Beautiful Moscow

Sergei Rozhkov, Galya Voronzova and me.

I haven't been back to Moscow in years. So i prepared myself psychologically for the normal problems at the airport; complicated customs agents, dark dirty airport, long lines and menacing passport control. I arrived in the new improved Moscow! A brand new Sheremetovo airport even smells new. Bright open spaces greet newcomers. My first big surprise was when the lady in uniform checking my passport smiled! Incredible! Now there is even a train which takes you directly from the airport to Bielorusskie train station in the center of Moscow.

I used to live near that train station so I first went on a nostalgic walk to see my old apartment. It was much the same, maybe cleaner, but there were many more cars parked in every available and non available space. Traffic is Moscow is horrible, but the metro is one of the best in the world. Trains run every three minutes.The stations are clean and could almost be an historical museum. In fact, one train IS a museum. At right, you can see the wagons painted and inside hang real artworks. And it is also used for transport. Culture is an integral part of Russian life. They all seem to know the classical painters and composers and now they even take their culture with them on the metro!

Things have changed so much here in 15 years that parts of Moscow are hard to even recognize. Life is still hard here for most, but has greatly improved for many. On Manezhny Ploshad, where I once filmed huge demonstrations, there is a huge underground mall with gardens and fountains topping it off. At left, a coffee house four floors underground where you can have a cappucino on a terrace in front of a roman fountain as the snow blows overhead in the beautiful minus 20 degree Russian winter.