoils of war it's the people who pay the price. profiteering here is no longer just down to drug trafficking. afghanistan the dollar. in some pieces but a. grand hotel europe grand hotel emerald marco polo club small town so close hotel in the big old circus hotel. corinthian escaped on its reticent s.a.'s royal kempinski wake up twenty two. park in sky now so to. welcome back the spotlight i'll bring over in just to remind you that my guest in the studio today is constrained of the head of the state duma foreign affairs

committee mystical show so we've discussed we've discussed the problems the shows around the ratifying of the start treaty agreements in the russian part of the us the state duma so many people still say that by the end of january it will be done as the head of the foreign affairs committee do you believe this is true. this is probably true for the reason to be know what will happen in terms of the syria do you think of these words if you can document it we are going to propose to the state duma to pass two more accompanying statements statements accompanying the unit if occasion and we will ask the president of russia to include one of these statements to the british occasion package then i hope that the council figuration the opposition will of the russian parliament do their work and as far as i understand they will be ready to proceed on their the next day after the receive these relief occasion from this the duma and they know for sure

that the president of russia would be ready to sign this certification package for the simple reason he has signed the treaty itself and our or our war does not change the content of this to read it interpret certain positions and this is done for the reason there is i told you miracles did the thing ok now let's go on with some other burning for an issue as well the issue of the of this commission that were the results of the reasons rather of the plane crash there that killed nearly half of the polish government in russia the polish side obviously didn't like the results of the this investigation and we said that that that the crew was to blame and that the high ranking officials on board the plane who dictated to the captain the what to do were to blame for the crash so there's a lot of pilots of politics in that and there are third year or one of your

opposites not numbers i think he was eased the deputy head of the foreign affairs committee of the polish polish government who said that this thing about the investigation may affect the relations between two countries very seriously because the elections are coming up what do you think about this whole situation. will number one of the report which was published recently by the russian or the multi multi a multilateral to government and the intergovernmental commission does not make any conclusions from world who is to blame who was right who was wrong it just states the facts what and the what happened this is it and this is optional and this is for the law enforcement bodies to determine the level of response ability of any involved personalities this is number one number two as far as i can see nobody on the russian site not

a single russian politician has made and their conclusions or comments hiring the president the prime minister or anybody else has made any conclusions. drawn any of. the thoughts about who is to be blamed and this is what makes our attitude different from the polish one because on the polish side as soon as they receive a certain piece of expert information expert conclusions the immediately start drawing political conclusions made by certain politicians and in this case i do respect the approach the entity would buy the president of poland mr komorowski and the prime minister of poland mr to say they are both under huge pressure from their friends rather public opinion because public the public opinion of it would have preferred to see mediately or that or those russians live our president their responsibility for everything and so on and so forth this pressure does exist then

in this situation both. the president of poland and the prime minister of poland i believe but to do what they can in order to not to let it harm the by letter of relations between poland and russia and we do appreciate it but on the other hand they have a position in poland including the. the brother of the late president of poland a mystical chimpsky and they make their original statements without i believe without reading the texts i could see the first requirement of mr kaczynski probably twenty minutes after the report was published here in russia it's not possible to make any conclusions when you have not seen that this and this is purely political i do respect the feelings of these people who are personally involved in this tragedy and they do accept it but i don't accept when certain politicians simply in poland drive to make big politics on this tragedy in case we

will continue to disagree on certain positions and this may happen in case experts will continue to do single disagree and then there is only one way to proceed and this is to address a certain international multinational widely which would would compare of the of the of the arguments draw their conclusions and this is the only way anything else like political statements made by mr kaczynski and his brother in the opposition are not acceptable in the the you should not be accepted by rabbi bias here in russia another political issue on january seventeenth in paris there will be a pace hearing on the current situation with regard i'm quoting to the consequences of the war between georgia and russia well this planned meeting they didn't invite neither neither a settee or a party or to participate in this meeting well why is the european union and the

european political establishment ignoring these two nations these two two countries can can there be a result in such a meeting without hearing the voice of a surprise in the cities who have declared their independence. diffidently not and they believe that the major mistake in each. of the georgia. friends and they will use this word the george inference you are doing is they continue to call these countries or territories has occupied territories because in this case as soon as you use this definition of occupation you just throw out of this dialogue people who live there because they are not occupiers and they are not occupied and this is obvious for everybody as soon as you call these territories occupied territories you have nothing but to continue to speak about

the us here in russia because of them there in washington or in the brussels or anywhere else if you will not lead georgia anywhere this is their deadlock and mr saakashvili personally is responsible for that they'd look there's a will not to speak about the previous tragedy in august two thousand and eight the hearing in straws when in paris the seventeenth of january yes the title of this hearing is still completely wrong this title is based on the previous resolutions of the parliamentary assembly of the council europe reach defiance of the the conflict is a war between russia and georgia and this is wrong and i don't think that the this approach has led the parliamentary assembly anywhere it is still outside it does not contribute to the. peace process in the region he just makes comments and

i feel story bold there because i believe that the potential of the parliamentary assembly of the council year of the potential of the council of europe is much bigger than the previous reason lucian sent us who will participate in these hearings i am not sure the georgians will participate but we will participate and there finitely we will insist that further on the next steps would absolutely involve people from and representatives from our presidents also sæter and another comment i want from you before the end of the show it's on bill the roost in the beginning of the show we mentioned that this is also one of the main political political intrigues of this new year well the the results of the elections were condemned widely across europe especially the way to look at the treated the opposition after the election he is really very popular but the way to be treating the opposition is so strange well there was no outspoken reaction from russia does

does that mean that that moscow moscow political class is happy by the way the situation is developing in bill the rules that there couple of russians are still under custody in belarus if you are why aren't russia supplying gas to go the wrist ways and again russia supply oil despite of this thing contracts. well number one i would like to keep separated the issues of gas and oil on the one hand and the issue of the political situation and the russian are connected this is not connected definitely and the problem is deliver us right now are dependent on certain disagreements on the existing contracts and these contracts are made by the private owned companies on the russian side at least so it has nothing to do with the state police or russia number two number two you know we are not hip the world what is going on in the below. russian but we understand that whatsoever goes on

there the president of the russia mr lucas. e's the elected president of the russian and the outcome of this election could have been more transparent it could have been more democratic and by that. accepted in the better manner by by of the outer world russia included it has not happened it does then which of the reputation of the other russia it was a deliberate choice of the current bill or russian leadership and they believe that the current political leadership has made a big political mistake by treating the election campaign by tweaking their position of the way they did but it does not change the final result of the election and. there's a real like it or not is the elected president of the russian by the he's the department for russia and any other country for for the years ahead thank you thank

you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today was constantin cos i charge the head of the state duma foreign affairs committee and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to our viewers in the spotlight or maybe have someone in mind if you think i should into the next time you drop me a line that al do you know of at r.t. t.v. dot are you let's keep spotlight interactive we will be back with more and comment on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take it. as a. military . nineteen sixty six because it's the things i saw the things i was doing and this

reason we were given for doing them it was a personal protest. during the vietnam war an antiwar movement emerged that altered the course of history this movement didn't take place on college campuses but in berets and on ships penetrated elite military colleges like west point and it spread throughout the battlefields of vietnam. today few people know about the g.i. movement against the war in vietnam. after the army we always said free the army or fun travel and adventure but it really meant the. wealthy british. girls in. the. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports.

and. her. place. this history still keeps its secrets but now it's time to reveal the truth to the soviet files house on the embankment and.