welcome back time now for a look around main headlines with gloves are off for police in america hundreds of wall street demonstrators are arrested a nationwide crackdown on the anniversary of the movement's founding. singing from the same song sheet leaders of russia but in recent kazakhstan are meeting to discuss the creation of a new eurasian body modeled on the european union. britain has reportedly been endorsed leader campaigning against syria's president live in a diplomatic at this stage russia has sounded the alarm only need to repeat the

balance in libya. next on our team twenty years after the collapse of the soviet union we continue our look at the power of its former states and taken its time with see how life has changed in that which these days as a member of the european union. it seems blanched used independence day it's pomp and fanfare the truest sense of any other public holiday in the country on this day the republic's top leaders gather to lay flowers and the freedom monument in latvia scarcer riga. informal events like the torture sessions are 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 of the first sessions old denies by the radical

nationalist party known as or from montreal. however many people don't identify themselves with the festivities they are russian speaking residents they make up nearly forty percent of the country's population half of them have not yet received citizenship rights. let me lindemann is a columnist for several months in newspapers you'll soon base to gates cases of public interest and publishes reports from them but even though vladimir holds a lot in passports is technically not a fully fledged citizen of his own country. the passport cover bears

a unique inscription but it was written in latvia and it says your passport of a non-citizen was a reserve was more on the main pier in the english translation it reads. sometimes we are called just that it's like we are from another planet even for as you pointed international law we are treated as such the present there are something like four hundred thousand such people in latvia. mansfield became an independent state in one thousand nine hundred one after seceding from the soviet union. barely one month later the country's parliament passed a resolution officially dividing the republics 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. they supplied to not only those who settled down in the country after nine hundred forty but their descendants take. again truth is i don't want to be

a second class person i want to be a citizen of the country where live this leave. any known citizen is free to try to naturalize the vent they need to pass exams on the country's history and show the command of the state language and the national anthem. after submitting over necessary papers applicants then need to wait for about a year before they get a cherished citizens passed course. 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 year that's why they didn't accept my papers but that excuse was absolutely unlawful was. my fight for citizenship rights and never again is there 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 victor durgan off a nice noticed and valdis samplers a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now zach loses latvia's president durgan off is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. the u.s. was the possibility they can't bear to see the revival of naziism in libya i can see it with the naked eye of the world upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes to the revival of naziism europe as a good word was. on march sixteenth nineteen forty three during the second world war the life in legion was formed. thousands of volunteers in the country signed up to fight for the nazis. off independence every year on the

state's legion veterans have been officially committed to hold a parade in central riga. in two thousand and five big to turn off and several other hansie fascists clans and prison rape stood in the way of marching legionnaires. the police dispersed all the empty fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. forces 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. fulfill 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 fort in the soviet army during world war two. give kenichi convincing 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. alone passed back in one. in ninety one pounds the public display and soviet symbols. and the attitude to us is just a bowman 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 said that i don't agree. with. the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred eighty he was later restored the act and he masterminded by he goes. he was

sentenced to a brief time in prison. now he's again free to walk about central league together with his son and openly discuss the fate of the monument. it's a myth that 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 a good fish can blow up the monument another event occurred that course the world's attention. former soviet parses and vasily cordoned off had been brought before a latvian court to face criminal charges face actions in world war two it did it a little this is the order of lenin only gave it to me for blowing up sixteen german trains when i was a partisan issue krishna traditional. in more than 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 who were helping the germans. kannan of 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 and their lackeys started a massive campaign against intel fascists who had fought in the entire hitler coalition because they were able to review the elkan of the war edition in order to whitewash naziism and fascism as usual for she is a. ivers garda is leader 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

d's they stand for d. or q patient the colonize ation and d. 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 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 back to the other fifty percent occupiers backs my russian. police here with lou it's necessary to create uncountable conditions for their gusto we need a situation where latvian society rejects occupiers moreover we need a law on the call is asian we must say to each of them just because we give you a deadline to get out of here that's. cameron north

a british filmmaker decided to make a personal investigation into the into ethnic relations between russians and that fiends. he shot a documentary called latvia in hitler's footsteps way draws uncomfortable parallels between present day latvia and nazi germany. during the second of that. they must go. but they must leave out the. bottom up and i. think they would like to say it's national. the languages of the things they were thinking that they had to. speak latvian things about the rights and not feel if you're not a citizen and culture some of the six of the tropes in the coalition of things where you are discriminated against because you're in pure. theory alex 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 you tell me what the sentence means. is often it's a loss when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in latvian. 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 take spokes 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 grew whenever a russian teaches with a ball commander the levy language scored teach such difficult subjects mathematics physics and chemistry to russian schoolchildren it brings misery were both teachers and students with even within your tenure. in the course of education reform nearly all old textbooks were revised and many russian language schools closed down numerous protests x. had 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. math fin language textbooks approved by the education ministry can be seen in full view but they are only for show. miller 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 finagling mother 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 rules because 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 almost but in the old days they just closed schools down and that was that there was the previous and. 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 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 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 we were much and we would have been able to deal with pressing issues much earlier and much more efficiently or put 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 each specialized in electronics. another one made minivans which were used as ambulances throughout the soviet union. today their production line stand idle.

factory workers and engineers going to small business. plants vs highly skilled professionals have left the country in search of a job. cashers the so much of. which are called right out of the year and a g.o.p. race for the white house informed policy front runners for the republican presidential nomination have made it clear that their almost all foreign policy hot . michelle would be so much brighter. than someone from feinstein pression ones.

who for instance 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 and electronic equipment had been set up in latvia they were the soviet union's most advanced enterprises. in soviet times i worked in a similar trade for about fifteen years but of course only for the break up of the soviet union where they 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 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 scrap metal levy has sold it off cheap and lived off the money real estate and land were also soldiering this time which was the summit biggest source of funds during another five year period let's hear a lot of the lines just before the country join the european union and avalanche of capital and low interest credit came here when they were not meant to develop production instead they were channeled into land in real estate as

a result wind up in the situation. similar processes were going on in agriculture under the soviet government latvian collective farm supplied the republic with basic foodstuffs today half are imported. visions of from spain this immersive from the netherlands pieces from spain and the cucumbers from the netherlands. you'd be hard put to find a mystically produced vegetables here true in pineapples don't grow here. onions were already being grown in latvia when the netherlands did not yet exist. after the declaration of independence the latvian government downsized agriculture and bet it 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 prefer to sell off the newly acquired land mortgage it. in your little have been abandoned in the farm stance but they have already abandoned about sixty percent of them was a young people not keen to go back to the countryside here some get an education others find it shot and killed want to make commitments and things of that like it's. the village of qana billy is in let's go 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 minute sees now one in every two flats is vacant. the local oil house plant doesn't work the few people who still live here have to

heat their homes with firewood. 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 give 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 are trying to make money in western europe. and pieces spends her pension to feed her grandchildren she likes talking about her big family which is now scattered around the world that the world would this is my daughter leave me alone that's. in the high yield. and here is a good lama and. the idea is my granddaughter. when sick 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 for god knows where so i raise them on

my own. people have no jobs towns and villages are becoming deserted picks dies and cowsheds 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 poor young people years went 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 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 flat in a new building that's going to have to visit my old apartment regularly to see if everything isn't because the landlord has habit of breaching and replacing the locks on the door. i also take some of my belongings with me. the tenants of the house have seen the landlord 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 the landlord lives in germany he came to latvia for the first time to receive

a property that if it. thank. 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 win but it's just been very profitable. for but they also have what they call the grey economy so that that's not really following up on this that this that. often men feel joined the european union in two thousand and four the economists don't think so warned of a new threat. they maintain for their public might lose its economic sovereignty. about seventy percent of its farmland belongs to foreign investors the countries face school system depends on foreign banks. you wouldn't today scandinavian

capital controls some seventy or eighty percent of the country's banking capital in damascus means it controls just as much of its financial system with the regrettably the nation has lost its ability to work in manufacturing things when latvia 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 expression a brother got a king. in january two thousand and nine mass protests sway the latvian capital. the walls economic crises had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the government's brain couldn't stabilize the situation. moreover pensions look cuts as well as salaries and social donations.

these were due to the crisis is the result of the country's split including twenty years ago people used to tell me that's why half of the nation plays no part in the country's laws political or otherwise this is one cause of the deep crisis we're going through because we want to continue working. according to your game that is six feet it 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 down more than fifteen percent since independence according to latvia as foreign policy institute each year some twelve thousand people leave the country for goods. the u.k. is their most popular destination. for british

filmmaker cameron north described the problem in his documentary. with a lot of things coming to the u.k. . firstly one of these is the economy nothing in life and that is much harder for a good living partly because nationalism being mad about nash is a more of them owning economy now the reason is that they get very good social rights 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 jim hoffa of the country's population.