but months beginning these are the same upstanding told to you but i don't want to talk about it you can hear me up dust covered sixty five thousand kilometers over the last few months from. russia in the last couple of days been up here someone told the pope and the subject line it's like to be an imprint state during the time they start by claiming to be the first and second after all the no i'm. getting it's above the law but it all up to my mother like i did not get great city of the limpia not for the first lympics hell i've seen as a kid again no sir many thanks but close to seven hundred they say and not just trust the priest us to feel like. i was the son if you remember the parabolic mirror. i'm also. used to have all the oil i think so light not fly and then she used knots a lot i had a quick temper we grace i meant to but. russia might.

cut it would you say could you not and all the tremendous fireworks so taking place because i'm barely here we're talking to you but we do have many people to talk to including our teas james brown is back in the studio and can tell us more about the . times that he don't want to torture all his recent gems you that. there's nothing told their child they will absolutely deafening their sochi the kickoff of the twenty fourteen winter olympics and i want to show kevin and a nice having that poor and empty pharma he couldn't he couldn't hear anything could be getting cooler right in the middle of it one rule researcher thank you very much for joining here for our special coverage of the twenty fourteen sochi winter olympics i'm joined by some of all most cherished guests from the international over here is james brown our intrepid explorer that's been all you.

you know all over russia will get to you in just about i would hate partridge as well the host of r.t.s. world sports will talk with you in just a moment you've got some names and a highlight to talk about the upcoming sports of sports have been getting underway at editor i've across the a pleasure to have you worn and you're going to be bringing us onto the map over global as you said twitter olympic we know that winter olympics. such a clever. james i want to have a chat with you you've been all over russia you've been tracking where the limpid torch has been going we've seen it go down to lake baikal we've seen it going up to mt elbrus but can you give us some of the highlights of the journey that you remember clearly well absolutely i mean these games are going to be a window from russia to the world so we know how much has been invested in them we know how much the president has invested in them and their success is sort she ready what we've got two weeks of great sport to find now one thing i can tell you for sure is that the russian people are very ready for these games all the way across the country and all the cities i've visited from here to the pacific coast

you have an incredible reception to the torch and the olympic flame arriving in the cities this something when that plane comes into the city you get that sense of enthusiasm that the olympic spirit really doesn't like to people so in places like you could hear in me anywhere right where it was minus forty degrees celsius people would come out they would cheer along the torch bearers and you would it's infectious that enthusiasm that comes with it i mean it really it really does bring the world together you get you get the sensation of being a global event you talk about is that you could hear you mention people coming out in minus forty so their appreciation in to welcome the torch so you have the olympic flame literally sort of heating everyone up at least in the. lead it would be an experience but you also have a sense that these people know that this is likely to be a once in life time event for them but probably not going to see another in a picture in russia in their lifetime so. something to be cherished and they feel.

that there's something that's very special we're very lucky to have been no tracking the olympic torch across the biggest country in the world does make stream james much like yourself talking of extreme parties or. the host race partridge of all to world sports you you know you've been chomping at the bit ever since russia was awarded this sort your winter olympics to talk to us about some of the athletes some of the competitions here you've got you've got your eyes on some big names of their lives in italy i mean as we said it's the biggest sporting events to take place in russia since one thousand nine hundred ninety nine hundred sixty countries that didn't come out but this time around we have eighty seven national olympic committees and some star studded names for winter olympics and if you could look at some of them looking at the foreign stars of the world coming to russia the first one of these sure white national white made headlines right at the beginning of the olympics on day one because he pulled out of the slopestyle event but he's bidding for a third consecutive half dollar why the funny nickname yes he's the flying tomato

flying tomato absolutely he does have a long red flowing lara but now is that was part of his trademark but he cut them off apparently for a children's charity and you donated his locks for children who lost their hair through medical treatments and amazing guy x. games legend of course he's he's as i say he's focusing now on going for a third consecutive half pipe gold and that's and that's in the snowboarding and if you move from snowboarding then going on to the alpine skiing and the alpine skiing is actually noted particularly this time around for a big absence say in this absentees is the usa lindsey vonn is yvonne won the downhill gold in canada and this had to pull out through injury which kind of opens up the alpine skiing for the women very much so you have a friend who's an american teenager who learned how to ski on her parents drive you have some of the news today. the world cup events germany is maria her for and of course the next of may you isn't expected to win medals but he is going to be competing for thailand that's her father's national. in the men's ted ligety and

also her money spent all the big names are expected to star in the men's event but the biathlon another by halftime has always been a russian kind of heavyweight grandeur sports and of course the russians are going to be very much in that particularly when it comes to the team events but when you're looking at individuals then you're looking at the french ukrainians the norwegians in terms of the french in the sprint champion you've got a guy i could not control can't use who's a defending champion he's going to be going for gold as well and the norwegians is a guy called all the i know. and he's and he sticks the lympics he's going for twelve well and then in terms of moving away from my often you go to figure skating of course we had the great news that you're going to pollution there is back for russia after all these injuries leading the team event at the moment but in the ladies' event we have a lady called you not kim who is the darling of south korea should the defending champion she wants to go out on a high twenty three and retire at twenty three. everything in defend her title incredible that would be great there's a couple of russians also in there too there's

a lady. in another called adelina sotnikova and they did fantastically at the euros they looked at the u.s. and british past six weeks ago is the bell we're going to be going for gold too and then let's go to the loo and then we start going down the track events which are great and that's a case of old versus young girl young versus old you have a guy called felix long who want to live big gold when he was twenty absolutely incredible against a guy who's italian. and all music i think it's cool to see now yes he is and he's got his i think it is i think six lympics and they're also up against a russian guy called i was in the seventh and it's nice for pete so these are the guys are going to be lighting up in the roof but it's of the skeleton that's actually something for the british women to have a look at me and i actually go for britain we have the current world champion. and also the world cup holder which is there's a yarnold and an american called pica spice to be pushing the ball there and in the men's it's martin's because he's the famous latvian she whispered well so it's got the gold as well for the last few years ago he would be going. gold along with

alexander thank you calls and finally let's come to the cutting now the russian ladies team i think they would be extremely well in the year as they came sixth in the world but really again which means if you're british to shine the scottish the world champions and you have to. chase when it comes to running the stones and the great. good stuff and keeping a very close watch of their lives because we're checking with you throughout the evening very quickly over jamaica ball to say that you my job is not just going to be as it cutting how is it going to i mean. it's we're going to cross a lot of parts of. the international you continue our live coverage with kevin back to to you. you know logan well let's get down to the serious side of these olympics we need to talk about of course security that's what's on everybody's lips and in everybody's mind when it comes to such a big event as these olympic games you're not going to be overzealous and cautious

the regretful end of the day from what i know russia was well aware of how serious the situation could be from the very beginning right now apparently different levels of officials in the organizers of the games right up to vladimir putin over a shoulder himself or all involved in this meeting that they say security here is first everything in their power is being done to go into the safety of all the athletes and all the guests. well what's the point of revealing security measures what we're hearing is that the tactics are met you've got a long long road ahead with the guns being put on tom clary public yeah and the idea here is that you have the tight security but you don't make a show of it so that people can have a good time that's why they came here lympics in the first place not to be too intrusive visitors can enjoy and making to visit a memorable model less productive attention of others a chance to see a first time to join him for a quick chat about you've been here for a couple days before us what's the vibe that you've been picking up for the first thing i've not seen any missile beasties all rockets or any apartment blocks like they how did. three important that we look at the fact that such

a hit is an isolated event when it comes to security security is a vital subject in g eight conference is sporting events all around the world every single time we have such a public event like this they talk about security obviously there have been problems with terrorism in the house but in america in most countries in the world but it is really it's usually something that unites the united states russia britain well that's what i would say has been unfair the fact that we had the tragic boston bombings on eleven seven seven i'm not so people are sort of united we must go and visit you know boston we must not stop shopping and the only other people have so much have a different opinion with russia people actually counsel that flight. to come here people are scared people have got this old soviet you know cold war mentality from thirty thirty forty years ago and it's not like that i was walking around here today it just feels like any other european city and all my friends investing me in facebook and twitter and all this is saying martin please be safe and actually the reality is sort she is now the safest city on the planet. and it's not it doesn't

feel like a prison it's relaxing curacy you know every single building you go through you've got the airport scanners it's tight it's professional it's secure still here over here the helicopters zooming around us they've been going out for about three hours now as this opening ceremony took place and of course throughout the game security will continue to be tight of course and also we've got to look at other things such as the cossacks there involved the traditional ethnic men that war is of law and also we've got the technology does involved in this security and also out of walls from sniffing dogs to horses. with more regarding that take a look at what i have to say with security over the next few months. defense missiles drones sophisticated suttles capable of detecting summaries and

high speed patrol boats a vast array of high tech gear is being deployed to make such cheap one of the safest places on earth with any global event security is the number one priority and no expense is being spared to achieve that end at the twenty fourteen winter olympics a ring of steel is in place around the city and no one from residents to work is can enter without an official pass but it's a case of high visibility and minimal fuss was that you didn't know many of the athletes have been saying that back home they still very negative media coverage about the olympic village some are even afraid to come here but monday arrived this started wondering what all the bad press was about and was very impressed by what's going on here and they say that as much as half human discomfort is specially when it comes to security checks compared to previous games. but it's not just about tighter controls and manpower place officers are into growing extra training for

mounted patrols that have distinct advantages at such events over three who are called here ahead of the games mounted police are more effective during massive burns. there's a tower over the people and have a better view of the crowds the beefed up security including assistance from the u.s. government is primed to keep a protective ilocos and this is more than ever before. i've come to the saatchi police department to discover a new way of multi-lingual public communications policing al security this is new three d. technology which is going to be placed soon in various public locations in sochi although it could never replace real offices on the street it's an experiment that could prove extremely useful to the future of public assistance so you found a suspicious object let's see what your place officer says.

popular already in helping transport and commercial help spots for our digital public servant friend here is seen as a success after such expect to see many more three d. virtual assistants dotted around the russian cities almost five hundred cossacks warriors of russian law will also be on duty at various olympic locations with their traditional black hats and coats with apple lets they will be on standby to assist the police cossacks have been guarding russian borders for centuries traditionally based in southern russia and we know the region and its people very well. because sex job is to offer assistance spread safety culture and peace to various religions and people from different countries normally patrols without any weapons they can only stop a crime in prague. they can only call the police and wait for the authorities to arrive so was the population of this black sea resort swells by the thousand

whether it's sniffer dogs or horses patrol boats or close tax sorts these businesses locals are certainly in good hands and with an estimated one hundred thousand police security services and troops here the aim is to ensure that these will be the safest lympics in history down druce he. will live with us on the line now we can join spare a very special guest steven seagal we're not sure about our connection here of course is the philanthropist diplomat martial arts master of the right and hollywood block you're going to see even i hope you can hear us security is i mean i'm not getting any of this. security is. i'm afraid i can tell already that stephen can't hear us i'm going to try to throw my question at you in the hopes all right we have a technical difficulties bad too bad steven seagal with us on the line to hold out

for the work for parker pranking try to get him back on the line we do have another yes no less special show or a song of mine asser purt russian and central asia expert joining us of course many threats ahead of the olympics is it more about spreading fear why such javi. atmosphere ahead of these olympics specifically. well i mean there have been various threats i mean. back in july there was a domestic terrorist group threatened tree limb. but really the situation is where the terrorists will win where people are actually to actually go out of the house and. participating in sport is a human right and what we need to see is people actually taking part in these games as they would compete you know with the terrorists will win you. i wouldn't attend and take part in these great games.

kevin over here with a mission as well i mean some countries issued warnings they know what you are is that for those who didn't stay away others gave recommendations that amount to travelling kind of towards those that really tally with a level of risk. i remember a friend of mine saying have faith in allah but. you know you've got to take precautions where you cross the road or you enter was a russia is not a war zone. it's. dispirit environment is such that you are can you offer safe entering the security. so the idea that. you're under threat in that area is completely wrong. it's a nice thing here again russian authorities insist your security is first class but

they're not revealing too many details we've touched on this before where is the line do you think between reassuring the people that they're safe and giving the game away letting them have a good time. well i mean to be honest i think we've seen quite a lot of red ready we've seen high visibility when you go into ports you know that you're being checked on arrival standard procedures but we're used to this i mean since nine eleven anyone want any american traveling outside of the us any person traveling out of london would know that there's high security. in the security you know security services across the world do you know. to take precautions so this is just simply. it's yes it's dangerous to be. you go. the threat threat levels are people do you need to take

certain precautions and we can see that throughout russia. russia thanks for your time thanks for being with us someone is a monumental history being made in sochi tonight the olympic flame burning of russia. and iran as well as great night when the ok here in sochi at least for tonight is certainly the olympic park which you can see behind us. is there to take us through what's been happening tonight. yes good evening to you guys that we just it's hard to believe isn't it that the the the land behind you just seven sure years ago it was a barren wasteland if you look at it now there are six states of the art high tech sporting venues let me just take you want to a miniature tour of the venues that we do have in that coastal cluster the jewel in the crown if you like is the fish stadium where the opening ceremony has just concluded it's finished with a t. at the end and it is named after

a nearby mountain where the opening ceremony has just concluded where the closing ceremony is going to be. going to be held as well no actual sports going to take place during the sochi winter olympics now one sport that russia do have high hopes in and always do relatively well and is of course i saw in the men's final is going to be held at the bolshoi. twelve thousand fans can be held inside our bolshoi just means big it means great of course has its name with the bolshoi ballet theater which which is the famous theater in moscow now just three hundred meters walk away from the bolshoi is the. arena the russian word for hockey park it seats seven thousand people and is going to host a number of other hockey matches including a number of women's matches now one of the most thrilling sports one of most thrilling winter sports is of course the. skating there are thrills and spills and dangers on every corner that's being held this year at the arena eight thousand

people can be housed there then we come on to the ice skating palace two sports are going to take place in the ice skating palace you can have short track speed skating and also figure skating figure skating and other sports the russian tradition russia traditionally does well and now those two sports they require a different sort of surface a different sort of ice and the process will take around two hours to transform the surface so it's suitable for one and not the other and finally we have the ice cube curling center clearly one of the more bizarre when to sports you have seen it is the ones where they basically sweep the ice three thousand spectators can be held there bizarrely although it's not a winter sport nation britain has high hopes for a go gold medal in the curling but it's not just the sports venues that are in that coastal cluster behind you have the medals plaza that's where every single evening the gold silver and bronze medals are going to be handed out to the successful athletes ninety eight sets in total that's where the tears will be shed the anthems will be played and the flags will be raised and the names of every gold medal

winner is going to be etched into the status of the laws or as a public reminder of the time that the winter olympics came to sort she also the hotel for the i.o.c. members and the athletes village now the athletes' village takes over one third of the olympic park it's forty seven buildings the houses around three thousand athletes it's where they're going to eat sleep train live and of course basically just socialize over the next three weeks or so on the unique thing about these games is the compact nature of it eighty percent of the athletes staying in that village will be within a walking distance of their sporting venues which is a first for any olympic games and finally you have the media center the international broadcast center which is going to be housing thousands of the world's press over the next few weeks there are hundreds of plasma screen t.v.'s a massive satellites as well and that includes your guide around the coast to cluster. artie's paul's guide taking us

through the infrastructure of it all the buildings i want to make a little bit of a change of tone martin joins us back in the studio and i can't let me have a very large you know it's not shocking they're not just cuddly toys these are the mascot sylvania and now it is there's one for you which you can have the snow leopard snow leopard you can have the pole about this right and tell us about the significance of this the polar bear that was the first before we talk about the actual votes and who they are i want to talk about actually how they were chosen for the first time in a living history actually done as part of a television program which is great there are twenty four thousand people who applied with their designs and there are ten finalists one of the finalists actually was jeb models which is the american in the did you know that's right father process of russian father christmas if you don't know what basically they they thought that they disqualified him because they thought but they didn't want the ownership of this russian national to go to the i.o.c. so they also thought about including a dolphin many of the residents here in sochi actually wanted

a dolphin to be included but these are the final witness who we have here we have we have the snow leopard the snow leopard is from the central asian areas of the mountains the kurdistan and china here and they've all got their will characters as well you also talk about the importance of these mascots they're not just could be toys so what's the importance. of the three of them together it's also the fact that you know they unite children together the fact that from the area the put itself we saw putin yesterday in the national park going to the rehabilitation center he went in the cage rather him the may and they do have individual carriages the little stories they're quite cute stories that the leopard for example he loves snowboarding he's a mountain rescue worker and then about polar polar bear the polar bear is from the arctic circle as we know only twenty five thousand of them left in the wild so we're trying to keep them and promote the fact that we're looking after these animals on the run. it's not a rabbit rabbit this is a hare this is that this is the dog's head about

a little right and so that you know as it is i admit that i've never heard of a dose or a female here isn't it for the hospitality your hair is yes of course what you are using to is actually but let's not talk about eating let's talk about saving them. decided for hospitality and the sort of times that i hope that this has the story of the female as well you have two males that the female have she's at school she wears top grade she works with them in the restaurants of the stories and lots of books and lots of lots of cartoons all to go together with the olympic ceremony and the again the integration for the young ones and then on the coming weeks they're quite cute very nice going to keep them honest because i rather like it you know what yes you care you can keep your all. should of course mother with the years now do your job you want to get away our little boy. now hopefully we were trying to talk earlier on to blockbuster rock's a very famous month steven seagal we couldn't hear him he could hear us just now hopefully he is on the line again we tried to get another connection to stephen can

you hear us you're live on our team to national our special program from sochi tonight. i hear. i hear your brother with your lovely and we'll talk about security senate because we know you know a lot of. complexity of security is always a concern isn't it not only at large sporting events but also political ones as well one of the main challenges we wanted to ask you when you shoring safety advents like this what you think about it. i think the president of the russian federation is extremely intelligent brilliant world leader and tactician here is someone who was the head of the k.g.b. . they have been who are some of the best intelligence. folks in the world i'm told that they have close to seventy thousand security

personnel on the ground in sochi between the different branches of police face best spetsnaz and office but it's not so i would agree with some of the folks who are saying that so it's is probably one of the safest places around right now now there is no such thing as a completely secure area in the world. however. i think the world you know in all of the different countries that are participating in the olympics are all very. concerned about trying to make this a wonderful experience and everybody's cooperating and working hard in their own perspective areas to make this a secure and wonderful. experience. here in just a couple of days ago president vladimir putin thanks foreign nations for helping to provide security here at the olympics you know we can hear you fine the u.s.

is also involved how exactly do you think countries can work together. when i mean obviously most of the world stands together against terrorism most of the world have their own people participating in the olympics most of the people in the world understand how hard the olympians try they put their all of their life their time their effort their discipline into. this one moment to be able to appear and do their very best for their country and i think that as a world we all support each other to try to make any of them pics anywhere in the world a secure wonderful event where politics are kept out of it and i think that united states of america is certainly less. and any and all of its assets to try to support this kind of an attitude. but because it

comes down to practical measures as well doesn't it obviously no host country wants to intimidate its gas how hard is it do you think running a major security operation not the one that's going on around us at the moment but keeping at the same time relatively low profile not getting in everyone's way get that balance right. well i mean i i have spent some time with some of the first very coincidence personnel as well as and. i think they have. it's ok steve there's a delay we can still hear you please carry on. are you hearing me. yes so what i was saying is corey i'm sure at some time with some of the first been folks and. i think that they are very very

experienced they have a lot of experience in. terrorism i think that they are going to do a good job to be unobtrusive and out of the way. all right stephen stanko thanks for sorry about the futile technical issues. let's lighten up but a little bit we talked about the security a big thing of course in the olympics is what people where we can't go on without talking about each country that host the olympics goes out of its way to make it unique fashion is part of it they wanted to be memorable and to feel the event with its own style and flavor you know sending their athletes to salt she also wants a standard as well of course they want to put their bit of flair and it seems that these games have another title going for as well let's talk fashion should we be checking with designs and labels of different teams a little kids. before these olympics even began they were breaking michael which they are the most.