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ArkhangelskWith a name that means “Archangel” in English, the Arctic city of Arkhangelsk is sometimes dubbed “Russia’s Los Angeles.” But in fact the two cities are poles apart. |
AstrakhanWhile the Russian word for "tomato" may be masculine, Astrakhan natives tag an "a" on the end, switching the gender. A bizarre sound to Russian ears, perhaps, but Astrakhan's tomatoes grow to be so enormous, so red and so succulent in the sweltering summer temperatures that the locals cannot resist that little bit of affection. |
CheboksaryThe 46-meter-tall Mother Protectress, the symbol of the Chuvashia republic, spreads her arms over the capital, Cheboksary. “Blessed are my children, living in a world of love,” a plaque on the monument proclaims. But the picturesque view hides something sinister. |
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IrkutskThe first thing a visitor recently saw when entering the museum of exiled Prince Sergei Volkonsky in Irkutsk was a drowsy, gray-haired attendant sitting behind a table with a calendar adorned with the Yukos logo, a forest-green triangle with a yellow tip. The parallel was coincidental, but telling. |
KaliningradAlthough St. Petersburg is traditionally known as Russia's "window to Europe," today's Kaliningrad better deserves the moniker. The area's proximity to Western Europe means that residents are often more familiar with neighboring countries than with the rest of Russia. |
KalugaMany Russian cities pay lip service to the mantra of attracting foreign investment. Few have lived the dream in the way Kaluga has. |
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KazanIf you left the ancient metropolis of Kazan a decade ago, you would hardly recognize it today. The city’s signature white-and-blue kremlin still stands on the bank of the Kazanka River, but an infrastructure overhaul has added whole new neighborhoods to the city. |
KrasnoyarskOne of the oldest cities in Siberia, Krasnoyarsk boasts sights like picturesque churches and fountains with dazzling night lighting. But none of them can compare to its main attraction — majestic Siberian nature. |
MagnitogorskWriter Maxim Gorky wrote at the beginning of the last century that every Russian has two souls, one that originates in Asia, with its superstitions and laziness, and the other in the West, with its love of arts and passion for education. |
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MurmanskWhenever you feel the urge to complain about the injustice of the climate where you live, you can always comfort yourself with the fact that it's probably colder in Murmansk, where snow can linger into May and reappear in September. |
NizhnevartovskIf St. Petersburg was built on a swamp to open a window onto Europe, Nizhnevartovsk arose from the bogs of western Siberia as a tribute to crude oil and human greed. |
Nizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod, at different times in its history, has been called "the pocket of Russia," "Russia's Detroit" and "Russia's third capital." But today it ranks fifth by population and is inhabited by "leftover people." |
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NovosibirskStrangers are apt to approach you and strike up a conversation, a grandfatherly voice wishes you well on the metro intercom "Vsego Vam Dobrogo," and the ruddiness of people's cheeks is due primarily to the cold. |
OryolA city of bridges, Oryol is spread out on the banks of the Oka River and its tributary, the Orlik, which flow through the city center and are dotted with fishermen. |
PermPerm was immortalized in Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” as the genteel but provincial backwater the Prozorovas were so desperate to escape. A little boring, perhaps, but no hotbed of iniquity. Today Perm is open, the missile factories build rockets for Russia’s civilian space program, and the oil and mining industries are still going strong. |
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PetrozavodskIn trying to reach and conquer the Baltic Sea, Tsar Peter the Great declared war on the Swedish Empire in 1700. Three years into a conflict that would last more than two decades, Peter sanctioned the building of a new town on the shores of Lake Onega to be used as an iron foundry for much-needed weaponry for his northern fleets. |
PskovPerched on Russia's western fringes, yet one of the country's most ancient cities, Pskov may lack industry but it combines a unique concentration of crumbling Orthodox churches with echoes of its proximity to Europe. |
Rostov-on-DonIf you walk around the city center in Rostov-on-Don, one of the most likely things to catch your eye would be groups of Cossacks dressed in traditional dark-blue uniforms and red-striped pants. |
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RyazanThere's a belief in Ryazan that Koreans owe some of their digital excellence to a local plant called Plazma. But few remember the South Korean firm’s name when talking about Plazma’s joint venture with the Koreans — a memory from the mid-1990s. |
SamaraMost Russians know Samara as the country's aeronautics manufacturing capital. Far fewer would think of it as the birthplace of the nation's beer industry — yet the local brand, whose history is a metaphor for the town, has become synonymous with beer itself. |
SmolenskSmolensk's role in history as a battleground for invading armies may come as no surprise to the first-time visitor. |
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SochiWhen Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock and sent an eagle to pick at his liver as punishment for giving mankind fire, the Titan's torment was abated by the spirit of the Agura River, which brought him food and salved his wounds after the eagle's daily visits. But Prometheus probably wouldn't recognize his prison today. |
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg has in recent years taken a number of measures aimed at attracting tourists, partly in an effort to boost the city's coffers. |
Stary OskolAny Stary Oskol resident can give you explicit instructions on how to get to the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant. The plant, owned by Metalloinvest, is the largest employer in the city and is at the center of its economy, which relies on the region’s deposits of iron ore. |
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SyktyvkarIf you've lived in Russia and have scribbled anything on paper, chances are you've left your mark on a Syktyvkar product. Perhaps you are in a job that doesn't require you to write on paper. But you have, at some point, probably calculated a restaurant tip on a napkin. Then you, too, have appreciated Syktyvkar's bounty. |
TomskThe 19th-century writer Anton Chekhov praised Tomsk's food, criticized its women, and ultimately recommended that the city wasn't worth visiting. Today's Tomsk would beg to differ. A lot has changed since then. |
TulaAt first glance Tula looks like another grim post-Soviet capital, with timeworn pastel buildings, a colossal statue of Lenin in the central square and surly people mingling on the streets. But as is often the case in Russia, things are not what they seem. |
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TverScattered across the world are three monuments to Afanasy Nikitin, one of the first-recorded Europeans to go to India — and a native of Tver. |
TyumenIf "the strength of Russia rests in Siberia," as one popular refrigerator magnet contends with words emblazoned across the sky above a powerful oil derrick, then Siberia's capital is surely Tyumen. |
UfaUfa is best seen from the window of a landing airplane in the early fall. The concrete center is surrounded by multicolored cottage roofs sprinkled on rolling hills, covered in yellow, green, orange and red trees, cut by rivers and lakes as still as glass. |
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UlyanovskAsk any Russian what Ulyanovsk's claim to fame is, and the most likely reply will be: "Lenin was born there." But only an Ulyanovsk native will tell you that the Soviet founder is just one of many prominent people associated with the city. |
Veliky NovgorodVeliky Novgorod is a rather small city of just 200,000 inhabitants and is both the cradle and the symbol of Russian democracy, which was established here more than 900 years ago. |
Veliky UstyugThe Russian north has always held a fairy-tale appeal for its wooden architecture, historical monuments and expanses of forest, marshland and lakes. Nestled in the northeastern corner of the Vologda region, the town of Veliky Ustyug is no exception. |
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VladimirDrivers heading to this city’s biggest tourist attraction should be careful when approaching Cathedral Square: The parking space in front of the magnificent Assumption Cathedral is for busses only. |
VladivostokJust months after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev jokingly promised to show "Kuzka's mother" to the Americans in Moscow, he made his first official visit to the United States — and ended up taking a trip that proved crucial for Vladivostok. |
VolgogradVolgograd is a proud city, and justifiably so. Famed for its dogged resistance against Hitler's invading forces under its former name, Stalingrad, it bore the brunt of the German onslaught between August 1942 and February 1943 and was awarded the title "Hero City" accordingly. |
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VologdaLast weekend’s posh celebrations to mark Moscow’s 864th birthday left no doubt where Russia’s capital is located. But 460 kilometers away, another city also recently celebrated 864 years — and its residents remembered that instead of St. Basil’s Cathedral and Red Square, the trademarks of Russia’s capital could have been a tub of butter and a wooden house with a carved fence. |
VoronezhWhen President Dmitry Medvedev appeared on television last November to speak about Russia's answer to the U.S. missile defense system, he proudly announced that a new early warning radar, called the Voronezh DM, would be located in Kaliningrad. |
YaroslavlWhether they realize it or not, anyone who has spent a few hours in Russia has glimpsed some of the sites of Yaroslavl. The luridly turquoise 1,000 ruble bank note features both ancient and modern vistas of the city, with the 17th-century, 15 onion-domed St. John the Baptist Church on one side and new buildings on the other. |
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YekaterinburgMany foreign travelers to Yekaterinburg expect to learn more about the last days of Russia's last monarch, Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra and their children, executed here by the Bolsheviks in 1918. What they often don't expect is to see a bustling modern city with a skyline punctured by high-rise towers. |
YerevanA first glance of Yerevan from the imposing central train station may appear uninspiring — bleak empty buildings flank the large square in the gray light of dawn, merchants setting up their stalls stare warily at passersby, and the grandiose monument of a rider on a horse pays tribute to the country's Soviet past. |
Putin Brings Loyal Ex-Ministers to AdministrationThe Moscow Times
President Vladimir Putin appointed a number of ex-ministers and longtime allies to positions in his administration Tuesday, a move expected to shift power to the Kremlin and weaken Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's new government.
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Auchan, Renault-Nissan Starting Local Banks
Auchan's banking unit and Dutch Credit Europe Group have embarked on establishing a joint bank in Russia to provide a broader range of services to corporate clients.
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