our 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 along beautiful embankment alongside the volga river it's a ninety minute flight from moscow if you prefer the scenic route you can take allegedly fifteen hour train ride. well that was a long journey and there's nothing like coming into minus twenty so wake you up but . one of the biggest cities in the whole. and i was also in one of its largest and most unusual buildings the glass fronted 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 the supposed to be a million people down there and hopefully plenty of interesting places to explore as well. and my first stop was a real hidden gem. it's not exactly a very picturesque place here but i did a thorough this rather tassie concretes are 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 samoa this huge bunker was created in one thousand nine hundred two has a back up to stalin and his cabinet. this is a really amazing feat of engineering this this entire bunker goes down almost forty meters and they built it over the space of million. seems even more incredible to me is that the people have some or apparently didn't even know that this place was. was only in the one nine hundred ninety when the soviet union was

dissolved. and they finally found this huge 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. just kind of the first level here hopefully to be able to get inside. sources hello nice to me. and one man who knows all about the place is my guide on a totally even after all this time the power systems are still working. here you find life support systems and equipment was installed when the bunker was still under construction but 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. the reinforced steel it. the germans would go through. if they are. rusty. 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 but 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 the stenographers are off to the right and stalin himself would have sat under the huge map at the head of the room for the majority of the soviet union's existence some are was renamed bush if on the map clearly indicates its 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 to meticulously 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 got to be this sort of view the mighty volga river in all its frozen glory now 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. valarie 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 air cushion hovercrafts and it's made the journey a lot less precarious. before we started using the hovercraft people would try to

cross the river by trying or car but sometimes the thin ice caused disastrous accidents so it is the only safe method. but now it only takes ten minutes and costs around one euro to make the journey safely and the bus itself is surprisingly easy to control. adds. crofts to the lists. in time like across the ice they want to see me with any passengers but i was very happy to be going so. we can avoid hitting any excuse that would be good. but when you don't have customers to look after it is easy to get carried away. i

think the problem with this. if i was driving this will just be tempted to. drive people to the other side of. this great. now there were several chilly passengers waiting for a ride so it was time for me to make my exit. now that. is what i call a ferry crossing. on foot i was ready to check out some 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 summer is history and include the launch vehicle to stalk the carried the first man into space and now some of the city's cosmic achievements are on display to the public. full of a lot of. space and. take a look. i'm next to an old landing module and i met up with museum director for a guided tour of the premises. is the right place for such a museum. because our city has been the local point of this country space engineering for decades here you can see there are men third a light that has been in outer space. it is a replica of war to 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. makes me feel 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 for the best part of forty years and these lenses so powerful that. if we open this up to do that even if 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 russian winter i could tell you maybe you sledging a bit of skiing i probably wouldn't say. bus here in samoa they don't let a small thing like the conditions get in the way of the rounds. and designers of this ski resort have built their own nine hole course.

so the place that's the best way to elude you speak english yeah. james then asked me. ok well this is a first for me ok in the snow action if i'm into so. what's the idea about today what's going on while it's a golf ball and then you know you play golf almost the same rules have some local rules that these. rules are in accordance with conditions of weather conditions ok so now we're trying to play in nine holes. but always been in the spoils camp when it came to goals but it was obviously a down pound and she said she could give me a few pointers. what do we need to do so the first thing you have to do set up

a ball on the tee ok you have them. to make up position. so prepare yourself to make a soup and then. oh. you are the head. not exactly in the start and not always thought go for the non-contact sport. oh. walking wounded. want to get out of the way of the person playing. to some soothing tea i was ready to tee off. as the ladies went on when i decided i'd play a solo round. as long as i wasn't attempting the longest drive. to head in the right direction.

but still miss. c.u. ball you. hear. the game it's always cold now for a perfectly judged. mind you my technique wasn't my first concern. with the temperature down around minus twenty celsius so minus four. and i may have made one of the quickest ice cold frowns in history. right. now comes the high school championship. and he makes. and. who is now. going to enjoy some very well deserved vodkas. in the clubhouse 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 the calls this region home. culture is that so much different and there's a huge musician mind. is it deja vu all over again the united nations nuclear watchdog the i.a.e.a. claims in a new report that iran is moving ever closer. to clean. squandered money. what is no. more new sixty square kilometers of. nation and those who are still surprisingly. finding. bad out here. not saying. you know.

what's going on here tom green. if you wander around the streets of somalia you'll see more than any other and that's no surprise because it's dominated the region's manufacturing industry the decades. if you think of the russian car that you can't help but think of that they've been going up and down the countries roads for almost half a century and the story. of. this is the. two thousand employees work within it six hundred hecticness and they produce two and a half thousand calls every day. of.

this that's a classic this is. pretty much what crops up in my head but it's mara making something a little more than. i was ready to see how it was done. in the right place through the special military if you noticed me. i would be a bad date populus ok so this is where everything begins. so this is where the story of our beginning we are in the well then did this in the flood because the one part of the history of us began in the late sixty's and that's when we produced more than twenty six millions of cards to print them on this silly we produced the dean from a list of artists. from old fleming was. on the basis of the art to

more than possible the fun of the free will. the leader is one of his biggest sellers the machines work day and night keeping production line going to load the guys behind the lead by all of us to get them to the german company to come up with it is the weld in a place in the night of the cardboard actually only two persons on needed here and there is the brazenness. to get them once the frameworks assembled it's on to the next polish deliberation you know what i'm going to do you know and it worked out with the body ok and then the border with forces go into the sweetest qualities as a kid. and in the neighboring hanger things were moving on quickly. from the windscreens to the engines and the wheels. separately and it's remarkably fast operation. do you get feel so. thousand euro price tag

something like this. the sixteen hundred pieces of metal but only four hours on the production line brand new law that. is ready for the roads. to clean a 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 though i recently strapped on a pair of skis to run about the first time in twenty five years that was quite quiet easy reintroduction but here in samoa i decided i'm going to ramp things up a little bit. so you know so i'm guessing it but even some aura like to do things a little bit extreme yes you got to extreme right now what exactly we're going to be doing today we're going to ski your e. on the river this is and speed that's almost.

ok there will be between sixty kilometers per hour. maybe one hundred right that sounds terrifying. good ok let's go. in here and his friends a fans of skewering which apparently is skiing behind animals in this case a high powered snowmobile. romo making the belly effortless doesn't it. yeah right developing me really feeling or just. my medical insurance is up today. but it's 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 hovercraft again. minos. i'm ready. for it is all of it going like. please please.

come back i'm going to. miss and leave there were a couple of false starts but eventually i managed to stay upright. ok i know this isn't good for you like he was about. but still be. proud of still much. 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.

a nice. piece that will. be fine. but if you are trying this for the first time it's best not to get overconfident. oh. well. well that's a fairly intense reintroduction disc. but i think. everything's still intact. rest. unfortunately my recovery was to be short lived. or still aching for there on the ice but apparently my new friend has another thing that he wants me to try something about. tunnel runs.

it sounded rather ominous but once again it goes a promised i was going to enjoy myself. although they may think. so what are you going to. cause we'll. ok so the super super super super royce gives you instant flying power. and useful i've got it. and. now here in this field it's ok turns out that a tunnel rat is an acrobatic expert in vertical wind tunnels and i was about to get my first lesson. fortunately. it was like a really. beautiful imagery and. happy

people. smiled on it. partly the secret here is something changes to your body surface area. and you should rise in full 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 five hundred horsepower engine enough to even get someone like me off the ground. long. right ok we're into the tunnel. but tara. was. and then it was time to take to the air i was

a little worried that i could crash to the floor to any point but remember had a good grip on me. already. was a little bit more. than. made it through time to run it was time to go soeda. them despite bouncing off the walls a few times i made it down in one piece. and then they say spirits ok there are about thousands like me some could do their part and they but i think i'm going to call that one the bellyful i didn't know it the

superman search works after all. it had been a lot of fun but some are was beginning to tie me out so i thought i'd end my trip with a little self-indulgence the muslim it's a festival has definitely got to be one of my favorite times in russia because basically it's a week long 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 a traditional native inhabitants put on quite a show for. not just a claims to have people with a. first residents of this area after 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 this guy very worked up they are mostly what it is.

they will find a. little general most upset because they were hungry but a bit of a buggy seems to solve problems. i really have not. i have no idea what is going on i know you'll. kill people i. think. and then the guest of honor arrives this old lady represents muscle units and she's here for a special reason. and then things started to get weird i. think this is the. element of the massively successful. i'll. try to have some sort of significance. recipe people is what i sign up for this.

apparently mushy series here to beat all of the bad spirits out of you before the year starts a new. and then you can have a go on with both. the staples that i thank you for it but sorry i'll be about it. i found once everyone has been cleansed this is yet more dull seem to celebrate but finally i managed to sneak off the subject so. winter is rank with my i am not kids by only. so i was eight. i should help with the rope but. i dasn't leo and my pancakes but sadly it was time for me to be leaving so mara. i found a thriving cultural business and scientific center and people that are always ready

to show you a great time. science technology innovation all the latest developments around russia. the future.

the latest summit of the civic powers in hawaii opens a financial can of worms between the world's two biggest economies. a new twist in the currency wars between the u.s. and china as washington calls on bingeing to start playing by the rules what china

is calling its own shots we bring you all the latest details from honolulu just ahead in the program. syria seeks to reverse the arab league's decision to booted out of the organization amid growing into regime protests which critics claim are sponsored from abroad. and blasting off for orbit a crew of three had to the international space station the first since a similar rocket carrying out on manned supply crap crashed back to earth. it's ten am in the russian capital you're watching our t.v. live from moscow with me rima joshie as a gathering of the pacific rim split a go an economic heavyweights winds down in hawaii it's the latest rift between the globe's two centers of financial influence which is dominating the u.s. has been.