gave crimea to ukraine as a gift but when the soviet union collapsed crimea was suddenly in a separate country. you're watching the news live from berlin coming up next is a documentary called the baltic path europe's model citizens get all the latest news information around the clock on our website as you know dot com of the spicer thanks so much for tuning in. first day in school. or first coming listen to him in his grand a moment arrives. joining a regular jane on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary.

returns home on t w don't come to tanks. 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 new nick. and pretty much every house on kino is connected.

as stony and lithuania and latvia 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 and you can still smell the exhaust fumes of 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 very man to overthrow the african if it's driving and i am in no

sense the we are talking about it a lot in this morning is it not for this with dr ali that the same going up working if some foxy says stop begging and it be and out of pocket ups say use a side car and use it is a mood and site car it can also sings inside the car and you can transport cheated and i know family land addicts. breeding 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. marist daughter ani is the first to raise her hand to read aloud which she does without a mistake was what 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 too. many. markets fight. five as the top mark on e. is pleased to she's still too young to worry about her mother knowing all about what she does. no i don't mind except when i only get a good then bothers me because i prefer to get a very good to happen. here in kenya it's internet first like in all schools in a stone. and you know unknown but if such and such a school or not are missing are about the kind of mocks he gets no no.

announcement that teaches us ending and you can fill time with 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 the bank. says 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 stone here 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 the stone ians couldn't have imagined that allen would one day have a burgeoning skyline fairy shuttling to scandinavia every hour and cruise boats from all over the world docking in the port today estonia is connected to the world . the time was that 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 of the model are a stone his first prime minister once said his country needed young leaders because they don't know their own limits make can achieve the impossible. today mark our 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 so we made it. and it went much better than interface expect it . fi because although we toke to join the e.u. and nato we didn't quite believe we can manage it well the seat but here we are seeing to. his entry into political office wasn't easy in the early nineties 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 on and in. that i said oh i ma not yet and this is used only in prime minister all the woman looked at me as all me and she said your the a stone him prime minister who needs to think and if one.

composer's a 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 the basis of prime minister 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 it should have an end. income to some from that some on letting go of the own people you know take out all the old strings so to speak and experience i think you have to have something to believe and that is all i don't find this experience and so on so that you don't start from zero interest and into my kind 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 and only a few times a year the symphony orchestra lived. from goodwill and donations it wasn't financed from taxes. we have a supporting group which is basically we don't have any states and i think it would ever happen anyway because i assume you have youngest and it was crazy enough to accept it's and in a situation where you have to accept new comers to help except new ideas to see 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 about to leave the stage and. some i think now it's

becoming a little bit more hands on and lots more sense of mixing different cultures around and i think that. it's. another a study and pioneer from the ninety's as banker ryan looked most. just after estonia as independence in two friends founded what was to become the biggest bank in the baltic region. their recipe for success was simple and strict. and most they were people small people straight from schools because they had. better education and know no wrong attitude was. that close used to live on the outskirts of tal and where the city's nouveau riche 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. i had bodyguards today much more legislation and rollers i will say that. you will need this mall more of us who need you we need to protect yourself the fifth high flyer 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. it was needed. to. the. school so she. 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. 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. 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 will go toward him going if he lacks life experience. but we don't doubt his technical expertise what up with him there which a lot of money. as head of the court the young judge was entitle 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 freud's thoughts. but he would you know. a taxpayers' money for. just you know using this perks this is not fright. our next stop is riga latvia as capital.

these singers have been rehearsing for five years only the best are selected to perform. such a low he was beat. me. a . lot b. a is celebrating its one hundredth birthday. with songs and music performed by the diplomatic choir erykah. singing is more than a hobby here or people grow up with song books. to. see at the same moment the well i. go into petra was barely three when she started singing at her kindergarten was the

who was a. 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. i. must do it and something happens inside you and 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. the. people who are better at organizing themselves back then. even though they had no incident e-mails 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. they're driving to cover 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 money is there to hold the law in flag for the very first time since the second world war this is like laos listen to radio in which time radio was the most important source of news for us newspapers didn't tell you much but radio covered everything this must be a thing as he did that at the end of the and i think we all listened intently as many of these we was spellbound and excited would be and we felt such patriotism so use that patio at the super bases that i would. not be as popular front was based in this town house and. one of its leaders was the physicist eve ours got monies later lockin prime minister from the popular front wanted to get lafayette out of

the soviet union. the sea to its own in soviet union relates to. the situation in the final years of the soviet union economy was terrible cobden absolute dicks those were empty. of laban speaking we had these russian cots again unload the car like they had been during the war weeks yeah it's not the creek it was fifty years later and people were having to use those russian cots again to get food that's lists and 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 no like. it was not that 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 over she was the singer was candles and prayers instead of riots was a chain stretched from tolland in the north to build nests in the south. it was the beginning of the end of the soviet union. was and was the. i. was. in see so freedom on the hob probably in try stopping that many people for everyone was peaceful that they held nothing in their hands except fly was 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 a peaceful revolution of an audition for the delete it will assume.

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. liberty street. this is where a lot b.s. former long serving presidents vajra. 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 one number one i find that it is an absolute tragedy that the soviet union comes down into this it is so sad we used to be one big happy family and now there are these from tears and now in the house of one of them. mr mr president that's the tool i said and i indeed for many of our inhabitants not only did that in they need any possible possible city in the way and they had three kids to siberia in rather uncomfortable conditions and how does president putin react i 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 morrow 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 lafayette but aga for alexei is lothian too but his mother tongue is russian. yet the two have no problem communicating. let him but maybe that's because i started

i was lifesavers and i started that in the alley says was good enough to continue his lead in for us you know the no three languages it's just a. must have you know. we've been. it's normal patient when i go in the shop that to buy something that you know that i'm not understood when that being asked to speak in russian does a situation when i feel this is the simple. 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 arrived 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 it's never too late to push back you know that we waited twenty five years before we introduced our own russian television programming so the view is we're already predisposed us informant and it's not easy for us to get through should them enough's enough national option us national 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 helps 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 in the guys in present administration felt you know the television doesn't work with the huge and very important and very active part of this is say what's what can be done about the propaganda then about headlines like lafayette is on the brink of collapse or fake news about nato. right now they

the russia has much better infrastructure than year before the usa or any you know any western country this is the this is. 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 that viewpoint echoed in mario's most famous song. this is part of rica my reader of this on a piecing reka are new things are throwing. her legs 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 cullinan crowd enclave that once belonged to prussia. the e.u. border runs straight through the corona and spit. to the left as the baltic sea to

the right the crony in the 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 their. anxiety amongst russia's small neighbors is mounting. so they're putting up

benson's to mark their country's frontiers even where there was once a green border i could make misty's. mother yonah has lived in the border town of his status for eighty two years. the front here 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 because of that when was the passage closed no question 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 day and. anyone living this close to the border is either very scared or not scared at all every fall russia stages large scale maneuvers the can

use to talk about danger coming from russia let them do their drills there's no concern to us if it's not those soldiers practicing it would be as it's part of a job. getting us at mario's 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 of the because i saw the high of how much more ohio who hungary. threw me at that was i was safe

for me this with a bet 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 and then its border it's a dilemma for us and 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 . it here would look at this russian sometimes train over there knowing something out of sense and off homes. in the woods and i know the two years ago there was an explosion that was so loud our windows shook. them to the vet who knows what can happen with or without a fence thank you i don't take offense well hell i could just drive through it if they wanted to that we unload is the buffalo to push us a little 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 thanks. our last port of call this building is that the way he has capital. it's

a beautiful city. the sort that wasn't planned but instead grew naturally so a person can get lost in its winding streets. filmy 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 much but in best you have the best view overbill nias 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. why. it's been miliard with the trail of destroyed jewish monuments left by soviet forces. she takes us to the sports palace which is also like time traveling if the stones could talk we'd be back in the middle ages. the summit she tells us here in the fifteenth century and you know that twentieth century age and that's how the

tradition the swans were taken away and they respond different types of things that you know like stairs like enjoy the house where people were you know haven't 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 by those whom i'm literally like this. actually i've got the impression that like many people like lord of the koran for example he has it in the roots he was not so much interested in his roots fall for many years but some hold the fall like bussing way

through us couple of years and during his life he was 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 moved by the intense of life but but but he knows about it and i think he will find some opportunity to to come to this area resort of the brothers. i mean to visit 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. related by 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 ride that will maybe you know will never you know be again in the city. this is the only synagogue still in use 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 of over doing almost showed he said it was a. failure as used to be called the jerusalem of the north. back then we were

two hundred fifty thousand people those. cream 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 to see you post it was that it will look to shoot. 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. so now i'm sure how you have a wildlife and if you like did you come because of the bagels or do you want to learn about. the i'll use it in the till i see you. let me get you some gloves

just put them out the bagel was invented in the sixteenth century in the grand duchy of lithuania which belonged to poland back then would you allow jews to sell bread which was the main food for both christians and jews there was a conspiracy and church authorities claimed that bagels with poison sprayed. the indians so so to scotch that evil room we began boiling our breakfast. i suppose going forward this is dismissed and yes this is going to be a little ritual but that was your first lesson there was a better back then are you saying. a full on this album. but if you missed it i think shortly up the baby he didn't appreciate it when i. did a deal with the body to see the ship that's. the way. the

ship should. revert you boil the bagels and then you bake them what is the capital good to make of course you have to bake them that's how they get to be so good everything in jewish hussein is made with a lot of soul like this is it type lex come at it let's show him with the gingrich passion and. they can produce when granny used to bake she close old windows much to my grandmother did that too i wasn't even allowed to come into the kitchens so good as it looked to me my going to the until i just want you to see didn't at the see the tiniest drops can make them collapse i wasn't allowed into the kitchen when they did 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 it as

a bond office 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 like this for reasons that are growing you know sure they don't write about it so i think you look like barbra streisand of the show my six. says. harrison ford amos oz barbra streisand bob dylan and the dean gordimer all have lithuanian roots in the backgrounds you didn't even come across the house or not you need to but there's a leak in the house but do you but you can check the many things you see listening to him while you take in the morning and want to hear we don't want to hear nothing . at all. yeah. i mean it's 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 how do you see most of them from latimer to her five hundred friends in russian cars and someone living you know not the father you know away and also people that are her you know their last names and you their last names for example never known who you actually are the 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 were just following also and you know i'm still visiting here fascinating so how people who know me but you know how you know birds and all over and over some of the more and. you know they're strong. a lot of hungry to hear all the people they need you know over the relatives i think it's actually. you know personally heartbreaking no.

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. with one hundred salmon must reads his list of not to be missed german novels in the english translation and. among them one of the many visits and this recent i couldn't even a phone call. we visited her in los angeles and on still what it's like to be

a german reisa in the us. thirty minutes to deliver. a knockout blow will not succeed in dividing us about not. succeeded in taking the people off the streets because we're tired of his dictatorship. taking the stand global news that matters. made for mines. five days in the midst of venezuela's crisis in the fight to get aid into the country with a convoy a fun guy i don't support. an exclusive report alongside venezuelan journalist but he's a closer look at the country's catastrophic condition. on the way to colombia

a showdown. starts march eighteenth. this is news live from berlin new zealand is in mourning after a deadly attack on two losses as christ church remembers the forty nine victims of friday's massacre the suspected gunman appears in court and is charged with murder . bonfires of violent clashes and looting in the streets of paris as yellow as protesters demand change in the french capital it's

a crucial moment for the protests which have now taken place for eighteen consecutive weekends also coming up carrying on.