thank you yes this is a famous monument. but he's not he's not one of you all should know this one is not mine to see and he was so afraid it will be him soon. to you so it has been carving out well known faces for the best parts of forty years and shows no sign of slowing down he sold exhibitions all around russia and europe and here they call him the thompson miracle. it's always difficult to express what you feel moving through a gallery like this because everything is so different you get these really wild flights of fancy here and then these incredibly detailed realistic looking portraits really loving portraits almost of the great theater masters and not only the russian ones as well i was pleased to see that there's even mr shakespeare here well. i think you've been rather proud about. before we became an artist he was an

actor and you can feel the drama in his sculpture. around his workshop is a weird and wonderful experience and even offered to give me something to remember him by. stephanie the first on the eve of the been a model. this is for year one of those that you like. take it. truly quite funny i've never actually been sketch for stephanie go to is right. and oh it's not the only thing that galvanizes people around here school so has a thriving music scenes and every week during the summer locals meets up nearly on to use riverside statue for a bit of a knees up. as these big project is called to fridays on that occasion very cheerful people get together near them all you

meant to the russian writer which stands here on the sinbad. there's been a lot of debates about what it should be here at all. merry making people come here each friday to senior down this or declaiming point train. and there are plenty of unusual styles on display and it's all he has created a whole set of songs inspired by the culture of the cool like a two thousand year old indigenous russian. come rain or shine check on fridays always bring out the crowds and after the music stops everyone gives the writer a percentage of. his trickle fridays on tax cuts. you know for

you you can also hire a boat for recluse across the top. although you might want to avoid the one with fifty teenagers on this. these are fresh as it comes to politics. they just finished their first day of college. still. that has. been a pretty long day. thank you very much. i met up with a group of guys from tom's students union to take a university tradition. of the social beach economic year the union reps gather up from fellow students and collect them in a time capsule. full of hopes and dreams. for five years right.

and. they wonder how many of these go back. to see what's happened. six hours on the first two years of thompson management faculty already. pressures in a whole different way so. much time you look at the future business . but as all students know the fun and games can't last forever and the next day i went to take a look at the more serious side of university life with

a fellow brit who's made his home. peter has been teaching here since two thousand and four legs and he's a senior lecturer at the faculty of foreign languages today's topic was all about how teaching and examination methods are about to change across europe. if we look at this we can see that every european country except. have signed up to it we will be discussing the future of. next week thanks for your attention. this is going to be a first and probably and i'm thinking your support comes and becomes a lecture that you know best. sound so i study russian university and then in two thousand and four i came here as a language assistance i like to so much that's after i graduated i wasn't invited to come back and i've been here ever since. and so that's five years now.

since. a great city and it's constantly changing and you can see the show you see in the wonderful architecture that we have here. in addition to being such an old. city it's also a very young city we have twenty percent a population of. six universities and a very vibrant. inventing it's of course it's a different culture of course the climate is pretty harsh around. but the people here are very friendly. people always rushing around all the time very nice people so this is the real rush for the. phrase often in my trips around russia and this really is a city full of characters i wanted for a top six history there's one place here which deals with the city's time.

great terror of the nineteenth literally thousands of people were imprisoned and killed and many of them lie buried amid the stones this park is now a memorial to them and i'm going to visit the first museum in russia dedicated itself to covering the political repressions. this building was a jail for the k.g.b. as predecessors the n.k.v.d. and even known sixty years after the last prisoner walked out of here it's still clawing and claustrophobic. more than fifteen thousand people pass through these walls between one hundred twenty three and one hundred forty nine ten thousand of them never went home. the museum is filled with photographs papers and authentic memorabilia including letters where people gave up their own friends and neighbors . well just to do that these are the folders for denunciations you can

see written letters and type letters i'll read you one of them to the chief of tomsk special n.k.v.d. department secrets and urgency to tomsk pencil factory there is someone named simeon coble born in one thousand and nine of belorussian origin was ok middle legally from poland in one nine hundred thirty two. visitors moved through a series of different rooms showing exactly what went on during the political repressions but by far the most affecting of the cells themselves it's difficult to imagine terrifying it would have been to. have been taken out of your home in the middle of the night probably with little or no idea of why you were being arrested and then throw them here with up to twenty of frightened people then you have to watch that door close now you might never see anyone you know loved again. being cooped up here is a chilling experience and i was definitely ready to head back up to the lines.

culture is that so much about marriage and i mean interesting to me it's a lot of people at the alley t.v. want to be popular in commercially lucrative but just how realistic are these programs are they be altman.

with more than half a million people tomsk is a lively and bustling city but if you're looking for a little peace and quiet the countryside is just a short drive away. if you wanted a symbol of siberia this would probably be it's the siberian stone pine tree they used to be millions of these in the forests but now its numbers are declining ironically because of its own pine cones the seeds in here are used in the coup sources suites and literally thousands of people come and gather them up every summer and sell them and it means that the tree is having trouble reproducing naturally but here in this garden center it trying to make sure that the species continues to survive. so he has been running this nursery for almost

a decade the idea is to sell people their own trees so that future generations will have no need to raid the forests for seeds for the stone pines numbers can start to recover he's brought different varieties here from across the country and beyond and even created some of his own. so this. was a kind of a rush. equivalent. to. what this b.b.q. today used to be while branches that later recovered only the good ones were left here here. right. this tree has been inoculated for fifteen time outs but here the samplings grow incredibly slowly just a few centimeters each year but they can keep on going for centuries most of the trees here are still very young but it's a full time job making sure they reach their full potential fairly intensive work keeping these tiny little saplings healthy up to about thirty people work here

during the high season and of course there are a lot of we have got to come out these ladies have a better idea because on the bottom of the is a little prickles so i'm going to end up with some small hands here but hopefully should help the trees take the. see the size of this was as big as the tree itself and massive really prickly and i want to come out. more and more people are coming here to buy their own saplings but sergei says that securing the stone pine trees future is going to be a long and expensive process the little mild cedar being a four to five meters tall as that first cone and twenty five thirty years there are some nut bearing strain that's almost but what if the bug finding investors is difficult. this is because the project would only payoff decades from now.

so that's not been a problem for another new business and tom which might be about to make its back is in serious money. the filters are nothing new but this local company believe they've come up with a product that's the first in the world to remove one hundred percent of harmful microorganisms and with more than a billion people still drinking contaminated water every day around the world there's a huge market out. there in this sort of. keep your head so. why is the fed. with. loads very loud. about. looking. and once they've been elected it's time to start putting everything together. they say well these people are scrubs but honestly this is way. out in.

the field so i'm not trying to. make the one hundred percent. but the big question is of course does it actually was. well anyway to find out. you know they say the proof of the putting is so i think it's time to put this matter to the test. both wonderful things like. this great color as well. through the filter. is being held in that. moment of truth.

thankfully there were no one pleasant side effects clearly refresh headed on from one of the most innovative companies one of its oldest. one in the same thing but it turns out that in russia at least they're very different and they've been making them in seventy years. this is such a dirty job we're going to. make kids but there's two hundred kilos of chemically treated robot coming down into this assembly line every ten minutes i mean it just gets everywhere. it's whole tough and intensive work the factory turns out three million pairs of shoes a year and twelve hundred steaming boots at

a time come out of the vulcanizing oven ready for the linings. to the moment i'm putting chilean so into below the left school shoes here. you should clearly easy to do it doesn't it but there are about forty ladies here but pool one shoe can be properly made there's no slacking they make thirty five every five minutes or so to keep. on one soul to finish. there ready to be shipped off to the shops. or a morning wondering around factories i was definitely ready for some fresh wounds a small manuel into. this is f c told siberia's in the premiership football team until just pride and joy. be packed with household names but they hold their own against russia's best and they don't even mind random

journalists turning up to train with them. train but see for yourselves right i said be interesting reminds me a little bit of school in a way for some reason whenever i played football they always wanted me to go in goal. i guess it must be like reflexes. ok. i had. to let the coach score a few goals just to keep him happy but obviously really i had everything under control. when i said i never played for england. mr capello i'll be waiting for your cool i've been speaking to the manager yuri it's easy to see that this is a city that really. play here in winter as well as the summertime when the up to two hundred fifty teams take part in the winter tournaments ball is played by people as young as seven at the all the way up to sixty year old. tournaments

attract fans from thirty three safe area in town including in. each of our games gets twelve to thirteen thousand spectators. and the next us noon i was going to be one of them so this is what saturdays will made for perfect weather and healthy foods and premiership football. but the seats on had a pretty spectacular rise in russian football climbing from division two to the premier league and yes and this weekend they were taking on the capitalist must by law and giving them a really hard time about how you say it but it was really has been a game of to call someone dominating the first period and now most seem to come out really hard still nil nil nil of the night holding out just let's hope the best of the law of this shot. of the

leg leg gold leg. of the bags and we pleaded with the players just couldn't find the targets and after a frustrating ninety minutes against the mexican waves the final whistle blew. new mill the board's role but it does leave home ten points above the relegation zone so i guess these guys i think i'm to have the legal the chance to do a little international bonding over on dre i'll shove in and roman abramovich pushing me but. if you want leaving the stadium please be attentive and cautious there's nothing like watching other people exercise to work up an appetite and there was one place in tomsk i had to visit before i left even chekhov said. this place was good. so this is. it's the oldest restaurant and supposedly the very best so

honestly little fuss is about. the coffee. and amazing choice but these prices i think this coffee. can afford. another way. my son. i was thinking more of washing dishes but spine amazing coincidence it turned out they was short in the chef department but day. on the finishing touch. it was probably kids who dug into the knives came out and i was ready to have a go at making a real siberian favorite. siberian sterlite is very popular here today we're going to make smoke stirling prepared for cookie first. but never tried still it before but it's from the sturgeon family and the rivers around

thompson full of them. once the missi part was out of the way it was tons of perk up the fish with a few extra ingredients. so these are some. siberian burbs and spices just give the fish a rub with these. and once everything was prepared it was time to get cooking it's. just. beautiful smoked siberian stir. it was almost fun for me to leave toms and it was still so much i wanted to see but you can't play. a week sight seeing it's just a morning can you. well maybe you can. you

feel as if you might drop out at any moment but one side unpeeled my knuckles from the seats in front i really didn't want it to end and there are some pretty amazing piece to. go that's so. absolutely the story with. i just finished one flights but it was time for me to head to the airport for

another. because all the benefits of the big city but it's still small enough that you only have to be here a few days and you start to feel at home it's a warm eclectic place and i was going to. be a vote for bush. but he always adds by one vote for kerry vote for kerry so the people that are going to be validating this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can walk up here and if he hits the right buttons. they can flip the vote that he. says.

liz. liz. liz. liz liz. little little little. little tonight relentless fires claimed dozens of lives here in russia as a record breaking heat wave shows no sign of letting up. and join me all of the bennetts in the moscow region where firefighters all managing to control the blaze but smoke is still choking the atmosphere and spreading to the city. russian president last year's summer residence to hold an emergency meeting on firefighting

ancram like. in other news tonight tightening the grip on to iran washington imposes new sanctions severing ties with the iranian groups thought to be aiding terrorists. also coming up in the business update as the severe drought in russia devastates wheat production we're looking at the impact it's been having across the world join us in about twenty minutes time. hello this is r t it's ten pm here in moscow this wednesday night the fourth of august it's kevin owen a over the top stories on the story dominating the news from us one hundred fifty thousand firefighters are battling russia's worst wildfires in decades now the blazes have already left forty eight people dead the air in moscow

is thick with smoke as fires approached the capital from the south our correspondent i have a bennett report from just outside the small dogs smothered capital. all morning on the early hours of this afternoon just in the woods behind me there was a fire raging and the firefighters were struggling to control it but in the last couple of hours they have managed to put it out for the time being because the conditions here simply just so dry the fires are spreading a very very quickly and unpredictably earlier we had a look at the fire it didn't seem too troublesome from where we saw at the flames just coming up to about knee height but suddenly out of nowhere they flared up so well over two meters and that's the sort of challenge these firefighters the facing as they put out one part then another part springs up very very quickly we did actually have to move the position we were broadcasting from because we were very close to the woods and the fire we're off the road as you can see the small here and the smoke is very very thick the air is very very heavy and you can take the smoke here if you're outside for more than just a few minutes it is quite know was

a thing in fact that taste of smoke and it's a gray blanket over the sky you can't really see the sun and moscow region is one of twelve regions worst hit in the whole of russia and this morning at the satellite imagery suggested there are around eight hundred fires across the country four hundred of which have sprung up just in the last twenty four hours so the situation is still very very critical the conversation has actually already started to filter through to those who have lost their belongings that was affected around three and a half of the thousand people across the country two thousand homes approximately have been wiped out and this is a report by my colleague to my fake on the effect this is had on those suffering when darkness falls hours ahead of schedule. although it's already been five days since fires incinerated this village ask loans are still so thick they block out the sun and. fire many continue to keep control as yet more flames break girl but for a good read in their efforts don't matter anymore. but it will serve the group my

daughter ran up and said.