thanks for joining our team at half past the hour i've got a quick recap of your headlines u.s. officials come clean about washington aiding the syrian rebels as on name sources say weapons are flowing in the rebels claim they've recently seen an influx of arms from abroad to fight the regime in syria. the euro's on shaky ground as greece's new election good see the country taking leave of the currency union it would send shock waves across the region with the heavyweights still hoping to keep the greeks in. and a firmly walled in and left in isolation as rails barriers are separating people

who refuse to leave plans passed down through generations but israel says the walls are essential for its security. up next the future of russia belarus relations are in the spotlight. however again i walk into the spotlight the interview show on our team i'm al green all men today my guest. and i portray part of london a potent took office earlier in may you made a number of the media's decision one was to skip the g eight summit in the us which

allows take away show in the media about which country would be chosen for putting the first presidential visit according to recent information it will be belarus russia's close neighbor and ally bilateral lation is however suffered during the presidency i would live to madrid so what is going to change in the near future how will the relations between russia and belarus develop will discuss that with the state secretary of the union state of russian delgado's anybody. before heading the union state of russian ballerinas group border a border made his way up as a politician and government official he graduated from russia's most prestigious technical university and from there join the k.g.b. foreign operations department this reporter spends about thirty years the intelligence service before he switched to government work in the late ninety's as a vishal is occupying

a few ministerial positions head of russia's arms trading agency and service presidential envoy to several russian region in late two thousand and eleven grigori a reporter who was appointed state secretary of the wrong. the one big. promise that i put on welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us today. has chosen minsk the capital of. as the first place where he's paying an official visit after being elected as president doesn't mean that those is becoming russia's foreign policy policy priority because it does. so as a matter of fact if you will make you smile we'll show you how. it is a matter of fact because it's a common question. which i hear from

from from journalists. i should say maybe i do or you tension to the fact that when one of the first documents president putin is the new elected president signed was the strategy on foreign policy strategic and one of the first points is the development of relations between russia and bill russia. in the framework of the united states so united state so that just mitchell the development of. now this position well. recently a conference on the future of the union state which made the union state russia bellows the conference was held in london not in moscow not in minsk why wasn't it held on the territory of the state brought as a matter of fact i wouldn't call it as a conference it suggested was kind of

a background meeting which was held in russian embassy and was arranged by the russian messenger. so. and. it was a number of. political just and maybe editors some some newspapers and. it was just an invitation i couldn't resist this temptation and said nothing special so do you consider this this meeting in the russian embassy in london as sort of a presentation of the union state to to the west yes right here it was the first. in this direction i think that it's. not right because you're. right about the russian or the union state which was created in the west so

i'd like to give more realistic. understanding what's going on between in relations between russia and belarus and well here i have recently tracked the end of last year replaced veteran politician bubble but i didn't as the head of the at the state secretary of the union state are you going to change something in the policies. not in the policies i'm going to make some changes in the executive board. of the city united state. not in the policy because probably see is lated by the heads of states and. you know where just. executive board you asked me well there's an interesting thing i've realised that under medvedev presidents the relations

between the two countries were not so good and they but they started improving as soon as it became clear that putin is going to become the next president doesn't mean that the relations between minsk a moscow really depend upon personal relations of the president her state like to say that it became improving. in the middle of last year so when the president of russia was still not ready so it didn't depend so much on the personalities but. some other. questions so it happened so that now the ration is between russian bear russian maybe on its point. and it makes me happy because this very period of time to this position. and the visit you mentioned your putin's research to the russian

just. kind of proof. of this. good relations well. i mean even last year there was the famous milk war between moscow and minsk there were problems in even personal relations between between the question very well why didn't the institutions of the union state somehow interfere somehow help overcome these these difficulties because because of the result is that they were overcome by the structures of russia but the union state so stayed aside and looked at how the conflicts. no i don't think so because. he cording to my very short experience of working in this. in this field. high

survived if i may say so on live one. problem it was a problem in this real aviation civil aviation if you remember and. in solution of this particular problem where we were deeply involved we were participating in negotiations between the two with or it is an authority so it was kind of both countries and we were deeply involved in this and i hope that we. contributed. to the solution of this problem my callers journalists have made note that. look close relations with moscow always start improving when his relations with the west are worsening do you agree do you get the feeling or or you would say that it's a coincidence and yes and no. you know. i

usually wait so my judgment on the documents the facts and if for example we. consider the trade relations of bill russia with the west and russia and export of belarusian approximately equal to the west and to russia and it didn't depend very much in this tendency conserves and and it doesn't depend very much on the relations. ups and downs and relations between russia and miller so. you know it's one fact and another fact is as you mentioned that it may move maybe emotional that. if you paid attention when it was the relation of relations with the west and those sanctions which we cannot accept and that's very

time not only russia kazakhstan as well within the. asian community they were quite united in the in condemning the sanctions moves were interesting that you a politician speaking speaking about high ranking politicians mention the world emotional well isn't it true that mr looking shimko is probably. probably the last really emotional leader in europe at least. to some extent you know he's a very bright person and as any break person he he is judgments and. quite emotional and they draw attention more. whole over the world as a matter of fact especially those who are involved in the relations with our

investment in the east. so long and he's a very good speaker one of the best maybe in the world to the moment so. and his speech is always draw. much attention because he's very bright in his speeches is that. may this be the reason why they are becoming so close with putin because opposites attract that's what this is this is one of the. one of the very no it's not that it was a crazy it's a question for psychologists and i think for me well. part that aspect secretary of the union state of russia and. spotlight will be back shortly after we take a break so stay with us and. my

married mother could not live with her because. he was afraid. and she was very good for the. chief though. our lives frankenstein's monster. we don't have the problem but every. effort is made on the palestinian or on the european side to negotiate and to the violent attacks against israel which i have no fear of war call the. song goes you have no. calling the leader of the state of israel one of the main terrorists in the world.

we are supposed to be seriously examining history but you mention a few words about jewish culture happening and people get so upset this is i'm sorry to say it's a form of emotional blackmail. was . 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 you don't know i'm tom harkin welcomes a big picture. welcome

back to spotlight i'm now going to love and just to remind that my guest on the show today is going to be and up for that well we're talking about belarus about russia's relationship with bella rose let's take a look at what they were like during the last fifteen years here is this report now from spotlights you know there's him either. russia sought good relations with belarus almost immediately after the collapse of the soviet union in one thousand nine to one by the me one nine hundred ninety s. plans for integration included a single currency single citizenship and a common defense policy the first in the series of agreements create in the union between the two countries was signed in one thousand nine hundred six since that time russia's relations with belarus have grown closer than with any other former

soviet republic the economic cooperation between the two countries has been considerable when belarus was hit hard by the credit crunch in two thousand and eight it was russia which gave its neighbor it to be when u.s. dollar loan after the international monetary fund refused to do the same military corporation has also been quite intense with joint military exercises been held on a regular basis however mutual misunderstanding has not been uncommon the two thousand and four gas dispute elect to a temporary reduce ruction in russian supplies to bella rose russia expected more support for maine's after the conflict with georgia in august two thousand and eight the bellows did not recognize south the said and the ha's is in the plan and moscow banned all imports of belorussian dairy products in two thousand and nine but despite that belarus is going to be my dear prudence first port of call on his

presidential i t. well listen proving once and. stressing the importance of relations with balance lately does that mean for the russians that russia will have to pay for the. losses caused by the e.u. sanctions. it's a good question you know. any stage should pay for its own interests you know and. and you question there is. such an aspect that there is a contradiction between russia and the west and whether bill russia should be with the west or with russia that's the point of discussion among the journalists well this is not in my question i'm sorry this was i think the policy of this is that

he's been playing for the like fifteen years as a matter of fact any wise leader should have many victors foreign policy so he's not you know he's not going to play we would want to discuss that yes and. you know the contribution of russia to bill or us is so big. that. it doesn't need some extra money. already there is the biggest russia is the biggest investor in bill russia it's about i'm not mistaken about six billion dollars is already. invested to build and they say it's in this short presentation this year so right now it was shown what how wide corp between russia and bill russia how wide this field of corporations its military and its politic

foreign policy sic anomic and humanitarian which is not pointed out but i think i think that it's the most important part of our relations between russia and belarus it's humanitarian part because between russia and bill russia there is no border as it is because it's no border control it's the only border between the two countries in new york in most areas states. the only border where there is no border control doesn't and you see so you. humanitarian corporation with which is so very important yes i believe this is this is so but people especially people in the west may may ask us well the main thing between the two countries especially if they're building a common state is economic cooperation business competition military or country but but but humanitarian corp is not for losers i think that it's it's the most

important to me to my mind yes including you mentioned the specter of corporation humanitarian when the citizens of one country. don't feel themself as the foreigners in another country it's the biggest sakal logical effect of integration and that's what we have in the relations between russia and belarus and it's the only two states. who has this situation recently. made his state of the nation address and eight me and speaking on russian television he's he he spoke about different aspects of life in bill loose and here you were commenting on that address and you said i quote i have a possibility to make sure that russia and the rust belt the roost how

identical positions and i'm glad to be because this facilitates integration between the two countries this is what you said well those that mean these identical position positions or also also are identical in the questions of the attitude to west towards the west that you know positions that i mean moscow and minutes are identical in the attitude towards domestic opposition which dollar question has trust in this it is address and he was rather hard at these issues. i think that. very similar approaches to all of these questions as far as the west is concerned i mentioned already this common statement on the. west policy towards bill russia as far as the internal situation is concerned there are many similarities as well so.

i paid attention more on economic. part of his statement concerning the investment policy. yes investment policy and guarantees for investment for investors all the guarantees for investors who are going to build russia so i think one of the most important part of his. you know statement. was reporter. when will the opposition the people that are recently deprived of leaving the country are freely traveling to the west will they have the possibility at least to travel freely within the union states can they travel freely to moscow and to russia we have the grim and which concerning the limits to.

visit the countries and. it's very personal it's very person which might be so might be not so it depends on the governments which we have. every concrete musician ok now there are different bodies and the problems. that are working besides the union state russia for example the the customs union the unified economic space so what is the union state good for in terms of integration if we compare it with the customs union and the unify the economic space i would say shortly that. you know the status pioneer project for the integration is concerning the customs union concerning the three. canonic space concerning the free trade space and so on so forth because the first this

formula was worked out in relations between russia and bill russia and then it was you know extended to in other countries so that shortly speaking well you said it was pioneering but everybody gets a feeling that putin is really up to building eurasian union so if if the this eurasian union is built and starts functioning would make the russian. naturally usually but when that happens so it's a big question. it might so it might happen so but when i don't know so far it's not the problem so so so so so you're not sure it may happen any time soon i mean in this presidential term a person with i don't think that it happened within the. you know the next three years no no i don't. but it might happen so we've if he was the level of relations

between the three countries now we're talking about three countries which is the same grade of relations which exist between russia and. might happen so it doesn't depend on the political will or there are other problems in creating. the great extent to political will yes political yes and certainly other problems because there are many objective questions which should be solved and it needs some time for that many people say one of the problems of integration with other us is that nobody wants to share power that moscow expects to look at to ship out with moscow and he doesn't want to do that is that true he is a matter of fact. it was this kind of judgment always but as i understand now we have gone our balances. maybe it's one of the.

one of the reasons of our better relations right now because the kind of balances of power is already found and. these for me or which exist right now are political for your of relations so i think that it's very comfortable for both countries that's right. our relations from the good. shape so thank you thank you very much and just a reminder that my guest today was. a part that state sector of the union stay. i was rushing about and that's it for now from all of us here if your into as you are sounds spotlight or at someone in mind who you think i should into next time to drop me a line algorithm. are these and let's keep wildlife interactive movie back to more times than the common thought of what's going on in and outside of russia i'm so let's stay on target and take the.

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