The People

My dear people, today I’m going to show you how people live in one of the wildest places of Africa and in fact of the entire world. This is Lyadov, and today I’m in an incredible place - the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. It has gone through so many years of war fighting for independence that the number of people with guns here will blow your mind. All people including children have guns here in cities and villages alike and even in tribes living in the wild. People here are known to wash their heads with cow urine to make their hair golden brown. Some tribes blow their cows in the butts to make them produce more milk. They may seem weird but the fact is that they have been able to preserve their unique authentic culture though decades of war in absence of any order, through complete chaos. This is Lyadov to show you How People Live in South Sudan.

I'll show you how these tribes live, and it’s fascinating. Take a look at these houses! I feel like I’m entering the Smurf village, they are so cute, so neat, and perfectly shaped – just look at these even rows of sticks they’re made of!

People, we're in Pakistan. Pakistan is a most beautiful country. Our goal is to get to the border separating India and Pakistan. 77 years ago, there was no border. It was one country. Ever since India and Pakistan separated, there has been an undying territory dispute between them. We are to begin our trip in Lahore, Pakistan, a city located a dozen miles from the Indian border. And today we have with us our reporter Alex Pototskiy, and he also will meet and wrestle some of the most intimidating guys in Pakistan and witnessed the country’s most shocking religious ritual.

People, today we’re in Lebanon. We are outside of Tripoli and about to enter the Palestinian refugee camp where our reporter Alex Pototsky won’t be able to shoot openly, at least at the start. Alex is making his way through the narrow streets into one of the largest camps for Palestinian refugees where reporters are usually not allowed. They are routinely turned away. You have to have a permission for pretty much anything around here, obtained from the local authorities that are mostly autonomous from the Lebanese government. Due to the ongoing armed conflict between the neighboring state of Israel and the Gaza Strip, the situation is even more complicated. Tensions inside the camp have increased causing unrest from time to time. Alex has come there to show you how people live in a refugee camp. In camps like this, there are Palestinians, Syrians and even locals from Lebanon. Today, we’ll see what life is like for people who have lost their homes to war.

People, can you guess what road is considered the most dangerous in the world? The BBC Travel made its own list of the most dangerous roads to travel on our planet. The list includes Russia’s Kolyma Highway and Bolivia’s ‘Death Road’ built by POWs from Paraguay. But then in 2014, a BBC crew came to Georgia and attempted to drive this road in Tusheti. This is Lyadov, and today, we are in the mountains of Georgia taking up the road that counts among the top ten most dangerous in the world, with endless hairpin bends at a very high altitude. Our goal today is to take this very road to the very end to get to the most remotely located village up in the mountains close to the border between Georgia and Russia and see how people live on the other end of it. This is Lyadov reporting on how people live in Georgia.

People, this is Lyadov, and today, we are in Africa, in Tanzania and Zanzibar Island. We know this place today as a paradise. It has earned the nickname of the African Maldives. Today, I'm going to try street food of Zanzibar. To try local food I am waiting for the evening when the night food market opens. They’ve got tons of kebabs and grilled meat, they’ve got chicken, rabbit meat, mutton, fresh seafood, squids, lobsters, octopuses, crabs, freshly caught fish that’s just been delivered by fishermen. Hakuna Matata is the island’s motto. It means, no worries, just relax and chill. It is true that today, these guys have a lot less problems than their forefathers a hundred years ago. Today, tourists come here from all over the world and spend money. It’s hard to believe that not so long ago, this island was Africa’s own pit of hell. If you got here it meant that you were never going to see your family.

People, we're in Haiti today. It's a small and poorest country in America. It's located on islands between the two Americas, north and south. Less than a million people live in the capital of the state, but there are more than two hundred gangs that constantly divide the city's neighborhoods among themselves. They have their own game of thrones, with no regard for official authorities or police. The biggest gimmick that has raised all these gangs is the government itself. For the past weeks, the streets of Haiti have been very turbulent. Criminals have seized and closed the country's main airport, set fire to several police stations and stormed two prisons, releasing more than 4,000 prisoners. Police are paralyzed, people are calling the radio today with pleas for help, go figure! In this episode, let's try to understand what is happening in this small country, who has seized power there, and most importantly - show how people do not live, but survive in the midst of all this horror

People, today I will show you how people live by one of the world’s most breathtakingly beautiful lakes challenged by harsh Siberian winter climate. The lowest temperature in this area can reach -40 F. The ice crust on the lake is five feet thick, but sometimes even thick ice can crack. Well, folks, I spent all day here on Lake Baikal at -4 F, and I thought I could handle more. And so I’m about to dive into Lake Baikal that’s covered by ice. They make special holes like this in the ice, they cut them with a chainsaw so you can dive in. They tell me it’s not cold in there, that it might be even kinda warm, oh well, so I’m off to change into the suit. This is Lyadov and today I am reporting from Lake Baikal. I’ll be honest, it’s my first time here, but it’s freaking awesome, and the energy here is totally incredible and simply through the roof. Lake Baikal has become a very popular tourist destination recently, but few people know that there are a number of very interesting remote villa

People, this is Lyadov, and today we are in Paris. Say Paris, and people think of the Eiffel Tower, croissants and all these beautiful sights. But today, I’m going to show you an absolutely different side of Paris. We will go underground to discover the lesser known world of the catacombs under the city of Paris that stretch for at least 175 miles making up an elaborate labyrinth. That’s right, my friends, we are now going to see the city’s most exciting part, the catacombs of Paris. They stretch for miles and miles under the city and are centuries old. Some parts of them were used as a prison, for example. It looks just like an ordinary street where you have to take a turn and find this little spot.

People, today we are in Switzerland. It’s a most beautiful country! The sun is shining, there are green meadows, stunning mountains – like a Milka ad came alive. This Narnia-grade forest is absolutely incredible. And as you’re walking through this wonderland the last thing you expect to see while looking around is a big gun pointing at you from inside a mountain, that is from inside a bunker in a mountain. Look at this curtain made of steel chains, and the gun is obviously not a museum item. It’s a real weapon. Inside this mountain and behind this gun, there is a two-level bunker with a system of tunnels that stretch for miles. And this is just one of hundreds of the country’s massive underground strongholds. This is Lyadov, and today I’m reporting from Switzerland, the nation that is most well-prepared for a nuclear threat.

My dear people, today, I’m in the most unusual place in the entire Egypt. It’s called the Garbage City, and it’s a real neighborhood in the Western Area of Cairo. It started off as a garbage dump that grew into a small settlement that continued to grow, and now it’s a whole city quarter that is full of garbage – but it also has an infrastructure of its own, including cafes, restaurants, schools and hospitals. It’s truly unbelievable! This is Lyadov reporting on How People Live in Egypt.

People, today, we are in Belarus, close to the Ukrainian border, no more than a dozen miles away from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Back in the day, this area counted among the most prosperous in the entire Soviet Union, but the explosion of the No. 4 reactor at the nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 brought a happy life of thousands of people to an abrupt end. We’ll see the land that will remain unsafe for habitation for hundreds and even thousands of years into the future. We’ll visit ghost villages and towns with their abandoned kindergartens and houses where time seems to have stopped. This is "The People" project reporting from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

People, today, we are in Iran. The 1979 Islamic Revolution turned Iran into one of the most conservative countries in the world. The state has a full control of everything its citizens can or cannot do, especially women. They can’t be seen in public with their heads uncovered, they can’t wear T-shirts, they can’t ride motorbikes, and so on. They face restrictions every step of the way. For over 40 years now, Iran has been living under severe sanctions. All major international corporations stopped operating in the country – just like many severed ties with Russia recently. But the most recent wave of protests has put things into motion, and things started to change. Today, we will tell you how people live in Tehran. This is "The People" project with Alexandra Sabynina.

It’s 3 a.m. at the Pyongyang International Airport. And look at this arrival area – it’s not just a red carpet, it’s a huge red carpet zone! And the only man on it is the lonely figure of Kim Jong Un who arrived on time and now is pacing trying to kill time counting minutes till the touchdown. That’s how you usually wait for your best friend or your girlfriend at an airport. Finally, the plane arrives, with large letters saying Russia on its side. Putin gets off the plane looking upbeat and energized. In general, North Korea is a country that looks super-weird to the people in the Western part of the world. Can you, for example, imagine yourself being a part of this flag-waving crowd? Or can you imagine a life without the Internet? A life without a car, or fast foot restaurants, or fun clothes, but, what matters above all that, a life without freedom? Yet, for all these people, it’s a fact of their everyday life, it’s how they live. A few years ago, I went to North Korea to try and f

My dear people, I'm so proud to tell you that my documentary "Nuclear lessons" made it to the finals of the Cannes Film Festival. While working on this documentary, I realized how fragile our world is and how important it is to appreciate it. This is Lyadov, and today, I am in this scary as hell place that had served as the testing ground for the most devastating weapons of mass destruction humanity has ever invented - nuclear bombs - for 40 years in a row. A total of almost half a thousand nuclear bombs had been tested here between 1949 and 1989. The USSR’s top scientists and researchers were studying the effect of nuclear weapons on urban settlements. They had been building mock towns with real buildings and even metro stations to be able to see and access the impact. The researchers identified the areas where people would die right away, where people could survive but go blind, or where they’d survive just fine and but their progeny would develop mutations for many years into the f

People, In today's documentary I will tell you about my visit to Africa, the most dangerous country for tourists - Somalia, which for about 30 years has lived in a state of absolute chaos. I will show you how people live in a country where it is dangerous for foreigners to go to public places for more than 10-20 minutes. We will visit their capital - Mogadishu. All important buildings here have been converted into bunkers, which are protected by czech hedgehogs, spiked ribbons and even a palisade of sharpened rails dug into the ground. This is Lyadov and How people live from Somalia! This is not just a travel channel. This is a collection of documentaries about the lives of people in different parts of our planet. Here you will not see beautiful staged images. This channel is about something else. About reality, honest and sometimes frightening.

This is Lyadov, and today we are in Glasgow, Scotland. For many years, Glasgow has been called Europe’s crime capital because everything that has been happening here until 2007 was completely crazy. The crimes rate was comparable to that in places like Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Venezuela – you know, places where a real gangs war is going on. Ever since then, the crime rate in Glasgow has fallen by 25%, but the gangs have stayed around, and the gang culture too. Many gangs have been here for over a hundred years, and investigative reports say that there are around 170 active gangs today in Glasgow with 3000 to 5000 members each. And today I am to meet some of them. This is Lyadov from Glasgow, Scotland. This is not just a travel channel. This is a collection of documentaries about the lives of people in different parts of our planet. Here you will not see beautiful staged images. This channel is about something else. About reality, honest and sometimes frightening.

People, we're in Bangladesh. To get a full watching experience, I’d recommend that you invite your extended family, the more the merrier. Get as many noisy and naughty kids as you can, and lots of pets to run around and make noise and fight, and so on. What else? I’d recommend that you invite people next door with some loud horns to make loud noise whenever they feel like it. And prepare some rotten onions, just put them on the floor around you, and then you’ll get a little bit in touch with what this place feels like. Hello, people! We are in Bangladesh. Behind me is Dhaka, its capital city. This is not just a travel channel. This is a collection of documentaries about the lives of people in different parts of our planet. Here you will not see beautiful staged images. This channel is about something else. About reality, honest and sometimes frightening.

People, you might know that October 30 is the Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repressions in Russia, but usually not much happens on that day. Millions were killed, dozens of millions imprisoned for no good reason at all, but we don’t talk much about it somehow. And now look how people honor victims of political repressions in Argentina. Hundreds of thousands march the streets beating drums, carrying banners and larger-than-life inflatable dolls. The reason why they come out to take part in the march is loud and clear on this banner saying, there are “30 thousand reasons” to do so. That’s 30 thousand victims of the dictatorship that took place between 1976 and 1983. The state even compensates the day’s wages for everyone who participates and is doing everything it can to ensure people never forget that time and that nothing like this ever happens again.

This is Lyadov and today I am going to tell you about probably the most realistic and dangerous shooting I have ever experienced. It is about Venezuela. The fact is that I arrived there when the country was in absolute turmoil. There was a real revolution. Despite Venezuela being the richest country in oil reserves, Maduro, who was in charge at the time, led Venezuela into a terrible deficit. There was literally nothing in the stores, no food, not even toilet paper! At first, I even wanted to refuse to fly to Venezuela, because there was real lawlessness in the country. Armed men could come up to you in the street and take everything you had. They could shoot you and nobody could help you, because the hospitals did not work, because there was no electricity in the country! But I decided to take the risk and go there after all. The embassy official who met me and my cameraman at the airport in Caracas strictly forbade us to leave the hotel unaccompanied, because it was simply not safe

People, today we are in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Once Lebanon was a paradise for tourists, it was even called the “Switzerland of the Middle East”, thanks to its developed banking sector. But everything changed in the 70's when civil war broke out in the country. Since then, Lebanon has gone through several wars, protests and political crises. In August 2020, the worst man-made disaster occurred in the port of Beirut - 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded. The consequences of this disaster are still being eliminated, and the country has been in a severe crisis since then. Our correspondent Alex Pototsky traveled to Beirut to see and tell with his own eyes how the once prosperous country has hit rock bottom. This is The People project from Beirut! This is not just a travel channel. This is a collection of documentaries about the lives of people in different parts of our planet. Here you will not see beautiful staged images. This channel is about something else. About reality,

This is Lyadov, and today we're in Congo, ready for an exciting journey where we'll actually be visiting two countries at once. Right across the river is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while I am standing in the Republic of the Congo, and these two Congos are separated by one massive fast-flowing river also called the Congo. Now, the thing is that the standard of living in these two countries is worlds apart. Over sixty percent of people in the DRC live on just two or three dollars a month. But this country, the Republic of the Congo, ranks fourth in all of Africa in terms of oil reserves and production, so life here is completely different. This is Lyadov reporting on How People Live in the two Congos.

People, today we're in Afghanistan. Three years ago, once the U.S. troops left Afghanistan, the power in the country was seized by the Taliban. The authorities in Russia, the United States and many other countries have been strongly discouraging their citizens from traveling to Afghanistan ever since. Hostilities in the country are still ongoing. And today we'll show you how people live in four different places of this country. We’ll start with the capital city, Kabul, and from there, we will cross tall mountains to go to Kunduz. After that, we’ll drive to Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, Bamyan. And finally, we will head to the emerald mines of Panjshir. The trip is promising to be dangerous and full of risks. My guides are literally praying that we all get to our destination in one piece, and most importantly, come back after that. We'll see how it goes. This is Alex Pototsky reporting for The People project. Off we go!

People, this is the second episode of my trip to two different Congo. You can see the first part here • 24 Hours Inside Congo's Capital City ... In this episode, I'm going to show you voodoo wrestlers and meet the guys who make costumes out of garbage. This is Lyadov, and “How people live” from two different Congo.

People, today I'm in Miami. But not the postcard Miami of movies and TV shows where rich Americans drive around in their convertibles. No6 today we're gonna show you the city of the rich and the city of the poor. A city of free people and a city of people who are afraid to go out when it gets dark. This is Lyadov and how people live from Miami!

Two weeks ago, South Korea found itself in the epicenter of a political crisis. Martial law, rallies of thousands, possible impeachment of the president and a coup d'état - the whole world was watching the events of that night. How will this political tsunami end? Why did Koreans take to the streets while Kim Jong-un watches from the sidelines? We traveled urgently to South Korea to bring you all the details of the events that could change the fate of one of Asia's most developed countries. This is The People project, let's go!

People, in this episode I've compiled the 5 most dangerous places in the history of my travels. In each of these countries, I risked not only losing my equipment and footage, but also not coming home at all. I was forced to put my camera away or I could be shot. They threatened to take away everything or just throw me in jail. After some episodes I received threats: the mail was flooded with letters promising to find me anywhere in the world and destroy me and my family. Revolutions, shootings, total surveillance of tourists and journalists, violent crackdowns on protests - all this is happening nowadays. I risked everything trying to capture what was happening on camera. Some material had to be sacrificed, but I managed to shoot something - the movies came out. I'm alive, I'm healthy, my family is fine, and that's a great luck and happiness. Because it was really scary. I still remember those shootings with horror. How is such madness possible in our time? I can't get my head around i