this is due to be a news live from berlin germany heads into nearly a month of locked out retailers hopes of a christmas recovery are dashed as stores and schools are told to close from wednesday the government says a resurgence of the coronavirus left it no choice also coming up. as germany tightens its lockdown and the us is about to start its massive a vaccination program vaccines are currently on their way around the country. and in a german a soccer action the leverkusen take top place in the bundesliga after

a convincing win over hoffenheim. m k richardson welcome to the show german chancellor i'm the america has announced a raft of tough lockdown measures which she says are necessary to bring down spiraling numbers of newco for 1000 cases from wednesday on non-essential shops and services will have to close setting the stage for a bleak holiday season in germany. called the hunt for stuffing fillers in a barrel in toy store the owners have been planning all year for the christmas rush which will now be abruptly cut short. they're not going yes they are cutting us off right now when we have the biggest sales of the whole year. of course that makes me angry that. it's part of

a new more strict coronavirus lockdown announced by chancellor angela merkel amid surging infection numbers. and now due to christmas shopping the number of social contacts has risen considerably that means we must implement these measures they will have a broad impact on many many people we are aware of that. across germany it has become clear in recent weeks the lata restrictions imposed at the start of november have not been sufficient to control the pandemic more and more people are dying with the virus and hospitals are approaching the limit of their intensive care capacity. we have many deaths to mourn. all watching the statistics. of this in the us and we know that the health system is very heavily burdened. and our job was always to avoid overburdening the health

system. retail shops will suffer missing out on the most lucrative days of the year in the lead up to christmas and they are only being given 2 days' notice but the government is once again mobilizing billions to soften the blow. if it comes to a complete closure for a whole month we expect to spend just over $11000000000.00 euros for that month. so that shows that this is a very generous support package. and i want to say that i think it's absolutely justified it does if you're absolutely. it will be a reluctantly quite holiday season in germany. but the hope is that will be also true for the health care system. in the united states the distribution has begun of millions of doses of covert 1000 vaccine and occupation of health care workers and

nursing home residents with the biotech pfizer vaccine is expected to begin this week it's the culmination of a massive push to develop and deliver a coronavirus vaccine in less than a year but as the number of krona virus deaths in the us approaches a $300000.00 it comes too late for many. this is the closest tammie been viet can safely get to her husband his is another life hit hard by the pandemic he lies motionless unable to breathe on his own. looking through morning though it's this nothing you really want to do want to do in life is that for a window. start over the past 2 weeks the u.s. has repeatedly exceeded 2000 covert related deaths per day surpassing earlier pandemic tolls other surge back in may we were tired we were exhausted and we thought wow i don't know how this could really get much worse and fast forward to

now to this week and the surge that we thought we were having that was really nothing compared to what we're experiencing now but a massive logistical effort is underway that will hopefully save lives and ease the strain on frontline workers this weekend the 1st shipments of the biotech pfizer vaccine left the manufacturing facility in the state of michigan this precious cargo is expected to reach hundreds of key sites across the country by monday 2 major package delivery services u.p.s. and fed ex are part of the ground in air operations. i was pretty excited. they just came up and said hey you're going to be one of the few people unloading vaccines for us and you know what that's pretty monumental for so i was pretty excited happy to be helping now it's over like i can finally do

something about these problems instead of just staying on hold so it's great states are responsible for the distribution one supplies arrive front line workers and millions of the most vulnerable are supposed to get the 1st doses. so now as the united states takes on that enormous challenge of vaccinating millions of people imagine the hurdles facing poor countries our next report comes from mali where health officials say inoculating people against coke at 90 will be a slow process. one will these refrigerators are essential hardware at this health center they hold vital medicines and polio vaccines part of an effort across mali to immunize 5000000 children against the disease in a country where temperatures often top 40 degrees celcius the campaign is a huge logistical undertaking vaccinating mali and in the largely rural country against the coronavirus will be an even greater challenge. it's extremely

important to that the vaccines have a functioning logistics chain it will be very complex to get it to the people in the countryside. so not to c.d.b. travels on foot by motorbike and sometimes by donkey to distribute the polio vaccine in remote villages people ask her if she will soon be bringing relief from covert 19 the health worker doesn't know what to answer many african countries will struggle to pay for the drug. the coronavirus affects the whole world but here in mali we have no vaccine. i pray to god that we get it to a melody russell. infection rates are on the rise in mali while little testing is taking place in the capital bamako the health minister recently opened an intensive care station with the help of the w.h.o.

she hopes that the international community will help pay for the vaccines and that rich countries don't keep on buying up everything for themselves. the numbers are rising we need the vaccine that's why i have asked for help. mali hopes to access the vaccine through the w h o's kovacs fund developing and rich countries have already pledged to $1000000000.00 to the fund and some pharma companies have committed to delivering the vaccine through the mechanism but even if it becomes available the vaccines distribution will be tough in a country without a reliable electricity supply. at least have a generator but that's not the case at other health centers. if there is a power cut that's a huge problem with. the vaccination drive is gathering pace in europe but across africa most people will likely still have to wait and agonizingly long time for

relief. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world. algeria president. has made his 1st appearance since he was flown to a hospital in germany after testing positive for the corona virus in october the 75 year old said he is expected to make a complete recovery within 3 weeks. iran's foreign ministry has summoned the envoys of germany and france after european union after the european union condemns the execution of an opposition figure iran described it as an acceptable interference in its domestic affairs. was hanged on saturday over his role in protests and 3 years ago. british novelist john in the car has died the writer whose real name it was david cornwell became wildly popular for his thrillers which touched on his experiences as a spy adjourning the cold war his 3rd novel tinker soldier sailor spy made him

a global bestseller he was 89 years old. in nigeria some 400 students are still missing after gunmen attacked a secondary school in katsina state on friday local police said a large group armed with assault rifles storms the building a gunfight with police allowed some students to escape but many more were apparently kidnapped and it's feared that they could be held for ransom students who should be sitting at these desks are missing the disappearance has devastated the community. because. that child is a child regardless of who their parents are children who've been kidnapped here in konqueror from 10 pm on all we could hear was gunfire we couldn't sleep.

for some of my relatives children were taken what i've been here at the school since dawn or. what we hear in katsina earn a terrible condition we can't see how the government is helping my younger brother and my child were taken away by the kidnappers i've been at the school since dawn and we still haven't had an update on. the attack targeted the government science secondary school in the canker district of katsina in northern nigeria. is the home state of nigerian president mohamed do bihari he has condemned the attack in a statement to hari said the military had located the kidnappers and exchanged fire backed up by air support it's the latest in a series of attacks by gunman on the idea in schools one of the most serious occurred in 2014 when members of the hardest group boko haram kidnapped nearly 300

schoolgirls the families affected by this latest incident are still waiting to find out who took their children. in the bundesliga leon bailey scored a twice as buyer leverkusen a beaut hoffenheim for wanting to go to the top of the table the jamaican winger is enjoying a good run of form at the moment and one of his strikes today will certainly be a contender for goal of the season. leon bailey's performances this season have again attracted the interest of several big english clubs there's club scouts didn't have to wait long for another glimpse of bally magic i assure corner routine with not the merry and then the strike a contender for goal of the season 4 minutes gone which if this go with the sublime things went to the ridiculous 3 opponents hoffenheim just over 20 minutes later on

drake chrono riches lackluster back path intercepted by bailey and he did the rest . to nail the hosts were coasting to the top of the table. 5 minutes into the 2nd half and hoffenheim hit back with a screamer of their own christophe baumgartner looking up and eyeing the corner of the net. but moments later the 2 go cushion was restored florian vs drinks through the visiting difference after a nice exchange with patrick shaikh hoffenheim exposed the end of the game with 9 men in. the final act and lucas allowed a penalty to make it 41 i mean sure the fitness league has a new name at the top of the table. dortmund have sacked coach lucien far less than 24 hours after their $51.00 defeat

to. 5 it was a contract was due to expire at the end of the season labelled the result a disaster it was dormant for the defeat of the season and it's left them 6 points behind the top of the bundesliga table assistant coach $8.10 will take over on a temporary basis until the end of the season. and while the bundesliga season is still fairly young the formula one season is done and dusted the final race of the abu dhabi grand prix on sunday sar red bulls max 1st off and a close the year on a high note the dutchman starting from pole led every lap of the race to cross the finish line 150.9 seconds ahead of the all terry bunch us lewis hamilton who was already crowned a champion struggled all day and came in 3rd after missing the previous race this close it. that's

a news update stay tuned for our documentary fall of the u.s.s.r. the soviet afghan war don't forget you can always get the latest around the clock on our web site that's of d.w. dot com i'm claire richardson in berlin for me and the entire team here thanks so much for watching. guys on wheel and games did you know that the 17th through the end of the war killed world wide here but it's not just the animals little suffering the school environment if you want to know a way to lift up the priest a little shoes strange just as easy to listen to our podcast on the green and.

those who see the boots a soviet made no maybe check. the trousers a soviet the weapon soviet. built soviet jacket soviet you can see from the options the magazine soviet the backpack soviet. the puck over the afghan cap and this he is a real afghan. radio the world.

sautoy. yaws it was the 25th of december 179 when the soviets entered afghanistan mission on all of us i a little it was around 2300 hours 1130. you suddenly heard the infernal din of tanks and planes. got up and went outside and we saw thousands of tanks coming into afghanistan via the north road. and that went on for days and days the commercial. people put on the information that i was given and that i could gather 100000 soviet troops had just invaded afghanistan and. the soviet intervention didn't just happen by chance afghanistan was a buffer state trapped between the u.s.s.r. in the north and iran in the west pakistan to the south and east and china in the

north east the soviet union and afghanistan had traditionally been on friendly terms lenin's russia had been the 1st country to recognize afghanistan's independence in 1919 afghanistan was the 1st to recognize the soviet union in 1922 . that the 2 nations had long maintained a close relationship with the soviet supported afghanistan in a variety of areas such as agriculture the development of infrastructure and training the afghan army. moscow was cobbles leading economic partner but afghanistan remains an independent sovereign state. it was a marriage of both love and practicality. but it

ended paradoxically on the 27th of april $978.00. the day the afghan communists came to power in a bloody coup d'etat in kabul. there's nothing to stop soviet leader leonid brezhnev was against unarmed intervention in afghanistan he wasn't against sending aid including in the form of military advisors like afghanistan fell into a bloody and chaotic civil war it wasn't clear how the crisis in the ruling communist party might be resolved but he could be used to prove between march in 1979 and december 979 when the soviet union does invade several things change one is that the tensions within the ruling party become much worse. and not only are many of the party members mean creasing was sidelined but even the 2 ruling how key leaders mohamed and. and

have his will i mean are increasingly at odds with each other. several things would change direction as opinion for your peace efforts were in decline of the adult and peace was his baby but it also office will be from the american perspective the soviet union is also using the day this kind of period of detente to expand its influence in the 3rd world. 1975 of course we have the downfall of south vietnam and the reunification of vietnam as a communist state an afghanistan that seems to fit into this pattern i think the problem for britain of personally the reason to become so amenable to the idea of moving i mean is that his embrace of he was very it was very public right he made a point of saying don't worry you'll be ok we'll support you when he misses when he visits moscow in 1079 and sees him off at the airport that he goes back and then

he's arrested and killed and so then version of also sees this not just as a political insult to the soviet union but as a personal insult to himself. once his rival was out of the way has mean undertook new revolutionary reforms in the country they took no account of traditional. culture. and were widely misunderstood by the public. far from sticking to brezhnev stop trying i mean provoked the soviets by installing a dictatorship in afghanistan and oppressing the people many of the afghan military deserted and joined the mujahideen. in the soviet kind of mindset of the fall of 1979 where they're worried about the united states taking advantage of the situation in afghanistan it almost seems like i mean is deliberately destabilizing the country and look deliberately destabilizing the leadership on top of that they're receiving subsidies that i mean

had met with americans and of course there's the fact that i mean had studied in the united states right so suddenly these kind of aspects of his biography and his behavior which on their own would not even be that suspicious start to come together and start to kind of point to the idea that i mean might be working with the cia. in total secrecy the red army invaded afghanistan at the end of december 1979 the soviets assassinated i mean and replaced him with a kremlin loyalist comma. an air bridge to kabul marks the start of a bloody conflict one that was to be defining gauge meant of the cold war it would sealed the fate of the communist bloc and the soviet union it would change the world. this is a fellow's. long and the united nations jordan. it is

a deliberate effort of a powerful atheistic government to subjugate an islamic people. for a long time but you wouldn't. have much of food on if the world read on it. but there was a meeting between british never and his closest advisors when they decided to intervene in afghanistan away to the point of instant reduction know what the only document we now have about it is titled the situation in a the solicitors and the letter a is in quotation marks. doc a physical nasa creator so there was

a climate of secrecy it was conspiratorial even some of the politburo were not told immediately and wouldn't learn about it until early 1980. s. the soviet people would learn from press reports that there's a limited contingent of troops that had been sent at the request of the afghan government to help them reestablish order and that this contingent would not stay long and that it was either a friendly country and they were there to help them as they've been doing for years etc etc i said that the soviets had wanted to get out of afghanistan almost from the moment that they went in right so they were there from 1900 in 1989 but they had never intended to be there for 10 years and they were looking for a way out very early on so already in 1983. when they decided this they made a mistake they didn't talk about the duration of the occupation of iraq how long would our troops stay there a month a year 2 years 3 years or so in my opinion that was very important as the events

that followed proved but even the intervention and the deployment of troops was warmly welcomed by the americans visits it was as if they wanted the soviet union to intervene militarily somewhere or other of the us or it's august when that happened in afghanistan they were well pleased by the little spirit another pretty united states and other western countries wanted the soviet union to get involved in a war that would weaken the country economically militarily and politically and that's exactly what happened burks the scare from the military the professional military as far as we know was very happy with this decision and they were actually warned. they'd warned the civilian leadership that it would be a mistake there are grounds for sure marsalis we had good relations with the afghans not as toward a certain point of our troops was welcomed by the populations. but soon began the

so-called resistance. short of which i stress the word so called because they quickly started to receive lots of money from the pakistan. it was clear the americans were giving money to the mujahideen through pakistan to do this for you you know. they didn't care who they made war against it was normal fanatically at the job they were always as war with some a sort of snooker you sustain you learn the skill your job you know they want your idea we were a group of about 20 or maybe 30 i was i had seen and many were very young men. i had some very good friends in that group may they rest in peace and may god be merciful to them they are martyrs. we planned the attack well i asked them have you got incendiary bullets they replied yes we have i asked them to find out which vehicle in the soviet convoy was carrying the reserve if you want us

to look at it and to tell me if it was in the front or the middle of the convoy that's not that i thought the shells we waited on a slope for the convoy to arrive and then we fired at the field tanker after that the convoy was blocked. the armored cars caught fire and the russians were all killed at the that's how it happened. after that attack we seized 30 or 40 weapons you. see jimmy sell all give. up mary's group. one of our units was caught in an ambush. come on the pedestal is like one of my friends had command of the unit the fighting was very brutal. some were beheaded or had their eyes pushed out and.

for the 1st thing you feel when your friend is dead is a desire for revenge. but i'm still i thought about the magazine in my weapon and i wanted to empty it into my enemy's city where it should. be of the much use this desire for revenge overrides everything else but the misuse of a. just when mr butler there are 3 futures for the actual city can they the soviet reaction was a sort of genocide by deportation. to see due to the regime or populations that lived along the big roads connecting afghan cities to the borders of pakistan and iran and were routed and pushed out of the country. that would extend. since was moscow's strategy in central asia and the 1920 s. and early thirty's the beauties of the 12 to surround isolate and destroy because.

20. 3000000 afghans to pakistan 02000000 to iran and it was you i mean both pakistan and iran were pursuing their own interests in the region and played a big role in the afghan resistance and resistance of the city was that if you lived. less a city civility it to name the soviet public was kept in the dark about what was going on in afghanistan. soviet media was under the complete control of the communist party. the press radio television. they only reported on what was happening abroad in a very limited and filtered way even before the intervention the soviet regime was not very popular. there was a general disinterest in politics and a lack of belief in communism was more the regime couldn't ensure supplies of basic

necessities is the keepin you thought if they can't even do that what good are they are. 6 regime the tenuous hope of reprobation with the west was ended by the intervention in afghanistan with the consequences were clear. there were sanctions against the soviet union and embargo on cereals and technology and the boycott of the moscow olympic games in 1980. in terms of image afghanistan was absolutely catastrophic for the soviet union. died in this review i remember the absolutely soporific spectacle of these old fossils carrying the coffins of leaders of the politburo who were all over 17 years old. of the funeral images

of the regime on its deathbed. union was in its death throes yet the old guard chose another sick old man to succeed. yuri andropov. both. of yuri andropov was a man of the k.g.b. because you headed the k.g.b. secret service and secret police from 1967 to $982.00 so it's really embodied the golden age of the k.g.b. with its vast operations abroad in latin america and africa. because you me. and i know he also represents a time when dissidents were arrested and put in psychiatric hospitals for a period of repression. a little her on the path are.

andropov wanted dialogue with the united states it was consistent that when he came to power soviet american relations were very bad so. a rather east west relations in 1st book by katie to do it was a phase that couldn't be called a cold war anymore a chilly war maybe commando nice west relations had again deteriorated though not because of and drop of rise to power because the process had begun in the 2nd half of the 1970 s. priscu led. most often don't assume what it is and it was on this. i. merely an illusion. i'm a pilot in the soviet air force my name is bloody america a cough. for coming here to afghanistan. i only knew

what i'd been told which in reality means absolutely nothing. naturally i had my doubts. even i knew that if i came here. anything could happen to me more from which it's. not on julie doot. elite as time went on doubts grew out of walk or because there were huge losses. and the soldiers who came back alive began to talk about the atrocities they'd suffered. or that they'd inflicted. because both sides were violent people and all that began to attract criticism. of the us you see dear de critique. my mission today was to seek out caravans and targets to strike. and i think the only people who could understand how i feel and what we

experience here are those who were in the vietnam war. they lived through the same thing and work s'posed to the same dangers that we are. and all countries and all societies people look out for themselves their own daily problems and i don't the soviet union people don't know about what goes on in afghanistan was an ordinary north korea when we go back there are people who will ask us questions but i know now that they won't understand anything about our life here you see him next door this is a really dirty war. and you speak to me this way now. if i'm a sucker do socks on express 23 blah the famous coffins in which the dead were transported homes were sealed so the families couldn't see their loved ones. and they suffered because they imagined the worst. more and

more the war was no longer seen as legitimate by the soviet people. they started asking questions and there was anger when they found out they'd been lied to. when your proof is us. sometimes we have to transport coffins. around here should i have to say that was the most difficult part of our mission bringing back those confidence in them or. for us not one single mother accepted our explanation that our son had fulfilled his duty and had been a good soldier for of it over. the jewish such words had no meaning for a mother's heart and sure. nothing could replace the son who'd been killed

ocean throwing to comfort them was the hardest thing for us as. i do said the arrival of these coffins changed public opinion the opinion of civil society looking you'll see less and less the c.d.c. the fallen soldiers wives and mothers would come to embody the rejection of this new war in afghanistan to sit do sit on that good stone. but for the united states the war in afghanistan was a godsend it's allowed the country to justify its own foreign policy.

i mean the scene 981 ronald reagan became u.s. president in 1903 he delivered his famous evil empire speech. i unscrewed to put news live on what some believe he gave this speech to evangelical christians and break in the view that many religious people in the u.s. were pacifists who might become an obstacle to his aggressive policies against the soviet union still. to ignore the facts of history in the aggressive impulses of an evil empire to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil. you know as in vietnam the soviets were hoping you know the americans we. were always hoping that it would be the south vietnamese who would deal with the communist insurgency and that the americans would just be there in a supporting role. carrying out some operations but mostly focusing on training and

intelligence etc and in a very similar way this is what the soviets were hoping that their military could do in afghanistan also as the case was in vietnam it was very hard to maintain security once an operation was finished. so the american forces were pulled back to their forward bases and once again the terrain would be a threat would be open. and of course both shared a kind of. it's a materialist idea of what it would take to win the majority of the population over to their own side i mean the soviets also thought ok we need to do economic development we need to provide aid we need to provide you know food and medicine and all of these things and that will make people more amenable to the communist government in afghanistan. and so they spent a lot of resources on this. of course in the end that wasn't enough i

was. before the 4th just when i tell my andropov who was very ill at the design it was proof that his worst fears were true a series of events supported and belief that the united states wanted to provoke a war is it as we thought you know the particular game that there must be if it is not. terribly good there whether they learned of it but you are going to go by the town of sharif. it's highly dangerous here. from here on words is the most dangerous zone in the region that if you just go for a control of this route from 8 o'clock to 6 o'clock and a little bit at night it's controlled by the mojahedin vision of the day watch out and sometimes fire at times during the day to. sort of british. the locals. look out take cover they're firing up ahead. of the man.

but their love for a rocket landed right in front of our tank but at the bottom graduations comrade capitalists. i mean if the mujahideen and your weapons are a bit better but nobody would ever see your film you. lose it doesn't in 1985 the it became clear to the u.s. that the resistance would last also afghan doing good looking humans human on the sea in the muslim world have realized that this wasn't just a proxy war between the. the soviets and the americans of wanted because it was the

sort of justified muslim resistance. see it as an american is america the reagan administration sense that it now had political cover to supply aircraft weapons to resistance groups and together with its pakistani allies you know google is a strong. but where the americans aiding the right side while the mujahideen declared jihad or holy war to drive the soviet occupiers out of their country other extremist groups took advantage of the situation. was. together with the pakistani secret service they tricked the americans a large portion of the american military aid fell into the hands of radical fundamentalist groups including one led by a certain osama bin large. there

were also resistance fighters for whom you know us help arrived like those in pan shia a valley in the north east of the country they had to fend for themselves doing whatever they could to secure weapons. here in the valley of i'm shia. we have nothing but soviet weapons. weapons captured from the enemy. leading the pan hsieh mujahideen was a 28 year old commander a comment shah massoud with no support from the us he managed the impossible he resisted the red army. repeatedly the most powerful force in the world.

we have no direct or indirect relations with the americans. and. during the last attack no one came to our aid. the articles in american newspapers are lies. since they aren't true. i said every muscle in his natural charisma and his military exploits against the soviets made him a symbol of the afghan resistance he was respected as a commander and loved as a person but apart from his strategic and military talents he was no name pangea for establishing a community based on respect for islam even today he remains a legendary figure i'm not sure most of czechs are. sued was

young tall handsome with fine features and offers. myself shortly after he was very charismatic and well spoken so work to make it sure he had a big effect on people he was friendly here a check rather than canoe book and his army devotion there's no doubt that he was a gifted military strategist and an exceptional talent but i want to stress his humanistic values he was a great humanist as a church observer made our own but. he was the most peaceful man i ever knew but he found himself in the worst of circumstances war. so even while afghanistan was at war with the soviets he was thinking about the future about the schools that should be built about the education of the next generation. so he turned to flee that's before. i

can only say positive things about must. he was intelligent sophisticated and he never made irrational decisions. he always kept his word however difficult that might be he did a great deal for his people who supported me. while must sued for the red army life in moscow continued as normal until the day when the agent constantine chen yanker who had succeeded and dropoff died in march 1905 a younger man came to power a new face in the kremlin the fate of afghanistan and of the soviet union would change forever. i'll sit for our 6 will not go but short of. the hour had come for mikhail gorbachev the heir apparent to under a part of the became general secretary of the communist party of the soviet union

no one knew then that he would be the last and he was different from his predecessors much younger than 54 hours he was born in 1931 near stefano paul in the caucasus if you did he had humble origins his father and grandfather were peasants. he would prove to be a good authority on agricultural matters that was his trademark. that's why he was called to moscow. in 1980 he became a member of the polish. deli's magick that's an arch his rapid rise was due to his charisma and also his age and his easy manner. could give speeches without notes 6 pretty improvised you know views is some for the soviet people observing his demeanor it was something completely new he liked appearing in public which was also unusual all devoted to his predecessors had had

very little direct contact with the people places or of it to cripple gorbachev visited factories spoke with people was interested in every day problems. of a city playing. a legend there was a sense that a new era was beginning to loosen you. why don't you. put in one of the well i don't know what this war is about why they have to be millions of deaths. what are we fighting for. this. this is their country and i think they can take the responsibility for themselves. they can decide their future and vote for the policies they want. to believe.

being he makes no sense it's a mistake. the more the. psych $985.00 was the most atrocious year of the war in afghanistan. gorbachev came to power and the generals wanted to persuade him that winning was still possible. it meant pulling out all the stops before the resistance fighters got american anti aircraft weapons. cache deep in 1905 tens of thousands of peasants and their livestock were killed zam but it was too late if you. were equipped with those american anti aircraft guns view they were suddenly able to shoot down on average one so be a plane in one soviet helicopter predate the thieves and no soviet pilot wanted to be part of that statistic but. he can you can see the result was that from 986 the

resistance fighters were also active during the day see soviet air operations only took place at night because the pilots were afraid of being shot down. so the ground troops lost their air support you and the soviet occupation was doing. looking for some civility could. have been. defeated in afghanistan was a thorn in side it was referred to as the russian vietnam it was a war with big losses and for which the people suffered. it also presented a foreign policy problem. if god but chose couldn't find a solution to the problem the west would see him as no different to his predecessors. because as far as the west was concerned if the affair went on unresolved it meant nothing had changed in the soviet union had meaning if you know more you know. he really had to show that his policy had changed and that the

soviet union was moving into a new era. he had to draw a line under it. it wouldn't be easy because the americans were quite standoffish to begin with. i mean he weren't sure who they were dealing. with slowly he was able to build up confidence by making a lot of concessions. go back to the concessions were mostly on his side. democrat is very very serious they will tell us the printer issue and yes yes you will yes i love you lie you can start this is you do sort of lose interest or what are you so when you start to build it was russian or were you know vocal against onto a bomber through both it reasonably fished up majestically you were or you know was a player who were going to start to come on the show i was sent back to afghanistan

as commander of the 40th army and head of all soviet forces in afghanistan stan. my mission was can. produce to bring home our troops we see this pretty good morning but how could a little valley with only 5000 men and 700 weapons stop the red army reputed to be the most powerful in the world. so it's thanks to the structure of the valley with its mountains and rivers that was good for us and bad for the enemy. masood defied the soviets for 10 years they never managed to take his strongholds the pan she advani he also held the key to a successful withdrawal of soviet troops because his mujahideen controlled part of the routes linking kabul and the u.s.s.r. his relationship to groom wolf was respectful almost friendly.

this guy never met must shoot in punch always on neutral territory you're the. only pretty 4 different sample on the main road from kabul to the sun long past where the punchy valley begins. where we agreed on a particular site i arrived by helicopter and he came on horseback all by jeep a woman in a marsh accompanied by his bodyguards powers in his sister who. nobody here is there. is a virginia ready to do. this is there. is a when is that. yes there was no war so. that when i was on the bridge i didn't expect to be greeted by my eldest son crib and i was overcome by emotions. i felt relief but also dispatched us to board

as if i suddenly became aware of all the responsibility that i had carried all those years and. nirvana and the nervous tension was immense sucked as you cross the situation had been very hard and complicated review organism i had a feeling of total emptiness as i crossed the bridge i had the impression that my life was over i was completely burnt out. on this earth they were the during the 1980 s. everything had revolved around afghanistan. just like it hands for hundreds of thousands of soviet families. and from my own friends and family as we were suddenly off to this wall the 990 s. began she's really difficult is that destroyed our country has too much of. the mood in the soviet union time and voices critical of go but shelf in the ruling

elite group allowed people called to him to resign they wanted real change. glasnost and perestroika sailed. the economic crisis hit the country hard shops were empty the people no longer believed in go but shelf all the future of communism. but his policies had opened pandora's box there was no stopping the course of history. 9 months after the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan the burning wolf.

even in moscow statues were toppled they started with that of felix says in ski the founder of the cheka the forerunner of the k.g.b. . the growing discontent became more more focused on those in power in the kremlin. one after another sunday at socialist republics declared independence. the days of communism and the soviet union were numbered. most it gathered good still i get that he's a. afghanistan war was the catalyst for the fall of the u.s.s.r. it played an important role. for one thing that exposed the military weakness of the red army. which wasn't able to control the situation on the ground. also the war showed that the soviet economy was no longer strong enough to finance

such a conflict. it shone a light on the structural problems of the regime. and it undermined the myth of proletarian internationalism put in the idea that the powerful soviet union should help developing countries. beyond one small country was able to defy a superpower. that us had gone it to so that led the u.s.s.r. to question its identity including its capacity to go toe to toe with the united states as the war in afghanistan raised some very painful questions in the soviet union. again. february 1990 marked the end of what's known as the soviet invasion of afghanistan

or the afghanistan war or as moscow called it sending a limited contingent to aid a brother country. the end of the conflict brought great relief to the multi-ethnic populations of both afghanistan and the soviet union it was to be the last armed conflict of the cold war. but it had taken a heavy toll around 2000000 dead on the afghan side 15000 soviet soldiers killed and millions windows. there were countless victims of landmines and there was mass population displacement. with around 6000000 people fleeing to pakistan and iran. it was a war that would change the face of the world a devastated afghanistan fell into a bloody civil war in which the islamist taleban would emerge as sponsors of a new source of international terrorism it's no coincidence that the country is

known as the graveyard of empires that's certainly true when it comes to the soviet union and a half years after withdrawing its troops in december 1991 it ceased to exist. the 250 year old global music star. in his anniversary year he remains a powerful name on everyone's lips. either by the inspires really projects to this day or 20. 39 d. w. .

i very. much. was it was the same ship for an intricate monarch. this. treasure was. secrets which. starts to seem you can't.

this is the deadly news live from berlin germany heads fatah to lock down restrictions over the festive period tell us hopes of a christmas recovery as dashed as stores and schools are told to close from wednesday the government says surging to run the bars numbers have left it no choice coming up the u.s. prepares to launch an historic vaccination edge in its fight against.