Acrobats soar in the air like birds; dogs walk on two paws; lions and tigers behave like obedient lambs. These are some of the miracles to be seen at the Zapashny Brothers' Circus, which has just begun a run in the Russian capital.

The Zapashny family are come from a long line of animal tamers.  And the latest generation, according Askold Zapashny, is not planning to stop any time soon.

“Our show consists of the best tricks, in our opinion. Naturally the programme is created to keep the audience impressed all the time,” he says.

Askold is the only person in the world who can ride a jumping lion from one platform to another. Michael – the lion who performs the trick – weighs 320 kilograms and can travel over two meters through the air, apparently defying the laws of gravity. This trick was included in the Guinness book of records and nobody's ever tried to repeat it.

But even that is not enough for the brothers. Having created their own show they decided to set another record.

Edgard Zapashny says they've applied to become “the most visited” show in the world.

“At the moment the record belongs to Cirque Du Soleil. 150 thousand people visit that show every 2 weeks, we expect 230 thousand,” Edgard said.

The brothers have recently brought two little white lions from South Africa. They will be the first lions of this breed to appear in the Russian circus.