today volumes. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. let's recap the main stories we're covering points out the fact and fiction of russia's rallies as the election marches take a twist in foreign news coverage america's fox news has grown images of riots in greece playing the footage is from moscow. future security is at stake as russian and nato foreign ministers meet to tackle sticking points to discuss corporation afghanistan the european missile defense on the prevention of another the military intervention are among the poets is. the

single currency is about to face its toughest test yet as european leaders gather the data for a crucial summit on using that crisis will consider french and german proposals to impose price budget controls on the schools for the rest of the. next it takes you to the place where the documents marking the end of the soviet empire was signed find out how the fate of the union was decided in a special report. december the eighth nine hundred ninety one is an extraordinary day in russian history twenty years ago a secret meeting took place between boris yeltsin leo need crush choke and stanislav just cave which they will the heads of the former soviet republics of russia ukraine and belarus in the final moments of the soviet empire the three announced states on the world map known as the u.s.'s had ceased to exist.

the dense bill of asia forest webelos borders poland in soviet times people would come here and excursions from all over the us as. a bell a recent t.v. journalist was the only one lucky enough to shoot the moment of signing the documents that entered history as the belle of asia accords we were fairly we were left on the military airfield so i approached a k.g.b. officer and said what do we do brit look we're missing such an important meeting or like. i said it's ok get in i'll take you for. several minutes later but i didn't get sun and he was being driven to a secret place named the school in the central part of the belle of asia forest it

was in this place of the head will be a rose stone is left shushkevich and decided to invite his counterparts from russia and ukraine under the pretext of addressing joint economic problems. i knew yeltsin was a normal man there has to be sheridan on minister said he would have a good relationship with him taking here to belive as your for hunting persuade him there was enough time and opportunity for it so i invited him. thank the plot of land called viscously is known as the highest place in b. elevation forest in nine hundred fifty seven following an instruction from nikita of a big mansion the hunters was built after which it became a favorite place for soviet leaders on december seventh one thousand nine hundred ninety one hunting party was organized for the ukrainian leader leonid kravchuk. it was already getting. said he wanted to go hunting so we all got into the car

with the guards. closer to his coolly where there was a. european bison is the symbol of the belle of asia forest the largest population of them in the world can be found here hunting them is prohibited however so leonid kravchuk proposed wild boars instead. of no way to get closer just to be certain. the boar stood there eating. but as we moved. walked away. didn't even suit it it. didn't suit it on that day and killed nuffield. in one thousand nine hundred one stepan martis york was the morton of the viscously residence he was asked to accommodate russian and ukrainian officials in the government residence and meet boris yeltsin in person yeltsin was the last to arrive in viscously that day in the evening i met him at the entrance it was clear

that yeltsin had just come from a social function. visit was carefully prepared for everyone realized that the outcome of the talks as a whole depended very much on his mood. i was standing at the front door to the residence and i held this part of them open. came through i greeted him. and he was led to his. there he rested until it was supper time. the verdict on the soviet union was pronounced that same night during a joint supper on the ground floor near the main entrance there was a buffet whole. everyone gathered in this hall ate in the evening for supper. it lasted until eleven pm. afterwards they all retired to their rooms. drank

a favorite of vodka. i'm not sure if everyone was the same everyone drank as much as they could. and then he wanted to went to the song. stanislaw shook a bitch still has a caricature in his home of the buffet meals and events in viscously that followed a caricature assures the atmosphere of the time this is a very good hour long. hunters while having a rest exchange opinions some of them are controversial the artist had a great sense of humor. most of those who happens to be envious of the time understood that more than just economic reforms would be discussed there what will our economic relations be like very good very good both economic in others sorry we have to go. to the concept of our future relations

was found when we managed to formulate the opening sentence which said the u.s.s.r. as a subject of international law. and the political reality is ceasing to exist where your socialist. the eleventh of march nine hundred eighty five. clinton remaining elected me ho gorbachev general secretary of the central committee. was elected head of state a spirit of change was in the air perestroika was proclaimed to the country. became the first soviet leader to meet people and talk to them directly without speeches prepared beforehand. please be closer to the people who can be closer.

however after the so-called stagnation era. efforts were in vain in one nine hundred eighty six after the oil prices plummeted us all revenues fell abruptly at the same time the bulk of the budget was being developed by the defense industry. but this did skew forked within days of gets a statistical fact of callbacks from each true bill eighty eight to be exact was spent on elements that i'm the kountry failed to keep up with the arms race and the economy collapsed and simplest way to exert pressure was was their attempt to economically isolate the soviet union that was was carried out in numerous ways there were many items that could not be sold to the soviet union there were restriction less. the seventh of may.

miss. his mess of the whole campaign above all the thirties want to stop the consumption of cheap one. as a result ukraine's crimean peninsula has nearly lost all of its vineyards they were destroyed by the heck tez this action strips the ukrainian pre-publication of one fifth of its annual budget there's no need to you know they cut twenty year old grey fine said the very base like here look. it pains me very much to see such great weinstein wiped out which it was devastating even the. later the state admitted that the whole campaign was a mistake in ukraine people still cannot forgive gorbachev for this policy the

collapse of the soviet union led to widespread poverty and unemployment for many the older generation was not impressed by the new reforms. and i'm not angry about it so i don't like my soul is still wounded over what happened they fooled us they promised us everything but gave us nothing. this is a recent gathering of ukrainian nationalists in the center of kiev the first wave of such marches rolled through most of the publics in the mid to late one nine hundred eighty s. . there. was. in a strange turn of events incumbent party officials quickly joins nationalists in declaring that the u.s.s.r. was a prison of peoples men who only yesterday cried themselves hoarse defending soviet

ideology found themselves among the most active critics of the soviet system. when demonstrations were held or actions had been preplanned. we knew in advance how many times we were supposed to say long live the soviet to crane of the soviet union. all of that was written down everything was absolutely pre-determined the law everybody had to keep within certain boundaries and whenever someone tried to exceed them they were immediately slapped on the wrist. to get rid of the so called big brother that was always controlling them personally was the dream of the leaders of many soviet republics in the eyes of their people they put it like this i will liberate you from the kremlin oppression but by the time of gorbachev that oppression had long since gone.

this archive footage shows typical propaganda of prosperity and friendship. the soviet people were promised that soon they would live again under a communist regime. three years after perestroika the u.s.s.r. reintroduced to rationing system on certain goods for the first time since world war two a wave of strikes and spontaneous rallies swept the country people demanded the prices be curbed when the bill of asia records was signed early in ninety ninety one the soviet union was already coming apart at the seams. of.

the seventh of december nine hundred ninety one. government residence in viscously. boris yeltsin's team was given one to prepare the legally binding papers that would bring a bill to the us as a us disintegration. we acted in a true russian style we didn't know exactly what the future would bring that we could think about later. yeltsin's eight stayed in guest tells his and were protected by k.g.b.

agents everybody understood that all the information was leaving from mosco and that in order to arrest the participants in the be elevation records for staging a state who could come at any time. yes. decisive in strict boris yeltsin had sat in the kremlin instead of gorbachev at that time i don't think we'd have left the forest so easily. the standoff between two political heavyweights mikhail gorbachev and boris yeltsin lasted for several years. and was transferred to work in moscow from the urals and nine hundred eighty five unexpectedly for many boris yeltsin went from being merely a professional communist party a wretched to go bitch off main opponent. as a result yeltsin was stripped of his party post however two years later he was elected the people's deputy.

liberal. as with ensuring all those previous decades will never get going again on the contrary. slipping into the bog from which we've just started to emerge. by that time ratings in the country had to drop to almost zero in stark contrast yeltsin hired a new team and started playing by his own rules with gusto nobody. was initially very athletic man. and he had a fighting spirit inside him. tennis helped him to keep fit for. the seventeenth of march nine hundred ninety one. the referendum was held in russia the seventeenth nine hundred ninety one the result of which led to brasil tin becoming president the two presidents of russia and the u.s.s.r.

officially began dividing pella this became clear to everybody that a conflict between the two sides was looming. and i can forgive myself for being too liberal and didn't send boris yeltsin where i should have that was my mistake. the nineteenth of august nine hundred ninety one. tanks in moscow k.g.b. and a party bureaucrats decided to get rid of yeltsin and taney asli and pass the u.s.s.r. back together again. but in attempts to solve the problem by force some sort through the people's reaction to these violent actions was hostile. everybody was dragging whatever they could lay their hands on a trolley bus stop there the driver got out and lowered the trolleys the trolley

bus was left standing across the road the barricade was here that's how we began blocking all approaches to the building. ukraine the crimea. residents in for us became a prison for three days the pluses included high ranking k.g.b. officials who were responsible for go bunch of security. i have no idea what would have happened if. i had trying to escape from the residence but i do think he would have faced very unpleasant consequences. as a result the president of the us was isolated from the rest of the world his telephones what if the only thing he could do was record a small speech for camera. has taken place this empty constitutional action is based on a tremendous lot. i also thought that not only my family and

ordinary people would be heard over and that bloodshed couldn't be avoided and vast country like ours it takes a while to get going. and get steamed up it's hard to stop it. unlike russia's president boris yeltsin was much more resolute and decisive he made his way to moscow's white house and became the dolling of international news broadcasts for three whole days. that's what declaring legal all the decisions in decreased by the state of emergency committee. and the cool guys as were extremely unconvincing journalist. was the first to put a question for coup leader. of the news conference concerning the incident. was so nervous that his hands were trembling. just say that they looked hesitant would be an understatement and they looked as if life was dying out of them and there was no way to tell if he left in their faces and she they looked like people who had lost

a battle before they had a chance to start it. the coup eventually failed k.g.b. units refused to storm the white house and pulled out of moscow many people felt as though they were personally shaping history. the bright future which the communists had been talking about for seventy years finally became a possibility we could build it with our own hands we were used to the fact that the state was on evidence that it could break and destroy anyone but this time nothing happened people had risen like a wall we said no enough. was a different person when he came back from his crimean captivity his confidence was broken. people have to know all the world has to know about the conspiracy. and what the organizers of the conspiracy want to do with me and what they wanted

from me and what they never got from me. i will tell this one day just a few days later boris yeltsin publicly interrupted his speech in parliament demonstrating that he was now the one in charge. mr yeltsin has just handed me a summary of a cabinet meeting. but i haven't read it yet well go ahead and read it dan. they convinced him that the only way he could enter the kremlin was by tearing down the soviet union broader but that was the only supposedly legal way of getting rid of gorbachev and yeltsin craved to be head of state to occupy the very office that have been held first by lenin and then by the general secretary stalin. the

seventh of december nine hundred ninety one. boris yeltsin a rives in minsk the purpose of his visit has to negotiate economic ties between russia and bella reuss two republics that was still part of the u.s.'s up. russia and belarus have been friends for ages. of course for decades we had this artificial ideal for one nation being a big brother and other nations being little brothers. but that is over now. it is here that the parties decided to invite the ukrainian leader to join them for their first ever discussion of the common future without go but off the yes to the point was obviously to deliberate in europe since of corba charge i would even say

we all realized that we would not be able to persuade gorbachev and besides he's worried it could not be relied upon i mean he could tell you anything and do something completely different. late on december the seventh yeltsin was already in viscously the next day the press was admitted to the lobby of the premises and the signatory parties to the agreement would periodically make an appearance the chordal liberations however were all being held behind closed doors. as we sat down to draw up the documents question immediately arose as to who would do the writing. so i said let me do it i'm used to writing what i used to work for the party's ideology section. pen and paper and got down to it. by midday the agreement had been composed tables were being arranged in the lobby for the signing ceremony when the meeting participants suddenly realized that there was no typewriter and no typist in the visibility quarters. rector of the

national park was present so he was tasked with bringing over his own secretary a typewriter and some paper so the secretary was sitting there and typing out whatever she was given. do you realize what kind of documents you're talking on today i do. the so what it's all pretty clear are you proud of it i sure am. an importance on what you type with one finger and it took time. she said she realized what it was like down she quite grasp the significance of what was going on it was later that she figured out what she was involved in realize better keep my mouth shut. but two pm on december the eighth the agreement on dissolving the us s. and creating a commonwealth of independent states was signed by the representatives of russia ukraine and belarus.

many cia officers resigned i did i left in one thousand nine hundred two and one of the reasons was that it no longer seemed as important to be doing the kind of work that he had been doing because our big adversary was the soviet union and with the soviet union gone everything was different during the signing ceremony itself you know could question emerged would go but self be informed about this it was decided to contact both the kremlin and washington symbol taney asli boris yeltsin rang president bush well sternness left just gave each cold go but you're off your book i guess so while i was explaining to gorbachev what has happened i could hear that bush was aware of that already so gorbachev asks me can you fancy what the international community will see who would i say the walk in a sense is that here we have

a bush welcoming our decision at that moment gorbachev when will and after. you know what i was doing i was defending the soviet union up to the last bullet but i failed. soon after the accord was signed the delegates felt able to. to the press the only one for those present at the ceremony who wasn't interviewed was barres yeltsin although he did try to brief the press. cameras off please. the cameras off too. much so here we have yeltsin was blushing slightly. let me speak officers gave its. reporters got ready to records but korsakoff head of security covered the camera and said no filming here but he said i'm warning you that if one frame compromising boris yeltsin is published you'll have to deal with me would you to me and then he said he pushed.

the president's employees stayed there for another twenty four ls to bring everything to warda the warden stepped on much the silk returned home depressed still more for sure as a whole it was very painful. we could already feel that the disintegration of the soviet union was a real blow to us all it was uncertain and frightening. step in must to see ok and his colleagues watched the end of the story on t.v. screens in less than a months when the soviet union flag was lowered on the kremlin for good. events seen on t.v. during the decade that followed proved even more dramatic. those

were very hard times. are all that happened part is greatly. today most employees of the viscously residents who happened to witness those events are retired. forest woodlands is no longer reserved for the elite from different countries come here most of them clueless to the fact that it was in this place where twenty years ago the fate of the u.s.s.r. was decided in less than twenty four hours it was there new information was here we know about it but. in this country. what was the ultimate effect of the events in a forest in december ninety ninety one. the start of a whole new game with new rules. in the back of

a dying empire. disputes about this. just these twenty years.