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The first Russian discount airline Sky Express started regular daily flights between Moscow and Sochi for 500 R ($20) one way. This is the cheapest offer on the market, and the airline will soon launch daily flights to Rostov-na-Donu (9 February) and Murmansk (14 February) as well. The price will stay the same at least for a few weeks and you can book your flight by calling +7 800 2009-360. Sky Express' website has an English version, but the online booking works in the Russian version only.
A small tip: you can get the special price if you use the promo code when you book your ticket: SKYX001



Sochi is a popular tourist destination for Russians, as it is situated on the shore of the Black Sea. However, what is even more interesting about this destination is that the best Russian ski and snowboard resort Krasnaya Polyana is located within a short drive from Sochi. Considering there's not so much snow in Europe these days, there's a good reason to try it out. You can read more about the resort in the World Snowboard Guide's , the guide to all Russian resorts in this book was written by Way to Russia team.

Central Asia might seem unstable these days, with the semi-regular occurrence of a revolution or the violent suppression of an uprising. But gone are the days when you could take a capital city with a ragtag army of soldiers and mercenaries. In 1921, however, Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, known as the Bloody Baron, did just that when he captured Ulan Bataar in one of the strangest incidents of the Russian Civil War.

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There is lots of snow in Moscow at the moment and the local airports (Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo) announced that there might be flight delays. Also, there's lots of traffic on the main motorways connecting Moscow to the international airports, so the journey to the center of the city will take about 2 hours instead of 1 hour it takes normally. Be careful when you plan your journey!

A Hero of Our Time is an often overlooked classic of Russian literature regarded as the first Russian novel of Russian psychological realism. Centered around the adventures of a morally bankrupt army officer named Pechorin, the book takes place in the Caucasus in the early 19th Century. Seemingly bored with life, Pechorin draws pleasure from playing psychological games and attempting to dominate those around him. His tales of derring-do, manipulation and female seduction are enthralling in their unfolding and disturbing in their sheer pointlessness.

In the introduction Lermontov writes that the book was not just a portrait of one man but of all his generation’s vices. Many critics, however, have taken the character of Pechorin to be more of a self-portrait than Lermontov would admit...

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A teenage star of the Russian music world, 19 year-old Lera Masskva is a young rocker with a bright future. With the rock chick attitude down pat, a hit album under her belt and a talented producer behind her, Masskva has managed to build a huge fan base in her short rise to fame. In what is a male-dominated genre in Russia, Masskva is conspicuous as much by her gender as by her age.

Lera explains that females are under-represented in Russian rock, “simply because pop music sells better. Girls who want to be singers, they just get acquainted with producers and the producers write songs for them that are designed to sell. It’s easier for them to start their careers as pop singers. The mentality of our country is such that pop music has a big audience.”

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Somebody said that we live the stories that we are telling to ourselves. And Tatyana Tolstaya writes about the people who live through the kind of stories that make their existence unbearable. The protagonists of her books -- Soviet clerks, doctors, engineers, and housewives -- are all stuck in something. For some it is hopes and dreams for a better life, for the others it's unbearable circumstances they chose for their own existence. And the only way to escape the burden of this reality is to create your own world of enchanting dreams and imagination, full of lively characters, magic objects, and playful interactions...


(Photo by Sasha Reshetilov)

Tolstaya's stories do not only offer an interesting way of looking at our perception of everyday life, they also provide a new understanding of life in Russia and The Soviet Union during that time. The period when Russian people had to transform from dreaming romantics into ruthless survivors and when the longing for material well-being came in conflict with the desire for inner peace.

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The Russian Railways have finally created something really special and nice: a virtual tour of "Rossiya" Trans-Siberian train (#1/2), which departs from Moscow and goes all the way to Vladivostok. It's possible to see the views from the window, "talk" to the passengers, take a look at the compartments, the restaurant, toilets, and learn a lot of interesting things. The texts are in Russian, but it's pretty easy to navigate through, just click through from the Day 1 to Day 6 in the interface above.

You can view the virtual tour here.

Take a look at this video taken at a Russian wedding with unusual musical background...

Litvinenko's death, a recent confrontation with Georgia, racist outburst in North Russia, scandalous acquisition of Yukos by RosNeft and its IPO, arms trade with Middle East states, the strengthening authoritarian regime of Putin... All these events seemed to affect Russia's image in the West quite negatively, not without help from the western media.

However, as a special New Year feature the Russian weekly Exile newspaper chose to look at the whole situation from a different angle. They see Russia at the forefront of the world's anti-globalist and anti-capitalism movements and all these events listed above are presented as achievements in Russia's "war" with the West. Quite an entertaining read and if you want to make sure that the article in not sponsored by Kremlin, you'll even find a small disclaimer at the bottom asking the Kremlin guys to send Exile staff some funds to their Jersey accounts.

Read at Exile's website: Exile - 29 Dec 2006 - 2006: The Year Russia Schooled The West

We have just been reviewing our stats for 2006 and realized an interesting detail: it may well be that almost every person traveling to Russia from USA, UK, Canada or Australia uses Way to Russia to plan the journey

Let's look at the numbers. About 1.4 Mln people visited Way to Russia site in 2006 and 789 000 of them are from USA, UK, Canada and Australia (data from Google Analytics and SpyLog).

At the same time, around 550 000 Americans, Britons, Canadians and Australians visited Russia in 2006 (projected data from GosKomStat).

So we decided to organize a contest for the best press-release regarding this fact and the prize will be a special 2007 present from Way to Russia team plus lots of appreciation. If you need more information (like stats), please, see our Business section or contact Dmitry Paranyushkin.

Thank You!

The new up-to-date section on how to travel to Russia by car is online. It has all the necessary information about driving to Russia, Russian car insurance, border formalities. There is also a special section for camper vans / motorhome owners. See our Transport / Driving to Russia section.



Photo by Sasha Reshetilov

Moscow is severely lacking in graffiti compared with other major European cities. This can probably be explained by a relatively young and small hip-hop culture and an overbearing police presence. Which makes this video quite unique. He's not the most talented graffiti artist around but some of the locations he hits are pretty brazen - Kamergersky Pereulok, Kuznetsky Most Ulitsa, both the inside and outside of a metro train and a street corner right opposite the Kremlin. The video's worth watching just for its sightseeing value. Shame about the music though...