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Russia’s growing high-speed rail network poses threat to domestic airlines
DestinationsWhile transportation remains one of the biggest issues for Russia, the country is trying to add speed to its trains, the most beloved way of travelling for most Russians. A high-speed railway connecting Moscow with the Urals is the latest initiative. The first high speed railway project between Moscow and Saint Petersburg is now being [...]
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Cost of failure at Russian Winter Olympics? Putin may poison you
DestinationsA former Olympic official who fled Russia after President Vladimir Putin criticised him for cost overruns before the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi claims he has been poisoned. Akhmed Bilalov, fired as deputy head of the Russian Olympic Committee in February, said on Saturday that doctors had discovered elevated mercury levels in his blood. He [...]
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Russia wants to ban Tajik passenger trains from entering the country
DestinationsRussian officials threatened to ban trains entering Russia from Tajikistan on Monday, complaining that sleeper trains heading to Moscow from the Central Asian country were unacceptably dirty and posed a health risk. The border service also expressed concerns over rampant drug smuggling. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, after inspecting a train, said that “this train [...]
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Russian billionaire invests in Olympic ski resorts with an eye on tourism
DestinationsVisitors to Krasnaya Polyana, a skiing area in southern Russia that will host the Sochi Winter Olympics next year, could be forgiven for feeling like they’ve been stranded in a building site. While contractors race against time to complete the Olympic facilities, the clang of metal resounds and dust swirls around the muddy terrain as [...]
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Complicated Russian visa process means European numbers drop dramatically
DestinationsA significant drop in the number of incoming tourists in Russia has been recorded. Last year, the number of tourists from Europe declined by 10 to 30 percent…and this year will decrease by 50%. Tour operators..[say] decline in the number of French tourists of 8%, of Spanish tourists of 30%, of Estonian and Italian tourists [...]
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Russian meteor city now going for a tourism push
DestinationsOfficials in the Russian city where a meteor fell last month now hope to attract tourists to the area. The 10,000-ton meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere producing a sonic boom. It shattered into pieces between 18 and 32 miles above Chelyabinsk, to the east of the Ural Mountains in southern Russia. Debris fell on the [...]
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Smokers have one less paradise as Russia pushes more smoking bans
DestinationsSmoking is a ubiquitous Russian habit. Long after much of Europe lost interest, Russians have continued their unhealthy love affair with cigarettes. In restaurants, bars, outside the Bolshoi theatre, and beneath the ornate porticos of Moscow’s metro stations, Russians still light up. But now President Putin – the country’s bare-chested paragon of clean living – [...]
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The Russian tourism invasion of Cyprus brings out big money & scrutiny
DestinationsIn the seaside Cypriot town of Limassol, an image of the Kremlin’s onion domes adorns the doors of a local mini-market, Ferraris stand ready for hire by wealthy Russians and shops selling mink coats line streets drenched in warm Mediterranean sunshine. Home to over 30,000 Russians who began flocking to Cyprus after the Soviet Union’s [...]
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Russia’s $50 billion Winter Olympic: The oligarchs get restless
DestinationsAbove the Black Sea city of Sochi, one of Russia’s richest men is spending billions of rubles to turn a patch of mountainside into a global showpiece. Metals magnate Vladimir Potanin has paid for new buildings, new lifts and hundreds of snow canons in the hope of transforming slopes not far from sub-tropical Sochi into [...]
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DreamWorks licenses Shrek and Kung Fu Panda to Russian theme park
DestinationsDreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. says it is licensing its characters to a developer of theme parks in Russia. The Regions Group of Companies plans to open parks in St. Petersburg, Moscow and the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in 2015. DreamWorks said Friday that the parks will be Europe’s largest year-round indoor entertainment zones. The [...]
