In the fall of the berlin wall im joined by my guest John Laughlin in paris he is a political scientist and historian in washington we have harold james hes a professor of history and International Affairs at Princeton University as well as author and editor of a number of books including when the wall came down reactions to german unification and in cork we cross to Geoffrey Roberts he is emeritus professor of history at University College cork and a member of the Royal Irish Academy all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciated let me go to john and paris 1st i mean 30 its been 30 years now believe it or not because i remember it so vividly when it happened a few months before i had been living in poland for a number of years and an avid student of Eastern European communist affairs at the time john 30 years on what is its meaning because i look at cursory reviews of you know that in commenting on it it is the peopl
Nations in Eastern Europe but thats a kind of a narrative that is very western i suppose but i lived there it was i dont have that same kind of feel for it ok though having said that im very glad those communist regimes are gone and the wall go ahead john. You know well like you peter i lived through those events very directly like you i was studying Eastern European studies at oxford at that point i spent that summer in 1909 in romania and in hungary and indeed in september 89 i was in west berlin and was there when the 1st east berlin as arrived in west berlin having driven through czechoslovakia hungry austria and and the whole of germany so i have a very strong memory of it as well i would make 2 points the 1st is that none of it would have happened without gorbachev decision to pull the rug on the Eastern European communist regimes that was decision he took in june and which he announced to the german chancellor helmut kohl at the time and all the events that we remember now the j
Communist regimes are gone and the wall go ahead john. You know well like you peter i lived through those events very directly like you i was studying Eastern European studies at oxford at that point i spent that summer in 1909 in romania and hungry and indeed in september 89 i was in west berlin and was there when the 1st east berlin is arrived in west berlin having driven through czechoslovakia hungry austria and the whole of germany so i have a very strong memory of it as well i would make 2 points the 1st is that none of it would have happened without gorbachev decision to pull the rug on the Eastern European communist regimes that was decision he took in june and which he announced to the german chancellor helmut kohl at the time and all the events that we remember now the jangling of keys in Wenceslas Square in prague the torch is the candlelight the songs and so on all that was nothing but operetta it was political operetta it was froth. On the on the on the tidal wave of histor
An operational headquarters for the elimination of the consequences of the emergency , deployed food points. And heating. Well, there is no threat to the residents, as the incident was noted at the site by the road and construction according to specialists , it may take a week to repair the tracks. Now the working Russian Rocket artillery in the kupinsky direction of the special military operation, the grad installations of the western military district are hitting the firing positions of the entire fortifications and the command posts of the guns are using longterm fire on the routes of a possible retreat or attack of opponents to increase the effectiveness of strikes , they use the merrygoround tactics when one system occupies the firing line, the second is already approaching the position on the third is on cooldown the target appears helps reconnaissance and calculations of drones. There are a lot of unmanned aerial vehicles, which simplifies the work of reconnaissance and fly far
Designed to confirm Vladimir Putin in the presidency. Allies of the late opposition leader, alexei navalny, had called on people to turn out at midday, in moscow and other cities to spoil their ballots or vote for any other candidate. His widow, yulia navalnaya, voted at the Russian Embassy in berlin, having queued there for several hours. As she left, she told reporters she had written navalny on her ballot. Her husband died in an Arctic Penal Colony last month and was barred from standing in this election as well as the president ial vote six years ago. These were the scenes in moscow. Thereve been no protest chants. The authorities warned that activists could be arrested. A Rights Monitoring Group in russia says more than 70 people have been detained. Vladimir putin is certain to win, giving him another six years in power. The kremlin has ensured he faces no credible opponent. There have been demonstrations at russian embassies around the world, including the uk, france, tokyo and