today latvia is a target of russian disinformation. attempt to distort reality here by spreading fake news to sow doubt, confusion. russia's objective, to discredit a new european democracy on its border. and here is one example of what appears to be russian disinformation. this website is called baltnews. it is in russian, it is aimed at ethnic russians across the baltic but it is part of a news organisation which is bankrolled by the kremlin. what kind of stories does it put out? here is one. listen to this. among latvians, it says, adolf hitler is more popular than harry potter. hitler's mein kampf tops readers‘ book choice in latvia. astonishing. so the impression you get when you read this is that in latvia in an eu country nazi ideology is thriving. and this story was picked up and republished by a whole string of other news sites. but is it really true? i'm off to investigate. my first stop is latvia's largest book—seller. harry is here. but i can't find hitler. perhaps the company director can help me. how many copies of mein k

in the territory such programs have no place in latvia or elsewhere in the e.u. personally i've looked all over fairbairns watched r.t. arabic with subtitles tried r.t. spanish i even checked behind attorneys and know nothing just cables the very evidence that latvia has the literally made up then didn't try very hard perhaps it was just before the end of the working day that everyone iching to go home see there's a number of news agencies and russia hauled but i see a civil order which translates to english as russian today and this organization is led by a fellow who's on european sanctions list this organization by the way has nothing to do with r t that's been our name for more than a decade we're r t and they're right here seaboard even our names are in different languages but the latvian special agent or official is other than easily scared apparently a lazy thing given that conciliar over is subject to sanctions throughout the u. the national electronic media council will inform media regulators in other e.u. countries of the decision taken and considers t

channels pulled off air in latvia which claims the network is controlled by someone on the blacklist even though he actually heads up a completely different news agency as we explain. good morning my name is kevin over here in moscow is just to learn when you're watching r t international and it's news from russia this dominating our coverage this hour is just mentioned it is the final day of the week of voting that's been taking place across russia on proposed changes to the country's constitution while many of already had their say by voting online today president putin has declared this day a national holiday so low voters who haven't yet done so a chance to cast their ballot. so it's a package of more than $140.00 of moments is pretty complicated many adding social legal and economic guarantees to the constitution now one ensures the minimum wage would not be lower than the cost of living another secures no new law just meant to maintain the value of pensions and allowances and that also be tougher requirements too for civil servants such as burning key officials from having fore

interrogations on condition that they will not leave latvia that after the journalists were charged with violating e.u. sanctions from cos that have has more to temps. over now at the moment is that they've been accused of violating personal european union sanctions against the c.e.o. of russia's the receipt of the news agency any tricky still for now the russian foreign ministry they have already reacted to what's happening in riga and they said that latvia's crackdown on russian speaking journalists under the pretext of the violation of the u. . sanctions is absolutely unacceptable the foreign ministry said that the e.u. restrictions are all of a personal nature against mr gissin and they cannot apply to just about everyone who cooperates with the news outlets that are under his management and they consider the aggressive actions of. security service a blatant example of violating the foundations for democratic society which is freedom of media and expression it is a completely punitive action which leaves no doubt about the use of 4 big subtext of the fabricated accusations you w

locked on nuisance several baltic states create their own travel bubble citizens of lithuania and latvia and estonia can take advantage of their country's prick response to the pandemic. also on the show it can be only going 1st that once they got their tails to become the 1st major sports league to restart its season during the global pandemic officials note every single step will be scrutinized. by merely for the most unwelcome the u.s. justice department has asked a judge to drop its criminal case against president although struck donald trump's former national security adviser michael flynt and 2017 flynn pleaded guilty to lying to f.b.i. officials during an independent investigation into russia's interference in the 26000 presidential election the move from the justice department comes as flynn was attempting to withdraw that p.t. earlier i asked our washington correspondent stephanie what reaction he's hurt since the justice department's vote. well of course across the political spectrum this is very different right now republicans are seeing this as far as early indications seem t

the these outlets themselves they don't appear on any sanctions in this stole what is happening in latvia right now still remains to be determined hopefully will builders and there's a waiting game and i can see what happened thanks for coming in rome on thank you. let's go to a gash now to an hour and a veteran international reporter and political commentator thank you for joining us on the program are you surprised to hear journalists being cianci from violating sanctions against the boss. well you know 1 may argue for and mostly against the very idea of sanctions and boy caught and then secondary boycott this is not a very fruitful measure in international relations but yes once you have such a punitive measure in place then to go ahead and try to punish journalists working for the sanctioned persons this should not be an accepted norm and you know state affiliated media. are all over in the united states in israel in many other places what is the army radio in israel what is the b.b.c. what is the voice of america if one starts treating journalists. other then media persons just becau

restraint 3 baltic states have agreed to create a free travel within the european union this in year latvia and estonia will reopen their shared borders allowing free movement from country to country for their citizens it all starts next week. you reported stacy bivins joins me now for more so a lot of the countries have. eased their restrictions for their own citizens so why do these 3 baltic states why have they decided to open their borders for each other but only they say now is the time to move toward a more normal life lithuania latvia estonia all took early steps when the krona virus came to europe to responsibly they say and quickly slow the spread and for example lithuania declared a state of emergency in late february and then immediately shut the entire country down lot in a stone year on the same day mark we're on march 13th. institut it states of a of emergency and as you know this is weeks ahead of the united states and united kingdom which will lead 1st and 2nd and coronavirus cases and when you look at this region of these 3 baltic states and all and total there's about $600

what's happening in riga and they said that latvia's crackdown on russian speaking journalists under the pretext of the violation of a huge sanctions is absolutely unacceptable the foreign ministry also said that the e.u. restrictions are all of a personal nature against mr kissel off and they cannot apply to just about everyone who cooperates with the news outlets that are on there his managements and they consider the aggressive actions of. security service a blatant example of violating the foundations for democratic society which is freedom of media and expression it is a completely punitive action which leaves no doubt about the roof or big subtext of the fabricated accusations now the accused journalists and their colleagues certainly. outraged and mind you this is a criminal indictment against germany against journalists and they're being persecuted for coal parading with a russian news outlets now that crackdown on the russian speaking latvian journalist. well it had all of the intimidating attributes and features and there were searches and homes and places of work there was

latvia a member of the e.u. and among the poorest 5 of that union made a dramatic move to ban our t.v. and the various languages it broadcast under from their airwaves the n. national electronic mass media council of latvia claims that r t was led by a person being sanctioned by the union one mr dimitri kissel of and now just moments ago that any p.l.p. just realized their mistake as r.t. is headed by a woman named margarita simonyan and she issued this statement about the mix up she said quote. latvian intelligence believes that r.t.d. is headed by dimitri castle yet of american intelligence believes that a program i hosted in 2011 on a local russian channel influenced the u.s. election for addition teligent believes the script polls were poisoned by and petro so that's good news she went on to say that with such intelligence services russia has little to worry about so here to weigh in on the european front former u.k. m.p. george galloway so george i did not originally intend for this to be a comical segment

russian foreign ministry they have already reacted to what's happening in riga and they said that latvia's crackdown on russian speaking journalists under the pretext of the violation of a huge sanctions is absolutely unacceptable the foreign ministry also said that the e.u. restrictions are all of a personal nature against mr kissel off and they cannot apply to just about everyone who cooperates with the news outlets that are on there his managements and they consider the aggressive actions of this security service a blatant example of violating the foundations for democratic society which is freedom of media and expression it is a completely punitive action which leaves no doubt about the use of phobic subtext of the fabricated accusations you would think a crackdown on dissent violation of the fundamental principles of freedom of speech with total incompatible with the status of an enlightened european state but that's the case and that the complaint before so dissenting media is gaining momentum now the accused journalists and their colleagues certainly. outraged and mind you this is a

after all of that was done the journalists were released but they were asked to stay in latvia enough to leave the country and of course sign a non-disclosure agreement sputnik had a statement about this as well the long term citizens who are accused of violating the sanctions regime because of their work for the risk. civil with news agency because it's a lot of lithuania and estonia the agency subject to the personal sanctions of the imposed on the agency's general director joins ricky sort of in $24.00 scene now russian mission and the sea they also expressed their concern they tweeted out saying this is another flagrant violation by rigo of the o.e.c.d. commitments on freedom of speech and access to information persecution of russian speaking journalists in the baltic countries is not something new for example just the end of last year going into this year sputnik. there journalists were forced to break their contracts with sputnik because this tony and police were threatening them with jail terms of up to 5 years so basically they were forced to resign and the police also cited t

has banned these channels it's what latvia is also doing latvia is actually encouraging urging other european nations to follow its own example and that of course really can't be allowed because it's basically banning r.t. for incorrect reason and i would hope that a strong legal challenge is made against the not being brokaw civil authorities on this all male some say this is down to russia 5 here in the west particularly in the baltic nations to the same tradition that oh absolutely i mean russia phobia unfortunately ace it's a kind of the last i've called it in various articles the last acceptable form of racism in the west that you can put out any outlandish the most outlandish conspiracy theories involving russia only a couple of days ago the one coming out from america unnamed sources said that the russian military units put bounties on the heads of american soldiers in afghanistan unsourced yet again run with a lot of a lot of news outlets ran with that newspapers like the washington post new york times ran with that that was a conspiracy theory by any but by any definition of

in 2017 i visited latvia and lithuania to observe the u.s. army's europe operations saber strike exercise. the michigan national guard regularly participates in this exercise as latvia's counterpart as you know. similarly, latvia and forces participate in the michigan national guard northern strike exercise which is a joint multinational exercise hosted in michigan. the latvian military particularly benefits from this training in michigan because it offers an opportunity for them to certify as jtax and latvia is one of only eight allied countries certified to call in close united states air support in combat. the latvian military is built around integrating reserve and irregular forces as a major component of their national defense strategy. my question to you, sir, could you discuss how you tailor these reserve forces and specifically the state partnership with our national guard and how integral that is to all of this? >> senator, i can. first of all, for the baltics writ large, the insertion of the four battalion size battle groups into es

journalists from russia link to news outlets are released after questioning in latvia i am told they can't leave the country will tell you why and here reaction after this this is art international. seem wrong will just don't call. me. yet to see a palette these days become educated and in detroit because of the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the . those in the big community are extremely positive about the future because big coin solves a lot of problems we face because of money because of central banks even though the nation state itself as a unit of governance has kind of outgrown its useful. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. come back czar t. international now employees of 2 russia affiliated news agencies have been released from interrogation on condition they don't leave lot via the journalist from ball to news and sputnik a lot via were charged with violating sanctions or mancow sort of has more. all we

speaker, this declaration here refused to recognize the soviet annexation of estonia and latvia.his lasted five decades this. declaration enabled the baltic states maintain free diplomatic missions, and with this protected baltic financial assets. today the united states joins estonia, latvia, and lithuania in remembering this declaration and recommitting ourselves to peace, democratcy, freedom, and the rule of law. subsequently their entrance into nato and the european union assures them of being part of the family of western democracies. thank you, mr. speaker. ie. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from massachusetts, miss strahan, for five minutes. mrs. trahan: thank you, mr. speaker. walking the halls of the united states capitol this week has felt different. like a piece of what makes this institution great is msi he is. that this body and our country will never be the same without our guiding light, our moral compass, congressman john lewis. i have never known someone to be more devoted to our nation than john lewis. he demonstrated that devotion

the australian prime minister makes it clear there's a recruiting team going out, get to latvia. why? because the latvians are white, the latvians are protestant, the latvians are reliably anti-communist and the latvians had only arrived unlike the polls and the jews , they had only arrived in germany at the end of the war and they were relatively healthy. they had suffered the ravages of the war. the jewish dividers of the polish forced labor's. and it was felt that they were hard workers. no country on earth one of the jews. and they didn't want the jews again for a variety ofreasons . they weren't reasons, a variety of myths, misconceptions . they regarded the jews as unwilling to do hard manual labor. as scoundrels, as rogues, as thieves and worse yet, as bolshevik sympathizers or operatives. so from 1947 to 1948 as the latvians and estonians were resettled outside of the camps, the jews were left. the only way for the jews to get out of those camps was through illegal immigration. to palestine. the british tried to stop the ships that left from marseille and from italian por

i guess allowed since travels with his unique invention every which way across latvia. the designer loves to delve into nature quite literally. having a little camper that you can take into water like this on a sunny sunny day like this is it's just amazing. it gives yeah the sense of freedom really i mean that's the it's the most most fun about it. a lot being designed as an invention is the houseboat cycle just a few quick tweaks and the bicycle tanks into a boat it's power to buy an electric outboard motor and has room for 2 people and a 4 legged companion. i guess allowed to spend several years working on this prototype. so the special thing about the boat money so. it's a little micro house so it's you know the how much slides over. and you can stay on the lake overnight it's equipment lights to use to be charging ports so it's a tiny tiny little house on the water so you know there's nothing there's nothing like that. to him it's the most beautiful way of communing with nature. and i think i like the peace. of the sense of. connectedness and a sense of belonging t

latvia, 77,000 people. just several hundred latvian jews, of lithuania. latvia, 77,000 people.ination of people and nazis had installed the same fate for many other nations. russians, bela russians, ukrainians, other nationalities were declared as inferior people and their lands were supposed to become living space for nazis to provide them with a co mforta ble nazis to provide them with a comfortable existence whereas slavonic nations were condemned to be exterminated or reduced to having no voice of their own, culture or language. back then, 1945, the end to these barbaric plans was put first and foremost by the soviet nation, as brought freedom to the fatherland and freedom to europe. we paid a terrible price. we had to sacrifice 27 million people. that was the price of victory. the memory of the holocaust will only become a lesson and a warning if it is comprehensive and integral with no cuts or omissions. the memory of war right now falls victim to often to political interests which is inadmissible. the duty of current politicians, political leaders and statesman is to pro

human rights chief has condemned the use of force, and poland and latvia have offered to mediate, buthey warned sanctions could be imposed if the violent crackdown continues. people have been arrested during three rights in rallies against the landslide victory of president lukashenko. some say the vote was rigged. many of them have been detained or forced to leave the country, including the main candidate. lukashenko got around 80% of the vote. he has been in power since 1994 and is considered by many as europe's last dictator. we have the latest, from minsk. the fate worried about of their friends and loved ones, cries of support without knowing. hang in there. you are our hero, they screamed. some calling out for their sons and daughters, wives looking for their husbands. after days of arrests, many are still missing. a 17-year-old boy was arrested while sitting on a bench in the city center. he said he was severely beaten. >> the police came with six men and started to beat me, and then they beat me even more and sprayed something in my face that caused burning. they did not help

to a little way mia latvia poland and unfortunately our d. ukraine and its leadership ordering us to hold new elections. that if we follow their lead we will fall into the abyss and never get out house in order to send them since. we will perish as a state agency. and as a people move they did really good this he goes ok. as the internal pressure continues international concern grows with the e.u. to hold an emergency summit about belarus on wednesday. let's get the latest on the story now we have our correspondents standing by for us your ear chateau is in moscow and recruit is in brussels good to have you both very i want to start with you we saw those images of workers striking in protesting but at the same time president lukashenko does not seem to be backing down at all tell us more about what we've heard from him well assuming from all official and less official statements by ticks on the shango that you have in the past few days and today one message is very clear he doesn't want to give up his power he repeated this yesterday as a ral

latvia said the reason was e.u. sanctions being aimed at dimitri kissel of who runs the russia today news agency that's lot r.t. despite the similarity in names at the lithuanian regulator confirmed the decision was not about violations made by r.t. but because of is under sanctions because love him self is said the ban by latvia makes no legal sense and the authorities are blinded but russophobia more news after a short break. ah no team no crowd. no shots. action just felt. no 1st. points your thirst for action. is your media a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe from. isolation or community. are you going the right way or are you being led. to direct. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. or a maid in the shallows. britain has announced it is resuming arms exports to saudi arabia that's despite admitting they are sometimes used in war crimes in yemen. the undertaking that my predecessor gave to the court that we wo