watching r.t. the headlines about the u.s. prepares to sentence a russian base has been picked to boot for conspiring to smuggle arms and kill americans as he protests his innocence in the grounds to appeal faces life behind bars in a case the defense claims was hugely influenced by biased u.s. media coverage. balancer ups in central athens and protesters clashing with riot police after retired pensions shoots himself in front of passers by a suicide note the retired pharmacist claimed austerity cuts and you start with government reducing his pension to nothing. defense contractors nine not business as india makes sense to modernizing the military it by corruption scandals

and claims it's falling apart the country says it's prepared to spend a hundred billion dollars on the next ten years. next auntie's spotlight program discusses a new page in russian u.s. relations. hello yes welcome to. the interview. and stay right guest on the program stephen out for both russia and the united states two thousand and twelve promised to be a year of political front so both countries have presidential election this year and consequently a change or at least an adjustment of the political course in russia it's nearly

over and the new leader awaits and i gracious but americans are still out there making. as usual russia america racial becoming a very important issue in both countries during the election year so what the latest is russia and america really facing confrontation as the republicans would like to see it today or is it just popular discuss a story and i don't really an expert in russia and russia the local elections stephen. went to meet him in the bath and barack obama came to power they proclaimed the famous reset in the russian american relations after the cold rhetorical administration that manton a new period of partnership and cooperation rather than a standoff. knowledge the reset has been one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of both russian and american leaders the biggest reward is being used in the trade he signed in april two thousand and ten as the kremlin

a song about to welcome the return of president putin and there have been downs the recent year old continues yet also insists it's not going to confront washington but americans are yet to choose their new course the leading republican. romney for example has recently russia america's number one geopolitical. politico welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us. well first of all i've got this new book or the new edition of your work here in my hands which is called service for the last alternatives from stalinism to the new cold war. i just ask you what you called the new cold war and you said this is actually what's going on now but one of the pretty unpopular. statements like that. i think for. moscow the cold war ended in one nine hundred ninety one

ninety two actually some people think nine hundred eighty nine garbage off and reagan were leaving in fact i don't know if this is known but when reagan left office the presidency in january one thousand nine hundred eighty nine he wrote in his diary we ended the cold war so late in thought it was over gorbachev said after more in december one thousand nine hundred ninety when he met with the first president bush the cold war is over i think we should look back and say they thought so and it was certainly an aspiration and many things happened that suggested the cold war was over they agreed on the reunification of germany which had been the epicenter of the beginning of the cold war. gorbachev and soviet union supported the american war and the first war against saddam in the gulf. and after that in the one nine hundred ninety s. particular president clinton the relationship that clinton had with yachts and had

. elements of cold war the decision to move nato toward russia certainly was an act of cold war. after clinton an actor you have seen at first it appeared that bush the second bush and president putin would have a very close relationship you remember after the attack on america and nine eleven president putin called president bush and said george we are with you what can we do to help you and in fact. putin's russia helped america a lot during the first american born afghanistan instead telegram but after that constantly process and we constantly were conflicts so i would say that today if you look at the relationship objectively not from the russian point you not from the american point of view you would conclude that we have today more elements of war elements of cold war conflict than we have of cooperation now maybe we can.

change there but things are getting worse so i think we are still in a state of at least seventy cold war and if you don't like the expression yet let's just say relations are bad and there's a well i mean the people of the generation can say that because because we do know these elements we have seen them that seen them daily on television and seen them in the papers so when you see some of these say oh that rings a bell for example the most remarkable thing arguably that happened in the u.s. russia relations lately was the remark by republican candidate mitt romney that he considers russia to be the number one threat to u.s. security isn't there another element does not ring a bell well let's decide this now that's become struck that is there's a sense we're in the middle the republicans are in the middle of a presidential nomination in a month ago so it was. romney has decided that since his party is actually to the right of problems of who's actually been a historically rather moderate republican but he could get the nomination he needs

the support of what he thinks of the republican right wing. the republican right wing hates obama hates president obama so romney has taken the position that if anything obama is for he wrong he is against and since obama instituted the so-called reset which is what our generation now used to hold detente thinks they target which means improving relations with russia romney is going to take that position that's a bad idea because russia is still the number one enemy if he becomes president will he actually govern on the progress probably not but because of the presidential nomination campaign he's saying we have very strong things but it's bad for the relationship and your people here in moscow of course hear this and say you see we told you the americans haven't changed so you get this continuation of the cold war at least rhetorically which i have consequences when you when you're saying that the republican rights hates are. it doesn't mean that the republican

left's loves the bad because there doesn't seem to be any republican left today it seems that they are campaigning who's right so. then the other guy why is that is it obama who is radicalizing the american writes i hate television hosts who answer all questions that are better than i can when i was going to say to you now where's the republican love i mean what's happened in america as you probably are good is that the so-called moderate wing of the republican party used to be the most important when i was the winner of rockefeller and even the first president bush it's vanished or gone into hiding so now you have a kind of very weak republican senator but in the primaries and it's important that people outside the united states understand there's. a little bit of really a few people actually vote in primary elections state by state when a candidate with a party chooses

a candidate more people vote in the general therefore the people who do vote are the people who are very upset or anxious or ideological and they don't like obama they don't like him for many many many reasons beginning with the fact that he's black and continuing with his policies and really represents a liberalism of these kinds of things so romney is appealing to the needs them to get enough votes at the convention to get the nomination but let me repeat what i said before. opposition to obama is russia policy which has been this this reset is widespread in the republican party wrongly even sir and this is quite astonishing you know this is what was i do but ronnie said he was against the the arms the new start treaty on nuclear weapons that obama negotiated with me get it. all republican presidents have supported arms control this is a departure this is something new would romney actually abolish intreating

ballot but it's dangerous because it undermines trust in the other country what are we negotiating with i mean if they're not going on to be treating then what's the point of negotiation remember under bush the united states unilaterally left we have the most aggressive treatment so this idea that you could negotiate a treaty decided few years later well our change from minor with a treaty. it is not the way to build a relationship. he did not so my question did obama in the radicalize the american right we is is it is part. we america right we're going to public i'm sorry what we don't want to say is that his fault that he lived he isn't what yeah well first of all he won a very substantial presidential election he didn't have a gigantic majority but he had a substantial majority and do you have to understand him for me a man of my generation who grew up in the south in complete segregation and i saw all the election of president obama a block and as an activist oracle justice but finally of blocks and blocks

achieved enough status in america from one of them to become president really if you're talking about justice what a woman should have been first and then. they're going to let you discover that i'm not going to go there some people would say to the manager. but but look we're jews christians that you've interviewed everybody who is never never been to jewish vice president only one jewish vice presidential candidate and that was senator lieberman where the here's the point here is that neither women nor jews were held in slavery in america so the rise from slavery and much beyond that was even worse than being a serf in russia the rise from slavery to the white house is a great triumph of american justice bot but there is a segment probably american people who don't feel that is justice they still don't trust box they still don't believe they should be and this resentment no they don't

speak it often it's there has energized the dislike of a liberal president so you get this combination and then there are other issues like health care and all the new issues that are and abortion that are dividing america but russia has not been an issue until recently but your romneys made a big issue. of the do you think i read his chances that well i think he's going to win the nomination unless something leslie puts his dog on top of that you know that story i just your viewers know it's a return to a narrative with his daughter and america's love dogs like russian love dogs so there's a but if you. doesn't do anything foolish and will be the nominee eve leave the serious challenge to i think it is this is this is not. know if the election were tomorrow all the polls show that obama would win by seven or eight points which is a comfortable margin but the economy is the story i mean if economy suddenly gets much worse then obama will be in big trouble there is one other issue we don't know

about yet there could be another and even worse war than you know have been the talk of attacking iran we are whether israel goes out of the united states doesn't mean you want to get it that could change everything because the american people are sick of these wars they want out of afghanistan they want out of the business taking decisions. i mean. not exactly when it's not that easy to say that again. will make a decision to start. i don't actually know the answer because i don't know whether the israelis could force obama's on the one hand the israelis don't have the capacity to fuel their aircraft and they need american logistical support the only other thing. they are very determined it's going to strike around unless iran makes major concessions i think is a dangerous moment says stephen cohen a story and professor and expert on russia and russian american english spotlight

will be back shortly right after break so they'll go stay with. filmmaker. and. the. director's cuts for the real life in prison on charges.

welcome back to spotlight i will love and just to remind them latest on the show today is stephen cohen a historian and a brilliant expert and russia and russia american relations stephen well if burma is really sad if he will continue to grow successfully as he doing now which will save the economy if he will manage to contain israel not attack. iran and so next fall. do you think that the second term of obama will be much different from the first because in the first term he he really did the solution a lot of people say he should she should become different because house is different that that the first term they want to win the elections and the second term they want their face. that's what they tell you

when they actually are sincere and savvy you have their lawyers in moscow we have the dollar they have all that is very it is very important point when they have to raise a lot of money and they raise it from private people corporations so when they come to you the first time they say it's going to be great we're going to represent you and then when you become unhappy about what they did during the first four years they say but please understand i'm not in the opposition but in my second term i'm going to do work. i think i think the answer is. well there it's a to forty answer i think obama has given up being a compromise president he's learned that that's not going to work so i think he will be much more aggressive on his own agenda which i like i like his maximum gender i like a lot i don't like his minimum agenda but everything for a lot depends on whether the democrats can take back the house of representatives we house of representatives have the capacity as a republican majority control of the house to block his legislation or to force

them in the compromises that aren't good if obama were to return to the white house but if the democrats were to lose the senate and the republican party and the house and house from it would be a catastrophic storm for what he gets both i think you'll have a triumph or three but that's not to speak of foreign policy i suspect you must and . probably think it will be easy for a bad man to reach a compromise with russia on the ballistic missile defense and that's the easiest question you've asked me absolutely not it's going to be very very very hard to credit when russia wants guarantees and obama signed a letter to the senate when he got ratification of the arms control agreement that he would take the maximum program of missile defense that means deploying it all the way around russia that's what it means because there's four stages.

russia wants the writing in writing in or out of if they want a treaty or just a letter notarized by somebody who will. have words about nato expansion. to the east that it had here we are today today the russian for diplomats that want to repeat their mistakes and we have won something in writing letters an american proverb is a good guy but get it in writing about ourselves so they want to be writing. they want in writing a century that this system will never be directed at russia's nuclear arsenal that's what they want correct. obama will be used over peace and betrayal if he were ever to issue such a guarantee right but the whole thing is fairly silly because we say it's against a right. which has no missiles so we're building a system that may not work anymore. against a country that doesn't have the weapons we're getting we're building the system again really help. me but nonetheless i want me after all this has

become one of the two biggest issues of conflict between the united states and russia and i think we know that when the microphone was opened it was a week or so ago and yet of an obama had a recorded moment maybe you know. where they are but i didn't know medgar spoke english there's no translator there i know obama doesn't speak russian so evidently but remember what obama said and he wasn't speaking to me beautiful he was speaking to putin because he knew that was that what he said after the election i'll have more flexibility if certainly with missile defense and then maybe get of . better lobby they are going to work for me this is important to me first of all obama assumes that putin is ready to be a partner. and i think that sets aside the idea that because putin returned to

power everything's going to be bad but it also assumes that obama thinks he's going to have flexibility with missile defense but it's going to require enormous struggle in the united states when you split. the russians reacts so these words this of the hurt part of the private conversation in the russian press the russians and russian the you're opposite laundries the north this is so what so what happened he said set out how that everybody but in america it was like a bomb in the press why what's the difference between and see the american attitude in what you just quoted and the russia what i was being analytical i'm not what i thought he was very much there obama thought he'd be able to do something and maybe get a foot square here it hasn't i think because in america particularly for the republicans romney seized on it right away. really is that obama is the kind of man who would tell us one person when in reality if he's elected would do so with very different and here shows are wrong in iraq he is an example he pretends to be tough with the

russians but if you realize he's going to give the russians everything actually that was why i was over there a lot of real action situation here when it was not it was not a good playing for obama it was not a good idea or even better to have the microphone completely. dead after that visit to say it is very aggravated that cold war rhetoric is making a comeback in american politics and this is obvious and it has mainly been coming from the republicans especially following this recent broadcast on a private conversation between barack about with me very at the summit in korea spotlight in of the reminds us of the story. of the last words obama and medvedev exchanged during their meeting installed. on the microphone the us president said he would have more flexibility on such issues as missile defense inflicted in the vanda an event of promise to pass the message on to president elect of the idea. what food was

a wave of republican criticism and the harshest comments made by the party's frontrunner mitt romney went this far as labeling russia america's number one geopolitical foe and slam anagrams comments over flexibility concerning the u.s. missile defense as alarming and warring russians outgoing president dmitry inventive sort of room his remarks how the whole world flavor and suggested the american should check his watch to discover it's twenty twelve not timid nineteen seventies while some analysts dismiss romney's remark i simply can paint rhetoric others see it as a clear sign russia u.s. relations could get worse if a republican occupies the oval office. critics say that the us russian reset in general has been pretty cynical it's been based on the afghanistan trial so many american transit through russia in

exchange for blocking the case. by the congress do you think this was a simple as that you know. and now i speak as an american with regret you're not supposed to criticize american foreign policy when you're abroad but i don't know if being on television means you're in my view is that once again the problem here is that the united states during the reset took concessions from russia which are transect creating an entrance a group to supply american troops in afghanistan but it didn't give them and it got russian support for the sanctions against iran so we got the two things the united states wanted from the reset it did not give russia the two things russia wanted that was it wanted in the nato expansion including our deciding not to rearm georgia we wanted that and didn't get it and it wanted a resolution of missile defense in

a way that russia felt they could live with it's gotten harder so i thought the moment it looks at least from the russian side that once again it's been a one way street that it's a moscow makes concessions and washington says thank you very much will take them but doesn't give moscow wanted i think that the return of putin to the kremlin means that that will happen again that putin will get concessions or he will get any i think that's going to be the future so whoever is the next president of states will have to have a different form of negotiating with well how. is it that the magnets can so hold magnitsky list this plan is going to need to correct one thing you said you said that the republican party has become the bastion of any russian politics but in fact. it's very widespread in the democratic party and the big resolution comes from democrats they are the ones who thought it up. i don't know when we had the idea that they would get rid of jackson van which is

a ridiculous piece of law completely outdated and replace it with a piece of wall that's going to be a bigger problem because you understand here's the catch the resolution requires not only that people it doesn't like in russia or committing crimes or whatever we deny visa but that the congress be allowed to participate in this process and that what the state department is doing that means that any congressman. the side of the russian he doesn't like he may demand that he or she be honest with us where is the beginning where does an end so i think is a bad idea. you're the foreign office here is against our state department is against it because it doesn't want to control the process and obama's against it i think personally i would be better off just living with jackson panic since nobody pays any attention to it. in this new legislation which would be a big big problem. michael mcfaul but he certainly our colleagues you know.

how. he's surprised by the level of anti-americanism in the russian society it's his it is an exaggeration is he being political where we're going to be honest. i don't know actually i'd like to thank god he's not really surprised because if it was actually surprised it would mean he knows less about russia than a person who is a professor of russian studies i'm sure not. i think what he was saying was michael mcfaul and bastard did not create all this any american isn't because of what i've done since i've been here saying it's not my fault not suppress the reality yes i think. this has been my personal experience i lived here for many years during the cold war i found more the sort of popular any american has and in society here i'm going to i witnessed during the cold war that was first the result of what happened in the one nine hundred ninety s. when a lot of russians felt that their pain their poverty was being promoted by america's shock therapy and now i think that in your political class there is

a growing any american citizen because of the expansion of nato missile defense american support for georgia the orange revolutions i mean this is a policy reaction but to say that you're surprised that there's any american citizen in russia i think is that he must have been studying something else in the book no i mean i don't mean that to be cynical but it's just i mean most of us would understand thanks very much for being with us thank you and just a reminder that my guest today was stephen pelc historian for fessor and expert and russia and russian american life and that's it for now from all of us if you want to have your sense right now i have someone in mind if you think i should interview next time to drop me a line of don't add. anything until then c m i t and take.