Day 1

Russia means many things to many people, and most of them are, or at least were at some time, true. The largest country in the world, it crosses eleven time zones, and draws it’s 150 million inhabitants from hundreds of ethnic groups, yet the Russian character is a formidable thing. It prompted Churchill to remark “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”The history of Russia is as turbulent and bloody as it is facinating. It may have spent fourty years as America’s favourite foe, but it has been no stranger to conflict throughout it’s long history. Even now, with war in Chechnya still raging and economic changes coming at a furious pace, Russia has no time to relax.