is a well known village and. the road that ran right through the village used to be called the shackle road it was a route where convicts were taken on to siberia as a result it was also named the siberian root. if this road formed a link between russia's capital and its siberian part. it connected the country's western and eastern region it's. russian poet alexander pushkin once travelled along it it was used by stage coaches. has been at the head of the district for several years during this time he's been able to restore a dozen historical landmarks. we marry from the western bank of the volga are not great in number there are only fifty or sixty thousand of us in the world

these days that is why we seek to stick together in order to safeguard our language culture and of course the land where we live in. the midst of. the burial site is the only one of its kind in the region cattle breeders of an iranian tribe were buried here in the second millennium b.c. the time when the egyptian pyramids were built when excavation work was over scientists restored the burial place to its original appearance. this is a hearing in the water with twenty eight men between the ages of eighteen and twenty five are buried here there was also a woman and a man who was forty five to fifty years old when he was buried we think he was a blacksmith those men had died in battle arrowheads have been found and some of the skeletons the skulls of other men were fractured with an axe in.

the romas convoy suddenly stops at the edge of a swamp it's too dangerous to drive any further the traveler spend a good deal of time walking around the frozen silt when they manage to measure the swamps depth everybody realizes that attempting to cross the swamp is out of the question. we can't go any further here we will have to look for another routes the ice of a year off to reverse to thin and there is one and a half metres of water underneath it. however another road makes up for their misfortune it leads to what for centuries has been known locally as the fortress mountains. the maori people who lived here a long time ago used it as a hideout against intruders legend has it that the maori people were terrified of

being caught by the of new forest creatures covered with hair who had chosen to settle in the mountains caves. were black haired women with enormous breasts. if they felt their breaths were a hinderance when they were on the move they slung them over their shoulders. like you were they had little contact with people. everybody was afraid of them. these happened and long time ago. there were launch forests with tall trees. legends about to go in

a muddy screeching that been handed down over the centuries by welsh mouth to mount up a trove of knows a great many ancient stories relating to the maori people. one of them tells a story of an old oak tree several generations of mari people of post and it changed for the rest. of the good it will go with the local people regard this tree as sacred it is around one thousand years old the old healers living in this village say the oak tree used to help make women fertile and restore the mill a bit o. . there's giant of a tree is seven meters thick and more than thirty meters tall some scientists believe the mari el oak is russia's oldest. and medieval mary city is found several kilometers away from the ancient oak in the middle ages

the maori sought protection from invaders by building their settlements in out of the way places one of them is high on the bank of a river in the garden district. natural obstacles provided protection for the inhabitants of these fortifications. in eight hundred thirteen people came to this grove from all over the region to pray for a russian victory over napoleon people in the surrounding villages still tell the story of the maori who sacrificed twenty six horses to the gods. but. now it's time for you have ghanian varick to join other worshipers at the all maria prayer in appealing to the gods they do so to the singing of an exodus touched sacrificial animals. this is followed with a meal shared by all those taking part in the ritual giving out food from enormous

pots serves to bring the maori people together according to their beliefs all these people get closer to the gods by eating in this way. mari people from all over have come here even those living in moscow and st petersburg. everywhere in russia try to be here for these press service. before nightfall the romans finally find what they set out for at the start of the expedition the depression. seeing them norma's pit in the very center of a field they hold their vehicles at a safe distance from it the people living in this village used to plough these fields and grow crops on it. but. they were awakened by loud noises. when they came here they were surprised to see

a large crater in the middle of a field with some water at the bottom. scientists have found a subterranean stream beneath the depression when it erodes the top layer of the soil the ground sinks. this slope is very slippery and very steep and i get scared at times i might be buried by sliding rocks a prospect i don't particularly relish ok i'm almost there now what's there is no water here local people prefer not to descend into the depression because this kind of cataclysm might happen at any time. some good at that there is much to be learned from such expeditions people think that such things are only found in faraway lands but they are much closer to home. thank.

you have gainey come in chicago was pleasantly surprised just as he and his wife vera were about to head home off to the service. you get a good to come here for a moment. the priest's white cap was ceremonially placed upon his head as a token of great respect. for. those that know i'm not able to keep a low profile far more stand on the sidelines i will have to be directly involved in the prayers of just ordinary people cherish hope that they will look to me with hope and in my words expressed their sentiments in front of the sacred tree of life you are i wish you good sales and happiness. the come in cheek of couple has taken a plunge into the ancient face of the people. by coming here they have truly

experienced the joy of communion. they hope it will stay with them for the whole. until the next president that will once again bring the maori people together. download the official placation the phone i pod touch from the i.q. exams to. teach life on the go. video on demand tease money food costs and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the t.v. dot com. the

latest news in the week's top stories on r.t. iran's oil ministry says tehran is stopping supports to france and britain and its sanctions over its nuclear program. the u.n. ramps up the pressure on the syrian regime escalates but russia calls for talks to break the stalemate. promises reforms. spilled out onto the streets once again as lawmakers clear more cuts to secure vital rescue cash in the wake of days of protests but top stories this hour.

with a look back at the past seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. iran says it has stopped oil exports to french and british companies the country's own ministry says tehran has other customers to sell its crude to islamic republic aims to preempt some oil embargo that set to come into force in july. was needed to force iran to resume talks over its atomic program europe and the u.s. suspect iran is pursuing nuclear weapons to iran denies that and says it's ready to start negotiations a team of u.n. nuclear inspectors is on its way to the country a second such visit within a month historian webster tarpley told me a little earlier that he thinks iran's imposing its own oil embargo to show it won't be bullet. economic sanctions are a game that two can play and turnabout is fair play in international affairs the

european commission and the relevant powers have been making a big noise over the past couple of weeks about how they are going to embargo and boycott all iranian oil starting on july first well it's pretty obvious the iranians decided not to wait around until july first they decided to to impose their own embargo boycott on the offending powers and they're starting with the the two biggest imperialist bullies on the schoolyard the british and the french who are now so weak that they can only act together they are a kind of imperialist bicycle built for two they haven't had time to carefully arrange the fallback options and the alternative sources of oil so this is a little bit of a surprise to them the iranians have been under sanctions for thirty years when i was in iran you see a lot of prosperity a lot of economic activity there had been a shock in january as a result of the very stringent sort of secondary boycott sanctions that the u.s.

had put in but the iranians will tell you they have lived under u.s. sanctions for thirty years they know how to survive in such a situation i didn't see any evidence of hardships at all peoples that that certain key prices had gone up the bigger issue i think is the slide towards war and i think we have to take very seriously what we're seeing now with the reckless and irresponsible statements of the israeli leaders these feckless americans who are sort of but chime in is a region sliding towards war and that would be then i think possibly a general war. preventing iran from getting nuclear weapons and the real driving force for the u.s. and its allies so says antiwar activist brian becker. united states government has created an artificial crisis that's first and foremost it's a manufactured crisis iran is complying with the i.a.e.a. iran does not have a nuclear weapon iran is not threatening its neighbors iran has not started

a war with any of its neighbors israel on the other hand has hundreds of nuclear weapons and unlike the iran refuses to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty does not allow. specters into its country so there's not really a nuclear menace or a nuclear danger from iran so what is the cause of the artificial crisis the real goal is the united states government has embarked on a course of extreme economic aggression against iran with the hope that by creating economic suffering economic isolation economic misery that part of the population will rise up or become disenfranchised with the government so that the u.s. can do as it has in history carry out regime change. and you can hear more from brian back in about twenty minutes from now in the full version of that interview here on r.t. . the u.n. general assembly has adopted a binding resolution this week calling on syria's president assad to step down

russia was among twelve states who voted against the draft fails to address the armed opposition while damascus is trying for major reforms reports of violence continue what is meant for motion is in syria. this is racial here in syria means volatile with tensions between security forces and the armed opposition groups continue in claiming lives of both military and civilians almost every day on thursday we attended the funerals of a young boy who was gunned down early here in damascus during the n.t. government protest and the procession itself eventually turned into a hostile to a straight in the clashes that followed and the continued the next day five people were killed and many others injured one violence one day causes even more violence next and so on and so on we also can see political murders as well this week shake of the most of damascus was assisted native apparently because of his

pronouncements to shake came out with strong condemnation of the terror groups of the armed groups he blamed for the bloodshed calling for to stop the violence to stop the bloodshed we're also hearing about hostilities in other parts of the country reports from opposition activists that in the city of homs many people die every day in the city of hama they've been several explosions all pipeline in the midst of violence these tensions all across syria syria reforms on the go in this week the date for the national referendum on the country's new constitution was announced the vote is expected to take place next sunday as far as the ministry of internal affairs of syria has said around fifteen million people in syria today have the right to vote this new constitution was drafted. and the monopoly of the ruling party the bath party here in syria had been in power for the last fifty years but people on the ground are actually fearing that this referendum and this

new constitution it's too little and too late this week the chinese delegation visited syria both russia and china are calling for the dialogue to be restored between the syrian opposition and the authorities and saying that this is the only way out of this crisis. and independent journalist tony goals wings as the peacekeeping initiative put forward by the arab league could be used to the advantage of nato states the arab league now has become almost simply a tool of the west because most of the most powerful countries in there are very much under the western petro dollar influence we had an arab league sponsored investigation into syria it didn't come up with what the western arab leaders and the western press wanted to hear which was first of all that there are all sorts of third forces within syria who are killing people these are armed gangs armed groups

running around and causing a lot of these civilian deaths rather than as we keep hearing the syrian forces i don't think there will be a sort of peaceful intervention because those free syrian army rebels and indeed al qaida has very strong links to the west it was the west that originally created al qaida in afghanistan so many of these fighters within syria are actually playing into the hands of nato nato has been really ruthless in manipulating their beliefs in order to get them to fight the assad regime so we're looking at really a two track thing one is an official policy which is at least to try and attempt to get negotiations but the unofficial policy is constant attacks against the assad regime so i think if the west does in to intervene in that way it shows that they have absolutely no regard for the international rule of law. coming up in the next few minutes here in our democracy anniversaries in another war scarred country fireworks were placed gunshots and live in the days of celebrations but unarmed to

the teeth militia isn't going anywhere casting a shadow on the country's path to stability. that story still to come but first frustrated greeks have been running in central athens once again to protest against ever more austerity being pushed upon them groups of protesters remained outside parliament throughout the day with some scuffles with police reese's cabinet has passed the final set of massive cuts creditors demand in return for one hundred thirty billion bailout which could now be cleared on monday euro zone finance ministers are meeting tomorrow in brussels to discuss the fate of greece investment adviser patrick young as told me that if the next bailout is cleared greece's loss of sovereignty will be complete. what we have here is basically that great scene in the hollywood adventure movie where someone has tripped and fallen over the edge of the cliff and he's being held on to by one armed by the person who we're not sure whether he's that beauty or the bad data is he gonna let them go and let them

fall to a terrible death or is he going to hang on to them and gradually bring them up and that's where we are with threesome the european union because actually what is being said behind closed doors and even to a degree in public is we've got some of those guys sure have learned the german finance minister basically saying he doesn't trust the greeks to manage to hold up to the agreements that they've made and tragically the greens track record of actually doing their bit in terms of what they're supposed to do in the past has been a huge feel so therefore we now have a situation where the greeks have said we'll do anything you want whatever you want we'll do it personally i think what's going to happen is that the finance ministers will probably agree to give greece some money and greece is going to find itself in a dreadful situation where like a nine year old child every friday it's going to have to go to daddy say it's done untold work so it's been a good boy and overall can actually see how the next two weeks pocket money in order to pay its civil servants and that's a horrible loss of sovereignty. the greek parliament passed the cuts needed to

secure the bailout last sunday which triggered violent protests on the streets and the rage of a beleaguered population is still at the forefront of greek society as parties jacob greaves now reports. system under siege m.p.'s drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of demonstrators amassed within a short passing another round of unpopular cuts. the results proved incendiary. that uganda protests turned violent as protesters including fringe and a kiss clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. a day on this is the remnants of public anger for glasses and the only thing that's been broken as governments past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts will be left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures are very very tough part of the poor

people especially and this is the reason that they feel. the today i think more measures have been taken and they're it's not going to work in the end they'll be another bill he clearly had bad and. oh i hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs to slash funding for the nation's pensions a minimum wage but current policy appears to mainly expose those most vulnerable to crisis conditions is a mindset some feel is doomed to fail they already have destroyed the whole generation of young people and their dreams they will destroy the structure of the sabian infrastructure of the whole country we know that it is impossible to repay this debt that we have now signs that these illegal or old news bad we cannot

continue like that because the ball is said that the government is following actually increases the dead yeah instead of finding a solution at the heart of activists claims is their search and that they've noticed their. the for the best part of five years now and the time taxes have risen incomes have but the country's deficit only seems to grow and in this austerity cycle is something sought by an increasing number despite the turmoil the government walls will follow but what. is the exact date even more. that. they are going to come the only way out of this point is the default default is going to be very tough for us but this is going to be the solution. for now relative calm has returned to the streets of athens smashed buildings have been patched up signs of damage swept away but the simmering discontent hasn't been

a mass force medicine appears to bring nothing but pain many are continuing their call for target of treatment greaves r.t. athens. the euro zone's austerity drive has also hit spain as tens of thousands of people have marched out across the country protesters are angry at the government's labor reforms the largest run is taking place in madrid but trade unions have organized gatherings in fifty seven cities across the country protesters say reforms were unfair to workers and would destroy jobs the changes make it easier to adjust employee shuttles and wages and have staff fired last week similar rallies turned violent as demonstrators were blocked by police on their way to the parliament spain's unemployment has tripled since two thousand and seven and almost hauffe of people under twenty five around to work. we're live in moscow with you twenty four hours a day this is our taste ahead for you this hour. with just two weeks until the

russian presidential election we look at how candidates are attempting to attract the electorate. but first this week libyans have been celebrating the first anniversary of the uprising that led to the toppling of colonel gadhafi the united states congratulated the people while urging the libyan government to protect civil rights and international has been reporting that could daffy supporters have been subjected to abuse and torture this is concerns grow that libya's militia are still running the country unchecked for those men she who's editor in chief of the pan african social justice network told r.t. the situation now is much worse than it was during the colonel's regime. ever since the major win variation of libya. as being. gross human rights violations is not just torture there is. indiscriminate killings there are extrajudicial killings there is summary execution of the code or

gadhafi. members of this found some really executed nobody has been brought to justice or the huge amount of arms that are being poured in by france by the europeans by the americans. this place is going to send you to into. all civil war this situation now in that sense is worse than it was under the the rule of gadhafi. as the middle east reels from revolutions and fall and regimes we're providing in-depth analysis for you on our website party dot com. read expert opinion that says the west is struggling to keep a brave face as a pursuit with its grab for dominance in the region also online few right now. russian language silenced in latvia as the majority of voters in the baltic states reject a proposal to give official status to the language used by third of its population

. u.s. presidential contender ron paul has warned that his country is slipping into a fascist system with a brute government ruled by big business speaking to supporters in kansas city the republican candidate said americans individual liberties were being stripped away it's now talk to radio host and author stephen lemon who's just come off air just on a radio program good to have you here on r.t.c. even now do you agree with ron paul in. america is a fascist the only thing i disagree with. it's nice. is deep into it imagine bill in the 1930's nine hundred thirty five i believe sinclair lewis wrote a novel call it what happened it was the birth of politicians writing to a power plant release rhetoric and when he got it he became a fashion.