the for. the. present businessman victor boot awaits sentencing in the us after being convicted of arming terrorists and conspiring to kill americans to get life behind bars but insists he's innocent. pilots rocks in greece after the stock elderly victim of the government cuts takes his own life outside parliament. and damascus has its withdrawing troops in mind of the u.n. sponsored peace plan but the opposition claims it's still under attack. up next in spotlight they discuss a new chapter in russia u.s. relations with steven kull.

yes welcome to. the interview. and today my guest on the program is stephen. for both russia and the united states two thousand and twelve promised to be here political uncertainty both countries have presidential elections 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 and i gratian america are still making. as usual russia america becoming a very important issue in both countries during the election year so what. is russia and america really face in confrontation as the republicans would like to

see up to date or is it just. will discuss a story and a brilliant expert in russia and russia the way she was stephen hope. to nevada and barack obama came to power they proclaimed they must reset the russian american relations after the cold rhetorical question we should ministration that period of partnership and cooperation rather than 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 and treaties signed in april two thousand and ten or as the kremlin is something about to welcome the return of president putin and there have been down the recent year old continues yet on school insists it's not going to confront washington but americans i get to choose their course the leaning republican camp. mitt romney for example has

recently called russia america's number one geopolitical. commerce a coworker to the shell thank you very much for being with us. well first of all i've got this new book or the new edition of you have got here in my hands which is called serving trade center last alternatives from stalinism to the new cold war. i just ask you what you call the new cold war and you said this is actually was going on now but although i want you pretty unpopular. statements like that. i think for. moscow the cold war ended in one thousand nine hundred eighty one eighty two actually some people think nine hundred eighty nine got roberts off of reagan believing in fact i don't know if there's a new moon but when reagan left office the presidency in january nine hundred eighty nine he wrote in his diary we ended the cold war so legen thought it was all

gorbachev said after a while 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 the soviet union supported the american war and the first war against saddam in the gulf. but after that in the one nine hundred ninety s. particularly under 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 and after you know it's and 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're 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 against until we bombed but after that constantly constantly constantly we're 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 had today more elements with war elements of cold war conflict and we have cooperation now maybe we can. change there but things are getting worse so i think we are still in a state of at least silly cold war and if you don't like the expression yet let's just say relations are bad and there's a lot i mean people. can say that because because we do know these elements we have seen them daily on television we've seen them in the papers so when we see so they

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 doesn't ring a bell well let's decide this now let's be constructed as they say since we're in the middle the republicans or the middle of a presidential nomination in a month ago so what. romney has decided since his party is actually to the right of rob williams you know 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's taken the position that anything obama is for he romney is against and since obama instituted the so-called

reset which is what our generation now used detente a term which means improving relations with russia romney is going to take the position that's a bad idea because russia is still the number one enemy if he becomes president will he actually govern on that progress probably not but because of the presidential nomination campaign he's saying these are very extreme 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 has consequences when you're saying that the republican rights hates obama. 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 is right so then the other guy why is that isn't obama who is radicalizing the american writes i hate television hosts who answer

all questions that are better than i can but i would have to say to you al where's the republican well i mean what's happened in america as you probably are good for is that the so-called moderate wing of the republican party used to be the most important when i was the wing of rockefeller and even the first president bush into vanished or gone into hiding so now you have a kind of a very weak republican senator but in the primaries and it's important that people outside the united states understand this. we're a little bit really a few people actually vote in primary elections state by state when a candidate with a party chooses a kennedy more people vote in the general therefore the people who do vote. or the people who are very upset or anxious or ideological and they don't like obama they don't like thing for many many many reasons beginning with the fact that he's black and continuing with his policies and that he represents

a liberalism of these kinds of things so romney is appealing to the needs that would get enough votes like a convention to get the nomination but let me repeat what i said before. opposition to obama's russian policy which has been this this reset is widespread in the republican party and wrongly even said and this is quite astonishing you know listen well as i do that romney said he was against the the arms the new start treaty the nuclear weapons that obama negotiated with them again. all republican presidents have supported arms control this is a departure this is something new would romney actually abolish retreating doubt it but it's dangerous because it upon your minds trusting the other country what are we negotiating with i mean if they're not going on to the treaty then what's the point in negotiation remember under bush the united states unilaterally left me any with a stinger missile treaty so this idea that you could negotiate

a treaty and decide a few years later well our chief reminded him of the treaty. it is not the way to build a relationship. he did not so my question is this obama radicalize the american mind which is is it is the. the america right we're going to probably already what we don't want to say is that it's false then anybody has what yeah well first the walking won a very substantial presidential election he didn't have a gigantic majority but he had a substantial majority and you know you have to understand and for me a man of my generation who grew up in the south in complete segregation i saw all the election of president obama a black man as an act of historical justice but finally a blocks rocks and she had enough status in america for one of them to become president with the other talking about justice well a woman should have been first invented that i would have given that you describe your life i'm not going to go there some people would say to them. oh yes all right

but look at jewish prisoners that you've never been to is never never been a jewish vice president only one jewish vice presidential candidate that was senator lieberman but the here's the here's the problem neither women nor jews were held in slavery in america so the rise from slavery and that's beyond that was even worse than being a serf and russia rise from slavery to the white house is a great triumph of american justice bot but there is a segment of the american people who don't feel that is justice they still don't trust products they still believe they should be and this resentment have build 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 the issues like health care and all the new issues that are and abortion that are dividing america but russia has not been issue until recently but now romney's been a big issue. do you think i read and chances that well i think he's going to win

the nomination unless something yes he puts his dog on top of you know that story i just your viewers know he returned to nashville with his dog and america's love dogs like russians love dogs so there's a what if. doesn't do anything foolish and will be even nominate a t.v. the serious challenge to about and i think it is this is this of them is not. you know if the election were tomorrow 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 warning now when the talk of attacking right we're whether israel goes into the united states doesn't really do it together that could change everything because the american people are sick of these wars they want out of afghanistan they want out of the business making

decisions. i mean. not exactly when it's not that easy to say that again what do you. make a decision to start one way. i don't actually know the answer because i don't know whether the use of railings could force obama's on the one hand the israelis don't have the capacity to fuel their aircraft they need american logistical support on the other thing. they are very determined. to strike around unless iran makes major concessions i think is a dangerous woman says stephen cohen historian professor and expert on russia and russia american life spotlight will be back shortly right after a break so there we go so. glad. it's

technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. welcome back to spotlight i'll be novel just to remind my guest on the show today is stephen cohen historian and a brilliant that's what the russian aggression american relations stephen well about israel said if he will continue to borrow successfully as he doing now

which will save the economy if you will manage to contain israel not to attack. you need to read until next fall. do you think that the second ten of obama will be much different from the first because in the first he he really did the solution a lot of people say he should she should become different because house is destroyed that that's the first they want to win elections and the same concerns they want their face and a dollar. that's what they tell you when they actually think you are sincere and savvy you have there is 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've had nothing but opposition in my second term

i'm going to do or. 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 controls miles to block his legislation or to force them into compromises that aren't good if obama were to return to the white house but the democrats were to lose the senate and the republican party and the house and your house from it would be a catastrophic yearn for but if you get somewhere with i think you'll have a triumphal through but that's not to speak of foreign policy or speaking of mr. policy 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 and the kremlin 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. well russia wants it in writing in writing i don't know if i want a treaty or just a letter notarized by somebody who really. really know the words of. the east that it and they are to date today the russian for diplomats there want to repeat their mistakes and we have a good something in writing letters an american proverb he's 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 to correct. obama would be used of appeasement and betrayal if he were every nation such apparently right but the whole thing is fairly silly because we say it's against iran. which has no missiles so we're building a system that may not work anyway. against a country that doesn't have the weapons were dealing with go in the system again korea me help. me but nonetheless after all this has become one of the biggest issues of conflict between the united states and russia and i think we know that when the microphone was opened it was out a week or so ago and we'd be out of and obama had a recorded moment maybe you know. where they are by the way i didn't know maybe i

have spoken english there's no translator there i know obama doesn't speak russian so i've been having but remember what obama said and he wasn't speaking to me beautiful he was speaking to putin because he knew that putin but he said after the election or have more flexibility he certainly made missile defense and then made get a. better quality or well i mean this is important on two levels first of all 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 and. the russians reacts to these words this of the heard part of the private conversation with the russian press the russians and russian no you're out of the numbers in the this is so what's so what happened he said this had outsell that are better but they did better it was like

a bombing in the press why what's the difference between it's been the american attitude in what you just quoted and the russia what i was being analytical or not what i thought you can arrange there obama thought he'd be able to do something and maybe get a foot splat area has i don't i think because in america particularly for the republicans romney seized on it right away. that obama is the kind of man who would tell us one person when in reality if he's elected would do something very different and here shows around mitt romney is an example he pretends to be tough with the russians but if you realize he's going to give the russians or brief us actually that was why i was always available free elections here when it was not it was not a good thing for obama it was not a good idea or even better to have the microphone completely. intact about the visit to say. he did the 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 of a private conversation between barack about with me and very at the summit in korea spotlight even at the end of a reminds us of the story. of the last words obama and medvedev exchanged during their meeting install were accidentally caught on the microphone the u.s. president said he would have more flexibility on such issues as missile defense if elected in november and if they had of promise to pass the message on to president elect the idea. of what food was a wave of republican criticism. comments made by the party's frontrunner mitt romney where this far is labeled in russia america's number one geopolitical foe and slam and comments over flexibility concerning the u.s. missile defense missile arming and warring russians outgoing president dmitry inventive so drawn 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 and while some analysts dismissed romney's remark i simply can paint rhetoric others see it as a clear sign russia us true ations 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 trying to control this through russia in exchange for blocking the market is key cased. by the congress do you think this was a simple as that now. you know i speak as an american with regret and you're not supposed to criticize american foreign prophecy that you're abroad i don't know if being on television in europe in my view is that once again the problem here is

that the united states during the reset took concessions russia protecting the trance and creating the entrancing group to supply american and nato troops in afghanistan but it didn't give and it got russian support for the sanctions against iran so it 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 decision not to rearm georgia we wanted and didn't get it and it wanted a resolution of missile defense in a way that russia felt it could live with it's gotten tighter so at the moment it looks like from the russian side that once again it's not a one way street but it's a moscow makes concessions and washington says thank you very much we'll take them but doesn't deal with moscow wanted i think that the return of putin to the kremlin weems that that won't happen again that putin will get concessions or he won't 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 a negotiating with which. is it that the magnitsky the so-called lest his past president well i need to correct one thing you said you said that the republican party has become the bastion of reading russian politics but in fact. very widespread in the democratic party and the big resolution comes from democrats they're the ones who thought it up. i don't know i mean the idea that they'll get rid of jackson browne which is a ridiculous piece of law completely outdated and replace it with a piece of law 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 and whatever be denied visas 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 on this list where the begin where does it end so i had a bad idea. you're the former officer is against our state department is against as he doesn't want to control the process and obama is against it i think personally i would be better off just living with jackson panic since nobody pays any attention to what. this new legislation which will be a big big problem. michael mcfaul but you certainly are. surprised by the level of anti-americanism in the russian society it's an exaggeration is he being political where or where is he honest. i don't know actually i'd like to think that he's not really surprised because if he was actually surprised it would mean he knows less about russia then a person who is a professor of russian study i'm sure not. i think what he was saying was michael

mcfaul in rasner did not create all this any american citizen because of what i've done since i've been here saying it's not my fault nonsupport the reality is i think. i visited my personal experience i lived your many years during the cold i found more the sort of popular any american isn't in society here and 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 they were paying their property was being promoted by america shock but i think we now i think that in your political class there is a growing any american islam because of the expansion of nato missile defense american support from georgia the orange revolutions i mean this is a policy reaction but to say that you're surprised that there's any american doesn't russia i think it would he must have been studying something else in the book you know 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 professor and axed me going to russia and russia very much and that's it for now for all of us if you want to hide your sense was nice to have someone in mind who you think i should interview next time to drop their line of at. parties until then say i t. t. and .

and. that's.