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five thirty am in moscow these are your r.t. headlines athens votes for drastic spending cuts and a tax hike to secure another ebell out despite days of clashes between police and protesters outside the greek parliament a forty eight hour general strike is underway with demonstrators remaining on the streets of the capital tonight dozens reportedly injured many others detained as police fight to keep the activists from reaching parliament. as pressure mounts on syrian president assad we investigate intelligence reports that missiles are being moved from the country under control of the lebanese militant group hezbollah syria has a large network of allies and supporters analysts say the collapse of the syrian government could have had a straw fake implications for the region. more than a thousand people have been injured in clashes with police in egypt's capital cairo

demonstrators are demanding prosecution of the security forces accused of brutality during the mass uprising that led to the ousting of president mubarak in february there's also anger at the slow pace of reforms following the revolution. up next our latest in their series of reports on life in a former soviet republics twenty years on after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. stay with us here on r.t. . cheat independence from the u.s.s.r. . standoff with the rapidly disintegrating soviet empire. dependents but it resulted in much blood in the struction. listening. to susie. 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

time of the soviet union was one of the wealthiest republics today one third of the population lives below the poverty line twenty years have passed the people here. during the soviet period. back in one thousand nine hundred eighty. was just a student. strike outside government headquarters. the country was still cool the georgian soviet socialist republic. that hunger strike which lasted eight or nine days. liberation i often sat on the steps with my friends. the number of protesters good day by day. then a young historian lend his support to the coolers. its independence was my watchword

at that time i didn't miss a single public action all right. in april celss of people gathered in tbilisi for an open ended rally outside government headquarters they wanted independence for the republican georgia viet 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 was 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

nine hundred ninety one never crossed my mind back in the late one nine hundred eighty s. . the spirit of became the first president of a sovereign georgia in april nine hundred ninety one after an election campaign where independence was the catchphrase but as soon as he came to power he didn't expect that independence multo georgian autonomous regions of south ossetia would demand sovereignty into ethnic conflicts began. georgia responded by sending troops to suffer says here. people are once neighbors became bitter enemies thousands of refugees fled to georgia where. as far as i know years ago this building was meant to be a hospital. but there is no hospital and now. the building is

used as a shelter for refugees. thousands of the georgians who have left 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 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. well you know there is no village decisions have toned the people apart there was no enemy to 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. and other daughter is married to a georgian so her children are georgians do i need to tell my grandsons apart what am i supposed to do in this situation. bitter fighting between georgia standing army end up causing an insurgency caused thousands of lives on both sides.

tomorrow is not because 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. you have an opinion that i would dearly like to have the word war confined to the history books. i want nobody to ever arteries again i wanted to be forgotten altogether radio. tomorrow and the husband wanted the new house to have enough room for all their children and their future families but now it's almost uninhabited one of the rooms houses a memorial museum to the family it features the 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. my second son enjoyed making such things she died in a battle on the same day as my youngest son. len many georgian opposition parties and even spearhead gamsakhurdia as former associates demonstrated that discontent with the rule georgian intellectuals sent numerous letters to the president asking him to come to his senses. responded by imposing censorship. all of them with a nine hundred 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 well they themselves had been opposed to this. they

trained to become a mathematician in the early one nine hundred ninety s. he left university and went into business his elder brother chose the korea of an actor today he is very popular in georgia i his soul's in short films have an uncanny bearing on the country's present day situation. i had no desire to get involved in the war in a cause here in such a war where brothers were killing brothers so i decided to stay away from georgia for a time there are. those who are 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 ziad gamsakhurdia had to flee. he the country. it was george's second president the experience political heavyweight that backed me off the pedestal. soon after he took office he lifted the opposition political parties and allowed independent media. after i went into business in one thousand nine hundred ninety three i launched a project called. over ten years i turned a small studio in the provincial town of the study into a leading national broadcaster. to t.v. channel rushed 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 shevardnadze came to power but on the other hand businessmen learned new skills in tune with modern times and a real market economy took shape true there was pervasive corruption from top to bottom but there was also freedom of speech and individual liberty the sort of quagmire that we have now didn't exist then. independent t.v. channel two became a so-called platform for the opposition and had great political weight but president shevardnadze who declared freedom of speech as a principle made no attempt to sway the channel's editorial policy. to t.v. channel and other georgian media pave the way for radical political transformations november two thousand and three saw a bloodless coup in georgia the rose revolution. really a young and ambitious person came to power. as are both when i attended 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. any order coming from me is the law for the army no down the army would have defeated them but only after a bloodbath i make no distinction between the two sides in all of them and georgian citizens. really had 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.

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

as soon as really took power he attempted to take control of the editorial policy of the country's leading independent t.v. channel or stubby to its owner skits mellish really realized that his window of opportunity was quite narrow. the authorities ambition to take control of the channel it goes back to two thousand and four the new system of government seemed to be weak we thought we need to build a viable state first and then take care of the rest of us because of earth 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 restudy to i didn't want to rock the boat. as a bell the same time george's media was going out of its way to report on mikhail saakashvili as police reforms on face value the changes look quite impressive petty crime had been stamped out people know. felt more secure on the streets of the

towns of the. traffic patrols that stopped taking bribes. to just exist 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 spock it's. for many years nino burjanadze was speaker of the country's parliament and one of mikail billie's closest associates in two thousand and eight she resigned from the post of parliamentary speaker and founded an opposition party and yes there is a very serious problem 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 moderate to saakashvili as the owner of

a major medical insurance company he knows all too well the meaning of so-called elite corruption. as soon as suck us really in his inner circle came to power they set about collecting taxes and so-called dirty money which was that they sent very many people to prison they were businessmen as well as former officials among them people realize they had better pay off as much as they were expected to pay they sold the property they ceded their shares in businesses to members of saakashvili as party the prosecutor's office and the interior ministry kept a close eye on the deals this. pent up discontent funny 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 of parliament in tbilisi. for several days they kept around the top vigil on nov seventh police barlinnie dispersed the peaceful rally hundreds of demonstrators were

injured police and. police beat up people lying on the ground with battens. the only remaining independent t.v. channel showed these events in tbilisi to a nationwide audience it was late shut down while it was on the air with a regular news bulletin. d.d. made the most of the meeting with seems by closing the channel that the government is violating the constitution this means that this is a dictatorship regime ots missed the news coming into the studio i want to say thank you i hear shots in the control room you know which i hope our employees won't be injured here are our guests. the independent journalist of a coma he became popular in georgia in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. he enjoys all. pleasant questions no matter who is in power comma he says now in

hiding in switzerland his latest piece of investigative journalism concerns the old conflict between georgia and south the city in two thousand and eight. when up on this one i know of no journalist who would not have wanted to go to scandal to get the facts. but all the state media summed up my work there is high treason to the self-proclaimed republic of south as such here hasn't been under georgia's direct rule since nine hundred ninety two michel psychist really repeated many times that the republic had to return to georgia and he promised to settle the situation through diplomacy. to disarm we don't need a war and their pals in an ascension people don't need one either there is a force that wants the defeat of the georgian and up has been in a city and people are i promise they won't let it happen.

but in the early hours of august the altering repeated and showed symbolic from the georgian territory in the morning troops were sent into the republic. it was the start of a military operation described by saakashvili as the introduction of constitutional order in the turret tree south to set. it up i was woken up by a lot of noise everything was rolling and shaking we men outside was screaming and crying and 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 not even for a second. artist color man. lives in an old house on the outskirts of the village of got a cool fifteen kilometers from the border with south to say. he is not interested in politics and doesn't know the first thing about international relations but his

from around the world flocked to his home to display their works one of the projects was called liquid it was to have been implemented jointly with russian artists in late september two thousand and eight. the georgian word for this place is near it is in places like this that georgians traditionally make wine artists or different nationalities are going to contribute to georgian traditions they will get in to press grapes with their feet just as it was done in the old days a year later we will get a jointly made product a wine brand called liquid aunt. in the spring of two thousand and eight karen began building a pavilion for the exhibition he was still constructing it in august when another war broke out between south a set here in georgia. well i went on building the pavilion during the war

fighting was going on right behind the mountain fifteen kilometers from here i saw the flashes and heard the bombings i also saw helicopters up in the air. hostilities came to an end nine days later when russia sent troops into south of setia to separate the warring parties georgia subsequently broke off diplomatic relations with russia. when vest turn coming 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 up

after my return from senegal because i won't talk about them because my words may get in the way of the investigation. i can only tell you that i received open threats and heard something so humiliating that i contributed. no comma he'd say lives in a swiss hostel for political refugees friends keep him abreast of events by. i hear you going to switzerland. that's right in october by that time you must complete all formalities concerning immigration chances are i myself will return home by then there is a regime change. did you say regime change yes why not that's a possibility. well we hope so. vegetating and so is us who body have been friends ever since they went to school together when parliament appointed to the post of he gave his friend

a job in his office when his first term of office came to an end parliament annoyed him a second term now the journalist is in hiding in a foreign country the ex is unemployed it would be a while if i had praised the authorities i would have been elected. they would even have changed the law to let me for ten times. in the last presidential election live and say it was officially the runner up his party's headquarters supplied the zero s c e commission with evidence documenting scores a regularities some of them made public in the commission's conclusions but the final report ultimately described the election as valid. is a famous georgian musician in protest against the regime he decided to barricade 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. politicians sportsmen and artists all visited his cell to support the musician. 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 possibles are full of them already the guy's a nuts they've made the same town to me. is one man prison show began 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 you only get such a lot they took time out for a public appearance at the b.b.c. stadium leaving a cage in the midst of the show was a strikingly symbolic act the people who would fill the stadium and adjacent roads turned guilty get such allowed to show into what amounted to a protest rally. on april ninth two thousand and nine leaders of all opposition parties as their followers to take to the streets in tbilisi. just felt get out second street get out saakashvili get down get sounds move you know it all position has never said saakashvili is our president we call him a de facto rather than does 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 parallel and 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 wine industry he has the support of its mellish 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 woman. george's rulers in recent years have been so different the woman behind 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

artists who are keen to participate in an international project that was to take place in the home of. the bull this is a remarkably exquisite european style project but i think we need to make slight changes to emphasize a note of sorrow in it merry making 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 their georgian friends in either two thousand and eight or later they have decided against going to georgia for the time being for they do not 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 theatre festivals.

some. of. the big. things got the good feeling to start over. here this is true still keeps its secrets to denounce time to reveal the truth of the soviet files on the ati.

q. is. it.