Russia: The Empire Strikes Back full BBC documentary

it's stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the fringes of Western Europe the Soviet empire seems invincible [Music] but in 1989 the Iron Curtain came crashing down and Moscow's Empire began to crumble today's Russia once to forget about 1989 but 30 years on Russia is reasserting itself and flexing military muscle outside its borders the main problem Russia is that they still believe in the idea of a sphere so infants there are fears of new flashpoints in Europe the Baltic has become one of the front lines of what feels like a new Cold War as Russia pushes for greater influence I asked its leader how he sees his country he saw us begin presidental after the literacy of love chefs Tara I'm on a journey that will take me back to 1989 and across Europe to find out what it was like for Moscow to lose an empire and what Russia is doing to rebuild its power [Music] Moscoe it's a city that oozes Empire from the skyscrapers of Joseph Stalin to the residents of the Czar's the message is unmistakable this is a country with ambition throughout its history Russia has had an unswerving belief in its own greatness [Music] you could see that in the Kremlin this is stunning look at this this says power omnipotent this says Empire by the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire spanned one-sixth of the surface of the world inside the Kremlin you can really feel the Imperial ambition which is driven Russia for centuries for example all these double-headed Eagles Russia's national emblem that symbol is straight out of the Byzantine Empire and over there you can see the throne of the Russian Emperor the Russian Tsar that word Tsar comes from Caesar the Roman Empire until this day there are Russians who will tell you that the natural successor to the great empires of Rome and Constantinople is Moscow brushin Emma was a normal country Russians do not know how to live in a normal country Russia was built as an empire Russia has existed as an empire because the essence is we are great we have to have areas of influence and we have to have buffer states between ourselves and the outside world so this is an empire it was communist Russia that would acquire the mother of all buffer zones in World War two as the red army pushed Hitler's troops back Central and Eastern Europe fell under Moscow's control on paper most of these countries were independent in reality the Kremlin called the shots in what was now the Soviet empire as cold war set in this buffer zone not only gave Moscow a sense of security it made it a superpower until 1989 this was the year people moved down the Iron Curtain across Europe communist regimes fell like dominoes even parts of the Soviet Union itself were now openly defying the Kremlin submit is indeed a fuckton commentary to the most thing in four months viewed from Moscow these events were earth-shattering you could feel a giant Empire tearing of the seams in 1989 I was a student in Moscow I was studying Russian here and I can remember that every night I'd sit down to watch the television news what I saw what millions of viewers here saw was truly remarkable the Soviet empire falling apart piece by piece could what happen then explain Russia now I've spent nearly 30 years living and working in Moscow and what I see is a country that's still struggling to come to terms with the loss of its empire people often ask me why does modern Russia do what it does why does it meddle in other countries elections and launch cyber attacks against the West why does Moscow seem so keen to play the role of geopolitical spoiler I think that the key to deciphering Vladimir Putin's Russia lies in 1989 to understand today's Russia first you need to understand what Moscow lost 30 years ago what it lost in terms of power and prestige in terms of empire there was one place in Europe where Moscow found its loss of Empire especially painful [Music] [Music] [Laughter] in what was communist East Berlin there is a Soviet War Memorial and a cemetery 7,000 Red Army soldiers are buried here in total the Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War two that scale of sacrifice Moscow believed gave it the moral right to make part of Germany part of the Soviet empire so what it says here is eternal glory to the soldiers of the Soviet Army who gave their lives in the battle to liberate humanity from the slavery of fascism in other words it was the Red Army that saved the world [Music] [Music] Moscow turned East Germany into a fortress today there is something ghostly about the Soviet legacy red army bases lie abandoned haunted by memories of communism monuments to a fallen superpower this is one store near Berlin it was used by the Nazis and then seized by the Soviets it was the Red Army's largest base outside the USSR the soldiers called it little Moscow East Germans knew it as the Forbidden City the scale of the Soviet military presence in East Germany was staggering there were 800 Garrison's here and half a million Soviet troops but then again for Moscow this was its key outpost in Europe and it's East German comrades were happy to play host visit songs Martin the Jetsons mafia via ham deserve a decent workman's on TV thorium Emma I'll find a bit crafted he Bravo slant he flipped it is a via Tony on the survey the neon had a navigator data understand on this area the unit Lyda off I'm stabbed a better data a Gaston the wounds Dollface feel suspended in time there are places here where the Soviet past comes to life oh wow look at this this is amazing this says Berlin operation 1945 this shows the Red Army's last major offensive at the end of World War two so these arrows this is the Soviet troops advancing on Berlin communist Russia thought its ideas its ideology would bind East Germany to Moscow forever but it was wrong [Music] when the Berlin Wall fell everything changed [Applause] within a year East and West Germany and the United Moscow agreed to withdraw its troops Ostrom bolshoi history scanners privately with sister briefly we missed you oh well you made me stronger kotora - la us no no Claude Roger grown fascism was la tía Stella see what Bruce and Tony Eng of was the commander but one stove now he's back from Moscow for an official events commemorating Russia's withdrawal the general tells me he was the last Russian soldier to leave Germany hadiyyah-lah sudha number via Russia ple hopin apologist anata NEPA twins nervous talking lady shark about me respond via a potentially to Cochran ISM patashnik Sapporo Molotov aqua Rotom issue was was changed to make it go away [Music] the fall of the wall didn't only have consequences the Soviet soldiers but Soviet spies too in the first firearm there is the past are flooding me of routine and was his pass he could go in the starry building here and rest because he was earlier zone officer between the KGB and the Stasi in Dresden this archive keeps the records of East Germany's secret police the Stasi and the documents of KGB officers who operated here like Vladimir Putin and here we got a photo when you can find flooding with poutine yes wow it's amazing to think that this grey figure at the end went on to become president of Russia astonishing in December 1989 a crowd stormed the Stasi offices in Dresden and took control [Music] a small group of protesters moved away from the stasi building and came here this is where the KGB headquarters were and inside the building was Vladimir Putin so what did major Putin do well he telephoned the local Soviet tank commander to ask for urgent backup but the message which came back was this I've asked Moscow to sign off on that but Moscow is silent that was the moment that Vladimir Putin realized his motherland had abandoned him [Music] Etha bulla rancher study Nellie it's a stallion I read that study that it apothem Egon Krenz says that Moscow abandoned him - I meet East Germany's last communist leader back in Berlin he claims that at this meeting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev assured him German reunification wouldn't happen he accuses Gorbachev of surrendering to America via fire I'm here on 26 November and the passenger boats are terrific in their bit tilted at a four heart of this operatic meet Bush the inhalant thick rubber industry clear our that's what done some boomerang air a clear taking Eva Bush visit the mining technologies to end on push dr. on via ham in given the sized di clear ngoba troughs evil as ended s colleagues vats of like an American if edema to come to Busan didn't currently clever and attacked Lana else neither a SD telegram food [Music] it would take moscow for years to bring all its troops home [Music] but to what kind of a country were they coming back [Music] the Soviet Union had gone Russia was struggling the returning soldiers were low priority via Slav had commanded a tank battalion in Germany the sixteenth guards division its mission he says was to defend the motherland and Moscow's allies in Eastern Europe they were an elite unit but there was nothing elite about the conditions to which they returned there were no facilities there was no accommodation no way for their families to live it was almost as if they'd been forgotten in Austrailia showers with my important to speeches accepting Jesus tired of certainty artillery linear Chefs side divisions this tile about nonpolar I'll give you really yes Waggin Waggin chief Park agility establish a normal Sparkie polygon a pseudo preferred even ago very mr. shocked that it was to see mineable God Nagi semi Papa Dolly's Nikita we do recognize the prognostic [Music] you know I think that in many ways Gatos love-story encapsulate what happened to his country after 1989 the Soviet Union lists giant superpower suddenly found itself dumped on the sidelines of history and as a result Russia felt abandoned it felt lost and it felt she milli ated [Music] perhaps if the end of the Cold War and brought instant prosperity to people here then maybe this loss of status this loss of empire would have been easier to swallow but it didn't the 1990s brought economic chaos and widespread poverty so what you had here in effect was a fertile soil for any strong man promising to make Russia great again [Music] enter President Vladimir Putin he's been trying to erase the memory of Russia's humiliation and to celebrate more glorious chapters of its history like the victory in world war ii it's the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow 13,000 Russian troops marching across Red Square right now making a lot of noise it's an incredible showcase really off you modern Russian military might this isn't just about celebrating of victory in the past it's very much about the present it's about Vladimir Putin showing his people and the world that Russia has bounced back but it's a country that wants to be respected to be feared and to be counted in Vladimir Putin's Russia 1945 is at the heart of the national idea sometimes these symbols of the past make it feel as if the Kremlin dreams of bringing the Soviet Union back to life but modern Russia isn't simply reinventing the USSR its methods are different these people in the Kremlin do understand that idea of restoration of the former superpower is impossible but they have other idea and the idea is to be a blackmailer to be producer of mischief to be the grand spoiler in the world to be the nightmare for the neighbors and for the outside countries so this is the new idea of superpower and Empire it's an idea that Russia has tested close to home they call it the jewel of the Black Sea [Music] Crimean once part of the Roman Empire it failed to the ottomans then to the czars and the soviets most recently it's been part of Ukraine but the beauty belies geopolitical tension for Crimea has become a flashpoint between east and west this is why in 2014 masked soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized control of the Ukrainian Peninsula Crimea they acquired the nickname of the little green men but they were Russian Special Forces but sent in by President Putin after Ukraine's pro-western revolution at a hastily organised referendum voters backed joining Russia but the poll widely condemned wasn't internationally recognized it had taken Moscow less than a month to occupy an annex a piece of its neighbor for many Russians this was cause for celebration I first met era in Moscow back in the early 1990s she has a second home now in Crimea emotionally it means very much because just if we look back into the history I mean two or three centuries back since that times the Crimean history has always been connected with Russia in the West as you know there's a lot of criticism of Vladimir Putin for what happened here for Russia taking Crimea I am very grateful to mr. Putin and the take my head off and bow my head to mr. Putin because he saved the generations of the Crimean people from rivers of blood here they would be a war because of those extremists who might have come from the Ukraine to settle their own rules here that's what I think [Music] in sevastopol they're marking Russian Navy day and center stage is the Black Sea Fleet it's an opportunity to showcase Russian power and see what does it say since it annexed Crimea Russia has become the dominant force in the Black Sea it's upgraded its fleet more ships more weapons and new missions some of these ships have taken part in Russia's military operation in Syria after its annexation of Crimea Russia has consolidated its control here and increased its presence in the Black Sea it's using that as a springboard to project power far beyond this region into the Mediterranean the Balkans and the Middle East at NATO headquarters Russia's actions are causing alarm and disappointment at the end of the Cold War a partnership with the Kremlin seemed achievable there was even talk that Russia might one day join NATO that idea seems pie-in-the-sky now what we see is a pattern or behavior where Russia is responsible for aggressive actions against neighbors that reflects that the main problem of Russia is that they still believe in the idea of a sphere so infants of the 29 NATO countries nine of them used to be in Moscow zone of influence it's a change in the balance of power that our nerves Russia one complaint I often hear from Russian officials is that 30 years ago a promise was made by the West to Moscow that NATO would not enlarge and move closer to to Russia's borders and Russia says the West deceived Moscow first of all no such promise was made but second just the idea that Washington or a big Western allies should promise that the Moscow is an idea based on a total wrong assumption that big countries come from is something on behalf of the small countries since Russia took Crimea NATO has bolstered its forces near Russia's borders in the Baltic it strengthened its Air Policing mission from Estonians are Maori air base NATO Jets are regularly scrambled their main task is to intercept Russian planes that are approaching Estonian airspace which have failed to identify themselves over the Baltic Sea typhoon Jets intercept two Russian military aircraft and scoop them from the area this piece of Russian wants to assert their dominance over the Baltics area on land and on sea so the subtle message of tears is this is our territory keep out and our response to them is no you're wrong this is western territory NATO's territory and we are here to let you know do you really believe that Russia is a threat to Estonia as long as Russia as such does not change their stance towards the west they can be a threat to small enables [Music] Moscoe dismisses the idea that it's a threat to the baltic but nato is taking no chances after what happened in Crimea for the NATO alliance the security of the three Baltic states is a priority the Baltic has become one of the front lines of what feels like a new cold war between Russia and the West to Moscow the presence of NATO troops near its border is a direct threat to Russia's national security but NATO insists that all of this is purely defensive and a reaction to an increasingly assertive and aggressive Russia Russia's new assertiveness goes beyond its military Vladimir Putin's Kremlin has a whole range of instruments for exerting influence and one of these tools Russia employees against many European countries including Latvia in 1989 Latvia was part of the Soviet Union it's in the EU now and in NATO but Moscow still casts a shadow today Latvia is a target of Russian disinformation there is an attempt to distort reality here by spreading fake news to sow doubt confusion Russia's objective to discredit the European democracy on its border and here's one example of what appears to be Russian disinformation this website is called both news it's in Russian it's aimed at ethnic Russians across the Baltic but it's part of the news organization which is bankrolled by the Kremlin and what kind of stories does it put out well here's one listen to this among Latvian sit says adult Hitler is more popular than Harry Potter Hitler's Mein Kampf tops the 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 whole string of other news sites but is it really true I'm off to investigate my first stop is Latvia largest bookseller Harry's here but I can't find Hitler perhaps in Arlen the company director can help me how many copies of mine camp were sold in your shop say in 2018 none not a single copy not this thing go copy is it not available then in the book shops in that no what do you think about this claim then that in Latvia Adil Hitler is more popular than Harry Potter it's nonsense it's absolute fake I head across to the National Library in Riga if Latvians aren't buying mine camp then perhaps they're borrowing it now the National Library tells me that's in the last three years they've only received 39 requests for mine camp and if you look at the statistics from across the country the grand total for all the libraries in Latvia mine camp has only been requested 139 times in three years compare that to 25 thousand requests to borrow Harry Potter books I tracked out the key link to the boat news story it's Rita she runs a secondhand book website in Latvia News had based its report on data from her site now in its article both News claims that on your site mine camp has been one of the most clicked-on titles in fact there's a section on your site which shows the books which are gaining the most interest from users and until recently mine camp was right up there near the top how do you explain that they are pageviews they are not the real deals so it's interesting that for this mine come about 70% of all the clicks are anonymous clicks and if we compare with other most popular books like Harry Potter 70% are registered users so if most of the clicks for mine come for our anonymous unregistered users what does that mean they can be fake users or Internet roles or whatever how we call them fake views took to make fake news the fundamental aim of the Russian operation is undermined the other countries Russia cannot tolerate the success of the Baltics that have embraced freedoms and values of arrest and can be successful a good example is very dangerous so you should paint it [Music] fake news wants you to see what doesn't exist to skew your view of the world but examine those stories closely and you see them for what they really are a mirage of disinformation everything I've been told here proves I think that this Hitler story is 100% fake news there's just one more conversation I'd like to have though and that's with the people who published the story Balt news but the thing is Balt news doesn't have an office here in Latvia so to speak to them I'm gonna have to go back to Moscow in Moscow I've come to the headquarters of the state-run media giant Rossio see Vanya it transmits the Kremlin's view to the world both news is one of its outlets your editorial policy is the Kremlin's editorial policy right you're you're pushing the Kremlin's narrative we director Keith cover the pseudonym for my gangster if these noticed oh I said finally released generative or non solution why don't you publish a piece that says Harry Potter is much more popular in Latvia than mine camp near that octo algorithm when Eva who worked only political bias can but it's the true situation is the truth see what nilly Etta the Torah relics artifact no they're gonna be missing interest on Buddha she witnessed dyes material torso he just knows Aleta can a country be simultaneously the grand spoiler and a great power does modern Russia even want the title superpower this is my chance to ask President Vladimir Putin has just finished an events near the Kremlin it's a rare opportunity to get up close to the Kremlin leader tae-sik Bolshoi BBC News you should the speed in precision have to do with ICF no chef theorem ministry we removed the most osteopetrosis average case I use car down neither will swim sighs iam astronomist wash new robot operas reason political system at the beach and over sales courses new children as my partner Ayman al-zawahri a nip of Terry oh dear somewhere she is very stars 20 cents in theory me politicking you know boom Pierce computer blame the West that's classic vadoma Putin but Russia is seeking ways back into Eastern Europe looking for leverage and the Sun Russia's return is welcome Hungary has become the bad boy of Europe there are frequent spats with the EU the government's been accused of rolling back democracy it was a very different picture thirty years ago when Hungary was at the forefront of Europe's democratic revolution in June 1989 a quarter of a million people gathered on heroes square they came to honor and to lead bury heroes of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Moscow Maria was on the square that day here that masseur was a very emotional very cathartic everybody thought this is the beginning of new world a new era this is the beginning of freedom and and democracy and what do you think about what has happened since in Hungary The Dictator trip can come back slowly but but it came back we be feeling that day a young activist took to the stage and spoke out against Moscow [Music] [Applause] the activist was Viktor Orban he's Prime Minister now and he's become Moscow's best friend in Europe he praises Vladimir Putin he criticizes EU sanctions on Russia so impressed is he by Russia's president is critic saying that he's trying to copy the Kremlin or ban obviously regards Russia as a model as a model country in terms of that if you want to govern for a long time you have to reduce the independence of the media you have to reduce the independence of the prosecutor's office you have to reduce the Independence of the opposition parties and so on and so on but for Budapest closer ties with Moscow have a lot to do with economic necessity it's Russia that's come up with the money to build a new nuclear power plants in Hungary to replace this one with a 10 billion dollar loan and Hungary relies heavily on Russian oil and gas imports the government says don't mistake economic pragmatism accusing Hungary and prime minister or man with any kind of pro-moscow sentiment is just ridiculous we cannot have a more specialized relationship with Russia than any other European country because there are confines by the very rules of belonging to the European Union [Music] but Moscow does spa opportunities here Nicholas the Rosenberg sleep nicely resilient Nikolai Kosovo is a famous Soviet diplomat with connections at the hearts of Russian government the workmen think that please come in Steve he heads a Development Bank he was just relocated from Moscow to Budapest not subject to sanctions it gives Russia a useful foothold in the EU the I IV was a communist era creation a bank for the Soviet bloc it's rebranded and claims it's less Russian now Joseph is from Slovakia had spent three-and-a-half years in Moscow [Music] Christophe is Hungarian the most talented young can garyun of 20 but he studied in st. Petersburg it was 2016 and 2018 a surprise until recently the bank was listed as an official organ of the Russian state the bank is totally apolitical we never do anything politically motivated critics of your bank call it Vladimir Putin's Trojan horse or the KGB bank in other words the suggestion is the suspicion is yes and they must pay they also see well the suspicion is that it's a tool for Moscow to spread spies and agents across Europe is there any truth of that absolutely not it's so allegations fortifications and if even though they repeated hundreds of times already they have nothing to do with the reality can you understand where the suspicion comes from because apologies for getting personal but you yourself are from a family of Soviet spies which are never concealed right your father was was the head of the KGB here input yes that's how I like this I started to like the city many years ago and your mother was a famous Soviet agent that is over-exaggeration my mother yes she worked in the first Department of KGB but she retired back in 1953 however you label modern Russia global player superpower or Empire it's clear that Russia is determined to regain influence and to be seen as strong even if that means renewed tension with the West the Moscow the real lesson of 1989 is weakness costs power the paradox is that today's Russia wants to forget about 1989 it was yes an amazing period but it was the period of backtracking surrender defeat so the Kremlin wants victory wants omnipotence wants domination and tries to forget about this kind of nightmare [Music] back in 1989 when walls and iron curtains were crumbling I remember thinking that from now on things were really different they would be better but east and west would chart a common course and sail off into the sunset together a happy end hollywood-style truth is while a physical wall can be knocked down in a day there are other barriers much harder to reach like mistrust resentments and rivalry and right now between Russia and the West those wounds seem higher than ever [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 969,939

Rating: 4.1197181 out of 5

Keywords: russia, coldwar, moscow, europe, putin, berlinwall, 1989

Id: cseD_XdWxgY

Length: 47min 8sec (2828 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AGMartinez777]

The Soviets sent 27 million of their own people to their deaths because they didnt have a proper strategy and considered them cannon fodder to be heaved at the enemy. OmG cOmMeNd ThEm FoR tHaT tHeY sAvEd Us!!

[u/wobbly_elevator]

bbc is not what they used to be. interesting topic though but there are many other investigative documentaries on the subject better than this.