welcome back here with r g here's a look at the top stories thousands of egyptians occupy central cairo demanding an end to the country's military rule despite fears lashes with security forces that are flames at least thirty three lines the country's army point of government has handed in its resignations a call of protest ahead of parliamentary elections next week. ramping up the pressure the united states targets iran's financial and energy sectors with a new set of sanctions warning that increasingly aggressive measures are falling

that's after the u.k. and canada with the player they are climbing all ties with iranian banks including the sample back. greece is fighting against the tide as its new government rushes to impose more steering on the people in order to secure another rescue mode meanwhile in the continues to slide deeper into debt as a new prime minister starts his first week in office. and after six months on the international space station a cosmopolitan to astronauts safely return to earth aboard your russian spacecraft three other space adventures will remain on the ice asked for another four months. buzz russia prepares to go to the polls on the fourth of december to elect members of the state duma spotlight host albert off talks to the good coffee devotee had a fair russia fashion that's next on our.

well to the. mayor and more mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of food under the microscope. we've done the future however. i will again welcome to floodlight they enter the shelter and i have some time i'll bring all that away from finishing our election review on december fourth russia is going to renew its call seven proxies back i'm training for the four hundred fifty seats in the lower challenge of the state to be out of the new law and peace through the office will be five years not for ten as the campaign goes on spotlight gives me a unique opportunity to hear from all the parties today my guess tuesday night he

would call from a party called fair to rock. the kremlin bless the creation of the fair russia party five years ago state controlled opposition that's how it used to be described that i will assume the kremlin was drew with support well first russia party had to depart from its native sure it never reached the or because it was on its summit stuck in the middle criticizing the ruling party but never going too far in its criticism. the fair russia party's leader sergei mironov has long been part of the country's political elite for ten years he was chairman of the opera house and the russian parliament at the party's founding meeting in two thousand and six cyl de niro have expressed support for vladimir putin's pauses the party became associated with the kremlin the association worked well for fair russia which could

result in the march two thousand and seven regional elections before parliamentary election in the same year the kremlin announced its support for the united russia that's believed to have hard to bear russia's popularity. in the two thousand and seven to my election it just managed to overcome the seven percent threshold. the party has become its criticism of the ruling united russia party the upcoming elections where they were. position. actor and six party presentation. this is called thank you very much for coming to our show you know since we have a global audience and it's not limited to russians living around the world let me start with foreign policy is there anything your party would like to change in

russia's foreign policies or are you completely happy with them here there are many things in russia's foreign policy we're not happy about most importantly russia should seek to integrate into the european community a goal should be harmonized with european laws and generally i think we should try to become a part of europe in every way that is what our policy wants well the only part of currently has a working relationship with the european parliament is that we're maintaining contacts with our fellow social democrats by the way and the head of the work group responsible for that. believe that russia is a part of europe people often fail to understand that europe is the credit of civilization i'm sorry the statement upsets anyone true isn't the color civilization egypt or china or civilization came from europe i see modern civilization modern civilization came from europe and we're fortunate to be part of europe we're fortunate that our scientists saw it as a right as a part of european civilization we have to take advantage of our geographic situation and historical positions. most political parties small parties i'm not

talking about the likes of united russia i think the opposite they claim that russia has its own historical destiny and that it has to face up to outside threats and pressure can we safely say that you are is the only party in russia that advocates euro integration. yes you could say that's where the only party that not only at. kate's place things but actually works to make that happen so i guess you support the a.t.o. . no actually we're against that russia has nothing to gain from the w t o russia is a commodity driven economy will commodities accounting for ninety three percent of our exports we understand perfectly well that commodity trade is not regulated by the w t o the only sites as there would benefit from it would be those that export metals and minerals and a few other industries but exports from our products. and other businesses are going to face tougher competition now that's why we are guests joining the doublets

hero in such a hasty manner i think that russia should have bargained for extensive transition periods we are however in favor of integrating with europe on matters of democracy electros penitentiary system human rights and education where the key to harmonize ation of many other laws that would ultimately let russians feel like they're part of europe. they're also in favor of gradual reform in a common humanitarian and economic space of europe who will work towards that. contain season is a time of promise is in populous the the russian politicians today i talking about a threat to russia coming from abroad namely from the west. see any such threat. there is some distrust to nato due to the fact that nato itself doesn't have a clear position on russia we're talking about integration yet at the same time they're deploying the troops and missile defense systems. is there

a threat potentially in the long term yes as for current threats from the west it's not think there are any and the reason for that is very simple russia's political and bureaucratic elite send their children to study in the west their families live in the west they have property in western countries. how can they criticize the west when they're obviously plan insulator. the only real threat to russian security that i see today comes from our own corrupt to lead and the fact that they are completely dependent on the west. another thread is the lack of a proper food policy which results in russia having three imports seventy percent of its food. russia's dependence on pharmaceutical imports. ninety percent of all medicines are imported those are the main threats. russia has always been its own worst enemy and sorry to say it's russia collapse as one

say it will be due to our own internal contradictions but. i have been saying for a long time now that if things stay the way they are we will come to a very dangerous and fundamental crisis. because you are a member of parliament you have been with the party for many years now when you party was first formed it was called a puppet a position party put together by the kremlin and project designed to show russia and the rest of the world there we have a multi-party system is it true that your relations with the kremlin has seriously deteriorated really key. our conflict with the kremlin was inherently present from the very start of the kremlin can't afford to this person it's of ministers have clout between several parties. russia has been at odds with the kremlin from day one. we had to show different results at elections we had to fight we had to criticize the kremlin and the ruling party exposing the troll violations and abuse . so object away we were in

a situation where the conflict could only escalate it has been getting worse and worse and it will get worse tail therefore stay strange as it may seem we're more of an opposition party than the l.t.p. are all the communists policy which is an include people from the presidential team and their ballots. let me give you a simple example i proposed to all the other parties to conduct a joint frawley for fair elections on november twenty sixth i appeal to the candid as of all the parties over four of us at first yeah right cause there russia and the liberal democrats. the communists refused straight away they must have been warned against it by someone. and then we started getting mixed messages from the older p.r. . and then the other party started getting threats. for instance there's been who is on the right cause ballot said he was prepared to bring his supporters to the rally. leaders and his party told him. that if he goes through

interfax with me turnouts the rally or he will be taken off the ballot immediately . but many politicians talk about the election in these terms you see this party was told to do this their party was warned against that when you see this to mean that those recommendations come from the coming of course not only. will it be seen in some people close to the kremlin it seems like you are all it theater and they are the rhetoric. against say that formally the kremlin controlled all political activities. but it can no longer do today has it is getting weaker criminal officials are not the only ones influencing politics. and ministers and officials play a big role in it too for example recently got hold of a speech by governor cuomo of. greece's governor right now he was meeting with his

subordinates and in a specie repeatedly made outrageous statements that were totally unconstitutional. so governors mayors local officials they're all working to give one party competitive advantage over others to make sure it remains the ruling party. so it is not just the crumbling many local officials are doing this as well. you just said something that our audience me consider terrible he said the region is getting weaker but russia is a vast country with nuclear weapons to some extent you are poor. g.m. so we have a member of this regime saying it is weakening isn't that dangerous for the world why. i think dictators like a dolphin saddam hussein poses a much greater danger for the world i think that energy in a country like russia or china or the u.s. would be much worse i only said that the current regime is getting weaker which means the opposition is getting stronger we are ready to take responsibility and

power we are ready to form a government i have long been suggesting to various political forces especially left wing parties to form a coalition that will enable us to nominate our own candidates for prime minister deputy prime minister and other ministerial positions you already with your party is not hoping to collect more than twelve to fifteen percent of the votes in the election based on the same is taking power in the country no opposition party would be able to solve this problem on its own that is why i am suggesting a coalition it was a coalition rally that we call for. opposition parties should stand together because their territories and found ways to put pressure on the regime of course inertia and administrative clout clearly give united russia an advantage but this is not as the size of as it may say it is possible that all the position parties combined united russia at the upcoming elections. if we were united we would be able to nominate our own candidates for prime minister. before that so happen when

it's to consolidate our efforts. that is one of my proposing to do we need to stop fighting for a vote percentages and start fighting for power. the parties have to go to parliament to get power conduct reforms and develop the country not just to find the political naish this is real stability a rotation of power in western countries is never regarded as a sign of weakness which socialists are replaced by the conservatives the conservatives are replaced by the labor party as does not mean that the country's getting weaker. it's kind of a new he says you know if you could call if you had over the fair russia problem entry stuff life will be back shortly after the break so stay with it's the.

that's the compliment and mobile home base told me oh creation of the globe is the food system the global food system is not created to feed the people of the world it's created to maximize the profits. sure not trading the actual cash physical grain or trading promises for grain to be delivered a month or six months or twelve months or eighteen months in the future. stories of modern regulated silver or gold that can be negotiated and hoarded some very. cheap place. yet or. possibly it's not traded now. but it could be in the future.

welcome back to spotlight. just a reminder that. the good call for one of the leaders are the fair russia political point of the competing for the. chamber of the russian parliament. it's a good cause he just said it was possible that all of addition parties combined would receive more votes in the upcoming election than united russia. people are saying the ruling party will loosen seats in the parliament calling this election however this is what happens every time the liberal intelligentsia tells the

opposition you should forge a common front against the ruling party every time the opposition party say they are ready to fight for power yet the opposition has remained scared for many many years what does this mean that opposition parties are not really eager to take power they are just happy to occupy their nieces like you said. yes unfortunately you're right the opposition is poorly united they have always been in favor of integration i'm on opposition parties. because you why are they listening to other opposition parties tell you when you propose an alliance. you know it's different for every policy the communists say for example that they're well established policy and that we need their support more than they need ours i think the problem is that people are forgetting that they're responsible for their country if things keep going the way they are now i do not think the current regime or the country will last for more than three or four years before

a serious crisis breaks out. and interesting thought just struck me i haven't thought about it for about twenty years a situation where five seven or ten parties are running for parliament usually occurs at first or second election in you'll establish system russia has had free elections for over twenty years and still we cannot come to steve bipartisan or try partisan system why. this is clearly there are told. the russian constitution puts the executive branch above other branches our cords so weak our judges are appointed the parliament is inefficient and can't exercise oversight economist akkad it can form the cabinet or have a say in staff decisions. that's why the executive branch is dominant and the parliament and political parties are fairly helpless. with your party's leader. that's why parties are not growing to add to that unfair elections violations lack of public debate very weak democratic institutions and the suppression of several

initiatives. all these things are preventing parties from growing and becoming more influential in your party's leaders thirty murano was the speaker of the parliament's upper house for many years he used to be the third highest ranking official in the country is it fair for you to criticize the authorities right now. the upper chamber is a bad example as at least half of the servants has a directly appointed by the executive branch the current procedure is that senators are nominated by governors. as members have been appointed by governors who were in turn appointed by the government measure only the credibility of such an upper chamber is questionable and whoever is in charge of it an upper chamber compose in this way would only support decisions that are already backed by the government and the rest of russia such as are members of united russia the ruling party. where this talk about the promises he has made you said that you always who feel all promises you me during your election campaign i have known you personally for

a long time as a politician and i can confirm that you really do fulfill all your promises let's look at what you're promising this time with higher wages. how is that possible easily how is it possible when russia can barely keep inflation below the critical level you know you're forgetting that an amount of money comparable to russia's entire budget some three hundred bill. dollars is stolen by russian officials every year it goes into their pockets and then brings this to your second premise defeating corruption russia has not been able to defeat corruption in the past four hundred years it is not the officials cannot do it to want to everybody knows that . the finland used to be part of russia now it has one of the least corrupt governments in the world but the government doesn't want to fight corruption years and finish a scandinavian or european or american methods or even take fighting corruption because many of russia's top officials benefit from corruption beneath. the once

if you corruption this effectively means you've given in if you promise no you are talking to the author of the plea on parliamentary oversight to be it is have been talking about this for seventeen years but i did it because you still need the parliament can exercise oversight. my bill would fix that but the parliament has been afraid of even reading it for three years now three years if our party comes to power we will work on a completely different platform we will introduce the real separation of powers we will make own government officials accountable who will require them to make their incomes and spending transparent push for the rest fixation of article twenty of the convention against corruption which calls for the criminalization of illicit enrichment and the freezing of also spacious assets that an official cannot prove they acquired legally this is what we propose if these changes are made we will see a drastic drop in corruption it would give us

a tremendous source for funding social programs investing in the economy etc there is coast of road construction in russia is seventeen point five million dollars per kilometer we're speaking to a worldwide audience now i think if any of your viewers work in road construction they will understand it is more expensive than in finland much more expensive than the states finland or sweden you've mentioned social programs you are is in. the social democratic party therefore you should you lay heavily on professional unions meanwhile there are virtually no labor unions in russia right now where had they gone. the unions like all of the civil institutions have been suppressed by the regime if you keep talking about civil society right society cannot spring up in a wholesale environment cannot grow in acidic soil. you cannot swim across a pool of a city because you would never reach the other end it is the same in this case we need to create the right environment for unions for independent media and for the

opposition it is usually the opposition that exercises parliamentary oversight where planning to introduce that who need political power to make the changes that powers what we want we don't want a leash of nine or ten or fifteen or twenty percent we want power coalition government and one formed by social democrats that will enable us to change the country we are on this to do with commission security. as a committee community and security security has become one of the major issues in this election campaign people are afraid to walk the streets these days children have stopped playing outside we cannot let women go with alone at night unless you walk them from door to door. it is not quite that bad at least in big sur the problem is serious. yes all the upscale houses in moscow are fenced off and there is a guard at each gate he works most young men go for these days is

a private security guard we have had this police reform in russia. as you said in a quote the only positive outcome of this reform was that police officers were able to improve their financial standing for his reform fields and would you suggest we can do to conduct a proper reform. have been against the way the reform was conducted ever since a star. the biggest mistake was put in the reform the agency in charge of the reform. we cannot trust or bureaucrats with any reform as they are scared of changes and will inevitably relates. to responsible then. what i suggested was a former presidential working group to devise a reform plan and the responsible for it the group will include representatives of various political parties experts n.g.o.s and civil society institutions i propose a completely different procedure for re-enlistment that was absolutely transparent

i proposed public oversight because government agencies in russia are not supervised by anybody except the government itself. we have no parliamentary public or media oversight. in that situation the reform naturally did not lead to the results that some may have may believe believe it would lead to. good and evil. here's another quote of your theory russia suggests a dumb thing a direct action eighty corruption law that would equate bribery and treason. that's right. that's next have to therion isn't it's like when the kind of hands for stealing. if you know. let me tell you how laws are enforced in russia. according to the supreme court eighty five percent of all bribery convictions in russia are from cries of not more than one thousand roubles this means that officials the tape bribes are hardly ever convicted bribery cases fall apart.

russia's laws on corruption are very mild and they and it is easy for corrupt officials to avoid punishment. this is why we should regard bribery as a crime against the state at least morally. if an official does not serve his people and his country. if he sets up a crime or to light his pockets this is. definitely a crime against the state and the people but. he finally the two thousand and twelve presidential election is coming up who theoretically nominate a candidate and it would be in a cimarron of we have not decided on a candidate yet there are several prominent people in the past and i think we will have a heated discussion and make a decision on that in the near future does anyone see any chance against putin in russia today. only for position forces and various movements form an alliance which is again unlikely. we recently had a congress of security forces veterans with

a proposed nomination of people's candidates on both political parties and the general public would support she's at the what party do you mean the popular front of course no i'm talking about their poll and solve the popular front. with any they want to put together a list of reasonable charismatic leaders that might appeal to everyone and that could run against putin in the two thousand and twelve elections. well good luck thank you thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest today was given a good call from deputy head of the fair russia parliamentary group and one of the leaders of the fair russia party and that's it for now for all the spotlight will be back with more personal comments on the what's going on in the outside until then they are likely to take a sip.