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the small island of kino is located in the gulf of riga a bay in the eastern baltic sea at first sight it seems pastoral and serene in fact it almost looks as if time has stood still here. but in fact kino is an unusual blend of past and future. broadband internet access is faster here than it is in berlin or munich. and pretty much every house on kino is connected. as stony and lithuania. separate russia from the baltic sea.

kino is located off the stony as west coast. this is mari met us she has four children a lot agree and a husband who works out at sea. and she also has a soft spot for old soviet motorcycles with side cars you can still smell the exhaust fumes long after they are gone. there's only ten minutes left until school starts so mari has to hurry to get her children to class this morning. if that's the a good working very little it's over it's been a lot the kind of driving that you never know so yes the we're talking about it a lot in a small thank you sydney for this. book i mean sad to say engine up working if some

posties says stop working and it may be invalid backcourt ups that use a sidebar and usually have moved on site car it also sings inside the car and you can transport cheated on no time limit just. reading practices on the schedule today. the school has three classes with a total of thirty five children the first lesson today is a stone ian in the class will be reading a fairy tale about a fox. mari daughter ani is the first to raise her hand to read aloud which she does without a mistake. this was. on he doesn't get her grades straight away as per usual the teacher enters the information into the computer first. a few miles away on his mother mary is tending to the sheep until she hears

a ping from her phone. which. he seemed to kick very. market five. five is the top mark on e is pleased to she's still too young to worry about her mother knowing all about what she does. know i don't mind except when i only get a good one then bothers me because i prefer to get a very good set up. here in kenya it's internet first like in all schools in a stone. and you never know about the such and such a school or not missing are about the kind of mocks he gets no know every day. announcement that teaches all sending and you get told quickly information.

while her children are at school mari works to help boost tourism on kenya. the fish factory is bankrupt and the collective farm long gone only the clattering motorcycles remain. mari is very pragmatic she says german tourists want to see the motorbikes whereas japanese tourists come for the hand-woven skirts and the french to look at kenya's proud matriarchs married women here wear headscarves. who is home to tradition but also emancipation. mari who studied law is especially skilled at getting money from brussels for her island. for everything she wants as many people as possible to experience kenya's colorful culture from its extended wedding ceremonies to the woven cloths.

the e.u. financed this hotel once a portrait of lenin would have hung here but today it's junk lot younger brussels could learn a lot about minimizing bureaucracy from a stony and here you can register a company during a coffee break. this is to stop the coffee is. it is very easy and it's the same if i'm me it takes five minutes and you know i think so maybe. kino may not look high tech but it's digitally advanced internet access was declared a basic human right in a stony a twenty years ago when others were just learning the meaning of connectivity. our next stop is talent estonia's capital. back in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine a stone eons couldn't have imagined that allen would one day have

a burgeoning skyline very shuttling to scandinavia every hour and cruise boats from all over the world docking in the port today estonia is connected to the world. he died just as if the three baltic states had to basically reinvent themselves as the west was far away and they didn't have any role models within their borders model lara stone his first prime minister once said his country needed young leaders because they don't know their own limits they can achieve the impossible. today mart laar works at the bank of a stone but we first met him fifteen years ago. as stone iau was about to join the e.u. and the world wanted to know what kind of people lived within the soon to be member state mart lars considered the father of modern a stony that's relatively low tax rate internet for all and e.u. and nato membership and. we made it. and it went much better than ever suspect it.

why because although we talked to join the e.u. and nato we didn't quite believe we could manage it was the seat but here we are all the seem to. his entry into political office wasn't easy in the early ninety's estonia had just regained its independence from the soviet union lara was twenty seven then and became an activist figure he always ran the risk of being locked up until he actually became the country's prime minister when he was just thirty two he was almost denied entry to the o.e.c.d. summit in vienna in one thousand nine hundred three and in. that i said oh i ma not there yet and this is the stony and prime minister all the woman looked at me in the shawl around me and she said your the a stone him prime minister needs to think and if. composers on new and country tali are further examples of europe's model citizens

the twins also had no role models to look up to we met them their talents opera house where they began their careers. we only had one chance and nobody to talk to is they since some time in the state was it just them everything a person you knew by the name the person you probably met more than once in your life and it was nice to cheer heaven and. income to some from my own letting the young people you know take out all the old trees so to speak and experience i think you have to have something to believe and that is all after all this experience and so on so that you don't start from zero narrative and into biking as they say. where else in the world could two thirty year olds have conducted their own symphony orchestra. the ninety musicians used to meet up in tal in only a few times a year the symphony orchestra live. from goodwill and donations it wasn't financed

from taxes. we have a supporting group which is basically we don't have any states to help and i think it would ever happen anyway because i assume youngest any of us crazy enough to accept it's and in a situation where you can you have to accept new comers to accept new ideas to see that you have the patience to see what happens because normally in a more settled countries like germany and england you are very conservative. we are not opposed to. leave the stage and some i think now it's becoming a little bit more hands on and lots more sense mixing to just sit down

and i think it is but. it's. another a study and pioneer from the ninety's is banker ryan left most. just after estonia's independence in two friends founded what was to become the biggest bank in the baltic region. their recipe for success was both simple and strict. most they would hire the people more people straight from schools because they had. better education and know no wrong attitude was. that used to live on the outskirts of tal and where the city's nouveau reach all had their residences back then. he was one of the country's ten richest men. he tells us about the wild beasts transformation. so let's say ten years ago it was

not so on your show i. had bodyguards today as well as much more legislation and rollers i will say that. you will need a small more of me you need to protect yourself the fifth highflyer is public on charge of a judge you often meet people in a stony a in their forty's who came into positions of power in their twenty's when charles became the head of tollens district court. to. sue. the. school sued experience. actually grew into the new system. it's hard to believe but this young man once led court proceedings and had the

final say. estonian saw many changes within a short space of time there were new laws and new faces the former leaders were pushed aside and the old legal system was turned on its head in charge of who spoke three languages and had several years' experience as a lawyer worked his way up the legal ladder. the only thing that didn't change was the old soviet style courtroom. well the previous story is that i've been working for for the prosecution for six years for six years and i've been working as a judge before for one year so i think that's this experience of working as a prosecutor and as a judge give me. give me. experience in soviet times people didn't get into positions of power through competence and experience but in public on charles managed to flip the age pyramid and bill got

caught him going if he likes life experience. but we don't doubt his technical expertise which i'm going to miss a lot of money. as head of the court the young judge was entitled to an official limousine and driver. but he turned them down and stuck to his compact car. i think this is nuts this is not right. but he would you know. a tux pays money for. just you know using this purpose this is not fraud. our next stop is rica lotfi as capital. these singers have been rehearsing for five years only the best are selected to perform. meet.

somebody tell me close to. me. think a little over a. lot b. a is celebrating its one hundredth birthday. with songs and music performed by the diplomatic choir. singing is more than a hobby here for people grow up with song books. and see at the same moment the bell go i. go into petra was barely three when she started singing at her kindergarten was the who was a. the saint and been a i was born singing i grew up singing thing i spent my life singing.

the procession snakes twenty kilometers through downtown riga. their repertoire of folk songs is simply vast. such i. must do it and something happens inside you when you seeing and when ten people a hundred or a thousand people sing together it creates incredible power and energy and i think the night of the.

close visit for us if there's one thing they can do it's to sing loudly and beautifully for a long time and with such conviction that in one thousand nine hundred nine they sang the occupying soviet forces out of the country. from above this looked like a traffic jam but it was actually something the world had never seen before. more than a million people holding hands the chain they created stretched across three soviet republics. there were no speeches just fifteen minutes of silence at seven pm the fact that everyone managed to find their place was a logistical masterpiece. almost the one people were better at organizing themselves back than. even though they had no incident emails or messaging or anything emails messages nothing makes. it's been almost three decades since the baltic way but carpenter yana scope money's still has his

old lot of from back then it's twenty seven years old now so he's pleased every time the engine starts without a hitch. today his wife ellen tina is in charge of the rolled up lothian flag on the back seat. a grandchild sabina's with them. back in one thousand nine hundred nine when half the country stood together sabina was also there she was just two years old. their driving to a village around twenty miles from riga on the way to lithuania. it's a sunday outing into the past to the day when they put their courage to the test. moscow decried the baltic way as national hysteria we need to know that none of this would rightly i wasn't scared to toll i could sense the unity of the three baltic countries removed we had survived fifty years of occupation together and now we could see a ray of hope. for. a single family photo of that hot day

in august one thousand nine hundred nine still exists a day when you're on a scope monies dare to hold the law in flag for the very first time since the second world war he said i can honestly listen to radio on which time radio is the most important source of news for us newspapers didn't tell you much but radio covered everything this must be a thing at even that idea of how to be happy we only listened intently as many things we whisper. and excited and we felt such patriotism or so you. had to be aware of this new thing that was. not be as popular front was based in this townhouse and reka one of its leaders was the physicist eve ares god monies later locked in prime minister the popular front wanted to get lot via out of the soviet union this is in soviet union and relates to. the situation in the final years of the soviet union economy was terrible

cobb absolute dicks were empty. of labor dispute we had these russian cars again load because like they had been during the war weeks yeah it's not the creek it's what it was fifty years later and people were having to use those russian cots again to get food that's just so i don't go that's not there yet that was full on soviet union with everything that went with it you never would think if sabina was born in a time of scarcity and shops were empty you couldn't buy anything not shoes no socks and certainly nothing for a baby now like. it was that was they saying we are lafayette's we were a lot fans and we will always be locked in this was to not leave the room strewn all he said was the singer was candles and prayers instead of riots

was the chain stretched from tolland in the north to vilnius in the south. it was the beginning of the end of the soviet union. was the. i. was. and see so freedom on the hob probably in try stopping that many people to feel that everyone was peaceful that they held nothing in their hands except flowers make. you try stopping something like that you could meet violence with violence but what can you do to stop peace about so that was our way from the very start and the parliamentary way up with the peaceful revolution of an audition for the eve lee said it would soon be. the demonstration it was one of the last to be held in the soviet union

a few months later but the way he had declared independence closely followed by the other two baltic states moscow tried to send in tanks and more the. one hundred demonstrators were killed but the occupiers didn't stand a chance against the people who were at that united. the peace memorial is regas symbolic center. even the soviets didn't dare demolish it although they did rename the boulevard leading to it after lenin. today the street has its old pre-war name again. repeat us yalla. liberty street. this is where a lot b.s. former long serving presidents vajra because now lives she has a clear view of the russian orthodox church from her window she tells us about her meetings with russian president vladimir putin. so mr clinton opens his. eyes. and this is number one i find that it is an absolute

tragedy that the soviet union. done it is it is so sad we used to be one big happy family and now there are these from tears and now we need pots of lawn. and i said mr president that's not the tool i said indeed for many of our inhabitants not only did that in they need any possible boss but city in the way they did three iranians to siberia and other uncomfortable nations and how does president putin react it was he was silent for a moment. no he. turned to beijing came and the next complaint. there used to be a lenin memorial here now it's advertising space. but there is one place in

riga that stayed the same under every form of government in the central market. it's huge halls were originally constructed to house zeppelin airships. singer mara goes to the market often not the ins and russians normally have little contact with each other but here they meet face to face be in lampreys or on display next to carpet in russian caviar here everyone's equal although lafayette is the official language in riga the majority of people here are ethnic russians mara is a well known singer and mafias indie pop scene and proud to be lothian but aga for alexei is lotfi into but his mother tongue is russian. yet the two have no problem communicating. let him but maybe that's because i started i was like things and i started that in then i says was good enough to continue to let in for us to know from the three languages it's it's it's must have you know.

we've been. it's normal patient when i go in the shop that much by something that you know that i'm not there is to. me and asked since decompression does a situation when i feel this is the signal. mara encounters that sort of situation often because she lives on moscow st. despite its bad reputation she moved here twelve years ago to live as a lot b. and among russians her two children were born here. the so-called moscow district doesn't really feel like it's a ride in the european union. but mara loves the neighborhood although she also sees its dark side too. there are few jobs and drug dealing is common. russian t.v. is on all day long and hardly anyone speaks

a lot via. the country's own public broadcaster hasn't been able to reach most residents here but since the crisis in crimea lafayette's station has also been broadcasting news in russian as an alternative to putin's propaganda if you could think and then you it's never too late to push back you know we waited twenty five years before we introduced our own russian television programming so the view is we're already predisposed us i don't want and it's not easy for us to get through each of them you know not even national opinion nashville's authority. the station isn't alone in trying to push back against russian propaganda people in regas art nouveau neighborhood which has always considered self the european have joined in to since twenty fourteen russian intellectuals who oppose their current government have been living here in exile they include twenty employees of russia's most successful online platform. we meet with eve on call because of his medusa

media outlet offers critical day to day coverage of what's going on in russia and can be followed online around the world it hopes that young people who are used to gathering their own news and information from online sources can help bring about an end to putin's rule. they don't watch television that's why the whole propaganda machine doesn't work with them this is what's right now i guess these you know the specialists the guys in present administration felt you know the television doesn't work with a huge and very important and very active part of this is say what is what can be done about the propaganda then about headlines like lotfi a is on the brink of collapse or fake news about nato. right no they have the russia has much better infrastructure then you are for the use they or any you know any western

country this is the this is the unpleasant truth about the situation. alexei has long avoided propaganda he belongs to the new generation he knows he needs to form his own opinions or viewpoint echoed in morrow's most famous song. this is part of rico my reader of this on a piecing reka are new things are throwing me for lyrics could be interpreted to mean that we're standing between russia and europe and that gives us a great opportunity. lithuania borders on a part of russia the colleen and enclave that once belonged to prussia. the border runs straight through the corona and spit. to the left is the baltic sea to the right of the crony and look good. and just beyond that russian territory.

ever since russia began shifting its focus towards its borders with europe the baltic states have been especially alert. border guards on the dunes cover their tracks with sand when their shift is over. it takes time but by eliminating their own tracks they can quickly see whether anyone else has been there. but. the anxiety amongst russia's small neighbors is mounting. so they're putting up bence's to marc. there are countries frontiers even where there was once a green border like it lake misty's.

mother yonah has lived in the border town of his status for eighty two years. the frontier markers have changed colors more than once they used to be precious and so be it and she used to cross them off and. today that's no longer possible. you never know even if we wanted to we couldn't cross over they used to be lots of mushrooms over there which is the best thing when was the passage closed so no pressure that they close the border when lithuania became a sophron state that was over twenty years ago now that. nothing but nothing in the light of the but even that anyone living this close to the border is either very scared or not scared at all every fall russia stages large scale maneuvers the bill clinton used to talk about danger coming from russia let them do day drills there's no concern to us if it's not those soldiers practicing it would be up as

it's part of a job to get us into but mario knows the border is blocked by planes but there are many crossing points and also plenty of gaps to sneak through. conservative m.p. very honest us says lithuania needs a fence that clearly shows its big neighbor where the border is. when we go to meet him construction there has temporarily ceased because the signal wire hasn't been delivered yet the twelve thousand posts will cost almost one and a half million euros. if you look at this how impressive is that to you it's impressive but not so much in the because i saw a high of how much more high you hungry. threw me at that was i was free made this a for me this with a vet that has shown us fears russia will send so-called green men over the border in unmarked uniforms as they did in ukraine two thousand and fourteen. so what are

the green mines for. oh it's new to you fred how to control of a country whole russian. regime reach does not know where its borders thoughts in the main its border it's a dilemma for us in historical dilemma. but in this quiet border region military incursions let alone a full blown invasion still seem a long way off. at the end of our journey along the border we meet a man who openly admits his fears. this farmer has just finished a long day with his seventy dairy cows and is on his way to his favorite spot on the river where he can look over into russian territory. he doesn't actually feel under threat but he still apprehensive. he knows what military maneuvers sound like

. here will knock out the so bum rush and sometimes train over there knowing something out sensing all foams. in the woods and i know the two years ago there was an explosion that was so loud all windows shook. knows what can happen with or without a fence thank you i don't take offense well how we could just drive through it if they wanted to fairly a lot is to. put us a little with his father has always said that they would be the first to feel if things heat up so he make sure to only swim on the lithuanian side thank you. our last port of call is bill ne us lithuania's capital. it's a beautiful city. the sort that wasn't planned but instead grew naturally so a person can get lost in it winding streets. bill me us is

a bastion of catholicism this monument was blown up by soviets but once the occupation ended with the way he rebuilt it funny old and in best you have the best view overbill me is from up here on the hill of three crosses and it's a baroque masterpiece with rows of church towers but one thing is missing the city once had one hundred thirty senegal but only two survived the war to stay in one. i mean as familiar with the trail of destroyed jewish monuments left by soviet forces she takes us to the sports palace which is also like time travelling if the stones could talk we'd be back in the middle ages. the summit she that was here in the fifteenth century and you know that twentieth century age and that's all that russian nationals were taken away on their list for different types of those things that you know likes just like enjoy the holidays for people where you know every

day you watching up and down. for younger generations of lithuanians future possibilities trump past pain. the stone slabs are currently being dug up and replaced from now on no one will be walking on jewish gravestones anymore. the city's mayor is busy trying to get jewish families who fled to visit bill in the us again. one could say hollywood enough of a mr bloom that also hasn't been yet not yet but that he was here i'm like this. actually i've got the impression that the like many people like north korea for example he has it in roots he was not so much interested in his roots fall for many years but some hole before like bussing way through us couple of years a year of his life he got actually interested in this and he plans to come to the scene. though the many people from bloomberg family they're more interested than

him so if you will focus them move like intensive life but but but he knows about it and i think he will find some opportunity to come to syria we're talking about those. i meet visits the former ghetto where a sense of melancholy and loss still hangs in the air. almost all the way in jews were killed by the german occupiers and their local collaborators. i don't know who lived here exactly it could be. ready to write people who were killed. the photos hanging on the ghettos main road today were found among the

ruins they recall better times when were they actually taken about the pre-war from because you can see these people you know they're smiling they're had you know you can see that you know there was a glorious five that will maybe you know. will never you know be again in the city . this is the only synagogue still unused today the small jewish community in vilnius only needs one. during the soviet era the building was used as a warehouse for medical supplies. of illnesses and most shows several. villain has used to be called the jerusalem of the north. back then we were two hundred fifty thousand people those. particular almost every second resident of fear in years was jewish. but we had one hundred synagogues. now where only

two thousand five hundred people. to suppose even if we all come together today the ten thousand seat seaman's arena would still be practically empty do you suppose it took for the show you see there was that well with the studio. but jewish culture still exists in vilnius we visit a store that sells bagels as good as any you can get in new york. owner says bagels actually originated in lithuania. and i'm sure how you have lee while i feel nothing like you did you come because of the bagels do you want to learn about. the city and i don't see anything let me get you some gloves. the bagel was invented in the sixteenth century in the grand duchy of lithuania which belonged to poland back then the jews allow jews to sell

bread which was the main food for both christians and jews bought there was a conspiracy and church authorities claimed that bagels with poisoned bread he then decided that the injustice was so to scotch that evil room we began boiling our bread first. i suppose going forward this is dismissed and yes just put there to leave the show up but that was your post this is a better than this he said. a lot more on this album. but if you missed it i think shortly up the bay bridge he didn't appreciate what he . did a day off with this in the ship that's. the one. that she should. revert you boil the bagels and then you bake them one of these the

capital is good to make of course you have to bake them that's how they get to be so good everything in jewish cuisine is made with a lot of soul and like is it type lex come emmet let's show him the good looking ship the fashion and. i. think you know it's when granny used to bake should close all the windows much to my grandmother did that too i wasn't even allowed to come into the kitchens this is so good i think that the model of the until a gel much of this if it ends at the sea the tiniest drops can make them collapse i wasn't allowed into the kitchen only in that you know next to the food there's also a collection of photos of famous people who left as well as their children. there's something in common all of these people have just borrowed i think this is yes they're all members of jewish families that originally came from lithuania which. in some parts do you think menachem begun looks nice see this and buy this

for. you they don't write about it so i think you look like barbra streisand which i might shake. says. harrison ford amos oz barbra streisand bob dylan and the dean gordimer all have lithuanian roots in the never comes he didn't even come across the house or not she needs to but there's an ache in the family almost but do you but you can just i'm anything you see it isn't until i need to in the morning and want to hear i don't want to hear nothing i think oh yeah. i meet has found a way to expand her family. she once thought her grandmother and grandfather were the only relatives that had survived the war. this saturday i haven't seen most of them i found out from under her five hundred for two russian cousins someone living you know not the father you know away and also

people over her you know their last names i knew their last names for example never known who did actually our first one she strolls through her family tree or she finds a picture of her grandfather's sister she's only just found out that she passed away one year ago. the families are just following also and you have to listen to me here fascinating songs on how people you know write but you know how you know proverbs isn't all over but for most of the morning. and you know they're strong. alone hungry to hear all the people they need you know . often relatives i think it's absolutely you know you know person living on hard braking now. it'll still be a while before the baltic states have come to terms with their checkered past they've often been at the mercy of their mighty neighbors but now there's

a generation that holds its future in its own hands. it's. europe. what unites. divides. the. driving force. what binds the continent together. answers and stories aplenty the. spotlight on people. in the minutes on w. .

what's coming up for the book is playing in a few mentation talk about here on. the in this league every weekend here. a city in ruins. a symbol of a long conflict in the philippines between the muslim and the christian population . as funders occupied the city center in two thousand and seventeen president to church's response was. this is not the kind of freedom that we want how did morality become a gateway to islamist terror. an exclusive report from a destroyed city. in the sights of i asked starts april eleventh on t

w. this is d w news live from berlin the british parliament rejects leaving the e.u. without a deal a day after saying the deal on hand is no good in a series of votes lawmakers deliver a new blow to prime minister theresa may by again shredding her fractured strategy and another vote looms today on the laying bricks of.