he watching r t coming to you live from moscow presidents fly them are potent shared he's take on matters both helm and abroad with r.t.d. his first exclusive interview since returning to power in may the russian leaders spoke to my colleague kevin allen before flying out to the country's far east were nations making up almost half the world's economy are gathering us now hear what president putin had to say. hello are you watching r t with me kevin know him a very pleased to say today that we're joined by the president of the russian

federation of let him a potent we're very pleased because this is his first major interview since his inauguration and he's granted it to us so mr president thank you very much for making the time to talk to us but i want to talk about first of all is the ongoing at the moment apec summit you'll be going there very shortly no flood of osce talk course it's the first time that russia has held it prestigious event but it always begs the question what's actually achieved at these events events like that like the g eight like the g twenty now with the way pick is primarily an economic vessel there's a lot of politics involved as well and of course a lot of the key players including you including american key players disagree on some very key issues and thinking about syria and thinking about missile defense thinking about iran is there a danger that the politics may stifle get in the way of the big economic deals that the very same key players hoping to sign at this summit or at least talk about sign and if. that is true but in fact you just said it yourself

a pick was originally conceived as a forum for discussing economic issues and as this year's host country we also intend to focus on economic and social economic challenges and emotionally was originally established with the overall objective of liberalizing the global economy and we intend to make this the key issue on the agenda in vladivostok that will invited our counterparts five years ago to meet in the russian federation by russia was to acknowledge the importance of this area for russia but only given that two thirds of russia's territory is located in asia and yet the bulk of our foreign trade more than fifty percent is with europe whereas asia or any accounts for twenty four percent for meanwhile is your is developing rapidly and intensively and as you and i know it and everybody knows it and therefore we are planning to focus primarily on economic. and is transport global food security and the task of liberalizing the global economy it's a well known fact of the past year has seen

a dramatic increase in the number of people affected by starvation which is growing by two hundred million this means that one billion people worldwide currently suffering from food shortages or famine i believe this is the kind of issue that will be the focus of attention but of along with a number of other challenges that are highly sensitive and significant for millions of people as far as syria and other hot spots are concerned is users are currently in the limelight and we will certainly address the minogue deliberations of the forum in bilateral discussions or otherwise they wouldn't be overlooked. the problems that you think they should be more practical outcomes though is it too much of a talking shop like apec. well. you know but you know it tended the g twenty meeting in mexico just recently as a rule such meeting is a prearranged and pretty discussed by aides of ministers and high ranking experts and still there are certain is used eventually come into focus for the heads of

state attending that's how it was in mexico i was very interested to follow the discussions and look at conflicting opinions and i participated in some of those discussions i think the coming forum with see just as many debates but it's only through this kind of meticulous hard work year after year and quarter after quarter if not day by day if you excuse my officialese the we can eventually arrive at acceptable solutions to sensitive issues such as say liberalizing trade because this is an issue that affects millions of people you know that is used to operating within the framework of the world trade organization and the coming apec summit so immensely important for us partly because russia is now a full member of the w t o we've also established a customs union a common economic space in the post soviet territory jointly with bella rusin. dialogue is very important for us so that we can explain to our partners and hope to realize how this kind of association in the post soviet area could be beneficial

and helpful especially since the vehicles i've mentioned have been established l.a. based on w t o principles but what they. are not but that book for thought ok thanks for explaining that we're going to come back to apec at a bit later if we may but you touched on another big subject in the headlines they don't register vents that have been unfolding in syria over the last eighteen months now russia's position has been steadfast all the way along the line you've said it should be no foreign intervention and it should be the syrian people who do the deciding it should be done through diplomacy however that that's a great idea but day in day out innocent lives are being lost on both sides is it time for something more than talking sure. russia be reassessing its position might be now. how come russia is the only one which is expected to revise its stance don't you think our counterparts in negotiations want to revise theirs as well because if we look back at the events in the past few years we'll see that quite

a few of our counterparts initiatives have not played out the way they were intended to take the examples of numerous countries riven by escalating internal conflict the u.s. and its allies went into afghanistan and now they're all thinking about how they can get out of the if there's anything on the table it's the issue of assisting them in withdrawing their troops and hardware from afghanistan through our transit routes you know are you sure the situation will be stable for decades to come so far no one can be confident about it and look at what's going on in the arab countries there have been notable developments in egypt libya tunisia yemen and other places would you say that order and prosperity have been totally ensured for these nations and what's going on in iraq in libya their own clashes still raging among the country's various tribes i won't even mention the way the country had its regime changed this is a separate topic what concerns us more i want to emphasize once again is the

current hostilities in syria but at the same time we are just as concerned about the possible consequences of certain decisions should they be taken or pinion the most important today is ending the violence we must all the warring parties including the government and the so-called rebels the armed opposition to sit down at the negotiating table and decide on a future that would guarantee security for all stakeholders in syria only then should they get down to any practical measures regarding the country's future government system we realize that this country needs a change but this doesn't mean that a change should come with bloodshed i think. i will. ok well given the facts regarding syria that you see on the table now what is the next step there what do you realistically think is going to happen next. but it wasn't national but we told our partners we would like to sit down together at the negotiation table in geneva

and when we did together we charted a road map for further action that could help bring peace to syria and channel developments down a more constructive path we received almost unanimous support and shared the talks results with the syrian government that you need within the rebels actually refused to recognize those decisions many of the negotiating parties have also quietly backed down i believe that the first thing to do is to stop shipping into the war zone which is still going on but we should stop trying to impose unacceptable solutions on either side because it is a dead end and i think that's what we should do it's that simple luckily we generally enjoy friendly relations with the arab world who would like to stay away from islamic secretary in conflict or interfere in a showdown involving the sunnies the shia the alawi's and so on we treat everyone with equal respect we also get on well with saudi arabia and other countries have cultivated a warm personal relationship with the custody of two islamic shrines the only

underlying motive behind our stance is the desire to create a favorable environment for the situation to develop positively in years to come. what are your thoughts about the united nations and the way the united nations has reacted particularly in syria there's been criticism that. it's failed to deliver a unified front if you like and it's become more of a figurehead organization do you share that view. quite the contrary i would say my take on the issue is the absolute opposite of what you've just said yet if you noted nations in the security council had indeed turned into a mere rubber stamping tool any one of the member states it would have ceased to exist just like the league of nations did with the reality is that the security council in the un meant to be a tool for compromise seeking to achieve. it is a long and complex process but only hard work can yield a screw up what it not so much that you understood mr president other question i'd

like to ask you a number of western arab nations have been covertly to start with supporting the f.s.a. the free syrian army in some of them doing it openly and of course the catch here is that the f.s.a. suspected of hiring known al-qaeda fighters amongst their ranks so the twist in this tale is that a lot of those countries are actually sponsoring terrorism if you like in syria countries that have suffered from terrible terrorism themselves is that a fair assessment doesn't it to you know when someone aspires to attain and then they see is optimal any means will do as a rule they will try and do that by hook or by crook and hardly ever think of the consequences that was the case during the war in afghanistan when the soviet union invaded in one nine hundred seventy knowing what a toy market hasn't put in the support of the rebel movement and basically gave rise to al-qaeda that which later backfired on the united states itself today some want to use militants from al qaida or some other organizations with equally

radical views to accomplish their goals in syria this policy is dangerous and very shortsighted in that case one should. all of its inmates and bring them to syria to do the fighting practically the same kind of people don't want we should bear in mind is that one day these people would get back at their former captors on the other hand these same people should bear in mind that they will eventually end up in a new prison very much like the one off the cuban shore i would like to emphasize that this policy is very short sighted and is fraught with dire consequences. a question general but just. so to broaden out a little bit know a little bit wider from syria touched on itself seriously little of a civil war we see in conflicts in bahrain and in saudi arabia ok things are a bit calmer in egypt to libya and tunisia you've mentioned it just now but standing back for a minute over all all the troubles we've seen in the middle east all the turmoil

there has it been at all for the good or for the bad where is it where is it put that region now. or where you know we can discuss this into the small hours and still run out of time for me it's clear these events have a historic logic to the leaders of these countries have obviously overlooked the need to change and missed at home and abroad so they failed to produce the reforms which would have saved the day that all these events logically stem from this background with this is a blessing or a curse with many negative implications is now too early to say in any case the lack of a civilized to approach the high level of violence has so far stood in the way of any sustainable political structures which would help solve the economic and social problems in society by those events although this is what causes a lot of concern for the future because the people in those countries we have had previous regimes clearly expect the new government to begin with tackling their

social and economic problems in a competent way but with no political stability these problems you think cannot be solved. the problem addition and we will turn over to the united states the upcoming election there which show what we're all looking forward to very much of course now the reset button with russia was firmly pushed by barack obama over the last four years but. still that missile defense shield the headache for russia in the east of europe if obama does win a second term what's going to define the next chapter of russia and america's relations and is it a chap that you can do business with. the latest. i believe the over the last four years presidents obama and medvedev have made a lot of progress in strengthening russia u.s. relations we have saw in the new start treaty to go and backed by the us russia has become a fully fledged member of the world trade organization there are more reasons to be

optimistic about our bilateral relations our strength and cooperation in combating terrorism and organized crime in the moment proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and in other areas in other words we have accumulated quite a lot of positive experience with these two you mentioned the u.s. missile defense system is surely one of the key issues on today's agenda because it involves russia's vital interests got all scholars and experts understand that a unilateral solution will not in hans global stability in essence the intention is to upset the strategic balance which is a very dangerous thing to do as any involved party would always strive to maintain its defensive capabilities and the entire thing could simply trigger off an arms race is it possible to find a solution to the problem if president obama is reelected for a second term i mean principle yes it is but this isn't just about president obama for all i know his desire to work out a solution is quite sincere but it was before i met him recently on the sidelines

of the g twenty summit in los cabos mexico where we had a chance to talk about what if and that we talked mostly about syria but i had the chance to feel the mood of my counterpart my feeling is that he is a sincere man and that he sincerely wants to implement positive change but can he do it will they let him do it. i mean there is also the military lobby and the department of state which is quite conservative by the way it is fairly similar to russia's foreign ministry other three are run by a number of fresh new plans who've been working there for decades the thing is that in order to solve the missile defense issue we both need to accept as an axiom butt . yes we are reliable partners and allies for each other well let's imagine for a second we have all the solution the means from now on we jointly assess missile threats and control this defense system together this is a highly sensitive area of national defense i am not sure that our partners are

ready for this kind of cooperation got a little national i thought it took a certain interest is there anything that russia can do to try and meet in the middle to give a bit of ground. we did what we could we said let's do it together partners a so far refusing to go along but what else can we do we can maintain dialogue feel that that's exactly what we will be doing but naturally as our american partners proceed with developing their own missile defense we shall have to think how we can defend ourselves and preserve the strategic balance that you go the way america's european allies who also happen to be russia's partners have nothing to do with it because i believe that as a european national you should understand it or this is a purely american missile defense system and a strategic one with its european elements pushed to the periphery you see europe just like russia is not allowed to take part in either assessing missile threats or controlling the system be our original proposal was to develop it as

a three party solution that our partners have not agreed to that question ok so we think you can work with barack obama if you get in what if mitt romney gets in a quote here from just a month or two ago this is the man if he makes it to the white russia is without question our number one geopolitical foe they fight every cause for the world's worst actors went on to say russia is not a friendly character on the world stage could you work with him said. yes we can we work with whichever president is elected by the american people but our effort will only be as efficient as our partners allow it to be as for mr romney's position we understand that this is to a certain extent motivated by election campaign rhetoric but i also think that he was already asleep or wrong because such behavior in the international arena is the same as using nationalism and segregation as a tools of us domestic policy its effect in the international arena is the same

when a politician person who aspires to lead a nation especially a great country like the us declares someone to be enemy a priority and by the way this brings something else to mind when we talk about the missile defense system or american partners keep telling us this is not directed against you but what happens if mr romney and believes us to be america's number one which is elected president of the united states in that case the missile defense system will definitely be directed against russia as it is technologically configured exactly for this purpose and you also have to think about its strategic character not for a year or even a decade and the chances that a man with romney's views could come to power quite hard so what are we supposed to do to ensure our security post i'd like to talk about the latest developments in the magnitsky case for a moment now both u.s.

and britain britain most recently are working on this list of high ranking russian officials russian citizens that they say are responsible for his death he was a high ranking finance story died in a. russian church expect of us why is this still such a perception of brought to justice wasn't dealt in russia that the people responsible for it haven't been dealt with properly what is this keep rumbling on. you see there are people who need in the enemy they are looking for an opponent to fight against you know how many people die while. prison in those countries which have condemned russia the numbers a huge look at the us that came up with the so-called magnitsky list as you know there is no death penalty in russia while the us still keeps it on the books anyone including women can be executed at the same time all civilized societies know the judicial errors can occur in capital punishment cases even when people plead guilty it turns out later on that the convict did not commit the crime yet that's one

thing more importantly i think only god has the right to take life away i don't want to go too much into that right now there's a lot of philosophy in it and with that in mind we could have come up with our own blacklist more than one of people who use the death penalty in other countries but we choose not to do it. as for mr magnitsky it's certainly a great tragedy that he died in prison and there certainly must be a thorough investigation if someone is found guilty they must be punished but what i want to emphasize is there as absolutely no political context in this case it is a tragedy but it is only to do with crime and legal procedure and not politics no more than that still someone's looking to spoil relations with russia and they have banned some russian officials who are alleged to be involved in the death of mr magnitsky from entering their country of course i do regret his death and i offer my condolences to his family but what should russia do in such cases take

appropriate steps and similarly list officials of the country that introduces such measures against russia like that. and to make it perfectly clear this case will be re-examined by russia. which case what needs to be retried i must only find out whether someone's guilty of his death or not and if someone's guilty and responsible for the death in some way that person should be held accountable but if that's it again there is no politics behind it it is the job of the more unfortunate festivals to look into it and of course the russian authorities are going to do that but the prosecutor's office is working on it now. and. ok and i'd like to we're talk about the trial and jailing of pussy riot punk group band there's been much criticism of the sentence handed down was too strong was too much and the whole case was just made too too big a deal of in fact that actually backfired and it's brought more people to their

cause with a publicist with hindsight it was a beautiful thing but with hindsight you think that the case could have been handled differently. could you please translate the name of the band into russia pussy riot the punk band i don't know what you call them in russian maybe you could tell me. you know most people. use it. or maybe it would sound too obscene yes i think you wouldn't do it because it sounds too obscene even in english. the police actually thought it was referring to a cat but maybe i'm missing a point here but anyway i said if you think that that case was handled wrongly in any way could have left you open your mind i know you understand it perfectly well you don't need to pretend you don't get it it's just because these people made everyone say their band's name too many times it's obscene but forget it here's what i would like to say i've always felt the punishment should be proportionate to the offense no i am not in a position now and would not like in any way to comment on the decision of

a russian court but i would rather talk about the moral side of the story. first in case you've never heard of it a couple of years ago one of the band's members put up three effigies in one of moscow's big supermarkets with a sign saying that jews gays and migrant workers should be driven out of moscow i think you're thora he should have looked into their activities back then but after that they staged an orgy in a public place of course people are allowed to do what ever they want to do as long as it's legal for this kind of conduct in a public place should not go unnoticed by the or thirty's then they uploaded the video of that on the internet you know some fans of group sex say it's a better than one on one show because like in any team you don't need to hit the ball all the time again it's ok to do what you like privately but i wouldn't be that certain about uploading your acts on the internet it could be the subject of legal assessment to then they turned up at your lack of

a cathedral here in moscow causing unholy mayhem and then went to another cathedral and caused mayhem there too you know russians still have painful memories of the early years of soviet rule when thousands of orthodox muslim as well as the clergy from other religions were person. did soviet authours he's literally repressed the clergy many churches were destroyed but the attacks had a devastating effect on all our traditional religions and so in general i think the state has to protect the feelings of believers or it your view i will not comment on whether the verdict is well grounded in the sentence proportionate to the offense in which these girls must have lawyers who defend their interests in court they have the right to file an appeal and demand a new hearing they say it's up to them it's just a legal issue it's just the just. isn't realistic until you think they will get some sort of early release yet there is no i don't know whether their lawyers have filed an appeal not i don't follow the case that closely if they appeal

a higher court is empowered to take any decision to turn up to be honest i try to stay as far away from the case as possible if i know the details but i do not want to get into it it will option yes no took place at the station because there's concern here and abroad that russia has been suffering i climbed in on the opposition since since you returned as president to defamation law upping the fines for defamation internet censorship laws brought in to protect children all these introduced under your watch what's the balance between a healthy opposition you think and maintaining law and order what is your view. pretty open to just about us so is it true then that other countries don't have laws that ban child pornography including online complement government. they didn't so they do well we didn't until recently and if we began to take our society and our children from these offenses. maybe it was the timing of the introduction it

may have seemed a bit heavy handed if you can but barack it was. you know i try not to think about it i just do what i think is right for this country and for its people and that's how i will work in the future of course i'm aware of how my conduct resonates globally but this cannot dictate my policies or any steps that we take are in the interests of the russian people and our children need this kind of protection that no one is going to use this as a tool to restrict the internet or online freedoms but we have the right to protect our children but you might also recall the mass riots that shocked the u.k. a year ago is that she's a lot of people were injured a lot of property was damaged if the is it better to let things deteriorate to that state and then spend a year tracking down the people and locking them up i think it's best not to let things get that far that's my first point that's my second point let me now get down to the hard facts you must know that a year ago i backed reform that would see russian governors elected and not

appointed as previously through secret ballot but i also took the next after taking office i introduced a new bill of elections to the upper train birth of the russian parliament these specific steps will pave the way for a more democratic russia and it's true both for its people and its state there have been other proposals initiated too including changes in the rule making process the state duma is now considering using public initiatives a major national issue submitted via the internet but as a source of new legislation if the draft bill is supported by one hundred thousand web votes it will then be discussed in the state duma yet right now we are looking into how to put this idea into practice there of the major proposals as well we seek to make our society more advanced and more democratic and we intend to be consistent in following this path. which. we started off our talk by talking about the forthcoming apec summit which you're off to very shortly when

you're there i gather you'll be meeting with chinese president hu jintao you won't be meeting barack obama because he's not there clinton will be not there is a sign of how he regards apec it may just be busy but it is at this time that we regard it is also a sign that maybe china is increasingly becoming a political and commercial partner. if you just don't know that china is indeed becoming a global economic and political hub this is part of a global trend with new centers emerging on the political and economic landscape this is an obvious facts for everyone the question is the pace of change china has taken up this new leading role by not only in russia's eyes but also in the always of the whole world what makes this rather special however is that russia and china are neighbors and are special relations took thousands of years to evolve to where they are. we have been through times of sunshine which were very beneficial for both countries we've also been through periods of gloom and conflict but with at

the moment russia china relations origin unprecedented high and we share mutual trust both politically and economically over the coming years we are bound to achieve a one hundred billion dollar turnover rate really to put this in perspective currently europe makes up fifty one percent of russia's foreign trade which amounts to over two hundred billion dollars that would be a serious push forward because our american partners told us long ago that barack obama would not attend the summit the reason is the election race in the u.s. we think it's ok about the u.s. will still be represented at a high level so yes we've known for several months now and we fully understand the reasons and anyway this will be a great summit with top officials coming from twenty countries heads of state and heads of government of course it's a pity the u.s. president cannot come at this time but nothing can be done about it as much as well i think if you really have the opportunity you would not miss it because it's a good event for the us.