Cossacks ride again for the protection of southern Russia
His eyes blazing, Oleg Tishenko runs a finger down the pitted blade of a 19th-century sabre.
'We are ready to fulfil our historic duty,' he says, making a slash through the air. 'We have never been afraid of anyone. It is genetically impossible for a Cossack to experience fear. We must protect the borders of the motherland.'
Here, on Russia's fringe in the Caucasus, a rebirth is taking place.
Under threat from Chechen terrorists, Russia has called on its 'untamed horsemen' - the Cossacks - to resurrect their historic role as defenders of its southern frontier.
Once the most feared fighting force in the world, the Cossacks' very survival was threatened after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. But now their traditions and status are being revived.
On December 7, the Russian Interior Ministry drafted more than 3,000 of them to maintain security during parliamentary elections in Stavropol, which borders Chechnya. It followed an attack two days before the poll by Chechen suicide bombers that killed 44 people on a train in the region. A second explosion in Moscow on December 9 left six people dead.