stubborn fog and cloud. hello this is bbc news with sean ley. the headlines: police are questioning a man and a woman in connection with three days of severe disruption at gatwick airport, caused by a series of drone sightings. passengers are still suffering delays and cancellations — but the airport aims to run a "full schedule" of flights today. a row over the money for donald trump's border wall results in a partial shutdown of the us government. a british warship arrives in the black sea in response to russia's seizure last month of three ukrainian navy vessels and their crew. surgery for unborn babies with spinal defects is to be made routinely available on the nhs in england. now on bbc news — it would be an understatement to say tensions have been high between russia and the uk in 2018. but what do younger russians really

think of their british counterparts? newsbeat‘s will chalk has been finding out. poisoning, spying, hacking, meddling in elections, peddling fake news. to say tensions with russia are high right now would be an understatement. our media, and our government, is making them out to be boogeymen. it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the act against sergei and yulia skripal. but are they as bad as all that? well, to find out, we're heading there. hey! russia! putin riding a bear! with a gun on his back. we'll be finding out what they really think of britain. do they like us...? i don't really believe that we're enemies. it's just politics. when it comes to average people, we are friends. i grew up on england's music, you know, and british. my favourite band was oasis.

..and if not, why not? people don't find it offensive to ask you whether all russian girls are sluts and how much vodka can you drink. so, we're starting ourjourney at a barber's shop. not, unfortunately, to do anything about this — believe it or not, i like it this way — but because here they're seen as the height of western sophistication. go back five, ten years, and barbers‘ shops like this didn't really exist. if you were a bloke and you wanted a haircut, it was a very regimented "in, chop, out" experience. now everything's changed. obviously, there's loads of stories in the uk media right now that are negative about russia. but, in terms of culture, you don't think there's a problem. i don't really think so, because if you look into movies, into music, for example, we love it. and, in terms of culture, in terms of even business, we do take loads of things

from the west. 0k, here's our barber, eugene. very nice to meet you, eugene. eugene offered to show me the basics of being a barber. and, somehow, he found a willing guinea pig. big finger on this section. 0k. i'm sorry in advance. you must have been one of the first barbers in russia. yes. maybe. now it's one of the most popular professions for young people. i have never been in britain or america, but i think i'm a cosmopolitan, and i like every country. it's one of my first... ..passions in my life, it's music, and i really like the british music. of britpop, i like gorillaz, i like damon albarn, and i like oasis.

it's not so hard. just a little bit more practice. yeah. yes. do you think we're enemies, russia and the uk? no, i don't think so. i spent quite a long time in the uk and ijust, all the time i wanted to come back, to experience these vibes of the country. i don't really believe we're enemies. it's just politics. when it comes to average people, we are friends, we can go to festivals, to concerts, to the cinema, just to enjoy ourselves and share some good moments of our lives. he's going to finish it himself! he laughs not a glowing endorsement, is it? back home, you don't have to look very hard to find negative stories about russia. there's the public inquiry in 2016 into the death of former russian spy alexander litvinenko.

it concluded that his murder was probably approved by russia's president, vladimir putin. then there's the american media, which has been full of accusations that russia meddled in its 2016 presidential election. very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that. not to forget crimea. it's a bit of land between russia and ukraine that's belonged to both countries at different points in history. it had been part of ukraine for 60 years until, four years ago, russian troops marched in and controversially claimed it back. and, of course, there's the poisoning this year in salisbury of another former russian spy, sergei skripal, his daughter yulia, and two innocent bystanders. a murder investigation has been launched after a woman who came into contact with the nerve agent novichok in wiltshire died. things like these tend to get noticed by other countries. so, whether it's the enhanced air—policing mission the raf have just spent three months taking part

in off the coast of romania, or a joint uk and us marines training exercise in norway, just 100 miles away from the russian border, they tend to be justified in the same way. and deter russian aggression. we're here doing the same thing. for seven decades, it lived under communist rule, and it's still trying to adapt to being a capitalist country. and, to be honest, it's been a long, hard slog. whilst here in the capital, moscow, there are plenty of displays of wealth, even though russia's got twice as many people as the uk, it's got less cash. much less. per person, russia has around a quarter of the money the uk has, and it means people have to be creative to get by. how would you describe what you do for a living? what's the closest you've ever come to falling off? so, there are things

like this all over the world, urban exploring and stuff, but roofing seems to be especially popular in russia? you guys are like celebrities. why do you think what you do has captured the imagination of young russian people so much? despite what kirill says, roofing is a risky way to make a living. several of his contemporaries have died, and, on his point about politics, he's spent time in jail when one stunt, which he says he wasn't even involved in, was deemed to be — you guessed it — too political. but as we left, we had our own problems. getting off the rooftop meant going through kirill‘s mate's flat. what's happened, will? massive snake! and i'm not talking about a small pet snake. a massive boa constrictor has just

escaped from the cage, but everyone‘s just acting like it's the most normal thing in the world. it's now behind the fridge! they yell they laugh did it open the cupboard? oh, my god! it's in the cupboard! this is horrible! we're at an ordinary market stall here. so, you've got t—shirts of people like ronaldo, messi, sporting heroes. khabib, obviously, a russian hero. and just above them, putin riding a bear! with a gun on his back. putin, slightly out of date, kicking barack 0bama in the face. it might seem strange, but it's because he's been in power

for nearly 20 years, so for a lot of young people, even if they were born slightly before he first came to power, he's all they've ever known. so, they see him like a bit of a god. it is odd, there's no doubting it, but the more i stand here, the more i find myself kind of getting taken in by it. a fiver. bargain. 0h! 0ld vlad on a chopping board there. i mean, i can't say anyone i know would have any... ..any theresa may kitchenware! but, you know, each to their own. hello. we are just outside the food hall. so, we're going to meet makar. he's the leader of a group called set. that's how it translates into english.

they call themselves the puteens, because they're young — teenagers — and they love, love, love vladimir putin. so, we're going to go and meet them and see what they think of people like us in the west. makar? will. nice to meet you. shall we get out of the road? set is essentially an arts collective. fashion designers, painters, graphic artists can all come and use it forfree. there's just one condition. so, if we take one recent example — the poisoning in salisbury. you must believe that the uk government has done this to make russia look bad? almost the common—sense way to look

at it from my perspective is, with a lot of these things — so, with the salisbury poisoning, with ukraine, with how democratic the elections are — most of the rest of the world tends to agree that russia is in the wrong. so, if you were just looking at it as a neutral, do you think it's more likely that the whole world is ganging up on russia, or do you think it's more likely that things aren't maybe as you've portrayed them? so, if the problem is that your news says one thing, our news

says the other thing, no—one wants another cold war — how are britain and russia ever going to kiss and make up, i guess? so, god's honest truth, i actually didn't think me and makar were going to get on that well at all. someone who loves the powers—that—be so much that they've started an arts collective to celebrate how great they are. but, actually, he's a great guy. he's lovely. i think a lot of his views probably seem quite mad to people outside of russia, but then, he's clearly a rational guy. so, i guess a lot of what we believe must seem quite mad to him. a common theme we've found here is that people are chatty with you until you bring up politics. but, to be honest, when you think about it, it's not really that surprising.

it's widely believed that all the main tv channels here are under the control of the state. but what we do know for certain is that they're all pro—vladimir putin, and protesting can get you thrown in jail. there are elections, but there are usually questions about whether they're rigged. announcer: vladimir putin! think votes being found in ballot boxes before the polls have even opened, or cctv cameras in polling stations being conveniently covered up. hey, we were watching that! recently, the main opposition leader, alexei navalny, has found himself in and out ofjail after being arrested for stuff he says has just been made up to stop him doing hisjob. so, a lot of the rules here are unwritten and quite subtle. so, the government would say people have freedom of speech, but at the same time, if you're seen chatting to someone like the bbc in certain parts of the country, you might find yourself — coincidentally, of course — getting a visit from the police later on. despite this, we've come to chat

to some people who've told us they're not afraid to speak to us. to be completely honest, i think there is a distinction between being afraid and being free. i can't say that i'm afraid because i never was challenged by something to be afraid of, if that makes sense. but i can't say that i'm free. there's no political power or political party which i can support, with which views i would agree. i don't think that i am represented in parliament. i don't think that our government cares about us. and, obviously, they lie to us. they're always finding someone to blame. it's always the west. or it is always some people in russia, or it is homosexuals, or whatever it is, and they never take the blame. so, a big story in the uk at the moment is the spy, sergei skripal, who was poisoned. yeah. do you guys think it's... ..it‘s possible that

russia was behind it? i don't really know. i don't like lots of things about our government, but, to be completely honest, the west wants and needs to portray us as bad. it's like the war on terrorism. you always need someone bad for yourself in order to distract people from something what happens inside. loads of people we want to talk to here have said they'll talk to us, but not about politics. lots of people ask me not to. they were scared about me, like, how it might affect me in future. i don't know. i think that, who, if not me? and when, if not now? everyone in this country's scared. and as long as everyone is scared, we're going to be where we are now. there might be consequences, even bad. i don't know what will happen next day or in a week. whether it will touch my family, but giving the idea to the western public that russians are not the scariest white people, and showing people that we are progressive might make some change. i was living in scotland,

like, nine months ago, and being from eastern europe, it is hard in the uk. people are stereotyping. people are putting labels on you. people don't find it offensive to ask you whether all russian girls are sluts, and how much vodka can you drink. so far, we've spoken to entrepreneurs, people making money through instagram, quite modern ways of making a living. but these next two are doing things in a much more traditional way. pop music they're part of a genre that's called meme pop, and it's absolutely massive here in russia. but it's yet to make any waves in the west. but do these guys hope that could be about to change? let's go find out. counting time in russian

they play they sing singing in russian he applauds how would you describe your music? funny, but sad. something completely different. it's called meme pop, is that right? no. no, we don't like that. do people call it meme pop? yeah, some people. you guys are getting a name for yourself in russia. it's kind of this classic thing where people want to break the west and get big in america? no. no? no, i don't think so. no.

maybe we want it! a little bit. but i think that our music and our lyrics is very connected with russia and russian culture. and it's very difficult to understand it without context. do you think there is a divide, then, between what works for a uk audience and what works for a russian audience? yeah, yeah, i think so. there's obviously a political divide between the uk and russia right now. do you think music and culture is one of the ways we might be able to fix that? i think music is a right way. but, maybe it will work, and maybe not. and what about you guys and what you listen to? is it mainly traditional russian stuff? no. i grew up on england's music, you know, and british. my favourite band at 16 was 0asis. it's a very common thing. and i think that's the way the culture is connected, by this. so, we've chatted to a few people

now, but i'm interested to find out how much what they've been telling us is representative of what young people across russia think as a whole. so, we've come to meet a guy from the levada center. it's basically a big survey company. it might sound a bit dull, but it's interesting because it's one of the few organisations in russia that's not run by the government that's allowed to ask people what they think. as a whole, how do young people feel about vladimir putin and the government in russia? half a year ago, my answer would have been different, because just six months ago, young people, together with pensioners, were one of the main supporters of vladimir putin. but now, somehow, putin is not so appealing now for young people. maybe — i don't know, because we are only trying to understand it — maybe because they started to pay more attention on young people,

so there were more meetings of young people with putin, more state attention towards young people. maybe this didn't work well. had the opposite effect? yeah, probably. and what's your research found about young people and their attitudes towards the west? in recent months, we saw that more and more young people are becoming... ..feeling more positive towards the west, and there is kind of a widening gap between young people and the population in general. but i think when the questions are directly about politics, still, i think, even with the younger people, they will be pro—russian, of course. that russia should not give in. that russia should go on. russia should be independent. but if you ask about way of life, if you ask about what countries would we like to take this example from... emulate, i guess?

emulate, yes. it's... it's, first of all, western countries. so, this is it, ourfinal morning in russia. we're on our way to the airport now. if i'm honest, before i came here, i did have a slight nervous preconception as to what it might be like. probably because of all the negative news stories about russia that have been kicking around. now, we've only been in moscow, so we can'tjudge the whole country, but it's not been like that at all. just walking around, it feels like any other city. and, to be honest, ifeel a bit stupid for having that nervous preconception at all. that being said, after you've been here for a few days, you do sense an undercurrent of fear, i think, it's fair to say, among people? we went to a football match in some of our downtime the other day. we went to see spartak moscow. and i've never seen a crowd being so well behaved, as they filed out of the stadium, in my life. but it's because there were hundreds of army officers lining the street. and, in terms of talking to us,

even the people who are really keen to talk to us are nervous about it. and some of the people refuse because they are too scared, because they say they don't know what the authorities will do to them if they say the wrong thing. in terms of how we can make things between the uk and russia better, most people here seem to say the solution is just to, for us, the normal people, the nonpoliticians, to meet up and talk and have fun, because they say, "look at the world cup." there was so much negative press about how that might go, and, actually, it went great! although, if we're honest, that might not be that easy. so, getting permission to film in russia was a nightmare. getting permission to come here on holiday is hard. and the vast, vast majority of russians don't own a passport, so they've never left the country. so, as much as they might like to take politics out of it, it's not that easy. good afternoon, it is a bright and

breezy day out there today, spells of sunshine for many of us, this picture was taken by one of our weather watchers earlier on. some beautiful blue skies around, equally some heavy showers on the cards. as we head to the afternoon, the area is likely to see showers are the north and west of the uk. for the rest of us, there will be some sunshine. tomorrow, some rain, especially across the southern half of the country, with the driest weather in the north. the area of low pressure will bring the rain tomorrow, at the moment, it is still in the atlantic, so a ridge of high pressure brings us not a bad day today. the showers this afternoon will be across northern ireland into northern and western scotland. the letter that wintry on the highest mountains. chilly across the eastern scotland, 5 degrees or so at best.

further south in the sunshine, to around 12 degrees. not a bad afternoon across much of the country. if you canjust afternoon across much of the country. if you can just avoid the showers in the north—west. mostly dry across much of england and wales for the first half of the night, but during the second half of the night, the cloud and rain work their way in from the west, so a soggy start to sunday in northern ireland, wales, central and southern parts of england. a cold night for scotland once again, quite a shock frost with temperatures dipping below freezing. sunday's weather the different than it does today, because we have the low— pressure it does today, because we have the low—pressure bringing the weather fronts from west to east. we will start with rain from northern england, northern england, wales, the midlands, bit of drizzle for southern england as well. then, the next batch of showers moving from the south—west later in the day. the best of the dry weather will be across scotland and northern central belt, lots of sunshine. six or 7 degrees here and 1213, mild in the south on sunday. eventually, the

weather front will head away, into christmas eve on monday, high pressure starts to build, but the front is quite stubborn. it will sit around parts of southern and south—west england and wales, bringing some rain here. the rest of the country, christmas eve is looking largely dry with some sunny spells. early morning mist and fog could lingerfor quite spells. early morning mist and fog could linger for quite some of the day, where the mess and fog lingers, temperatures will be close to freezing. in the sunny spells, we could see eight or 9 degrees, still quite mild in the south—west. high pressure building for christmas day, it is looking driver must of us. some patchy frost and fog and mostly cloudy, but some glimmers of sunshine, too. this is bbc news. the headlines at two two people are arrested in connection with the drone sightings which brought gatwick airport to a standstill. the airport aims to run a full service today — but passengers continue to suffer delays and cancellations. it is horrible. it goes against your

human rates. —— rights. a row over the money for donald trump's border wall results in a partial shutdown of the us government. retailers pin their hopes on super saturday to boost christmas shopping sales — after a disappointing year for the high street. also coming up this hour. transforming the lives