everybody was close. to all of the world's oil giants russia. joined forces to explore the potential energy treasury of the arctic sea bed the companies have a long standing business ties and stocks was worth billions of dollars. as government workers enjoy lavish mansions and gourmet restaurants in washington d.c. it's the point that say that's bearing the brunt of the recession at the peak of the crisis of federal workers received a pay rise of double the national average. schoolchildren in india and around the

kashmir are swamping the traditional winter break in defiance of separatist violence that playing catch up after canopies forced the schools to close in the summer. was the production deal paul says its second of three readings in the russian parliament we discussed its future with the head of the state demas foreign affairs committee. that's next here on on spotlight. hungry for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. hello again a welcome to spotlight the interview show on r.t.

. and today my guest is. the united states ratify the new start treaty late in december last year they added a resolution which allows the u.s. to develop its nuclear military muscle if necessary russian m.p.'s are now developing their own resolution to balance the rights so far this new arms race is unfolding 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 bellerose 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 chairman working to go 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 that. this treaty east to replace the previous one start one to eat it reach was conducted ninety ninety one and the later stage show the soviet union existence and that previous treated included not just the united states and the so you communally to russia but other nuclear parts of the former soviet union like ukraine biller 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 party does we have no possibility to stewart to verify the distinct stocks stockpile so for warheads and akira's the missiles and the so on and so forth or 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 as well well on friday the the

state do a pass the amendments to the starts start treaty really the case law conditioning russia's possible was drawn from the treaty is that the russians are inserted. the to the us senate resolution passed simultaneously with the treaty ratification yes and no the option of withdrawal he is in the treaty itself there is a certain article number fourteen and of course this is equally legal for the for the united states and for russia each part may withdraw from the treaty anytime secondly we have already warrant our american partners while signing the treaty there was a unilateral statement by the russian federation published the same day the treaty was signed in prague that russia may have is 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 so 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 to what do the right of occasional or about the treaty in our amendment we. count are the. syrian tickle or maybe a hypothetical situations where russia may consider it's possible and necessary to withdraw 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 and for the united states and both borders 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 we were 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 ratified 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 the why do we need do they add

self-esteem to you to your colleagues across the oceans what you are completely right the way the two presidents agreed or on the. british occasion was more aboard 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 said 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 commanded 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 can be put to it to do that to the congress and bosporus could. what would drive door to door to door to door to see whether this equivocation would be rude or bad for their own political internal political services then build out a moderate common sense now that politics welfare no more or less more or less record health records have it worry that 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 december it's now up to the russian parliament to give the green light to

the agreement spotlights in the me that has more in 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 the symbol of the reset in relations it was two were serious test when it came to redefine the document in the u.s. senate there had been strong opposition to the groom and 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 tuscany easier for president obama's administration the u.s. senate finally ready find a new start nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia last month in the seventy one to twenty six vote it is now up to russia to ratify 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 been conceded 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 the minority leader parliament and then you start is expected to be finally ready five hundred twenty third genially. this because the chair of mystic of the charles e.u. you said that we as americans both need this they had 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 they may confirm it now and the reason is

quite simple the united states is a much richer country than russia but they are related or not richard jones of common money all money definitely and americans can afford to spend much more money on defense including nuclear armaments and the 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 see north korea or iran or any other country which they could

space consider as an enemy from the territory of the united states 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 with the requirements and commitments of these treaties 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 question of global stability and to start a unilateral process or for securing the defense of the national defense of the united states the pro-choice mr obama is quite different and he's 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 then mr wolf was so fast because they do cause such of the head of the state duma for the first committee spotlight will be back shortly after we take have great stay with with us we will continue this interview in less than a minute ago. i got out of the military in ninety two sixty six i got out because of the things i saw the things i was doing and that's the reason we were given for doing that 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 army. they were time is filled with joy. with parades and marches. inspiring people with insouciance. but was everything really that good and the allowed to speak out. though she shared her thoughts with her diary it all became evidence in the trial for counter-revolutionary activity. the evidence which condemned to a label. the diary of a soviet school on the.

welcome back to spotlight i'll bring over and just to remind you that my guest in the studio today is constantin such 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 trade agreement in the russian polish rushed the stage 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 we know what will happen in terms of the serious reading called these are a difficult document we are going to propose to the state duma to pass two more accompanying statements statements accompanying the unification 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 really to proceed on their the next day after they receive these relief occasion from this the duma and they know for sure that the president or for russia would be really in this certification package for the simple reason he has signed the treaty itself and are or are or does not change the content of this treaty it interprets certain positions and this is done for the reason as i told you miracle of the dissing ok now let's go on with some other burning foreign issues well the issue of the of this commission that were the results of the reasons or rather of the plane crash that 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 i've heard your one of your opposites not numbers i think he was ease 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 then this is auction and this is for the law enforcement what is to determine the level of response ability

or any involved in their personalities this is number one number two as far as i can see nobody on the russian side 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 to an expert conclusions the immediately start drawing political conclusions made by certain politicians and in this case i do respect the approach the entity would by the president of poland mr komorowski and the prime minister of poland mr to say they are both under huge pressure from

the of roles rather public opinion because probably the public opinion of it would have preferred to see mediately or that or those russians leave killed our president there is possible 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 and they make there are a tickle 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 and when paula drive to make big ball attacks on these tragedies in case we will continue to disagree on certain positions and this may happen in case experts will continue to disagree on that there is only one way to proceed and this is to address a certain international multinational while the rich would would compare of the of the of the arguments and 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 ok another political issue 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 in their view 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 definitely not and they believe that the major mistake which. the georgian. friends and they will use this word the george influence 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 this territory occupied territories you have nothing but to continue to speak about all that is ours here in russia because of them there in washington or in brussels or anywhere else it will not lead georgia anywhere this is their dead lock and mr saakashvili personally is responsible for that they had long hair the will not to speak about the previous tragedy in august two thousand and eight the hearing in stores 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 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 anyhow 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 definitely we will insist that further on the next steps would absolutely involve people from and representatives from our presidents also c.t.o. and another comment i want from you before the end of the show it's sunbelt 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 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. ways and russia supply oil despite of the existing contracts. well number one i would like to keep separated the issues of gas and oil on one hand and the issue of the political situation and the other russia is not 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 ball is still russia number two number two you know we are not hip the world what is going on the inability russian but we understand that whatsoever goes on there the president of the russia mr lucas schenker e's the elected president of bill russia and the outcome of this election could have been more transparent it could have been more democratic and by that. accepted in them better men there bob i have the outer world russia included it has not happened it does them much of the reputation of the other russia it was the deliberate choice of the current bill or russian leadership and they believe that the current political leadership has made a big political mistake by creaking the election campaign by tweaking their position of the way the deed but it does not change the final result of the election

and mr lucas who is a real like it or not is the elected president of the russian by the he's of the of the partner 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 took me a line that al green of at r.t. didn't does. are you let's keep spotlight interactive we will be back with more from the uncommon side of what's going on in the outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take it. as a. home

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