you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you. are is a big picture. oh welcome arms says a shevardnadze and today we're away from our usual moscow studio where in a very special setting astonishingly beautiful shetland isles often or coast of scotland for the north sea. you will find the shetland isles and there is a way of harris to talk to the first scottish minister alexander salant about the defining point of every land it's seventeen it's mr salmond's flagship policy to

see scotland become independent from the united kingdom one of the benefits and the drawbacks let's take a look. in scotland's hands and appealing sounds to at least a third of the country's four million voters who want to the three hundred year old political union. who dares break with history to pay less to a foreign pockets retain its share of resource riches hundred it's environment of nuclear friction yes many believe strength lies in the union as referendum countdown begins in earnest focus is turning to the key players in the campaign the leaders the media and london's reach. will take the high road and rebuild hadrian's. we talk to alex salmond the first minister of scotland on his personal and political quest for sovereignty. aleksandr salmond the first scottish

minister thank you very much for being with r.t. today i would great pleasure to be to be here what delight to have you fill me in scope so you have sat recently and this is your quote the political union does not work for scotland anymore until scotland back and imperils our future what is so wrong with remaining within the u.k. . a democratic. fifty years old. if for two thirds of my life scotland has not had the governments we vote for for two thirds of my entire lifetime scotland has voted in one direction england has voted in a different direction and because it was so much logical scotland we end up with a government westminster which is not chosen by the scottish people so the first argument is the sense that democratic one that nations and scotland's a nation have a right to self-determination and the second argument is about what you do with

that you see i think it's a pretty universal law anytime anywhere anyplace that the best people to govern the country the best people to choose how a country should be governed of the people who live and work in the country i think that applies everywhere and i think it certainly applies to sculp well you're only fourteen months away from the referendum does it worry you a little that that the majority of scots do not want independence from k. and for the last five years the polls haven't changed. well if it comes to opinion polls when i was reelected two years ago by an absolute majority in a proportional system for most of the scope and the boat three months before the election i was twenty percent behind in the opinion polls i ended up almost twenty percent in front in the opinion poll so i think polls change and usually the change in our favor probably change the polls as people get more information about this

about the concept and about the opportunity of independents than the yes how do we know this because if you pull the people who say we have enough information we already understand the issues then by a majority these people are voting yes so as we get more information out to the public of scotland then the trend will be there yes direction and would love to be twenty percent from here. probably would do i think we're going to win the referendum yes we will think so absolutely we're talking about the positive sides in case scotland gets independence it would actually hold ninety five percent of you case current oil and gas reserves that is of course if that's divide it geometrically by marriage and from the british. while the powers that be in london the old guard would ever allow that to happen but i believe are seriously contested

the there's no choice basically because the rest of the north sea is divided on equidistance the principle that you lied if you were to divide it incidentally by the covenant jurisdiction the legal jurisdiction because that's the sort of legal system even more would be the scottish waters would be ninety nine percent as opposed to ninety eight percent so the medium lane has been the line for the rest of the country so that the north sea for norway for denmark for ireland except there is no choice but to do or not basis and that point is no longer seriously contested and of course there are. difficulties in terms because we will that's a great asset for scola enormous asset sale and wholesale value worth one point five thousand thousand million pounds over the next half century or so but of course the liabilities of united kingdom the u.k. is enormous national day of the if accumulated so we will have to accept provided of course we have

a share of us. share of the national debt so there are pros and cons but the balance of advantage is overwhelmingly on the independent side you know i've been traveling a lot around here up lately and talking to people especially in the central part of the western europe and people there fail back they hear a crisis that they would be so much better off alone without this the regulations and constrictions doesn't depend is really make much difference for scotland if it is part of you with or without. membership or i think a seventy does mean i'm in favor of being part of the of the european union i think independence is about control of your finances control fewer resources in the case of oil and nubile resources in scotland but also control of your revenue if you control your revenue and therefore control your spending and how to distribute that revenue moama population then you are a genuinely independent country with independence with in the european union

scotland would control one hundred percent all of its revenue base would decide how to spend its finances currently we have allowed control of less than ten percent of our revenue base in the scottish parliament therefore ten percent is not independence one hundred percent even independence within europe is independence well he want independent scotland to retain pound sterling right but if you continue to use currency without u.k. authority what scotland have a lender of last resort well proposal is to have a joint arrangement that had to have an agreed couple so union it was telling us as much i couldn't see as it's been the bank of england was founded by a scot so we're going to see well indeed you know lots and lots of things of the world are being funded by scots but the point i'm making is the ship comes at the present moment doesn't belong to england it doesn't belong to george osborne the chancellor is part of the assets of the united kingdom so the point is quite simple

we are prepared to take a share of assets and a share of liabilities in the way both these are huge but if of course he was to argue as he suggests he might we can have a share of assets of the common currency then by definition we don't have a share of the liabilities and the liabilities for the native kingdom. because there's many international precedents for example the breakup of the soviet union will be newly independent countries did not by negotiation end up paying the national debt of the soviet union so the dash belongs to london. the present moment if they are to persuade us to accept a share which we are willing to do the new only basis in which we'll do it is if we have a share of the assets as well you can't of one with the other become of the bond with a penny and that is why incidentally that after a yes vote for independence will be no difficulty from london about sharing a common currency adam burke is your case second largest city financially in case cotland becomes independent could you see it challenge london is something you

would like to see well i think there would be a very real possibility if england were to leave the european union. that is a live possibility that would leave your opinion i think the effect of england leaving the european union after scottish independence would be that many headquarter of companies would move to scope i think would be very unwise for good to leave the european union but you know that's a choice for the people of england to me that's their choice and their will judgement choice so you can see a circumstance we have the financial sector it would get more headquarters under the circumstance but i should say this goes five sets a very strong and very able and particular in the things it does best asset management the long term investment trusts pension funds the long term investment or people's money or corporate money as opposed to the much more phonetic market driven. financial dealings of the of the city of london so to a great extent i think skull should continue to do what we do best and that is to

manage people's money carefully in long term investments and build up that special someone asset management which is proving so enormously successful the snow will move companies are melting and growing like aberdeen asset management for example but any major political transformation such as becoming independent from the u.k. in your case really needs a lot of spending how much would it cost scotland to be independent how much would it cost once got to become independent it will be benefits from scott in the coming in the pilot with the last five years just for example in the last five years scotland has contributed more by eight million post relative to london than we received back again that is the the relative surplus between scotland and london no eight thousand million poems as well. who won one thousand six hundred of the scots so it's going to be independent over the last

five years that every scot be one of those six hundred which. is not just about finance of course i mean the reason for scott becoming independent is not that would be. the rich are the reason for scott becoming independent schools a nation a nation should be self-governing they govern the feels better than allowing someone else to do it for them but who was a balance sheet calculation then it's very much in favor of scotia independence but can you tell me exactly what is the difference between the devil marx and you're proposing this as far as i'm concerned note that most of the scots there saying you know we're fine as long as there's more power to the scottish parliament within the u.k. plus when it control over taxation and welfare why go through so much trouble for much and i say not come because westminster won't see control over our economy and welfare they've said no to that they've rejected that they say this far and no follow they will not will not concede control over scottish. or major natural resources so well how to pursue the licensing for renewable energy which as you

know we've got a quarter one quarter of the potential marine renewable energy of the whole continent of you prince called and we don't have control over the licensing provisions for the amazing natural resource to london will not concede that that's why we've got a democratic opportunity to refashion relationship with london know many things we're going to keep we want to control an economy we want to decide on the government but we're perfectly happy with the union of the cones for example we want to keep the royal family how much the queen as head of state but then a much the queen as head of state sixteen countries at the present moment it has goals and the plan that should be had the seventeen countries if we think about the history of scotland as scott with an england shared the same monarch when the scottish king became king of england for one hundred years while scotland and england were independent countries for all of the seventeenth century scot living with were independent countries that shared the same monarch so that's

a perfectly easy thing to do in the modern world still you do see that her majesty queen as head of state as will an independent scotland so we'll continue to show. what is a valuable and important the social union between scotland and source people can travel freely between the countries can visit the friends and families that people from london can come and work and in shetland and people from scotland can go to work in newcastle all of that will stay in remain as it should but we'll have control over who so government will have control over our finances and spend at least things out of central. or talking to the first minister alex salmond here and scotland we're taking a short break now we'll be right back so. the

judge is essential. to killed on the streets. that women are kidnapped and converted to islam muslims will be on the look at europe most of those from the coakley christians of egypt to the cross to. spiritual thing to. the way of the cross. he gets. to.

choose. your language calling me kevin oh if they sell some of the. treatments the buttes the consensus get to. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to your office. i think.

welcome back you're watching sophie and co and we are talking to alexander salmond the first scottish minister here in shetland isles scotland were talking about why scotland should get independence talking about travelling freely if you guys become independent as a part of he would actually have to open your university doors to all the british students who now pay nine thousand pounds a year does this this is where you can be kind of costly for scotland well we believe we can maintain the public to arrangement we've got legal advice to that effect but i do and still have got more students coming to scott misapply. this

year because of the policies of the scottish cup we have a record number of scottish students studying in scottish higher education a record number of english students fleeing the high fees studying in scottish highly educated under record number of international students studying at scottish universities and colleges so we've got three records all in one year that's a great thing for scotland for scopes reputation as a great thing for the scottish economy so i'm not worried about having more students of those to add to scotland but we can maintain a puddle rage which was a perfectly fair. at the present moment that's the advice we've got what do you make of the recent claims that the u.k. defense ministry may simply designate their nuclear naval days and fresh as a certain u.k. territory in case of a yes well or a whole thinks of sizes and project feel that the scaremongering campaign that was probably the least successful in the only lasted for two hours so the ministry of

defense briefed the guardian newspaper and then doubting street denied it within two hours of the paper being printed so that was a scare story whose life. was two hours old only and of all the scare stories and ridiculous nonsense that the project feet of produced that was one of the least successful indeed probably the most spectacularly unsuccessful pieces of months and why oh why did they were dropped from two well of course they know the reaction of scotland to the suggestion they would try to annex perhaps a skull and. make it part of even the even the most fair haven't in scotland if there is such a thing would find objectionable the idea you could annex part of the land of scotland that's why the life cycle of only two of us is a scare story but what are you going to do with it because you don't want nuclear weapons but even if you wanted to it's not yours to use when you can to deal with

that part well we're going to ask for it to be removed quickly and the safely as possible and the emphasis on board we want to move we want the timetable to be quick but we want to do it safely we don't want to we don't want to have any risk to anyone by doing so there are plenty of benefits of stately english ports in the so very good and for. us the difficulty is not better for the submarines the difficulty is that we supplied with nuclear missiles but of course the resupply capability in both america and france and i think it's extremely unwise instantly i think would be ridiculous for. country a five and a quarter million people to have nuclear weapons i think could be unhelpful to the one whole community. it's not going to be the case that scotland will host someone else's nuclear weapons very few countries do that unwise to do that so trident will have to be removed it's up to the people of england the people at westminster to decide whether they want to continue with

a nuclear deterrent in my view to be very unwise to do so i think it's the most phenomenal waste of money but i agree it's their decision but of course if they make that decision then of course they have to accept the consequences which is to feign some put it put it well no the only reason that submarine will be odd it was his father we as the could think of from the the sentence a population no look scott was a peace loving country we want to cooperate from neighbors with in favor of nato membership for example because our neighbor saw the need to bot. twenty five of the twenty countries in nato are no nuclear countries and so we'll be a non-nuclear country within the year but most of the countries actually strive to be new care and that's why i'm asking if you become a world leader in case of independence then you know you're faced with countries like iran or north korea having nuclear weapons and scotland not well i have to say i don't think north korea. to either threaten or attack scotland but let's remember

the world has two hundred countries almost in it one hundred ninety of them do not have nuclear weapons and depending how you calculate these things almost ten probably half. openly some secretly i think i'd rather be one of the hundred ninety with folk nuclear weapons than one of the one full with nuclear weapons and there is absolutely no reason on earth that a country of five million people should possess nuclear weapons this would not be a good thing for perforation for the safety of the planet nobody seriously argues for that position i don't really want to enter into the debate a boat in with the nuclear weapons all i would say is this if you are actually justifying a nuclear deterrent on the basis of a reunion to come then you wouldn't want to try still with trident as a rule choice of nuclear system which frankly was designed by the british government to penetrate the defenses our own moscow that's what it was designed for it's not

a deterrent against. or for that matter that's new that against the terrorist organization so if you were persuaded in england of the argument of having a bit against iran then what you would choose is a deterrent of that sort of scale you go back to an all vulcan bomb or something you certainly wouldn't of a nuclear weapon system to renew it will cost one hundred thousand million pounds over this life cycle that would not be the detail you would choose. and certainly scotland doesn't want to engage in the sort of nuclear poker politics so the u.k. recently placed top on a global soft power survey do you worry that you're going to be left out because obviously you won't be part of those you came stations they're actually attributing to that and you know i think we'll do far better projecting our own image of scotland we already do this and what investment and we top the lead table not just for the u.k. but for europe as far as people coming in to invest in our country and we promote

ourselves as scotland in terms of soft power when we don't claim to have power we're not going to have vast ami's so or navies or bombs or whatever that's not what we are we are in terms of soft power in terms of influence scott was incredibly well placed with a country of five a quarter million people but there are not far off one hundred million people across this planet who either of scottish descent or have an affinity with scotland or or have a connection with scotland in terms of influence this planet scotland a great deal of influence which will hopefully we'll be able to use for for good for promoting positively the case of scotland but also for doing what we can in the way that some of the scandinavian countries have done and ten like norway for example in terms of be an honest broker to help to help solve difficult situations we'd like to do that we're willing to do that and of course to the start of obligations to those in the planet nothing we already have built up an

international development portfolio in scotland modest proportions no but something a bit late to do a lot more off specializing perhaps in renewable energy which we have such an expertise in and water which we have a lot of. and therefore we look to. be welcomed into the community of nations as of the sponsible world so this. will serviceable terms of influence agreed. influence in terms of military power not very much but if i was offered the choice to be in the country with great influence or great military power then i would choose being a country with great influence what do you make of the b.b.c. coverage of your complaint having both in both places the b.b.c. scotland and then the london paste operation i think. the chairman of the b.b.c. trust recently said he thought covering the referendum was the biggest challenge to

the b.b.c. had ever faced. i think it has a difficult challenge and i'm not sure that it's getting it right at the present moment. broadcasters by the nature are usually an hour and five more balanced than newspapers newspapers don't have to be balanced nor should but broadcasters have to be very careful to be balanced but the b.b.c. finds scotland a challenge because so much of what they report for example in the network news that goes right across the u.k. and viewed this broadcast internationally in the report for example scandals in the health service in england as if they were the scottish health service which is run quite separately education difficulties or lingual does if there were educational scott which is run totally separately so they find it very difficult and we feel the challenge to date of trying to differentiate the debate and the position of scotland from the position living with i'm going to be that's understandable

because you know the covering a country where you know more than eighty five percent of the people stay in one country and the other fifteen percent will still stay in another free country so perhaps they find that too difficult a challenge a lot of them said it was a greatest challenge it's not one that they're beating us yet and finally have you considered and thought about what your position may be in case of a no would you resign would you stay continue fighting for freedom but i totally interesting i been in politics for twenty five years or so and although i was one past the elections another one national life since i thought we'd lost what i was doing wrong and maybe the six politicians everything. when you were an opposition and when i became a member of parliament at westminster abbey a plea m.p.'s three out of a parliament a six hundred fifty those very easy to be opposition to jump up and to be noticed

because if you didn't jump up and nobody would pay any attention to you whatsoever . when you want to lead a country. it's to be positive to talk about the future to say what you're going to do a lot of people have and. you have to put the accent on the post of and you have to absolutely believe it with every fiber of your being so. listen well before the west another one of national action so listen. every national election and that we think we are looking at the world we are approaching the people i'll take into the referendum campaign and one of the things you have to believe is you have to believe you're going to win and you have to believe it with every fiber of your being because if you are to persuade people if you are to have a conversation about the future you have to do it from the basis that we're going to win this referendum and scotland will become an independent country. thank you

very much for this great talk a great pleasure thank you you're watching sophie and co our guest today was alexander salmond thanks for watching and we will see you in our next edition. because no one. needs you want to. be. done

for. i was fired. by. feel. the official. language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from. mobile devices you can watch artsy. anyway.

oh oh oh oh oh oh. oh oh. thank you. thank you thank you. thank you. thank. you very.

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