and flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations throughout the day. but after watching r.t. here's a look at the top stories of the week despite hundreds of arrests and a police response occupy wall street has marked its two month anniversary with an unprecedented protest. in iraq or so yes and a wave of an elected favored state power europe as the blocks much vaunted democracy seen as being placed on the back burner in the face of a detonating debt crisis. and a syrian president refuses to crack under international pressure while the threat of further sanctions and tough diplomatic attacks fears we're about to see another

leader in style intervention. up next our special report delving deep into lobbyist presence twenty years after the country's stepped out from the ruins of the soviet union stay with us. band aid seems planned to use independence day its pomp and fanfare much of any other public holiday in the country on this day the republic's top leaders gathered still a few hours in the freedom monument in latvia scarcer riga. informal events like torture 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 denies by the radical nationalist party known as or from latvia. however many people don't identify

themselves with the festivities they are russian speaking residents make up nearly forty percent of the country's population half of them have not yet received citizenship rights. lemay lindemann is a columnist for several latvian newspapers you'll soon base to gauge cases of public interest and publishes reports on them but even though vladimir holds a latvian passport he is technically not a fully fledged citizen of his own country. with a passport cover bears a unique inscription of the words 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 alien spends hours and sometimes we are called just that aliens like we are from another planet or even feel as you pointed international law we are treated as such are present there are something like four hundred thousand such people in latvia usage. last year 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 authority 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 who are living in this country. any known citizen is free to try to naturalize the fact they need to pass exams on the country's history and show their command of the state language and the national anthem if after submitting over necessary papers applicants then need to wait for about a year before they get a cherished citizens passport. you see many people fail to go through the procedure that the million demand for one was not even allowed to see those exams. for the past five years and i spent three of them a lot of fear why they didn't accept my papers but that excuse was absolutely unlawful. my fight for citizenship rights were never. even still just sitting in this building i spent the day here and refused to leave it after office hours then the police force me out of. there was

a time when victor durgan off an ether test and valdis samplers a trauma surgeon who worked in the same hospital. now zuck loses latvia's president durga north is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. who knows most of us really did well i can't bear to see the revival of naziism in libya i can see it with the naked eye in the waters of the world upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes to the revival not as a group as a crew it was. on march sixteenth nineteen forty three during the second world war the laugh-in 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 committed to hold

a parade in central region. in two thousand and five big to durgan 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 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. your offer with. some fourteen thousand veterans living in latvia today forts in the soviet army during world war two. if kenichi

convinced there was a paratrooper event. as he moves to the monument commemorating the soviet soldiers who lost their lives in the war to make sure that 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 bowman 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 we did. with. the monument to soviet soldiers in riga was blown up in one thousand nine hundred eight it was later restored the axe and the nasty minded by eager sister 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. a polish nothing that should be simply pulled down symbolized that we are no longer occupied. in the year when he go to fishkin blew up the monument another events occurred that caught the world's attention. former soviet past has done for a silly cordon off had been brought before a land in court to face criminal charges face actions in world war two it is to late this is the order of lenin or they gave it to me for blowing up sixteen german trains when i was a partisan. in more than 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 they 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 their lackeys started a massive campaign against info fascists people 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 latvia the front publishes a newspaper founded by him. better weekends and during public holidays policies hand out free copies to anyone willing to read the paper. its name contains three

deeds they stand for d. york your patient the colonized station and dean 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 feel ethnic lothians make up fifty percent of the population of their own country to get the other to percent occupies backs about russia. it's necessary to create uncomfortable conditions for them 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 we give you a deadline to get out of here so 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 latvia and nazi germany. during the second of the third. they must go. visit him of the river. i'm on board. some things they would like to say it's nothing to. be the languages of the things they were thinking that they had to speak. the things about the rights and that fear if you're not a citizen and can't some of the sex of the drops and the culmination of things where you are discriminated against because your in pure. beauty alex aims the

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 misha eli is a school people. papa 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 textbooks 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 poor command of the levy language teach such difficult subjects mathematics

physics and chemistry were to russian schoolchildren it brings misery to both teachers and students would you commit them within your technical. in the course of education reform nearly all old textbooks were revised and many russian language schools closed down numerous protest acts had no affect the decisions of life is education ministry or final. so far inspectors haven't shown up in many russian schools and all subjects is still taught in russian. maffia in language textbooks approved by the education ministry can be seen in full view but they are only for show. militia cough 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

processed 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. 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 rules 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 it was modest but in the old days they just closed schools down and that was a lapse. removed from. 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. severe impact we're not taking as much notice of the nationality of a politician as they used to. use the. if in the early one nine hundred ninety s.

they had not made the mistake of dividing the people into citizens of unknown citizens who 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 we were much and 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 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. latvia's highly skilled professionals have left the country in search of a jog. downlink be official auntie allocation chobani phone i pod touch for me i choose ops to. enjoy life on the go. video on demand policies of mine broadcasts an r.s.s.

feeds now in the palm of your. question on the t.v. job call. under the soviets this factory provided jobs for twelve thousand workers and made radio sets 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 an epic tronic equipment had been set up in latvia they were the soviet union's most advanced enterprises. in soviet times i worked in a similar oratory for about fifteen years before the break up of the soviet union to there were close to eight hundred employees in the design bureau where i myself was employed and where you have no you can see what's left of its former splendor

the only one designer working here. when lanphier achieved independence the republic's government began closing down its industrial giants. the new regime expected most 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 off cheap and lived off the money real estate and landrieu also soldiering this time which was the summit biggest source of funds during another five year period he will publish the lines just before the country join the european union an avalanche of capital and low interest credit came in here they were not meant to develop production instead they were channeled into land in real estate as a result wind up in this situation a. similar process

is were going on in agriculture under the soviet government and latvian collective farm supplied the republic with basic food stuffs today half are imported. this from spain is a mothers of from the middle and the kids are from spain with the cucumbers from the netherlands to. be hard put to find the mystically produced vegetables here troops in pineapples don't grow here is the list onions were already being grown in latvia when the netherlands did not exist. after the declaration of independence the latvian government downsized agriculture and betting on individual farms the land belonging to collective farms was given back to former owners all their descendants under

a restitution plan. but most of them simply didn't bother to get into the difficult business of farming and instead preferred to sell off a new you quiet land or mortgage it. just listing your legal have been abandoned in the farmsteads or the you have already abandoned about sixty percent of council was young people not keen to go back to the countryside here some get an education others find a job and school brought to make commitments and things that whether it's. the village of congolese is in that area 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 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 and none of them live in latvia now they are trying to make money in western europe. when fisa spends a pension to feed her grandchildren she likes talking about her big family which is now scattered around the world that i want to know that this is my daughter give me a that's. in the field. and here is his lama and you cut it in the ideas that is my granddaughter play went to town 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 raised them on my own.

people have no jobs towns and villages are becoming deserted pig sties encounter sheds are collapsing and the fields overgrown with weeds. this is how each morning began in victoria more in those lines until two thousand and eight. flats in a nineteenth century building in the old parts of riga was once considered prestigious but they were young people here spent on the move they paid back of course. after latvia declared independence old houses were given back to their former owners and their restitution plan. they were quick to realise 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. i have to visit my old apartment regularly to see if everything isn't because the landlord has a habit of breaching and replacing the locks on the door. i also take some of my doom goods 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 they came to latvia for the first time to receive a property certificate. thank you. 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 but they also have what they call the grey of quantum a so that it's not the relief over an up in the statistics. after a lengthy enjoying the european union in two thousand and four the economist 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 plug each kid a scandinavian capital controls some seventy or eighty percent of the country's

banking capital and do not this means it controls just as much of its financial system of the so regretably of a nation has lost its ability to work in manufacturing things when that field was on the point of leaving the soviet union it was one of its most advanced territories with zero debt slew in gold today the picture is the oldest. in january two thousand and nine mass protests sway the latvian capital. the world economic crisis had a huge impact on the country's economy people demanded the resignation of the government when it could stabilize the situation. pensions look costs as well as salaries and social donations.

he says bullshit of the crisis is the result of the country's split into twenty years ago when he was put on leave 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. according to european statistics land for that 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 on more than fifteen percent since independence according to laugh in his foreign policy institute each year 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. but i think it's a lot of things comes to because. firstly one of the things is the economy nothing . in life and that was much harder for the good living partly because nationalism in mad about nash is a more than growing economy another reason is that they get very good stuff arrives in the u.k. . it's now been twenty years since latvia jeev sovereignty. but still independence day it's most celebrated holiday and the freedom monument its main national icon aliens the heart of the country's population.

most of the. sounds technology innovation on the list of elements from around russia we've got the future of coverage. from.