margetts weiner scandal. why no what's really happening to the global economy is cause a report on r t. you with r.t. live from moscow will do a quick summary now of the weekly program the e.u. approves a twelve billion euro bailout package to tackle the greek debt crisis and violent demonstrations rocked the country in protest of the high cost help faced with billions of euros worth of austerity measures demonstrators clashed with police angry at the government's decision to approve these radical cuts. to public sector workers in the u.s. u.k. rather take part in a national day of strike seeing an attempt to defy the government's plans to change

their pensions state schools were closed and air traffic disrupted during the biggest industrial action in the country has seen in decades. libyans of fear for their lives as nato steps up airstrikes warning the bombs could fall any place any time they find colonel gadhafi meantime is threatening to retaliate against europe unless the alliance it stops its campaign. and the flotilla that's all it see things bans activists destined for gaza from leaving greek ports vessels carrying humanitarian aid to palestinians are accused of leaving without permission campaigners on board believe the u.s. and israel are behind the unlawful suspension of their trip. why those were some of the top headlines from the past week of news here on r.t. half an hour's time my colleague bill dodd is here but for now since georgia's independence following the collapse of the u.s.s.r. thousands of people fled the country next we talk to politicians and artists from the country to find out what's happening today you without.

a poll ninth nine hundred ninety one georgia achieved independence from the u.s.s.r. to know the for violent standoff with the referee disintegrating the soviet empire . we did get independence but it resulted in much blood and destruction. a civil war broke out in georgia he has to susie again sovereignty to this day the nation is be 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 today was one of the wealthiest republics today one third of the population lives below the poverty line twenty years have passed but people here enjoy less freedom and i did during the soviet period.

back in the one hundred eighty eight girls the kids mellish billy was just a student he joined a mass fungus strike outside government headquarters at that time the country was still cool to 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 protesters good day by day. the then a young historian lend his support to the cools. it independence was my watchword at that time i didn't miss a single public action all right. in april niceness' going celss of people gathered in tbilisi for an open ended rally outside government headquarters they wanted independence for the republican ga. the camps afoot the leader of a nationalist movement was the speaker who made the most extremist remarks in an

intensely dramatic speech. in the early hours of april ninth the soviet government dispatched armored vehicles and soldiers against peaceful demonstrators sixteen people died and hundreds were injured. a mathematician and would be magnets of georgia was lucky enough to evade even injury. we were into 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 georgia might become independent is ninety ninety one never crossed my mind back in the late night or later it's. here comes the became the first president of the sovereign georgia in april one thousand nine hundred one after an election campaign where independence was the catch phrase but it soon as he came to power he didn't expect that under the independence motto georgia or from this region south south ossetia would demand sovereignty into

ethnic conflicts began. georgia responded by sending troops to suffer says here. than a year later. 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. the building is used as a shelter for refugees. thousands of the georgians who have left since the early ninety nine she'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. 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 the situation after the. bitter fighting between georgia standing army and up because the insurgents cost 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. governable move there i would do like to have the word war confined to the history books to read i want nobody to

ever arteries again i wanted to be forgotten altogether. 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 their family it features their son's medals they received and the letters they sent from the front line to more especially treasure objects made by her children i want and this is the root of a pine tree they made a heart out of it. you. my second son enjoyed me i can sense things here she died in the battle on the same day as my youngest son looking at many georgian opposition parties and even speed 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 heard yet responded by imposing censorship. on the a ninety ninety one law even denied registration for all political parties it was indorsed by people who would serve terms in soviet prisons and campaign for georgia's freedom and independence. most people did what they themselves have been opposed to. train 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 is 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 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 erupted into street fighting involving artillery and tanks ziad cancer could had to flee. the country. they were shit knows it was george's second president the experienced political heavyweights and back to michelle goldberg tell a story. 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 thousand nine hundred ninety three i launched a project called. over ten years i turned the small studio in the provincial town of four star me into a leading national broadcaster. to t.v. channel lashed out at the country's new leaders including president eduard shevardnadze and was focused on runaway corruption. corruption in the economic sphere was enormous officer not seconds of power but on the other hand businessmen learns new skills in tune with modern times and a real market economy took shape true it was pervasive corruption from top to bottom but there was also freedom of speech and individual liberty sort of quagmire that we have now it exists. independent t.v. channel two became a so-called platform for the opposition and had great political weight and

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. channels and other georgian media paved the way for radical political transformation in november two thousand and three sort of bloodless coup in georgia the rose revolution. the second is really a young and ambitious person came to power. when i tendered 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 mean is the law for the army no doubt the army was of defeated them only off to a bloodbath i make no distinction between the two sons 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. to move. to. fix. from. the.

it's a. good. thing for your thought order. here just street still keeps its secrets but the ground time to reveal the shooting of the soviet files on ati. 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 stuck to its own skits mellish really realize that his window of opportunity was quite snare a. fish go to the authorities ambition to take control of the channel it goes back to two thousand and four where the new system of government seemed to be weak we thought we needed to build a viable state first and then take care of the rest it was because of our work 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 about the same time george's media was going out of its way to report on mikhail second smilies police reforms on face value the changes look quite impressive petty crime had been stamped out people now felt more secure on the streets of the terms of the dos traffic patrols that stopped taking freud's.

it's true. with a country's traffic police are totally free from corruption. you can get your license within a day after pain right through official channels instead of flying in someplace pockets. for many years knew no good jeanette's a speaker of the country's parliament and one of my. closest associates in two thousand and eight she resigned from the post of parliamentary speaker and founded an opposition party. in the us the reason very serious problem by its corruption in the elite it has grown even launch a compact and what it was like in the last years of shevardnadze is through when everybody was talking about corruption in georgia's government. it 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. of fruit as soon as billy and his inner circle came to power they set about collecting taxes and so-called dirty money with the rest sent very many people to prison businessmen as well as former officials among them and 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 suckers billy's party prosecutor's office and the interior ministry kept a close eye on the deals this. pent up discontent fun 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 a peaceful rally hundreds of demonstrators were injured oh please take us.

police the top people lying on the ground. but some. imaging the only remaining independent t.v. channel showed these events in tbilisi to a nationwide audience it was like shut down while it was on the air with a regular news bulletin. the moving of the meaning of things by closing the channels the government is violating the constitution this means that this is a dictatorship regime ots misdemeanors schroeder jersey or coming into the studio i want to say thank you i hear shouts in the control room you know which i hope our employees will be in jersey cheer our guests. the independent journalist of the time comedy he'd say became popular in georgia in the mid ninety's ninety's the enjoyed asking 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 set here in two thousand and eight. for the only thing i know of no journalist who would not have wanted to get a scandal to get the facts. but all the state media summed up my work there is high treason. the self-proclaimed republic of south asia hasn't been under george's direct rule since nine hundred ninety two michel psychist 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 and 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 i mean much. but in the early hours of august the eighth altering repeated 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 turret treat south of setia. i was woken up by a loud noise everything was for. that shaking we went outside with cream and cried 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. just kellerman put out a lot of lives in an old house on the outskirts of the village of kalak cooler fifteen kilometers from the border with south of setia he's not interested in politics and doesn't know the first thing about international relations but artists from around the world for to his home to display their works one of the 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 from around here it is in places like this the georgians traditionally make wine in artists of 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 aren't. 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 and said here in georgia. 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 this. hostilities came to an end nine days later when russia sent troops into south a setia to separate the warring parties georgia subsequently broke off diplomatic relations with russia. when investing kemah he was working on a film about the georgian city and conflict he made arrangements for an interview with the european human rights campaign is 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 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 a country. no comma he'd say lives in a swiss hostel for political refugees friends keep him abreast of events by phone. i hear you going to switzerland. ok i'll go to town 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 if there is a regime change. did you say regime change yes why not that's a possibility. we hope so. and so somebody has 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 annoyed him a second term now the journalist is in hiding in

a foreign country the ex is unemployed or live right crazy authorities i would have been elected for a 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 oh 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. you know he gets up to let's say is a famous georgian musician in protest against the second 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 george remains 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 visit his cell to support the musician. heads the leading off position party the visit 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 guy's a nuts they may just same town to make. his one man prison show again at eleven pm and last till morning the following day the whole country would discuss what had been said during the night after two months of self

confinement the only pitcher to love they took time out for a public appearance at the b.c. stadium b.v. a cage in the midst of the show was a strikingly symbolic act the people who had filled the stadium and jason robards twenty you'll get such love as a show into what amounted to a protest rally. in maple nine two thousand and knowing this is a pool opposition parties as their followers to take to the streets and to b.c. . just felt get out second street get out saakashvili get down get sounds goofy you know it's all business and 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. into a party. with 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 and. 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 one but some of. george's rulers in recent years have been so different i won't 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 artists who were keen to participate in an international project that was to take

place in the home of kerman. will 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 to 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 stronger for the trying be for they do know that will employ ticks 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.

twenty years ago are just countries. to some to pieces of. what had been more.