programs for being with us in half past the hour i'm terrence harajuku and these are your headlines over two thousand killed and many more injured in a double bombing against security compounds in the heart of the syrian capital despite growing diplomatic efforts. a man found guilty of last year's terror attack in minsk is executed despite calls to reconsider the case being heard from in europe for human rights groups condemn the sentence. says marchers and saw the

new nazi soldiers heralded as heroes in libya and around the enjoying top level support for triggering public outrage. next up we're back in the unique urals as we guard you through the russian city of perm. a two hour flight east of moscow will land you in a city called pup it's one of russia's most populous ministers capitals and the industrial and cultural center of the european urals. lying on the banks of the comma river it's home to almost one million people and as you take a walk around it's easy to see that this is a russian city trying to create an impression. quickly making a name for itself in the contemporary art world and the generous local government grants means there's something colorful crunchy or just colossal around almost

every corner. and right here in the center of the city you can find the highlights but it's consent real projects. that is fifty under logs making up a cyrillic letter. and this is he's autistic pedigree has been further in haunts by the new contemporary art museum it's been open since two thousand and nine and houses of the rise here of unusual and striking exhibits. among the paintings here rather from of this little sculpture. quite impressive bunch of criminals that. i'm ahead of perms public art program believes that the changes are adding to the city's reputation. through today is in the vanguard of cultural and social issues which affects not only these particular region but also the country as

a whole this is very important. and it's not just professional artists that are being showcased here. now these six hundred snowmen are all part of a citywide projects designed to get the people more involved in all and they've all been made. great sits. by the local school kids. in freezing temperatures and no barrier to a good time and i see playgrounds are filled with the young and the young and hot. really doing it all moves playing.

well i had a stroll through perms windsor wonderlands but it seems to me that there's one. very important guy still missing. says hello to fellow j.m. was nice to me i'm glad to see you here in perm thank you very much it always hurts that you are quite an unusual thought of frost as a true yes i'm a real dyed in the wool father frost complete with a real beard. yet i'd like to show you some of my winter tricks that you're brilliant through. and it's clear from the beginning that love is no one in a responsible. plays and juggling who do you rush and speak to all the frost certainly wouldn't want to be on his milton list.

so now i get to find out how my remote news coordinator does a sixty nine year old. probably not but we'll see. his grades. blimey. will. be. ok. keeping me a little help from. the frosts. me. u.k. i didn't break anything. thankful that i hadn't done any permanent damage i left left his acrobatics and headed back out into the streets it was time for a little souvenir hunting there aren't many things more strongly associated with

russia on the back and although you might not see too many running around the streets of perm that doesn't mean you can't find them if you know where to go. if you go down to one particular workshop and you're sure of the big surprise. these are the sort of bears you really wouldn't mind names here and here in perth and then make has a bit of a superstar because sees the winner of a golden george the equivalent. of a teddy bear. look at all of his designs have been cleaning up an international competitions for several years now from her postcard bears to her jeans characters she's amassed an impressive collection of her own. some of natasha's there's a real antiques including one that's supposed to have a launches on the cholas the second she used to be it told me can you turn to tell us when a scottish friend will to some plans to make their clothing now she can put together

a new furry friend in around ten hours she's a pretty good teacher too so let her see his kindly offered to show me the arts of making your own that's going to see. if i can get this little guy to look a little bit more cuddly. culture a quick tutorial on stuffing my first began to look far more healthy and i was ready for something a little more delicate. or that was easier said than done. nothing failed. and then there was the question of how to get them in the right position and here with me. looks brittle when it's in calls me kind of promise. and i. can't quite cheerfully. but eventually after some minor brain surgery we were ready

for the finishing touch. on then oh boy oh yeah i only according to the classics only when the eyes go in that the bear actually becomes a bear so. i don't know what to think it might not be an oscar winner i think is quite lovable. i was finally ready to explore some of the per region and i started in the southeast in the picture a city of congo. back in the eighteenth century congo was considered to be the capital of the urals and it was one of the most important stops along the trade route to siberia but it was a hundred years later with a good bit spirit son but it really reached its heyday. meet alexei good can the man who became russia's most famous t.v.

importer and. boy lovely god is going to tell me a little bit about his life. and though james our cool guru there in the title of the t. capital of the russian empire thanks to the merchants on mexico. his talent was responsible for the fact that he was no longer an exotic a beverage it was something extra civil towards aleksey was adopted at the pioneer and discovery of sorts. to kim's achievements transformed congo and as old as museum is devoted to his life and work it seems only right to sample his wares well in this case i think we do need to have a copy of his honor so i'll go through to kind of just kind of that is of course james let's go and with of course. just below the main exhibition hall is a replica of a nineteenth century russian tea house burned although the brew itself became more

affordable and good can style not everyone was able to have betty with all the trimmings. sugar was expensive so much so that ordinary people could not afford it and in this case they drank tea ball gazing at the sugar element of sugar was suspended from the ceiling to drinkers will just look at the sugar while sucking on the bottom its food their brains and to think in their tea was sweet the sum of all it was also becoming more and more widespread and tea drinking part and parcel of each meal. like this one more places to take your time and whether you were immersion striking your deal or just friends enjoying allegedly discussion or listening as they have the royal years to me back in the nineteenth century farm couple and excellent company if you want to can.

t.v. each model of we know you are doing the video which is the occasion for leaving the judge it was time to return to the present but down on the congo river far more ancient tradition was taking place. i arrived in time for the russian orthodox celebration of a picnic a festival commemorates jesus his baptism and dozens of people were gathering by a hole in the ice to observe the sanctifying of the waters where you. will see the crowd coming in here on mass with as many containers as they can carry because often the water's been blessed the russian orthodox people believe that it's become incorruptible and they'll take all this war to home with them to bless themselves their families and their houses.

it was a bit of a scramble but at least for now whether almost a draw i headed off to watch the festivals culmination and one of converse most famous landmarks. this is got to be the poem region's natural high lights i'm in the congo cave and it's the only ice cave in russia that's a quit the tourist expeditions and these beautiful crystals hang from the walls all around the caves ventilation system acts like an actual freezer minimi ice near its entrance never thought was and stomach types and starwood might stack aerated ceilings and for us. amazingly beautiful but. it is enough slip break. the cave was first documented rock in the ninth century and it's been

a guided tourist attraction for well over a hundred years and it can be pretty cramped in places but as you move further back the ice receives the landscape starts to change the whole cave extends almost six kilometers on the ground and this should give you an idea of some of the variations of the size of the cross just this one is massive compared to the polar graphs that we saw right at the beginning and also it's much much warmer it's probably about plus two here and back at the start was around minus twelve. hundred. the cave reaches a depth of almost sixty meters and it's here at the bottom that you find it's underground lakes and just for tonight a crowd of the faithful. so once the

service is finished here everyone can use up for a quick splash of holy water and a blessing from the priest. and for the bravest believers that's the signal to take the plunge. freefall dips into the lake to all of the holy trinity and wash away all their sins from the past year. now and go the utmost respect for guys like this but. purely for health and safety reasons you understand i should not be immersing my whole body in this freezing water so i think i'm going to troy an epiphany light. so. and then maybe i'll take care of hawking find something light out.

i made my way out of the cave and away from. the city maybe a beautifully preserved post of the region's industrial post but i was ready to take a trip into the countryside to a place with a mysterious station. well to the. science technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future coverage.

of in a place called. a first glance perhaps just another piece of poem region country saw it but apparently you can have close encounters here with much more than just nature. perms version of area fifty one flying sources alien encounters and unusual goings on have been reported here and i want to see if there was anything to it. to look for extra terrestrials around. i believe. i've got two of the most experienced. strange things happen in the lead come it's supposed to have its own equivalents of the triangle some even believe that it's a gateway to

a parallel universe and larry and i believe they can prove it is not what it seems . pretty tricky. but. this part is supposed to be the most. anomalous zone so something weird is going to happen it's very likely to happen right here. and nicholai has an instrument he thinks shows up discrepancies in the areas energy fields through the first. i have a few devices with me. check this out this one is interesting because it detects things we can't normally see. there's a pulsing signal. trace going around us. if you go kind of like a pop pop pop pop pop pop pop. which gets

a lot. when i moved up. much of the total very there is infrared radiation here it may affect the operation of appliances and even the human body when you take a photo sometimes fears appear. there is an anomaly here for sure we can hear it. there was certainly something strange afoot and the larry had yet more tales of the unexpected for me. several years ago i came across strange markings in the snow this is what they look like. snow was only here in this place it seemed to have evaporated there was no snow here. so i saw two squares and something looking like this before. haven't we i think this was left by a u.f.o. i barely noticed the i was passing but the sun had already started to set if i was

going to see something malev it had to happen fast. so i've encountered parallel universes energy anomalies and even lot of susan time but i still haven't found any of these pesky aliens. and must be some way to do it. take me to your leader. well i don't know what happened next i seem to have some strange unexplained memory loss aliens or no i needed to head north under three hundred twenty kilometer drive or a switch teleportation will take you to one of the area's most populous cities and a genuine industrial powerhouse this place is called small accounts and it may be the most important city in the whole of the perm region they call it russia's salt cellar and it's been supplying the vital minerals of the country for more than six hundred years. the city lies on the karma river and its

name translates to salts of the common it's particularly famous for its potassium chloride which is refined and sold as fertilizer and a trip through the city shows how the process has changed over time. these buildings urge tribute to a boy of all ages they date back to the eighteen eighty's and then the oldest standing soul factory left in russia. all of this is original equipment and this bore hole goes down to a depth of all most two hundred metres they found the down there the salt water had a higher concentration and they would pump it out and take it to the furnace house the next stage in the process the salt was obtained by about aeration and once a boiled off from this great basin here it would have been put at the top ready for the next batch and then it would all been transported by hand in bags like this this one was personally just for the ladies and i can tell you it's about fifty

kilos they made up in those days. well this will give you a better idea of what the poor actually looks like this one was drilled in one thousand nine hundred sixty and was actually under another old factory and water still flowing and nowadays people basically come amusing to some sort of tonic peyronie's for. very good for the skin. certainly refreshing as. the times are most definitely changed. now a days of course the salt production is a bit more sophisticated so alexander and i are about think it's all of the known

just past and song in the world. something a little bit dark so best to turn this on now we're going down about four hundred twenty five meters behind me the right to take about two minutes. away from that. don't tell if. this is rudnick show off number four and i can sound around one point three million tons of all from it every month. as we moved on would it was easy to make out the different leds present on the mines with. its belief that they have a deposits of an ancient siege that flowed through this region around two hundred fifty million years ago and they have some seriously heavy equipment to collect them. so this massive drilling machine is the softs workhorse it weighs about one hundred tons and excavates almost thirty meters down each scene every

shift and i'm going to get the chance to put it into action right. there we get to see. them once it gets going it needs to be mc pretty quickly. so our transport vehicle is coming up here the drilling the c. . and then the second. one is going to come down and we should see about the civil war. going into the back here. just gets everywhere. that. because. of the long shot. the north has forced their into the again.

we have. to come. get into position. a little. bit of good. strides. to the factory. despite its massive output it's believed this mine contains enough salts to last another forty years and they restore rooms to make sure the production continues around the clock but for alexander and the boys the shift was nearly finished i can't get over this she saw a zone scale of this story and it's about twenty meters high and almost two hundred meters long it's not something out of a hollywood horror movie i keep thinking that something's going to jump out at me

from the shadows but just thinking about the scale of the work that must be required to fill this with all makes me tired so i think on that note it's probably time for a cup of tea. and after the journey back to the capital but thought i deserved a point to eat two. of my favorite things about travelling around russia is that it gives me a chance to try out all the different local cuisines i don't achieve wednesday like today it's the perfect excuse to eat something hops a fox. you know this is a city of the my own heart because palm is famous for its pawns on the left as my point. zero zero zero still was can we cook today i can teach you how to cook our embassy could you keep it better be great because very much.

translates as you see paul is tiny supposedly so much the shore towns of daylight's there are winds of fate for experience. ok. ok you can see how good i am of the rolling pin. and then the contents it's been good so we've got some minutes chicken breasts with some with some young ones in there as well and a bit of cream that's going to make up awfully good. once each has a generous dollop the edges a sealed and crimped into a shape that reminded me of home. life west country roots help here. used to working with the pakistanis or the states in the past is what you see before you each one is handmade and has the reputation of being the best in the

city the restaurant serves them to around fifty guests tonight. guess the best bit now frying them in lots of oil. which makes for taste better. and those are just a couple of minutes they're ready to be placed it up and served with this special sauce appropriate poem treat it with all you think this is a national joke or some mustard in the name. of course the proof of the force acoustic you need to. i think i'm going to be packing on the wings for insulation movies. there's no doubts that if you're visiting russia the region has a great deal to offer a thriving capital that's making an autistic statement natural highlights and an

industrial center that's still going strong off to six hundred years. on slave milimeter for the end just in case.