what does this 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 who ask this and other questions to a prominent expert and international relations in germany. blood into putin's travel plans have received a lot of media attention lately after. meeting in america and went to. germany. contra to visit. president germany has long been brushed. and one of the biggest markets last year russia germany is worth a record. countries are also working together. which would deliver russia. its first line was launched. 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 as his first destination in europe first foreign nation outside the space. schools of thought in germany concern and russia one is very into the ethic about russia this is a business community and the enthusiastically of course welcomed mr putin here in germany and they understand that through mr putin they can do business with russia and as long as he's

in russia of course the context is somewhat different. government takes a very significant role not only controlling those resources but in developing them and exploring them so i suppose for the canadian companies the challenge is how do you navigate the unique circumstances of the russian oil and gas industry and how it's developed and we're still learning but as we move along but i'm optimistic that as time goes by more and more canadian companies will take an interest in that sector in russia but you might have noticed that when you were already here in russia with your visit that prime minister medvedev came up with the. pretty extensive program of privatization you know he proposed privatization in all of the gas sector in the banking sector so so. that should be a step in the direction you know what that's a very very positive signal you know there have been some other positive signals as well i met with russia's natural resources minister yesterday and he updated me on some of the regulatory and legislative changes that the russia

russia human rights conservationism to do wrestles to twenty national june next time you hope for russia to hope post the culture of nations and finally we had some good discussions on the range of foreign policy issues. on syria let me first say that the situation is appalling the syrian regime should immediately cease all forms of violence and provides filter or to do un supervision mission european union and russia might have some divergent assessments but before you agree that i'm not as a whole provides the best opportunity to break this cycle of violence in syria avoiding a civil war and finding a peaceful lost and solution we need to combine our efforts in order for this to happen and to find common messages on which we agree we need to walk towards an immediate stop of all forms of violence in syria and what's process of political transition a new round we agree on the urgent need to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons you and russia are working closely together and we all the partners on this issue and we look forward to the next round of talks in moscow where the e.u. w

with major economic partner as russia is and you call you with russia or part of the us not before those there are stumbling blocks they want that. big a fully fledged member of the e.u. one of them is possibly nato member state which president mechanix says that he would never take on and they also is the recognition of cost of a. mistake which is already made it clear that if so they have to choose between recognizing calls today on the e.u. that it can forget about the e.u. now there is nothing new in the footing of a show as you cited namely the same formulation as were made by former president so b s the national assembly had adopted five six years ago. declaring the military neutrality of serbia. within the present constellation is politically determined not to become the member of nato and. constitution plain call civil is the part of the country so no politician. disobey the basic principle is as stated in the constitution of the country he's already broke the base as well hasn't he there were deep sort of undone some of the what was done to restore relations with so obvious neig

on june to twelve so we celebrate russia today commemorating russia's state sovereignty declaration that you were a member of parliament back then the very problem and adopted the declaration declared as what was the essence of the declaration that as soon as the time and why is that today's russians often referred to june twelfth as the dependence day. but i wasn't just a member of parliament i was one of the people who are rude the declaration and from where i'm standing so bring independence teacher or even russia do on june the twelfth outright ridiculous. it doesn't it seem strange to me but it is absurd as the purpose of the declaration was to try to find a balance of competencies between the soviet union and russia as its constituent republic. those who think the declaration was strickly but independence is not actually read it. they don't realize that its key point was to establish the russian soviet federative socialist republic as a legal state within the soviet union. and legal and indivisible state that putin's go. in was aiming to prevent a split up of russia certainly the d

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 real

and russia in case and this year. as for our economic and trade cooperation it is on the rise we have established on either side that russia would like to. assist russia in modernizing its industries we also have severe interesting cooperation with regard to commodities trade. and that includes building the north stream pipeline we all also have discussed. the evolution of civil society in russia there have been certain developments in this area i have emphasized that we are interested in developing a democratic democracy including those in russia because that is the only way. to conceive a civil society in russia that would assist. the country in its development but. the year two thousand and fourteen will be the year of russia in germany in the year of germany in russia. russia will be presented in germany and showcase here through more than a thousand of activities there will be an exposition titled germans and russians at thousand years of history culture in fine arts it will be opened in the historical museum. bu

never knew before and every place china russia russia europe the united states the middle class feels itself under threat is dissatisfied. and this is an important motor for social change in russia still in america i mean what sounds to me you're saying is that for normalization of russian politics it is and what i hope for is i mean these demonstrations are in effect fairly useless at this point because they represent a minority viewpoint the majority of russians voted for vladimir putin and would vote for glad to be uprooted again but what we needed to realize position and effective opposition in russia the british notion of a loyal opposition not simply being against everyone and everything but being for some positive solutions and this begins with regional politics this begins with people running for office for the mayor of their city and gradually developing a real political alternative in russia which is something which has been missing until now david what do you think about the nature of the opposition here i think you know eric isn't really with all due respect i have a sligh

/good russia. i think on doing this, which has been consolidated, it has been a position that has been consolidated over the last 18 months, is actually going to be the first next step that nato needs to address. within the parameters of ddpr i think nato's best option seems to be to return to recommendations of the non-paper that was submitted last april by poland, germany and the netherlands. it should see increased transparency on numbers, types, locations, operational status and the level of storage security. these are questions that could usefully be addressed in the nato russia council and hopefully lead to a better atmosphere and a more constructive working environment within the council. moreover, following the american elections this year, a renewed effort at reaching an understanding with russia on corporation on missile defense would, if it could be successful, provide an environment that would be more conducive for further discussions within nato on nonstrategic nuclear weapons. but for

russia southern half of our joint commitment to develop russia's strategic partnership. as you all know the results of the two last years mockable the russian w t o accession the partnership of madonna's vision and the common steps toward a visa free travel the e.u. russia relationship is enjoying its best identities for years however that is still much we need to do we all do and that what is potentially possible strong political will and hot work with will be needed even in the coming years i therefore welcome president clinton's commitment to bringing this work for the together with european you. would have talks on the all grow by that real agenda and overload issues such as the economy and some of the more pressing international issues i would like to highlight the following points first on the economy for your up these are testing times but good driven by clear commitment a clear that i mean mission to work our way through the challenges we are aiming at swing getting growth in the european union that are many initiatives in the making and we will take fodor this e

public opinion in those sectors of russia who would start off from russia as a teacher and stood up a duty oh well russia is a part of the customs union how this statement made by you remains true. i mean that the attention to w t o. a minimal economic block of the basic agreement and mr brosnahan opinion on how we do integration of russia w t o what influence we have to the. elaboration or for the new. treaty of partnership and cooperation thank you. no no it is a letters beginning with a w t o. we have you see have seen the response separate sectors of russian economy. when we are here to w t o there are reasons but the instruments which we use within the requirements of a double to make us think by implementing those tools in our economy we can minimize those risks for a separate. directions of industry that is agriculture agriculture engineering. car industry etc several instruments are beginning to be used all the things in full agreement with the w t o requirements and other w t o member states are using these instruments as well let's just first second during the talks includin

specific role because recently you said the russia correct me if i'm wrong that russia should not be considered as one of the brics nations and will never be included into the g eight if it continues with its with its basically protectionist policy what you know on the g eight you know you're present in the side then not the time the g eight summit because you said he was busy creating his own cabinet that was a bit of a strange thing to do or like a snob you know in the case of the briggs the ponies you know russia's potential growth to date based on their statements by that but the going to be our central bank is three and a half percent while china and india recently were growing eight nine percent and now they're slowing down so you have a contrary we're at a low potential girl that where there is that you know not as much market oriented . those thoughts on a forum you have an aging of hope or nation there is a certain amount of lack of transparency that is such that a month of co-op shown. in the seas in the point of god sees them not as institutional weaknesses of course that

russia's reserves around forty percent of them are held in euros so russia's economy heavily depends on the health of the euro itself and while they said. that looking for ways to get the eurozone out of the crisis of the crisis is first of all a decision for the members of the eurozone itself but of course russia will be assisting in its own possible ways in order to get finally through this crisis center for. energy cooperation in general is one of the most important aspects of the cooperation between russia and germany i mean of course the north stream pipeline project which is an international project. russia and germany and is aimed to send the russian gas directly to the european union it's actually almost finished and by the end of this year russian gas should start flowing directly to you would be in consumers but also once again reminded. russia and germany our strategic partners and the trade turnover has grown by around a third exceeding seventy billion us dollars which means that germany's russia's second largest trade partner after china and of course both leaders are sa

i mean russia today. >> russia today. first of all, i think we have to understand that it is nothing like the soviet union. people have still the great majority of the freedoms that gorbachev's reforms brought them. the ones which they can enjoy. they can travel freely. many of them leave. they can leave the country. they can come back. you know, it was like a prison before. you couldn't even travel freely within the country. and so on. yes, many of the democratic procedures are very flawed. it is a very corrupt society. and one could talk about that a lot. but it is, for most people, much better than it was in the '90s when the rest of the world called what they had democracy when it was anarchy. it was not democracy. and of course it gave democracy a bad name. but i think that the problems we have had with russia, particularly during the bush/cheney administration, are really not a replay of the sort of cold war problems. most of those we created ourselves, to be quite honest. and you do not have a conflicting ideology.

and russia only and i'm not the e.u. or russia because of the sea there doesn't know that that's interesting he did a thing that said be a will have to she's between the e.u. and russia does he think it's possible to keep the right balance between them. you have a whole other level i'd prefer not to have to make the choice i'd like serbia to be a home with two doors want to the west and the other to the east serbia simply belongs to the east as well as to the west we have a traditional and deep relationship with russia not only in terms of origin but also in religion as tree customs language but we have complementary industries that we've had exceptional economic relations since the second world war unfortunately we ruined our industry with senseless privatisation which led to people losing their jobs nevertheless we have the education we have the will power and natural resources to collaborate once again with the russian federation at a much higher level since two thousand serbia has moved away from russia's until two t

and bad russia, good russia. i think it is a position that has been consolidated is going to be the first next step nato needs to address. within the parameters of ddpr, i think nato's best option seems to be to return to recommendations of nonpaper last april by poland, germany and the netherlands. nato should see increased transparency with russia, types, numbers, operational status and the level of security and these are questions that could be addressed in the nato-russia counsel and hopefully lead to a better atmosphere. more over, following the american elections this year, an understanding with russia on the corporation would if it could be successful, provide an environment that would be more conducive for the discussions within nato on nonstrategic nuclear weapons, but for the time being as i said, the best thing about the ddpr is that it didn't close to process. so now that the restricted process of ddpr process is over, nato should start a real dialogue and proper analysis, which might be able to apply

much bigger than it is in russia and. i lived in africa so i know what i'm talking about stereo i would like to go back just a little bit about the oil dependency i mean as of today russia is still largely dependent on oil revenues you know some say that did to the lack of the global growth they experienced a drastic falling oil prices what happens to russia's budget if let's say oh prices fall down one hundred dollars mark do you have a plan b. . would you. tell a lot if. it's sort of simple. first of all we already have some experience after the previous crisis two thousand and eight two thousand and nine. secondly our foreign reserve currency reserves are the biggest. in the world there are five hundred. billion dollars. then we have a national reserve fund and we have future generations from. combined it's close to one trillion dollars so we have. some money in case the bad case scenario happens. but of course we have also how we pull the state subsidies system which we have tried and proved effective two years ago th

minds russia would be so much brighter if you knew.

if you want to argue live from moscow with now take a look at our top stories russia seeks to break the iranian nuclear standoff by hosting an international conference in moscow all sides are a dog indeed with tough new american and european sanctions looming over tehran which refuses to relinquish its right to atomic energy. good news for those gathering for the g. twenty meeting to discuss among others the dead battered eurozone breeze seems to be stay with the euro as a pro bailout party takes the lead in the u. action. that egyptians are awaiting the results of the country's presidential election and as you can see in this live picture people are gathering in central cairo tough rear square as long as claim and unofficial early lead in the first democratic presidential polls since the ouster of hosni mubarak well the official results though are expected to be announced on thursday. and next artie's as down with an american lawyer and democratic party politician who also served as a u.s. senator chris dodd is the focus of our interview next. christoper former he left center it's grea

with nato there was friendship with russia and russia was not present in chicago. what is happening in between? the next question deals with the economics of the plan to finance missile defense in economic difficulties. we are in the defense committee and sharing and actually more country's increasing defense budget so how do you plan to finance missile defense? >> jon? trine? >> the relationship with russia as i am sure you know is worse than it was in 2008. it is a piece of string. difficult to say what the relationship with russia is and we have to take into account all the negative developments. i am not completely without reason. given that list for missile defense, sounded much better than what it is. i had -- difficulty seeing what russia could gain from what is being offered. perhaps it is surprising there has been a downturn in the relationship and on some of that presidential debate, important for that relationship because nato is in russia perceived as the enemy. in the public is difficult, we are friends with nato. nato has been painted as the big doubl

regime and its supporters in iran or russia or china or. they are the ones who are. getting the conflict instead of seeking. so they like the story you know. and use asians use then as the war of words british prime minister david cameron came out of a meeting with president putin at the recent g twenty summit saying putin no longer wanted president back in power in syria russia's foreign ministry may to deny that was peace his position but was it a case of lost in translation wishful thinking on the prime minister's parts or another attempt to exert pressure on russia in the last fifteen months is being a major attack on syria that the crisis to syrian crisis is seventy percent of media so two percent on the ground so there is a quite a lot of stories every day. like for some odd of stations by just zeros and all those using you tube and there is no confirmed reports anymore it's said the first. casualty of war is the truth and all this international rumor mongering and jockeying for position comes at the expense of the syrian people their situation doesn't change r

or the one with russia well i would again try not to. explain these relations as being contradictory to the contrary i think that they represent the complimentary value for the country like. is aimed. towards having the best possible relations with russia while keeping its european poff open. president told that to president putin when he recently paid a visit to moscow. thank you very much you. observers in syria have suspended their activities because of escalating violence that moves through in the last hour or two meantime moscow's denied the pentagon's claims that a russian military cargo ship is carrying troops and weapons to syria. also had loving from r.t. today a final round of egypt's presidential election underway but many are left disenchanted by the choices before them the run off is between a muslim brotherhood candidate and ousted leader hosni mubarak's last prime minister. of the year as futures on the line as greeks are set for a key vote on sunday between more cuts all returning to the drachma it's feared a greek exit c

when membership of russia in fact what was strange was that russia was not a member of the it was the only major economy not a member and so it's quite natural that now this happens it's not a secret that we have very much supported in fact the final negotiations it's also not a secret that i also spoke with at that time prime minister putin to try to handle some issues that were still pending and i'm very happy to corp so that russia is now becoming a full member of the euro and i'm sure this is also in the interest of the russian people for all reasons it's true that there are some transitional issues to be. safeguarded and in fact russia was able to address these issues in a very aware it's a new term in a way now today we had also very good discussion about this new agreement and our understanding of friends remember correctly was getting new agreement there will be also parts of of it related to trade and investment as it was in fact agreed in the previous seven it will be a conference in. ambitious and balanced agreement covering most important areas of our corporation but our i

is search our steps do not target russia but russia does not buy this why so why this is just why is it that these assurances are not enough for us to mishear them every day right. you see the issue of you are planting security has been central to any debate over the past several years. and. in foreign affairs with extensive experience covering both the cold war and the post cold war periods. they've come to a common opinion about the reasons for our differences. it is the enduring distrust between our countries to share in the pretty key challenge now is finding a way to overcome it. we fear it could be even more dangerous than the distrust in the times of the cold war but almost in fact you could easily see the rationale behind the mutual suspicions of the past opposing ideologies confrontation between military blocs well today distrust is fed by different concerns is national discourse national so we have to articulate and overcome them we have had a number of debates involving extremely competent experts from russia the united states europe you all have extensive experience in bo

i thought show that russia is growing russia is changing but there was no blunt most importantly there was no blood i don't think it was any harder on demonstrators than in any other country and all myself. i myself hope for the lives that whatever happens on the streets it will be peaceful and things what it was peaceful so i think it's a big step forward for any country in the world today to have demonstrations protestors about to make sure that their lives hell for their well being absolutely not. and i think russia is moving and moving in the right direction that's my feeling i'm artist i'm not spending hours and hours myself on the streets sure even in st petersburg and working actually i hope a lot of people of russia will do the same just work quite hard that's why i'm interested in your opinion because the opinion of politicians are more or less easy it's a game for them but for you it's not a game it's a piece of sheet music is your world and this thing it's part of your world of this so so this is why it's very important for me to know your point of view what do you think and

something like half of russia's trade is with the e.u. . there is a big risk for the russian economy going to be such a that's invisible but that's all very interesting that you'll come is do that katie is out it's almost good this to have the latest figures from around the world for us. going to get started with the russian market is then they remain in negative territory and the second part of the trading day the nosedive as you can see the all the yes i have a three percent down that's following the losses that we saw in asia in the session the fifteen major banks were downgraded by moody's and if we move on we can see them i think says well i have a percent in negative territory now the russian currency is thing shop sells that i was investing they clearly have risky assets and head for the u.s. the last place to have been where those got the common currency is well just losing at the fraction that's illinois hearing around the six month low is one twenty five thirty nine so going to be europe let's see how the thing looks i read that p

and debt stricken cyprus is calling for another bit of help from russia. as the countries requested a five billion euro credit to support its financial system this comes after moody's cut the ratings of top cypriot banks that mainly depend on the troubled greek economy last year russia provided the republic with two and a half billion euros of a load which at the time was equal to ten percent of cyprus is. that's what i have for you this hour news i'll be back until it's time with more wealthy and then thanks for that. after our very short break here in archie i'll be back with the headlines and then it's laura lister and she takes an in-depth look at the financial headlines for us in capital account. comfort is the least you have. the money is the last you need if you travel this way. language is common. you see. the. emotions are intense. i'd experienced priceless.