wind where the wind manages to fall light. showers across northern scotla nd light. showers across northern scotland under if you commit on the north sea to affect some of our eastern coastal areas of england. some spells of sunshine, but a cool day everywhere. not quite as cold, though, across the far north of scotland. that's your latest weather. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: boris johnson will announce a shift in message on coronavirus later, with a new warning system and a roadmap for easing the lockdown in england. the uk government is also set to unveil a new slogan telling the public to "stay alert" rather than ‘stay home'. in the us, president trump's handling of the pandemic is called a ‘chaotic disaster‘ by his predecessor, barack obama. and south korea‘s president warns of a second wave of infection as a new cluster of cases is confirmed.

now, on bbc news, steve rosenberg explores how moscow views the tumultuous events of 1989 and looks into whether the coronavirus pandemic thwarts vladimir putin‘s bid to make russia great again. it stretched from the pacific ocean to the fringes of western europe. the soviet empire seemed invincible. applause and cheering. but in 1989, the iron curtain was swept away, and moscow watched its empire crumble. 30 years on, russia

is reasserting itself. there are fears of new flashpoints in europe. 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. but will a global pandemic curb the kremlin‘s global ambitions? we are now facing a totally different russia, totally different putin and a very weakened regime. i‘m 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 what russia is doing to rebuild its power.

moscow — it‘s a city that oozes empire. from the skyscrapers ofjoseph stalin to the residence of the czars, the message is unmista keable — this is a country with ambition. throughout its history, russia has had an unswerving belief in its own greatness. you can see that in the kremlin. this is stunning. look at this. this says power, omnipotence. this says empire.

by the end of the 19th century, the russian empire spanned one sixth of the surface of the world. inside the kremlin, you can really feel the imperial ambition which has driven russia for centuries. for example, all these double—headed eagles, russia‘s national emblem — that symbol is straight out of the byzantine empire. and over there, you can see the throne of the russian emperor, the russian czar. that word czar, comes from caesar, the roman empire. and till this day, there are russians who will tell you that the natural successor to the great empires of rome and constantinople is moscow. russia never was a normal country. russians do not know how to live in a normal country. russia was built as an empire,

russia has existed as an empire. because the essence is, we‘re 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. it was communist russia that would acquire the mother of all buffer zones. in world war ii, as the red army pushed hitler‘s troops back, central and eastern europe fell under moscow‘s control. on paper, most of these countries were independent. in reality, the kremlin called the shots, in what was now the soviet empire. as cold war set in, this buffer zone not only gave moscow a sense of security, it made it a superpower. until 1989.

this was the year people power brought down the iron curtain. across europe, communist regimes fell like dominoes. even parts of the soviet union itself were now openly defying the kremlin. viewed from moscow, these events were earthshattering. you could feel a giant empire tearing at the seams. in 1989, i was a student in moscow. i was studying russian here. and i can remove 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.

could what happened then explain russia now? i‘ve spent nearly 30 years living and working in moscow. and what i see is a country that‘s still struggling to come to terms with the loss of its empire. people often ask me, why does modern russia do what it does? why does it meddle in other countries‘ elections and launch cyber attacks against the west? why does moscow seem so keen to play the role of geopolitical spoiler? i think that the key to deciphering vladimir putin‘s russia lies in 1989. to understand today‘s russia, first, you need to understand what moscow lost 30 years ago, what it lost in terms of power and prestige, in terms of empire. there was one place in europe

where moscow found its loss of empire especially painful. in what was communist east berlin, there is a soviet war memorial, and a cemetery. 7000 red army soldiers are buried here. in total, the soviet union lost 27 million people in world war ii. that scale of sacrifice, moscow believed, gave it the moral right to make part of germany part of the soviet empire.

so, what it says here is... eternal glory to the soldiers of the soviet army, who gave their lives in the battle to liberate humanity from the slavery of fascism. in other words, it was the red army that saved the world. moscow turned east germany into a fortress. today, there is something ghostly

about the soviet legacy. red army bases lie abandoned, haunted by memories of communism. monuments to a fallen superpower. this is wunsdorf, near berlin. it was used by the nazis and then seized by the soviets, it was the red army‘s largest base outside the ussr. the soldiers called it little moscow. east germans knew it as the forbidden city. 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. and its east german comrades were happy to play host. the wunsdorf base feels suspended in time. there are places here where the soviet past comes to life. oh, wow, look at this. this is amazing.

this says, berlin operation 19115. this shows the red army‘s last major offensive at the end of world war ii. so, these arrows, this is the soviet troops advancing on berlin. communist russia thought its ideas, its ideology, would bind east germany to moscow for ever. but it was wrong. when the berlin wall fell, everything changed. within a year, east and west germany reunited.

moscow agreed to withdraw its troops. anton was the commander at wunsdorf. now he‘s back from moscow. for an official event commemorating russia‘s withdrawal. the general tells me he was the last russian soldier to leave germany.

the fall of the wall didn‘t only have consequences for soviet soldiers, but soviet spies, too. in the first file, there is the pass of vladimir putin. he could go in the stasi building here in dresden, because he was officer in the kgb and the stasi. in dresden, this archive keeps the records of east germany‘s secret police, the stasi, and the documents of kgb officers who operated here, like vladimir putin.

in here, we‘ve got a photo where you can find vladimir putin. where is he? 0h, on the end. yes. wow, it‘s amazing to think that this grey figure at the end went on to become president of russia. astonishing. in december 1989, a crowd stormed the stasi offices in dresden and took control. a small group of protesters moved away from the stasi building and came here. this is where the kgb headquarters were. and inside the building was vladimir putin. so, what did major putin do? well, he telephoned the local soviet tank commander to ask for urgent backup. but the message which came back was this... i‘ve asked moscow to sign off

on that, but moscow is silent. that was the moment that vladimir putin realised his motherland had abandoned him. egon krentz says that moscow abandoned him, too. he claims that at this meeting, soviet leader mikhail gorbachev assured him german reunification wouldn‘t happen. he accuses gorbachev of surrendering to america.

mikhail gorbachev rejects criticism of his leadership. he is fiercely proud of his role in ending the cold war.

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, the returning soldiers were low priority. vyacheslav had commanded a tank battalion in germany, the 16th guards division. its mission, he says, was to defend the motherland and moscow‘s allies in eastern

europe. they were an elite unit, but there was nothing elite about the conditions to which they returned. there were no facilities, there was no accommodation, nowhere for their families to live. it was almost as if they‘d been forgotten.

you know i think that in many ways, vyacheslav‘s 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 president vladimir putin. he‘s been trying to erase the memory of russia‘s humiliation. and to celebrate more glorious chapters of its history. like the victory in world war ii. it‘s the annual victory day parade in moscow. you know, there are 13,000 russian troops marching across red square right now, and making a lot of noise.

it‘s an incredible showcase, really, of modern russian military might. this isn‘tjust about celebrating a victory in the past. it‘s very much about the present. it‘s about vladimir putin showing his people, and the world, that russia has bounced back. that it‘s a country that wants to be respected, to be feared and to be counted. in vladimir putin‘s russia, 1945 is at the heart of the national idea. sometimes, these symbols of the past make it feel as if the kremlin dreams of bringing the soviet union back to life. but modern russia isn‘t simply reinventing the ussr, its methods are different.

these people in the kremlin do understand that idea of the restoration of a 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. in the next episode... the mischief begins. how russia has been flexing its military muscle. the main problem in russia is that they still believe in the idea of spheres of influence. and spreading disinformation. adolf hitler is more

popular than harry potter? you‘re pushing the kremlin‘s narrative. beyond the smiles, a new stand—off with the west. power games in a pandemic. russia playing geopolitics. but now, problems at home. he's frozen, he's stalled, he cannot react, he cannot say anything. as covid—19 hits, will a virus rob president putin of his ambition to restore russia‘s greatness?

hello, there. 0ur big weather cooldown is well under way. yesterday, we had temperatures as high as 25 celsius in the london area. summer—like heat. today, we‘ve seen some snow across northern scotland, with some winter—like cold. yes, it‘s been snowing in moray, in northern scotland, and further north than that, in shetland we‘ve seen some of the snow settling onto the grassy hills here for a time. so, the weather has been turning progressively colder. the cold air being brought southwards by this cold front that continues, itself, to bring patches of rain across parts of england and wales. and that rain continues to edge a little bit further southwards as we head on into the evening time. the cold northerly winds follow. meanwhile, to our south, in france, we‘ve got some extreme rainfall. now, across parts of the south west, 100 to 150 millimetres of rain,

one to two months worth. meteo—france forecasters reckon that‘s the kind of rain you might expect to see once in 100 years. so, we could see some nasty flooding issues there. for us, well, for the rest of the night, it‘s the northerly winds that really do win out, bringing that colder air southwards. there will continue to be some wintry showers at times across the north and, as well as that, we are looking at some frosty conditions settling in, particularly in the countryside in scotland and maybe in a few rural patches further south. tomorrow, well, yes, there will be some sunny spells. it also some scattered showers being brought in down the north sea and into coastal areas by those chilly winds. gusting again to 30 or a0 mph. it‘s going to be a cold day everywhere. temperatures not quite as low across the far north of scotland. 9 degrees or so in aberdeen, not a warm day. into tuesday, we have a week weather front moving back in across northern scotland. and as this one moves in, it‘s going to be dragging in some colder air. again, we could see some of the showers all in the spells of rain turning to snow for a time, particularly across the high ground.

but perhaps also to some lower levels for a time. colder again across the north of scotland. temperatures here around five or six celsius. further south, well, temperatures below par just about everywhere, 12—14 degrees. for wednesday, high pressure to the west is beginning to send the winds coming in more of the north atlantic. so, it‘s not a warm direction, but it‘s not quite as cold as it has been at the same time. for the rest of the week, a fair amount of dry weather, with temperature slowly recovering, with some spells of sunshine around as well. that‘s your weather.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson says people should "stay at home as much as possible" ahead of outlining a roadmap towards easing lockdown restrictions in england. but the government is forced to defend its decision to update its core message for england — after accusations the slogan "stay alert" is confusing. so stay alert will mean stay alert by staying home as much as possible but stay alert when you do go out by maintaining social distancing, washing your hands, respecting others in the workplace and the

others in the workplace and the other settings that you will