what about here where's r t here's one of the top stories and the protests sweep across europe thousands demand all eternity to severe cuts in countries from debt ridden greece to belgium demonstrations have taken place just ahead of a key east summit due to keep in brussels this thursday. and the u.n. arab league envoy to syria kofi annan bastard camp launching dialogue between the syrian authorities and opposition during his visit to the country meanwhile the government troops are advancing on a rebel stronghold within the city of homs where the authorities say armed

terrorists are operating. and a case of policy and detainee and hunger strikers draws widespread attention to israel's car virtual detention policy three hundred palestinians are reportedly only held in jails without official charge or trial. that's russia's foreign policy takes center stage in our interview show spotlights don't go away.

hello again oh welcome to spotlight the incident show on our t.v. time i'll be your friend today we are talking about foreign policies and international relations the coming of a new president shows likely to go along with a shift in russia's foreign policy the world is changing that of the new leader will have to face some new tougher challenge a week before the election the race friend replied with published his version of the world today one of the problems of russia may encounter in the future and how is it will going to cope of them if the left is he really getting ready to change direction from policy dramatically or are his proposals rather pre-election rather

discuss it now with that is also editor in chief of the russia profile magazine and jeffrey taylor moscow correspondent of the atlantic magazine. heated political debate in the pro and anti-government rallies differentiates the current presidential race in russia from the two previous advance. can she be. as seven are you go program discussion the articles published in russia's major dailies outline his vision for the country's future putin discussed the liberalizing russian society and the prospects for the middle class migrations in a forebear russia's economic revival and social welfare national security in the last pre-election article published this week didn't define his foreign policy priorities he criticised nader for its mobile policing pretensions and rounded on washington for its desired to secure environment or ability and total security at

the expense of others he analyzed the arab spring as outcome and paid tribute to the dynamic growth on greeks countries key to program is the principle that moscow should remain a decisive where on the global stage. but the whole journal of thank you for joining the discussion you owe me some leslie is the last article in a series of these have put as pre-election manifestos and foreign policy and in the beginning of this article he says we will strive to ensure a new world order well this sounds strange to me because what that new. russian foreign policy has always been advocating status quo and stability rather than of asian so what is it talking about. first of all i think that this doesn't correspond with the rest of the article because further down he pretty much lists

kind of the catalog of the existing issues in russian foreign policy and in the outlook is is very traditional i personally had a hard time finding anything new in terms of russian foreign policy in this article . but it's of course very useful to have it all in one place and kind of there is a some so noticeable gap sort of there like there is no chapter on the on the former soviet union there and that is supposed to be the top priority in the russian foreign policy everybody has noticed that i don't know whether that's a that's a mistake of people who are preparing this article or it was the intent i really i don't know well many consider this this article on foreign policy as being pretty anti western and american well let's hear what that reporter wrote about the

concept of absolute invulnerability. the american soldier become obsessed with the ideal becoming absolutely invulnerable. this utopian concept is on fusible absolute invulnerability for one country would in theory require absolute vulnerability of brawlers this is something that cannot be exacted violation of the principle of unity and indivisibility or security to pull just a serious threat. while speaking about involve their ability i think put makes a good point here but. it's so difficult to argue with what he says but do you agree do you agree jeffrey that that he really so. it really sounds as if as if america is regarded by puttin as the biggest real threat to russia no actually i think that down further in the article he talks about meeting with henry

kissinger former secretary of state security advisor. who's one of the weightiest figures we have in the united states who is what we've been driving china but he also keeps a strong with russia and he and putin makes a very clear. when he meets with kissinger the message he takes away is they both agree that the united states and russia at times of instability need to work together that is they don't need to overturn anything create any new orders. so i don't i think he stresses that i think that there is somehow a call for partnership that putin was issuing many years ago when he first became president that has basically been not entirely accepted by the united states in fact they say it's been ignored even if they formally have accepted and i think he's not closing doors there. but it's definitely taking the gist of the article is

taking a stance against. something like the ideal for spectrum dancers know what you are implying that you being an american and you having seen lots of election campaigns in the states that if we if we leave aside the usual pre election rhetoric what he actually means it which actually is ready to do is ok it doesn't worry. patrick puttin speaks of i quote a compromise on missile defense he thinks it's possible that one would not like to see put rights in the deployment of the american system on a scale that would demand the implementation of our declared countermeasures against quote so he wants a compromise he speaks of countermeasures but this means our base can russia afford race today yes well i don't think you're out of status i don't think this is really about an arms race this is the rhetoric you know the countermeasures the trasher

proposed were the kinder than kaliningrad yeah i mean i have not heard of any other country measures kind of that that have been put on the table that they should be as symmetrical that's. yes. but even that is of course kind of very very easy for europe it's a very uncomfortable threat. and he basically it's clear from the article that the missile defense remains in terms of security international security in a v the toughest and the most painful issue. in the relationship between between russia and the united states and russia and later two and now let's hear another quote here's what i put in reality about neglecting some major principles of civilizations coexistence. major principles necessary for any fusible

civilization would indeed be usable security to all states the un acceptability of excessive use of force and the unconditional observance of the basic standards of international law and neglect obey any of these principles can only lead to the gist of those ational international relations it is through this prison that me to see if some aspects of us need to conduct that contradict the logic of modern development relying instead on the street touch of the law based mentality. while here for here we have it again and i have transcribed question once again he again mentions the us and its allies as sort of a destabilizing force that they like the later principles of a civilized relationship so well that doesn't worry washington ok what does it all mean the end of a bad medvedev reset well i'm not sure whether the reset really called him the

first place good point. but in any case the fact remains that now. the old world order based on state sovereignty has been overturned and for various reasons we have so called humanitarian interventions in countries which often happen to have oil or other resources are statistically placed so i think there's still going to the same instability we have now is going to continue so it's a question of where pops up now it's already popping up in syria but and there are already strong calls from republicans the united states to intervene in syria which would give us maybe the fifth country we're basically at war and now if we if we intervene there with just as unpredictable or far worse consequences than what we had with iraq and afghanistan not to mention yemen and constant drone bombings and assassinations i was next to a greater. there there is a total which would be

a total game changer we wouldn't be very difficult to see how the economy and world economy would not go into a depression if we if we will. that mean. rising tensions between russia and the united states especially if a bomb is real if if the problem is made available so so so so will will. tell you republican presidents. be a good pair like like for another round of out of like boxing. actually i'm not sure there's going to be a disaster historically republicans have been had been much more pragmatic all the major deal struck by. the republicans there of course change with the neo cons when the kind of the liberal converts to republicans and sort of appearing on the stage people who who are internationalists by by spirit and

conservative sort of kind of their their their reason and. they're not really kind of conservative and that was the that was the drama of the of the of the bush era yeah so i'm not sure that we're there with a republican administration and couldn't place they would necessarily be the dramatic worsening of rushing wrist relations i think that the issues there are on the table now are going to persist as jeffrey has. kind of rightly said there is the old world order based on the on the sovereignty something that even in this article putin is trying to stick to to hold on to and say kind of the the this was the holy of holies. of the that is there is no longer it has not disappeared completely but it is no longer that you. finding the founding principle of international relations say journalists and results from

russia profile magazine and jeffrey taylor from this lance acknowledges the spotlight will be back shortly after a break so stay with us then we will be back. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. charge was a big. welcome

back to the spotlight i'm algren of and just a reminder that my guests today are andres our top of the russia profile magazine and jeffrey taylor from the atlantic magazine. talking about a recent article that was published and that touched upon the issues of international relations jeffrey you mentioned you mentioned putin's need to with a with consumption well this. was practically not reported in the russian leader it was it was really neglected by the reserve as a journalist but on the other side the same day put me to kissinger some opposition

leaders wanted me to the new american investor in moscow and that caused a huge outrage especially especially from from behind the kremlin was i mean i merely said well how can you well jewing an election campaign go and meet and some of those people were representatives of the all of the other candidates for presidency so why do you think. this caused such an outrage especially when the acting prime minister is meeting kissinger i mean so what's the big deal that anybody would as it is. i don't think it should have been such a big deal and that's part of the ambassador's job. the element of controversy here is that michael mcfaul is associated with democracy promotion and cut the rising soviet ology yeah yeah i don't know that you know you say that but particularly with democracy from the right so the problem probably wouldn't have made such

a difference if the previous ambassador had met with the opposition non-systemic opposition that day but with michael mcfaul it seemed that the demonstrations break out the ambassador's change and then for most of the first day i think it was actually meeting with i think was nicholas burns and yes it was it was a meeting with nicholas burns and the best in a facility that he had meeting but he still was gave his imprimatur to the meeting of people who we had to kissinger was never an advocate of human rights to. ok let's hear what vladimir putin wrote after he met kissinger by the way what he writes about human rights and double standards and human rights protection. which is often said that human rights holder right state sovereignty well when states already to be easily violated in the needle distribution when human rights are protected from the outside and on

a selective basis and when the same rights of the population are trampled underfoot in the process of such protection including the most basic and sacred right the right to one's life these actions cannot be considered a noble mission but rather outright demagoguery. and right i did have a word. geoffrey about this point was article and he said that probably at least in the west what he writes is actually read by the what we call the expert community not for not for the the general reader what would you say well what we just what we just heard and saw on screen this quote will this things like that really be understood but why the wide election or if it is also for for the expert community you know i think i think this is a. very supportive it is a specific but great it really speaks about the ideology or a lack of such

a sort of been in the kremlin as far is international relations are concerned and of course the the biggest fear sort of that this this article reveals is is a fear that. humanitarian intervention can one day be applied to russia so the kind of the entire if you can think of ok what is the driving idea behind putin's foreign policy as expressed in this article kind of we don't want to experience an arab spring and we don't want to have communitarian intervention by the united states against russia and we are trying to list all the arguments against it and see where we can use force where we can use this where you can use that to prevent that so that russians sovereignty remains entirely can of controlled from the from the kremlin walls and that's what this this paragraph is

about one of putin's concerns is as he as he wrote himself he admits that i quote when it comes to media influence we often outperforms this is a separate and countless challenge that we must confront there right when it's not just about media i mean where he says media influence. it also means somebody deep it's a softball or yeah i just know you just thought you'd like to shift a day away oh yeah yeah. yeah yeah i mean we are we are part of it but you know ordered. i think it's it's really weird that the year of the year. russia finds itself sort of all the wrong side of history yeah well i think i think andrew is making a good point so jeffrey what would you say what's really what's really more

important for media influence and which put the speaking is it is it the the quality of the media of the quality of the ideas i think i think a lot of it has to do with the quality of water if you're talking about media influence in the west and united states the representatives of the country and maria sharapova it's probably one of the best represented in some russia being a beautiful decided yet whether she's russian or america well i just. sort of the only. major decision. that this is no no if they're going to cost her in order to carry it was true is consider her to be it was true in seeger but nobody can deny who wrote you because you say we're. going to address that if this rate is difficult to find media figures or stars now who are recognizably russian and russian in an unabashed way in the united states or in europe and very popular

and that would actually have a big influence i think because otherwise russia has sort of dropped off the radar for a lot of westerners and they don't know really much more than there is but here and there are shut up and shut up of an oil well actually there are a lot of beautiful russian tennis players. so i think that is a problem and then russia has not been. in. and using the media the same way say saakashvili did in georgia war in two thousand and eight when he was on t.v. speaking in english to the to b.b.c. c.n.n. the other channels pretty much the entire time of the war and at that time russia didn't have that intimate connection with the western viewer that saakashvili was trying to create two three is that really reading a technology i mean being able to deliver speak english being a able to read share opera visiting different fields is were reported that the idea

that stands behind it i think the idea is crucial because it is the idea was we are western we are changing the course of georgia and the russian bear is preventing us from doing it and he was. the. kind of law school american law school graduate creative he was kind of delivering it in a very good english to all the channels that it can or were predisposed to like him russia could not offer any alternative to that. kind of a bunch of generals who did it clear a kind of eventually of course projected a completely different image out there so i think these these things that the technology and the ideas i mean i think that in water in world lead the whole so-called progress approach sort of especially in russia overestimates technology i think i think that technology is good as long as it's out they are to to to hell

deliver kind of good a blitz because that international relations will probably talk about foreign policy world a year already jeffrey started talking about the arab countries which are which are a big issue in foreign policy these days let's hear what mr putin wrote about the arab spring consequence. because strain was initially proceed with the hope of positive change people in russia sympathize with those who were seeking democratic reform however instead of asserting democracy or protecting the rights of the minority the temple being made to depose an enemy and to stage a coup which only resulted in the replacement of one dominant force with another even more aggressive dominant force. so what about their first of all how how long do you think russia will insist on backing and defending ourselves regime so the end. until the last day i mean as

as was the case with minimal shit. and the same about iran america will be threatening a strike on iran. i'll tell it face is what the global. conflict or what do you mean will america attack iran well that is be threatening to attack the well they keep this pastor they're not taking anything off the table and all the while the expectation is that probably israel will attack and israel has decided to issue a warning or a fifteen minute warning. so i don't think that the last thing that present on the needs now is any conflict with iran before the elections so do you think that there that the middle east and there they are well today will start selling out as a base of course between russia and america or it will become. but i think it's

real much to say the middle east is the area of course if you from the russian america kind of russia plays very little very small role in the middle east and. like the soviet union and i think that the the the middle east will continue to be the most volatile. in today's world and something that will present a lot of you challenges including the challenges to the revolution or amanda says sort of that a lot of westerners harbor and a lot of russians despise and. kind of that's i think. kind of as more and more kind of results started to appear kind of their thank you thank you very much jeffrey thank you thank you both for coming in just a reminder that my guests on showbiz tonight we're under is all a tough and when she felt the pressure profile i don't jeffrey taylor lost her correspondent from the atlantic magazine and that's it for now from all of us here

at stoplights will be back with more first hand comments on what's going on in and outside michele until then stay on r.t. it's a cute. come

.

on. mother mission free the cretaceous three per store charges three the arrangement three per three per studio type privilege the old free lunch just plain video for your media projects a free mediocre dog to our teeth dot com. play .