electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you or me can't get into the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so we get the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks know once you're in debt they've got you by the throat well that's just my opinion . it was supposed to be just another news or of course although admittedly for a special occasion it was one hundred twenty three days before the start of the winter olympic games in sochi and i was in greece for the lighting of the olympic flame the ruins of elim pierre one of the most famous monuments of ancient greece the site of the very first olympic games where stones like this would have been

part of the temple. the temple temple .

well that was a rather surreal. definitely the way to stream i've had for a while. there was a memorable ceremony. is one pretty sure the high priestess never spoke to me. but was it should set follow the flame or something. there's. a lot more of course at base. the top story this morning than the sochi twenty pulteney olympic flame is a bright seven days off it was in the ancient greek city of olympia carried by russia's deputy prime minister dimitri cool with ak if i travelled in

a small mountain to read when i was president vladimir putin spoke of its meaning for the russian people. the symbol of the world's primary sports competition oh peace out of friendship. but he has come to russia. there are many marks the start of the longest tools relay in a limb take a street the flame but it's great that so many people have turned out to the start of the russian relay it looks like a lot of fun out there. in a minute. but it was. the stone i picked up in the end it was on my mantle piece and if that isn't a sign i don't know what it was. i knew i had to get down to red square and experienced atmosphere for myself fortunately they were having a two day event. so from sunny greece to rather soggy

moscow just at the very start of the torch is journey around the whole of russia i'm excited. the days first run there was paralympic star let's see of logic you know who picks up two gold medals in the beijing and london games. we do called in peace talks to him big gold medal is there still something special for you i guess of course it's a unique feeling because i had never carried the torch before i had first i ran with a quite easily then i felt he was becoming heavier and heavier but i was determined to carry it properly and show it to everyone so that they could all appreciate the moment. i heard a noise and the crowd's reaction words factious i missed out on going to my home games in london and i was determined not to let such a twenty four team passed me by there were fourteen thousand torchbearers slots up

for grabs one of them was going to be mine. when we were making the technical order for the factory we say look let's make the thing we want to who. you know whole you know so desirable should be like wow. a lot of questions where. wait a minute it's quite we have to take all the cover and we milled that biden machine extra weight of the aluminum so it's really fine.

it's the feather feather of the mysterious burton firebird in the russian. stories and fairy tales and to get this feather from the firebird is a super challenge for the field. the problem can be. underneath here and it just caused the fire but in this kid we have a special. wiring inside which melting and of like really a red color. and it's the fire so basically it's a rift fire in itself. i

was going to have to wait a while before i found out if i'd been picked as a torch bearer more than enough time to try and learn a little more about my mysterious stone. some of russia's most eminent geologists live in. the center of russia's diamond industry on the rocks down here in the most expensive in the country. the pits descends more than a kilometer under the earth and uses the most sophisticated drilling equipment on the market to get to the precious. once the stones have been taken to a sorting sense and closely examined each rough gem is appraised and valued and i

had a close only focused on my precious stone to. add must be some kind of. your view. there i can see small crystals here proving that it's ancient rock. movement but really it shouldn't light up should it be missing to. know it's false but it's luminescent as from. ok maybe you could make it luminescent if you really believed it right thank you did you really expect it to glow. maybe maybe i'm just not right. there's certainly something very special about this and this grounds i don't know but it might just be because they use to pulling glittering thing this out of

the dark here. but who wants me in these diamonds with the top attraction in turn it was time to head towards the city's most well known landmark where they were getting ready to welcome some very special guests. from all in forty years these huge belies trucks one of the most famous symbols in your couture carrying the region's diamonds from its quarries and factories and now. it's getting ready for its most important passenger ever. it must have been close to minus forty celsius but these are limping torches and torch bearers are made of sterner stuff. this huge quarry has been the frozen heartbeats of the city for more than fifty years producing more than seventeen billion dollars of diamonds my stone it meant i was here to watch the parade but what was i supposed to do next. great shot.

lives so when two mates were to. again show me the and. by carlo. choice. they can be few more famous natural landmarks in russia than lake baikal the oldest and deep this lake on the planet on the site of a very special olympic celebration. for the first time ever they're planning to light the olympic flame on the water. in this case your average tool which isn't going to cut it so special equipment is

required and special people to carry it and who better than the local rescue ranger . are professional activity is mostly dedicated to rescuing people on lake baikal our job is important difficult interesting and in a way romantic my cow has many faces and winter it's tough and in summer it's beautiful you can't help but admire its power it attracts you and it's very important to me because it's a jewel of russia. everything's ready let's go then as nicholas puts the final touches to his equipment the excitement begins to build along the water's edge. rallies have been warmly welcomed across the country but the crowds here are about to witness something that's never been done before.

and there's plenty of local showmen own hands went to tame them while they wait. a massive noise and color to cheer the torch bearers all. this torch is based on a special system there is a pyrotechnic charge that can burn at any depth in any temperature and under any circumstances. when it's under water it's like a second sun the flame literally illuminates the entire lake. autumn when you curious you can feel its enormous power. of the water temperature is four degrees celsius it's really freezing we could feel it on our uncovered faces but we were united by this flame that had absorbed the energy of the entire country of every single person who cares about the flame that was what united us and that's why everything went perfectly.

as i was tremendous on the wall so you could almost feel the crowd energy coming across the waves it had been another remarkable spectacle for this record breaking tool tree and i was wondering what could possibly top it. looks like on the right track. so. this is the media leave us so we leave the. potions to cure. play your part of the

musical. bush use that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politics only r t. there is so little self reflection on the part of both the american public and the american decision makers i wonder why is that. country of three hundred fifty million people. from the world by two large oceans. foreign policy something we do. something we participate in.

the. economic down in the final months day the sun sank night and the rest. will be everything on all things. might move from one ship to another but what a ship. i was on board the ice breaker fifty years of victory the pride of the russian nuclear fleet for a truly once in a lifetime experience. deliberate flame was traveling to the north pole but i was going with it. if my stone was telling me to follow the flame i was going to take it as far as i could. see hundred nautical miles of stark beautiful ocean lay between us and the top of the world. well just in case you didn't actually believe

we were going to the north pole i think. eliminate said. it's another historic first for the sochi torch and a relay round the ship. it was planned for the occasion. and you can learn so many new things but if you get the chance to test your own as well as the cruise experience and check what the ice breaker is really capable of. i mean this tour of the olympic torch to the north pole never before has a surface ship gone this so late in the season them were to the ice was much heavier and to cope with it we almost needed the ice breakers maximum power.

we were making incredible progress slicing through the thick polar ice like bazza and after only four days we were already near our destination that's a world record pace. let you ninety degrees north isn't top of the world. ah. once the champagne and been finished everything kicked into gear torchbearers went off to get ready and organizing committee began making preparations for the relay and we love the one on the other one and. tried to hold it the right way. and i got one. with everyone in position we were ready to go and our captain was given the owner of starting off the run my main task was to keep the torch warm and make sure it goes into pass

hand in time and just seconds later she was away and i was on collection g c. i think that's when we now. thank you very much yes i got to take a look often it's hundreds. no. i wasn't good. yes go through it most of it. no if. we stepped off the ship and onto the ice the torches glowed flickering through the pitch black poland nights. a pioneering survey of polar explorer auteuil chilling gold would ignite the culture of the most northerly place on the planet. it's not often you get to witness a moment of history this is the first time for the olympic flame it's ever been at the north pole. and i'm here to see it. from as far north as

it's possible to go it was time to head east with the olympic organizing committee . the flame the ip that is has its own security team at all times not to mention its own private jets. who got this special service we've got the plane cooper which is just responsible for the security of the plane they keep the plane a little land on the wall should work on this special food bill you know all of these flame will never go up. each city's greasing ceremony is unique and hundreds of volunteers helped make the occasion memorable. there's a possibility also to keep the security for the torchbearer you know and nobody

will harm me nobody will get this fish. place and just. because he's just a flame it's very dangerous for everybody. this is camp shot kind of alternative peninsula that's one of the most easterly places in russia. that is the whole the highest so that you don't burn yourself when your torches lit are going. for the mood fortune never taxed to the flaming torch bearer and brushing because you never. everybody every had an inhabitant of the city's just very proud that comes to his cd and i say that ok lation three of them. it was the end of another relay and i was in one of the most beautiful places in

the country on the shores of the pacific itself but i was beginning to lose patience. i've come to the end of rush so. what's. what do you want. where am i to go. i literally run the house of land. but the torch would move all over the mountains across the sea. even else of this world. we live.

in yes another historic moment it paid a visit to the international space station more than four hundred kilometers above the planet. and although safety reasons made lycee its on board a heavily fueled rocket summer all the bad idea the world's first olympic spacewalk was no problem. i don't know if i was getting some inspiration of my own. yes i mean. i've come so far with the torch i was going to have to see it through to the end but what so many different people in relays all over russia and even beyond now i was going to have my own moments with the symbol of the sochi games i was a new father in the south of the country in under two hours i was going to be

a torch bearer. for my fish will uniform. it was time to suit up pick up the most vital piece of equipment. i think. make. up to their english training thank you. at last. more than two hundred of us would be running through the streets and the excitement was already beginning to build there was just time for a few tips on how to make the most of the moment. smile and wave your hand then they put out my torch and i step back and i'm not there anymore it's your turn you start and i'll be in the car that will be filming us starts to move

up and we run towards it ok go to. the russians are. none of us could wait to get started on the pulse he was in full swing as we moved through the city thousands of people had turned out to cheer us all and watch the parade and we even had a few guests from the north pole putting in an appearance. we were dropping off people every two hundred meters so i just had a few minutes to. my neighbor cotton mill. you can really imagine how exciting it is. looking forward to the moment when the whole country will see me it was. honestly i can't believe it.

did school really freezing today isn't it. planned so let's meet our troops. as i wave to the crowd i hadn't expected to be so nervous one whole epic journey had led to this moment and as i waited for number one million three to post me the flame all i could think of was for goodness sake don't drop it. by. the dream come true i missed the london twenty games i never thought of that to be part of another game and now i'm. going to play with this moment fantastic.

i am. i think. i got a little further to go with this story. i was with it when it was lit for the very first time in a limpia increase it went deep underground into diamond mines and you could see i was with it when it plunged into the waters of lake baikal and i was with it when the winds. of the very top of the world and then it went. to the international space station. to believe. if you could. you could base metal into gold this tool which of those elements even a fifth element the quintessence from space itself. i believe. has the energy to help you win gold in sochi.

russia. now that.

on june sixteenth one thousand forty one we had a graduation party at school and the war broke out. the shops were always full of goods. but in september leningrad was blocked. one day mom went and saw that all the shelves were empty. in november the. warehouses it was the main storage place for all the food in the city people eating the earth because it had small traces of sugar in it i tried to eat it as well but i couldn't. get the lists incredibly heavy bombing. it was a direct hit on that very shelter and everyone was buried underneath. all of them

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no sweeping changes for sweeping surveillance president obama is expected to introduce some limits to the infamous intelligence programs but there's a little hope of fundamental reform. syria says it's ready to unite with moderate rebel groups in the fight against hardline radicals according to the country's foreign minister who is in moscow ahead of the peace talks. scotland please stay britain's foreign secretary is on a charm offensive to convince undecided scots knots to quit the u.k.'s and once take to a decisive referendum.