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close's r.t. from moscow i'm kevin zero in with our top stories tonight the french senate is set to vote on increasing the retirement age for the country's wracked by raging protests well experts believe reform is crucial for the economy workers say they just don't want to pay for financier's mistakes it's our top story also tonight petrol traffickers in iraq become the new health hazard is the fuel they smuggle spills into rivers poisoning the populations water supply. and a common goal but no common vision while recognizing afghanistan as the world's greatest drugs threat russia and the u.s. it seems can't agree on how to deal with it. more for me in thirty minutes time next though we travel to russia's once closed military city of kit off which is a time capsule of a long gone soviet past. less than

a thousand kilometers northeast of moscow is the city of care of its regional capital million people and if you like places that combine the historic. this is the town for you. isn't exactly. it was a closed military city until the fall of the soviet union and parts of the town still feel like they belong in a bygone era but the city is developing its transport hub and outside investment is starting to improve facilities here and amongst the buildings you can still find a few done in the rough. place i'm about to visit is a real institution it's one of the oldest buildings in the whole city and for more than two centuries it's been the center of the region's printing industry. books newspapers calendars magazines if you need paper princes and they get through

more than forty tons every week. there's been a press here since seventeen ninety two and a living have some of the latest technology available there are still a few relics of a bygone age so i love this the fact that you get the. bits of history with. something that i guess would be about nineteen right with something that is spread out of the twenty first century. and in the next room there's a machine that might easily have used it now a days it's for all the different it. would take it to be the right interim between them. three think that machines like this result as printing is itself and the hundreds of years ago the press was like this one might have produced a fake. a good book bible this one is producing packaging for

delicious nothing three. why does prestigious will still use. it if i can. pick this one work without destroying much of it. fortunately as watchful supervision i managed to escape with all my fingers intact and i headed into the modern heart of the fortress. it takes six min the good twenty minutes to get this machine warmed up and once it starts it really knows how to shift. it take five to thirty three i press. one thousand and. then simply. write it. to make sure the newspaper had a section advertising city life music in the local park and it seemed like a perfect place to meet my going to the city this park is named. so it was

built and. unleashed on the first. one to see. and that is a secondary school teacher a born and bred cures points and she knows this town inside out. from this place you can see the center fence monastery you can see the bell tower in the church and there's also a sense in where people get water. there are areas of the city that are less picturesque carol has a real problem with its roads which is supposed to be some of the worst in russia and the overwhelming color on the streets is a steely gray change has been slow but i assume is that life here is starting to improve i think became better we have a new things here we have new plants like the plants and we have. a new.

it's just. everything is different. and as a teacher she's very proud of their education system we have a lot of universities here and those women who study here they can find a good job. and invited me to her school to see the facilities for myself and also to attend one of the most solemn ceremonies of the year if you're a seven year old it's either when i was little before of going to growed up school was a pretty scary but here in russia they have a ceremony that's supposed to make everyone feel welcome. and they get to wear some pretty cool. this is well the first years officially begin their formal education. gives the various classes a chance to show their proud mums and dads if you can do to.

push the little ones being welcomed into the school they run the foreign exchange program here and several students from across the glued have come to experience a russian way of life and improve their language skills. the countess the milky way it was but it has to be the other way the cows spells big feet but then i need to find another than this one is broken so to speak we seem to end up with no look. each student comes for an academic year and after the ceremony i dropped in on a group of americans and germans having a russian lessons. there is we have yesterday here and this is. everybody this is a russian less national troy do this in russian. journalist is must be they're encouraged to try and immerse themselves as much as possible although of course every new city has its challenges. you. following the bus hoping you're

rushing more the fact that you had your forced to communicate like that you know sisters and wife speaks no english and one speak some english so they need things communicated it's really helpful to have a sister who can communicate and translate but for everyday things like learning the words to use to make. me walk and we go to cafe and i'm going to do homework but in my city it's not a city it's a village and there's two thousand people and there's nothing there is nothing so here is cafes here's a cinema here for squares that's better i think linnæus the right to live so close to sunny and people it's easier to find troops there are interested in so in that respect i think in most places for young people but i don't think it's necessary. as recent you think they are and first and foremost they have to study and has

determined that when they do go home they live have the full russian experience and that is it and economic program so the main objective of the course is learning the language but it's not only the language that's we were in but also the culture and traditions of the country this to me whether or not they go home speaking like natives who go is a certainly going to be loaded down with souvenirs and you can get much more old times a clique your old. toys. lydia and her daughter a carrying on the tradition that started in the neighboring village of dim cover i'm goes back more than four hundred years from brightly colored milkmaids to a huge variety of animals each piece is handmade and i was about to learn some of their secrets and then we're going to put the reason why toys were made locally here was that there were many rich merchants in quito where you what they decorated their homes with such toy is that in the people in didn't cover didn't have enough

money to buy toys for their children e even your three so they supplied their children with toys made locally at the same time last year people decorated their homes with toy horses cows and the like yes please produce on you and i was put to work on some bird life so i've got to try duck i think is that what we do to the head here and then glue it. this year and it will surgery here. look at how much we take a piece of clay each. and do like this. that's a duck that might actually swim. i don't really. like countless this thought about it. but it is here and it's must dry it's room temperature for four days and she did you wrote so i thought this is

a long process it's the you have to leave in drawing room temperature for more days it was the end well then i'd seen enough and p.t. and then they go in the oven and they bag but of course that's really just the start of the piece has been fired you've gone by delicate brush work to take care of so i get the bear with a bottle like. well the bear with a bender. in white i don't mind masterpiece will be joining any sales catalogue but lydia has had some serious v.i.p.'s walk through her doors. and pretty famous footsteps because the ladies made this run with prison. but i. only did i get to make amazing duck and. cure alls dem could toys may have been around for centuries but the first trade here has been going on far longer. the area is rich in mink fox

and even introduced raccoon and the local clinker factory has been making the most of it. it was founded in one nine hundred ninety one and has gained a reputation for international collections and its bespoke clothing. for this we were everything star says. this is the designer with a pencil and a piece of paper she draws. chekist coats hats. the factory employs around a hundred people who take care of the various stages of production and once the government starts to take shape it's time for the embroidery. would make the sign on level so they broad picture on it so clever. compared to the western world there's little stigma attached to wearing fur in russia and the shuba coat is still

a part of most women's wardrobe although if you want to pick up one of these designs you'll need very deep pockets so i guess this would be the pretty exclusive stuff this second is made from ship skin. so a short cut it ships skin and the lining. and here is a long wool and ship skin. in broidery made on a lever. but how much would this set you back. eight hundred dollars ok now this one is really unusual to have a seem. like this but where's this for i'm going to start us to hunt and make claims lemme see this is why wreck quite unusual and they're quite expensive. but with us coming in from across the country it seems that they're all people willing to pay the high prices and a new campaign for the twenty fourteen winter olympics in sochi is likely to give killing even more publicity for production is always going to be controversial but

in russia it's just a fact of life when the temperatures plunge out come the schubas but if you want a new one. well that's going to cost you. but if you don't happen to have several thousand dollars just lying around there are always other ways to make money like digging forward. carries a metal detector unspayed with him everywhere he goes and it seems cure all has a few prime spots very treasure. and i believe it but where we're standing there used to be a village now it was abandoned forty years ago but it was actually centuries. and his friends think they're still life if you think we're finding here. but it turns out the metal detecting here can be a rather hazardous profession at the really for. only there are any bets.

that get there. fortunately our furry friends kept their distance and we were able to start hunting everyone's been searching spots like bees for more than a decade and he's had quite a few impressive discoveries. found a medal it was made in sixty to one by the russian craftsmen. find is not a surprise in england there are a lot of such metals how it appeared here and killed off there is a mystery but. it wasn't long before we came on something also. because to cope. with dreams of hidden riches running through my head i decided to have a go myself although it didn't quite work out like that. it's like a baby buzzing in your ear. though this. i have not the

slightest clue what that is. well this is excellent i've got like parts of the fence. button from an accordion it rang like a coin i might be able to make something in about a year. but then the metal detector started going crazy and i was sure we were on to something big. it's a basin. well big it was valuable it was not what we might not have ended up millionaires but it had been a real adventure coming out with that one out and he left me with a few keepsakes to take home this stranger than about just a couple of searching found things from three different eras of the village. and century belt buckle this coin from the last years of imperial russia thirty

finally a little soviet. army jacket but. it was some pretty good treasure hunting for one thing. and it was time for me to go and see what else i could dig up about life in the care of reaching. culture is that so much different and there's a huge musician on the market as the western powers do their best to isolate the islamic republic iran itself has demonstrated it remains a key player in the greater middle east. it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language. this is the first to compete beat. and culture. the thing is that the had to do. are still unaware of what's going on in the. last.

thing i don't know anything about. the. people of how to abandon the trappings of the twenty first century could you imagine living your life as if it was ten o nine rather than two thousand and nine well in care of as a man who's done just that. looks like it could be straight out of a grim fairy. even looks like it might be home to some enormous which fortunately for me which wasn't home but just around the corner little did i know i was about to bump into a medieval blacksmith. is the head of one of the most

popular historical societies and he considers himself a modern day viking. we for chair it's our little smithy and the house this meadow belongs to our club we arrange holidays we can rest and even sleep here sometimes we spend the weekends people in our club make different decorations and weapons we just have fun for example actually throwing. every viking needs to prepare for a day's pillaging with some weapons practice and down to a fine art. on the other hand just a few more lessons in the middle. ok

the man's not a man to tolerate this he invites belong to his training group where they recreate historical battles. for the. nation ok. ok ok. james the destroyer is here to crush your menfolk and drink too much of your. can fortunately it turns out that fighting with what feels like the equivalent of a small color on your body is really quite hard these guys used to do this all day . yeah but. the head of the team

yeah i am yes. i am james incredibly tired. as i change back into my civvies i decided it was time to let some of the people round my head off to watch one of carroll's most popular and unusual sports this is bundy a combination of football and ice hockey that was apparently invented by the british in the nineteenth century who sadly like many of our sports were not very good at it but the russians and supposedly have the top ten teams in the world. is one of them. the game is played on a field the size of a football pitch uses around plastic pool and. there's minimal physical contact as this is a sport that requires primarily skill and agility definitely better that i start. with the ice you can really see why. a game that takes the best of ice hockey out of football who catches people's imagination and i haven't even seen anyone try

rinaldo. and the people here love their team open them much as can attract up to ten thousand spectators even in the dead of winter but those who prefer to watch the sport from the comfort of their armchair will be seeing this much. this. and expect to tell you who runs a couple of spece restaurants and i was very keen to meet. for russia almost twenty years ago and he's been educating palettes here ever since the chance to help make some of my favorite salads was too good to pass up please to me thank you very much. started up a pizzeria in moscow in the early nineties but after his daughter was born he decided to move out of the big city and as his wife's from kiro it seemed like the obvious choice. and how all of the the russian

reacted to her having a real italian restaurant here was a surprise for. disability. every. year. for the. first time. you know. after was. home after. players reach people and after a few finishing touches i was ready to try it for myself. that's what i was waiting. for. but it's so rare that something look that good. really thick gretz image that will bring.

i found the best restaurants but there were a couple of things i wanted to see to go. home normally i don't pitch lifts with strange men on motorcycles list but the city had one of russia's most unusual clubs point it needed someone in the know. well i had been expecting to be dropped off at some level. so i was a little surprised when i opened the door to the chip which was my new friend hinting i should play for my so maybe the local vicar could shed some light something else. i'm sorry i think i was told that this was actually a bike his club. bit of a mistake. i'll explain everything to you i'll be back ok. this is.

a priest. we'll explain that we were all the. time. let's go. but then all was revealed as i met father alexander cure of his very own bike a priest he's the founder of the city's motorcycle club although admittedly not exactly hell's angels hello lou. took me outside and introduced me to some fellow club members including my old friend. as well as writing the group also me to restore old bikes well i think this one's going to take some serious work so this was a real russian classic about forty five years ago the. because equivalent to the italian vesper seen better days and little bit of russian history. this certainly isn't your typical blanket from the cure old scripts to reuters to become part of the landscape united by love of the royals. it looks like.

they're off to spread the bike a words one last time this year but as for me i think i'm going to enjoy the rest of care of. me. it was almost time for me to leave the city but i always like to check out a bit of the local music scene in my travels although in the basement of the johns . point where i can expect. these are the shakes it's a little slice of nineteen fifties america in northeastern i'm one of the most popular by. a member here that. he was a long while living in carroll. i have to say that i wasn't expecting to come. visit that is thank you how did you guys get

into playing kind of fifty's fifty's country and. well you know we've been playing this music. for almost seventeen seventeen euro. we got to know about it from our parents who were also big fans red fans this music and elvis presley and bill haley so that's how it happened this is about as will. well you're right. the fact is that we're the only band around. that. music. depends on this fact once or twice we go outside our region. to think. crowd was getting the benefits and never old was in the mood for a concert.

to scratch under the surface to get the best care of. you might be reminded of a great provincial soviet but it's the people that really give this city its color and there's some of the most vibrant. that i've had the pleasure of meeting. today is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. for racial to the day. look.