make your statement to. the world. if you plug in st. paul the magyar whether it's here is a look at the top stories moscow moves them mediation forward syrian opposition groups are in the capital and foreign minister sergei lavrov is due to meet representatives of the syrian national council later on tuesday they were portably one to persuade russia to get behind foreign intervention. that british m.p.'s politicians were useless in uncovering the truth behind the bar while the bank of england's deputy governor has denied claims he gave barclays hands to manipulate lending rates in two thousand and eight. and russian sand basic necessities to the

ravaged southern region of cross and there are emergency workers and volunteers are trying to help those affected by flash floods. that's the headlines here and you'll be back at the top of the hour in the meantime enjoy the injury show spotlight with al green elf. again and. right there not only today my guest on the show is new york. since lottery a train from dependence on the u.s. and saw that. it was immediately divided along ethnic.

russians almost thirty percent of the population still have to fight for their rights but back in two thousand and nine the landmark election happened when we kept election which brought a rush and that's the question to the mayor's chair and that happened for the first time in the health food of more. so than what has happened said place three years have they eased the ethnic tensions over that well we'll ask the man himself mayor just a little chuckle. for a very long time the territory that nowadays belong to a large rio was a part of the russian empire. after the soviet collapse of gaining independence and was left with one third of ethnic russian population since then the coexistence of the two peoples had. when the global recession hit europe latvia was one of the

countries that suffered. the wave of economic troubles and that. became the mayor of the capital riga. to see him using of tension between latvians and russians and the strengthening of time as with russia. the solution to release trouble. cover welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us today. well first of all i'd like to ask you about these illegal country that readers opening in supermarkets in moscow and i think also is that true dar we have plans to help in opening. trading places in region as well but first of all it's most conversely. reduce providing. well if you can tell it's this way your political support political support and we mean we provide good relations and we provide a good image for city good image for the name of rigo and it means that the person

who is for instance making a choice between buying milk or is it produced in russia or produced for instance in regal or produced and we saw. it. as a brand helps him to make a choice and to buy exactly this product so that we mostly dairy products away well not only they were about to well for food stuff we produce the income for in general so we provide opportunities for the promoters to to use a separate unit is what we see right now that all the printers now able to use a separate unit is the because previously when i when i was young. and then he wasn't so associated with a little fishy he's sporting i got to be there to this is one of the main brands that you have at least in this country belgium and stuff where they sell their parties are still back and. ready in moscow again because now because what i have heard is when you join the european union they tried to not to let you make those

smoke fishies anymore is that true though we have to survive it. so the production is so fast thank god ok well let's turn to two political questions according to public opinion polls in. your country you are the most popular mayor of riga in more than twenty years those that mean that you are supported not only by the russian speaking population but also by by ethnics ethnic latvians. part in which i am a leading was initially built as a party which unites to give. russians so we have never been meant to be single most in question party we build our party as a social democratic political force which is supported by russian speakers and. as

an acquaintance we are widely supported by russian speakers sampled majority of russians or russians because who even in letters a word for our party because among social issues so we also deal and we try to solve problems connected with human rights we so particular russian speaking problems because we believe that solving human rights issues solving russian speaking problems helps country in general again we are not poor positioning ourselves as we are. assisting russians we're sitting russians another to assist. as a country when you see russia russian speaking problems he mean the problems of the russian speakers were or are they specific russian speaking problems well no i mean or we've got a considerable russian speaking. minority so those numbers of the russian speakers russian speakers in the in the in our country well you harmony party work was routinely accused of being pro russian well because they think the

e.u. call it a party of both but that. other people especially the conservatives say that you are pro russian that you're oriented towards the russian federation that you that you build up your policy in favor of the russian federation is that fair. well first of all we are supporting it they're all election results and then our polls shows that we're supposed to both by russian speakers and by light and so it's one of those first of all so on the will of course we are highly in favor of having good relations with russia for many reasons number one number two number three number four number five is concerned about the economy because having good relations with russia means helping europe conversely condiment when we want to sell something in russia when you want to support your producers you have to have good relations with russia it is a cushion well i want to is say there's a question of survival but this is a question of development because bilateral relations countries the last twenty

years. history is a track of lost opportunities of missed opportunities and we don't really want to miss this opportunity anymore so what we're doing at the local level there's a minute spell that we're dealing with russian federation regions trying to promote . latin brand and this will products but it means that we have to have good relations with russia that's what we're trying to do and we believe so having good relations so we russia is good help is a way we could develop our country what's your main trading partner today the main partner for for that when economy not russia as though european you know your opinion so when you say that relations with russia are so important you mean second to the european union or do you say that relations with russia may be even more important than your relations the neighboring european countries now we're not laboring the european union we are part of european union and obviously european

union. is a considerable part of our life in all senses but again european union will never buy a hundred percent of our products and even if they buy one hundred percent of our product always makes sense to produce another hundred percent and sell them to russians so relations with russia are extremely important. but of course we are e.u. member country and we are nato member country. you are in the harmony party came first in the last election in autumn that was i think but you were blocked from from making up a government by a coalition of right parties do you think that you will live long enough to see to see your pointy. be invited to a. coalition that will form a government but wouldn't really talk in terms of being invited or not being invited we got number one place number one last year in full we didn't get fifty one percent so each effect of a man's

a right wing nationalist were able to form their own coalition well we don't believe this coalition though will end up as a success story for the country in general and we should see lots of problems right now and the end of the day on social issues and issues of solving our human rights problems understanding its helps you to solve problems of the country in general we'll allow us to be a part of a coalition but we're not waiting to invitation only and we are not someone who has to be invited when we will see a possibility we will be forming a coalition so when you say you're not working for the petition does that mean that these two parties the conservatives and the liberals the right and the left do they hate each other so much in your country that it's only a matter of winning fifty one percent that no compromise is possible oh my no compromises are always possible and. unfortunately never ever in life in history

none of the pond is ever got up to fifty one percent so we always have coalition governments as a result we always have to split it responsibility as a result the responsibility for the action to form. one of the main political problems for. when we talk about the way we develop but i believe compromises are still possible but again when we talk we're not waiting for the invitation i mean it's an issue for respecting. voters voters are not waiting that someone allows them to do something and then invite them to do something that's what i mean you are a pretty young politician then only by post soviet standards but also by world standards do you have an inhibition for former running for prime minister something you think about that you dream of that we've got quite a few young politicians in latin and in the baltic states i presume that we had

a prime ministers being under forty something like forty eight or so to nine so it's ok. but yes i do see some visions on one hand was ours and i was. elected mayor of the city who will run for another term next year and i've got responsibilities. of the city. this is fun being a me really get yourself it's not always fun. but it's a good job it's interesting. like what i do. what do you like most what part of the job. you can really. results of your job holding for. just for i.d.'s or supporting our people or doing a paper walk if you will to the budget in december in september next to you you can

go in and see what you've done because budgets you can see schools in the gardens or streets or something else you see results of what you have done and i always hope it's not well but i was a member of the parliament it's really. really because from what you do in the parliament we'll talk about that in less than a minute just fill my shop called the narrative is my guest on spotlight tonight what life will be back in less than a minute after we take a break so stay with us. wealthy british scientists say it's time to. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with my stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. the official t. application your i pod touch from the. video. is mine. and the registry. disc. welcome back to. just a reminder that my guest on the show today is neil who is the mayor of the city of

brega capital. we just started speaking before the break about the front well i guess one of the parts of the a job which is no fun at all is overcoming the economic downfall as far as i know reagan was set pretty hard by the economic problems and now we read in the news that is the overcoming these problems how is it going on the does it give the optimism. roughly. twenty five close to one. to the budget so it was a lot it was a lot so when we won elections in two thousand and nine. we had so first thing we had to do you was down all expenses. expenditures we restructured on a lot of people who. number of departments.

optimizing all expenditures this way as a result we increased expenditures on social issues and we increased expenditures renovating schools and opening you can the guns. and we keep on spending more money on police. but we spend much less money on. as we believe on this reinvestment projects and on bureaucracy as a result of this crisis help us to restructure see the in general what about the budget and it was actually it was useful because now we're much stronger now we seize that. income tax. east so it's doing ok because so it's own main revenue source and there's the world we see is that the situation is getting better but still mother about optimism we we have to be extremely cautious because the reason one. bad tendency is that our number of unemployed people in the city creased decreased to what we had on top of something

like fifty thousand unemployed now we've got sort of them but what we see is that the huge bulk of people in brega and in country in general they will never be able to find jobs i will probably not never in foreseen future because they're stuck if you're. i don't know fifty two years old female russian speak even letters because implementor the fact that we saw more product in russia as affects that we've got more tourists from scandinavia doesn't really help this person to find a job it means that we always have to support from the social point it means there are people like categories of people that are due to live on welfare is that true. we help some we provide some social support of the un do we will have to be providing most support trying to. help them in getting new skills and probably to find another possibility to earn at least some income on their own but it is problematic at this problematic skill mismatch we demands of labor market is

a big problem for conference doesn't sound like fun to me ok you are as representative as the leader of the harmony party it's a left wing party is supposed to be very social very socially ari and so how do you manage to push further the social programs programs which are the core of your party policy in the conditions. of budget austerity without without without me making. very angry with here we just restructured just what i've told you we spend much more money on social programs directly and indirectly introducing new ways to support. people in. for instance you can use public transportation and pension is for free. and everyone who's attending school secondary schools for free and so on we pay social benefits anyone who fits

certain qualifications get the support part of people we decreased number employees for the first year to souls and then comparing to two selves in mind we see if twenty me one lance which is a lot by budget standards just cruising the employment in and then see the whole twenty million let's it's comparable to all investment program on the basis so just the way you are restructure your expenditures. in one of the recent interview you said that you read as a brand has a better image the latter in general is it really true and what do you mean. translators berta but stronger that's for sure because unfortunately the name of our country with many respects. is known by people in the west in russia and connected to crisis economical probe problems monologue about

russia and also so the issue is concerning our bilateral relations so you have certainly shews concerning human rights problems so it is unfortunately weak is unfortunately we. as a city is known for more than eight hundred years it's not exceeding. readers known as a. positive positive terms through distillation we've got lots of tourists in them it's numbing freezing every year and it's strong as strong it's more positive any true helps us in selling and promoting of for instance who stuff products in russia under. reagan not let them brand. one our. the things that i guess is boiling in the image of reagan not only in russia but in europe are the and your waffen s.s. marches these former form. people who served had low joining

the second world war they did these veterans veteran marches what. is that your idea of fun of the festival was a mirror of a city having the neo nazis marching in the city what's your attitude in general to add to this. veterans by often a source for terms of officers were trying just a couple of persons participating in this march to march by your young or not. who by some reason so want to support these people this way. ninety nine percent of veterans don't participate in this events in releasing something as a commemorative. friends in other places usually in. we've got extremely complicated a shrink. during the world war two hundred one hundred fifty thousand tons will

frost this is what i would like to stress forced to surf in the german army it wasn't their choice they had no choice of tom zone which was a head eyes of the go to concentration camp or to be diverted to the army people who have chosen to be drafted to the army. for the last three years didn't allows these marches on the basis of security issues we believe that these events may provide stress to security in the city in all the cases courts allowed this marchers i mean we've got extremely liberal world for all kinds of public activities. we don't have any opportunities to ban annecy. they get our decision always was it's right to security in. the event since it isn't that we ban them further on it so so as a politician and as a citizen and as an ethnic russian you think that if something is allowed even

a thing like that even commemorating commemorating the nazis if it's allowed if it's not against the law it should be allowed in should think now this people again when we compare it to our for any kind of or with any kind of activity. there's nothing to do we see commemorating that sees. oh you don't have any kind of that's a symbol so it was a. people believe was it's true or not true so that when they were i mean those people who fought but people who come of ratings that they believe these people were fighting against stalin regime lots of people in our country when repentance of your country lots of people in our country hate stalin regime. lost its independence russian to. russia. obviously. but it has nothing to do with nazis who these people don't like not to people don't like nazi germany as

a see them are concerned with issues of security first of all because i don't want this top of activity to spread for instance testicle stability we've got in relations in our country you know all sitting i mean one of about us nickel relations twenty percent of us an acquaintance got interest in commemorative do is there which is true for russia do i get you right what you're saying is that implements that people abroad especially here in moscow they are over estimating over react it's an exaggeration the street thinks substitute for because these people are even the hard core national is participating they have nothing to do was not serious i mean it's an open question was the people who were crucified for germany would have ever had an opportunity to fight in the pan and let it's an issue open for his specialist but from a security point of view from the point of use to build is this type of marchers are bad for country and the other. issue which may be. estimated

in russia but it's a big issue in the russian press are those people with a non citizen status actually people who couldn't pass the exam in latin language so they have a non-citizen status they can't vote and the russians consider that those russians in latvia they are reduced in their rights i mean that they really suffer is that true you know it's absolute. true we still have a little bit less than three hundred thousand non-citizens. absolute majority of the people are people fifty five plus or even sixty plus. one of them about extremely simple. test myself back in ninety nine they were something like i had to answer questions about cost of the national flag of difficulty but you have to understand when you are sixty five you are not good in passing any kind of test so it's first of all lots of people. say why should i think. people in

for independent blood so they believe they shouldn't pass any kind of test in order to become citizens. for many people what is really important being them citizens enjoy a visa free regime is russia so we shouldn't post proved you can fail without any resist from the world you are stuck with it's kind of a bonus. so that's why. the number of citizens he's basically right now corresponds with the natural relate we've got to what people are just because the old. as that's the main reason for decrease in number of months it seems but. even as the local level is really bad and. these people became the citizens is really bad as well thank you thank you very much for being with us pleasure talking to you and all the best places to remind you that today show was. kept

like that so long as you. will be back and tell them it's there. and take it. as you see. it.

that. led her perch .