further calls for military invasion and threats of sanctions seen by many in syria as obstacles on a path to a possible political solution to the crisis. began to be i one of the largest leaks of u.s. army data set to go on trial but critics say the process critics of the process say it's just a ploy to cover up government crying. election fever grips rush ahead of the presidential polls mass rallies in delphic capital the largest demonstration seeing an estimated one hundred thousand supporting current prime minister vladimir putin . israel dismissing global concerns over a potential military escalation in the dispute with iran saying it alone will decide whether to launch a strike on the islamic republic. day russia celebrates defender of the fatherland day holiday marking military heroism russia's deputy defense minister up next revealing how the russian army developed over the years and the new threats it's ready to face in a changing world spotlight coming up. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. hello again oh welcome to the spotlight you shall all you are to find out when all the world today my guest is. since nine hundred twenty two the twenty third of february has been celebrated in russia as the red army today it is one of the

main holidays officially called defender of the fatherland. through the years it has into a kind of all men's day when russians commemorate the event say when the women try to be a special you know it's to their delight the world has changed significantly since the times of the red there's no immediate threat to russia these days but then what are the threats the russian army is facing and how easy is it to clear this place for you and them on what we're asking russia's deputy defense minister and back to the very top. but according to russia's latest strategy the main challenges nowadays are terrorism and extremism the cold war has long been over the faceoff with the nato countries in the past. there are however some contradictions and the biggest ones are far is deploying american missile. it's in central europe moscow

suspects it's aimed against russia and china rather than iran north korea the political turbulence in the middle east and some control of the sea to the west condemns russia for selling arms to syria which is shaken by a wave of pop rising. hello and welcome to the show well first of all i want to congratulate you with the with the red army by the way what do you call it red army day syrian army they defend their fatherland. right there i mean that's what we always of the soviet union are that's impossible to get so congratulations and it's a big holiday well. let's get serious are you happy with the state of the army of the russian army today. of course i would like to see. a lot has been done to create in you. the same time i have to say

much has to be done in the future so you'll see that if you look at the article which was written by prime minister mr putin you can see that he didn't focus just on achievements but he has decided to draw attention of our people to the problems we should we face and we should we have to solve and i hope. there is a lot of capability and ability of us to to create a new army well since you've mentioned the article of promise to put. well he is pretty worried he pretty concerned about the a.b.m. . well do we consider this the prime minister and

one of the main candidates to russian presidency. do we all including the russian leadership consider the united states as a potential threat to russia to the. it goes without seeing the united states is not a potential threat to the russian army or the russian federation and goes without saying that the problem is there. some elements of foreign policy of the united states create some problems for the russian federation and one of these issues is missile defense and by the way. one example which is very interesting maybe for you as well as for. cortex who are sitting at the t.v. and listening to mr mcnamara what's of the first who was in favor of restriction on missile defense. the soviet union generals

specialist at that time war began in your distinctions and the situation has changed now you see that the russian federation is in favor to have some. limitations of. the united states playing on this issue. for me it's you say that it's really interesting because of the same situation it was during our negotiations with the united states when the we elaborate then you will start treaty year zero zero zero russia today and russia for four or four decades has been living without an immediate threat to security but there are of course some potential threats well what about putin those didn't mention any specific potential threats to russian security doesn't mention enemies well he says something about nato and the united states but it's more of like well let's be cautious yes are there any potential threats to the russian security the security

of the country according to the russian military doctrine yes it goes without saying what can you mention at least you say that just would like to mention one it seems to me that it will be enough of that. it seems to me that the most important threat it's the nexus between. weapons of mass destruction related materials it's a very dangerous material school be in the hands of terrorists. our president as well as our prime minister mentioned this many times this is a common thread for us and america it's a common threat for also not as a nation then it's a world that's why we have a liberated a lot of agreements. documents to deal with this threat and moreover i am sure there is a good b. for us to cooperate together to tackle this issue and it seems to me that we shouldn't spend our time to create problems for each about that we have to to draw

our attention to be real problems which i just mentioned well let's get back to this. missile defense well and consider is iran to be a real threat and destroy this antara missile defense is is not against russia it's against the iranian threat because the russian army there the russian military capability it may destroy it and overcome it will likely easily move why doesn't russia buy this argument. this issue is very complicated first. where do you think that iran is the threat for united states or for the russian federation approve the way do you think of that until missile defense is that maybe a threat to russia so the americans are wrong then it's easy for us to crack this thing you say that when you create the need defense you have to take into account

real threats for example if you decide to construct your pretty shutoff or house. you will decide you will look around you will see what kind of climate news in this place is what kind of saw all of this in this place people are living next door by the way by their way and then you decide the work carlo be them you will be it will be necessary for you to construct for example if you leave in desert for example it does not mean that the unique building from salman for example from breaks maybe it will be enough to construct a really easy house this seems situation with missile defense by the way we have to decide what kind of threats we face together. russia has. offered to everybody to to work together so think of this issue just just to

me and so that's why you see that if we are talking about a very sick of party affiliation of missile and missile technology we have a need to tackle this problem a risk of proliferation but what does it mean fret threat means keeping abilities plus intention. well if i'm getting you right you're you're not worried about about the thrill of these american missiles may pose for russia but but. you don't like the idea behind the ideology that's that's behind is that right. you see that if you look at the russian american documents on me. it will be very interesting for you for example let's look at two thousand and nine where by the way it was but is in power already years and we have created a very interesting document on missile defense in joint statement of our two presidents this document consists of three parts first bytes they were instructions

to experts to look at threats but we decided to delete the word thread so we decided to abort the word challenge and i hope that you understand this is a different this segment we have decided to review all our means tools how to tackle this issue and then the third part of the statement was how to cooperate together with all international community on this issue and by the way the statement is still valid and to get to where they got united states tries to forget about this statement and they think in just all about one that they must construct or create. your negotiating today. journeys the problem of the use of the garble our radar station by john as an as an anti-missile defense facility he even proposed this to to the americans to use it

jointly what we see right now this is there this thing well i was in the south it's too it's to. look at the threat coming from the south this is where iran is there's that mean that you know that the russians are afraid to then if not then why do you need government police not just iran is leaving or situated in the south it's a lot of countries and we know with you what is going on on middle east that's why we're looking at a middle east we are thinking what kind of challenges chileans are so i would like to. repeated again. could be a problem for russian federation at the goals without seeing there too we don't ignore all chile just as well as threats. we face together the problem isa that if you decide to create missile defense to deal with the the

short range and medium range missiles or let's agree on this issue let's put all these ideas on the paper and there is one problem and the united states does not want to do anything in these three got for example if you would like to kill or intercept such miss searle you will no need to intercept us with high velocity but if you decide to do intercept us with a high velocity with capture for example i.c.b.m. s.l.b.m. it means there is a your of that but then show of your missile system called cage could cue i.c.b.m. or so when and that is a question to you and to everybody who is listening to us who cares. s.l.b.m. so is. i.c.b.m.'s just only the russian federation that's all well this definitely is a challenge will continue in a minute just

a reminder that anatolian ton of russian deputy defense minister is serious point dr who that population of great things. i. was right because we're counting.

down the official anti application. i pod touch from the apps to. video. feeds now in the palm of your. dot com. welcome back to the spotlight i'm al the knob and just to remind you that my guest today is a bastard or i'm not only on talent russia's deputy defense minister you know

actual c. and best of luck found the u.s. new u.s. ambassador to russia has recently stated that the u.s. is ready to give guarantees though not legally binding that there a.b.m. in europe is no threat to russia well this. you're talking about challenges this was a challenge this is a challenge well is russia really does that challenge. here at that's a really interesting issue and so very interesting question the problem is what is the problem why they don't want to give us a legally binding assurances why for example they would like to have a legally binding document on the reduction of nuclear weapons with the russian federation and why they're not ready to. go by the an assurance is for example i can predict that may be in other candidate from republican party could we do it in

further future elections and for example he can see that i don't keer it by old political commitments which mr obama could give other ash affiliations could continue or of the. fulfillment of missile defense plans so we don't want to be a hostage of political situation and the white house we will black to see all in agreement with the united states on serious issues like missile defense like nuclear disarmament to be legally binding it's for me it's clear and by the way that is like one other question if for example they don't want to provide a legally binding issuance of what does it mean that it mean this search sees them could be used against russian the door in force well you know you were. a negotiator is in the ministry of foreign affairs of the russian federation and

you do remember the words and the guarantees that we got the oral guarantees not legally binding from for americans that they will not be extending. they will not be moving they turned to the to the borders of russia and we we took that were damaged. there have been so so so so and so we've got to. today you are a you are discussing with a mess you made a mess of a fellow researchers just all if you this here a few days ago and you were discussing the u.s. russia military cooperation in two thousand and twelve what except the the missile defense were you discussing what were the issues. first you see the. very good be forcible copulation more aware you'll see the. minister of defense to be a. great disservice. of the united states minister of defense and i know that

my minister is ready to meet with the current minister for defense i know the chief of staff of russian army is pulling in to use it united states i know that our one levy is in a very close context with the navy or united states and we are cooperating together and one of them main problem is of course to tackle the problem of non put of. and we are ready to do it we are ready to develop to develop our relations in the various fears but i would like to be to draw attention. to my colleagues who are sitting and looking at us you see that we are very much interested in tech now look military technological. it's really important where the united states. will be the high technology or not it. i would like go develop such a group but i know that you're planning

a joint rush to computerize drills this spring is this what you're talking about in the range of technologies nor is it just a drill i mean it's just the only exercise of that which i hope that will be in march in the end or much in germany germany will horst such exercise but there is a problem with exists you say that we would like to stop talking to each. other we would like to ask computer still help us we would like to test the russian proposal as well as american proposals you would in such exercises and let's computor the decide who sees them is the right so what i want i would like to point me to meet the prime. or first us two two. to use computers to prove that for example russian proposals to cooperate are more interest and are more efficient in comparison with the united states and nato and

the united states would like just only to look at the proposals made by nato but you see that even i would like to concentrate just only on need to proposals for what purpose the russian russian officer should seek to get i know that one of the subjects that you reported to have been discussing with american ambassador is the situation in syria russian's position in syria i know that russia has been are asked by the united states to to to to suspend at least reduce the arms race to to the regime in damascus well why is this arms sale arms deliveries to syria so important for you because of the money you get because of the base in tattoos that they're there to our needs or what first of all we didn't discuss it is the issue with michael and because it's a problem of minister for the shias and. for us we concentrate just only on the corporation between our ministry of defense. department of defense of the united

states but i would like to see that russia is fully come plus with all international obligations and commitments and a girl in supply to middle east and of course i would like to say syria we don't want we did it in new norms and there is no restrictions regarding our supply to syria moreover you'll see that we didn't supply offensive arms we are supplying just syria with defensive arms and that so permit support is writing in this article that we discussed in the beginning of this interview i quote in the upcoming ten years around. seven hundred and sixty six billion dollars

will be allocated for modernizing the defense sector and quite well this money they will go mostly to the russian weapons producers over. yes of course it's will be ill huge sum of money is it a lot for the russian i mean billions will be used to. store us we would like to get more go through the. problem please don't. get some. said by mr putin there. our economy our government is in debt to russian army because previously we didn't invest a lot of money to russian military and don't forget that at the same turn all of western countries including united states swallowed a lot of money huge sum of money and if you come here all money allocated for

military industry in united states and western europe you can see the difference and of course we have to do what we want to be would like to see. if. we need. efficient weapons for our army will you could i mean the russian army would continue buying arms abroad. you see that we didn't we don't want to buy weapons abroad and mr putin what about this helicopter carrier for you say that it's not a weapon well that it's also released and you'll see that it was. mr boyd in the years that income someone asked normally a very very mean idea is to get to g. and it's not a mistake to get. technology from abroad and by the way don't forget that i already mentioned about such possibility and we would like to develop such cooperation with our country is about to be are not playing into why. search for russian

what we would like to do we would like to modernize. military complex and they would like to see our military complex their best in the wall and last question very sure of putting stress that russia together with its allies should strengthen the capabilities of the collective security treaty organization including the collective rapid response force will be modernizing the armed forces of the. countries and is this what what we should judge for from this point made by the president so that is an issue and it goes without saying that we would like to see our organization efficient my bile and equipped with the want to send a munitions and i would like to see. troops if you can be arrayed you to face any challenge. in the russian federation and of course we will do our best to

help this treaty as well as allies it's a one zero that our obligation to protect our allies and will do it here actual see thank you very much and just to remind you that my guest on the show today was ambassador and tom russia's deputy defense minister and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to add your sales pipeline or have someone in mind who you think i should do next time you drop me a line at al gore r.t. if you need darts are you let's get spotlight interact we'll be back with more for the common follow what's going on and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take a. more

news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images called world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule today. tightening the noose around the syrian regime further calls for a military invasion and threats of sanctions seen by many in syria as obstacles on the path to a possible political solution to the crisis. election.