more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images they are seeing on the streets of canada. corp. international news twenty four hours a day live from our studios here in central moscow this is our top stories now this hour as colonel gadhafi struggles for a diplomatic solution the fight to control libya's oil rich coastline rages on the u.s. is stepping back from its leading role in the allied coalition but something mideast experts accuse washington of trying to dominate the arab world. british weapons could have been used to massacre rebels in libya as a new report slams the u.k. for approving all those deals to the arab world the parliamentary investigation

shows the u.k. sold libya almost one hundred million dollars worth of weapons since the start of two thousand and nine. and. to the international space station just days before the fiftieth anniversary of man's first journey to the stars their spacecraft named yuri gagarin took off from baikonur cosmodrome just as the pioneer himself did back in one thousand six hundred. but that brings up to date for the moment that with morphine less than half an hour from now in the meantime a former member of the soviet union latvia became independent twenty years ago and in our special report we take a look at how the country has changed since gaining independence that's next here on r.t. . eighteen last used independence day it's pomp and fanfare that's of any other public holiday

in the country on this day there are public's top leaders gathered to lay flowers in the freedom monument in latvia scarcer riga. informal events like 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 and eyes by the radical nationalist posse known as call for much fear. 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.

letting their lindemann is a columnist for several latvian newspapers he also investigate cases of public interest and publishes reports on them but even though vladimir holds alexian passports he is technically not a fully fledged citizen of his own country. snarkiest the passport cover bears a unique inscription as compared to what is written in latvian it says your passport of a non-citizen those are reserved not anymore grows more on the main pier in the english translation it reads aliens pass our sins all supposed sometimes we are called just that it's like we are from another planet 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 of soap and such. mountfield became an independent state in one thousand nine hundred one officer seeding 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 state authours or work in government departments. they supplied to not only those who settle down in the country after nine hundred forty but their descendants take. the truth is i don't want to be a second class person i want to be a citizen of the country where i live in this very. any known citizen is free to try to naturalize for that 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 over necessary papers applicants then need to wait for about a year before they get a cherished citizens passport. you said many people fail to go through the procedure that the me lindemann 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 us why they didn't accept my papers but that excuse was absolutely unlawful was. my fight for citizenship rights and never again even stage a sit in in this building i spent the day here and refused to leave after office hours when the police force me out of. there was a time when victims are going off and it's the taste and foul the samplers a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now zach loses latvia's president during an off is a member of latvia's and she fascist committee. was a possibility i can't bear to see the revival naziism in libya i can see it with the naked eye the result of what upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic

europe closes its eyes of the revival naziism group of the crew it was. on march sixteenth one thousand nine hundred 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 to independence every year on the state legion veterans have been officially committed to hold a parade in central region. in two thousand and five big to jurgen off and several other anti fascist clans in prison right still in the way of marching legionnaires. the police dispersed all the anti fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. precious the. 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 one. floor actions were in line with the united nations resolution calling for resistance to all forces that promote the waffen s.s. . officer with. some fourteen thousand veterans living in latvia today forty in the soviet army during. to. give guinea she convinced there was a paratrooper event. as he walked to the monument commemorating the soviet soldiers who lost their lives in the war he make sure the nobody sees his medals. a law passed back in one nine hundred ninety one pounds the public display of soviet symbols. of. the attitude to us is just a bone about your battles 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 i go to. the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred eighty he was later restored to. react and he masterminded by egos. he was sentenced to a brief term in prison. now he's again free to walk about central riga together with his son and openly 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. the polish nothing of it should be simply pulled down to symbolize that we are no longer occupied. in the year when we go to shishkin blew up the monument another event occurred that course

the world's attention. former soviet parses and vasily kononov had been brought before a latvian court to face criminal charges face actions and world war two ended it a little this is the order of lenin or they gave it to me for blowing up sixteen german trains when i was a partisan issue krishna traditional. in most in 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 they were helping the germans. kononov was acting on of the situation 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 intel fascists who had fought in the entire hitler coalition they were all to review the outcome of the war edition in order to

whitewash naziism and fascism. for she's a. i visit garda is needed of a political organization called the national front of latvia the front publishes a newspaper founded by him. that's 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 the day your kid patients the call in isolation and the russification. for a long time dr goddard taught ethics at the academy of culture some of his former students are regular contributors to the newspaper. now under their chief editor's guidance they spend no effort in a bid to oppose what they call russian dominance in latvia he is proud ethnic lothians make up fifty percent of the calculation of their own country to the other

fifty percent occupies backed by russian. police here with lower it's necessary to create a fun countable conditions for them to we need a situation where latvian society rejects occupiers moreover we need a law on the whole decision clinical we 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 that finns. he shot a documentary called latvia and hitler's footsteps way draws uncomfortable parallels between present day lanphier and nazi germany. during the second world war and of the circle. they must go. of it was a diversion but there must be rather

a. bottom on board and i. think that it would like to say it's nationalistic and that the languages of the things they were thinking that they had. the things about in some rights and not sure if you're not a citizen and some thirty six of the drops in the coalition of things where you are discriminated against because your employer. your reality same's 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 the sentence means. is often at the last when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in latvia. 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. and now more than half of the subjects in russian language schools are supposed to be taught in latvian. the oath grew whenever a russian teaches with a poor command of the levy language teach such difficult subjects mathematics physics and chemistry were to russian schoolchildren it brings misery for both teachers and students with even from within or to new people. in the course of education reform nearly all old textbooks were revised and many russian language schools closed down numerous protests acts have no effect the decisions of life is education ministry will find. so far inspectors haven't shown up in many russian

schools and all subjects are still taught in russian. mafia language takes posts approved by the education ministry can be seen in full view but they are only for show. militia cough 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 all round the demographic reasons half of the classrooms in one third of all schools had no pupils. morgan freeman. 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 was because when we merge schools we make a great deal of effort to accommodate all the children in the new building city we

also do all we can to retain jobs for the teachers it was most but in the old days they just closed tools down and that was that. removes. the fact that the russian was elected mayor of the latvian capital in the summer of two thousand and nine surprise many politicians analysts put it down to the economic crisis. those who had felt it. severe impact we're not taking as much notice of the nationality of a politician as they used to. use the moon if in the early one nine hundred ninety s. they had not made the mistake of dividing the people into citizens of unknown citizens of which it was the politicians would have been compelled to talk about the economy social issues and structural reforms instead of harping on the theme of latvians and russians every two or four years were much we would have been able to deal with pressing issues much earlier and much more efficiently or course still have to contend with economic issues corruption and many other things.

despite its small size there were scores of major industrial plants in soviet latvia. three of them which employ between ten and fifteen thousand workers each specialized in l.a. tronics. 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. .

russia would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from finest impressions . who finds totty dot com. 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 an electronic equipment had been set up in latvia they were the soviet union's most advanced enterprises. you know of the in soviet times

i worked in a similar tree for about fifteen years before the break up of the soviet union there were close to eight hundred employees in the design bureau where i myself was employed we have no you can see what's left of its former splendor the only one designer working here though. when lanphier achieved independence the republic's government began closing down its industrial giants the new regime expected more than compact and mobile enterprises to replace the old sluggish and largely outdated soviet factories but they were never built in adequate numbers. during the first five years of independence many enterprises were turned into script measure over the levee is sold off cheap in lived off the money real estate and land were also soldiering this time which was the summer biggest source of funds during another five year period we will probably have here

a lot of lines just before the country join the european union an avalanche of capital and low interest credit came in here when they were not meant to develop production instead they were channeled into land in real estate as a result wind up in this situation. similar process is would going on in agriculture under the soviets government latvian collective farm supplied the republic with basic food stuffs today half are imported. below the genes of france spain is a mothers of from the netherlands the keys are from spain with the cucumbers from the netherlands to. be hard put to find to mystically produced vegetables here troop danger in pineapples don't grow the police were already being grown in latvia when the netherlands did not yet exist. after the declaration of

independence the latvian government downsized culture and dated on individual farms 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 preferred to sell off a newly acquired land or mortgage it. just posting your needle have been abandoned in the farms tense work that had already abandoned about sixty percent of them as young people are not keen to go back to the countryside here some get an education others find a job and school grant to make commitments and things that are it's. the village of qana believe is in that. one of the country's poorest regions local peasants used to regard themselves almost as urban dwellers they lived in flats with all

modern amenities and now one in every two flats is vacant. the local boiler house plants doesn't work a few people who still live here have to heat their homes with firewood. sometimes i search firewood once a day pass the exam time i do it twice a day and then i don't do it for three or four days my grandchildren give me a helping hand when they were little i would bring firewood by cart. and he has five children none of them live in latvia now they are trying to make money in western europe. and faeces spends her pension to feed her grandchildren she likes talking about her big family which is now scattered around the world that i've worked with this is my daughter give me that's. in the high yield. and here is it lama and company in the ideas that is my granddaughter. and i 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 said god knows where so i raise them on my own. people have no jobs towns and villages are becoming deserted pig sties and count sheds are collapsing and the fields overgrown with weeds. this is how the morning began 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 but where young people are spent on the move they paid back of course. after latvia declared independence old houses were given back to their former

owners and their restitution plan. they were quick to realise 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 fall into a state of total disrepair and then its tenants were evicted under a court ruling. 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 always at sea because the landlord has a habit of breaching and replacing the locks on the doors i also take some of my doom goods with me. but the tenants of the house have seen the landlords only once 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 he came to latvia for the first time to receive a property certificate. 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 lanphier and builds hotels and supermarkets there. for us now is the best time to invest those very profitable. poor but they also have what they call the gray economy so that it's not really showing up on this that this that. after a lengthy enjoying the european union in two thousand and four the economist 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 a country's fiscal system depends on foreign banks. so when you put i pitched here today scandinavian capital controls some seventy or eighty percent of the country's banking capital this means it controls just as much of its financial system regrettably the nation has lost its ability to work in manufacture things like it was a lot of it when that field was on the point of leaving the soviet union it was one of its most advanced territories with zero debts was going to win gold today the picture is the oldest city of sanaa but i've not got a king. in january two thousand and nine mass protests sway the latvian capital. the world economic crises had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the

government when it could stabilize the situation. rosa pensions look cuts as well as salaries and social donations. he says would you do this crisis is the result of the country's split into twenty years ago people used to leave that's why after the nation plays no part in the country's lot of political or otherwise this is one cause of the deep crisis we're going through with the working. according to your against it it takes landfill that 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. clashes population has shrunk from more than fifteen percent since independence according to latvia is foreign policy institute each year 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. but in the philippines comes the. first the one of these is the economy not. a life that is much harder with good living partly because of nationalism in matter but national some of them growing economy now the reason is that they get very good sir for rides in the u.k. . it's now been twenty years since latvia jeev sovereignty. but still independence day its most celebrated holiday and the freedom monument its main

national icon alien to haunt of the country's population.