the mother of british teenager harry dunn who died in a crash involving the wife of a us diplomat says the government must put pressure on her to return to the uk. the us state department expressed sympathy, but said diplomatic immunity was rarely waived. democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into president trump, issue a legal order demanding that the white house hand over more documents. dozens of people are injured, eight of them seriously, after a double—decker bus overturns in devon. a british—australian woman and her boyfriend are released after more than three months in an iranianjail.

at ten o'clock, rachel schofield will be here with a full round—up of the day's news. first — our world. it's 30 years since the iron curtain fell. for millions across europe, it meant freedom. for moscow, it meant the end of its empire. today's russia wants to forget about 1989. but three decades on, russia is reasserting itself. there are fears of a new stand—off with the west.

the baltic has become one of the front lines of what feels like a new cold war. as russia pushes for greater influence, i ask its leader how he sees his country. i am on a journey that will take me back to 1989 and across europe, to find out what it was like for moscow to lose an empire and whether russia is building a new one. moscow — it is a city that oozes empire. from the skyscrapers ofjoseph stalin, to the residence of the czars.

the message is unmistakable — this is a country with ambition. throughout its history, russia has had an unswerving belief in its own greatness. you can feel that inside the kremlin. this is stunning. look at this. this says power, omnipotence, this says empire. russia was built as an empire, russia has existed as an empire because the essence is we are great, we have to have areas of influence and we have to have buffer states between ourselves and the outside world.

so this is an empire. but in 1989, the buffer states broke free. people power swept away the iron curtain and with it moscow's domination of eastern europe. what had come to be known as the soviet empire was tearing at the seams. viewed from moscow, these events were earth—shattering. in 1989, i was a student in moscow, i was studying russian here and i can remember that every night i would sit down to watch the television news and what i saw, what millions of viewers here saw, was truly remarkable. the soviet empire falling apart, piece by piece.

across eastern europe, you could find pieces of the lost empire. this is wunstorf in the former east germany. it was the red army's largest military base outside the soviet union. there is something ghostly about the soviet legacy. the scale of the soviet military presence in east germany was staggering. there were 800 garrisons here and half a million soviet troops. but then again, for moscow, this was its key outpost in europe. the wunstorf base feels

suspended in time. communist russia was convinced its ideas, its ideology, would bind east germany to moscow forever. but it was wrong. when the berlin wall fell, everything changed. within a year, east and west germany had reunited. the red army had been here since defeating the nazis. now moscow agreed to withdraw its troops.

this man was the commander. he is back from moscow, for an official event commemorating russia's withdrawal. the general tells me he was the last russian soldier to leave germany.

it would take moscow four years to bring all its troops home. but to what kind of a country were they coming back? the soviet union had gone, russia was struggling. here in this region, the returning soldiers were low priority. this man had been a tank commander in east germany. when he came home there were no facilities, no proper accommodation, it was almost as if he had been forgotten.

you know, i think that in many ways, his story encapsulates what happened to his country after 1989. the soviet union, this giant superpower, suddenly found itself dumped on the sidelines of history. and, as a result, russia felt abandoned, it felt lost,

and it felt humiliated. perhaps if the end of the cold war had brought instant prosperity to people here, then maybe this loss of status, this loss of empire would have been easier to swallow. but it didn't. the 1990s brought economic chaos and widespread poverty. so what you had here, in effect, was a fertile soil for any strongman promising to make russia great again. enter vladimir putin. russia's president is trying to erase the memory of his country's humiliation.

to restore its power, its influence. but modern russia isn't reinventing the soviet union; its methods are different. these people in the kremlin do understand that idea of restoration of the former superpower is impossible. but they have other ideas, and their idea is to be a blackmailer, to be a producer of mischief, to be the grand spoiler in the world, to be the nightmare for the neighbours and for the outside countries. so this is the new idea of superpower and empire. it is an idea that russia has put into practice close to home. in 2014, masked soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized control of a ukrainian peninsula,

crimea. they acquired the nickname of the little green men. but they were russian special forces sent in by president putin after ukraine's pro—western revolution. at a referendum, voters backed joining russia. but the poll wasn't internationally recognised. it had taken moscow less than a month to occupy and annex a piece of its neighbour. for many russians, this was cause for celebration. i first met ira in moscow back in the early 1990s. she has a second home now — in crimea. the crimean history has always been connected with russia. in the west, as you know, there is a lot of criticism of vladimir putin for what happened here, for russia taking crimea. i am very grateful to mr putin,

and i take my hat off and bow my head to mr putin, because he saved the generations of the crimean people from rivers of blood here. in the crimean city of sevastopol, they are marking russian navy day. it is a showcase for russian power at sea. since it took crimea, russia has become the dominant force in the black sea region. here, moscow doesn't use the word "annexation". crimea, it says, has sailed

back to its home port. few believe that outside of russia. what we see is a pattern of behaviour where russia is responsible for aggressive actions against neighbours. that reflects that the main problem of russia is that they still believe in the idea of spheres of influence. in response, nato has bolstered its forces near russia's borders. from estonia's amari airbase, nato jets are regularly scrambled. their main task is to intercept russian planes approaching estonian air space, which fail to identify themselves. russia denies it is a threat to estonia or to any of the baltic states. but nato is on alert

and taking no chances. the baltic has become one of the front—lines of what feels like a new cold war between russia and the west. to moscow, the presence of nato troops near its border is a direct threat to russia's national security. but nato insists that all of this is purely defensive, and the reaction to an increasingly assertive and aggressive russia. 0ne complaint i often hear from russian officials is that, 30 years ago, a promise was made by the west to moscow that nato would not enlarge and move closer to russia's borders. and russia says the west deceived moscow. first of all, no such promise was made. but second, just the idea that

washington or a big western ally should promise that to moscow is an idea based on a totally wrong assumption that big countries can promise something on behalf of small countries. russia's new assertiveness extends beyond its military. vladimir putin's kremlin has a range of tools for exerting influence. in latvia, there are no russian troops, but the country's being targeted by russian disinformation. there is an attempt to distort reality with fake news. to sow doubt, confusion. russia's objective to discredit a european democracy on its border. and here is one example of what appears to be

russian disinformation. this website is aimed at ethnic russians across the baltic but it is part of a news organisation that is bankrolled by the kremlin. what kind of stories does it put out? well, here is one. listen to this. among latvians, it says, adolf hitler is more popular than harry potter. his book tops the reader's book choice in latvia. astonishing. so the impression that you get when you read this is that in latvia, in an eu country, nazi ideology is thriving. sounds incredible. but it is fake. in latvian libraries, it has only been requested 139 times in three years. compare that to 25,000 requests for harry potter. and you won't find hitler's book in the shops here.

it has not been published in latvia for over 20 years. i tracked down the key link to the hitler story — it is rita. she runs a second—hand book website in latvia. it had based its report on data from her web page. mein kampf is available through her site and users do appear to be clicking on it — but who exactly? so, it is interesting that about 70% of all clicks are anonymous. and if we compare it with the other most popular books like harry potter, 70% are registered users. so if most of the clicks for mein kampf are anonymous, what does that mean? they could be fake users. fake views to make fake news?

yeah, definitely. i think the fundamental aim of the russian operation is to undermine the other countries. russia cannot tolerate the success of the baltics that have embraced freedoms and values of the west and can be successful. a good example is very dangerous so you should taint it. if russia has become the grand spoiler, can it be, does it still want to be a superpower? this is my chance to ask the president. vladimir putin has just finished an event near the kremlin. it is a rare opportunity to get up close to the kremlin leader.

but moscow is looking for ways back into eastern europe and for some russia's return is welcome. viktor 0rban — he is the prime minister of hungary. and moscow's best friend in europe. he praises vladimir putin,

he criticises eu sanctions on russia that is partly because he and putin have one thing in common. both are suspicious of western liberalism. for russia, this meeting of minds presents opportunities. this man is an ex—soviet diplomat with connections at the heart of russian government. he heads a soviet era development bank that has just relocated from moscow to budapest. for russia, it is a foothold in europe. the bank is totally apolitical. we never do anything politically motivated. five eu countries are members but russia is by far the largest shareholder. and until recently, the bank

was listed as an official organ of the russian state. critics of your bank call it "vladimir putin's trojan horse" or the "kgb bank". in other words, the suspicion is... i am a spy, they also say. the suspicion is is it is tool of moscow to spread spies and agents across europe. is there any truth in that? absolutely not. it is all allegations, and even though they repeated hundreds of times, they have nothing to do with the reality. can you understand where the suspicion comes from? because, apologies for getting personal, but you yourself are from a family of soviet spies. yourfather was the head of the kgb.

in budapest, yes. that is how i liked the city many years ago. and your mother was a soviet agent. that is an exaggeration. my mother, yes, she worked in the first department of the kgb but she retired in 1953, steve. in different ways, russia is trying to restore its influence. for moscow, the real lesson of 1989 is weakness costs power. today's russia wants to forget about 1989. it was, yes, an amazing period but it was the period of backtracking, surrender, defeat. now, russia seeks victories. i think that whatever label you give russia, global player or superpower or empire, what i see is a country with a cast—iron conviction that it is great and that great powers must have influence.

0ver over the last couple of weeks the weather has got stuck in an u nsettled weather has got stuck in an unsettled pattern and there is no sign of that changing during the next week or ten days. certainly through sunday we see some very heavy rain, particularly across eastern parts. something brighter developing in the west. this cloud is controlling our weather at the moment. an area of low pressure although the centre stays a long way away. it's this stripe of cloud bringing outbreaks of heavy rain

during sunday and as that front gets engaged by thejet during sunday and as that front gets engaged by the jet stream, it gets scooped up and that will hold it back and stop it clearing away quickly. the rain will persist across some areas for a good part of the day. let's take a closer look at the day. let's take a closer look at the forecast. these outbreaks of rain across central and southern parts of scotland, all the way down the eastern side of england, 14—50 millimetres is possible. a chance of localised flooding. further west, the sky is and we see sunshine. turning windy particularly towards the south—east corner later in the day. top temperatures between 13—17. 0n day. top temperatures between 13—17. on sunday night, a strong powerful jet stream is going to spin up another area of low pressure which will be with us for a few days driving unsettled weather and a band of rain working towards the east. it looks like this rain will weaken a

little as it staggers towards the eastern side of england. monday will be windy, particularly towards the far north and west of scotland. based temperatures are about where they have been for the last few days. what of tuesday? this area of low pressure is still with us, a lot of white lines and isobars. it will be windy across the far north—west, those brisk winds bringing showers to give longer spells of rain. there will be some drier interludes and based temperatures aren't moving much through the next week, 13—16. 0n much through the next week, 13—16. on wednesday, quite similar, showers and perhaps longer spells of rain at times with some spells of sunshine. staying breezy and windy especially towards the north—west. thursday is

something of a repeat performance, that area of low pressure still with us, showers circulating around it. perhaps a little weather features coming through to enhance that shower activity, bringing longer spells of more persistent rain. the rain focused on the north—west, further south and east signs of something drier. thejet stream continues to blow across the atla ntic continues to blow across the atlantic into next weekend but it looks increasingly likely it will come from more of a south or south—west lee direction. whereas south—eastern areas may have been missing out on the heaviest rain for a few days, this gives more chance of heavy rain getting back into southern parts of the uk. those details are still open to question but either way, unsettled next weekend. 0ften windy, heavy rain and some dryer interludes but no change to this unsettled pattern.

this is bbc news. the headlines. the mother of teenager harry dunn who died in a crash involving the wife of a us diplomat, says the government must put pressure on her to return to the uk. the us state department expressed sympathy, but said diplomatic immunity was rarely waived. democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into president trump, issue a legal order demanding that the white house hand over more documents. dozens of people are injured, eight of them seriously, after a double—decker bus overturns in devon. a british—australian woman and her boyfriend are released after more than three months in an iranianjail. and at 10.30 we'll be taking a look at the papers with political editor of the sunday mirror and sunday people,