hello again a welcome to spotlight. on our time today my guest on the program. i doubt. it will germany attack their russian president chose his destination for the first official visit outside but those states what does this symbolic choice mean for the relations between russia and germany and between russia and europe in general europe which is now in the grip of an economic turmoil will ask you this and other related questions to a prominent expert and international relations in germany that. lead into putin's travel plans have received a lot of media attention lately after him nice to g admitting in america and went to belarus instead. germany asked his contrie to visit us president

germany has long been brushed. and one of the biggest markets last year russia germany trade was worth a record seventeen. countries are also working to get their. dream pipeline which would deliver russian guessed directly to its first line it was launched in the bamberg. welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us well first of all how was it seen here in germany that mr putin chose berlin as his first destination in europe first foreign nation outside the space now we have. schools of thought in germany concerning russia one it's very interesting ethic about russia this is a business community and the enthusiastically of course welcomed mr putin here in

germany and they understand that for mr putin they can do business with russia and as long as he's in power they will face stability on the russian market and they simply see no alternative to him and can't imagine any real turn to for him in the next six years there's another through school of thought that a lot of. i would say moralists. liberals here in germany who would rather like to conduct policy oriented and focused solely on values towards russia and to they think the drug is departing from democracy they think that russia is turning towards tele tarion system and they didn't welcome putting it all so so so the reaction was mixed but german chancellor angela merkel she pressed putin to allow democratic diversity ike wants to develop in russia how serious is this issue on democracy in miracles policy towards putin

had a very difficult to understand. german see value oriented policy viz every reality politic which is also always traditional in germany germany eastern policy mrs america said. two or three weeks ago. that crane is a dictatorship she very much criticized which she also very much criticized the question and also as a dictator i think that in the past couple of days she understood that she controls the east. and while criticizing marian the core rich for having you let you much and in prison she had to balance somehow this kind of harsh criticism was more a out politic approach towards russia because the business in germany has very strong interests in the east and if america would concentrate only on the value or

the policy only criticizing russia for not being democratic then business would feel it on the russian markets and also the human to human contacts will suffer so i think she she says she's ok in that she's trying to do both when she talks about values shift course sense that it signals to her own people here in germany but nevertheless she understands that the riyadh political approach is very important towards a complicated but a very important partner russia there was an article in sheffield i think in germany winning about a new ice age in there coming up in the russian german who ations then it was followed by a couple of publications in russian and the fleas the russian expert expert committee started talking about problems that may happen in russian german relations because they said merkel liked medvedev as a partner more than she likes putin is it true or is that speculation and well it's

. true speculation because you could have witnesses that not only miss america but the of the west favorite video clearly or put in because of send the right messages to the west and individual appear to be more western like more democratic more liberal than putin who is in many ways connected was was a traditional authoritarian policy in russia isn't putting more real politik then i would say made a video for the president was also very much out of the take but i wouldn't put too much weight and. who or what america was formally saying about me bit of yes she liked him a little bit more than put in but she's real politik enough they all for the titian enough to understand that innocent russia russia put in germany for the next decades centuries need school till ations was russia we can't build

a europe was old russia so she has also to deal with putin and i think she will do it at this for the next year until the german elections we don't know who will be german chancellor after next september did this visits did the fact that the new president started his relations with the world from germany did it somehow. add to systems some more understanding when proven tough understanding between the two capitals. i mean video for of course in this four years had a very good relationship with america and a lot of things especially in the sphere of business person but i would also say in the context between elites about civil societies mehmood forward. i could have been for example the people dialogue meeting every year who's developing it to have very interesting vehicle of connection between two nations to states if you want and to elites but don't forget that putin is long enough in power and then mrs america was

before becoming chancellor of germany as the leader of the opposition party in the german bundestag for many years so she knows putin very well or more or less well since he became russian president and she has a working relationship with him from all the european leaders now and you see the french president has gone tony blair has gone in britain obama is relatively new bush was leading america the first decade of the century mrs merkel remains the old veteran coming events. of course are very responsible in in doing what she's doing for the west now she is the ultimate leader of europe with no secret about this and she feels more and more formulas each year when she's in power that kind of responsibility and that means that she also feels a lot of responsibility towards russia and of course even if she may be disliked

fortune because of his biography nevertheless i think she will do good work with him and by the way i watched this press conference during their visit and detected some positive changes to between those two leaders will is here more on this now from. this report from the heart of germany. berlijn and moscow have grown very much dependent on each other trade between the two can. chris has been ruined by bounds in poor children he remains russia's main mediator in his dialogue with the west one of why they're putting his first official presidential visit was to berlin despite all that oh it's a first place study for customs. cultures. that might mean spreading over russia's relations with the although a recent joint press conference between the respective leaders in berlin was mostly

about mutual understanding on the show of syria he was not devoid of a fly and the german chancellor is raising the issue of democracy in russia from my notes i made it clear on my part that we have every interest in democratic diversity in russia being able to develop further because my experience is it is only that way that a truly robust civil society can rise which supports the development of the country . and that was just one of the mutual reproaches in russia's dialogue with europe that same day and a news conference in paris it was my dream or putin's turn to criticise the west he spoke of russia's need for guarantees and plans for a european missile defense shield an issue which has always disturbed russia. in the past we've often been promised it wouldn't expand then we were promised that nato wouldn't put military hardware near russia because the bush seen it expand and

its base and spread now we need guarantees usually that. another stumbling block in russia's relations with the e.u. is the stalled negotiations over creating a more user friendly visa regime the problem was discussed at length at the recent russia e.u. summit in st petersburg russia stance on the syrian crisis remains one more point of disagreement as the country has been happily criticised by some of its european partners for its rejection. military intervention in syria. well one of the fields of disagreements between russia and europe in general most germany one of europe's leaders is of course syria did the rising tensions in syria what's going on in this country the attitude because europe thinks that russia is backing the syrian leader russia is saying that europe is trying to interfere so do you think there can be a compromise between russia and the west in the middle east policy the compromised

here is not on syria syria is secondary and the whole fate power game which which is being and now. which is developing in the near east and where europe russia and that it states is very much involved i would say the big question is here about the future world order and here of course the germans don't understand the russian position they think that russia is backing the syrian leader what is from my point of view not true russia. is not backing. out and syria is not such a big friend of russia what is true is that has to be understood in the studio here in the west that russia does not want to help the west to create new or would you let a world order where nato would act as a policeman that can leave yesterday and tomorrow in syria because nato or nato

states decides who is civilian and who is a good guy here in the world in the world politics and this is what russia wants to prevent and here russia is very close to connect of course with china china has the same interest to create a multipolar world where there will be many centers of power and where there will be no single made center which would make decisions to punish and whom not if you miss a miss misbehaves in world affairs you know if if i get it. rightly my impression is that a europe and germany as one is not also very very much interested in becoming a policeman anywhere including the middle east because that they are if it's a uni polar world is going to be doing that it states that nato. the problem only is that the will live in the in the new world concerning information strategies information communications the role of the media has grown.

very extensively in the past couple of years and those pictures which are being produced by the western media us are being very becoming guidelines for politicians what i want to say that if you see more and more pictures of what is happening in syria as this massacre which took place there a couple of weeks ago you can close your eyes as a petition because of the society as your elites demand that you do something with that because people don't don't want to see it they think that this is a criminal act that this is a genocide what is happening in syria as a genocide which from the point of view of the west what's happening in libya and the force of politicians to react if the politicians don't react they loose or sort of the looks of little sympathies here and also power so in a certain way this is a very complicated game between media images which are being created the politicians have to react says i mean sound is rather prominent german political

spotlight would be better off to take a short break so stay with canned. food . for. wealthy british. time to. go. to.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's culture the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines khans a report on our. welcome back to spotlight i'm al green of and my guest on the show today is alex on the ground a prominent german political analyst we're talking about the recent recent put his visit to germany and also about the first moves in the foreign policy of the newly elected russian president mr rouse you just mentioned the first steps and the reaction here in germany to the first steps of mr putin after his visit to berlin

he came back to moscow and he met with the europeans in st petersburg rather way he was insisting that europe should abolish these as for russians and in moscow it was seen as the main international go for this. for this term of office do you believe this will happen. your colleagues should look into the our higher office and then they will detect that putin made the proposal of a bullish spec in two thousand and two ten years ago so it has been he said gender of his first term and of his second term and maybe just presidency which also was devoted to the obvious as between the european union and russia but we know that there are problems. many technical problems in this regard. which some have to be solved i think it's a nonsense and i said of many occasions before that representatives of the let in

american countries or the united states canadians israelis can travel to europe without fees us even some representatives of northern african countries could go with obvious us to france or spain but russians are koreans and bill russians need visas i think that situation must change and my guess is that until the soccer championship in russia in eighteen. this visa issue will be solved our german ex foreign minister yesterday fisher said recently that merkel leads europe to ruin with her austerity measures well at how do these measures serve her popularity do you think that there is a probability that miracle will follow sarkozy and berlusconi. we are now in a very interesting moment when this austerity policy which was conducted and developed by mrs america and the conservative french president sarkozy may change

that maybe another compromise everything looks like a compromise where there are two measures that will remain in place but will be mixed with some kind of other policies of supporting grows in europe that includes more government changing maybe maybe even more money printing we are still in a very deep crisis and the solution is now that. when you see we are in a clearly germany are you really in the un germany of course germany is also in the crisis of can't avoid this i enjoy many isn't a crisis but what should we say about greece and spain so there could be. the greeks are somewhere else the burden of the crisis but europe is in the cries of but europe is not falling apart and they are scenarios of what might happen i mean one of the scenarios which is widely discussed in europe is a change of the euro zone i mean greece will leave the euro zone but. poland will become a member of this euro zone a stone member of this or a zone sweden will enter the results will no catastrophe i think will happen the

problem is that if the aura zone will change and greece will leave and the south some countries will also maybe have problems and staying in the aura zones like italy spain and portugal we will deal with a different europe we are you talking about greece leaving the euro zone is something normal but many other people including financial risk would say this is caster this this is the end of the euro well there are already troubles and i and the markets today here you don't see there's a first of i mean not you personally but german the germany in general greece makes two percent of the european economy. and greece will not suffer badly if they go out of the euro of the depths which. the accumulator. will be forgiven anyway this was the main reason why we kept greece in the aura zone for the past two three years or so probably some experts were right in saying the degree was had

to borrow you earlier no big deal if after greece other countries will follow it will be a big deal if even conservative david cameron the british prime minister called the e.u. governments to create a budget union in order to save the euro would germany approve such a decision because they will have to to pay the biggest sure you know thank you for the advice mr cameron and buy yourself almost leaving the european union because you don't want to do anything with with this sort of problems. which which we have . but. this is the way this is the way how the german politicians and german salit see it more europe better than less europe because it will stop in the process of building of a common european states. for the danger is that we will fall back into the national states in europe because europe will not bind countries together and there

who are wholly idea of europe will suffer and we are in a very decisive moment in the next months where politicians have to take right decisions i see in another decisive moment and in european politics today because the relations between germany and france are going to have a very strained you know better than me and they they will never easy but the two countries for five of the last decades they were the main driving force behind the european union now when when merkel lost sara because he has a closest ally do you think new problems may appear between germany and france if you argue politically then you can say that yes there is a danger that france will become the leader of the so-called south against a. austerity policy of mrs america in the north of europe but at the same time i mean every normal thinking european will face that the german french malt or the

german french alliance is the key alliance for europe and if this breaks apart then the whole european idea will be that the german french motor and the german french alliance and corporation it's very important and if you look back to the for the surpassed even twenty years you always have seen even attempts even by the french to say that if things will go bat let's start to create a common a common state together those germans in order to safe europe what i would argue is that in germany and in france there dia of keeping this europe as it is even saying it's this is key it's still was out of turnip if and it will stay for a couple of time is there such a thing as euro skepticism i mean as a serious thing in germany is there sort of a year for the business market for that i don't detect it in germany because the germans so far have won from the ordo because germany is producing something here

on its territory. other than other countries in europe who do not do this and germany can sell its products on a much larger interior european market so a lot of people benefit from this and look at the numbers in germany yes i told you before we are in a crisis we're in a crisis because the middle class is suffering from too many taxations from all this money which it has to pay for everything but on the same time we don't have a mess and employment like in spain or in italy or in porto go or in greece we have some perspective on the global markets there is we have we don't have a radical party like in greece or and some other countries which could be elected the top of germany. there is more stability in the than elsewhere in germany and this is a might be a very good also sign for europe that there is still a good chance then the worst will be hopefully soon over what about the

nationalistic problem i mean as we saw as the recent russian campaign in france has shown us. politics is becoming pretty anti-semitic in europe and this is worrying for many people do you have signs of that in germany is that what we know anti semitic i disagree i mean this is this is not what i see but. until you are muslim to. say for a nurse. others. it's a key problem maybe in countries where you have mass unemployment where people are losing any kind of perspective for what to do how to live in future but not in germany because i so there's not no one input no muslims look look at our elections we have elections every year in the federal level every four year but we have elections regularly lections in. the communes on the criminal level and

in the lender and you don't see any radical party coming up lately with more stability than elsewhere thank you thank you very much mr not just to the nine to the my guest on the show today was alexander brock prominent german political analyst that's it for now for the spotlight will be back with more first hand comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take.

the official. from the. video. and. with the palm of your. question.

britain's supreme court denies joined us request to reopen his extradition appeal case the decision means the world's most famous whistleblower is one step closer to being sent to sweden to face sex crime allegations critics say the u.s. will use the swedish extradition to get its hands on a song to try him over the weekend leaks disclosures. egypt's supreme court orders the dissolution of the country's dominated parliament after ruling its election was unconstitutional and another court decision a law banning hosni mubarak's former premier from running for president is struck down days before the runoff. the syrian capital is rocked by a powerful blast that has left fourteen people a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a security police office which officials believe was the intended target comes just days after the release of

a video in which the second in command. to help rebel groups fight syrian government forces. more on the crisis in syria coming up from peter lavelle and his guests on crosstalk. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture. and if. you want.