now they came to the surface in the republic of moldova for example where moldova needs and russians came into direct conflict. the result was a new border with in moldova itself which was heavily guarded and could only be crossed with a visa. the fourteenth formerly soviet now russian army played an important role in its creation. it was stationed in the city of terraced boy and it stayed there in spite of moldova's declaration of independence the russians were now foreigners on foreign territory but only recently in their home. the conflict was sparked by a dispute over the official language of the new state russian the unifying language of the old soviet union was to be replaced by romanian russian such as vladimir a ton truck felt discriminated against. what it was doing it was many interpreted this rebirth of national consciousness in their own way. instead of cultivating its culture its uniqueness its roots and its language a repulsive nationalism arose. in the republic of moldova this nationalism expressed itself in such a way that people were judged by their origins. we live

moldova and belarus are trying to handle both moscow and brussels we see for example that the president off belarus lucas tankless not attending today the summit and observers say this might be a reason to show moscow very his loyalties lies catherine martins there in brussels thank you very much in while that summit could be overshadowed by another meeting in brussels today british prime minister theresa may will talk to you present donald tusk to try to close the deal on bragg's that divorce terminals british media are reporting that may could be willing to pay up to forty billion euros for her country's outstanding obligations but still far short of the e.u. is estimate of sixty billion to science three weeks to agree with or they can move on to discussing post regs that train. and before we go just a reminder of the top story that we're following for you here today on the news ceremonies are getting underway in zimbabwe as the nation prepares to inaugurate a new president emerson god wot is due to take the oath of office shortly as zimbabweans look forward to a new era with robert m

. —— moldova. it is all about closer ties with the eu.nsive and enhanced relationship agreement signed at the summit. it is an in—depth agreement. it isa summit. it is an in—depth agreement. it is a novelty. 0ther summit. it is an in—depth agreement. it is a novelty. other than that, no big political announcement should be expected. 0nly more practical items on the agenda that will hopefully benefit the citizens of six eastern partnership countries. as far as belarus is concerned, their president was invited for the first time to come to the summit. this is the fifth summit. however, he refused to come. so, we are expecting most probably to have leaders of five eastern partnership countries. is this about eventually welcoming more countries into the eu oi’ welcoming more countries into the eu or is that not on the agenda at the moment given brexit? the membership perspective is not on the agenda. this is something that three of the eastern partnership countries ask for, ukraine, moldova, and georgia. aviva —— they say this is a decision t

countries and peoples were divided by heated debates about whether they were russian and ukrainian moldova nor chechen. one example was trying . a small breakaway region that grew up in response to disputes about the new language in the republic of moldova. but. guys there's an old proverb where you start to divide the land where you start to divide language blood will flow from a visit to your circle. a lot of blood has flowed in the years since the soviet empire the center braided. in twenty fourteen war broke out in ukraine former brothers in arms founding members of the soviet union are now bitterly fighting each other. it's as if the decades they shared had never existed. for savers reverse it. this is the other if you'd asked me two years ago whether russia would attack ukraine i've said no. the kremlin in moscow was the soviet union's nerve center since the very beginning. the lines are still on in the kremlin people used to say with a mixture of calm and worry. the strongman in the kremlin has always been the country's sole ruler at the moment it's blood in the pudding a man who kn

states and by john armenia moldova bell rose georgia you know the former soviet republics which border one of the european union and the almost top and trying to make an image of russia out of them i mean officially at this summit they said that this is not directed against russia but i think there is a me the prime minister of britain who had a very strong food no to this you know here's what she said we must be open to the actions of hostile states like russia which threaten these european potential and attempt to tear apart our collective strength. you know what i just feel really remarkable about that is that the forces within the e.u. itself are tearing itself apart no one no one has to push it along all you need to do is watch go ahead you know. somebody will travel at home and there she needs a boogie man to blame it on and it's a good. time is always a good point because if we had limits i am sorry but there's another point you know britain actually can't that worse relationship with the soviet union during the cold war and then the americans so it's no surprise that london to

going to fight a nutty ok and they required ukraine and moldova to fight against russian influence but they didn't promise even the remote possibility of your membership mr john called you opening the summit said that this is not on day gender and what that is in may what she said was it was especially its tone and for me talking about atlanticist ideology she said we should not underestimate the enduring attraction of western society it to the post soviet state. we should not even underestimate the urine attraction of prince mohammed bin so i want to form a friedman no will fight them attraction should be underestimated but at the rig of course to the people there thousands of lives the ukrainian disaster was actually the result of east. eastern neighborhood should be you if they were the main driver stop them i don't know how you would be an adult said alina just trying to we are the prime ministers of all european country as the e.u. countries have to meet and spend these in there is discussing how to shut. the poor people here i mean you know where the master brought here i want to

initiative called of the eastern partnership of the six countries taking part in the program ukraine moldova and georgia already have free trade deals with the european union our correspondent nick connelly went to georgia to see what impact those changes are having. it's here at the foot of the caucasus mountains just a stone's throw from georgia's border with russia that scientists believe that wine was first produced some eight thousand years ago today one of the country's third biggest export. german unsure when winds now fills about one and a half million bottles year ninety percent of it brick sport western europe used to be the firm's biggest market but that's not changing fast this. example you know if all of the warnings for why china. this goes. on and. china adopting e.u. standards has opened doors and not just in europe other countries are taking notice of georgian wine but what does the country's free trade deal with the e.u. meant in practical terms for day to day business. our board is here and all and. it's march better for to make business for european countries same standar

initiative called the eastern partnership of the six countries taking part in the program ukraine moldova and georgia already have free trade deals with the european union correspondent nick connolly went to georgia to see what impact those changes. it's here at the force of the caucasus mountains just a stone's throw from georgia's border with russia that scientists believe line was first produced some eight thousand years ago. today wine is the country's third biggest export german owned short man winds now fill about one and a half million bottles a year ninety percent of it for exports western europe used to be the firm's biggest market but that's not changing fast is followed out of six hundred both coasts up here oh it's all of the heart for export and good wines go to china market this goes to kazakhstan and from kazakhstan border both to china. adopting e.u. standards has opened doors and not just in europe other countries are taking notice of georgian wine the winery manager tells us how a free trade deal with the e.u. has affected day to day business our borders are easy and all

there has been an agreement with georgia, moldova and ukraine which includes the most important areasexport and import market for ukraine, as the jan, georgia and moldova, and the second biggest market for armenia and belarus. and the major investor in each of them. our achievements are bringing people, businesses and countries closer together in a very concrete way. in short, we are reuniting europe step—by—step. later today, we will be signing an ambitious, comprehensive partnership agreement with armenia. while negotiations on the new agreement with as the jan are ongoing. we are also developing relations with the netherlands. when it comes to our future, we agreed on new political and economic objectives we wanted to reach by 2020. we want to reinforce the partnership, cooperation in a number of specific area such as small and medium—sized enterprises, the digital economy, broadband investments and investment in transport, energy and infrastructure projects. the list is long. above all, we want to strengthen links between our citizens and give more support to civil society. in the

because it would help putin to justify some of the stunning crimea in done by us in moldova in georgia. . the currents don't live in a universe by themselves and instead of paying attention to those who. telling them. that this move would not go over well they decided to ignore that. and to proceed anyway and the consequences have been devastating for their prospective. then yes i thank you very much in days. now the lebanese prime minister saad hariri says he intends to return to his country was in two days harry made comments fights which set. speculation mounts that he is being held against his will in saudi arabia. it's been ten days since lebanon's prime minister resigned unexpectedly from saudi arabia. and many lebanese still believe he's being held against his will in riyadh's. hoping to dispel the rumors hariri now insists he'll return home. treating. did all i am well and god willing i will return in the next two days. that's relaxing my family remain in that country the good kingdom of saudi arabi. well hariri was squeezing from the saudi capital in paris lebanon's top diplom

not just states that have been invited to attend you've got the leaders from ukraine georgia and moldova armenia. so pretty much any country bordering russia gotten the invite so hardly surprising that talk turned to russia pretty quickly what some people might find surprising though is the level of the u.k.'s involvement in these european issues given that the u.k. is currently actively trying to negotiate its way out of the european union nevertheless the u.k. at this summit is pledging one hundred million pounds to counter what they call russian dissin from ation in eastern europe and there's a further fifteen million pounds being pledged from london in order to fund reform and security in eastern europe too and this whole russia as a threat line isn't new to reason may has become quite vocal on this issue she used an important for foreign policy speech last week to say that she knew what when russia was up to and she issued a warning to vladimir putin saying that his attempts to undermine western democratic values won't work through things like meddling in elections and planting . fa

portugal have beat moldova yet— zero.e has pledged lyon against barcelona. will spark this prague, montpelier will play chelsea and manchester city will play the swedish champions, who have never been part of the last eight. belgium and france are level after the first day of the davis cup final. david goffin beat lucas pouille. that end the run of three defeats to the frenchman, given belgium the best possible start as they hope to end what has been a 16 year run of three defeats to the frenchman, given belgium the best possible start as they hope to end what has been a 16 year brands without ever winning the title. jo—wilfried tsonga —— jo—wilfried tsonga did manage to win his game. the frenchman dropping just six games in the match. the international olympic committee has given for more russian athletes life bans for doping violations. the most high—profile of these is the bobsleigh athlete alexander's took off. it means roger have now lost nine medals, including four of their 13 golds from the games, which they hosted

countries attending the summit the leaders of ukraine georgia moldova armenia is obama john bella ruth they're all there to pretty much any country bordering russia was invited so perhaps not very surprising that talk has quickly turned to russia and although what might be surprising is the level of the u.k.'s involvement in these very sort of european issues given that we know that parallel to this the u.k. is actively trying to negotiate its way out of the european union but at the same time the u.k. has pledged one hundred million pounds they going to be announcing at this summit one hundred million pounds to counter russian dissin from asian in eastern europe they've also pledged fifty million pounds to fund reform and security in eastern europe as well and as you said this isn't the first time to reason may has broached the subject of russia or that she's been vocal about russia over the past couple of weeks she has become quite concerned and vocal in her condemnation of so-called russian meddling she used a very important foreign policy speech just a couple of weeks ago to issue

the cooperation to create stronger economies and governance and belarus moldova ukraine georgia armenia and azerbaijan the meeting with european union leaders there ukraine is marking four years since the my don protests that swept away the regime of victory on a coach and it has high hopes of moving towards membership. walking the streets of kiev if you could be forgiven for thinking that ukraine was already a fully signed up member of the european union. this week ukraine marks four years since protests here on my ten square swept president viktor yushchenko beach from office but before you left for exile in russia his crackdown on protesters claimed the lives of at least one hundred people. the spark that ignited those protests was europe under pressure from russia president jenna covert shocked many when he refused to sign the long awaited a u.s.o.c. ation deal. the man who called people out onto the square with mustafa nyima then a journalist for the skipper of the newspaper is angry facebook post set the ball rolling and brought hundreds of people out to protest for years on a nai

that you don't see a physical presence of the central government in any form not in the presence of moldova i'm not in the presence of any political gesture to the people so we're in something of a vacuum phase in terms of what you see what action is being taken is through the law and through preparations for elections something that the politicians here the local politicians say privately that this was a small move by the way on a roll what they say wasn't so small was jailing all awaiting trial the main leaders of this whole secession movement so that is something that they predict will count against the government the central government they think it will backfire calling calling elections on the same time jailing those who would be possibly the winners of the elections. so i'm sure i'm lunching with the amount of its people behind you whether that's just the picture in barcelona but more generally in catalonia has the idea of independence diminished in people's eyes or is it becoming more popular. i think you'd be very brave to give a temperature test on that right now there are opinion

partnership bill discuss how to cooperate further to create stronger economies and governance and bellicose moldova ukraine georgia armenia and azerbaijan ukraine is just one of those countries with high hopes of moving towards membership meanwhile that summit could be overshadowed by another meeting in brussels today a british prime minister theresa may will talk to you president donald tusk to try to close the deal on brags that divorce terms british media reports say may could be willing to pay up to forty billion euros for her country's outstanding obligations but that is still far short of the estimate of sixty billion the two sides have three weeks to agree before they can move on to discussing post brags that trade. here in germany the president is pressuring the social democrats to reconsider whether to join a coalition government with chancellor angela merkel and her conservative party s.p.d. leader martin shows us so far ruled it out but other leading social democrats say they are open to dialogue they say the party has a duty to the nation to help end the deadlock. the man of the moment

national interest that ukraine should belong to the russian protectorate as well as belarus and probably moldova the whole of trans caucasian should be our protectorate as well from the. pentagon our from the newspaper novaya gazeta is known for is critical and often ironic take on russia's leadership but. that's why russia will never let go of ukraine we've got our teeth into it like a bulldog if the west accepts this if there's a yell to two agreement then we'll work with europe. the two thousand and eight nato summit in bucharest was dominated by the question of eastern and large meant russia's objections split the alliance. in the end a compromise was found georgia and ukraine were fobbed off with a promise of nato membership some time in the future. meanwhile a longstanding conflict at the border between russia and georgia was heating up. ever since the end of the soviet union two regions a conduit and south ossetia had been seeking independence from georgia in two thousand and eight people living on the border became pawns in a bigger game. to do something i get a my burnt out houses over

they also lobbied on behalf of interests in azerbaijan, iraq, south sudan, beyond mark, india, moldovament of vietnam, among others. according to our sources they were unofficially lobbying for the sultan of brunei, and autocrat accused of human rights abuses. in each case the podesta group made the case for those countries in front of american members of congress and their staffs. which members did they talk to? what did they get in return? we don't know. because as we said, congress won't tell us. they don't have to. they make the laws. we do know the scale of foreign lobbying in washington is breathtaking. in 2013, that the last year for which we have numbers, the top ten highest spending countries at the top 10 million was spent by live washington, d.c. around the world, foreign interests know the fastest to wy to get things done is to pay for it, and boy did they pay for it. just count in russia and other post-soviet states, at least 440 clients of high representation here in washington are lobbyists. of that figure does not include entities that fail to register, as some of the m

initiative called the eastern partnership of the six countries taking part in the program ukraine moldova and georgia already have free trade deals with the european union our correspondent nick colony went to georgia to see what impact those changes are having it's here at the force of the caucasus mountains just a stone's throw from georgia's border with russia that scientists believe line was first produced some eight thousand years ago. today wine is the country's third biggest export german owned short man winds now fill about one and a half million bottles a year ninety percent of it for exports western europe used to be the firm's biggest market but that's not changing fast these fires started six hundred photos up there oh it's all of the parts for export and before i go to china. this goes to kazakhstan and from kazakhstan border both to try and know. adopting e.u. standards has opened doors and not just in europe other countries are taking notice of georgian wine the winery manager tells us how our free trade deal with the e.u. has affected day to day business our border is here

issues all right don't arca a back and thank you very much indeed for talking politics to us from our moldova. now factory explosion has killed at least two people in eastern china have an evening that's in a part of the city that had already been cleared for demolition the same news agency sheehan was says the blast calls some buildings to collapse and more deaths are feared around thirty people have so far been taken to hospital flights to and from the indonesian island of bali have been disrupted after a volcano erupted for the second time in a week mount argonne sense maybe fifteen hundred metres into the sky it's been tumbling rumbling even since september keeping around twenty five thousand people from going back to their homes the last major eruption was in one thousand nine hundred sixty three and killed more than a thousand people. we'll have the weather that with everton still to come here in. the moderate in honduras is one of the highest in the world we look at data. concerning heading to the. position in abu dhabi not coming up. through tranquil. and if. the weather is looking nu

brought tangible results free trade that's visa free travel so the things that the people in ukraine in moldova and in georgia really have seen happen in the last few years there are a few countries under this tent as you put it to are not seeking the same type of closeness with the e.u. as ukraine is tell us more about that. i think the only thing these countries really share is their soviet past and location between the european union or russia beyond that they've all developed on very different trajectories you have better routes which some held very large scale military exercise with the russians on the nato nato is border you have azerbaijan a country that has been ruled by the same family for the last two decades since independence so i think it's not recent prizing to see that given their very different legal traditions they're really not all interest in the same things from the european union how is moscow reacting to this partnership is it seen by the kremlin as a threat i think definitely has been seen as an encroachment on moscow's backyard as it were and we've seen a whole variety o

france, germany, moldova, it is happening all over. what is it designed to do? breakdown, fundamentally breakdown those elements in our governments that prevent the accumulation and abuse of power. that is what it is about. and, by the way, i promise you, i promise you you are going to soon see how extensive it has been. heading upbody facebook to say "i've no responsibility," input out ads so sophisticated where they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, with no identification. russian out it is government-sponsored ads to try to affect the outcome of an election. it may be the democrats today. republicans tomorrow that are targeted. doesn't matter. so, it is one of the things i predict you are going to do negotiate. what are the legitimate, if there are any legitimate constraints as it relates to the dissemination of information and those entities that are within the united states jurisdiction. it is really, i think, you guys are going to spend more time in the next 10 years on that then giving someelse reasonable prospect that at i