Original subtitles

Hello and welcome to Global Eye,

a programme that brings you reporting and investigations

from around the globe,

made by teams from across the BBC World Service.

I'm Liza Fokht, the BBC Russian correspondent here in Berlin,

a city that's now a front line in Europe's struggle

against Russian aggression and interference.

German officials say there's been an escalation in Russian spying

and sabotage, and Germany's top operational commander has warned

Moscow now has the capacity for a limited attack

against Nato territory.

I'll be examining Russia's shadow war against the West

and the very real threat that poses.

Later in the programme, as countries across Europe debate

the reintroduction of military conscription,

we'll hear from the women preparing for the front line.

Now, we're going to take you to the crossroads

where Europe meets Asia - to Georgia.

Since emerging from the collapsing Soviet Union

as an independent state in 1991,

Georgia is once again the arena of conflicting interests.

Last autumn, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital,

Tbilisi, to protest at what they saw as the government's failure

to advance talks to join the European Union.

Now, a BBC Eye investigation has uncovered shocking evidence

suggesting that the government used a World War I era chemical weapon

against its own citizens during those demonstrations.

Here's their report.

It's November 2024 and protesters are being met

by thousands of riot police...

..backed up by five-tonne water cannons.

For a full week, the cannons keep coming,

up to eight times a night.

SCREAMING

Gela Khasaia, a political activist,

has been at the forefront of many anti-government protests for years.

But this time, when faced with the water cannons,

he quickly realises there's something different about them.

Many demonstrators, like Gela,

start experiencing worrying symptoms - vomiting,

shortness of breath, skin irritation.

Many are left wondering what was being sprayed on them.

And there's mounting pressure on the authorities to release

details of what is in the water cannons.

After being exposed to the water cannons himself,

paediatrician and activist Konstantine Chakhunashvili has begun

a medical investigation to see if any symptoms

have lasted longer than a month.

The study involves nearly 350 protesters exposed to tear gas

and the unknown chemical in the water cannons.

It's difficult to separate the effects of these two measures,

but 40% say they experienced skin irritation like Gela,

and that wasn't all.

Two in three who had cough.

One in two had shortness of breath.

High blood pressure was identified in 283 people.

When someone comes up to you and tells you

that they have some type of symptoms,

that's an anecdotal evidence, right?

So we were trying to collect actual data that can be quantified,

and we could see what type of symptoms are there.

SIREN WAILS

EXPLOSION

DISTANT SCREAMING

Tamar Oniani runs the Human Rights Abuse Unit

at the Georgian Young Lawyers Association.

She and her team have been documenting allegations of

an unknown chemical used at the protests.

The information that there could have been some

sort of a mixture of the unknown chemical irritants with the water

came from the early days of the protest.

They've gathered testimonies from over 100 protesters.

Their evidence suggests that the unknown chemical was being deployed

throughout the first week of the protests.

There are thousands of people who were targeted by

the chemical irritant, unknown chemical irritant to public.

From the outset, Tamar's organisation requests

that the government releases the name of the chemicals.

The medical community, too,

is alarmed and, at the same time, writes a petition,

demanding to be told what is being used.

No-one is getting answers.

My role is to investigate allegations

of torture and other ill treatment, wherever they may occur.

Dr Alice Edwards has been closely examining the situation in Georgia.

This is not the military.

This is in a civilian setting where ordinary people

are taking to the streets,

and the state should be entirely transparent about whether they are

using water cannons infused with different chemicals,

as well as what those chemicals are.

And that's not just for a broader democratic

and transparency and legality reason,

but it also allows individuals

to take the decision about their own health

and whether they're going to be in harm's way on the day.

There's no explicit international law

to ban the use of chemicals in water cannons,

but it's not recommended. If used,

the effects would have to be temporary.

Protests have been ongoing for eight months...

..and Konstantine has just finished his study on

the health impacts of exposure

to chemicals used in that first week.

His suspicions are confirmed.

Crucially, there have been some long-term effects beyond 30 days

for nearly half of the participants in the study.

In some cases,

Konstantine notices changes in the heart and lungs, too.

We also identified that there was, uh,

enlarged T-waves, which might be due to hypoxia,

which means that heart is receiving lack of oxygen,

and changes in the right atrium.

We also identified that in long-term effects,

some people had vomiting, nausea and shortness of breath as well.

Konstantine's study has been accepted

for publication in an international academic journal,

but it hasn't identified the precise

chemical compounds used

in the water cannons.

The authorities have always referred to it only as "gas"

or "other special measures".

But we can reveal for the first time,

with the help of a former police insider,

the name and make-up of the chemicals

that we believe were used against the protesters.

Lasha Shergelashvili knows the equipment used by the riot police

better than most.

He worked for the riot police for more than 20 years

and served as Head of Weaponry until 2022.

He's been following events closely.

He says that some of the water cannons used on

the protestors were purchased in 2009.

At that time, he says, he was asked to test

a chemical mixture for the water cannons,

which then turned out to be ten times stronger

than regular tear gas.

Lasha says he warned against the use of these chemicals

while he was in his post, but his advice was ignored.

He also says he stayed in contact with former colleagues,

who confirm that the same chemicals were still being used

in the protests of 2024.

The BBC spoke to another former high-ranking officer,

who also said the riot police continued

to use the same chemicals after Lasha left.

The chemical numbers don't tell you everything.

So we asked Professor Christopher Holstege

to help us understand what they are.

He's a world-leading expert in toxicology and chemical weapons.

The first chemical, a liquid, is easily identified.

UN 1710 is trichloroethylene, or TCE.

It's a solvent that helps

other chemicals dissolve in water.

So trichloroethylene is...

It is certainly not a chemical

that I want thrown out to the masses during protests.

Identifying the second compound, the powder, is a tougher challenge.

UN 3439 is a whole class of chemicals.

But after examining our evidence, Konstantine's medical study,

witness statements and human rights reports,

Professor Holstege and his colleague

Dr Sandra Nixon think they've narrowed it down.

Camite, or CA,

was first used as a chemical weapon

by French forces against the Germans

at the end of World War I.

It was then briefly used

by American police as a riot-control agent,

but soon abandoned and replaced with safer options.

Camite is markedly irritating,

persistent with its irritation,

potential for causing more problems

with your lungs, coughing,

for example, potentially pneumonias.

Not clear even if you drink some of this

what kind of symptoms you're going to have,

gastrointestinal, including vomiting.

I think the question then comes, why would you utilise it?

And part of it is the persistence.

It would keep people away for a long time.

They would have to go to the hospital.

They would have to leave the area.

If that is indeed the case,

that this chemical has been brought back,

that is actually exceedingly dangerous.

We showed our findings

to the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture.

The important point at international law

is that any effect should be temporary.

So longer-term problems,

such as long-term respiratory issues or related to heart conditions,

all of those cases should be investigated,

including under the rubric of torture or other ill-treatment.

I would describe the water cannons infused with

different toxins as entirely unnecessary.

Given that it is poorly regulated internationally,

it does lead me to consider it as an experimental weapon,

and populations should never be subjected to experiments.

It's absolutely in violation of human rights law.

For a year now, night after night, the streets

of Tbilisi have been blocked by protesters.

And almost every evening, Gela has been among them.

But to many, it seems the country is slipping into authoritarian rule.

Germany and Russia have a fascinating and complex history,

tied together through cycles of cooperation and conflict.

After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied

East Germany for more than 40 years.

And it's here that the Berlin Wall,

dividing the city in two, once stood.

On this side of the wall,

the Soviet-run German Democratic Republic,

or GDR, became an outpost of Moscow's influence,

with Soviet spies operating in plain sight.

Even though the Berlin Wall has been gone for many years, the divide

between East and West is still very much alive.

People in the two parts of Germany often disagree with each other,

including on Russia and the war in Ukraine.

It was 100 miles south of here,

in an East German city of Dresden, in the late 1980s,

that a young KGB agent would spend

five years honing his spycraft in his first foreign posting.

Vladimir Putin's schooling in the former GDR

underscores Russia's long-standing reliance on espionage.

And today, Moscow's deploying even more sophisticated tactics.

Germany has ramped up counterintelligence operations

after repeated warnings from NATO that Moscow is using hybrid tactics,

cyber warfare, propaganda and covert operatives

to destabilise European democracies.

A critical part of Moscow's arsenal is

the deployment of drones to target critical infrastructure,

both from land and sea.

In October, Munich Airport

was forced to suspend operations twice

in 24 hours after unidentified drone sightings.

And authorities in Belgium and Denmark

have also reported mysterious drone flights into their airspace,

believed to have come from ships.

EU member states are deeply concerned, with

the European Commission warning of

an escalation of tactics across Europe.

You're not talking about front line countries any more.

You're not talking about eastern flank countries any more.

You're really talking about the European Union as a whole.

Germany has probably felt the impact of Russia's invasion

of Ukraine more than almost any other country.

A record number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war came here.

More than a million now live in Germany,

and tens of thousands have settled here in Berlin.

No war! No Putin!

Over the past four years, hundreds of anti-war Russians

have also moved in as their neighbours -

people who left for Europe

because they feared persecution at home.

And as the Kremlin stepped up its crackdown on the opposition

and independent journalism,

Berlin turned into a home for many who could no longer stay in Russia.

The presence of anti-war Russians here

in Berlin is a reminder that Germany isn't just

a political battleground. It's become a refuge

for those resisting Putin's stranglehold on power.

And there are high-stakes diplomatic strategies being played out.

Berlin's Bridge of Spies became famous during

the Cold War as the location

for prisoner swaps between East and West.

And in August 2024,

Germany participated in the biggest prisoner exchange

since the Cold War as part of a complex swap between Russia,

the US and other Western nations.

Moscow's main prize was the release

of Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in Russia's secret service

sentenced to life in Germany

for killing a Chechen dissident in a Berlin park.

His release was met with controversy and debate here.

That was a difficult choice

for the decision-makers in Germany's government,

reflecting the broader debate over

the country's role in European security.

Germany's new Chancellor, Friedrich Merz,

has made that role clear.

He wants the German army to become the strongest in Europe.

His ambitious spending plans

were approved by a parliamentary majority,

but not everyone supports his boost to the defence budget.

Opposition includes the far-left Linke party and the far-right AfD.

Merz has pledged to do whatever it takes

to protect freedom and peace.

But like other European leaders,

he will continue to face challenging decisions

about how best to do that

as Russia intensifies its shadow war against the West.

Now here's some of the other great content

from the BBC World Service that you can find this week.

After the shocking abduction

of more than 300 schoolchildren in Nigeria,

the BBC News Africa team were

the first international media to gain rare

and exclusive access to Papiri,

the village from where they were taken.

You can read more about how

the community's coping on our website.

And the country of Haiti has been ravaged

by conflict and natural disasters in recent years.

Shut it down! Shut it down!

As a result, since 2010, hundreds of thousands of its citizens have

been given special protected status to live in the US,

but it's due to be removed soon as part of President Donald Trump's

sweeping changes to immigration policies.

Nawal Al-Maghafi has been to meet

a family in Florida who risk being split up.

You can watch her report on the BBC News YouTube channel.

In recent months, Germany has been locked in a heated debate

about bringing back compulsory military service.

In 2011, believing in a peaceful future in the post-Cold War era,

the country decided to end conscription.

Now, with the war in Ukraine and uncertainty inside Nato,

Germany is trying to rebuild its armed forces,

all with the aim of increasing troop numbers

and creating Europe's strongest army.

For now, mandatory military service is on hold in Germany,

but elsewhere, across ten other European states,

including Croatia and Latvia, it's either already in place

or being reintroduced.

In some of these countries, that has been extended to women too.

But are they willing to be sent to war?

Anna Holligan has this report.

Europe is training more troops as tensions with Russia rise.

Some countries are turning to conscription,

requiring citizens to complete a period of military service.

During the World Wars, only men could be forced

to go to the front line.

Now some nations are drafting women, too.

It's a big step to take, because it's a way of saying

this threat that we're facing is so important

that everyone has to play their part,

and everyone includes women.

It's created debate about who should serve.

In the situation that the world is in now,

it's needed, I think.

And I think it's only fair and right

that women participate equally as with the men.

I do not want to die. I do not want PTSD.

And also I'm scared about, like, life in the battlefield as a woman.

So why is Europe rebuilding its armies now?

And is there support for sending women to war?

The modern concept of conscription began during the French Revolution,

when all men aged 18 to 25 had to report for duty.

Other nations followed France's model in the 19th century,

and in the World Wars millions were conscripted.

Women were drafted too - working on farms,

in factories and in hospitals.

Some served in the military, but they weren't sent to the front line.

Across Europe, conscription policies were kept

until the end of the Cold War,

when hopes of lasting peace led many countries to phase it out.

The fall of the Berlin Wall,

and there was a broad restructuring, in a lot of European countries

that happened of our militaries.

Defence spending shrank, militaries shrank with them.

But some countries never suspended conscription,

with Russia and several former USSR states

also retaining forms

of Soviet-era military service.

Those are mostly countries that are close

to some sort of territorial threat, whether that is Greece and Turkey,

or whether that is the countries that are bordering Russia.

In Norway, military service has always been mandatory for men

as part of its constitution.

But in 2013, the country voted to extend it to women,

saying there should be equal rights and obligations.

They have access to parts of the population that men don't -

for instance, in intelligence gathering, to be able to communicate

with the female part of the society

in parts of the world that we do operations.

Typically, service lasts around a year,

and former conscripts can be called back

to the army for the next 26 years, if needed.

Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014,

Ukraine and Lithuania reinstated

compulsory military service for men.

Sweden did too, in 2017,

this time including women.

Countries that have introduced conscription for women

in Europe have tended to be northern European countries,

which are not only closer to Russia, but they are also countries

that have valued gender equality very highly.

Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine further highlighted

the need for European countries to grow their armies.

This has turned into a war of attrition

where Ukraine has struggled to recruit enough troops

to match Russia's rate of mobilisation.

And European leaders in front-line states have now warned

that Nato could soon find itself at war with Russia.

Since Russia's invasion, these countries

have made plans to bring back compulsory service for men,

while those in blue are rolling out

new voluntary military training programmes.

Denmark has also said it would extend its draft

from 4 to 11 months,

and that women would have to serve too.

Fears President Donald Trump might withdraw US funding from Nato

unless European partners step up defence spending

have also driven a recruitment effort.

If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them.

The reason why we are now reintroducing conscription

is because of a greater threat from Russia,

but also greater uncertainty as to whether we can

still rely on the US security guarantee.

In most countries, people can refuse the military draft

and opt for civilian service instead.

But failing to reply to a call-up can lead to fines or even arrest.

Denmark says it currently has enough volunteers

to fill its ranks, and across the Nordic states,

public support for female conscription is strong.

But in other countries bordering Russia,

like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, it's much lower.

Despite this, some politicians,

like Latvian Defence Minister Andris Spruds,

say women are needed.

Because we live next to aggressor country,

because we need to strongly increase

our comprehensive defence, women, the gender-neutral approach,

this is crucial. In general, this is principle

which strengthens our defence and our security of our people

within specific nations, but also in Nato at large.

At the moment, these calls are just proposals,

but a falling birth rate could make the situation more urgent.

The problem will arrive about 2040,

because birth cohorts of the past two or three years have been

so low that if we are still in the same security situation,

then we will just... We will not have enough people.

Gender-equal conscription will mean armies

need to make provisions for uniform and weaponry,

which are largely designed for men.

And there are fears about women operating

in male-dominated environments.

Increasingly, we're seeing examples coming from European countries

where women soldiers are very vulnerable to sexual harassment,

abuse, assault, and militaries have struggled

to understand how to deal with this.

But countries hope that, despite the challenges,

increasing defences like this will prevent future Russian aggression.

Thanks for joining me in Berlin.

We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Let us know what you think on social media using the hashtag...

Next week, we'll be reporting from South Africa. Goodbye.