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December 2020. Former police officer Grisha Dmitriev arrives in the Central African Republic with a small group of Russian instructors. Everything goes wrong from the start.

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In ‘Touriste’, heroic Russians save the Central African Republic. The truth is even stranger

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Neil Munshi

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

About half an hour into Touriste , an action movie set in the Central African Republic, the head of the army briefs the country’s president about an imminent rebel attack.

Benjamin Wagba, who plays the army chief, speaks for only 23 seconds. But the role changed his life. “It was such an experience!” he says of appearing in the biggest film ever produced in his country. Still, when I ask him to tell me more about the character he played, he turns skittish. “In the film, I was, I was . . . really, really, I’m touched,” he stammers, smiling broadly. “But, I don’t know, it’s just very complicated for me.”

Here is what Wagba does not — cannot — say: Touriste is a Russian propaganda movie that glorifies the deeds of the Wagner Group , the real-world private military organisation whose mercenaries have fought in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa. Western analysts and academics believe Wagner is an unofficial foreign policy tool of the Kremlin, its soldiers deploying to regions where Russia wants to extend its influence, defend existing interests or antagonise the west. The Kremlin denies this and does not acknowledge the existence of Wagner.

As Moscow has taken an increasingly aggressive stance towards Ukraine , the film — a YouTube version of which has 7.6 million views — offers a bizarre, mind-bending window into Russia’s shape-shifting influence in the world. The film rights are owned by Aurum, a company founded by the businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, whom the US and the EU accuse of financing Wagner. Prigozhin, a catering magnate and ally of President Vladimir Putin who is sometimes known as “Putin’s chef”, has long denied any connection to the group.

Touriste portrays Russian mercenaries as selfless heroes saving a poor African country. Its plot at times hews closely to reality (Russian fighters agree to train the CAR army and then battle alongside them against brutal rebel groups) while at others conveniently distorting it (the rebels alone are depicted doing things — indiscriminate killing, torture, bullying the UN — that the mercenaries themselves are accused of by the EU and human rights groups).

The existence of the film is all the more strange because it tells a story of military intervention that, officially, Russia and the CAR fiercely deny. When I interview the CAR prime minister Henri-Marie Dondra in his Bangui office, surrounded by a dozen aides and two camera crews, he tells me that there are no mercenaries in his country. “You are the one who is talking about private companies,” he says. “I have not seen any private companies with which the country has signed a contract.”

In late September 2021, I spend a week in the capital, Bangui. Diplomats, opposition politicians and foreign officials tell me the mercenaries have been waging a brutal campaign across the country alongside the CAR army, focusing on gaining control of its many diamond- and gold-rich areas and targeting the ethnic Fulani and Muslim population. I talk to some of Wagner’s alleged victims in the city’s Muslim quarter: men and women who’ve fled rape, torture and killings in every corner of the country. The most common refrain I hear about the mercenaries is: “They have no rules.” The accusations are well known, their presence is obvious but as one young activist put it, “There’s really a kind of grey fog around them.”

Wagba says he can’t talk about what he calls “the politics” of Touriste . Instead, as we sit on the terrace of a Bangui hotel, he tells me about the experience of making the film. He marvelled at the wardrobe department — “hundreds of military uniforms!” — and the scale of the production. “We only saw one camera in my scene; it was only after, when we saw the film, that we realised how many they had.”

Talking about the craft he has practised for two-thirds of his 45 years, Wagba is like a Shakespearean stage actor. Expressive and voluble, his voice is a rough growl that sometimes runs high and lonesome. Of his first role, at 15, playing a witch in a play by the CAR’s most celebrated writer, Etienne Goyemide, he says: “A baptism — a baptism of fire.” Each syllable lands like a hammer blow. “I was so young! I had no idea what I was getting into. But anywhere you go in Bangui, you ask, who is Benjamin Wagba? They will say, he’s a witch!”

On whether he has ever had a job outside acting: “Never, never, never!” He laughs like I am a lunatic and I feel like I might genuinely be one. “I can do theatre well, I do it well, well, super well . . . I also do cinema well, so well. Other than that, I don’t do anything.”

But he shrinks again when we get nearer the plot of Touriste . “The politics behind it, I tell you, I am really careful about that . . . I don’t think about that,” he says. “I think only about how the movie elevated me, [and how] it was given to the population.”

Touriste was in a way given to the CAR, a landlocked, impoverished country that has been enmeshed in civil war for almost two decades. Last May, the film’s Russian producers held a massive premiere at the national stadium in Bangui, attended by government ministers, 10,000 viewers, a representative of the Russian culture ministry and a number of men linked to Wagner. The movie, mainly shot in Russian, was dubbed into the local language, Sango.

It is essentially a 1980s-style action flick. The plot is typical of the patriotic fare churned out by parts of Russia’s film industry during Putin’s rule. A young Russian police officer signs up to fly to the CAR to train soldiers amid a bloody civil war. (The movie’s title derives from his call sign, Tourist). This much is based in reality. In 2018, Russia signed an agreement with the CAR to send unarmed instructors to train the local army, which has been fighting a rebellion since 2013. Officially, the governments say that 1,135 military instructors are now in the country. But analysts, diplomats, UN and humanitarian sources say there are actually up to 3,000 combat-ready mercenaries .

The movie takes place ahead of elections in December 2020 and depicts Russian instructors being asked to take up arms by a government overwhelmed in the face of a rebel assault on Bangui. Again, this is something that happened ahead of the real-world elections of December 2020, according to diplomats, foreign officials, security sources and opposition figures in Bangui. But it is also denied by both governments.

At one point in the movie, the Russians lay landmines, which the US has accused Wagner of doing in Libya. A Russian soldier tells a villager to keep children away — something real-world mercenaries have been specifically criticised for not doing. The movie depicts the 12,000-troop UN peacekeeping mission as feckless and useless; the French as conniving neocolonialists. (These criticisms were also made in propaganda that Facebook removed in December 2020 and linked to Prigozhin, who is under US sanctions for meddling in the 2016 presidential election through the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm.)

The level of warped verisimilitude — the winking nods to Wagner, the trollish side-eye the film casts on reality — is discombobulating. This is a war movie, filmed during an actual war. Scenes were shot at Berengo Palace, the Russian instructors’ real headquarters. A key moment takes place on the terrace of a Lebanese café where I saw a Russian mercenary buy a shawarma. The president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, is played by one of his relatives.

Does this convey the surreality of this movie? Does it adequately illustrate the funhouse mirror world of Bangui in the time of Wagner? There is a Voldemort quality to the Russian presence in the capital. They’re spoken of in hushed tones, particularly among humanitarians and diplomats, who drop their voices on the word — Russians — as though it might be cursed. At the same time, the mercenaries are everywhere I go in the city, recognisable by their flagless camo uniforms and the masks that hide the bottom half of their faces.

One day I meet a Koran teacher from Bambari who says Russian fighters had arrested him at morning prayers with 40 others, held him for a month, tortured him and stole his life savings. That same afternoon, I see a mercenary chat amiably with a saleswoman at an electronics store and then buy an oscillating pedestal fan. One morning a foreign official tells me the mercenaries were increasingly consolidating control around CAR’s mining areas. That night, I see the head of Lobaye Invest — a Wagner-linked mining company sanctioned by the US — drinking a glass of wine at the swanky M Bar and Restaurant. On the day I interview a woman who says she feared she might have HIV after being raped by three Russian fighters, I run into mercenaries at Bangui’s artisanal craft market, aggressively haggling over leather purses and kitschy handicrafts.

In December 2021, the EU sanctioned Wagner , three related entities and eight people, including Valery Zakharov, a former Russian state security agent who has served as an adviser to the CAR’s president. Wagner is “responsible for serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Mozambique, which include torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings”, the EU said. This followed a report by UN-appointed experts last March that accused Wagner mercenaries of gross human rights abuses in the CAR.

When the FT sent Prigozhin’s catering company questions about Wagner’s operations in the CAR, it forwarded the request to Alexander Ivanov, head of Russia’s “Officers Union for International Security” , which sent the military instructors to the CAR. Ivanov said in a written response that they operate “in accordance with the bilateral agreements between” the countries and were not involved in any fighting or commercial activity. Russia’s foreign ministry echoed the sentiments in a statement to the FT. Ivanov added, “The information contained in the latest UN reports on gross violations of human rights attributed to Russian instructors does not correspond to reality.”

The mercenaries’ entire presence is wrapped in layers of irony. The CAR government doesn’t acknowledge their existence, the Kremlin doesn’t acknowledge their existence , the people purportedly behind Wagner don’t acknowledge their existence. And then there’s the movie.

Like Wagba, Mac Armel Degoto got a call one day from a friend about auditions for a movie. He was cast as François Bozizé, t he former president leading the rebels to overthrow the government —the movie’s bad guy. “The Russians . . . they are pushing you to perfection,” he tells me. “I don’t even look like Bozizé, but they made me become Bozizé.”

The 35-year-old only spent a day on set, filming two short scenes. He was paid 20,000 CFA — about $35 — plus transport, an amount that still stings. But “for me, it was terrific. It’s what I always imagined”, he says. It was “a crazy thing . . . I was acting in a professional production, a real movie”.

Degoto joined the CAR’s first rap collective, Bongos Rap, at the age of 15. He still goes by his hip-hop sobriquet, Monsieur Melodie. He’s acted in a few productions, including two short films for the social security administration. Touriste was something else entirely. “The premiere was amazing. It was huge, it was such a great joy,” he says. “Kids come up to me in the market and say, ‘Bozizé, Bozizé, Bozizé, why don’t you give us some money?’ I say sure, I’m a star, but I’m a star who walks on two feet, who doesn’t have a car or even a motorcycle.”

I wonder whether he was scared to play Bozizé, CAR’s former dictator who has become a national villain for many. “No. I don’t really care about the political side. All I know is that I was playing a big role in a big movie and what impact that could have on my professional life.”

“My mom is worried,” he smiles wanly. “She asks me to avoid public places because there are people that really hate what I did . . . They will come up to me and say, ‘You are Bozizé.’ They say, ‘We know where you live, so watch out, we will find you.’”

Wagba gets it from the other side; Bozizé partisans threaten him. But he has risked his life for his craft before. Just before filming Touriste , he spent two months touring the country with a humorous sketch-show meant to educate people about the CAR’s Special Criminal Court . This entailed travelling into rebel territory to inform civilians and armed rebels about what they should do if their human rights were violated by the army or by mercenaries and how they themselves might be held accountable if they commit atrocities. “Almost everyone was hostile,” he says dryly. The reaction often involved a gun being pointed in his face.

Both Wagba and Degoto say that the constant threats meant they questioned whether making Touriste was ultimately worth it. The arc of my conversations with them mirrored the way that many Central Africans I met described their impression of the mercenaries. Initially, there was unbridled hope, then awe at their professionalism, followed by disappointment and, finally, horror.

Touriste played in Russia at 11.40pm on the state-controlled NTV network. It received little promotion and even less attention from audiences. The more I thought about it, the more the film seemed to have yet another layer of meaning. It was a metaphor for Russia’s presence in the CAR: something that meant relatively little to the Kremlin and its allies in terms of effort and investment but was everything to the Central Africans swept up in it.

On my sixth day in Bangui I go to the stadium where the premiere had been held four months before. Scores of faded Touriste posters are plastered on one section of the bleachers, along with a handful of peeling stickers that read “With the Support of Evgeny Prigozhin” in Sango above a heart-shaped Russian flag.

There is no cinema in Bangui, and the film had made a real splash. I noticed a number of people wearing Touriste T-shirts around town. Thousands had been handed out at the premiere. One young activist told me that in the weeks after, she saw children in the market playing Touriste the way they might play cops and robbers.

A few law students are studying in an upper section of the stadium, and I ask whether they’d seen the movie. Mustapha, a lanky 23-year-old, says he came to the premiere but walked out after 15 minutes, appalled by the violence. “They called so many people to come, so many young people,” he says. “You wouldn’t show it to your children, so why us? Why should we accept it?”

Mustapha, like many of the Muslims I spoke to, had relatives who’d been victims. His brother had been killed by mercenaries, he says, while travelling from Birau in the far north. He knew of Wagner’s reputation in other parts of the world. “In Syria, in Libya, where those men go in, there is no peace.” While the movie sickened him, he thought it was effective as propaganda. “So many people clapped!” he says. “We see them killing our brothers and we accept it. We clap for it!”

Still, as tales of atrocities have reached Bangui over the past year, the shine seemed to be fading. The movie itself even seemed to have done some damage to Russia’s reputation. Carl Michael Kikobet, vice-president of the country’s National Youth Council, had initially welcomed Moscow’s help. Then he saw Touriste .

“Now I refuse to even give my appreciation for the partnership with Russia,” he says, fingering a pendant in the shape of the CAR around his neck. “That movie portrayed our national army as cowards. It humiliated them.”

If the film in some ways failed as propaganda in the CAR, it’s not clear it succeeded back home either, says Jack Margolin, a programme director at Washington-based conflict analysis firm C4ADS. Margolin has a side interest in the Wagner subculture, which includes mercenary influencers and a number of other films. “It’s not clear who [it’s] made for,” he says. “ Touriste in particular is pretty inaccessible to a general Russian audience, given the level of detail it contains regarding the conflict in the CAR.”

The movie may have been a flop, but the producers made another. While I was in Bangui, a source saw a Russian crew filming at the defence ministry. The walls had been adorned with the flag of Mozambique, where Wagner was soundly defeated in a fight against jihadists in 2019. As the source put it, “It’s very confusing why they’d make a movie about a battle they lost.” In late December, the film in question, Granit , premiered on NTV, according to the Moscow Times.

Two months after I left Bangui, a friend sent me pictures of a new sculpture that had been erected near the stadium. It showed Russian and CAR soldiers defending a cowering woman and two small children. Similar monuments to Wagner have cropped up in Syria and Ukraine.

The other statues are mostly a single soldier with a child hugging his legs, but the Bangui version was more elaborate. When Margolin saw the statue, he noticed something else. The figures seemed to be based on Touriste . I took a closer look. One of the Russian soldiers looks just like a secondary character in the film. One of the CAR soldiers is a dead ringer for the main female character, who was played by the niece of an opposition leader. The statue was unveiled by the president himself.

Neil Munshi is the FT’s west Africa correspondent. Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Moscow

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Directed by Andrey Batov

Story of Russian military advisors in the Central African Republic.

Aleksei Shevchenkov Evgeny Terskikh Sergey Vorobyov Georgy Bolonev Aleksandr Baranovskiy Sergey Pavlov Vladimir Petrov

Director Director

Andrey Batov

Producer Producer

Sergey Scheglov

Editor Editor

Vladimir Bezzubchenko

Cinematography Cinematography

Edgar Zhamgaryan Dmitriy Arefev

Production Design Production Design

Daniil Kharchenko

Stunts Stunts

Sergey Pavlov

Composer Composer

Vitaly Mukanyaev

3xMedia Aurum Production Paritet

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

French Russian

Alternative Titles

遊客, Turista, 밀리터리 맨, Turysta, 政变旅客, Lados Opuestos

Releases by Date

19 may 2021, releases by country.

• Premiere 18+

99 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

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Beretta 84FS

The leader of Insurgency (Bian Venyu) holds a Beretta 84FS .

Glock Style Pistol

One of the Chadian mercenaries uses a pistol similar to a Glock . However, this gun is hammer-fired and differs in design from a real Glock. It is likely a gas pistol replica.

Unidentified Pistols

Antoine (Wilfred Williams) carries a pistol in a holster. It appears to be a SIG-Sauer P220 pistol series model.

Stechkin APS

Pamir (Sergey Garusov) carries a holstered Stechkin APS .

Several Russian contractors carry the Makarov PM in their holsters.

Browning Auto-5

One of the insurgents is armed with a sawed-off Browning Auto-5 with a stock.

Most of Russian contractors, known as "Tourists", are armed primarily with the AKM .

Zhenya (Yevgeniy Terskikh) is armed with an AKMS .

Some of the Russian contractors are armed with AKS-74Us .

One of the Russian contractors is armed with a AS Val .

Norinco Type 56 Variants

Insurgents and Central African Republic government soldiers are armed primarily with Norinco Type 56 variant rifles.

One of the insurgents is armed with a Vektor R4 .

M4A1 Carbine

A bodyguard and one of the UN soldiers is armed with an M4 Carbine .

VSS Vintorez

One of the Russian contractors is armed with a VSS Vintorez .

Machine Guns

"Tourists", government forces, and insurgents all use the PKMs .

One of the "Tourists" is armed with an RPK .

Insurgents and government soldiers are armed with DShKM heavy machine guns.

A W-85 is seen on a technical.

The KPVT Heavy Machine Gun is seen mounted on the armored truck.

Type 69 RPG

The Type 69 RPG is used by insurgents.

F-1 hand grenade

An F1 hand grenade is sen on the corpse of killed government soldier.

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15 Best Places to Visit in Russia

Written by Diana Bocco Updated Mar 21, 2024

The largest country in the world really has it all–mountains, valleys, frozen lands, and warm sands, and an incredible number of amazing natural destinations to impress any visitor.

Some of the oldest cities in Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg , still retain their imperial splendor–obvious not only in their architecture but also in their majestic parks, shopping centers, and even metro stations.

Other cities and regions–including far-away destinations in Siberia and the Far East –offer a chance to explore things like the stunning beauty of the tundra and the Northern Lights , volcanoes, and more skiing than you could ever dream of.

From striking gilded palaces to vast natural spaces, take a look at our list of the best places to visit in Russia.

Lake Baikal

St. peterburg, the russian tundra, olkhon island, petropavlovsk-kamchatsky, vladivostok, novosibirsk, the taiga forest, kizhi island, best time to visit russia.

When it comes to breaking records, Lake Baikal is hard to beat. This massive high-altitude rift lake in Siberia is the oldest and deepest lake in the world –reaching a maximum depth of 1,642 meters and an estimated 25 million years of age. Baikal is also the largest freshwater lake in the world–over 20 percent of the world's freshwater is in this lake.

Although Lake Baikal is considered one of the clearest lakes in the world , this is particularly noticeable in winter, where, in some areas, it's possible to see up to 40 meters down into the water–even though much of the lake's surface freezes over for up to five months of the year.

For about a month around August, the lake's water temperature can reach around 16 degrees Celsius, making it suitable for quick dips or short swims. During the rest of the year, however, it usually stays under five degrees Celsius.

In summer, Lake Baikal is a famous destination for kayaking, boat cruises, and island hopping to discover shorelines and beaches. In winter, when the lake freezes over, visitors can cross-country ski across sections of it and visit the frozen Tazheran Steppes caves.

Since most international flights arrive or at least stop in Moscow, it's worth planning your trip so you at least have a few hours to explore the city . Russia's capital is a magnificent mix of greenery, stunning architecture, and lots of historical reminders of times gone by.

Visitors to Moscow usually start exploring in the center, where the Kremlin , Red Square , and the colorful St. Basil's Cathedral are located. The shopping mall GUM , with its glass and steel roof, is also a popular destination–even for tourists who can't afford the luxury brands sold here–and a great place to try authentic Russian food.

Even if museums are not exactly your thing, Moscow has some amazing options worth visiting, including The State Tretyakov Gallery (which houses only Russian art); the Pushkin Museum (for more international collections); and the Kremlin Armory Museum for a look into some unique items, such as the ivory throne of Ivan the Terrible and gold-covered imperial carriages.

The Bolshoi Theater , one of the largest ballet and opera theaters in the world, is also worth a visit if you can get tickets.

Some of the best things in Moscow require some walking to be properly explored, such as the pedestrian-only shopping street Stary Arbat and the boardwalk along the River Moskva.

Moscow's Metro stations are works of art in themselves, decorated with porcelain relief, crystal chandeliers, and unique mosaic artworks that make these places basically look like subterranean palaces. Mayakovskaya metro station, with its ceiling mosaics and pink rhodonite columns, and Kiyevskaya station, filled with white marble, frescoes and elaborate artworks, are two of the most stunning ones to visit.

Although smaller than Moscow, St. Petersburg actually has so much to offer, it's often impossible to see it all in one day. Compared to Moscow, St. Petersburg feels more European–fine art and exquisite design details mixing in with history around every corner. You can explore it on foot to admire the architecture up close and personal, or hop on a cruise to explore part of the 300 kilometers of canals that cut through the imperial city.

For a stunning overdose of white and gold colors, visit Moika Palace (most famous for being the place where Rasputin was killed) and the Neoclassical, 19th-century St. Isaac's Cathedral , which is actually a Russian Orthodox museum.

The Hermitage Museum , perhaps St. Petersburg's most famous tourist attraction and the second largest art and culture museum in the world , has a collection of over three million items that cover everything from prehistoric art (including articles from the nomadic tribes in Altai) to Catherine the Great's art collection.

About 25 kilometers outside of St. Petersburg, and more than worth the day trip, is Peterhof Palace . Built in the early 1700s as a summer residence for Peter the Great, it greatly resembles the Palace of Versailles in France.

• Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in St. Petersburg

The Altay Mountains in Siberia extend from Russia into China , Kazakhstan , and Mongolia . Traditionally inhabited by different ethnic groups involved in horse husbandry and forestry, it is also a very popular tourist destination for both locals and travelers. Together with a number of natural reserves and lakes, the Altay Mountains are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

There's a lot of untouched beauty in Altay, where frozen rivers and snowcapped mountains attract cross-country skiers and other outdoor lovers in winter, as well as hikers (the area around Aktru Glacier is especially popular for trekking), kayakers, and climbers in summer. More unusual activities, including diving, cave exploring, and herb and mushroom picking, can also be pursued here.

The Denisova Cave in Siberia is particularly significant because of the bone fragments, artifacts, and even prehistoric horses that have been here–some dating back 50,000 years.

The resort town of Belokurikha is a popular starting point for Altay adventures, and many tourism agencies offer organized trips from here.

A summer beach resort town sitting right on the Black Sea , Sochi offers long stretches of pebble and sand beaches, imposing examples of Stalinist architecture, a summer film festival known as Kinotavr, and plenty of spas and outdoor markets to please all budgets and tastes. The longest river in Russia, Mzymta, cuts through Sochi before it empties into the Black Sea, and it's a very popular destination for rafting .

The 3000-square-kilometer Caucasian State Nature Biosphere Reserve , just 50 kilometers from Sochi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to a number of unique species of flora and fauna, including the endangered Persian leopard.

The nearby Rosa Khutor ski resort is another favorite destination during winter and a world-class alpine skiing area –the 2014 Winter Olympic Games were hosted here.

The tundra is a unique biome that only exists in or near the Arctic Circle . Here, temperatures are so cold that trees can't grow, and only moss, shrubs, and certain types of grasses can get through the winter. In most places, the tundra is synonymous with permafrost–meaning the ground is permanently frozen. In areas where the top layer of ground does melt during summer, marshes, and streams will form over the land, leading to beautiful patches of colorful icy water.

The Russian tundra is home to polar bears, seals, gray wolves, and rich birdlife during nesting season. Over the past few decades, ecotourism has become more and more interested in the tundra areas, especially the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve near Krasnoyarsk Krai, where visitors can take a number of environmental routes to explore, try bird-watching, or visit as part of an educational tour.

The city of Murmansk , in the Kola Peninsula, not only offers incredible tundra views, but it's also a great place to catch a tour to see the Northern Lights .

Peterhof might be home to a university and a major Russian watch manufacturer, but this relatively small city's call to fame is the Peterhof Palace . Originally designed and built in the early 1700s for Tsar Peter the Great in a style that resembles the Palace of Versailles, the palace grounds cover an area of almost 4000 hectares.

There are 173 garden fountains around the palace–some, like the Grand Cascade fountains , with special features that activate water jets when people get close. The lower gardens, designed in French formal style, offer marble statues, shaded walking paths, and even an aviary pavilion.

The Grand Palace itself is a masterpiece of architecture, with majestic colors (there are gold details everywhere), art imported from Asia and the Far East, walls covered in authentic Chinese silk, and a massive ballroom covered in gilded carvings. The palace contains 10 separate museums, which hold art, furniture, and palace items from the 18 th century.

One of the world's largest lake islands , Olkhon is covered in steep mountains, lush forests, and taiga. The island is in Eastern Siberia and has a small permanent population that consists mostly of local Buryats, a Mongolic indigenous group who believes the island to be a powerful spiritual place.

Tourism has become a growing industry on Olkhon Island, with visitors coming over to explore places such as the coastal sand dunes and the abandoned Peschanaya Village and former Soviet labor camp nearby.

This area is also famous for its "walking trees," an unusual phenomenon that causes strong winds to uncover tree roots on the beach and gives them the appearance of a standing person.

There are several semi-urban settlements on the island, with Khuzir being the largest and the one offering homestays for visitors who want to stay over. The village also houses the small but interesting National History Museum of Revyakin , which chronicles life on the island as far back as Neolithic times .

Located in the Russian Far East, the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is surrounded by volcanoes (including the active, snowcapped Koryakskaya Sopka volcano) and cannot be reached by road–in fact, the only way to get into the city is to fly in.

Those who take on the challenge and get here, however, will discover an active city center with tons of monuments, squares, and churches. The city lies right against Avacha Bay, a great place for a waterside stroll and to catch a whale watching tour .

Tours to the volcanoes should be at the top of your list if you visit here, but skiing on Krasnaya Sopka mountain and a visit to the world's only Museum of Salmon are also must-dos.

The small but unique Vulcanarium Museum here offers a unique insight into the world of volcanoes and probably your only chance ever to touch lava.

Located near the borders with China and North Korea and just across the ocean from Japan, Vladivostok is Russia's largest port city. A major stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway route, the city was actually off-limits to foreigners during Soviet Union times and now receives lots of foreign visitors eager to discover it.

The city is home to many parks and public spaces, including Sportivnaya Harbor with its beautiful beach and promenade, and the Eagle's Nest viewpoint at the top of a hill.

Vladivostok's Russky Bridge is a stunning architectural marvel and the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world at 1,885 meters. The bridge connects Vladivostok to Russky Island, where visitors will find Philippovsky Bay and its beautiful sandy beaches , as well as Voroshilov Battery, a military museum.

History buffs will appreciate a chance to explore the WWII C-56 Submarine or visit the Museum Vladivostok Fortress , originally built to protect the city against potential attacks from Japan.

Anapa–perfectly located against the Black Sea and a very popular resort destination for decades–is well known for its sandy beaches, spas, and stunning views from the rocky promontory where Anapa's lighthouse sits. A somewhat more modest destination than Sochi, Anapa also offers plenty of other things to keep visitors entertained besides coastal attractions.

Places worth exploring include The Anapa Archaeological Museum and the single remaining gate of an Ottoman fort that once occupied this area. There's also the archaeological site of Gorgippia, which dates back to the 6th century BCE and was once a busy maritime trade port.

Both the Sukko Valley and the Wildlife Preserve of Bolshoy Utrish are just minutes away from the city and offer plenty of options to explore nature, swim in clear waters, and take to the trails for some trekking.

Located on the banks of the Ob River, Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia and the unofficial capital of Siberia –a place where summers are hot enough to swim and sunbathe (Novosibirk has its own man-made beach on the shores of a reservoir), and the winters have temperatures that can reach -45 degrees Celsius.

Home to the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater , a number of universities, and several museums, the city has much to offer visitors. The outdoor Museum for Railway Technology is particularly interesting, as it features many diesel and steam locomotives, electric trains, snowplows, and a number of unusual carriages, such as tank cars, hospital and prison cars, and even fire engines.

The Novosibirsk Trans-Siberian railway station is one of the largest ones in the country and it was once at the epicenter of the transport of prisoners to gulags (Soviet forced labor camps). Today, it is the main departing point for train adventures to nearby cities, including the town of Berdsk , on the shores of the Ob Sea–which is actually a man-made reservoir, not an actual sea.

The Russian taiga is a unique ecoregion that sits between the frozen tundra in the North and the more temperate mixed forests in the South. It's essentially a type of boreal forest where only coniferous trees like pines, spruces, and larches grow.

Parts of Alaska and Canada are covered in Taiga, too, but the Russian taiga brings a level of isolated beauty you won't find anywhere else. Here, temperatures can reach as low as -20 degrees Celsius, though the Siberian taiga can easily see nights of -50°C during the coldest months. In the north of the country, the taiga experiences the midnight sun in summer and polar night in winter.

The heart of the taiga is north of Irkutsk city, where dogsledding, snowshoeing, and the northern lights are waiting for you. Extreme tour operations take visitors to the area to spend days outdoors before warming up in a steam bath inside a wooden cabin, a local tradition.

Vodlozersky National Park falls within the Russian taiga. It covers over 4,000 square kilometers and is a popular destination for white water rafting and bird-watching. The park can only be reached via a countryside road from the town of Pudozh, 352 kilometers away. Once at the park, your only connection with civilization is the village of Kuganavolok , which has 500 permanent residents.

The tiny settlement of Dargavs, better known as "the city of the dead," has just over 150 permanent living residents – and at least just as many dead ones. Located near the Georgian border and only reachable after a remote and difficult one-hour drive, this tiny village is famous for its ancient cemetery.

Legend goes, the unusual cemetery – which consists of small stone buildings with serrated roofs sitting on a hill – was created in the 18th century as the final resting place for plague victims. Once infected, families would move into these "homes" with food and some personal items and stay there until (and after) their deaths. Today, visitors arrive here from all over the world to see the eerie but beautiful sight.

The closest major city is Vladikavkaz, an industrial town with plenty of cultural and historical sights that's also worth a visit.

Located in Lake Onega in northwestern Russia, this tiny, six-kilometer-long island has been inhabited since at least the 15th century.

The island's most famous sight is the Kizhi Pogost, an open-air museum with over 80 ancient wooden structures. The two 18th-century churches are especially stunning and have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . They're also considered one of the most amazing and tallest wooden structures in Europe.

The main church is home to 22 silver domes (the tallest one being 37 meters) and a massive wooden altar, as well as 102 icons that decorate its walls. It was built using no nails and, legend goes, using only one axe. There is no other wooden structure in Russia built in a similar style.

To reach the island, visitors must take a picturesque ferry from the nearby city of Petrozavodsk. During summer, cruises take visitors around the lake before stopping at the island.

The best time to visit Russia depends on many factors: where you're going within the massive country, what you plan on doing when you land (hiking around Lake Baikal or touring museums in Moscow?) and just how willing you are to experience extreme weather.

If you're after savings, November and early Spring (especially March) are the cheaper months , but both are rainy and on the chilly side, with November feeling more like winter than fall.

Summer months are the most expensive months to arrive in Russia, when hotels are fully booked and flight prices skyrocket. Summer also means very hot temperatures, big crowds, and long lines to access museums or to catch a boat to tour the St. Petersburg canals.

If you plan on spending time outdoors, early fall is usually better than summer . Places like the Golden Ring (an area that extends north-east of Moscow) and Lake Baikal and the Ural Mountains are stunning in the fall, as the trees change color and a red hue takes over the entire region.

Most of the mountain trails are open in Autumn and the weather is perfect for long hikes. Lake Baikal is equally beautiful in winter, and the water looks a deep navy blue under the frozen surface, offering an incredible opportunity to skate right over the world's largest freshwater lake.