Russia is a vast country rarely out of the news these days as it uses it's new found confidence and mineral wealth on the world stage. From the world class cities of Moscow and St Petersburg to the vast wilderness of Siberia there is much to see and do and the layers of this countries often tragic history are there to see from pre-revolutionary grandeur to soviet expressions of power through imposing architecture to the localised vibrancy of the post soviet period where a minority have become very, very wealthy.