she is gathering. the groups of. at least four hundred demonstrators in.

peace and reconciliation that's becoming increasingly read between the two songs. have shifted. to the. technology innovation. to. russia. welcome to the spotlight and to the show on the arts and i would love for him today my guest. let me put his refusal to attend the g.

eight summit in camp david seems to be an important symbolic step the media started speculating about the new president's foreign policy and as for now it looks like news is concentrating on closer neighbors the c.i.s. . countries really become moscow's top foreign policy priority one to harm their relations with others who have discussed it with the thing to. do with. the incentive because the charter is one of the most competent russian diplomats after living the foreign ministry in the late ninety's he was elected as a member of parliament and to come foreign policy issues a few months ago mr percent charge ahead of russia's federal agency for the c.i.s. and was appointed the president's special envoy for c.i.s. issues analysts suggest the possibility states will become russia's top priority during bush's presidency one of the reasons is his recent idea to reintegrate them and create

a new regional alliance. and a mystical search of the world over the show thank you very much for being with us once again and first of all about this putin's foreign policy agenda his first visit abroad will be to minsk does it mean moscow's approval of look at those policy. definitely yes and definitely not. for the simple reason russia is has always been. one of the closest partners so for russia not just within the soviet area but in more general terms. no because the discussions between russia and bill or russia on. domestic policy issues on how to develop a political systems are rather intensive and russia has several times

expressed its disapproval of certain developments in below russia and i do not see any signs for. for changing this attitude towards bill or russia we disagree on certain things but we can see there are each other as closest partners and they believe that this is the. only decision which could have been taken by by mr putin to be his first official visit to belorussia not to the united states of america or elsewhere you mentioned the discontent moscow's discontent with some moves by mr shanker but this they became. often during mr medvedev presidency during the last four years but many people say that as it became obvious that putin will become russia's next president the relations with belarus started to improve is this true. no no i don't believe that you know people

hold astroid two to find a certain difference is crucial differences between mr millet and mr putin between mr putin's foreign policy and mr milledge of foreign policy this is not this is not fair i believe that the foreign policy of russia has kept its continuities during mr medvedev years in president c. and i do not expect any big changes in the foreign policy approaches of mr putin they will definitely take place but not for the reason mr putin is a different mr put in comparison with mr putin ten years ago or all ago or in comparison with mr mineta the changes will quite naturally take place for the simple reason russia is changing of the they were all this changing one has to go to to adopt the foreign policy of russia according to these changes but i do not see any crucial differences between mr putin and mr midriff in terms of foreign

policy and bill russia has been our strategic partner and will continue to be a strategic partner after a visit to minsk the next foreign visitor of the new russian president will be will be to berlin and paris why these capital is do you think that kremlin once again is thinking in terms of the of the moscow berlin paris axis that used to be functional in the in the beginning of the century two thousand and three is something that well i don't like your we end the lies in the things that i believe that the reasons are both political and practical as far as i am and for the good the trip of mr peter putin will be even longer and will include several other countries and capitals and each time people will start looking for certain explanations hidden. hidden science and explanations of the truth i believe that.

both france and germany are equally important for russia as below russia is heirs kazakhstan he's heirs china is and all these countries will be included in the coming of mr putin and his foreign reserves and this order which country to be visited first which country to be visited next is is less important frankly speaking what is important is that mr putin is going to pay official visits to all these countries which has always been our strategic partners in the coming weeks and this is the only news which continue confirms the continued to of russian foreign policy while we were having this little chat before the program on the range of the microphones and stuff the person you know the only person you mentioned was the new french president so do you think that this new their their their their their the socialist government the socialist president in france will be a better partner for putin than sarah zeal is right. you know there is

a big difference between relations russia france relations and let's see russia united states relations and the difference is that in case of the united states of america very much depends on personalities or who who are elected president of the united states of america and then he is here mr romney or in case we have heard mr mccain the previous years the state of affairs in relations between our two countries could could have been and would have be absolutely different france or germany is a completely different or italy for example is a completely different story because each time you have very many of this natural interests interests in economy in science in technology and in culture elsewhere we each unite our country. or whoever is in power i know for sure

that when mr schroeder resigned madame miracle and of the into power certain people asked her to to reconsider relations with russia to reconsider foreign policy of germany on the. on this day reaction and suddenly she discovered that is this is how my friends in germany describe it for me suddenly she discovered that shares of your ear. there narrow space of maneuver because interests are too big too obvious and they believe that the same goes for for france whatsoever mr all and is intending to do in his foreign policy in his relations with russia he will be very much limited in this maneuver and the relations between russia and france will continue to be as good as they are very interesting what you just said what you said actually means that that the european countries have a more stable political some of them no less dependent on personalities means is

more stable than in the united states no it does not depend on the political system or certain countries in most cases it depends on how much the bilateral relations with russia are are developed let me know in these are depend lucia's relations between russia and the united kingdom for example are in the same category as the relations between russia and the united states of america very very much cross the water problem here on the satellite but the main reason is that you do not have too much cooperation and we are still dependent on personalities which is not the case with france or italy or germany put in has declared last week that i quote the role of the collective security treaty organization the scenes to know which has just had some at moscow will be growing said the russian president however no major decision was taken during this summit i would use the amount. well this summit was to celebrate the twenty years of the existence of these three to ten years of the

existence of the organisation and i am now i know for sure that the there are no plans of issuing any big decisions but the the importance of this organization with it will definitely grow for the simple reason this organization is the only one we have. in order to to combat the new challenges and threats which come from the cells which come from countries like afghanistan or other countries which which are to the south of these group of countries and unfortunately we do not have good enough cooperation reason eight or beaches in afghanistan the beaches in many other cases or other active in certain in certain situations in certain countries we cannot rely on our cooperation with nato in order to secure our stability and national security or. this is how we seek other partners and to find other partners in kazakhstan. in

kyrgyzstan in armenia so this organization definitely has a very bright future. alone. solor or together with other security organizations like nato where this organization c.s.t. or is willing to to do real well literal multilateral cooperation you agree with or without precedent that this organization has a bright sign on but although it was just to celebrate so some will talk just we'll celebrate all mostly most wanted it was important about discussing important things about the result having an intention to sign documents immediately but there was a simultaneously meeting of the c.i.s. countries in moscow many people say they are all in my ear here after after the creation of the c.s.t. or c.i.s. has become just a club for the former former soviet leaders to meet each other i do not agree for

the simple reason that these are two completely different projects c.i.s. is for while. the custom union is something else of the euro asian economic union is again something else and c.s.t. zero is completely different all still relevant they're all still relevant they're all are to be developed says constantin percent chance and of the russians federal agency for the scene as spotlight will be back shortly after a break so stay with us and. wealthy british scientists like. dr klein.

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welcome back to spotlight i'm algor not just a reminder that my guest on the show today is constantin charles head of russia's federal agency for the c.i.s. . we have already mentioned that president putin has missed the g eight summit in the united states officially because he's too busy setting up his new government and yes yes yes he is busy and he sent his son as prime minister. to sit in for him in camp david is it a deliberate guest. towards the united states which is hosting the summit no no you wouldn't know. i don't believe that you know but you understand that if it has been considered in the west as a gesture they've discussed how important it is to to find a proper country for the first official visit and in case this is my personal

interpretation in case mr putin accepted this invitation to go to camp david either this country or would have become the first country to be visited by the new president newly elected president of russia or his head due to be in a hurry to visit some other country like bill or russia beforehand both are turning to our bed because these days are extremely busy each each one man the standard easily for four the new president of russia and the interests of the domestic policy how to build the new government how to to do two to speed up of the the first degrees bar by the newly elected president because they have to start to work immediately this is definitely much much more important not just for mr putin but i believe before russia as a state as a country in comparison with any important meeting said wrote to me

as a diplomat is this sitting and international meeting held in there on the u.s. territory but in the middle of nowhere in the considered to be a visit to the united states is visiting davos considered to be now a visit to switzerland you know you are. very good experience same here hopefully still for us it makes a difference but for most people watching these developments they don't never made any difference you know where it's put mr putin mr putin in the united states so in this is all there public opinion there is eat here and there i don't believe there cares about the public opinion inside his country why why wouldn't hear definitely yes he's elected by the people and he is definitely very much a stand if you wants russians he wants the people who voted for him to know that he cares about minsk more than it appears about washing time not their decision to interpret the caramel thoughts of mr fortune but of this is this this is the this

is the most explanation for me definitely put is this is your not to attend the g. eight summit in the us prompted some analysts to question once again the relevance of the event spotlights. as more. an open microphone incident in march when we overheard obama promising his russian counterpart more flexibility on issues such as missile defense and he was elected in november got the us president into trouble at home while obama's opponents used the episode to slam the two pro russian was a new putin appears to have been on impressed him on his first decisions as president was to skip a group of eight summit hosted by the us after the collapse of the soviet union russia put a lot of effort into getting into this exclusive club of the world's biggest economies and invited in ninety two ninety seven fifteen years later who didn't now

feels free to shun the band but putin is not going to miss though is the relatively young g twenty the latter is expected to build influence unites the fastest growing economies which was their interest while the share of the g eight countries. in the global economy that's been freaking further reducing the relevance of the putin skipping the u.s. hosted summit meanwhile has led to where reciprocal move by the white house it in nouns and burma would not be attending that apec summit i'm going to stop in september. so you already said that the c.i.s. is still more than relevant is the g eight still as relevant as it used to be when russia wanted so eagerly to join well every sink is relevant and g eight is is still going strong i believe that the g twenty format is becoming much much more

interesting because each summit of the years obvious to the two journalists at least some of those for for anybody i believe so i would not i would not try to to to put it as if it is either serious or a g eight by the g eight or g twenty everything is equally important and if you or if you read attentively of the first degree one of the first degrees issued by mr putin on the first day of his presidency i'm devoted to the foreign policy e.c.s. both belorussia which we discussed and serious and the united states of america and the major european countries are mentioned in these degree as priorities for russian foreign policy either or it is definitely not either or which is which is why when you arrive here you are heading the an organization called ross something the rush hour now and here are the. well when will you explain it

putting it in english you said that this is the body which you see as the main the goal of russia's soft power on the post soviet space and elsewhere is there this is absolutely correct because i believe that the soft power. comments are becoming more and more important in the more in the world and russia is unfortunately not that experienced in using this instrument they have underestimated the importance of soft power in many d. kids and the they have to to to to catch up so to say so i hope that our agency this agency which is not just for serious but reaches for serious compared to living abroad and international humanitarian cooperation will brook play a significant role in this process well this organization wasn't wasn't particularly active since it was created so do you have

a certain plan because you were just appointed to the mold in seven and a month ago or something yeah do you have a plan and what are you planning to do with this i are we going to hear more of this organization and the idea leaders of this is this is my ambition definitely and they have certain ideas certain plans which are definitely to be discussed first is the president of russia or the head of the russian government with the minister of foreign affairs or for russia but i know for sure that the agency of blake. is definitely needed for russia my ambition is one to to make it as a very every fish and instrument as possible for a company is courting the russian national interests abroad and my second mission is to use this instrument in order to restore the the common human interior space within the post or your area i do not like the definition of post soviet

because it always reminds about of the former soviet union but they have not found a better definition but in any case i believe that we are all equally interested in restoring the the common human interior space. he says the natural nature. the natural gas you don't like the soldiers over it what would you prepare for a pretty communist. there are different opinions about neighboring countries irrigation country something like that ok listen if you're going to be added to for example such issues as the conditions of this look i shan't go to mush uncle which is in jail in in the ukraine are you going to try to pressurize kiev to somehow improve the condition of the former ukrainian prime minister definitely not because this is a clear political issue to be to be discussed to be settled down by the ministry of foreign affairs by other governmental bodies not by by our agency because this

agency is not for. foreign policy it is neither for human rights though we definitely are to to protect the rights of russian speaking minorities rights of our competitors abroad it goes without saying saying but otherwise our agency is for promoting cultural educational humanitarian cooperation between countries within the serious area and and elsewhere in the world if you speak about closer cooperation closer humanitarian the time and touch the human a grassroots diplomacy while the present containing the ukrainian subject the the current tension between key us and and europe do you think this is a chance to improve the ties that are being lost during the last couple of decades

with the ukraine for me personally ukraine is in a very difficult situation and they do not believe that anybody may be happy about that in ukraine the acting president of ukraine included how they will come out i do not know but i don't seeing that the russia in a position to use or abuse this situation in order to promote russian interests in in ukraine for the simple reason in that case we would have accepted this force alternative like ukraine is their opinion union or ukraine is who is russia this is an alternative which is to be forced. on ukraine for all from the west and which is not accepted by by russia i believe that ukraine ukraine may find their way of being being both russia and other european partners

result making it a big contradiction or a big danced problem for for for this country but anyway the present political situation in kiev is a chance for moscow you can you can call it. a helping hand or you can call it dry need back to the sphere of influence but still isn't an opportunity. consider ukraine as a friendly country and we are always ready to assist ukraine in seoul think its internal and foreign policy for thank you thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest today was constantin charles head of russia's federal agency for the cia and that's it for now from on spotlight we'll be back with more first then comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on honesty and thank you.