Mercedes Benz, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Lotus, Range Rover, and the odd nineteen sixties Lada 1200. Can this really be Russia, it can if it’s Saint Petersburg.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s game changing economic reform and democratisation, “perestroika” and “glasnost”, certainly saved Russia from economic and social calamity. This is particularly noticeable in Russia’s show piece, Saint Petersburg. It’s taking time to repair the economic damage of  communist policies and cold war economic waste, county areas and industrial precincts still parade the scars of earlier times with antiquated farm machinery run down buildings and obsolete vehicles and these may never recover as more and more goods are imported.

Gorbachev -“We were well on the way to a civil war and I wanted to avoid that”.

Our reduced number of “Avstraiyet turisty” will, with the help of our “turisticheskiy gid” discover some of the revitalised “Sankt-Peterburg”. But that’s tomorrow.

This way to the museum.

Country bus.

City Building, The Admiralty.

The Watchful eye of the law.

Typical locals out for a stroll.

Hopefully not typical locals.

Au Pont Rouge, Art Nouveau Masterpiece.

Glasnost at work?