Elena cut a glamorous, quixotic figure amid the smouldering ruins of Berlin as the Third Reich collapsed. Her dark hair swept back, her green Red Army uniform immaculate, this coolly seductive 25 year old Soviet military intelligence interpreter held the world’s biggest secret inside a red satin-lined perfume box that she carried everywhere. She could tell no-one its contents. Now in her 80s, she reveals that in her box was Hitler’s jaw bone and teeth recently wrenched from his charred body. Her orders from Stalin were to find his Nazi dentists – and get absolute proof that the body dug up near his bunker was, indeed, the real one.

It’s the new Russian method of treating those addicted to drugs, drink, work or even sex. Siberian medics literally beat the addiction out of their patients. We follow the treatment of 22 year old heroin addict Natasha whose boyfriend died from his drugs habit. The treatment is painful and shocking yet Natasha is not alone in claiming she has been cured.

Since “Soviet Hannibal” Andrei Chikatilo murdered 52 women, his home city of Rostov-on-Don has been known as the world capital of serial killing. Yet since Chikatilo was executed there have been a dozen more mass killers. Now almost 40 young women have gone missing and the Chikatilo murder squad has been reconstituted to find the latest killer or killers and stem the panic
sweeping this southern Russian city.

Olya, Nina and Irina look like normal young women in their late teens – but they will never have their own children. They were born in the shadow of Chernobyl soon after the explosion which spewed radioactive pollution across Europe. Two decades on from this horror, we reveal the tragic gynaecological problems facing many girls in Ukraine and Belarus, a scandal that until now has remained hidden.

It’s the horror that stalks every parent in a high rise flat. Katya’s 19 month old baby eluded her for just a few minutes and climbed out of a window in their 11th floor apartment. He fell…and miraculously survived.

Dog weddings – the latest fad for rich Russians. Meet the owner of Moscow’s first dog wedding agency and the owners who are arranging marriage ceremonies for their dogs.

He refuses to be in the Guinness Book of World Records but Leonid Stadnyk from Ukraine is the tallest man in the world. On his last measurement he was 8 ft 4 incheS, seven inches more than Xi Shun from Inner Mongolia, the official record holder. And he is still growing. Stadnyk explains why his awesome height is a nightmare – and why he shuns the fame that could be his.

Six years ago the Kursk submarine sank with the loss of all 118 Russian sailors. The horror – and the bungled rescue – shocked the world. But it also widowed dozens of young Russian women. We speak to four of these widows on the very different ways they have coped with their grief, their anger about the tragedy, and the problems of finding love again.

These women married their kidnappers. The ancient practice of bride stealing continues to this day in the remote Caucasus Mountains. We highlight two cases where young women were manhandled into cars and forced over the threshold of their abductors’ homes. After this local tradition dictates they must marry their kidnappers or face family humilation.

Russian sex slaves Lena and Katya were driven about as low as any women could be, held in a grisly underground bunker for almost four years by a Russian ex-army officer who raped and abused them. After this ordeal neither thought they would ever be able to fall in love with a man again. But now Lena, who was forced into three pregnancies by her kidnapper, has married and Katya and found love. They speak openly about their new happiness.

Natalia Vodianova is one of the world’s top super models, gracing the leading catwalks and married to an aristocratic British husband. She’s advertised Gucci and Calvin Klein, and posed for the Pirelli Calendar.

It wasn’t always so easy for this real-life Cinderella: as a teenager, she sold vegetables from a barrow in temperatures of minus 40C. But during her rise from extreme poverty in Russia, she left behind two men – her father, who speaks for the first time about his anguish at losing her, and the boyfriend she had been destined to marry.

She’s been called “the most incredible girl in the world”. Maryika is the ONLY child born at highly-radioactive Chernobyl since the horrific atomic explosion in 1986.

For the last five years she has lived here illegally with her parents, deep inside the fenced “exclusion zone”. “People think she’s a mutant, or has two heads,” says her mother. We find out the astonishing truth, meeting this “nuclear kid” who swims in a river where the fish send Geiger counters off the scale, and who eats ONLY fruit and vegetables grown in this radioactive wasteland.

Since “Soviet Hannibal” Andrei Chikatilo murdered 52 women, his home city of Rostov-on-Don has been known as the world capital of serial killing. Yet since Chikatilo was executed there have been a dozen more mass killers. Now almost 40 young women have gone missing and the Chikatilo murder squad has been reconstituted to find the latest killer or killers and stem the panic
sweeping this southern Russian city.

Who says it’s cold in Siberia? Not in this hot, steamy car wash, Russian-style, where the dreams of drivers come true as the grime is sudded off their cars.
Siberians queue up in their Ladas and Volgas to feast their eyes on local female students working at the car wash as X-rated striptease cleaners. “People were once frightened of being sent to Siberia, now they can’t get here quick enough,” says driver Dmitry Ivanov.

Natasha Demkina baffled doctors when, aged 16, she claimed she had x-ray eyes and could see inside people’s bodies. Three years later, she is taken seriously by one of Russia’s top medical colleges where she won a place to train as a mainstream doctor. And parients are still queueing up for her services, as she explains.

This saucy nightspot is where Russia’s new-rich ‘bizniswomen’ go to be pampered – and indulge their deepest fantasies. A night out here can easily cost 1,500 euros but the clients have cash to burn. They can pay extra to be called “My Lady” all evening as they feast their eyes on “classy” male striptease acts. The dancers shower on stage – for 60 euros a woman can join them. Women guests even queue up for erotic massages.

How far do they go? “Very far”, says one satisfied regular, a highly-paid currency dealer. And for around 700 euros clients can – and do – take home a male hunk…

Hanna is the oldest woman in the world, at 118, and she lives on a pension of just 7 euros a week. Born into a poor peasant family, she’s lived through world wars, famines and revolutions – and remembers them all. Her husband was killed by Stalin and her passionate German lover was shot by the Red Army. Her recipe for a long life includes homemade vodka and fried…. she speaks EXCLUSIVELY to east2west news.