After the disintegration of the former USSR, Russia is still struggling to make itself a true free market economy. In the days of the Soviet Union, shortages and queues were the order of the day. Today, the shops are filled with merchandise from the west, but unfortunately the wage structure has not kept up with rising price lines. The result is that crime is on the upswing and mafia gangs rule the roost.

Notwithstanding the negative aspects of modern Russia, the country has lifted it "iron curtain" and visitors come to discover the hitherto hidden treasures of ancient Rossiya, the land of many hues. The historical Smolensk area, the changing expanse of Siberia, the breathtaking Baikal reserve, the snowy world of the Transurals, the precipices of the Caucasus and the fire breathing volcanoes of Kamchatka cover the diverse natural landscape of Russia.

Peter the Great, Pushkin, Lenin, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn,   Sergei Eisenstein, Leo Tolstoy, Yuri Gagarin, Svetlana Savitskaya, Anna Pavlova, Andrei Sakharov, Mikhail Gorbachev - the list of illustrious Russians is endless and their contribution to their nation immense.