down on the very first wooden buildings went up right here. in fact much of the region still consists of forests and if you're interested in seeing some of its best preserved historical sites you just need to head out to the countryside. back in the early nineteenth century these grounds were the home of the famous russian poet mikhail told now you can see it's all very picture postcard snowy but that doesn't mean that it's extremely killie. find somewhere to get out of the cold. is widely regarded as russia's second greatest poets off to alexander pushkin and he lived on this estate until he was twelve years old nowadays are preserved as a museum to his life and times and that means you're going to bump into plenty of contemporary characters conditional having trouble getting quite good at this stuff and then it these little rag dolls were given as presents for birthdays christenings and weddings and each one has our own individual outfit. it still is

supposed to walk away the evil eye from its maker but according to the ladies here there are certain attributes that are particularly important we don't know let's take a women's pride to breath and tie them under the mat has my little completed dolly and apparently. the larger the breasts of the dill the more love and tenderness you will have in your home quite fortunate to have quite a well endowed girl here is what i'm watching once i finish my needlework my hostess introduced me to the rest of her hardworking family but it seems they have an open house policy him. over. russia i'm glad to see you it's a holiday today we can celebrate with sin and soon a few more guests turned out for some fun and games. this year to my friends our

officers. they certainly go out of their way to make you feel welcome and if you're looking for some period drama just take a walk through the main house. scenario a good puppy dogs is great for warming the pools and all but i think that oh mr lemon for probably was used to something a little while ago. i might not have been appropriately dressed but my hostess to leno was kind enough not to comment on dr i'd been introduced to the local space society she pushed me off to the dogs for i knew the poor mr letterman told had met his end in a jewel so i was definitely on my best behavior and fortunately i was able to finish my waltz with my dignity and yellin is totally still intact. thank you very much limits you in a glad to see you here again and me too. i'm just outside the gates of the state

there was even some carry a chance. bailable. so sadly it's time to get back to the twenty first century but at least looking leave the nineteenth in an authentic fashion. if you default to the whole. unfortunately for me i'm like calls horses get tired and i was dropped off still a fair distance from penza it was time to get hiking. up and walking for ages and i'm absolutely paul just don't even quite tempted to start eating some of this snow but hopefully i think i might be able to find something better than that around here. luck i think this might be the place. coast. like. tar balls very much. the stuff.

they have the right direction. and it turn out i was right. hello believes the coup marcus wareing this yeah this is. a fall in the bucket springs for the core of a drink please show. this underground want to source was discovered almost a hundred years ago and it's been here ever since. these water has many useful properties it meets no prior treatment before it goes into food products from serious to what it drifts towards a plant no come say used to bring it up that. one's own nicholas the second was still on the russian throne this was because production line each bottle filled labelled and sealed by her before being locked away in a trunk for delivery across the nation. now is the water still sold throughout

russia it's just produced a thousand times false. it only takes around twenty seconds for the water to flow through to the plants and the factory buckles up ten million liters of it every month and it seems they've branched out into one or two other products as well. ok this is what i'm talking about the soda tasting. wonderful bit of this. is too many oh the hell. they make six thousand bottles an hour. refresh them responsibilities i was soon back in pens but i had a serious sugar rush to burn off and way better than at the local. if you watch the show you'll know just how big a final things extreme more could be more home schooled honestly i'm not saw it

in the middle of winter. oh my god this is crazy. ok. so it's thirty degrees in here. because well. maybe splashing around among pen's and housewives doesn't exactly count as particularly extreme but if you do have a taste for adventure there are want to places you can't miss. but when this area was nothing but forests there were regular scum suits between the soldiers of the saw and local and nomadic tribes from and now of course the further away you could kill your enemy from the better off you were but that. took practice. and the art of dealing death from a distance is still alive and well. dimitri is the chief instructor at this medieval style shooting club. james this is an older weapon

a sling that's more like it in the past they were made out of wood and this is a modern version of loading up a catapult me back to a misspent youth but it did take me a while to get my eye in just in case you do a find yourself in the forest with a catapult on a bed does walk out in front of you probably best to leave him alone. i was ready to try out something a little bigger and dimitri and i moved on to the archery range although i swear the sights were awful nose but. we miss quite a long way down a little bit. but i'll sure a little practice things started to improve. oh yes good shots. second i guess in this case it wasn't a robin hood performance but at least i was regularly hitting the target now. i know it was nicely done jim you're quick learner but we have

a more powerful weapon for you the final test was still to come on this weapon i'd only ever seen in movies in museums and it's a pretty deadly piece of equipment. this one is even more effective than the crossbow can be fully loaded well before it's used. but anyone with a loaded weapon can hide an ambush waiting for an enemy or wild animals the weapon is used for hunting and fighting it is still popular to this day so to me and. so it was only appropriate that we had some authentic forest game to a much. wild boar take down one of these and it just so happens that we have. to have a go at ok on. a friend see if we can. or could sandwiches for everybody but of course you should make sure that your prey is

really dead first i think i've definitely found my weapon of choice so i've learned how to enrage a poor fake bear and kill a poor fake pig. i'm ready for war. now i just need to find some people who might be able to make use of my new found skills when i go about doing that and and so. so now he's looking like a motley band of feiss. i knew that was trying he was going to come in and they. just greetings and who are you guys we are fighting school israel we're going to do the rounds in the forest there are plenty of bad people hanging out there you gave me and his brothers in arms the members of pens is oldest mediæval club for more than eighteen years they've been recreating battles adding to their all marie creating some very fetching streets and off to some intensive sword fighting we

were ready to head out on patrol gentlemen are you ready yes let's do this apparently there were rumors of toxins in the forest where are they hiding. it was my graze on the to die for my brother. who own a certain train male called the west. that's lucky. and through miraculous of bumps as in thirteenth century medicine everyone else was able to make a full recovery there's going to be some upsides medieval warfare. but i guess if

you're going to get stabbed and beaten up and covered in mud this is what makes it all worth it. my friends glory to russia. it had been a pretty intense stop so much travels and pens and american blood and the chance to eat drink and be merry for a while was just hoping for a few roll of the more sedate activities around the corner. he stressed trisha's and this is products on the price of healthy eating. lead

to testes food toxicity allergenicity immune response lower nutrition for environmental contamination don't you feel like. some consider the experiment each human treatment. significant difference between the g.m. . at the g.m. . but they weren't treated so well themselves one question means one career you ask one question. and you might or might not be able to publish it but that's the end of your career. after spending

a fair bit of my time in getting went cold amounts of breath i was more than ready to visit somewhere which got me out. so when you're dealing with a long winter caution and plenty of things that you can do with those like this now . i know pretty much all the rules to. even though not all that great for that but the russians. have got their own version but there are all the forms. of let's do this meets hamlet not in this case a prince of denmark but the undisputed king of pens is russian billiards scene the former champion is head coach of russia's under eighteen billion team and he's had plenty of success. over the past four years they have achieved impressive results some of them take part in national and international competitions also teach kids here. the game takes elements from both snoop and pool but it's considered to be

much more difficult than both especially when you're trying to pull off shots like beads. or. i was going to attempt anything quite that flashy but i thought i could at least most of the old breaking . part of the idea is i'm going to hit the bottom right hand pole. and see what happens. to. all. the knock it in from twenty centimeters stock if you can get that far away from the pocket off to such excess the game itself held few beers and i was ready to challenge the most but apparently the most had other ideas i'm going to play with. it should be fun except it wasn't not one bit. since getting worrying value moved around the table like

a seasoned pro and i was left trying to remember exactly what i was supposed to be aiming at. ok so you can use the red ball to pot the white ball but you can also use the white ball to poke the white balls and the white will spot the red balls but then you have to take away a white ball. i was getting seriously behind and obviously with my level of skill it had to be the full tape. why why would you create a game where the pockets are obviously too small for the boards. and then with horrible inevitability as over. time. i think i just got hostiles. with my ego severely bruised i slunk out of the club and back to my rant all. i needed cheering up any one place where it

wouldn't matter if i drove like the plague. never really got used to it rushers driving conditions like me on the road just snowy and icy it makes it really difficult to control the car. to get a little extreme condition with fresh. you know if this is your school yes this is a safety driving school. most of them said gay is a professional racer and founder of pens a safety driving school and if you want to know how to handle your car in winter. james now i'm going to show you how you can stop your car from. getting it for you there's a technique to it. you need to learn to use the handbrake as well as the steering wheel in such situations.

but soon when you could probably begin with you keep your left hand on the wheel not sure you will come out when you are under right times on the handbrake. of course again made it look incredibly easy but with my chevy and be up to the challenge. rushes out on your turn now some of your rights under run the traffic cone gauntlet . admittedly we did up facing the wrong way a couple of times but sick is a patient instruction and i was beginning to get the hang of things. i've got this is tougher than you expect. some just big

boring drive i'm really used to driving to. killing one it's going to tell me is the toughest but i still practice i mean he's off the accelerator and can i get in the gate. it wasn't elegant but it was effective and after a few circuits without incident i was ready for ball. but if it's going to you know it's called police turn will help you get out of trouble for what i showed you when the car spins out of control them like it's a driver freezes up and just holds on to the wheel waiting for the car to stop but there is a way out you do you simply put the car into reverse drive back quickly and turn the wheel. with the ball. to start with we need to step on the accelerator and then press the clutch to make a sharp turn. we're back to normal. ok

rice we have some dramatic driving music for this. lady. the top. sell to. nearly. well done. my brain kicks. i managed to post clips and you never know when these do but do this point. now i can dramatically we my way in and out of the moscow traffic police. but i couldn't hit the road back to the council before i picked up

a few keepsakes i mean the pens are region means. he's bought be a little pricier than your average but this region is famous for its lead crystal and this museum has a collection that goes back all the two hundred. to the. particularly historic if. you can see these unique collection in terms of age and content. is can be used to study the history of. russia and the rest of the world. although it originated in the late eighteenth century it is still being replenished and of course. before it can be transformed into something beautiful the rule materials need to be assembled. out of this mixture it will make crystals it is melted to

under one thousand four hundred fifty celsius. although the work is here a famed for making valuable pieces of art that's also a lucrative souvenir business and had glass blower on tray was ready to share some secrets with me. still it is but it might not have heard the green brand of molten glass that. i'm going to keep a prototype thing. that it doesn't fall off. speed really is of the essence here otherwise the most and blow quickly falls out of shape. oh. well i'm reliably informed that this is going to turn out to be a bunny rabbit. maybe andre can do a little bit of rescue work. once the body actually looks like a rabbit the designers can add on finishing touches and then the pieces baked in

the oven to solidify and a few hours later it's back to the shelves. so any slightly lacking in a glass blowing talent but on the right is a patch up last time we have one point a realistic and the rabbit. more time in things it was a bus stop but i was still hoping to catch a little more culture before i went on the legend of one man still dominates the local fare to see. this house was the childhood home of one of the real greats of russian bit of lot more hold revolution ois the way people thought about acting and stage direction in russia and the early soviet union and his techniques are still practiced today. hold move sharply away from classical. the actual practice abandoning stage curtains making actors before without makeup and encouraging him fire is ation and here in his former home a company

a following in his footsteps. hold him christmas. oh you can you can. switch the balkan music all of the. shows here attract visitors from far afield and often sell out weeks in the books was sadly i didn't have to understand see one of the tasha had another surprise for . james i have to make a confession i like you and tell actors like you to come on i'm going to show you something must lease the to has no parallels in the world mere whole devised it introduced quite unusual thinks so literally what we have here is a house production every show takes place here it's marigolds personal home she was a different person his attitude towards life was quite bizarre and here we have to prove it. holds most piece was considered to be his

version of gogol's the government inspector and it turned out that natasha's troop was just one baritone short. for. a. professor with a little bit of discourse on the eve of the russian soul. who proved. it was certainly a memorable and my trip to the panzer region by time travel to the thirteenth nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the space of ten days and made it back in one piece if you're a fan of history nature or simply want some top class entertainment this is a great place to visit.

culture is that so much of it taxpayers' money i mean i seriously am a real materialist the global arms business is booming you more arms not less in change or the world security obviously events in the middle east are top.

we'll. review the latest in science and technology from. the future covered.

dozens of demonstrators in the libyan capital tripoli reportedly killed in the air raids by the military as protesters torch government buildings opposition forces claim that to control the country's second city benghazi as libyan diplomats at the u.n. reject moammar gadhafi regime. and as the new maps out of financial aid to countries caught up in the political unrest experts say there is no cash to back up the promises the e.u. and the u.s. are reportedly planning the largest foreign aid package since the end of the second world war. liberian jews demand compensation for property seized during world war two by baltic s.s. units who are still viewed as liberators in the country's official history they accuse the government in riga of turning a blind eye to the crimes of the nazis. next cross talk host peter labelling gas

discuss huge military expenditures in the middle east and whether the region actually benefits from it stay with us here on r.t. . if you. still. play. hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle u.s. president barack obama has requested five hundred forty nine billion dollars in military spending for this year a small decrease over last year nonetheless the global arms business is booming do more arms not less in jane ger the world security obviously events in the middle east are top of mind play can. still play. to discuss global military spending i'm joined by.