presidency but popularity among russians makes him a better candidate and he's explained why he would route from the race and get your view to russian media. of course the interview is coming up next in full here on our. me to understand. mr president last week a major and long awaited advantage happened in politics at the united russia convention you suggested that lead him or putin should run for president mia wondering what your motives for your approval rating is high and you're a young energetic politician with a good reputation what was the primary motive behind your decision usually presidents see cory election you're a politician and politicians are ambitious people what was your ambition in making this decision so children were shown it's there with the bush let it be my

biggest ambition is to be useful to my country and my people this may sound a bit pretentious but it's true unless you have this ambition you shouldn't go into politics you should focus on something else instead of politics or government service that's for my reasons on the one hand they're obvious on the other hand there are many questions about them i'd like to stress that both for me and vladimir putin the top priority is to be of use to our homeland our nation. we both belong to the same political force but both lidia putin and dmitri medvedev were nominated for the presidency first him then me under the current model of power by the united russia party the dimia putin was number one on the united russia slate and yours truly is this time. so we really represent the same political force we belong to the same political force and our views are very close of course we may be different on a personal level each of us has his own habit but our views are very close on most

strategic issues in fact on all the strategic issues of how our country should develop and on other issues as well so sharing the same views should we compete against each other should we are given fight. i've read a few pieces by political analysts that basically say why don't they go into the political arena and vowed to fight each other to the end why don't they have an open rivalry but that's not the way it happens anywhere in the world people who represent the same political force always decide between themselves who will run for this or that office which in some countries they use primaries for this purpose we don't have much experience with primaries in russia although we have seen positive examples in some countries the decision is made simply by at a party convention or by the leaders themselves can you imagine barack obama competing with hillary clinton you may remember that they both saw the nomination well that would be impossible they both belong to the democratic party and their

decision was based on who would get better results and this was also how we made our decision. of course it's nice to know that people trust me as president and that my approval rating is quite high under current circumstances but i also know that prime minister putin undoubtedly remains the most popular politician in our country at this point and his rating is even higher somehow people tend to forget about that. and those may just be practical considerations but every politician should pay close attention to them if he really wants to be useful to his country and not just fight against other people in fact this is exactly what people often want us to do they want us to become enemies and enter an open confrontation on the political arena at least that's the kind of recommendation i hear from the opposition and from some political analysts let me tell you this is not going to happen what we are after is a political result we want to win the elections both the parliamentary election in december and the presidential election in march not just to satisfy our ambitions

every responsible person should have an ambition to serve their country i strongly believe that. or a lot of speaking of your plans for two thousand and twelve you've had quite a few interviews in recent months. you hinted that you did not rule out the question be ready of running for office why was that did you genuinely feel this way at the time or you simply didn't want to break the news or the decision you made together with putin a head of the time. you know on. the ship it. let me tell you and of course all our people absolutely frankly we are dealing with practical politics and practical governance issues everything may change in this life it's true we've long had an understanding on how to configure the power should our people show us trust in twenty eleven and twenty twelve it's true and we said so are the party convention but at the same time life could have made unexpected and paradoxical changes to our plans what if the preferences of the voters change for some reason i must take this

into account for dimia putin and myself are holding the top two posts that of president and prime minister and we must basically be a backup for each other because we're ordinary people after all therefore when i said i did not rule out such a possibility naturally i was not cheating anyone life could have taken an unexpected term but we did have a certain understanding between us in fact i believe that in any situation even in the future should we succeed in implementing our current plans we should always think about the future and what we should do in various difficult situation is that we can hardly foresee or predict in their totality this is why i said what i said. what it sees mr president now a few words about the united russia convention as it astounded me first bird a huge number of participants which i'm sure we are learning from our foreign colleagues exactly it looks foreign to me were dollar cameras banners and flags at

the same turn the atmosphere was very warm friendly and i would even say intimate that round table meetings participants spoke about things that were close to their hearts now and then they would forget were to say look in the papers and go on what you. and more eloquently then to crown it all two very respected figures appeared and said they had agreed on how to distribute two top jobs in the government between them which many people watched as and said it has all been decided already spending money on the elections was the point of elections if everything has been decided because what's going on here slimness english was first of all i agree that the atmosphere of the convention was very warm i've attended many different events and i assure you that i cannot fake it no matter what some people say no matter how much this convention they remind me of the communist party congresses of the past the atmosphere of trust was indeed there you're right about that now about those ideas you mention i consider them absolutely irresponsible misleading and even provocative what are you talking about the election campaign has just started let's

ask ourselves a simple question what if our people reject us with medvedev and putin what will happen to these decisions by the convention these decisions are merely the party's recommendation to vote for those people that's all the choice is made by the people and these are not me or words it's absolutely true any politician and any political force may lose an election we've seen this happen time and again both in our country and abroad anything can happen what you mean everything has been determined let's imagine for a second that we've reached an agreement with again are these your gana of the deme is it an of ski said again middle and others that they will not run whereas we the big time politicians will that would have really been an imitation but they will they will take part in the elections both in december and march they will take part in the state duma election and they also have presidential ambitions let the people decide who they should vote for whose popularity is greater only our people can

make a final decision by voting for a candidate or a political force or turning them down this is what democracy is about at the used market. which mr president you are the only person at the top of the united russia federalist how much are you personally going to be involved in campaign who else or what else will united russia use for it's going to pain and do you expect tough competition during this campaign. it is that no one is like you know indeed i am of the top of the united russia list which the party asked me to do this and it's a serious choice for me first of all there was united russia the nominated me for presidency second i've been working together with united russia all these years with the party supporting the president's initiatives that are there for united russia is definitely closer to me of the political forces it's a great responsibility for me as president that united russia made this decision

which i surely expect the party to win and i expect our people to make their choice of the elections at the same time let me remind you that i am still president bush i have a lot of responsibilities both domestically and internationally so that's naturally are not going to take a vacation and i will not occupy myself with any special campaign activities people should evaluate the president and the government based on their work if they see that things are going well they will vote correspondingly if they see that the leadership is doing something wrong they will vote against it this is what democracy is about consequently i will be performing my duties of the same time i'm sure there will be tough competition competition will be tough but hopefully proper and we have the necessary legal mechanisms to ensure that. all you're watching are to you know the rest of the meeting medvedev is interview

is coming your way here in just a few. we'll . bring you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've got the future covered. mine. would be soon which brightened if you knew me by someone from feinstein's

pression. screen starts on t. dot com. very first verses of the bible that all human beings are created but sentimental came in god's image and it doesn't say just dues or knowledge is. sixty to seventy percent of what i did as a combat soldier territories was to do with the turds doing what we call making our presence so you go out should some bozo they hear a knock on some doors run to the other corner and they don't know the house religion and nationalism not just judaism have been a part of the problem they've been part of what leads to. bloodshed if you want to bomb guys are and kill. a thousand four hundred people in a month and you want to expect that this will have no effect until

a feat you have to be either extremely naive or extremely stupid we don't need to hear a jew a religious jew calling another joe a knock out of the way they really didn't. think. wealthy british style holds. the. markets finance scandal find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines just tuning in to cause a report on our. it isn't easy. to. see.

plenty.

of old stories this hour in nato reportedly bulldozers the serbian road block out the border with northern kossovo it follows news that a shoot to kill policy was in force near the disputed checkpoint as an actor there reached harvard's. reefs all bracing themselves for yet more cots and higher taxes and the latest round of austerity measures pushed through by the government as part of a bid to prove the nation is fit for another slice of the bailout cake the decision was suspended earlier over doubts of the country is doing it off to reduce its enormous staff to. meet him again. for the same goal running for the presidency for the. long russians makes him a better candidate. from the. russian.

president given to the russian media over his decision not to seek a second term in office. those are the shots of president i think my next question is a great interest to many political if not prefers ethnography which yes it's not a curse there have been many speculations about this why did you announce your decision now not after the stadium elections we all know our country well we all know how our bureaucrats always become stupefied when they learn about citizens don't you think that our entire system are in taber ocracy me freeze for a period of time. well that will bush and all that would be very bad because everybody should work like clockwork until the presidential term expires and the government resigns at the same time it's true that such a decision should be announced at an appropriate time otherwise bureaucrats may go crazy that happens to i think we made this announcement not too early and not too

late at the same time we need to make sure that everybody is doing their job diligently responsibly occupying themselves with administrative work rather than political intrigue this applies to both the president of the russian federation the cabinet and all the other government agencies like it which is all still mr president many people were aboard they felt like everything has been decided but they were only bored for a few hours until alex he couldn't was sacked his resignation was totally unexpected again people say different things about this resignation some say he was out of line and there obviously was an issue of discipline at the same time some say it was a subtle political move to sack a stingy finance minister who refused to give money to agricultural producers milkman servicemen etc going to new minister who would not be so stingy before the elections and would give everybody would they ask for so how much of couldn't

resignation was a matter of discipline and how much of it was his differences with. what did you really have serious differences with the finance minister was what should the. schools actually i've made a very public statement about this and made all the necessary comment in fact i did it practically live on air but i don't mind saying it again from the legal perspective and that's the only perspective from which we can talk about those differences all the decisions on government spending including defense spending the wages for military personnel and so forth have been made by the government and kerry the signatures of all the key officials all those decisions carry the signature of the former finance minister i think you should be forthcoming in such a situation if you don't agree with these expenditures because for some reason you think they're wrong but then it's obvious what you should do or if you approve the expenditure you don't make any comments about it. so the situation with mr cooder it is a matter of discipline in government service that's all there is to it we don't

have a coalition government in russia we are a presidential republic not a parliamentary one our government is the president's government it implements the president's policies if you don't agree you should step down that's the only way it can be it's a tough rule but i'm very strong about it and i will insist on it in the future and i'm sure that whoever is the head of state in future they will follow the same principles as for mr cooder and it seems to me that perhaps he stayed a bit too long in his job and was bored in fact he came to see me in february or march and said he was aware that it made no sense for him to work in the future government because he'd been finance minister for a very long time and naturally he knew nothing about our understanding with mr putin and the recommendations we were going to give at the convention does he did not have any illusions that's why his remarks amazed me anyway the decision has been made as for alexi good or in future he's a good professional with a lot of experience so he will find a good job and

a way to be useful to the state because that's what message mr president many people both a. russian abroad consider you an advocate of liberalism however recent events seem to indicate that the liberals in russia are somewhat disorganized especially after their recent situation with me hope prokhorov what happened to your right cause party in your opinion and is it possible to implement their right cause idea in russia to get it up on the deal or personally i think that for a long time right cause has been suffering from a lack of responsible leaders after all it's the leaders who help their parties achieve results on the right course has had a streak of bad luck with leaders of course recent events weaken the party i'd like to remind you that dmitri medvedev is at the top of another party's list so i'm not going to comment on the situation in right cause and their problems there is only one thing i can say and this is also our party's view because like i said of the party convention our party is magnanimous our parliament should reflect the

electoral preferences of all russian people left wing center right wing conservative democratic and so on it in other words it should include all those who can influence people all those for whom people vote or would like to vote a parliament is much more legitimate if it includes all those forces that's my answer to your question. speaking of society mr president many believe the social base where a right wing liberal party in russia is still not sufficient due to the lack of a fully developed or a predatory class or a middle class whatever you call it but where that basis is definitely sufficient is the internet and i have to tell you although you have probably noticed it yourself thinks such as the situation with. which mr mentioned or aleksey could is dismissal or the united russia going to mention all of that didn't go down

well with the russian blows here as an active internet user do you feel any pressure from the blogosphere have you applied to any of the. posted to your account lately or would you like to reply to them right now. this is what you're a shill you know if i literally felt the pressure it would be very difficult for me to work as president and the same time you're right to say i pay a lot of attention to the internet but now to be precise the have been different reactions to the united russia convention the difficult situation in right cause and the recent resignation there are people who start saying that's terrible democracy is over and then there are people who cheer and say finally we should be even tougher on them that the blogosphere reflects all the different attitudes and views that form public opinion it's a different matter that for a number of reasons the internet has a larger share of younger users as compared to older people hence what you see here is not an entirely accurate picture of public opinion i think the fact that the internet the blogosphere the social networks react to politics is

a good thing it means there's a vivid feedback to what we're doing but reactions vary but this difference of opinions is one of the elements of direct democracy the modern twenty first century democracy of course internet polls and their results and open legally binding for governments nor do they accurately reflect all public opinion because as i would like to stress once again he won't find a lot of right wingers hanging out on the websites of left wing parties and vice versa people who share communist ideas would hardly be regular readers of live journal for one where the audience is more liberal minded more right leaning it's great that they're all those different opinions and i believe that the authorities should react to what's going on in the blogosphere without giving in to it pressure of course the government should be up to date and it should pay attention to opinions expressed including those expressed by the internet it's a must for any politician of any level in the world today so which. was it difficult to follow up

a mystical or stickers question mr president he noticed one alarming trend with our society lately namely that it. has been turning its back on politics turning its back on the government's problem with upward social mobility and the faces on t.v. do not change it's not ours for example yes including ours and yours sure not ours was a disservice already for a decade now. and no matter how successful some individual companies are managers could be there is a distinct feeling that some people have been in their jobs for too long which of course i would not like us to follow the advice of ivan the terrible who used to take personnel decisions quite frequently but still would be to be done for new strong individuals to appear in this country because obviously such a demand does exist seen much as the shell of the first let me say a few words about the weariness i've been thinking about it quite a lot maybe because i'm one of those who due to their official status are often

shown on t.v. and spoken about in other media mr dog would be if you must remember how our people myself included perhaps you too although you're a long time media professional used to watch news bulletins in the early one nine hundred ninety s. we were glued to the screens particularly when say the sessions of the congress of people's deputies were being held hours of political broadcasting overshadowed everything any movies or t.v. series i think that's a clear sign of poor living standards the better our life is the less attention people will pay to that because they're more or less happy with their life however they should not become indifferent they should go to the polls and vote for this or that political force this is the constitutional duty if you will of every citizen who is not indifferent to the destiny of their own country their homeland so talking of people being weary and indifferent let me stress once again i don't have such an impressionable sometimes they say our life has degenerated into uninterrupted entertainment on the television is only entertaining but one of the

other options which are one hundred ninety three style television to be honest i wouldn't want it maybe there are. some who do want it after all our country is a democracy in this respect now what concerns the need for the new faces you were talking about i'm fully with you on this it's not only about stagnation stagnation is always dangerous and may lead to very bad consequences what's crucial is that those in power should eventually muster up enough strength to leave it to somebody else such changes should not happen abruptly with everyone resigning at once waving their hands in farewell with putin and me saying goodbye wear off there must be continuity we must know who succeeds us at the helm of the state however there must be a renewal and a very serious one i've been trying to make sure that this renewal is continuous. in the past three years as a result of my decisions nearly half of regional governors have been replaced and those who left were not all of retirement age those were very different people some

had been appointed only a few years even several months before the decision that they should resign. this should be going on everywhere among regional governors in the police in the municipalities and of course at the level of federal government a government doesn't like shake ups i often receive messages from citizens with a demand like fire this minister immediately shame on you there's been a disaster but he's still in office we must realise that not everything goes wrong because of a minister we do have quite a difficult situation in the industrial sector and our economy in general but there must be new faces in the government therefore if it happens that our nation the citizens of russia entrust the united russia party to form the next government i mean if they vote for united russia if our citizens vote for our presidential candidates and if i become in charge of forming a new government it will be a totally reshaped government a government that will feature fresh faces this is what i believe to be of paramount importance to thank you for your. list and that of how did your family

respond to the latest events i was lazy. you know my family is used to all kinds of things but the way they feel is that if everything we're talking about comes true if the elections take place in just that way and we get the mandate to run the country in the government they will hardly be able to see me more often than they do now although it's not something they're happy about they continue to help me in every way. you know spicy mr meant that if thank you for this interview and although we have rob some of the political commentators of the chance to put forward their theories potential voters seem to have been given answers to all the questions that were in the air i believe this is the most important mission of television thank you sir thank you.

twenty years ago the largest country in. the suitcases. one hundred trying. to teach began the journey. where did it take to. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realms of. the future covered.

stories on our t.v. and nato troops bulldoze a serbian road block on the border with northern kossovo after enforcing a shoot to kill policy at the disputed checkpoint to the scenes two weeks ago. dimitri medvedev has said both he and the dealer putin would have stood for the same goals if running for the presidency but that portends popularity among russians makes him the better capital. of the never ending story of us tara the greeks brace themselves for yet more cops and higher taxes as the government of the debt ridden nation tries to prove its fits for a new bailout. medicine.