my president made very clear the treaty of this kind is affected after the two sides exchanged their ratification instruments which will happen in munich this weekend but does the world look any safer in the new year what other major events are expected on the international arena who are asking sort of the lover of the foreign minister of russia. this is your conference in munich will see russia and the u.s. exchanges start with difficult papers signed by presidents that have an obama this document will provide stability and we can be confident that we want to see an arms race wellat least not in the next ten years and while it's quiet in the west the arab east is a serious concern for russian diplomacy the unrest which started in tunisia spread over the region like wildfire the greatest situation is in egypt where hundreds of thousands of people have been rallying to force the long serving president out of office.

and welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us well first of all i want to say that i have a lot of questions to you and our viewers our listeners wrote facebook and they also have a lot of questions which are more personal so what we start with politics of personal you choose politics ok ok. egypt israeli politicians claim that the overthrow of mubarak in egypt may lead to action isn't that this may not be really a democratic process but the other way around and that it will threaten the peace process in the middle east you have some of the fears not well first i believe we the russians have had enough revolutions in our history don't think. vies to france would be to her of revolutions of their own it's always bloody it's always messy it was throws the can. three beck in his

development so speaking of fidget digitals i was thirty japan want egypt to be stable democratic prosperous and for this egypt needs peace and peace first of all inside its own country and we hope very much that the gyptian it's very wise people because they're a long very she story. would be able to sit down and to decide peacefully how to get out of this situation. i don't think any outsiders. should really be pushing gidget one way or another i don't think any suggestions from outside going to be helpful and the going to lead to a sustainable resolution of the situation i don't think that official deadlines that if ultimatums are you know there and i strongly believe that the egyptian

political forces political groups. themselves find their way out we would be watching the situation closely also because there are a lot of russian citizens tourists but also those who reside in the egypt dominant and we approached in our contacts with was egyptian leadership was egyptian authorities we approached them. from lists emphasizing that we believe that all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the russian people would be. taken and of course recalled that the tourists would. heed the appeal not to go to egypt. to wait until the situation gets quiet we cannot pressure a bit of citizens to travel but i will very strong recommendation. to do the deed later. let's say yes i did not mention the bill the settlement

aspect of your question you know. probably there is no direct link between the deadlock in the peace negotiations and what is going on in egypt but not only in egypt that even if it is an active member of the go see action process well it is a key regional power and is very instrumental for quite a number of negotiations including the negotiations between israelis and palestinians but also including. the negotiations between the factions in palestine palestinian reconciliation is something egypt has been trying to promote and we hope very much that egypt would keep its key role in this process but what i want to emphasize over there is no direct link between what is going on the air and into news. on the on the one hand and the peace process but i am convinced that

the stakes have never been higher than today including for israel and the sooner peace process resumes the sooner a settlement would be shaped less. unstable the region is going to be that's my conviction and i certainly believe that the meeting go because it the minister sobek what it in munich this weekend with address this problem very seriously there is no time left to waste we must. do something to resume the peace talks so let's stay in the middle east since we started talking that the middle east peace process in january president medvedev visited visited jordan and palestine and he said that thing that sounded sensational because there the world hasn't heard anything like that from the russian leader says god. sure i guess

here's what he said russia supports an independent palestinian state well if only garcia actions efforts. fail there will russia's support for you when membership for the palestine without israel's consent well full un membership is a process to get the or in the vehicle to go through the security council and then through the general assembly. and i don't believe it was a sensational statement by president the head of because an independent palestinian state was a capital in these jerusalem. because something is something which the security council of the united nations has and those three people in the resolution supported by all permanent members the problem is that this vision is not being stressed is not being implemented in practice and sometimes people shy away from reiterating it but we are convinced that unless we want to have

a permanent and deepening conflict in the region this must be the solution and we call upon israel is to recognize this and not to drag on. in the negotiations to sit down with the palestinians on the basis of the international legal framework indoors by the security council and the legal framework among other things demands that all unilateral actions which prejudge the final settlement must be stopped and this includes settlement activities by israel and others the station i think thousand sensational from the russian president was the other day he he. ordered the foreign ministry to take the human rights advocates opinion into a count why dealing with look at shank over the belarus what does it mean can you

comment on it well this means that russia is a member of the international community. which includes united nations organization security and cooperation in europe which includes the council of europe and there are certain standards in the us by all of us there are a commitment to which we all subscribe and we want this commitments to be or not and to be respected. you know what happened in berlin was immediately after the elections their arrests of the candidates to the presidential position the rest of the human rights activists the rest of journalists russian citizens by the law to russian citizen still remain in custody and this isn't acceptable the accusations are not looking very serious frankly speaking and we try to get more clarity from our belorussian colleagues the council of europe

a committee of ministers considered this issue a couple of weeks ago and there was the resolution unanimously adopted was the russian active support and participation demanding to be below russian authorities to release the candidates to presidency of the human rights activists and journalists from prison and to respect european values and principles there is nothing there is nothing strange in this situation yes the bill of rights is old brotherly country building receives over through to egypt but in the context of the customs union common economic space collective security treaty organization but this does not mean that we should close our eyes on violations of the basic human rights and freedoms. so this is also be the position which for size of that russia is not going to be guided by double standards and

this also applies to human rights protection and respect inside the russian federation. had a news conference in istanbul recently held jointly with the turkish foreign minister you characterize sanctions against iran as counterproductive and you express tell that they would be lifted does it mean that russia alongside me with turkey and brazil may raise this issue at the u.n. security council well not exactly. we have said that sanctions normally do not work but sometimes they become inevitable and in the case of the last the resolution of the security council which was adopted last july this was the case sanctions became inevitable because all approaches all calls up on the round to resume negotiations three of the five plus one group. or not it and iran continued to avoid responding to the international community requests

requests which were aimed at promoting closer cooperation between their own and i say you know that to close the issue is to reach remain on the table and reach important to clarify to make sure that the iranian nuclear program is entirely peaceful but that does not mean that being indoors that resolution. we can only look at tightening the sanctions drip at this particular moment we believe that the sanctions threat because been basically exhausted more sanctions would mean that the international community wants to suffocate the iranian economy and create a human in their interests and their own we cannot subscribe to this says foreign minister said again the spotlight will do that shortly right after the break so stay with us don't go.

we use special. became the. this issue that those people referred to in the previous life. want to soak in a free flight. be observed nature and discover its beauty. sleep. communicate with the wild and.

test yourself and become free. see what nature can give you see. welcome back to the spotlight on melbourne oven just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is foreign minister of russia said again a lot of it off. well we will get back to some foreign policy issues in a couple of minutes but first i have to to read some of the questions we got we got on facebook the questions that our listeners and viewers were sending to you when they found out that you're going to be my guest on the show well question one you literally live on a plane and i know you did so you call it a life. well i call it the life they have no other choice. your family well

they don't mind their minds so they somehow learn to cope with it you know i think so you have a reputation of being a very independent person who writes now as from single point does he does he still believe in freedom and what's he doing about it when i do believe in freedom i don't know what the gentleman had in mind of. that supposed to be a very independent person being a minister you cannot really be independent you're a member of the government you implemented the foreign policy which is determined by the president and if you don't do this you cannot be minister. being independent in the sense of trying to have some time for myself yes and whenever i have a chance like to meet with my friends to play football i like to do downhill

skiing and also to go white water rafting in siberia was my it was my company that's the legend you rafting is later this is a true you still don't have a phone on you when you rafferty you know. not to take a satellite phone which sometimes by the way ok when when people say you have a reputation of being independent i think you earned this reputation when you were at. representing russia and the un and here's another letter i remember lover i was rare with the un honchos about not being allowed to smoke in the u. n. building and ask him if he ever tried to quit smoking so i smoke much less than i did before. and i think this is healthy as for the. question relates to. i was not actually revolting i was

insisting that the decisions of the general assembly be respected because smoking areas in the un building have been subject to a decision by the general assembly and that's and that's as for as for. being independent during my years in the united nations if what is meant is being independent from pressure from any other member of the security council then yes that was the case you called the wiki leaks funny fiction well did you really enjoy reading it and any other comments except funny. well i think finding fun in fiction is the main characteristic of what i feel reading great critics i don't read much sometimes my assistants find an interesting piece in the vehicle leaks which relates to the episodes dissipated for example or

russian leaders participated and then i think they can look just. to see whether what was publicly said what was said to us by the potus whether this is correspondingly reflected in their reports back home so you do find truth in the killings i find some of it well i find sometimes deviation in what is reported to the court though. from what was said to us it helps in the diplomatic work well. ok now wiki leaks actually was lost a couple of years ago when your phone conversation with the your u.k. opposite number was made public by the british press this was extraordinary and this was very extravagant can you tell us what exactly did you say to david millet and to what i said to david miliband was equitation from another foreign minister

who visited me just after the war and because i spend it and who was coming from georgia and he shared with me his views of presidency like a shrewd. and i just informed the what exactly was said about president saakashvili by my account but it was bad language it was a well the rest of it would be i would comment of ok. another question from facebook during the communist era have you mr lavrov been a member in that communist party if yes what made you. change your political views yes i was a member of the communist party and i was a member of the party until. the last day of the party. and they still have a memory my party card paid the. do use monthly

until the last moment and then the party seized to exist to be the member of the party. frankly speaking we all know that being a member of the common a sponsor involved some cynicism. and some pragmatism as well was being a member of the communist and before that of komsomol people couldn't count on the decent carry especially if the option was diplomacy so it went from a still miss nature and i never thought that there should be any other way and when i was in komsomol and then the party by the way being a member of the party i was the head of the it is ation of the soviet foreign ministry and cultural of the young communist league sort of yes yes and just try of you know as young communist league owners of the foreign ministry to have

some fun if you wish we organized events being sports be just. on weekends. some sketches were staged dances. and this this helped you know to bring people together. to make a life a bit a bit a bit more interesting he mentioned and then stand assess the staging as things as i know you play guitar i know you sing i know you love beatles but as a frenchman he is i'm a frenchman do you like french popular i love french popular news i who. doesn't know who is my favorite. song many others last question from facebook what's your favorite why. i think i thought i had when i read this question i put here scotch because i know you love scotch. but

also like wine. venture to russian i don't want. to be polite. and i think i'm in a good wines. chile ga ga. if it is the real security but also of course california. they don't export much but but they have very good ok let's get back to we have so i have time for a couple of foreign affairs issues president medvedev recently said i quipped nature is faced with a dilemma it either enters a joint missile defense system with russia or has to put up with new russian strategic deployments close to europe and quote would you agree that the creation of a joint russian nato defense network is the number one challenge for russian diplomacy

as well i think it's a challenge to all of the countries in the your atlantic. it's a test if you wish on common the bill it's the thought that it was the remnants of because of the war and to come from declarations of indivisibility of security to practical implementation of this slogan and missile defense is indeed of huge importance because if they manage to do it right you finish the. genuinely come on join project then i think we will come a long way towards achieving that goal which was set that the nato russia lisbon summit namely to become threat the botanists basically we have two elements in our position first the system must be equal and. second

this system must not create any risks for the strategic arsenals of the russian federation eve this. resolved positively believe we will achieve. success but if you fail and if negotiations be to be in would only be used as a cover for nato american missile defense system which ignores the russian interests then of course. we would have no other choice but to take measures to protect those last question one of the main threats one of the main challenges for russian security coming from from the south is the drug traffic from afghanistan we have been hearing from nato representatives that if we try to fight the drug production of get us that this puts people out of work and they join the

taliban so it is bad for for establishing establishing the peace process there how do you cope with it do you agree with such a position you know i don't believe that american colleagues become a bit more aware of the need to fight. production throughout the chain you know starting from the poppy plantations and into the street dealers. for example in colombia the americans and for says on the already caging the cocoa plantations and they don't really raise the issue of colombian peasants getting their fork. everything is possible we cannot allow. the drugs from of gonna stand to ruin. population population of central asian countries population if you're a peon countries. and some of it of course gets to the united states itself. the

presidents must receive compensation no doubt about it it's much more difficult than just to tell them continue to grow. with. your leave but the presence must receive assistance they must receive financial material assistance the must be no excuse you know not to block each elements of the drug production sherry thank you mr thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest today was foreign minister of the russian federation. and that's it for now from all of us if you have your say and spotlight you could always. be back with more of what's going on outside russia until then. and take my seat.

it's official the new strategic arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington is in the force of science sixteen write a piece in documents. as the prime minister says multiculturalism in the u.k. has failed one seems to militate is spy agency and islam saxon. egypt's hosni discipline signs protesters say they'll stay on the streets until gets up to the presidency. it's four am in moscow good to have you with us here on r t our top story the new strategic arms reduction treaty between russia and the us has come into force at

a special ceremony at the munich security conference the treaty aims to limit the nuclear arsenals of both countries to fifteen hundred warheads are going off as more. words put into action a historic exchange of ratification documents and the new strategic arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington is officially in force and when it comes to the button that has worried the most over the years the one that would unleash nuclear destruction today we take another step to ensure it will never be pushed. to last for the next ten years the treaty said to reduce the number of nuclear weapons on both sides over a third and an outcome which would have appeared impossible even a decade ago i think we will be presented with a for this historical moment the green light has been given in a.