twenty years ago in our just country in. this situation. what did the truth. which began the journey. where did it take good. care of our cheese and why from moscow to have violence the greek government has passed a stringent set of new austerity measures as riot police rattle protesters just meters away from parliament the cuts are really represent rather i should say for more valid cash from the e.u. fight off a looming to fall of. the weak economic turmoil is the first challenge facing the new international monetary fund chief christine lagarde the first woman to head the organization so has the talk task of fighting off the perception that the i am

mouth is biased in favor of restaurant countries. but syria's on grass threatens to spread across the mid east israel's increasing security at its borders with lebanon after reports hizbollah is moving weapons there in case its ally president also is overthrown. next the latest in our series of reports on life in former soviet republics trying to years after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. . april ninth one thousand nine hundred ninety one george or achieved independence from the u.s.s.r. the most before a violent standoff with a rapidly disintegrating the soviet empire. we did get independence but it resulted in much blood in the structure. of the civil war broke out in georgia home as to suzy insolvency to this day the nation has been unable to overcome its aftermath the country's infrastructure is in ruins tens of thousands of people have fled the

country in the fall of the soviet union today was one of the wealthiest republics today one third of the population lives below the poverty line twenty years have passed the people here enjoy less freedom and i did during the soviet period. back in one nine hundred eighty eight kids really was just a student he joined a mass fungus strike outside government headquarters at that time the country was still cooled the georgian soviet socialist republic. that hunger strike which lasted eight or nine days triggered a movement of liberation i often sat on the steps of my friends. the number of protests is good day by day so somebody then

a young historian plenty support today cools. that independence was my watchword at that time i didn't miss a single public action all right. in april listening to thousands of people gathered in tbilisi for an open ended rally outside government headquarters they wanted independence for the republic of georgia. the gamsakhurdia leader of a nationalist movement with the speaker who made the most extremist remarks in an intensely dramatic speech. in the early hours of april ninth the soviet government dispatched vehicles and soldiers against peaceful demonstrators sixteen people died and hundreds were injured. a mathematician and would be magnet of georgia was lucky enough to evade even injury. we were in too much of a hurry we were trying to study history to help move it forward what happened then

had to happen but of course the thought the georgian might become independent is ninety ninety one never crossed my mind back in the late ninety nine cents. the against or for the became the first president of a sovereign georgia in april one thousand nine hundred one after an election campaign where independence was the catchphrase. soon as he came to power he didn't expect that under that independence motto georgian autonomous regions of the south associated with them own sovereignty into ethnic conflicts began. georgia responded by sending troops to south the says here. than a year later to up because. people were once neighbors became bitter enemies thousands of refugees fled to georgia. as far as i know years ago this building was meant to be a hospital. but there is no hospital in it now this is

a building is used as a shelter for refugees. thousands of the georgians who have left up since the early one nine hundred ninety s. still live in makeshift shelters they have lost everything homes jobs and even the hope to return to their home country georgians and abkhazians alike have gone through a lot of suffering such as the horrors of war and loss of loved ones and yet they don't blame one another for that conflict. i leave it at his inability sions have toned people apart there was no enmity between individuals my neighbor said to me what am i supposed to do one of my sons in law is in a pansy and that means my grandsons are peasants aren't they need another daughter is married to a georgian so her children are georgians doing it to tear my grandsons apart what am i supposed to do in this situation. it's a fighting between georgia standing army and after causing insurgents cost

thousands of lives on both sides. to more is not cause young woman four of her five sons died in the war the youngest was seventeen when he volunteered to fight his grave is close to his father's. governable move there i would dearly like to have the world war confined to the history books. i want a new body to ever arteries again i wanted to be forgotten all together. tomorrow and the husband wanted the new house to have enough room for all the children and their future families but now it's almost all inhabited one of the rooms houses a memorial museum today a family it features their son's medals they received and the letters they sent from the front line to more especially treasures objects made by her children i

want in this is the root of a pine tree they made a heart out of it will give. during my second son enjoyed making such things here she died in the battle on the same day as my youngest son. many georgian opposition parties and even his viet gamsakhurdia former associates demonstrated their discontent with the rule georgian intellectuals sent numerous letters to the president asking him to come to his senses. sponsored by opposing censorship. the ninety ninety one law even denied registration for all political parties it was indorsed by people who had served terms in soviet prisons and campaigned for georgia's freedom and independence. most people did what they themselves had been opposed to. they

trained to become a mathematician in the early one nine hundred ninety s. he left university and went into business his elder brother you'll be chose the career of an actor today he's very popular in georgia. his soles in short films have an uncanny bearing on the country's present day situation. i have no desire to get involved in the war in a cause or i'm such a war we're brothers we're killing brothers so i decided to stay away from georgia for a time because there were. those who were displeased with the first president gathered

to openly demand his resignation the nine hundred ninety two standoff between protesters and the regime erupt into street fighting involving all tillery and tanks and cancer could here had to flee the country. six and one ship it knows it was george the second president the experience political heavyweights and back michelle goldberg perestroika soon after he took office he lifted the ban on the opposition political parties and allowed independent media when i did it after i went into business in one nine hundred ninety three i launched a project called restore me to over ten years i turned the small studio in the provincial town of the star me into a leading national broadcaster. the first study to t.v. channel rushed out at the country's new leaders including president eduard shevardnadze and was focused on runaway corruption. corruption in the economic

sphere was enormous off the seven knots that came to power but on the other hand business man learns new skills in tune with modern times and a real market economy took shape true there was pervasive corruption from top to bottom where there was also freedom of speech and individual liberty that sort of quagmire that we have now didn't exist then. independent t.v. channel or a stuffy to became a so-called platform for the opposition and had great political weight had president shevardnadze who declared freedom of speech as a principle made no attempt to sway the channels editorial policy. the worst of the two t.v. channel and other georgian media pave the way for radical political transformation in november two thousand and three saw a bloodless coup in georgia dubbed the rose revolution. the second is really a young and ambitious person came to power. when i tended my resignation

of my own free will to prevent bloodshed when they burst into the house of parliament i went out into the street to meet my followers then you were coming from me is the law for the army you know down the army was of defeated and then the after a bloodbath i make no distinction between the two sides all of them and georgian citizens. really have promised to beat corruption and lead the nation to prosperity however it was the press that was the first victim of his law and order. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images and seeing

from the streets of canada. giant corporations are the day. wealthy british style. market finance scandals find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's culture raw no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report on r.t. . as soon as second really took power he attempted to take control of the editorial policy of the country's leading independent t.v.

channel or stuck to its own skits mellish really realized that his window of opportunity was quite narrow. dorsey's ambition to take control of the channel goes back to two thousand and four for the new system of government simply weak we thought we needed to build a viable state first and then take care of the rest of europe because of as it turned out the regime's aim was to take control of the channels i think the blame for what i did because i gave away your study to you know i didn't want to rock the boat. as about the same time george's media was going out of its way to reporter mikhail saakashvili as police reforms and face value the changes look quite impressive petty crime is being stamped out people now felt more secure on the streets of the towns off the. traffic patrols that stopped taking freud's. goes. through the country's traffic police are totally free from corruption but you

can get your license within a day after pain right through official channels instead of flying in somebody's stockett's i would. for many years nino burjanadze was speaker of the country's parliament and one of mikail. closest associates in two thousand and eight she resigned from the post of parliamentary speaker and founded an opposition party. in the us there is a very serious problem i think it's corruption in the elite it has grown even larger compared to what it was like in the last years of shevardnadze through when everybody was talking about corruption in georgia's government. there. was always an opposition moderates to saakashvili as the owner of a major medical insurance company he knows all too well the meaning of so called elite corruption. assume the circus really in his inner circle came to how they set

about collecting taxes and so-called dirty money which was that they sent very many people to prison and were businessmen as well as former officials among them l o people realize they had better pay as much as they were expected to pay as all the property they ceded their shares in businesses to members of such as police posse the prosecutor's office and the interior ministry kept a close eye on the deals this man. pent up discontent on erupted into a mass rally in november two thousand and seven according to various estimates fifty to one hundred thousand opposition supporters came to the house a problem and in tbilisi. for several days they kept around the clock vigil on nov seventh police barlinnie dispersed the peaceful rally hundreds of demonstrators were injured please take us. police beat up people lying on the ground with

batons. the only remaining independent t.v. channel showed these events in tbilisi to a nationwide audience it was later shot down while it was on the air with a regular news bulletin. the moving of the making of seems by closing the channel the government is violating the constitution this means that this is a dictatorship regime and standards and schroeder clearly are coming into the studio i want to say thank you i hear shots in the control room as you know which i hope our employees will be enjoyed here are our guests. the independent journalist of of tom calma he'd say became popular in georgia in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. he enjoys also being unpleasant questions no matter who is in power he says now in hiding in switzerland his latest piece of investigative journalism concerns the armed conflict between georgia and south a city in two thousand and eight. when up on the phone when i lived no

journalists who would not have wanted to get a scandal to get the facts. let's all the state media summed up my work there is high treason a couple the self-proclaimed republic of south or setia hasn't been under georgia's direct rule since nine hundred ninety two we really repeated many times the republic had to return to georgia and he promised to settle the situation through diplomacy. we don't need a war l. there has been an ascension people don't need one either there is a force that wants the defeat of the georgian and has an assyrian people i promise they won't let it happen. but in the early hours of august the eighth altering repeatably showed symbolic from georgian territory in the morning troops were sent into the republic. it was the start of

the military operation described by saakashvili of the introduction of constitutional order in the territory south of setia. i was woken up by a lot noise everything was for. shaking women outside with screamin and crying it was as if all of us had landed in hell after a volcanic eruption and everybody stayed awake throughout the night the noise never died down but even for a second. color man. lives in an old house on the outskirts of the village of got a cooler fifteen kilometers from the border with south of setia he's not interested in politics and doesn't know the first fing about international relations but artists from around the world flocked to his home to display their works one of the art projects was called liquid art it was to have been implemented jointly with

russian artists in late september two thousand and eight. the georgian word for this place is maharani year it isn't places like this that georgians traditionally make wine in artists of different nationalities are going to contribute to georgian traditions they will get in the press grapes with their feet just as it was done in the old days a year later we were going to jointly made products a wine brand called liquid art. in the spring of two thousand and eight karen man began building a pavilion for the exhibition he was still constructing it in august when another war broke out between south setia and georgia. or did i went on building the pavilion during the war fighting was going on right behind the mountain fifteen kilometers from here i sort of flashes and heard the bombings i also saw helicopters up in the air.

hostilities came to an end knowing days later when russia sent troops into south a city or to separate the warring parties georgia subsequently broke off diplomatic relations with russia. when both turned come a he was working on a film about the georgian city and conflict he made arrangements for an interview with european human rights campaigners to be held in geneva shortly before he was due to go the journalist received a tip off that he had better stay in switzerland. all sorts of problems cropped out after my return from senegal because i won't talk about them because my words may get in the way of the investigation and. i can only tell you that i received open

threats and heard something so humiliating that a contribution or. a he'd say lives in a swiss forestall for political refugees friends keep them abreast of events by. i hear you going to switzerland or the good time with you that's right you know it's over by that time you must complete all formalities concerning immigration chances are i myself will return home by then that there is a regime change. did you say regime change yes why not that's a possibility. we hope so. vegetating and so somebody have been friends ever since they went to school together when parliament appointed ceasar to the post of mn he gave his friend a job in his office when his first term of office came to an end the noid him a second term and now the journalist is in hiding in

a foreign country the ex is unemployed it's going to be a while if i praise the authorities i would have been elected per second term they would even have changed the law to let me for ten terms. in the last presidential election. was officially the runner up his party's headquarters supplied the zero s c e commission with evidence documenting scores and irregularities some of them made public in the commission's conclusions but the final report ultimately described the election as valid. view he gets such a let's say as a famous georgian musician in protest against the second regime he decided to barricaded himself in a television studio made up to look like a prison cell for several months he stayed in the room with four t.v.

cameras tracking his every move. today children means prison all of georgia is a prison but the georgian people made a mistake by electing what i call an illegitimate person. politician sportsman and artists all visited his cell to support the musician gets at a lot say heads the leading opposition party he visited his brother three times during his self-imposed imprisonment. how are you so so what are you i get loads of letters to parcels are full of them already the guys are nuts they've made a saint out of me. you'll use one man prison show again of the eleven pm and last until morning the following day the whole country would discuss what had been said during the night after two months of self confinement the only

good church i love they took time out for a public appearance at the b.b.c. stadium levy a cage in the midst of the show was a strikingly symbolic act the people that filled the stadium and jason robards turned gil garcetti lets a show into what amounted to a protest rally. in maple month two thousand and nine leaders of all opposition parties those their followers to take to the streets in tbilisi. just felt get out second street get out saakashvili get down gets out and if you know it all decision has never said saakashvili is our president we call him a tafe rather than just your president. today the former participants in the rallies for georgia's independence have united into a party. that our aim is to create a party that is without power of

a georgian history it should be a party based on genuine national values shared by most people in our country. the leader of the new party is live. a former magnets in the wind industry he has the support of eros he could smell it's really the architect of the country's leading television company and george's last ambassador to russia the party's third leader is a historian who has won the nation's affection as an honest man. for the soldiers rulers in recent years have been so different the one would be hard put to say which of them is fully to blame for the present day situation there are no independent courts of law democratic institutions are not allowed to develop and the country's people are intimidated in the autumn of two thousand and eight a group of friends met in old warehouses turned into studios in moscow they were autists who were keen to participate in an international project that was to take place in the home of kerman contests. of will this is

a remarkably exquisite european style project and i think we need to make slight changes to emphasize a note of sorrow in it merrymaking is out of place after what happened you don't do that at a funeral the funeral still goes on. the russian artists didn't visit the georgian friends in either two thousand and eight or later they have decided against going to georgia for the train be for they do know that all in politics they believe that in their beautiful country of long traditions funerals will give way to weddings and the street protests else did by projects concerts and theater festivals.

i was just thinking about my future before the foreign companies came i dreamed of owning a can cutting factory. but we have less garbage now. some business to come here and make fun of me. picking up garbage boy i'm not bad like people think. i'm a good person. it's just the people don't see me. but i feel it was time people like me. that i feel people will start to appreciate us.

in moscow all she's available in hotels coolest and funding zero zero zero zero zero toto keep a promise it is congress motown east west nova told moscow center.