each. according to official reports inflation may reach almost forty percent by the end of the year trying to get rid of national currency the russians are buying up imported goods since exchange operations a temporary prohibited by the state the dramatic by the russian ruble devaluation undertaken two months ago hasn't stopped the process collation still it helped secure a three billion dollar bailout from the russian led konami community fawned. is also seeking up to a billion dollars from the international norm tree farm. and welcome to spotlight if it. means purpose of your current visit to moscow is to take part in this business forum on the customs union and the coming economic space. economic integration of the three states.

stand in russia you said recently but one of the. if it's a customs union in the coming economic space this means many factories should go beyond conventional cooperation that's integrate their company's. products. what is this statement backed by any specific proposals from delhi reuss you are planning to put forward. the business well you know usually economic factors that force politicians to make certain decisions . such as decisions on integration. but in our case it's my subversive business with which we have politicians creating the framework for the businesses to work and. mrs business also this is why. this time we

agreed to have this form together with business community i mean that's because we don't want to just talk about it come on the economic space and the business so set some objectives that are at the level of governments only but the more you know what we would like to hear what the businessmen who are three countries have to say . don't cut them off so i think we need this harmony in the will to our investor to combine the business initiatives on the one hand and government proposals on the other in a harmonious way and the governments of course should do their part and create favorable conditions for our business men. of the was going for those loaded with the. deliberate a. month ago there was president and then you look at. their thirty's are prepared to shut off international trade in case the economic situation. considering quote if it comes to disaster if you shut down the border in consumer

goods when you go out and quote i talked to some people from today in the told me that this is already happening and that lots of domestically produced goods are known ceiling brother who's going to say ok q would you explain how this kind of policy agrees with the commitments bellew's has issued and as a member of the euro of the coming economic space as well as its obligations to europe. i think you're cool ting the president out of context and six i believe we are beyond the point over no return in terms of the integration process. i mean you can't back out of it we need to go on. and our relations including. least on mutual respect and those we haven't been violated in you are all. we have fair competition and we have good. of all the three states especially russian gets

a little for sale in our market. for our trade with other countries. we did introduce some restrictions series surprised. by the way our e.u. neighbors very grateful for that. because this kind of tree is that when people use them but them bring boots across the border in the trunk of their cars but it has a negative effect on our regular tree. and they only need to do is just follow the rules. we're not keeping anybody away from our market and you know we're not giving anyone invented use over all others. but if we work within the green means that we have signed in the but that would be to come including all the measures that we're taking on the consumer market. as far as i know leave russia to be the main

reason behind bill reese current economic troubles. as we know the prices have increased two fold people can buy foreign currency and so forth as a russian i feel quite hurt to hear that people have a brotherly nation and russia for their hardships what is this opinion really out there in to what extent is moscow to blame. well i don't want to pass judgment or make accusations. or but that the prices for goods imported from russia are going up much faster than the prices for goods we exported to russia is a fact. and it's not like the prices have gone up by ten or twenty percent for they have doubled and tripled. let's take gas prices for example they have gone up by four hundred fifty percent is the police over the past five years. biller is

the belorussian export prices have only grown by twenty five to thirty percent over the same period. immediately both are for for a treaty with russia to balance out that we need to step up our export volumes. and i admit that some of it is our full movies and we see that the capacity of the russian market is he's just going now it is the common market over the three countries as well that the capacity allows us to ramp up export volumes for the but in order for that to happen. companies in the business men should work harder and promote. supports. a moment. businessman to play a more active rule in the privatization process and dollars but i have to say that there is a lot of talk on the subject but we don't see any progress we don't seem practical solutions. on issues to deal with this shit but i think the worst thing that can

happen is if this gratian takes place on paper on lee boyd and they will march that we need russian companies to participate in the privatization process in belarus. and we are really opening up our economy there but with the end we will create favorable conditions for our partners from the customs union first and foremost the . truth but notice that most of those when you speak about privatization use the future tense start on a large scale. it's already under way and it's a proceeding at a good pace. in their furniture industry for example we have sold almost all our furniture factories by now. unfortunately none of the buyers were russian businessmen are also. kona shop on and a number of other western companies are actually building new production facilities and. i think. russian businesses should help with that. though unless for the metal

industry we do have something offers from russian companies dear but we also have a lot of offers coming in from western europe. so i think it's time for us to move on and proceed from a sassing and considering the situation to taking some practical steps. but at the moment our evaluation commissions are working on two projects mosque a mosque if they could and microelectronics we would like to have the mosque operational with a russian businessman if you knew syria. we have a fairly strong microelectronics industry. in the past almost all its products were used in the defense industry but it's there in the beloved and i think in the future we should pay more attention to the needs of word defense industry because there can be no innovation without a strong defense industry. and it would that the what's all of us with you says.

the problem in this. life would be that shortly after the break so stay with us. hungary for the full story we've gone to. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

welcome back to spotlight. and jethro my that my guest on the show today is. the prime minister of. this. cause which or we're talking about privatization and you told me it is well underway in militarists and you expected to expand further what i would like to call it a recent statement by president lukashenko he said and i quote three things are expected from villages today that we will sell our state assets for assume they will withdraw the social obligations that we have assumed before people and that we will give up our sovereignty but i was going to be clear we will never do that and . any other code of these words have a broader context to them that we see that the president is emotional and very specific as usual do you think these words mean that he doesn't want russian investors to participate in the privatization of deliberation companies that there should postal no i don't think so it's lower cost inc what he means is that it's

the privatization of should be fair and transparent it doesn't you said no there was furniture industry has been sold out entirely but none of it to russians. i'll tell you honestly everybody. is the most affordable among quality products. as well i don't mean to say that we have completely eliminated state ownership from the furniture industry but it will help to auction for furniture companies in a row in the end indeed the bodies were not from russia and we have sold some four or five furniture factory stu private owners a bit below problem the molestation we're still holding a large portfolio don't stakes in very senior streets including furniture so there is still room. in the room with there was but it was let's take the chemistry. and i'm planning to bring it up to date form for example for oil has been assessing our polling there and surprise. part of the enough time history grew more for well

over two and a half years we'd like them to finally make up their mind as we also have other offers waiting. we have certainly granted the right of first. but i will appear we will keep him with and i believe there are also vest opportunities for partnership in areas such as the defense industry microelectronics information technology and other sectors. for instance and rochelle why don't produce enough pharmaceuticals domestically and i believe it would be worthwhile if we tried to pool our resources and create an industrial venture was reproduced medicines rather than keeping porting down. of course it would be impossible to manufacture it tens of thousands of brand pharmaceutical products but we could produce most of the essentials combine effort.

rather than cling to the existing production facilities set up new transnational corporations from scratch and something that we unfortunately don't have. and. dividing and trading assets that were created a long time ago. so i think we should really start building something from scratch the. pressure of finance. is also criticized i mean you must have noticed that it's a very popular trend in russia these days. merely criticize your government imports restricting measures rigid price regulation in its money three policies even said. is merely suppressing the disease letting it fester deep down does the russian government loans that you've been promised. commitments to gesture economic

policies is there such conditionality is this part of the work for the future that you've mentioned. well as far as the current trend of criticising demaris is concerned by the billion dollar reuss we deal with their own shortcomings in the first place and try to criticize ourselves with. some people prefer to criticise others can often turn to get their own problems focused on the problem i'm in no position to judge here in the us would you and i believe there are plenty of sensible people including policymakers with this you're cool sort this out with the russians also like to reproach themselves it's something we have in common. yes well. as for the negative developments facing our foreign exchange market they are primarily due to the fact that there are important volumes. exports by some one to eighty billion dollars so

when we say that we should live within our means this is one of the implications to us. in by the way mr bush has strongly recommended that we should team our appetites with regard to imports and it is stipulated in the loan conditions for the third and that's obviously if you're going to do that we are told to use monitoring instruments such as exchange rate regulation among others. therefore you are rigorously keeping in line with the course of action we have agreed upon in our respective commitments. in this. issue there's more criticism aimed at you that at this time coming from the world bank's country director for ukraine. mr martin advisor he said quote this. past years economic model has exhausted its possibilities so i was nativity. with

this statement and would you agree that belief does need to be more up to date and should liberalize both economically and politically liberal is that say even be. no more pure of must first of all we strongly adhere to our stated commitment of developing a socially responsible market economy. therefore when regulating privatization and all we're seeing it change your phone or ship but it's mean that we do seek to ensure that new owners abide by their social partnership commitments. we cannot agree. being made secondary to the object to both generating a profit. more from what we need is harmonization between social and market policies or probably a mess with the assertion that the bill or its model has exhausted itself which. i think this statement he's neither entirely correct nor appropriate. going to life

and poses for certain adjustments. alter indeed we need to open up our economy to a greater extent. we need to invite in more foreign investors lose the most and they actually do approach us these days we are getting numerous offers that are in the european and american businesses. and so even though we still don't get as much foreign direct investment in the belarus economy as we would like to see. those good foreign investment you know first five months of this year he's already had all of the annual investment volume of the new four thousand and ten in the us that on the in these does it hurt mumford's therefore we are bolstering these developments and two of the measures taken by the president and the government to reduce. specifically aimed at promoting and enabling environment. for in the nestors. the prover so that we would have new homeowners

coming to our country and i thought along with new technologies and new management to prove that it is slow and mature snowmen that you can then make huge i don't know that much about economics. but from what i read to get an impression that. unless you get the i.m.f. loan that you're hoping for will inevitably default on its foreign debt. is that correct but i would is this loan really mean everything to you. first are external debt is not. the means to any kind of missed can tell you that you but of course it's a good it took almost almost it's not like we're facing a crisis in the name or some sort of an insurmountable difficulty because of the foreign debt that that we've accumulated over time i mean the thing you are dead amounts to about maybe two or three months over our export revenues of how much is

that. well our export driven years for the first five months. of sixteen billion dollars. our dad stands at nine billion total get. over we have to pay it all at once. application for the i am affluent is concerned we need contact. above mentioned the figure of the well we think it should be three maybe a seven point five billion dollars. of course this is next to nothing compared to the bailouts that the international community including the i.m.f. school provides for some countries that are facing difficulties because of the crisis and certain post-crisis developed. probably about this one so far problem it's just a way for us to some money for issue. period in order to stabilize completely

stabilize the currency for all sectors. histories are doing well already greek culture is doing well but we have enough foreign currency to take care of our production needs. we do have some difficulties providing foreign currency for a net importer of. companies that don't export and i think and that only imported goods here or less. we have practically no need of intervention with our currency exchange offices. we can work with the currency that people sell to the banks and buy from the banks. suffice it to say that over the past few months people have been selling and proximately. in an eighteen to two hundred twenty million dollars a month but. the same amount of business in the

myths you know all of this is quite a substantial figure. with its population zero nine and a half million people. but once you are with so we hope that within the next few months we will be able to stabilize the currency rates and meet the demands of our economic agents and the people of belarus. you've compared their loans provided for you and for simply you can treat this comparison a bit further. have you ever compared the current situation. in greece portugal their economic situation is extremely difficult. as. you say that the situation in berlin is better or worse. but the situation in the. those countries at least as far as i know are facing as systemic right. what we have is not

a crisis it's just some difficulties in certain sectors of our economy. but these difficulties don't affect the manufacturing industries or our social commitments. those areas are working totally as they should and you know if that we have economic growth and the government provides funds for all the social programs which we have a slight budget surplus. surplus not deficit. by the way those are the obligations that we assumed together with our common economic space partners to get this saloon or yeah from the. questions fond you could get there but. you what i think and think is the fold. up my final question and another quote of yours speaking about selling the bill trying. to set a quote no problem there are going is to have billion dollars and you can have it tomorrow if you like as if we want to deal with this that would include natural gas

prices that's what we are currently working on our end quote so are you making progress in your talks with gazprom to fleece gazprom willing to budge on the issue of prices. what happens here sometimes is a sort of misinterpretation but if people think that selling the remaining fifty percent of the bill trance gas that they were you know wanted to be able to pay the russians domestic prices or at least to get is special price screens prince in reality there this is a principled position that we have made this decision incidentally this was a russia's initiative not ours. also what we are saying is that we need a clear pricing a formula for natural gas for a longer term. how do you determine the promise that we think that at the end of the day we should arrive at profitability. we realize of course that this can't happen overnight. to which we all i mean both bill aris and russia we all should

know that scene three years all prices will be at the same level for all of them weren't so spicy with thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was me high yield best nichol of each of the prime ministers. and that's it for now from all of us here spotlights will be back with more crystal comments all of what's going on in the outside as the lead stay in the party and take care.

in india to believe the move to join the hutto. the gateway hotel the grand imperial truly the torch was the. most delicious

see don't need to go and. read this in the kernel was a photo retreat. rupert murdoch agrees to face a grilling by the u.k. parliament over phone hacking allegations while in the us at the f.b.i. begins its investigation into claims news corp journalists tried to access the voicemail of nine eleven families the scandal is now threatening the rest of murdoch's media empire after he was forced to withdraw his bid to take over britain's biggest satellite broadcaster. heavy lifting equipment arrives at the scene of the pleasure ship sinking on the river volga as prosecutors make the first arrests over the tragedy that's claimed more than one hundred lives divers continue to retrieve bodies from the sunken ship including that of the captain investigation the results so far suggest the fifty five year old vessel was in poor condition and was overloaded with passengers. and a credit downgrade hangs over the u.s.

as moody's ratings agency threatens to knock the glitter off the country's aaa position as the eurozone continues its slide with italy introducing tough spending cuts brussels is concerned that it couldn't afford to bail out italy which is the fourth largest economy in europe the republic of ireland portugal and greece have already received cash handouts totaling hundreds of billions of euros. and we have more on the eurozone debt crisis on cross talk next peter lavelle asks his guest if italy is a commie will be the next country to meet a financial rescue package from brussels and if so who will foot the bill. and you can see.

hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle a currency in crisis european finance ministers central bankers and politicians remain at odds on how to rescue the euro as pressure mounts for another greek bailout and investors worry about italy is the hero of dysfunctional currency and who will ultimately foot the bill. came. across not the eurozone crisis i'm joined by dennis gartman in virginia he is editor of the government letter in singapore out we go to jim rogers he's an author and financial commentator and in washington we go to sherry's i'd raymond she is professor of international business finance and international affairs at the george washington university all right folks this is crossfire going you can jump in anytime you want there are different points of view here like to hear it did.