has been off i gather he can hear is no moscow's red square either when we last came sure those bikers were all roots they were very close that flame there yet it's not actually hugh yet said but everybody is really dissipated to finally see it where is that flame has been taken so long it seems because they did away at the airport in moscow a bit earlier via the special flight it's being accompanied by these two hundred bikers now there's lots of excitement here on red square music is playing by just being performed by these military orchestras everything is perfect except for one thing the flame is still not here of course it is going to be here and that's pretty much going to start the most important part of the day for everyone who's gathered here today later we're also expecting to see the president other musical and dance performances and so on but if i show you the real way we'll start on

monday. so the question is how did you take the flame from sunny athens all away to moscow well it's quite simple you put it in a small lantern and then you put it on a plane but that's not just any old plane that's to be i paid plane and i've got a ticket. we now cruising at thirty thousand feet and tucked into the seat twenty five billion take flame you might notice it has been nice to light a couple of other lanterns and that's because one of them might go to bed so they've got those extra ones just in case now they are in good company because on board among other people is the president of the sochi organizing committee dmitri chernyshenko he sent just over here dimitri you spent the last he's of your life trying to bring this flame to russia you must be pretty excited yes very proud i'm very much excited because it's once in a lifetime of eternity for the generations to showcase the new more than russia to the wall with the global. so with this several billion so viewers you're in the

opening ceremony which will be held on in one hundred twenty four days in the very heart of my image you see to such care when you've got a busy time ahead so i will let you get some more rest we are g.'s to touch down in moscow in a bank to you as time. and we have just landed in moscow it is in the story at moment and if you look out of the door you will see the olympic flame for sochi twenty fourteen is a bank to receive a very warm welcome. and there it was strapped in the c b r g u yeah i thought it was a joke but you know here we are all it really was a lot of experience there but why not if it's a really big thing that's for sure isn't it that is happening i'm so much time investment for effort national pride going into it it's true and if you heard there when i spoke to mr genesis chain care he said that he's actually been working on this for eight years eight years of his life he's been trying to get that only flame to russia and they finally achieved it but it was

a huge amount of work i mean you forget that they actually had to do a lot just to get the bid together when they were competing against everybody else to win the vote to host the games so that took a lot of time and then over the last four or five years of course everything pretty much has been built from you just sort of a club but with me i could remember when that when it was announced that russia had won the olympics sitting in the studio with them sports. nicolo studios it was a lay should not be worth seven years seems a long time flown by actually isn't it but the planning you say goes on for years and years and years it was years before as well put putting up pictures together wasn't it absolutely will come back to later if we will we want to go to such of course let's go to the olympic city itself let's not forget about it no we won't go . let's go but you are going to talk about more than a sport more about the planning of what's gone into this so much money has been spent on it and in fact you mentioned earlier on how well developed is the site's

not all completely finished yet you mentioned it's not all completely all the venue to pretty much there in fact they've all been used during international test events over the last few months i was in saw cheap when there was a year to go and the olympic park was very impressive then and there are still work going on in putting on which is the resort they're building there for all the alpine events that will take place but as i understand it what's happening now is that structurally everything is in place and it's a question of you. if occasion because that has been a building site for the last five years the world's biggest building site and pretty much. complete but you need to green it all up you need to put in the palm trees you need to put in the grass you need to put paint on stuff and that's what's going on at the moment in the struggle for months to do so course all the sport. for a while for russia itself is a whole combination of different reasons and implications for having the sochi

olympics first of all is the past russia always has a strong sporting tradition they lost the olympics in one thousand nine hundred they're the world's biggest country the night's biggest population this is a this is a bridging this is a gap between what was past and the successes of the past and taking into the future and also into leaving a legacy and the best way to do that is in terms of sport there's been so many olympic stars over the years russians that have lit up the olympics for instance all the corps but this is a great way of showing the new russia in terms of what we're good at and also how they can take it forward and also in having it having the olympics in sochi that boosting a new region and one's. going to be based in moscow the nothing happening in the northwest in some petersburg and moscow this is going to be in class and our third biggest region they already have two football clubs there this is a whole new region to go forward it's not just going to be about the olympics it's going to be about formula one it's going to be hospital world cup so that's all about going forward the whole of earlier solved

a two week so. if you look at it but there are some critics who say hey was this money better spent i mean millions have been poured into it i'm also a future of for sochi after work was really to talk about it but what of a player well the interesting thing about big sporting events for instance world cup olympics all those big global events they rarely actually make money for the host city is that economists are in arguing about it for years but now it's conclusive that it really make money but what is invaluable is the feel good factor as as andrew was talking about before you could have been putting a lot together absolutely london. it's perfect perfect example of that it brings the nation together and if you look at the relay itself i mean the estimates are that ninety percent of the russian population over one hundred thirty million people across this vast expanse well within an hour of the really bringing together these people in a bid that's been going on since two thousand and five now come from fruition from two thousand and seven the feelgood factor is enormous as well as also boosting the infrastructure opening russia to the world. showing the world

a little idea of what russia is like now other people will be able to come in and see it and also with a global audience it won't just be people within russia or within europe it'll be a global audience to see what's going on feel good fight to do that's why it's good for russia does it bring anything else. will it it will definitely be a feel good factor and i think will also do sports in the future for russia because a lot of those facilities those training facilities were in dire need of being there in the first place just to allow the biathletes to train ski jumpers for example so i think it puts russia in good stead in terms of the winter olympics and winter events in the future what's the quality of the buildings and the facilities that have been built here first time goes on a first rate and all the reviews from the athletes who i think the most important people. given ten out of ten nine out of ten i mean as i said before the real test against taking place over the last few months and you've been following the test events in the field and it's always been very positive person it absolutely and

also there's a question of sort of learning by other people's mistakes as it were thank you that was a brand olympics they said because the lack of snow so the russians have been storing snow it's like half a million cubic metres of snow has been stored at rosa khutor just to get has actually physically slowed it is absolute is basically so continually flows as well you can do that it's not without its controversy either of course so a lot of controversy about the side of it and the russian law etc so. generally sporting events tend to outweigh any issue. i mean when you look back over new protests are expected because of it we don't know how big those protests will be but they are expected it is going to have much of an effect you think well if you look back over many sporting events over the years can you remember many protests you tend to remember more the athletes you century remember the volunteers you tension member the achievements the world records these tend to go down in history rather than the political issues or the social issues of the time yes some

will be remembered but really this is all about celebration of sport today is the celebration of sport and the future of sochi and russia and going forward those issues will come to the fore but today is all about a positive feel good russia day or goes a go the know we thank you for your input so far to stay with me for a bit more if you can because we heading towards seeing that flame and we. will be speaking but i gather at last we can go to sochi olympics if it's. twenty three days to a flame so to arrive in the games will be good lindsey france is the loser you can you hear me. good to see you notice where there was always some sort cheers from indian government in the outflow but those are the folks in the locals there's been a lot of criticism about all the building work that's going on the locals a robot mode has put out a joint for various reasons one of the i have to say about it. well as always kevin when you're living what is essentially been a construction site for a couple of years noses are going to be bent out of shape but the constant didn't

create it but i think as as andrew farmer mentioned that it's been a construction site but now it's about beautification so the residents are really getting to see everything being sort of prettied up around these gorgeous facilities which is a very nice sight to see and the weather has it looks like we're going to have a nice cold winter in saatchi this year this current weather is any indication that the people here are very excited for the flame to actually finally be on russian soil the last four years have seen. dramatic physical changes obviously in this quiet seaside resort town but also the spirit of the olympic of the spirit of the olympic games the community feeling that has infused this city has really been felt strongly from from what the residents here have told me just from a volunteer is perspective alone it's really brought people together and kate partridge had mentioned that that the what the large sporting events do is they

bring people together and that's something that the locals here have felt very much now with the torch finally touching down on russian soil and may not be here and yet but it's in russia these people get to watch as it makes its way across their own country and on down to these brand new facilities at the flames new home in saatchi so for them now the light is the end of the tunnel so to speak they've got just a very short time to wait until it makes its way down here on february seventh for the opening ceremonies the very excited indeed some final last minute preparations to be carried out as we're hearing just now what's the feeling like there is difficult to describe a number of actually bring hoping to go and very shortly we talk about breaches and problem trees alone just a couple of miles away up in the mountain it's. great for this kind of thing which is why it's the what's the feeling like a typical describe when you talk about a russian breech resort with palm trees a lot of people abroad don't want to get it to describe it. yeah

it's a very interesting sort of just to juxtaposition happening here you come out of the airport there's these gorgeous palm trees olympic signs and immediately you're on these excellent highways whisking around. you see the developments the the seaside cluster of the the olympic seaside cluster for the ice sports then you see the ski hills and you see all of this coming together and you see these palm. trees and it's just so interesting you're like how is this going to work out but let me tell you the designers have amazing plans in play everything is being laid out as we speak and so you start to see how the architecture of some of the village facilities and the greenery that's being planted is all going to come together and it's interesting to see now something that the residents are really thrilled about is all of this infrastructure with regard to new roads the highways and beautification because rarely does any city let alone

a city of nearly four hundred thousand. resort town this sort of an infrastructure upgrade in four years time so it's a real treat for these people to be able to use this on a constant basis even though they're in a construction zone they're getting to see this beautification and they're getting . access roads and the highways to deal with that and it's something that is just their lives so much they're loving it in a lot of ways. of the world all right well thanks because of. course the venue for the winter olympics now we're still got our eyes trained on moscow's red square where the limpid flame is due to officially arrive think a rug couple of. everything has to be done. just around the corner the event you can see.

these pictures from. let's actually. just for a second just for a second. when it gets. very . cold the crucible will get like the official top center when it comes in is going to enter red square at the moment they use those mountains that came off the plane to light the torch. and that torch will then start the relay and every time that torch bearer reaches the next torch bearer he will ignite that person's torch i'm so i do forgive me also michael i got with you you got the gist of that so it's about a small lantern light in the torch effect to be for the torch bearer and he'll use his torch to let light the next one right let's let's focus in on those ladies and gents with pompoms putting on a splendid show but a lot of traders got into that let's listen and get a bit about this fish for

a minute let's take it full picture and sound. i'm sure it was very good what she said you know what. it's going to be greater lympics initially he said that's what she said i could tell you a bit about that torture actually it's not just any old torture lots got into it a lot of thoughts got into that it was designed developed by a creative team led by vladimir protocol for the andrei. it's made with all sorts of light weight metals and plastics and made actually balance perfectly balanced so it's very easy to carry when the run is occurring in the russian winter proof this is it in a parking lot of forward scott interval what if it. does blow well yet what it does is it no it isn't because running alongside the.