infrastructure construction the somalia region special economic zone promises exceptional of the tutsis debility you'll business in russia will come to the somalis and for more information log on to the book invest in some. five thirty pm in moscow these are your r.t. headlines and. hundreds of arrests and a heavy hand of police meet the occupy protesters who came out in force across the u.s. tens of thousands marched in america's key cities marking two months of anti-corporate rallies with the main action in new york where the movement started. russia kazakhstan move toward creating a new trade bloc to prevent europe to get rock from coming their way president medvedev stresses the eurasian economic union of all repeat the mistakes that countries made when integrating. new signs of rupture within the e.u.

itself in britain clashes with germany over ways out of the debt turmoil chancellor merkel countries to surrender more control of their own financial and political decisions which the u.k. fears will be a blow to state sovereignty. next twenty years after the collapse of the soviet union we continue looking at the powers that former states have taken this time we see how life has changed in a lot you know wish these days is a member of the european union is coming up next. it seems blanched used independence day it's pomp and fanfare much of any other public holiday in the country on this day the republic's top leaders gathered salafia hours and the freedom monument in latvia scarcer riga.

informal events like tours for 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 of the first sessions old onas by the radical nationalist party known as me or 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. clemmie lindemann is a columnist for several latvian newspapers you'll soon base to gates cases of public interest and publishes reports on them but even though vladimir holds

a laffin passport he is taking a plea not a fully fledged citizen of his own country. his passport cover bears a unique inscription of good order written in latvian it says your passport of a non-citizen was a reserve not anymore grows more on the minute here in the english translation it reads aliens past our. sometimes we are called just. like we are from another planet even from as you point of international law we are treated as such just the present there are something like four hundred thousand such people in latvia is a. man fear 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 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 or thorson or work in government departments. this applied to not only those who settled down in the country after nine hundred forty eight 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 live from leave. any non-citizen is free to try to naturalize the event they need to pass exams on the country's history and show their command of the state language and the national anthem. after submitting all the necessary papers applicants then need to wait for about a year before they get a cherished citizens passport. use many people fail to go through the procedure. to 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 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 let even stage a sit in in this building i spent the day here and refused to leave it after office hours when the police force me out of. there was a time when victim they're going off an ether test and valdis samplers a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now. viz president doug north is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. most of us really did they can't bear to see the revival of naziism in libya i can see it with the naked eye. upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes to the revival of naziism the word was. on march sixteenth nineteen forty three during the second world war the laffin legion was formed.

thousands of volunteers in the country signed up to fight for the nazis. off independence every year on this date legion veterans have been officially committees to hold a parade in central region. in two thousand and five victor duggan off and several other anti fascist clans and prison rape stood 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. crosses 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. pool still our actions were in line with the united nations

resolution calling for resistance to all forces that promote the waffen s.s. . officers. some fourteen thousand veterans living in latvia today forts in the soviet army during world war two. if kenny g. convinced there was a paratrooper event. as he walks 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 thousand. and she won bans the public display of soviet symbols . and the attitude to us is just a bone of over. 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 mans that go ahead. with.

the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred eighty he was later restored to the acts of the masterminded by eager siskind he was sentenced to a brief time in prison. now he's again free to walk about central riga together with his son and openly discuss the fate of the monuments. it's a myth that some people this is a monument to me it's a disgrace to the latvian nation. the boy is nothing that should be simply pulled down to symbolize that we are no longer occupied only at the local theater. in the year when the good shishkin blew up the monument another event occurred that caught the world's attention. former soviet parts is unfair silly kononov had been brought before a land in court to face criminal charges face actions in world war two he did it or

delay this is the order of lenin or they gave it to me for blowing up six teams german trains when i was a partisan krishnaji. 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 who were helping the germans. kannan of was acting on of the situation taken by parties and tribunals in one thousand nine hundred forty three. the. when radical nationalists came to power after the regime change their lackeys started a massive campaign against info fascists who had fought in the entire hitler coalition they were all to review the outcome of the war in order to whitewash naziism and fascism as usual for she is a. ivers guard that is leading of

a political organization called the national front of latvia the front publishes a newspaper founded by him. that 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. occupation d. colonise 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 editor's guidance they spend no effort in a bid to oppose what they call russian dominance in latvia vs the efik lothians make up fifty percent of the population of their own country will go to the arctic to percent of occupiers backed by russia. it's necessary to create uncomfortable conditions for their work with the us the we need a situation where latvian society rejects occupiers moreover we need

a law on the coal ization we must say to each of them 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 land fiends. in short a documentary called latvia in hitler's footsteps way draws uncomfortable parallels between present day lanphier and nazi germany. but also. during. the of the border they must go door. but there must be rather. odd. things it would like to say it's nationalistic that the the languages are the same as they were they had to speak. the things about it

and some rights in latvia if you're not a citizen and can't some of the six of the jobs in the combination of things where you are discriminated against because your impure. duty alex aims 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 it is often 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 takes books 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 in language teach such difficult subjects mathematics physics and chemistry were to russian school children it brings misery to both teachers and students which 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 danks had no effect the decisions of last year's education ministry were final. so far inspectors haven't shown up in many russian schools and all subjects are still taught in russian. math been language textbooks approved by the education ministry can be seen in full view but they are

only for show. new chicago 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 pupils. and we're going to go to what was 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 walls because when we merge schools we make a great deal of effort to accommodate all the children in the new building and see that we also do all we can to retain jobs for the teachers i was modest but in the old days they just closed schools down and that was lapse there was the remove. the fact that the russian was elected mayor of the latvian capital in the summer of two

thousand and nine surprised many politicians analysts put it down to the economic crisis. those who had felt it. servia impact we're not taking as much notice of the nationality of the politician as they used to. use the. if in the early one nine hundred ninety s. they have not made the mistake of dividing the people into citizens of the known citizens of google because 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 put still have to contend with economic issues corruption and many other things. despite its small size it was schools of major industrial plants and 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 an engineer is going to small business. plant fee is highly skilled professionals have left the country in search of a job. the question is that so much as i wish a coffee right on it will be a g.o.p. race for the white house and foreign policy front runners for the republican presidential nomination have made it clear that their almost all foreign policy hot . wealthy british style holds and that's what i'd like. for their. markets finance scandal.

find out what's really happening to the global economy in cars a report on our key. 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 in elektra on equipment had been set up in latvia they were the soviet union's most advanced enterprises what we know of the goober in soviet times i worked in a similar oratory 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 where you have no you can see what's left of its former splinter the only

one design a working here. 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. yeah during the first five years of independence many enterprises were turned into scrap metal latvia's sold off cheap and lived off the money real estate and land were also soldiering this time which was a somewhat bigger source of funds during another five year period. i don't lines just before the country join the european union and avalanche of capital and low interest credit came here but 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. he is the illusions of from spain is a matters of from the middle and he is again these are from spain with the key canvas from the netherlands. be hard put to find a mystically produced vegetables here true danger in pineapples don't grow the least 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 baited on individual farms. 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 a newly acquired land or mortgage it. just listing your vehicle has been abandoned the farm stands or the we have 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 like that. the village of qana billy is in let's go into one of the country's poorest regions and local peasants used to regard themselves almost as urban dwellers they lived in a flats with all modern amenities and now one in every two flats is vacant. but the local boiler houseplants 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 has five children and none of them live in latvia now they are trying to make money in a 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 work with this is my daughter leave me alone that's. in the field. and here is that lama and. the idea is my granddaughter. tiana 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's 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 collapsing on the fields overgrown with weeds. this is how each 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 are spent on the move to be paid back of course. after latvia declared independence old houses were given back to their former owners under restitution a 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 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 flat in a new building the school i have to visit and i always apartment regularly to see if everything isn't because the landlord has a habit of breaking in and replacing the locks on the door. 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 the landlord lives in germany he came to latvia for the first time to receive a property's a difficult. 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 invest has been very profitable. for but they also have what they call the grey economy so that's not really showing up on the statistics. often men feel joining the european union in two thousand and four the economist started to warn of a new threat. they maintained that they were public not to lose its economic sovereignty . about seventy percent of its farmland belongs to foreign investors they country's fiscal system depends on foreign banks. you wouldn't hear 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 with the play regrettably of a nation has lost its ability to work in manufacture things when latvia was on the point of leaving the soviet union it was one of its most advanced territories with zero six was going to win gold today the picture is the oldest brother got a king. in january two thousand and nine mass protests where the latvian capital. of. the world economic crises had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the government when it couldn't stabilize the situation. moreover pensions look costs as well as salaries and social diminished.

these bullshit of the crisis is the result of the country's split into twenty years ago people who mostly that's why after 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 and could use what would the. according to year against it's 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. matthews population has shrunk down more than fifteen percent since independence according to latvia's foreign policy institute each year some twelve thousand people leave the country for goods. the u.k. is their most popular destination. the british

filmmaker cameron north described the problem in his documentary. a lot of things come to the cutting. firstly one of these is the economy not. on life and that is much harder what good living partly because nationalism. mad about nash ism of the building economy another 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 aliant to hoffer of the country's population.