today both in a new russia under around the globe. the 1980's mock the height of a soviet period that was later characterized as stagnation by nine hundred eighty two the country had been led to seventeen years by me an impression if it was by now a feeble and sick old man along with his allies known as the kremlin old god i have leadership strategy was to maintain the status quo. so says it is our positions became weakened in the late nineteen seventies growth rates were on the way. and drop of came to power. we had zero growth actually we had negative growth rates. and dropoff rose to the peak of soviet leadership in english and died in november one thousand nine hundred two before the handover to the k.g.b.

the most powerful of a notorious of soviet institutions. in one of his speeches and drop of said this that we need to understand what kind of society with built those were his own words in the context of those dick medic times that sounded like a dissident phrase. was also elderly and in poor health he died after just thirteen months in office his replacement constantine cheney and co was even more fragile the sequence of crimean deaths was referred to by many as the gun carriage race which loosely means the race to break. in one thousand nine hundred five gorbachev was fifty four many thought he was too young to head the government the decision was made by competing influential alliances within the top brass each with their own motives. is broken or elected karma. but as

a general secretary of the c.p.a. through central committee. the criminal going to move in a comfortable semi retirement they saw in gorbachev an inexperienced politician with peasant troops that they could easily manipulate. when gold which of gold nominal power he had not yet won a real authority in the party or the state. by contrast the few advocates of reform hoped that this relatively young and energetic man would be able to transform the nation. deliver to keep report on economic reform just a month after taking the nation's top post in argentina from. me here we have a deeply developed strategy a program of perestroika that has been thought through and suffered. it is through the. perestroika was meant to flex only the economy but will later

the world also came to employ other issues the report was based on what had been done under and drop of. the old party leadership viewed the young leaders ideas with suspicion and such an intensely indoctrinated country popular opinion was about as insignificant as it was difficult to gauge. to get a hearing my first days in power which it suddenly occurred to me and i must go out and listen to what people had to say. it was the first time ever that a soviet leader met with the people in such a spontaneous manna a head of state face to face with the public in a country where politics had long been conducted behind closed doors it was a sensational. free sneak listen to the people i'm a supposed to be. soviet television gave wide coverage to go but numerous trips and encounters with the people turned into a t.v. star with his popularity overshadowing even the country's favorite. the party's top

echelon and regional functionaries grew increasingly uneasy about popularity and his determination to push for economic reform. it was a little too timid joe i had to put it together from scratch. by nine hundred eighty six half of the party at high level had been replaced with younger people of counted among his canonize. to became head of the moscow party apparatus and a member of the powerful politburo. the people supported that leda a team of reformers were sent to go ahead with the changes but there was a catastrophic shortfall in funding for a fully fledged reforms the arms race and cultural commitments accounted for the lion's share of the budget. let's get rid of the threats because. gorbachev met with american president ronald reagan in geneva in november nineteen

eighty five the one on one meeting lasted around forty minutes. those are in a merge from the reading i was asked about my impressions a veritable dinosaur i said when reagan was asked the same question he said a diehard bolshevik but a couple of days later those two diehards produced a joint statement that the whole world had expected to hear. was an american ambassador to russia during the perestroika years he knew just how difficult it wants to move from strong enemies to good friends. i think that the victory for gorbachev he was able. to end the. with the cooperation of over a gun and the first president bush was able to in the cold war it took both of them

to do it their cooperation were what did it you can't say that one what the victor over the other because every agreement we made was in the interests of both countries on january the first nine hundred eighty six the people of the two nations saw the finest as greetings by both a u.s. president and a soviet leader i'm very glad to congratulate the american people with the new year . this is ronald reagan president of the united states and speaking to the peoples of the soviet union on the occasion of the new year. the climate of relations with foreign countries was getting warmer. but domestic issues were still pressing the planned economy had become second nature to bureaucrats at all levels they could distribute things but they couldn't turn a profit new economic programs were not working.

they realize. they need. in one thousand nine hundred nine yes it was put in charge of the state commission for economic reform a rank on a par with government ministers he served in that position up until the collapse of the soviet union today he's the president and founder of the highest school of economics if gainey still hold seminars to train economic experts in modern russia . when somebody at the top suggests that people should no longer be sent to prison labor camps before and should be given a measure of freedom was it but that was their decision spall the stamp of approval by millions of people at some point things began breaking out of control. and in a coma became a c.n.n.

correspondent in russia during the second year of perestroika she watched the radical changes unfold in the mass media very closely topics that had never been raised before started to appear on the pages of soviet newspapers people were no longer afraid to speak their mind or attend many informal meetings that were taking place across the country a member with my phone my western colleagues western reporters we would sit in those meetings and sort of look at each other and kind of pinch ourselves and say i'm sitting at with the founding fathers just like it might have been and two hundred years ago in this country at the continental congress it watching people debate what country they're going to have the topics were not only achievements and prospects the endless problems were also on everyone's minds. it's too bad that more people in civil society more people at the grassroots of russian society are not really as economically benefited or politically benefited as as i think

many people hoped so i think that's a disappointment and i where to put the blame who knows. the kemah of a region in central siberia is one of russia's major coal producing areas people going down the mines every day have a particularly strong feeling of camera. the soviet union's first mass strikes began in the coal mining areas on one occasion half a million workers in various parts of the country went on strike almost simultaneously. no one was working they said go back so we took a bus and went to the square yes and to remember how many people were there. and of a retired miner remembers the events of those days frequently with his former colleagues his team was the first to go on strike. when you were to go we didn't perform.

we didn't try to change the system we did want it was to change the attitude of the party bureaucracy for us the workers is that they now if you're over there decided to launch perestroika ok it together in the right place to go to show you stuff from above will start from miller been going to. many coal mines were given a measure of independence now the cash available to the miners directly depended on coal sales basically that's what compelled them to strike. that will stand until the final decision is made. prime minister nick clegg which calls to himself came from a mining family went to negotiate with the miners the negotiations involved some very hard words good risk of came here to face people from all over this town his facial expression abruptly changed the brigade realise that here were the people he was supposed to be working for it wasn't just

a faceless mob. there could still i would have liked to see you facing coal miners and talking to them i can tell you it's not a pleasant experience but. if you did you knew you had to say something to them what did you say. well think about it and make a decision. he said. and that moment the black faced masses of people with coal dust all over their overalls breathed out as one would have agreed. that enough is enough. this was all first slogan enough thinking speak up now who or you'll have no other chance. that. the differences seem to defy solution only soviet entrepreneurs could find a common language with the miners. first private companies were called cooperatives and businessmen operators. were against the column it were against the resellers

who were there with it but we're not against the corporate sort of. the cooperators were ready to take the responsibility upon themselves and pay the salaries of famines of miners. would tell them would start selling coal at a high price and will introduce innovations in the coal mines. the wrong cooperatives was the first timid attempt to allow private entrepreneurs ship in the soviet union. was the first soviet millionaire his co-operative made its money supplying computers given that foreign currency exchange was banned in the soviet union some of his first dollars from prostitutes working in hotels for foreigners is a bit for more than five hundred dollars for example could get you a computer like this one it took some five days to bring the computer into the country with officially sold at an enterprise willing to buy it so a five hundred dollar computer faced us nearly five hundred thousand troops nearly

one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. by that time the so-called new russians were lucky co-operative workers quickly and huge sums of money while the vast majority of their countrymen faced growing hardship. question is that so much about the taxpayers' money and it is a shame because a lot of people at area watch what you say for some political correctness is understood as a form of etiquette for others it is a clumsy attempt at fox control. wealthy british style side roads and that's not on. the. markets financed scandals find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look of the global financial headline news joining in to cause

a report on. russian was introduced in the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred nine for the first time since the end of the second world war some items were sold in strictly limited quantities nobody could buy more than two hundred grams of butter at a time no more than ten packs of cigarettes long queues and empty shelves were the whole of the times a wave of strikes and spontaneous malaise did not occur prices swept the country. that some of its people are dying. a communist country to be preaching friendship and among its people for nearly seventy years sorts first serious ethnic disturbances these ties to a massive wave of something akin to that eventually broke the massive empire mishearing one of the soviet public schools by nationalist demonstrations and unrest. there was

a platform put up for the first mass rally in june one thousand eight speakers talked about freedom and then everybody started singing the lithuanian national anthem but many people couldn't sing because they were crying but the most they knew something was changing near. there was more openness there was a glimpse of freedom people could now talk freely without fear. of intent as landsburg a says a composer and professor at the vilnius conservatory he always pictured himself at the head of an orchestra not the head of a nation he became the rallying point for a host of disconnected new political forces in lithuania which united in an association. with you we wanted perestroika to go through to the end yes we wanted to see changes in the economy more glasnost and more freedom of expression but we also wanted to be free in decision making order. glasnost the russian word for

openness proclaimed by gorbachev looked ever more like a genie let out of the bottle for the first time infighting among the soviet elite became a matter of debate in the media boris yeltsin was unhappy about the slow half hearted progress of reforms he publicly demanded that the party's leaders initiate more vigorous and thorough transformations sensing a potential rival booted yeltsin from the politburo and stripped him of his seat at the top of the moscow party organization. that he who claims that he can solve everything for the better when he comes to power is a political crook. in the old days this would have spelled the end of a political korea. and i can forgive myself for being too liberal and didn't send boris yeltsin where i should have that was my mistake the liberal press now saw yeltsin as a political martyr and man of the papal yeltsin vigorously backed any democratic

initiatives such as freedom of speech and market reforms. the vent prime minister. not to rush with the political reforms in the country. i used to tell which of many times we have to stop all of that we will lose the country tomorrow i will resign and to morrow you will be left with yeltsin in the same team you won't last for long but he lost it for a year. december one thousand ninety. plummeted by contrast boris yeltsin became the people's favorite politician. he was the first time profile russian official to show his hobbies in public. what is boris yeltsin always was a sporting man with a fighting spirit one who kept himself fit that was especially true of tennis its

main theories are countered with his party colleagues. by nine hundred ninety two ninety vocalists had become nelson's right hand man both on the court and in government yeltsin appreciated people's fighting spirit many of his associates had to learn to play tennis. they discuss politics in the locker room. there was no getting away from that yeltsin himself played tennis quite well political tennis was another of his strong points he was good at attacking and counter-attacking his opponents by exploiting their weaknesses he conflicted with the kremlin's position by backing republics when they bid for independence. in one nine hundred ninety four town to slams bogus was elected chairman of the if you any and parliament under his leadership the body immediately proclaimed the baltic republics independence. in january nine hundred ninety one we received an ultimatum from gorbachev demanding that lithuania should admit it the soviet

constitution was again in force in our country that's to say he recognized the fact that it was already known for here he threaten to use military force in the us we rejoin the soviet union with. a detachment of ahmed vehicles and special forces units and to vilnius lithuania and started building fortifications around the building of the new parliament using concrete blocks and bombs while. later part of the barricades were put on the glass walls and turned into the museum for the republic's independence. and their barbed wire symbolizes the oppression. the prison camps and the borders. the kremlin hoped a demonstration of force would be enough to compel the young republic to make concessions. we said we had no right we've not been elected to have the country rejoin the soviet union it was

a massacre followed. the television center was attacked in the early hours of january the thirteenth the building was soon counted on the work of independently viewing in television shut down. i know hello my i feel we have been attacked. we can hear shots coming from all sides of the sweeney and radio station has already been captured we're still. is still an anchor on a state run television channel that was the report which sealed her fame as a young journalist. i knew that they broke the door with their axes this batch has been left here. as a reminder of. the bella. back in the kremlin some of the top brass was still in denial hastily drafted knew

he needed treaty was designed to keep the u.s.s.r. together. it was the result of joint work by delegates representing nine out of fifteen republics the treaty was shadowed to be signed on august the twentieth one thousand nine hundred one but unexpected events that broke out in moscow a day earlier buried all hopes for the preservation of what was left of the soviet union. we really didn't let them sign the soviet union agreements on august the nineteenth that's right yeah but it's creatures who could sunder the next day. after toppling gorbachev from power eight elite party officials designated themselves as the state emergency committee all television programming was replaced with tchaikovsky's ballet swan lake and committee members addressing the nation. their proclaimed political program has faded into memory but the trembling hands of state emergency committee chairman get now d.n.i.

if with the most symbolic sign of the coup. tanks on moscow's streets a coup in the world's biggest nucleus state. cnn's moscow correspondent ellen o'connor had taken that day off she spent a whole year gathering the correct paperwork to adopt a russian girl called marina from a moscow orphanage on august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred one the final meeting with jewels in the meantime of course there were tanks. all over the streets and there was a huge line between me and office so i was literally ran that story had a happy ending marina lived in russia with her new moment till she was nine then the entire o'connor family moved to the us marina remembers well the primary school she attended in russia and dreams of visiting her native country after she

graduates from an american university. do you consider russia home. i don't really have or. it's still like that now like right now i'm living. like well like. moscow almost nine hundred ninety one boris yeltsin one of the most active opponents of the state emergency committee. the committee itself has to pass the twenty first. that didn't. go up. no doubt the way to solve its union collapsed was a sad event it was a tragedy but when that happened the soviet treasury was empty there was a dislocated economy and there was a real threat of famine more importantly its governance had broken down with unpredictable consequences from

a bloody civil war to nuclear weapons landing in the hands of uncontrollable forces but we've managed to prevent all that there are. december the eighth one thousand nine hundred one so the last chapter in the history of the soviet union with the appearance of the better veggie cream and they confirmed the statehood of the former soviet republics and the emergence of a new political entity the commonwealth of independent states the agreements were signed by two top ranking officials representing each of the republics yeltsin misrepresenting russia. and the communes that document there is a masterpiece of twenty first century diplomacy. empire crammed with nuclear weapons and an enormous backlog of deep seated problems that had piled up of a more than seventy years broke up almost peacefully. december the eighth one thousand nine hundred one was also the soviet sufficient last day but also much

of perestroika one country gave way to fifteen each of them subsequently followed its path. the close up team has been to the softening region where the biggest russian salmon caviar processing factories located nano argy goes to northern paradise where many still live off the land. new ways are being found to fight economic turmoil. and russia's first free elections red. thousand years ago if welcome to the road region russia close up.

he got a partnership the venezuelan leaders in moscow to thrash out plans for closer ties with russia. the exclusive interview with president chavez speaks about the problems faced by latin america as he sees. there's more and more aggression in the area and behind that aggression are the hands of the yankee empire. also ahead the russian capital is about to get a new mayor as president better put forward a candidate for moscow's top job. the first of a post-war exhibition on adult life opens in just days after a new poll reveals one in ten germans will see a return to the rule in future. this

is r.t. from moscow welcome if you just joined us just after one am here now. in moscow russia venezuela cooperation in areas from nuclear power to arms deals and all production venezuela leader the president medvedev and prime minister putin sealed some key deals. got the story. it was very sweet deal and i brought these chocolates from venezuela they're the best thing in the world and i'm going to give them to all of you they're cheap too so you should think i'm buying some and here we have some banana jam and cocoa that's the best product from our country for you my friend that is wound president chavez sealed this country's deals with some national goodies that.