you should also follow me on twitter at christine for example once again we will be back in thirty minutes. twenty years ago in the largest country. just to places it was. one hundred. began a journey. where did it take to. get are sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

of. a very warm welcome to you this is your news today protesters on the walls streets they have. ladies and gentlemen good chance to choose seems to be good with respect to the status of the human experiment is it sprinkled with the weakest you'll call groups in this rap music which it knows good movies lately trying to make sense of global economy and it's all changed things as financial template these are the reasons he's planning to maintain a confidence in markets and taking on the critics wants to these things weigh him down and his recession looks to be the nation's close to collapsing as some like malone foreclosed homes people but some fail circulates again feel a little like think is us crash seven and smashed feeling seems to me as if like all the classes and in springfield i meant for me i'm just programs increasing the

total economy. well for the future science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. and eighteen plants music independence day it's pomp and fanfare that's of any other public holiday in the country on this day the republic's top leaders gathered to lay flowers and the freedom monument in latvia's capsule riga. informal events like the torch for 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 the first sessions old in eyes by the radical nationalist party known as being from latvia. 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. flemmi lindemann is a columnist for several latvian newspapers he also investigates cases of public interest and publishes reports on them but even though vladimir holds a lacking passport he's technically not

a fully fledged citizen of his own country. not because the passport cover bears a unique inscription it's not clear what was written in latvian it says your passport of a non-citizen was a reserve note any word was more on the minute here in the english translation it reads aliens pass hours and sometimes we are called just. like we are from another planet even full of you point of international law we are privy to such a president there are something like four hundred thousand such people in latvia is the. man to be a 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. they

supplied to not only those who settled down in the country after nine hundred forty but their descendants to. then you're actually says i don't want to be a second class person i want to be a citizen of the country where live different from leave. any known 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. you many people fail to go through the procedure. glad to me lindemann the one was not even allowed to see those exams. for the past five years and i spent three of them outside lot of fear it's a pity but that's why they didn't accept my papers but that excuse was absolutely unlawful. my fight for citizenship rights never. 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 vick to get off a nice the taste and file this sampler is a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now. these presidents dogan off is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. who is more the possibility they can't bear to see the revival of naziism in law. i can see it with the naked eye would upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes on the revival naziism the political word was a. march sixteenth one thousand nine hundred forty three during the second world war the act in legion was formed. thousands of volunteers in the country

signed up to fight for the nazis. off independence every year on the state legion veterans have been officially committees to hold a parade in central riga. in two thousand and five big to juergen off and several other anti fascists clad in prison ropes to join the weight of marching legionnaires. the police dispersed all the anti fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. crosses the. 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 want. to spoil our actions were in line with the united nations resolution calling for resistance to all forces that promote the waffen s.s.

. some fourteen thousand veterans living in latvia today forwards in the soviet army during world war two. give kenichi convinced there was a paratrooper event. as he moves 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 thousand one. in ninety one bans the public display of soviet symbols. but 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. the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred

eighty he was later restored to the act and the mastermind did write he goes says he was sentenced to a brief term in prison. now he's again free to walk about central riga 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 shishkin blew up the monument another event occurred that court the world's attention. former soviet parses and vasily kononov had been brought before a latvian court to face criminal charges face actions and world war two ended it over the years this is the order of lenin only gave it to me for blowing up sixteen

german trains when i was a partisan krishna traditional. in modern latvia the x. 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. 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 they were all to review the outcome of the war edition in order to whitewash naziism and fascism and as usual pressures of. ivors garda is leader of a political organization called the national front of lance via the front publishers a newspaper founded by him. had two 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 the colonized station and the russification. for a long time dr goddard taught ethics at the academy of culture some of his former students a 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 to be is no ethnic lottery and sneak up fifty percent of the population of their own country to the other fifty percent occupies backs by russian. police you with words it's necessary to create uncountable conventions for their group thus the we need a situation where latvian society rejects occupiers moreover we need a law on the call is asian local we must say to each of them we give you

a deadline to get out of here so it's. cameron north a british filmmaker decided to make a personal investigation into the into ethnic relations between russians and that fans. in short a documentary called latvia and hitler's footsteps way draws uncomfortable parallels between present day latvia and nazi germany. during the second of the second. they must go. there must be about the. bottom of. things they would like to say is nationalistic mad the the languages of the things they were fitting that they had. the things about hands and rights and not fear if you're not

a citizen and can't get thirty six of the jobs in the coordination of things where you are discriminated against because your impure. beauty 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 this sentence means it's showing real is often a loss when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in latvian. the internet translator says it needs headlines well yes that's a possibility. a country schools were formed in the middle of the past decade. russian textbooks were hastily replaced with latvian ones and 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 pool commander the levying language takes such difficult subjects mathematics physics and chemistry work the russian school children it brings misery to both teachers and students with you commitment to new technical things. in the course of education reform nearly all old textbooks were revised and many russian language schools closed down numerous protest acts had no effect the decisions of latvia's education ministry will find out. so far inspectors haven't shown up in many russian schools and all subjects is still taught in russian. mafia 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 soley for economic all round the demographic reasons half of the classrooms in one third of all schools had no pupils. were going to. 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 who was most but in the old days they just closed schools down and that was that there was to remove. 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 notice of the nationality of a politician as they used to. use the move if in the early one nine hundred ninety s. they had not made the mistake of dividing the people into citizens of unknown citizens that were 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 we 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 an engineer is going to small business. plants vs highly skilled professionals have left the country in search of a job. wealthy british style stock.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max conjure there are no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our team. under the soviets this factory provided jobs for twelve thousand workers it made radio sense radio cassette plays 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 ordering for about fifteen years before the breakup of the soviet union but it was close to eight hundred employees in the design bureau where i myself was employed but you know you can see what's left of its wellness blend it's 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. during the first five years of independence many enterprises were turned into scrap metal levy or sold it off cheap in lives of the money real estate and land were also soldiering this time which was the summit biggest source of funds during another five year period he will publish it on lines just before the country join the european union and

avalanche of capital and low interest credit came in here when they were not meant to develop production instead they were channelled into land in real estate as a result of wind up in the situation. similar process is 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 genes of from spain it's a matters that from the netherlands again these are from spain with the cucumbers from the netherlands. you'd be hard put to find domestically produced vegetables here true in pineapples don't grow here. onions were already being grown in latvia when the netherlands did not exist. after the declaration of

independence the lampoon government downsized agriculture and betting on individual farms the 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. such as pursuing your little has been abandoned in the for instance like the little bridge he abandoned about sixty percent of that was young people of keen to go back to the countryside want to hear some get an education others find a job and school brought to make commitments of things that whether it's. the village of congolese is in let's go early or one of the country's poorest regions local peasants used to regard themselves almost as urban dwellers they lived in flats with all modern amenities and now one in every two flats is vacant.

but the local boiler house plants 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 here's 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 a 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 i've worked with this is my daughter. that's. in the high yield. and here is good lama and good company in the ideas that is my granddaughter. wanted to 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 pig sties and county sheds are collapsing and the fields overgrown with weeds. this is how each morning began in victoria more and more 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 spent on the move they paid back of course. after latvia declared independence old councils 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 school i have to disagree department regularly to see if everything isn't already out because the landlord has a habit of brazenly 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's only one 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 certificate. thanks. 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 lanphier and builds hotels and supermarkets there. for us now is the best time to invest has been very profitable. for they also have what they call the grey economy so that it's not the relief over an up and that's what this that. often men feel joining the european union in two thousand and four the economy started to warn of a new threat. they maintained that they were public might lose its economic

sovereignty. about seventy percent of its farmland belongs to foreign investors the country's fiscal system depends on foreign banks. when you put i've pitched 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 as that i will say regrettably the nation has lost its ability to work in manufacture things that used a lot of it when that fear was on the point of leaving the soviet union it was one of its most advanced territories with zero debt when gold today the picture is the oldest. in january two thousand and nine mass protests sway the latvian capital. the world economic crises had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the government when it could stabilize the situation. rosa pensions look cuts as well

as salaries and social donations. he has brought you the crisis is the result of the country's split into twenty years ago people used to come here that's why after the nation plays no part in the country's life political or otherwise this is one cause of the deep crisis we're going through with a group of working. according to year against its six landfill that is the poorest country in the european union today high 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 e.c.s.

some twelve thousand people leave the country for good. the u.k. is their most popular destination. the 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 not. a life not as much harder but good living partly because nationalism you mad about nash's above them growing 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 it's no celebrated holiday and the freedom monument its main

national icon alien's the heart of the country's population. me is the abuse. if. you. feel.