i love. the max series starts may 25th on d w. hello and a warm welcome to focus on europe nice to have you with us they are recordings so explosive they've plunged austria's government into chaos the country's then vice chancellor caught on camera offering state contracts in exchange for campaign

support. here in the villa and it beats heinz christian straka of the far right freedom party talks to a woman posing as a wealthy russian over the course of several hours they discuss boosting the party's election results with the help of russian financing well the video has left austria's coalition government between the conservatives and the far right populist in shambles with the freedom party have made no secret of their desire for closer ties with russia in the past but the footage reveals just how far they were willing to go for power so how close are europe's right wing parties to russia our reporter went to vienna to find out. vienna has long been a bridge between europe's east and west. decades after the cold war it's still a playground for foreign agents who employ methods like the one that helped topple

austria's freedom party. political scientist and hunch accost off is also based in vienna he's an expert on the influence moscow exerts on europe's far right far right organizations and poets is. some of the few. political forces in europe that are still ready to cooperate with the kremlin the kremlin needs. a law is in the west. in 2017 russian president vladimir putin attended the wedding of austria sporran minister a member of the freedom party. and its you tube channel the freedom party celebrates its close ties to putin's united russia party. in. the after party leadership for bridge builders and peacemakers in moscow. in 2016 that then head of the freedom party heinz christian structure signed

a cooperation pact with the united russia party despite the rift between russia and the e.u. i think about 2000 foot seeing all the developments in 2014 especially trained they mobilized. although you know they made relations between the european far right and moscow more active those close ties have now brought the freedom party to its knees a secretly filmed video has emerged of hines christians in a villa and ibiza spain it shows a woman claiming to be the niece of a russian oligarch promising illegal donations from under cleared sources apparently not a problem 1st off. there are a couple of very rich people who are contributing between 500002 1000000 euros. the contact was apparently arranged by johann goodness the parliamentary group leader of the freedom party goodness has long been known as struck his right hand

man and has close ties to russia. the. format the who the suppose the niece of the russian oligarchy is what that was a clever setup and given the relationship between austria's freedom party putin and the united russia party in the middle sloan's how much damage this scandal will do to austria's far right remains to be seen many observers say it's unlikely that the freedom party will break with moscow thank you sir for being with your they'll continue to maintain these ties we've often heard rumors that money is changing hands even though the freedom party has always denied that as you move up the student so what do people in austria think so they're very critical of it they find it peculiar particularly because the freedom party has always pursued its own russia strategy long. the party wants the e.u. to lift sanctions on russia and they take a very different stance to russia's annexation of crimea. austria's freedom party

has been useful to moscow's ambitions and one chicago stuff is certain that russia will continue to bolster europe's far right for the kremlin the chance to influence european politics is just too good to pass up. it's been called a tenser of british society by prime minister theresa may the knife crime epidemic in england and wales well so far this year over $100.00 people have been fatally stabbed the attackers are mostly young males who have all but given up on life it's a cycle of violence that paul mackenzie is fighting against in london and he's calling on the government to join his cause. a new day a new crime scene last night here in east london a 15 year old was stabbed to death with a knife. social worker paul mckenzie has visited many such crime scenes

but this time it really gets to him the victim was a friend a business he. just turned 3 much is now you see these are everywhere you see a bunch of flowers years ago and it meant something you really saw when i was there read the request and it's just life is too many to read. the only because somebody wanted to prove something to somebody else that's that's the sad thing is that life has become a point system. and now somebody somewhere say. they know that and that person gets respect. often it's a case of rivalry between members of youth gangs but innocent bystanders can also fall victim to knife crime and some gun use knifing someone is proof a youngster is worthy of belonging to a guy. looking at all like 13 years old being arrested for not but. what happens. mckenzie talks to gang members and makes

videos to show how quickly things are deteriorating in some parts of london. why do you carry a 15 it's not a big and you get scared but if you say. cause i don't want someone to put up with me let china. kill with me so i'll kill him. on that day. paul mckenzie feels that the government doesn't take knife crime seriously enough he supports an initiative which demands that the governments treat the violence as a national emergency you know you make. something you know you. lost my younger brother from austria tonight this was my son i say oh he was more murdered in 2015. when i lost my son on the 31st september to because of the 17 might expect let. me back for

a night crime in the face of separate peace again is not true in the heart. in some neighborhoods young people don't leave home without a knife as they think they must be prepared to defend themselves. we can see says it's a scam but combat knives are some freely. that rambo knife in particular is is the favorite knife at the moment collect for rambo knives and you get a discount you can see all sorts of different types and knives in the window and for me it's not something you want to advertise in a window specially with what's going on moment. jason isaacs was stabbed to death one and a half years ago he was shown candles eldest son. now her younger children always have to come home straight from school because she fears for their lives jason was killed early in the evening when he was out with

a few friends. jessie was with 4 friends so 5 of them and you know that some of their loss and they all were in different directions and jess and got caught and stopped 8 times jason was targeted by a gang which he himself had nothing to do with everyone that knew jess and you always hope you're christian which was nice because evan every time we went our physical eyes i was i love you mom case and that's what we got that night and we did everything together really we it was a very family. jason's killer was caught he was just 17 time rock videos of him and his gun can be seen from the internet known as drill the style of hip hop is very popular with british.

talk about stabbing people in the back which is what they do. and jason obviously was stopped in the park. and the boy ended up dead what influence does drill music have what can you do when carrying a knife is considered normal. these are the kinds of questions palmer kinsey asks in this talks with teens so everyone here is familiar with the drill they all know kids who carry knives and finding answers is tough. but these youths and their parents agreed jail time isn't enough i know someone that's in prison and he's still able to get a fine and paste and snap chat he's in jail in prison it's just listening to music rap and did all of that so is it really i think thing to them the issue here is a systemic one violence is normalised now unless we start looking.

for above the young people we're never going to get to the bottom of this any values any new belief systems they need to believe there is a future you talk to some of these young people they can't see past 20 and any society that has a generation of young people that constitute past 20 you've got it you've got to address that from above. ground and it's not a whole mckenzie knows to aren't any quick fixes to the situation the british government has now committed itself to investing in youth work and strengthening the police presence. everyone knows the problem has simply become too large to ignore. to greece now where a centuries old tradition is on the verge of extinction the country's wooden fishing boats known as are synonymous with the greek islands building the boats is a craft that's been passed down for generations and it's a heritage the greeks are very proud of but the government and the e.u.

are paying owners to turn what many see as works of art into scrap wood boat builders like demetrius moore acas fear that sill will vanish from greece's coastline for good. they're a familiar sight for holiday makers in greece the colorful chi yukio fishing boats . but the traditional wooden boats are an increasingly rare sight the european union pays fishermen cash if a scrap their car yukiya demetrius maracas is the last boat builder on the island. now he has to destroy the boats that he built over the past decades otherwise the fishermen won't get their subsidy maracas is appalled. and stupid days after i think about all the energy i put into them one of the men to be over the years now live passes and i know i'm supposed to destroy all this. inside. breaks my heart.

but the real problem is is that it puts the fishermen in this terrible situation it is more. i don't as cussed on the us owns a fish restaurant he also gave up his boat last year taxes for it kept rising and his catch when told it was a difficult decision but at least he got 100000 euros for the boat. now he has to buy his fish for his restaurant elsewhere and he still misses his boat. it was tough. i didn't want to destroy my boat. i'd even have paid money to keep it for myself or use it to ferry tourists . but the agriculture ministry wouldn't agree to it no chance. the un calls the mediterranean the world's most overfished see though they are hardly to blame the greek government would like the boats to be used to ferry tourist but that's not

financially viable for the fisherman. mr menasha we want to save the traditional wooden boats but to do that the e.u. has to change the guidelines. and there's a lot less money to use them for tourism but the financial incentives should be the same as for scrap and. that really what that. is what he she is. a museum dedicated to that is being built on the island of summers the greek ministry of culture has rescued 20 old boats all lovingly made by hand custis them you need these as an architect and an expert on greek ship building traditions he's fighting to preserve the old boat more and more people including government officials now say they should be protected as an endangered cultural heritage. you have to keep things from the past and to. to save memories to save our route there is that the traditional boat building which is

a very integral part of these of these sculpture i do have to find ways to keep them and. to give a future to the way grandma life for the future for the young people. demetrius maracas also gives both building classes for young people and adults he'd like to be able to take on an apprentice. rocky's can't accept that greece's maritime heritage is on the verge of extinction. as a stopgap measure he's figured out a loophole instead of completely scrapping the boats he takes them apart to render them unusable. i will be my last may and i disassembled the boats in 3 parts which are still in time. a good boat builder could put them back together by my g.m. other discoveries that maybe some young people will come along and want to who

knows. as long as creakier continue to be scrapped the craft will die out that's why greek boat builders and fishermen are calling on their government to reopen negotiations with the e.u. even if it can no longer apply the seas they could at least be preserved as a tourist attraction. to this day the turn noble disaster and what is now northern ukraine remains the worst nuclear accident in history experts say it will take 20000 years before the area is habitable again but many may not realize is that the vast majority of radioactive particles released landed not in the ukraine but here in the south of bella ruse while the region is a no man's land of frozen in time and let her with abandoned buildings but a few refuse to leave their homes despite the dangers among them was adam over

she says her decision to stay put is the reason she's still alive. once thriving communities now only ghost towns remain. nature is reclaiming the countryside. life came to a sudden end here with a nuclear accident in nearby church. at the time a few people refused to leave the exclusion zone. is 90 years old she couldn't bring herself to leave her animals behind to starve and she couldn't imagine a new life in a city apartment there is no shade area when you're almost everyone from our village who was resettled is dead now. only one man and a few women from our village are left. it women are a bit stronger anyway almost all the men are dead. husband

died and 2016 now her son leonid lives with her. he couldn't leave his mother to fend for herself and she didn't want to move to belarus his capital minsk with its better healthcare now they both live from her meager pension. that would have been yeah where why should i be afraid i survived a terrible war. and i've seen charred corpses really that was horrible. but the radioactivity it isn't even visible need. once galina made it clear she would not be moved out of her house the authorities gave it a special cleaning. at 1st they hunted geiger counter on my chest to measure the radioactivity they measured inside the oven and in the beds there was quite a lot of radioactivity. but life before the great disaster as she calls it was so pleasant she never wanted to give it up she shows her son the old photos over and

over again. yaml do over. there. and of course i'm sad i remember everything the way it was here i can see our villages beautiful houses in front of me and all the lights. but if you look young people used to get together and have a good time. now everything is silent like in heaven. biologist max include gene disagrees once humans left the exclusion zone nature began to move back in he can see the evidence all around such as. but radioactivity is still very much present. richardson what is and is in some places we measure 15025000 micro sieverts

a fairly strong radioactivity it's always dangerous people can't really live here. but health animals like these can. maximize spotting more and more animals that weren't found here before the reactor disaster such as these bison there have even been reports of brown bears and the biologists aren't finding any deformed animals or cadavers like they did in the 1st years. radioactivity is always dangerous to both people and to animals. but animals don't live long enough for the radioactive substances to accumulate in their bodies and be passed on to the next generation. some animals even live in the abandoned houses and villages. maxim has been observing this process for 20 years even if the new residents are easy to see.

the evacuated villages have become wildlife community was. once german was taught in the schoolroom now animals have free range. they've reclaimed the villages. are monitoring is shown now on the elves are using the attics and badgers are settling in the foundations. in the autumn a lot of hoofed animals come here because of all the apple and plum trees still growing here. maxim coo genes compiling his observations in a study that attracted worldwide attention it shows how radioactivity affects humans and animals in the long term. scientists are still debating exactly how dangerous radioactive contamination really is now after 33 years some of the radioactive substances have soaked deeper into the ground but as maxim points out it still poses a danger especially in the woodlands where mushrooms and moss collect the toxic c c

m. the exclusion zone has turned into a vast open air laboratory where humans play only marginal roles. growing vegetables in the zone is still prohibited. so every 2 days a mobile grocery store wise to supply the few remaining residents with fresh fruit and vegetables linnet also shops here. he and his mother have read in the papers that a new reactor will be going online in december some 500 kilometers from here built with cutting edge russian technology. skeptical. then sure yes. people used to just plow the land and grow their own food now we've invented these nuclear things. are we supposed to eat atoms. but how galina and the

other inhabitants of the exclusion zone have lived so long in spite of the contamination is a mystery yeah i don't know but i don't regret having stayed here if i had moved i would have died long ago it's just the way i am. that guy. 2 she's fortunate that her son landed was not afraid to come here and support her. everyone else she used to have for company is long gone. well many retired seniors join clubs as a way to stay active d.j. vico from poland prefers to spend her time in a very different kind of club but the 80 year old is a fixture of warsaw's clubbing scene where she plays for party goers of all ages her curiosity and her ability to keep up with all the fast changing technical

equipment helps or to stay on track. these dancers may not be as light on their feet as they once were but they've still got the moves virginia make sure they used . to be going to our party to have a great time you have a job. d.j. vico is 80 years old and one of poland's hottest acts. and actually emphasises she doesn't only do senior discos. clue what will this heat i play club music when i spin discs in youth clubs i mixed club music with the top hits by madonna. jennifer lopez lady gaga. d.j. v. cats warsaw moving turn his sizzling hot beats the retired special education teacher has been spending the vinyl for 25 years now. as well the digital i met with young deejays and learned how to use the computer i

bought a mixing console because the young people said you can't use just a cd player but their thoughts about boyd top of that is about i saw how they mix and scratch is going to choice to have her children left home long ago her husbands passed on pridgin you didn't want to just sit around and mark time. when i was told not to get the truck going to do something new i have to learn new things and that keeps me young most but i get my brain regenerates itself i become curious and it's great. and the awesome geek i has another thing to say beauty is not reserved for youth. people should take an example for me life has many beautiful colors. on this evening and more sight least nobody is even thinking about taking it easy that like disco is the best medicine for poor health to get out of it. and d.j. bekah is living proof of that.

well that's all for this edition of focus on europe feel free to get in touch with me on twitter about this week's topics and do join us again next week ok dosing.

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75 minutes on d w. what secrets why behind these moves. find an immersive experience and explore fascinating cultural heritage sites. d w world heritage for 60 get the. history on the other news asia india. played a long drawn out. and even violent election campaign trail so close. to the gulf and affect one in 6 people in this world. join me british strategy as we try to understand brain death toll. this makes. our lives of the new species of. europe

a big idea but what's become of it and what will it look like tomorrow. w. gets ready for an in-depth look at the european elections asking the questions that matter. for european voters' hopes for the new parliament what challenges lie ahead . from way too long because the sense of the people in power have come away with not doing anything to fight the kind of crisis help move the earth you know much of the rest of. the expert discussion. is over for. voters 1st time seems w.m.'s in all of the european elections on may 26th on g.w. .

this is d.w. news coming to you live from berlin polls open elections to the european parliament that includes the u.k. a country that's expected to have left the european union by now will have more on health populous looks set to make big gains and make life even more difficult for britain's beleaguered prime minister coming up counting is underway in india.