I am next to Lake Baikal - it's said to be the oldest,
deepest lake on planet Earth, and I'm starting the second leg
of my journey across Russia.
This is a lake that is the size of a sea.
It is utterly immense.
The average depth of the lake is nearly a mile deep.
Can you comprehend that?
This is 20%...
..of the fresh water on planet Earth.
This alone makes Russia a superpower.
I'm really excited about this leg of my journey.
It's going to take me an enormous distance across Russia.
From Lake Baikal in the depths of Siberia,
I'll be travelling thousands of miles across Russia to the far
south-west of the country and the majestic Caucasus Mountains.
100 years on from the Russian Revolution
that was supposed to overthrow tyranny,
I discover a country where many
are captivated by their powerful leader...
It's possible you might jump him.
..some have turned to the leadership of a higher power...
Are you a reincarnation of Jesus?
..and millions live lives blighted by alcohol and violence.
With Russia resurgent on the world stage,
I meet the feared warrior caste...
Like this?
..defending the nation's borders.
Oh!
It was spring in Siberia.
For Sergei and his father,
a new fishing season on Lake Baikal was getting under way.
It's gorgeous here at the moment, but it gets pretty cold here
in winter, doesn't it?
"It only gets to minus 30."
We know that Russians, you're pretty tough
but are people from Siberia even tougher?
HE INTERRUPTS
Sergei and his father come from a long line of tough Russians
who struck out into the country's wild and often frozen east
to seek their fortunes.
Near the shores of Lake Baikal,
hardy Siberian pioneers founded the city of Irkutsk.
I'd arrived on one of the biggest days of the year.
Bloody hell.
This is the World War II Victory Day.
Victory over the Germans in the Second World War
was a heroic struggle, one of the few events
in their turbulent history all Russians agree on.
It's become a unifying idea for the entire nation.
Oh, my God, look at this.
This is the march of what's known as the Immortal Regiment,
with grandchildren, great-grandchildren,
relatives, remembering.
Why have you come today?
Around 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians
died during World War II.
For every American GI killed fighting Germany,
it's thought 80 Soviet soldiers died doing the same.
I think it's only when you see this sea of faces coming at you
that you start to really understand...
..the scale of the suffering here.
In the West, I think there's a feeling that we won the war
but it was on the Russian front
where the most horrific battles were.
It was the Soviet Union that really fought the Nazi war machine
into the ground.
Look, the line goes all the way down there.
This is not the centre of Moscow.
Look, if you turn around this way, look.
Look, that's the beginning of it, look.
The Immortal Regiment began a few years ago
as a small grassroots movement.
It's become a phenomenon.
This year, there were 40,000 people in this march alone.
In Moscow, President Putin led roughly 800,000 on a similar parade
commemorating the victory but also reminding Russians, many think,
of the importance and value of military sacrifice.
Time to go to Krasnoyarsk.
Oh, it's up. Platform four.
This is the best way to see the world's largest country.
Oh, the ground rumbles!
I love a good train journey.
And this...
..has got to be the best.
All right, where are we going?
I'm on.
Off on the Trans-Siberian.
The Trans-Siberian Railway stretches 6,000 miles across Russia and covers
an incredible seven time zones.
I was hopping aboard for just a short stretch,
18 hours and 700 miles west.
Just looking at the photos from the parade.
There was a lot of pride and patriotism on display there.
President Putin has been...
..very adept at nurturing and encouraging and exploiting
patriotism in Russia as well.
He's made Russians feel good about being Russian.
I'd arrived in Krasnoyarsk.
It's a gritty, industrial Siberian city which grew dramatically after
the Russian Revolution of 1917.
These days, it's the kind of working-class city where
President Putin enjoys huge popularity.
And one local restaurant here is riding the wave.
So this is the President's Cafe.
You wipe your feet on the American flag.
So there's a very clear theme to this restaurant.
So what is the idea, what's the idea behind this place?
You're clearly a massive fan of the president,
but do you have a favourite photo?
Sofia, when you stand there and you look at him,
I think you get a little bit flustered, don't you?
What would you be like if he actually came here?
I think we should probably warn President Putin's bodyguards about
you cos I think you might... It's possible you might jump him.
Western leaders would kill for Putin's poll ratings of up to 80%.
He's even more popular among young Russians.
RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS
Apparently they do this every day.
Why do so many Russians, young and old, love Putin?
One reason is the traumatic events that followed the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
Russia's rich in oil, gas, minerals and metals
and under communism almost everything
was controlled by the state,
but after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991,
these valuable state assets were privatised and flogged off,
often with the help of Western banks and bankers.
For the well-connected and the well-armed,
there were fortunes to be made.
The Russian mafia realised that rather than piddling about with
drugs and crime, the really big money was to be made by controlling
and running factories and businesses.
So they literally fought for control.
Krasnoyarsk was a major target.
It's an industrial city,
it has a huge aluminium smelter and that was the scene
of the so-called aluminium war.
Gangs controlled by politicians and oligarchs fought gun battles
over the aluminium smelter in Krasnoyarsk.
As violence raged across Siberia,
scores of people connected to the aluminium industry were murdered.
I met up with Vladimir Vladimirov, a local businessman who lived
through that time.
It sounds like it was a violent time, were people...?
By the mid-1990s, there were thought to be more than 5,000
Russian mafia gangs with more than 100,000 members.
But after Putin became president in 1999, he cracked down.
Order was restored.
Entrepreneurs like Vladimir were able to open and build businesses
for the first time.
Oh, wow!
Flippin' heck!
Putin stopped the mafia wars on the streets.
He was a popular leader, he could've transformed the country.
Instead, his new Russia is still a frightening
and brutally corrupt place, and anyone who questions
the high-level corruption here faces intimidation or worse.
It sounds as though what you're saying is President Putin is a long
way away but if he knew what was going on he would do something.
When both the Soviet Union and communism collapsed, many Russians
were left without purpose and meaning.
Millions embraced a Russian version of capitalism and consumerism,
but that wasn't the answer for everyone.
In remote wilderness eight hours' drive south of Krasnoyarsk,
the mountains and forests have become a promised land
for thousands of Russians from across the country.
So I think we are stopping here.
Very nice to meet you.
Vadim Redkin used to be the vocalist in a successful Moscow rock band.
So Vadim has hopped into this car ahead...
..and he's leading us up into the mountains.
This looks like some sort of checkpoint for the community here.
What is not allowed here?
Is this your church?
OK. And is this Vissarion over there?
Can we have a look?
You believe he is the reincarnation of Jesus, is that right?
There are hundreds of cults, sects,
gurus and mystics scattered across remote bits of Siberia.
So does he live up on the...?
Does Vissarion live up on the hill there?
BELL CHIMES
Oh, my!
Twice a week, Vissarion's followers gather to sing hymns
to their divine leader.
Vissarion is a mysterious figure, even among his own followers.
As night fell, he still hadn't materialised.
Vissarion has managed to attract some 5,000 followers to the network
of villages that make up his Siberian utopia.
Many abandon successful careers
to follow the man they call The Teacher,
and village schools are raising a new generation of Vissarionites.
Scary stuff.
I genuinely felt like I should be calling social services.
They are teaching Vissarion's ten-volume sequel to the Bible.
Finally we heard Vissarion was granting us a rare audience
at Vadim's house.
Is that OK? All right.
CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS
Simon.
Thank you very much for agreeing to meet with us.
Can I ask who you are?
Are you a teacher, a guru?
Are you the son of God?
Are you a reincarnation of Jesus?
You emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union
and that was a very difficult time, I think, for many Russians.
Are Russians uniquely open to different beliefs
and new ways of thinking?
You lived among us for a number of years.
You did normal jobs, didn't you?
You were a traffic policeman, I think, is that right?
And did that help you to understand who we are?
Critics have accused you of brainwashing
and embezzling your followers.
What do you say to the critics?
Before he can change all of humanity,
Vissarion asks his followers to donate money and provide labour
for his profit-making businesses.
Not surprisingly,
there's one or two accusations he's exploiting his disciples.
More than half a million Russians are thought to be members of cults
and the government is now cracking down on messiahs and gurus
across the country.
Maybe there's something in the fact that Russians are quite willing
to bow down before the great man on the mountain, the leader.
They had tsars and tsarinas for hundreds of years, after all,
and now of course they're all bowing to Vladimir Putin.
My journey across this vast country took me on to the isolated
Russian republic of Tuva.
No disrespect to the place, but Tuva where I'm heading now
is one of the most obscure places on planet Earth.
We are close to the centre of the entire Eurasian landmass.
These are the majestic Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia.
That's a petrol tanker, isn't it?
Oh, I can smell the fuel.
Not good. It's leaking out.
These roads are clearly a bit dangerous.
Look at this place.
We've come down from the mountains
and suddenly we're out on the steppe.
The grassy plains of the Eurasian steppe are one of the great natural
features of Russia's southern border, spanning the country
almost from the Pacific to Europe.
Where on earth are we going?
I love it.
There are around 190 different ethnic groups
within Russia's borders
but Tuva boasts one of its most distinct cultures.
Bloody hell. Look at this.
Naching comes from a proud tradition of Tuvan horsemen.
Tuva was once part of the mighty Mongol Empire
founded by Genghis Khan,
and Tuvans are closely related to their Mongolian neighbours.
We've got a bit of a welcoming committee, I think.
Oh, look.
Spectacular. Utterly spectacular. I'm slightly speechless.
You look...you look fantastic.
Who is everybody?
For hundreds of years,
horses were central to the nomadic lives of most Tuvans.
This family have a herd of 300 semi-wild horses which they breed
for milk and meat as well as to ride.
He's got it, he's got it.
What's going on? What are you doing?
So there's a lad going on...
Bucking, look at that.
Is he all right?
Are you going to go back on? Yeah!
SIMON LAUGHS
This scene has been played out here hundreds of thousands of times over
thousands and thousands of years.
So this area is known as the Valley of the King because there are
burial mounds out here dating back to getting on for 1000 BC.
Look.
He's done it, look. He's right out there, he's on the horse, though.
Naching and his wife are Tuvan throat singers,
an ancient musical art form where performers sing two notes
at the same time. It's an extraordinary, otherworldly sound.
That was beautiful.
Is it difficult to maintain the traditions
in the face of Russian TV,
pop music, burgers?
Do you feel Russian first or Tuvan?
THROAT SINGING
APPLAUSE
Not bad as a view while using the facilities.
Time to head to the city.
These days, the traditional way of life is increasingly rare.
Most Tuvans are now urban.
The Tuvan capital, Kyzyl, is a sunny, welcoming place.
It was built up by the Soviets as they industrialised the nation.
Everyone became a cog in the machine.
But factories have closed,
staggering rates of unemployment and poverty have hit hard.
As in most of Russia, alcohol has become a scourge.
I met up with Sayana,
a social activist who cares deeply about her community.
How big a problem is alcohol in Tuva?
Alcohol abuse in Russia is a national emergency.
One major report showed up to 30% of all deaths across the country are
alcohol related - that's horrific.
Almost ten times higher than the UK.
Is this the gentleman?
Georgy, I hear you've been a throat singer for a long time -
do you still sing?
THROAT SINGING
Does the alcohol help to dull the pain?
Does it make life better?
That's not fully healed, is it?
Stay safe, Georgy, stay safe out there, OK.
The Russian government has raised alcohol prices to try to combat
the drinking epidemic.
But the unintended consequence has been an explosion in production
of cheap and dangerous bootlegged alcohol.
Sayana wanted to show me how easy it is to get hold of.
So we've gone to meet a local lady who says she's knows how to get some
illegal alcohol and she's just come up to the van,
she's standing at the edge, we can't really show you her face because
there's a lot of concern that if she's identified then she could
be beaten up or even worse.
And how much did you pay for this?
Which is about £2.
So if you buy it illegally you can get it half the price in the shops?
Here is the problem.
There could be anything in that.
I was actually willing to have a try of it and see what it tastes like,
but, no, not this. It smells...
I mean to me it does smell like it's got a bit of an anti-freeze to it.
This is a big part of the reason why there are hundreds of thousands
of alcohol-related deaths in Russia every year.
It is a national tragedy.
I think it's time to get rid of this.
Hopefully it won't kill the tree.
Russia's creaking health-care system has struggled to deal
with the alcohol crisis.
Many towns and villages here have no medical infrastructure at all
and hundreds of thousands of Russians with serious illnesses
die without receiving medication.
Many here have lost faith in state medicine and Russian experts say
there are more traditional healers operating in the country
than there are registered doctors.
Oh, wow!
It's got a surgery, like a doctor.
I was meeting Karaool Dopchunool,
otherwise known as Big Bear.
Up to 30 people come here every day to seek treatment from the shamans.
HE ROARS
HE WHISTLES
Are you saying that you've just started
by curing him of his hangover
and then also you've started to put him off alcohol for life?
Are Tuvans becoming more interested in traditional healing?
Almost a quarter of Russia's population
is made up of minority groups.
Many feel the resurgence of Russian nationalism under President Putin
is leaving them behind.
HE CHANTS IN RUSSIAN
With that, Big Bear is gone.
SIMON SHIVERS
There's a storm coming.
It's time for me to head further west.
I travelled on to the city of Stavropol...
..in the far south-west of the country.
Well kept and well funded,
the region of Stavropol felt a world away from neglected Tuva.
This area has traditionally been a stronghold of ethnic Russians.
I was on my way to meet a group revered for their bravery
and fighting prowess,
a legendary warrior caste with an ancient code of honour.
HE PRAYS IN RUSSIAN
SINGING IN RUSSIAN
WHISPERS: These are the Cossacks.
The Cossacks were once the feared military enforcers of the tsars.
Oppressed by the Communists,
the revival of Cossack traditions and culture has been encouraged by
President Putin who's even funding Cossack schools.
What's going on here?
Why have you got horses and men with swords here?
What's going on?
This is the Terek Cossack College for 15- to 17-year-olds.
It's one of five Cossack schools in this region alone.
It's a bizarre class but it looks pretty fun.
Like this?
What?! Oh, OK, you just stand quietly?
OK, OK.
But the swordplay and horse riding isn't just for fun.
This school is preparing young Cossacks to do their patriotic duty
for the motherland.
OK.
Oh, goodness.
I had a question for the class, I hope that's all right.
Let's have a show of hands - who wants to join the army?
Wow! Every single one of you wants to join the army.
President Putin's government is really pushing the values of faith,
patriotism and of military might,
and those are all very much the values of the Cossacks,
which makes the Cossacks a bit of a mascot or an emblem
for Putin's new Russia.
The government is so keen on Cossack values, they're even paying
for Cossack street patrols alongside the police.
The Cossacks have long seen themselves as the guardians
of Christian Russia's remote border regions.
Immigration is a huge issue here.
Russia is home to more than 10 million immigrants,
the second largest number in the world after the US.
And regional leaders have asked the Cossacks to stem an influx of more
ethnic minorities.
Part of your heritage is that you are strong,
fighting men so there must be an element of fear, I suppose,
when you appear alongside the policemen.
I headed south on a long journey towards the Caucasus Mountains,
home to a group of Russian republics that are overwhelmingly Muslim.
My route took me right past
the notorious Russian region of Chechnya.
Russia's relationship with Chechnya,
with the whole of the Caucasus really,
has long been a very fractious one
with immense suffering on both sides.
When President Putin first came to power, he led a brutal military
campaign to crush a long-running Chechen independence movement.
The Chechen wars claimed thousands of lives
and militants from Chechnya
have launched terror attacks across Russia.
Goodness me.
This town was the scene
of one of the worst atrocities in the entire...
..struggle for Chechen independence.
A group of a couple of hundred Chechen fighters
infiltrated the town and they attacked the hospital,
they took hundreds of people hostage,
there was a horrific siege that lasted a number of days,
and at the end of it scores and scores of civilians,
men, women and children, were dead.
My destination was Dagestan,
which sits between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea.
Dagestan has suffered countless terrorist attacks.
It's been described as the most dangerous region of the country.
Foreign governments advise against all travel in this area of Russia.
THEY GREET IN RUSSIAN
Travelling here as a TV crew can be tricky.
But my guide is a well-connected man of the mountains.
Dagestan means the land of the mountains
and since the days of the tsars, Russia has struggled to subdue
the fierce independent spirit of the locals.
That is breathtaking.
Just look at the position there.
Seeing the village from up here does give me a sense of why the community
would first have settled here because it's a very defendable
position, I think, isn't it?
This warrior spirit was put to the test when Islamist militants
from neighbouring Chechnya invaded, trying to create an independent
Islamic state. Villagers here fought back.
Did you lose friends during that time?
Did you lose family?
You don't have to say anything more.
This was perhaps the most beautiful part of Russia that I'd visited.
But these mountains have seen such suffering.
Conflict in the Caucasus,
human rights abuses by Russian forces and the influence of
extremist preachers have all helped to radicalise many young men here.
Extremists from Dagestan have been fighting
on the battlefields of Syria.
It's now feared many will return home.
Dagestan's 15 hydroelectric dams are seen as a prime target
for terror attack.
The threat here is very real.
By some accounts,
up to 4,000 men from this small republic have gone off to fight
with so-called Islamic State.
The dams have been targeted in the past and a successful attack could
devastate the local area and cripple electricity supply.
Arsen heads up a unit tasked with protecting the dams.
So what's he found?
Right, look at that.
Wow!
The dogs don't just sniff for explosives.
So the dog is going out to inspect the suspicious object.
He's got a small camera mounted on his head that can be used to then
analyse what the object is.
They've even trained the dog so they can carry a small amount of
explosives in their mouths and attach those to the suspicious
object and when the dog's at a safe distance, they can blow it up.
Successful mission,
and the dam is protected.
Hundreds of innocent civilians here have been killed by terrorists.
Dagestan has one of the highest rates of terror attack in the world.
But most people here don't want extremism -
they're determined to keep their traditional way of life.
My guide was keen to show me one remote community
with a remarkable heritage.
We're coming into a village now that's got a bonkers
but brilliant tradition.
Assalaamu Alaikum. Simon.
Very nice to meet you, sir.
Ramazan Gadzhiyev runs one
of the oldest tightrope schools in the world.
No crash mat.
Quite hard-core.
Is it a good profession?
A tightrope school in the mountains of troubled Dagestan.
Why has he got knives attached to his feet?
Nothing more could surprise me.
By now, I'd travelled thousands of miles across Russia,
gifting me a real sense of the incredible diversity
of this enormous country.
Here he is, he's on the rope now.
Come on, round of applause, yay!
This is the end of the second leg of my journey across Russia.
It's a journey, I think, that's shown me many of the problems
the country faces, even as it's also shown me
some of the most beautiful landscapes.
I'm really looking forward to the third and final part
of my travels here.
I'll be travelling across
the spectacular open plains of western Russia...
This is like stepping back a century.
..and I'll meet a group of tough blokes fighting for what they say
are traditional Russian values.
I think I'm going to puke.