welcome back to join us you're watching our tv's are the top stories the latest summit of pacific powers in hawaii opens a financial can of worms between the world's two biggest economies the u.s. has criticized china for its trade and currency practices goldeneye to play by the rules. syria seeks to reverse the arab league's decision to booted out of the organization and the growing anti regime protests which critics claim are sponsored from abroad the freeze on the country's membership receives wide support from the e.u. and the us. out of blasting off for orbit a crew of three head to the international space station in russia so his rocket is

the first launch since a similar rocket carrying an unmanned supply craft crashed back to earth three months ago. the next discovery russia with r.t.s. games ground as he delves into the local life and traditions on the some are legion . if you're traveling in the russian winter it's always good to head to somewhere well developed and some are region definitely fits the bill the capital is the seventh largest city in the country and can lay claim to being one of the most important business and cultural centers in european russia it's also one of the most picturesque boasting the largest central square in europe and a long beautiful embankment alongside the volga river it's a ninety minute flight from moscow or if you prefer the scenic route you can take a leisure lee fifteen hour train ride.

but that was a long journey and there's nothing like coming into minus twenty so wake you up but i mean some are one of the biggest cities in the whole russia. and i was also in one of its largest and most unusual buildings the glass front of train station was completed in two thousand and eight and it's one of the highest places in town so this isn't a bad view point to take my first look at the city from this post to be around one of the of million people down there and hopefully plenty of interesting places to explore as well. and my first stop was a real hidden gem. well it's not exactly a very picturesque place but underneath all this rather tassie concretes about to uncover one of some more as biggest secrets. during the second world war many soviet governmental institutions as well as most of the foreign embassies moved to

some are on this huge bunker was created in one thousand nine hundred eighty two has a back up to stalin and his cabinet. is a really amazing feat of engineering this this entire bunker goes down almost quarter meters and they built a space of. what seems even more incredible to me is that the people have some or apparently the know that this place was. was only in one scene in one city when the soviet union was dissolved. and they finally found this structure had been under their feet for almost fifty years. the rumors are that it was built by conflicts who were then executed but nothing was ever confirmed. so i'm just coming down to the first level here hopefully we're going to get inside. sources hello nice to me.

and one man who knows all about the place is my guide anatoly even after all this time the power systems are still working. here you find life support systems the equipment was installed when the bunker was still under construction it has not been replaced since then but it's still operational it works automatically it's russian made equipment the bunker was built to house up to six hundred people and they had some pretty effective defenses. right this is over it's. a reinforced steel it. is what the germans would have got through. making. rusty on. the bunker now doubles as a museum with various classrooms holding its old equipment geiger counters gas masks and first aid kits are all on display at the most interesting area is right

down in the depths. it's an eerie experience entering this huge conference room and imagining the plans that might have been made here. the central table is laid out for the generals and politicians. are off to the right and stalin himself would have sat under the huge map of the head of the room for the majority of the soviet union existence some are was renamed bush if on the map clearly indicates a strategic position safely away from the german front lines it was never confirmed that uncle joe ever set foot here but the designers had obviously been told where to kill sleep prepare just in case nothing like a little megalomania to start the day but i was very happy to make my way back to the surface and take in some fresh air there's one real benefits of venturing out on days as cold as these it's going to be this sort of view of the mighty volga river in all its frozen glory where the river here is covered in ice for at least

three months of the year and it was always a real pain to get across until some local businessmen opened up the rather unusual ferry service. but larry has been running the operation here since two thousand and seven literally thousands of people come to cross the river every month and they all jump into these hovercrafts and it's made the journey a lot less precarious. before we started using a hovercraft people would try to cross the river by truck or car sometimes the thin ice caused disastrous accidents so it is the only thing if method. but now it only takes ten minutes and costs around one euro to make the journey safely on the budget self the surprisingly easy to control. adds. to the list. to.

make. a sign like across the ice they want to see me with any passengers so i was very happy to be going so. we can avoid making any excuse to get. us when you don't have customers to look off to please easy to get carried away. the problem with this. if i was driving this all the time i just pretend to like to. drive people to the other side of. this great. bus by now there were several chilly passengers waiting for a ride so it was time for me to make my except. now that.

is what i call a very graphic. on foot so i was ready to check out some of some hours of the attractions i'm one of them is quite literally out of this world. if you're talking about the soviets all the russian space program when you're talking about samoa and the soyuz rockets seventy percent of the world space flight school use these rockets and then made right here in the city. one of the proudest parts of somalia is history and include the launch vehicle to stoke the carried the first man into space and now some of the city's cosmic achievements are on display to the public. this is full of a lot of similar as space memorabilia. i'm next to an old landing module and i met up with museum director for a guided tour of the premises persons some are it is the right place for such

a museum. as our city has been the local point of this country's space engineering for decades here you can see there are men satellite that has been in outer space. program about it is a replica of quartz the world renowned cosmonaut yuri gagarin used during his space missions. there are around six hundred different exhibits that date back to the beginning of space exploration including some of the most advanced technology of the cold war. thank you all very small when you realize that you're next to something that's actually been out there among the stars and these spy satellites were part of the soviet and russian space programs the best part of forty years and these lenses so powerful that. if you open this up. to that even only a hundred kilometers above the head to be able to read what was on the museum is

definitely one of the city's cultural highlights but if you're also a winter sports fun you won't be disappointed either ok so if your smee fun things to do in the rush of winter i can tell you maybe sledging a bit of skiing i probably wouldn't say go. for us here in samoa they don't let a small thing like the conditions get in the way of the ground. and designers of this ski resorts have built their own icy night hole course. with me so the. rest of us it's you alluded speak english yet. oh melissa constantine james i'm glad that let's meet you ok well this is a first for me ok in the snow actually for me so. what's the idea about today what's going on well it's a golf tournament so you play golf almost the same rules as some of you have some

local rules. over. conditions of weather conditions and ok so now you're trying to play in mind how. oh it always been in the good walk spoiled camp when it came to golf but glad it was obviously a dab hand and she said she could give me a few pointers. what do we need to do so the first thing you have to set up your ball on the sea ok yeah those boots on are to make up position. so. to make a suit and then so right. you are the head. not exactly in all spaces start and neither was the goal for the non-contact sport . all.

walking wounded. i want to get out of the way the person playing pants off to some soothing tea i was ready to tee off. and as the ladies went on with i decided i'd play a solo rounds and as long as i wasn't attempting the world's longest drive the bolted seemed to head in the right direction. but they still miss. c.u. ball you feel that way here. he game it's always golf. for a perfectly judged green short. mind you my technique wasn't my first concern. with the temperature down around minus twenty celsius so minus four

fahrenheit i reckon i may have made one of the quickest ice cold frowns in history . price. comes in for the ice still for championship. in the lake. and the. championship goes to james brown who is now going to enjoy. some very well deserved gold because in the cup house it may have been freezing but some are was turning out to be a lot of fun and i was ready to take a look at another famous russian business because this region home. culture is that so much you know there's a huge musician on the market is it the show all over again united nations nuclear watchdog the i.a.e.a. claims in a new report that iran is moving ever closer. drive to clean

a ghost town. squandered money. abandoning. what is now. more than sixty square kilometers of environmental devastation and those who are still surprisingly in line and finding are just there it's very bad out here but not saying hardly any birds squirrels. you know our know what's going on here. concrete monarchy. if you wander around the streets of samarra there's one come over you'll see more than any other and that's no surprise because it's dominated the region's manufacturing industry for decades. if you think of the old russian car that you

can't help but think of the older they've been going up and down the country's roads for almost half a century and their story starts right over there. this is the alto vase factory. and seventy thousand employees work within it six hundred hecticness and they produce two and haul thousand new calls every day. ok so when i think of a lot of this that's a classic design is pretty much what crops up in my head but it's periods mara making something a little more modern. and i was ready to see how it was done. in the right place who. really did a few nicely here the way. i would be

a populous ok so this is where everything begins again so this is where this story you know locked up are beginning we are in the world industries in the lot because the bolivian part of the eastern europe must begin in the late sixty's and that's when we produced more than twenty six me wins of heart difference pamela's silly we produce fourteen families of ours. from old less than a month float on the basis of the op zoom on them cars love the fun of the people. the clean air is one of his biggest so. as a machines work day and night keeping the production line going. along the line relieved by all of us to give a good sermon company to come up with it is there well then to resume the night of the cardboard thing that's only only a few persons are needed here and there is a reason is. totally automated. and once the frameworks assembled it's on

to the next pass the operation. now we're going to need you know and it works. ok and water with force is there when we've just qualities again. and in the neighboring hangar things were moving on quickly. from the wind screams to the engines and the wheels all parts returned separately and it's remarkably forced operation. and what do you get for your seven thousand euro price tag something like this. the sixteen hundred pieces of metal but i'm four hours on the production line my brand new lot of. is ready for the roads. to clean or maybe a very popular color around here bounce in the winter time it can get you everywhere sometimes you just have to try out a more traditional means of transport and i recently strapped on

a pair of skis to run about the first time in twenty five years now that was quite quiet easy reintroduction but here in samarra i decided i'm going to ramp things up a little bit. so you know if so i'm guessing it but even some are like to do things a little bit extreme if you are got extreme right now what exactly are we going to be doing today we're going to ski your ear on. this is that and the speed that's no more while the rope and this you are ok. it will be. sixty kilometers per hour. maybe one hundred right that sounds terrifying. good ok let's go. in here and his friends and fans of stuart which apparently is skiing behind animals in this case a high powered snowmobile. remote from the belly up in this just way. yeah right

get out to me of eighty three in august. because i had my medical insurance up to date. bunch one way or another i was going to have to give it a go so i was properly kitted up but i was starting to wish i'd just gone and taken the home across to get. rid of that. as i really. fear it is all a very good life so please please. ok i got a good book by. mrs lee there were a couple of false starts but eventually i managed to stay off right. ok i know you like thirty wasn't out. but still.

i'm still almost. what you managed to control your balance this is an amazing experience and soon i was ready to join the going for a group effort. and we're ready to rock. just a nice little elf in the teeth that will do the flying. but if you are trying this for the first time it's best not to get overconfident. oh.

well that's a fairly. reintroduction. but i think. everything still intact. i just got a little rest but unfortunately my recovery has to be short lived. or still aching for my session out there on the ice but apparently my new friend has another thing that he wants me to try something about sending me into a tunnel runs. it sounded rather ominous but once again it goes a promise i was going to enjoy myself. for the day and i think you get so what are we doing to the. course will. be ok so simple no super screw it gives you instant

flying power. useful i've got it well. and. a little history will go it's ok. turns out of the tunnel rats is an acrobatic expert in vertical wind tunnels and i was about to get my first lesson. curtis and it. is like. these beautiful imagery. in happy people okey mile mile run smiled on it. how you could die here. hardly the secret here is something changes to your body surface area do it right and you should rise and fall safely and if you train enough eventually you can do stuff like this the wind speed is apparently more than two hundred kilometers an hour and it's powered by

a five hundred horsepower engine enough to even get someone like me off the ground . good will often worry. ok there we go into the final. total terra. moving up. and then it was time to take to the end i was a little worried that i could crash to the floor to any point but remind how to get a grip on the. eric. holder. was a little bit more. true oh i. bet.

they've. made it through a ton of them run it was time to go sort of. them despite bouncing off the walls a few times and maybe town in one piece. and the exit spirits ok they're about there isn't a need to do their part in a but i think we're going to call that one a bellyful i didn't know that the superman surge worked after all. it had been a lot of fun but some are was beginning to tie me out so i thought i'd then my trip with a little self-indulgence a muslim it's a festival has definitely got to be one of my favorite times in russia because basically it's a weeklong extended version of pancake day but it also is supposed to signify the end of winter and i've heard that the two of us some are of traditional make it

have a sense i don't quite know. so not just a claims to have people with a. residents of this area often they battled with bashkirian nomads back in the eighteenth century. and it seems they still like to expend some serious energy to get themselves in the mood for a feast. that they still have very worked up their most or what it is. they will find it. possible to own was upset because they were hungry but a bit of a bookie seems to solve the problems. really are not here. i have no idea what is going on i know you. know people.

and then the guest of honor arrives this old lady represents must units and she's here for a special reason. and then things started to get weird i. think this is the usual. elements lastly it's personal. i'll. try to have some sort of significance. wetherby people is what i signed up for this. apparently mustn't series here to piece all the bad spirits out of you before the year starts anew. and then you can have a go on with the right i guess christmas this is that i thank you for it but i'm sorry how about if. i found once everyone has been cleansed this is yet mortal sin to celebrate but finally i managed to sneak off the

subject sorry windsor is right with my i am not kids i finally have. so i was eight. i should have been the robot so. i just honestly earned my pancakes but sadly it was time for me to be leaving sonora. i found a thriving cultural business and scientific center and people that are always ready to show you a great time. well . science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.