he. says. that have you with us this hour this is r t coming to live from the russian capital top stories now for you between libya's pro and anti-government forces shows no sign of easing but more than a thousand people now police have been killed in weeks of fighting but the rival sides are united on one issue their opposition to foreign intervention. turmoil in north africa is driving thousands of illegal immigrants to seek refuge in europe but the british town of luton is already struggling to deal with the tensions between a large muslim community and angry nationalists. and russia's leader in the u.s.

vice president find common ground on informal stumbling blocks including succession to the world trade organization and a missile defense system in europe and if it had also ratified a law allowing the u.s. to transit military quitman through russia on its way to afghanistan seen as another sign of progress in the recess of relations between the two. love you got caught with more news for in less than half an hour from now in the meantime spotlight the russian prime minister's spokesman to discuss the impact on the country's energy sector in the. rest that's next. hello again are welcome to spotlight the interview shop on r.t.e. i'll bring our ben today my guest in the studio here is dimitri scott. europe has

long been trying to find alternative energy roads to secure yes trucks viewing the new russian problems with uncertainty but the recent visit vladimir putin paid to brussels following the dramatic events in the arab east has shown that the european energy sector investors are returning to russia to what degree is this change politically motivated first ask the press that play out the russian prime minister dmitry peskov. after the gas transit crisis two years ago european started to actively look for alternatives to russian gas supplies to launch the idea of their own to buku pipeline gastronomy at least and some to asia but the project is still just a pile of paperwork the liquefied natural gas is becoming increasingly popular with investors what trying to diversify their shipping possibilities but it looks like you but it can certainly be that interest is coming back to russia.

good miter thank you very much for coming and i will ask the user to be here with you again the pleasure so i was going to move first of all i just. can to my mind that many years ago when on the first news conferences one of the first questions to your boss was who is mr putin well i think it may be appropriate to ask you this question now who is mr it would be for you today just a prime minister a candidate for next presidency the leader of the united russia party or whatever whatever who is if the the if. well currently he's a prime minister. working for the good to do anything because he's pretty press secretary well. if you look at this question in a broader sense well maybe he's he's a bit of everything that you have mentioned. i don't know about next next

elections presidents elections it's we still have lots of times before we have this elections and since it's not a proper time to think about it it's a proper time to think about current affairs about current work and this is what we're doing so if we see reality because the french say he's the prime minister and that's he's the prime minister in a full sense of this world and well he was quite an active one and i would say quite a success yes so let's make about the well recently thirty's of your team was going to europe to brussels you had a long talks mr putin had long talks and very interesting significantly with mr bronson and as far as i know the abolition of the visa regime should have been should have been discussed was it and is there any progress. a visa problem was was on the agenda as one of the most important issue yes it was frozen by the.

russian side during the talks actually we have to imagine that we had actually it's a very useful and a very effective mechanism of cooperation between e.u. and the russian federation we had nearly a full cabinet sitting on the russian side and let's say ninety five per cent of european commissioners from the others and this is really a very good approach. to look in a broader support possible way through all existing questions including visa. this iteration is very simple russia he's ready to go as far as european side is ready to go and even. he wouldn't. even fire then then. european commission because we're losing tourists because we're losing moneys there were losing tourists were losing money we're seeing involvement in ization of our

corporation where we're saying about adding new dimension to our bilateral relationship we even un russia but at the same time. we cannot leave our leg from the brake pedal because this is the hugest brake pedal that we have with chile we. will limit the. broadening of the interaction between our business people between our students between our people of culture and other people so it's actually in nowadays it's totally senseless borders it was mentioned by the way by prime minister putin that if we are speaking about measures of precaution in terms of not letting criminals entering the territory of e.u. this is again senseless because all criminals are enjoying your freedom of movement unfortunately they use whatever possible means to to to enter e.u.

territory illegally and unfortunately we even together we cannot count by the violation of war for one hundred percent so it does not affect criminals but it affects in a very serious way those who are willing to go through who are willing to trade. produce to put discussed another very important issue with the last hour which is the european gas supply policy gasper on russian gas supplies well why could there this problem been so directly by gasper arm and european customers does it mean that it's more a political problem russian gas in europe and the economic. well it's not a secret there we are a little bit disturbed. disturbed by. by some regulations imply by european commission that in our understanding.

come in contradiction with existing international law and sometimes. that. traces the past so that can effect the past obligations. now i mean from bundling procedure in terms of those who produce. for transport it will car bombs and who consumes you are once the division between us. well we are deeply convinced that the bundling procedure. is not good for the future of this sector he will you will not benefit the final consumers in europe because it will only lead to higher prices to higher invoices that people are receiving in their households and the sector of energy is a very expensive sector in terms of investments and smaller companies divided

companies simply cannot afford these amount of investments so they will have to have to meet higher prices and this will effect negatively households. but certainly we cannot interfere it's it's a right of european commission to do whatever procedures although although it will not contribute to further development of the sector in our understanding what is most. hard to believe this year is that in some cases this procedure. will harm the interests of the companies made their investment investments already on the territory of e.u. we have gazprom which invested in some baltic republics and now is being forced in accordance with un bundling procedure to sell its premises to sell its actives

in some baltic republics certainly it's something that we can hardly stand and something that does not contribute to add most fear of mutual confidence and further development. of all cooperation bringing it to new levels so the question. again is is that recently put in said that gas prompt should do tree domestic customers as foreign customers according to to to the so-called take or pay principle doesn't that mean protectionism there is this preferential treatment doesn't contradict the w t o rules. well certainly we have a transition period in terms of zero negotiations for w.q. and we are on the way of equaling domestic crisis for the international press as well but let's not forget we have been in we are still in accordance with our constitution

a social state. so first of all first of all we have on the agenda and first of all we have to care about the demands of our own nation and then about our. our partners who are receiving receiving our it will carbons abroad although russia have proved proved to during lots of decades that it used to be these and it will continue to be one of the most reliable suppliers of energy sources the oil price is expected to be as high as one hundred forty dollars per barrel pretty soon this is make the russian government happy well certainly stand to stand. we all know there is a yes there is a but we all know that after a certain limit. high prices extremely high prices make no

good for economy of the country make no good for our plans of modernization our plans of increasing productivity. to the contrary valleys becoming too easy is becoming cheap is becoming nothing so this way certainly we are not interested in truly high prices for over a valued price as overvalued prices for energy sources to the contrary were interested in the moderate prices in a real value for energy sources we know that this real value is quite high but not been high and there is the reason that we will look with the with a deep concern to what is going on in the middle east. you know the question concerning middle east putin said when he was talking about what's going on in the middle east he said he remembered the revolution nine hundred seventy nine in iran the the palestinian election both led to islamists of power is moscow

afraid of the of the democratization going on in the middle east all of these. well in case it is real democracy is asian like the rest of the. international community i have no doubt that most who is interested in my home will see. that we are facing democrat is asian process on the middle east with a great let's say well for one hundred percent i don't think that anyone will be able to say it says they need the peace cough press secretary of the russian prime minister spotlight will be back shortly will continue this interview in less than a minute to stay with. culture is the same or similar to each musician minute remark with

a growing sense to me arab middle east has changed speech the region is saudi arabia immune to outside influences us. and discoveries being seen. communicate with the want to. test yourself and become free. to. see what nature can give you the knowledge see. what about the spotlight i am aware of and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is me to scoff press secretary to the russian prime minister this of course we started said this interview by answering

questions posed mr putin here and. i want. you mentioned. on mention the upcoming elections in which he may take part as a presidential candidate mr gorbachev and other russian star of russian politics who celebrated his eightieth anniversary recently given a couple of interviews and in some of them he criticized sharply both medvedev and putin in particular one of the things that he blamed them for is that he said why are these two people going to decide who we should have as the next russian president so why isn't put no answer to this criticism and do you agree that mr gorbachev had grounds for such criticism. well first of all i would rather

say once again but truly tauriel means a premature. and current stage. mr prime minister has has always been very polar and towards criticism this is where he's not answering it his extremely flexible and he's tolerant towards the criticism. the reason i think this is my personal point of view of the reason that no answer came from either of the subjects of the criticism of mr gorbachev offered you all from representatives spokespeople is very simple none of them has never said that they would sit together and decide who is going to be the next president of this country. they said they do would consult each other and then they would decide who's going to run for the presidency because they don't mean they don't

want to fight against each other is there is no. please this is what we hear this is what we hear from them but they simply cannot decide who is going to be the next president they can only decide who is going to run but the final decision will be taken by the by the nation in nationwide elections it is as simple as that it's why no criticism ok any. question that i think many of our viewers would like to ask you is about the new sentence the hundred many people especially the western press expected this this new sentence to whether he would reduce dramatically the investment into the russian economy what about the statistics what do statistics say is it really happening are investors coming our share after they heard this news. well investors are coming

and they continue to come and actually is a government that has an agenda of one of the. major it says like like preserving the endless fear for favorable for investors for foreign investors i mean we're quite satisfied that investors are continue to come look ikea after the problems that have faced here i mean it is very yeah. now and i was looking for for enhancing it's a broadening its business here. during the well so-called scandal about her cost his second trial. we witnessed all together the signature of a extremely important and i am president of president agreement. on

exchange of essence between ross and ross nafta and d.p. . although it is on core there are some some difficulties difficulties with this agreement but we have no dog in this will be a way it will be implemented. we. recently we missed another one important. a signature. total french total company and the young no need to go to market and wang shares then they know what the company will also lower the bar what is there even if not a rising interest and we're speaking about extremely serious international companies it's operating worldwide so and these companies face. they're creating russia as a. country quandary suitable for their investments and we're satisfied with

since you've mentioned it yourself let's hear what the the c.e.o. of the french energy giant tell maury had to say about investing in rush. today's situation in the world shows that we've been right to aim to boost our investment into russia russia is a very attractive country for investors which is even more obvious to be the instability that we currently facing. what would you predict with the the shell. projects increase or decrease after after we had missed. this the russian and say what he said in sign he will be signed. because we are. not a spokesman for it will come from no production no producers about any other. words shell is an active player and

a respected player in this market and i hope that shell can can enjoy lake lake lake the rest of the players on this market like the rest of the international companies being here can enjoy the world the investment climate here they were allegations recently against mr putin concerning the residence being built on the black sea coast use in hundreds of yeah. but called the so called putin palace on the black sea coast it was so recently did it to some and to some other investor you deny that but there is information that the f. s. o. officer is like you for the k.g.b. guys r r r r r r protected we're protecting so these people are supposed to protect only the prime minister and the president so is a true and why did they why do what is office is the protection of the site if it

has nothing to do with with the president or the prime minister. we have no information about the preferred royal protection services taking care of this. never heard of their by the world the only thing is they can repeat is. the. prime minister. neither during his presidency in the past nor during his his present condition as a prime minister had anything in common with that and so it was never his property was never. there was never planned to be his residence simply in this condition if it could not be planned as a residence for a single man. as far as it is huge were never have never been there and i've never seen their only photographs likely quick anyone else. but definitely definitely

it's not. his residence it's not his palace and we know that it belonged to a businessman and it was it was sold or or whatever to another businessman. there were some problems with the financing of the constructions. well let's go got help the new owner of the building to complete the construction but anyway it made a great tabloid story i mean this castle when. we heard about some other sides or. years of you know that another scandal if we started talking about that one person someone is this so-called putin party you here you spoke until television and the other day saying that that this an advertised putin party in moscow is outrageous that people are not supposed to use the name of

a prime minister to advertise some defense of products so but what about the putin of what kind of it was put in context being the producer used. well actually sort of put in what it's. another world in russian this put in i mean etymology of this word is different and sometimes it's very hard to to prove to prove that in a certain composition the world. belongs to understanding of political you can certainly couldn't get them you know sun times it's a very tricky situation really it's very hard to prove but definitely. mr prime minister himself and then all of us working with him we are trying to be very careful about not letting his name being used in proper and proper sense. he himself is favoring the cases where his name is used for for promotion of

a healthier way of living for promotion let's say aid to children. yes for sports or promoting sports for promoting whatever useful but certainly i mean using his name for promoting and party in a private club. in my opinion is proper and unwanted for us. way of using his name and i hope it is not using commercial purposes that is actually stripped of. prohibited by law and we're going to have to to watch very carefully. but it is not and in case it is used in commercial purposes we are determined to use whatever. permitted by law means to stop that need to enter the very sure question it's election year and probably mention election is going to happen in december and

we'll see that they're really pretty the united russia party is having problems with the media corruption scandals and someone is officially the head the leader of the party is he going to do something about that is he going to try to do kitchen. situation well first of all united russia party i wouldn't say that it it has problems i wouldn't say that we can say about corruption scandals on the part you know it's a part of this is sad and a very big part of the society it's one of the well this is the most popular party in this country so leading party and it's a ruling party and put in actually is not the head of this party he's the head of this power in a false sense of this world. party is performing very good media is critical media is always critical sometimes media simply does not want to

recognize successes of this party and to the contrary it is trying to find something. that does not exist in a negative sense. so i have no doubt that the party party has got a perfect future the party. party will reach successful results during the march or early elections and i have no doubt about about the total victory on the next elections and i wish the same two year and then three thank you very thing to change your thinking mind that my guest on the show today would meekly discraft the press secretary of the russian prime lives and that's it for now from all of us the spotlight will be back with both his hands comments about what's going on in russia until then they are party and take.