Western countries will send some of their most hardened criminals to serve sentences in special prisons in deepest Siberia.
Aware of accounts of mysterious relic reptiles lurking in the deep, here are the first pictures from a record breaking dive.
He landed onto the track in minus 40C wearing only a T-shirt, shorts and slippers. He had left his compartment to go for a cigarette.
Oleg Rezanov says he was in ‘trance’ and unable to breathe but walked away - shaking - in -32C Yakutsk cold.
Valery Malkov from Bratsk, Irkutsk region, was wearing only a T-shirt, shorts and slippers.
Russia's coldest region is up to 20C milder than average this month, say meteorologists.
It may be -40C outside but that did not put off fearless Irish strongman from pouring water over his head.
Its residents will live in a vast man-made 'igloo' to protect them from polar temperatures and some of the most biting winds on the planet.
A renaissance of one of Siberia's first outposts as the Far North becomes the new economic frontier.