closer to the true story toto. and to. see if. you visit. because. this is o.t. like here in the russian capital top stories now the casualties rise in libya as colonel gadhafi is desperately searching for a way out of the crisis italy joins the list of countries to recognize libya's rebels as the legitimate government. of russian pilots into the u.s. to face drug trafficking charges claims this was some say america is developing a tendency of snatching people in order to try them on its own sort. of free space

was set to fly up to the international space station from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan almost exactly fifty years after man's first flight into orbit. innocent thirty minutes from now in the meantime we look at how latvia once part of the soviet union has changed after it gained independence two decades ago a special report next. eighteenth black music independence day it's pomp and fanfare that's of any other public holiday in the country on this day the republic's talk leaders gather it's a lay flowers and the freedom monument in latvia scarcer riga. informal events like the torture sessions held in the evening of the same day people who see themselves as the country's true patriots marched through streets

closed to traffic for the occasion the perceptions old guys by the radical nationalist posse known as old from latvia. however many people don't identify themselves with the festivities they are russian speaking residents who make up nearly forty percent of the country's population half of them have not yet received citizenship rights. let me lindemann as a columnist for several months in newspapers he also investigates cases of public interest and publishes reports on them but even though vladimir holds a laugh in passports he is technically not

a fully fledged citizen of his own country. with the passport cover bears a unique inscription stuff that it was written in latvia and it says your passport of a non-citizen those are rules of marketing are grows more on the main pitch in the english translation it reads aliens pass our possibles sometimes we are called just that aliens like we are from another planet or even full of you point of international law we are considered as such just at present there are something like four hundred thousand such people in latvia that have soaked through such. mansfield became an independent state in one thousand nine hundred ninety one after seceding from the soviet union. barely one month later the country's parliament passed a resolution officially dividing the republic's population into citizens and so-called non-citizens. the latter were denied voting rights they could not be elected to bodies of states or thorazine or work in government departments. this applied to

not only those who settled down in the country after nine hundred forty but their descendants take. in your truth is i don't want to be a second class person i want to be a citizen of the country where live in the completely. any known citizen is free to try to naturalize for van't they need to pass exams on the country's history and show the command of the state language and the national anthem if after submitting all the necessary papers applicants then need to wait for about a year before they get a cherished citizens passport. many people fail to go through the procedure that the milliner meant for one was not even allowed to see those exams. for the past five years and i spent three of them outside lot of the rebels why they didn't accept my papers but that excuse was absolutely unlawful. my fight for citizenship rights were never again there even stage

a sit in in this building i spent the day here and refused to leave it after office hours and then the police force me out of. there was a time when victor durgan off a nice to taste and valdez samplers a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now zach loses latvia's president doesn't come off as a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. rules was a possibility i can't bear to see the revival naziism in libya i can see it with the naked eye and the result it would have sets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes to the revival not as a group of the second word was. on march sixteenth nineteen forty three during the second world war the latvian legion was formed. thousands of volunteers in the country signed up to fight for the nazis. off independence

every year on this date legion veterans have been officially committees to hold a parade in central region. in two thousand and five big to turn off and several other handy fascist clans and prison rights to join the weight of marching legion mans. the police dispersed all the anti fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. process but. we believe in a free country fascists and their followers have no right to bring flowers to a symbol of the state if the state doesn't see itself as a nationalist while all still our actions were in line with the united nations resolution calling for resistance to all forces that promote the waffen s.s.

your offer with. some fourteen thousand veterans living in latvia today for what's in the soviet army during. want to. give kenny she convinced there was a paratrooper event. as he walks to the monument commemorating the soviet soldiers who lost their lives in the war to make sure that nobody sees his medals. a law passed back in one nine hundred ninety one pounds the public display of soviet symbols. but. the attitude to us is just a bone about. there was even a case where a uniformed veteran riding on a bus on victory day had to leave because the driver stopped the bus and said he wouldn't budge unless the man says that going to. the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred

ninety eight it was later restored the actor had been masterminded by egos. he was sentenced to a brief term in prison. now he is again free to walk about central riga together with his son and opening discuss the fate of the monument. it's a myth to some people this is a monument to me it's a disgrace to the latvian nation that was the apology is nothing that should be simply pulled down symbolized that we are no longer occupied. in the year when the good fish can blow up the monument another event occurred that course the world's attention. former soviet parses and a silly cordon of country brought before a latvian court to face criminal charges face actions and world war two ended it over the years this is the order of lenin only gave it to me for blowing it up

sixteen german trains when i was a partisan issue krishna tradition. in modern latvia the ex parties and was declared an enemy and spent almost two years behind bars. for taking part in the killing of local volunteers that were helping the germans. kononov was acting on a decision taken by parties and tribunals in one nine hundred forty three. when radical nationalists came to power after the regime change their lackeys started a massive campaign against entire fascists who had fought in the entire hitler coalition they were all to review the old can of the war edition in order to whitewash naziism and fascism as usual for she is a. ivers garda is lead a political organization called the national front of latvia the front publishes a newspaper founded by him. edge weekends and during public holidays volunteers

hand out free copies to anyone willing to read the paper. its name contains three deeds they stand for de occupation the colonised station and the russification. for a long time talk to god a towards ethics at the academy of culture some of his former students a regular contributors to the newspaper. now under their chief editors guidance they spend no effort in a bid to oppose what they call russian dominance in latvia. ethnic lothians make up fifty percent of the population of their own country and the other fifty percent are occupiers backs by russian. police you with words it's necessary to create uncomfortable conditions for them but we need a situation where latvian society rejects occupiers moreover we need a law on the coal isolation must say to each of them we give you

a deadline to get out of here so it's. cameron north a british filmmaker decided to make a personal investigation into. into ethnic relations between russians and latvians . he shot a documentary called latvia in hitler's footsteps way draws uncomfortable parallels between present day latvia and nazi germany. during circle. of the border the most. of it was a diversion but there must be rather a. board and i. think that it would like to say this nationalistic that the language is of the same. things about rights and that if you're not

a citizen and can't get some of the six of the jobs and the combination of things where you are discriminated against because your employer. your reality saves mother is latvian but his father is russian he has a perfect command of both languages he received an excellent education both as an engineer and as a journalist his son is a school people. papa tell me what percent means. is often at the loss when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in that fi and. the internet translator says it means headline well yes that's a possibility. a country schools were formed in the middle of the past decade. russian textbooks were hastily replaced with latvian ones. now more than half of the subjects in russian language schools are supposed to be taught in latvian. the

oath to whatever russians aitches with the ball commander the levy languish scored teach such difficult subjects mathematics physics and chemistry work to russian schoolchildren it brings misery waterbirds teachers and students with it in it and within it and you. in the course of education reform nearly all the old textbooks were revised and many russian language schools closed down numerous protests x. had no effect the decisions of latvia's education ministry were fine. so far inspectors haven't shown up in many russian schools and all subjects are still taught in russian. math fin language textbooks approved by the education ministry can be seen in full view but they are only for show. new shook off is the first russian mayor of riga since independence twenty years

ago he too had to close schools down including schools for russian speaking students but it didn't lead to any actions of protest in that instance schools were shot solely for economic or rather demographic reasons half of the classrooms in one third of all schools had no people's. morgan freeman in what was so many of the decisions taken by the previous mayor were largely politically motivated that was the basis for decisions about whether schools should be closed down walls and when we merge schools we make a great deal of effort to accommodate all the children in the new building since we also do all we can to retain jobs for the teachers or as most but in the old days they just closed schools down and that was that there was a preview from. the fact that the russian was elected mayor of the latvian capital in the summer of two thousand and nine surprised many politicians analysts put it

down to the economic crisis. those who had felt it. severe impact we're not taking as much notes of the nationality of a politician as they used to. mr wu if in the early one nine hundred ninety s. they have not made the mistake of dividing the people into citizens of our known citizens that would be because of politicians would have been compelled to talk about the economy social issues and structural reforms or instead of harping on the theme of latvians and russians every two or four years we were much and we would have been able to deal with pressing issues much earlier and much more efficiently or poor still have to contend with economic issues corruption and many other things . despite its small size there was schools of major industrial plants in soviet latvia. three of them which employ between ten and fifteen thousand workers h. specialized in electronics. another one made minivans which were used as ambulances

throughout the soviet union. today their production line stand idle. factory workers an engineer is going to small business. plants vs highly skilled professionals have left the country in search of a job. hungry for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get the human voice face to face with the news makers on r t. if you. gave. in.

under the soviets this factory provided jobs for twelve thousand workers it made radio sets radio cassette players and tape recorders to cater to the needs of people across the soviet union. by the late one nine hundred eighty s. several plans making radio and electronic equipment had been set up in latvia they were the soviet union's most advanced enterprises what we know of the korbel in soviet times i worked in a similar oratory for about fifteen years but of course i only saw the break up of the servian any and there were close to eight hundred employees in the design bureau where i myself was employed but you have no you can see what's left of its

former splendor the only one design a word in here though. when lanphier achieved independence the republic's government began closing down its industrial giants the new regime expected modern compact and mobile enterprises to replace the old sluggish and largely outdated soviet factories but they were never built in adequate numbers. you know with during the first five years of independence many enterprises which turned into scrap metal over the levee has sold it off cheap in lives of the money real estate and land were also soldiering this time which was the summit biggest source of funds during another five year period the report let's hear a lot on lines just before the country join the european union an avalanche of capital and low interest credit came. when they were not meant to develop production instead they were channelled into land and real estate as a result would wind up in the situation.

similar process is were going on in agriculture under the soviet government latvian collective farm supplied the republic with basic foodstuffs today half are imported. from spain it's a matters that from the netherlands again these are from spain with the canvas from the netherlands. you'd be hard put to find domestically produced vegetables here true the danger is in pineapples don't grow. were already being grown intellectually when the netherlands did not yet exist. after the declaration of independence the lapin government downsized agriculture and betting on individual farms the land belonging to collective farms was given back to former owners all their descendants under restitution plan. but most of them simply didn't

bother to get into the difficult business of farming and instead prefer to sell off a newly acquired land mortgage it. was just listing illegal have been abandoned in the farm stands like the little bridge he abandoned about sixty percent of that was young people in the team to go back to the countryside here some get an education others find a job and school grant to make commitments of things that whether it's. the village of qana billy is in that area one of the country's poorest regions local peasants used to regard themselves almost as urban dwellers they lived in flats with almost no minutes he's now one in every two flats is vacant. the local oil house plants doesn't work the few people who still live here have to heat their homes with by which. sometimes i fetch firewood once

a day sometimes i do it twice a day and then i don't do it for three or four days my grandchildren here me a helping hand when they were little i would bring firewood by cart. and fisa has five children none of them live in latvia now they're trying to make money in western europe. and faeces spencer pension to feed her grandchildren she likes talking about her big family which is now scattered around the world that i want to do with it this is my daughter a good meal that's. in the high yield. and here is a good llama and you got to be in the ideas that is my granddaughter play one thirty on the went to london to work there she left these little things in my care this boy was one year old and that one was in the third grade. their dad for god

knows where so i raise them on my own. people have no jobs towns and villages are becoming deserted pig sties and counted so collapsing on the fields overgrown with weeds. this is how the morning began in victoria more than a month until two thousand and eight. flats in a nineteenth century building in the old parts of riga was once considered prestigious poor young people years spent on the move they paid back of course. after latvia declared independence old houses were given back to their former owners under restitution plan. they were quick to realize that managing an apartment house was difficult. selling a building itself was easy but dealing with tenants was the main hurdle. the

standard solution was that the new owners simply made sure that the building forced into a state of total disrepair and then its tenants were evicted under court fruiting. today three years later there isn't any electricity in the house where victoria used to live she gave up and rented a small flaten a new building a school and i have to visit my old apartment regularly to see if everything isn't because the landlord has a habit of breach really and replacing the locks on the door. i also take some of my new needs with me. the tenants of the house have seen the landlord's only one since they filed a lawsuit against him in two thousand and six so far their attempts to win their case have been unsuccessful and the landlord lives in germany if he came to latvia for the first time to receive a properties are difficult. thanks. the land in central riga is

the most expensive in the country. this huge trading center is the private property of a norwegian building company. it buys the most profitable pieces of land in latvia and builds hotels and supermarkets there. for us now is the best time to invest has been very profitable. for but they also have what they call the gray economy so that this is not the relief over an openness that this that. often men feel and join the european union in two thousand and four the economy started to warn of a new threat. they maintained that they were public might lose its economic sovereignty. about seventy percent of its farmland belongs to foreign investors the country's fiscal system depends on foreign banks. so when you put a huge skid a scandinavian capital controls some seventy or eighty percent of the country's

banking capital is going to not this means it controls just as much of its financial system with that i will explain regrettably the nation has lost its ability to work in manufacture things a lot of it when that failed was on the point of leaving the soviet union it was one of its most advanced territories with zero debt slewing gold today the picture is the oldest son the brother got a king. in january two thousand and nine mass protests way the latvian capital. the world economic crises had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the government grant could stabilize the situation. rosa pensions look cuts as well as salaries and social donations.

he has proved to the crisis is the result of the country's split into twenty years ago people used to think that's why off as a nation plays no part in the country's a lot of political or otherwise this is one cause of the deep crisis we're going through because with the kooky. according to europe against the to six lanphier is the poorest country in the european union today. as local nationalists look to blame russian speaking nonresidents people are leaving the country in large numbers in search of a better life. last year's population has shrunk one move than fifteen percent since independence according to latvia's foreign policy institute e.c.s. some twelve thousand people leave the country for good. the u.k. is their most popular destination. the british

filmmaker cameron north described the problem in his documentary. working with a lot of friends coming to the u.k. . firstly one of the things is that economy not. a lot for that is much harder but good living partly because of nationalism i am mad about nash's i'm of the good in economy now the reason is that they get. social rights in the u.k. . it's now been twenty years since latvia jeev sovereignty. but still independence day it's the most celebrated holiday and the freedom monument its main national icon alien genachowski of the country's population.