RUSSIA

Traveling through Russia on any of the routes, gives you a number of opportunities to stop and enjoy numerous landmarks both natural and cultural. Here is a brief list of what you might consider putting special attention on:

Moscow
Moscow is the capital of Russia, and the country’s economic, financial, educational, and transportation centre. It is located on the Moskva River in the European part of Russia (being also the Europe’s biggest city). The world-famous Moscow’s museums and galleries with their collections, are some of the largest and most important in the world. It is the site of the Red Square and Kremlin, which now serves as the ceremonial residence of the President of Russia. One of the most notable art museums in Moscow are: the Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the State Historical Museum of Russia etc. Moscow is also the heart of Russian performing arts – there are more than ninety theatres (Bolshoi Theatre being the most famous) and more than twenty concert halls. The sites of interest can hardly be listed briefly – Ivan the Great Bell Tower, The Grand Kremlin Palace, the Cathedral Square etc.

Saint Petersburg
Known in the past as Leningrad, St. Petersburg has been the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two centuries. Nowadays it is Russia’s second largest and Europe’s third largest city. St. Petersburg is recognized as a major European cultural centre and an important port for Russia on the Baltic Sea. The historic center of St. Petersburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – impressive and majestic, boasting a network of canals and bridges, the latter being the reason to fame the city as The Venice of the North. The highlights list include loads of buildings that still keep alive the glorious past of the city – the Summer Palace, Menshikov Palace, the Winter Palace housing the Hermitage Museum, Stroganov Palace, Vorontsov Palace, Anichkov Palace, St. Michael’s Castle, the Marble palace, Moyka Palace, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral, Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Navy Museum, Grand Peterhof Palace and many others. The city is also world famous for its theatres, numbering more than 50.

Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is in Southern Siberia in Russia, located between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, near the city of Irkutsk. At 1,637 meters, Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and with a volume 23,000 km³ it holds the largest body of fresh water on earth (636 km long and 80 km wide), approximately twenty percent of the world's total surface fresh water. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Altay Mountains
The Altay Mountains (meaning The Golden Mountains in Turkic) are a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the great rivers Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei have their sources. A vast area of 16,178 sq.km. (Altay and Katun Nature Reserves, Lake Teletskoye, Mount Belukha and the Ukok Plateau) is declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Perm
Perm is a city and administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia. It is situated on the banks of the Kama River, at the foot of the Ural Mountains. Perm is one of the largest cities in Russia, thirteenth most populous. The city is a major administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center.

Ulan-Ude
Ulan-Ude, the capital city of the Buryat Republic, is located about 100 km south-east of Lake Baikal, on the 5640th kilometer of the Trans-Siberian railway. It is located at the foot of the Khamar-Daban and Khrebet Ulan-Burgasy mountain ranges, next to the confluence of the Selenga River and its tributary, the Uda, which divides the city into two parts. Due to its geographical position, the city grew rapidly and became a large trade centre which connects Russia with China and Mongolia. The main attractions here are considered to be the Buddhist Datsan, the Ethnographic Museum, the Nature and History Museums, and, of course, lake Baikal, which is 250 kilometers away.

Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk is the administrative center and the largest city of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some 30 km from the Chinese border. Rail distance from Moscow is 8,523 kilometers. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. Visitors to the picturesque city of Khabarovsk are likely to enjoy walking the broad Amursky Boulevard with its many vibrant shops and perhaps visit the local market.

Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is Russia's third largest city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast. It is also the largest city in Siberia. The city is widely considered to be the cultural center of Siberia. The Zoo of Novosibirsk is a world renowned zoo and a popular tourist attraction to the city (housing over 4000 species of animals).

Irkutsk
Irkutsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, situated 5,185 kilometers by rail from Moscow.

Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg (still called sometimes by its Russian name Sverdlovsk) is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District. Yekaterinburg is an important railway junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway, with lines radiate here to all parts of the Urals and the rest of Russia.

Vladivostok
Vladivostok is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay not far from the Russo-Chinese border and North Korea. It is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet. The main branches of the regional industry are: machinery, metal processing, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy.