just in case anyone is interested.
Get dbseo setup and working first
then install vbet and use the normal url settings dont choose anything to do with vbseo
My issues where i get blank results and various other wierdness was down to an older install so make sure you have removed it entirely
then make sure you have a working translator this was my next issue. during testing i had used the full quota from yandex in a day ro soemthing so i was seeing odd issues after that
VBET team could you please have some sort of a reporting / information page where it says what has been translated and whats going to be ytranslated (ie is in the queue etc) as i had a hard time figuring out why i just seemed to have EN and FR cache items only (even though french didnt work)
basiclaly if you get an issue go back to scratch and start again
Add vbet last and dont mess with anything after.