Russia with Simon Reeve (2017) s01e03 Episode Script

1
I'm just starting the third
and the final leg
of my journey across Russia.
But I'm actually in the neighbouring
country of Ukraine and that's
because I'm heading to one of
the most bitterly contested regions
on the planet.
I'm on my way to Crimea.
No country in the world, really,
apart from Russia,
recognises this as a border.
The international community see this
annexation as an illegal occupation
of Ukrainian land.
Seizing Crimea has led to conflict
between Russia and Ukraine.
It's led to Russia being
internationally isolated.
I had to come.
This final leg of my journey across
Russia takes me from Ukraine's
Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea,
across western Russia's vast plains
to my final destination,
glorious St Petersburg.
ALL: Aaaaah.
100 years on from the Russian
Revolution
What on earth goes on in here?
I'll meet the Russians living
a simpler life in the wilds.
This is like stepping
back a century.
I'll discover what happens
when you speak out in Russia.
A Russia once again
taking on the West.
And I'll meet the tough blokes
fighting for what they say are
traditional Russian values.
I think I'm going to puke.
Wow! It's this sort of spectacular
view that makes Crimea such
a special place, such an attractive
destination for many Russians.
In 2014, after revolution in Ukraine
moved the country closer to
Europe, Russian special forces
seized government buildings
in Crimea.
Russia simply took over,
then organised a questionable
referendum on who should govern.
Alexander.
Crimea's home to nearly
two million people.
Like my boat skipper Alexander
Bykov, most are ethnic Russians,
and they voted overwhelmingly
for rule by Russia.
Many here like to point out,
correctly, that Crimea was ruled by
Russia for centuries. It only
became Ukrainian during the time
of the Soviet Union.
Look at the size of this!
I've got a chesty cough
and some other minor ailment,
so it's quite helpful
I'm staying in a sanatorium.
There are dozens of sanatoriums,
or health resorts,
along Crimea's Black Sea coast.
They date back to Soviet times, and
they've long been a major draw for
Russian holiday-makers.
Thank you kindly.
Looks very nice.
I don't know about you, when I hear
"sanatorium"
(HE SUCKS IN BREATH THROUGH TEETH)
it doesn't sound like a great
word, sounds very Soviet,
sounds like punishment is involved.
Makes me think of
medical conditions,
purging and enemas.
It's like Chinese whispers here,
cos I can't actually see
the girl doing it, so I'm basing it
on what other people around me
are doing.
ALL: Aaaaaaaah.
It's time for me to see the doctor.
Doctor.
(HE LAUGHS)
Good morning. I had an appointment
with Dr Vadim Danilov.
Uh, doctor? Let's go. Go, go.
What's going on in this room?
Can we see in there, doctor?
After annexation,
tourist numbers dropped, so the
Russian government has started
encouraging civil servants and
pensioners to come here on
subsidised health breaks.
Goodness me!
(LAUGHTER)
Zdravstvuyte. Zdravstvuyte.
I'd shake your hand, but
What is going on here?
What are you inside?
You have existing conditions and
you really feel that they're treated
by this, by the plastic bath?
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
That's a yes? Da.
(LAUGHTER)
Were you more or less keen on coming
to Crimea since the annexation?
What on earth goes on in here?
Some lady who's just come out
shaking her head.
OK.
I was intrigued and slightly nervous
to discover how 80-year-old.
Dr Lydia Yegorova was planning
on treating my cough.
Whoa! Oh, my goodness.
Bloody hell!
What do you mean, "relax"?
You're about to put blood-sucking
creatures on me,
how am I supposed to relax?!
Oh, my God!
Yeah, it's biting, yeah.
Is this really necessary?
Have you not got
some small plasters?
Listen, I'm happy with a plaster!
President Putin grandly says
he annexed Crimea
to protect ethnic Russians.
It might actually have more to do
with oil and gas reserves
in the Black Sea. Either way, the UN
has condemned Russia's actions.
Look at this. Can we just,
can we stop for a moment?
Not that President Putin,
the all-powerful Russian tsar,
cares what the world thinks.
This is a very bold statement of
ownership and involvement from
President Putin.
So it says that Crimea has always
been famous as a resort, basically,
and, "Of course
we will develop it further."
It's basically promising there's
going to be a tourism boom here.
Tourism is already important here,
but it's now central to Putin's
vision for a successful, new
Crimea under his rule.
I headed to one of Crimea's
more surprising attractions -
the Taigan Safari Park.
It's all the dream of one man
with a somewhat relaxed approach
to health and safety.
(HE GROWLS SOFTLY)
So this is Oleg,
he owns and runs the park,
obviously in a very
hands-on sort of way.
(LIONS SNARL)
This bloke is completely mad.
Hello, Oleg. Hello, hello.
All right, we're off.
This is a tourist attraction,
but also a sanctuary.
Many of Oleg's animals have been
rescued from people's homes.
Are you seriously telling me
there are tiger cubs
for sale on the internet?
That's absolutely incredible!
$6,000, so that's about £5,000,
you can buy yourself a tiger cub.
That's unbelievable.
(OLEG CHUCKLES)
Yeah.
Please, come, please.
(TIGER CUB SNARLS)
Against the odds,
Oleg's park has become a successful
breeding centre for Russia's
Amur tiger, whose habitat I found
under threat earlier on my journey.
How are you, how are you
producing so many cubs?
It's very rare, isn't it?
Oleg is a patriot.
He was born in Russia and
enthusiastically supported and voted
for Crimea to be governed by Moscow,
but now he's having doubts.
So, Oleg, we're following
your water truck, I think.
What's going on? Where are we,
where are we following it to?
With the critical water supply
from Ukraine cut off,
Oleg now has to transport water to
his park from a local reservoir.
Isn't this something that should've
been thought about
before Russian annexation?
Much of Crimea is arid, and most
of its water comes from Ukraine.
Without it, reservoirs here
are drying up.
Wells are being dug hundreds of feet
deep, but they're running out of
water. Some experts think Crimeans
will need to be resettled.
They warn of a humanitarian crisis.
Just stopped by the side of the road
because I wanted to show you this.
It's a quite extraordinary sight,
really. This is a canal that should
be flowing with water from Ukraine
down into Crimea, but because of
the conflict, because of
the annexation by Russia,
Ukraine has turned off the taps.
It's dammed the waters that flow
down it and dried up the canal.
This is an artery, this is a
lifeline bringing water into Crimea.
And without it,
Crimea is in enormous trouble!
Russia wanted Crimea, and Crimea
in many cases wanted Russia.
But the people of Crimea may find
they have a very heavy price to pay.
Ruling Crimea isn't going as
smoothly as Putin might have us
believe. Corruption is rife, and
minority groups here have accused
Russia of human rights abuses,
and Putin has had to pledge
vast sums to develop Crimea.
Crimea is now almost completely cut
off from Ukraine and it doesn't
have a direct connection with
Russia,
but President Putin
has a plan to change that.
Come on, then.
Let's go and have a look.
Oh, bloody hell, look at that!
Oh, my!
So that is Russia over in the
distance, over there, and then
the bridge, look,
it's like a giant steel cable,
anchoring Crimea and Russia
together!
This is one of the most politically
symbolic constructions that is
underway anywhere
in the world at the moment.
It's a really solid concrete and
steel statement that Crimea is
connected to Russia,
and Russia is here to stay.
The German army and the Soviet army
both tried to build a bridge between
Crimea and Russia.
President Putin says
he's determined to succeed,
that it's a historic mission.
It's certainly costly.
This build has swallowed a huge
chunk of Russia's
national transport budget.
The fact this bridge is being built
is just extraordinary, but who is
building it is really interesting.
It's a firm run by President Putin's
childhood judo sparring partner,
his old mate.
That's Putin's Russia for you.
Power and wealth are
the gift of the tsar.
It was time for me to leave Crimea
and get back on the road in Russia.
The next stage of my journey took me
to Russia's European heartlands,
north of the Ukrainian border.
When Ukraine turned decisively
towards Europe in 2014,
Russia didn't just annex Crimea,
President Putin encouraged,
perhaps orchestrated,
an armed uprising in the east of
Ukraine which became a war that has
cost more than 10,000 lives.
Geography can help us
to understand what happened.
This is the vast, flat European
plain across which mighty armies
have invaded Russia, including
the French under Napoleon,
the Germans under Hitler,
and even the Swedes.
Let's have a look at this map.
I think this gives a sense of why
geography is so critical.
So the European plain
is almost all of western Russia,
almost 2,000 miles
from north to south.
There are no mountain ranges here
that act as a natural barrier
against invasion.
It is very hard for Russia
to defend its western border.
But as the plain spreads across
northern Europe over to here,
it narrows.
Here it's bounded in the north by
the Baltic Sea and in the south by
the Carpathian Mountains.
This is a gap that can be plugged.
Armies can be stopped here
if there are pro-Russian
governments in power
in the countries
to the west of Moscow,
particularly in Ukraine.
If there's a pro-Russian government
in power in Ukraine,
massive Ukraine,
Russia can feel safe.
That's not to excuse
what's happened.
Russian efforts to destabilise
neighbouring countries
are causing deep alarm.
America and the EU imposed heavy
sanctions on Russia and Russia
responded by banning many imports
from the West, including of food.
Most observers think this is all
a bit of a disaster for Russia's
relationship with the West but some
farmers here sense an opportunity.
So this, I presume the bloke
on the right there is Vladimir.
Vladimir. Bonjour.
Bonjour! Parlez Francais?
No, no, no.
(SIMON LAUGHS)
We'll drive in. OK, thank you.
Merci.
Vladimir Borev is a farmer,
a former journalist, and a bit of
a character, with a passion
for all things French.
Who-o-o-oa! What a view.
Here. Oh, look!
This is my Your goats!
What a glorious scene
this is, Vladimir.
(HE GRUNTS)
You go bareback.
You want me to get on with you?
All right.
Jonathan, you know how you
Can I use your knee?
Thank you, mate. All right.
I think I might have to get off.
My back O-o-oh!
Russia's oil wealth means other
industries have been out of favour
in recent decades. Farming has been
in decline and Russians have bought
foreign food. Ironically Western
sanctions seem to have given farms
like this a huge boost.
Come on goaties, come on.
Come on,
you don't want to get left out.
Come on. Come on, you're all right.
President Putin has said he wants
Russia to be self-sufficient in food
by 2020, I think.
Do you think it's possible?
Vladimir might be happy with
sanctions, but they've caused hefty
price rises for most Russians.
This is a cheese house. Wow!
Are you busting sanctions here?
It's a very clever way of getting
round the European Union stopping
you buying French cheese.
Simon, come on.
This is a this is a cheese.
This is a liquid cheese.
Liquid cheese?
What? Liquid cheese?!
Oh, you old temptress, you.
Thank you.
Mmmm!
O-o-oh!
Have you made alcohol from cheese?
Yes. That's just either genius
or mad, perhaps both.
I can see from all your pictures
you're obviously very interested in
Russia's Imperial Tsarist past.
Do you think Russia
needs a strong leader?
So, does the growing gulf or divide
between Europe and Russia,
does it It must upset you.
Has Russia done nothing wrong?
Cheers, sir.
Bloody hell. A bit rammed.
I think it's conscripts who are
heading off on the train.
OK, let's go to Moscow.
17 and 19, and that is here,
here we are.
(HE YAWNS)
That's very kind. Spasibo.
Is this what you're going
to survive on overnight?
(THEY LAUGH)
The journey to Moscow was short
by Russian standards,
just ten hours by rail.
Remember, this country is
a whopping 5,500 miles wide.
I think I might be slightly
too long for this bed,
my feet are halfway
into the passageway.
Goodnight.
I was heading north on the final
part of my journey, through
the night, to the heart of
power in Russia.
It's 6:10 and we're just
pulling into the station.
Now we've just stopped
in Moscow.
I'd never been to Moscow before.
It was more beautiful
than I'd imagined.
The sense of power,
absolute power, was tangible.
We hear a lot about the wealth
of Russia and some Russians.
In reality it's
in the hands of a few,
as is the power and the privilege.
(HE LAUGHS)
Today, Moscow is a megacity,
home to 12 million people.
Its infamous traffic is
a symptom of rapid growth.
Not that everyone needs
to be stuck in a jam.
What's this lane in
the middle of the road here?
You need to be close
to the pinnacle of power.
Who's that, then?
Is that somebody very important?
I was leaving
the congested centre of Moscow.
I wanted to see where
most people here actually live.
It's interesting, actually. This is
the sort of housing where so many
Muscovites live,
these massive apartment blocks.
There's also still a lot of people
living in this type as well.
These are known as Khrushchevkas,
and they're named after the former
leader of the Soviet Union,
Nikita Khrushchev,
who first announced in the 1950s
that the Soviet Union was going to
begin a programme of housing
construction, the like of which has
never been seen before.
For many Soviet families,
many Russian families,
these Khrushchevkas
were their first family home.
And, as a result, many Soviet
families, many Russian families,
have very warm memories
of these apartment blocks.
(DOORBELL RINGS)
Natalia, hello! Simon, hello.
Hello. Hello, zdravstvuyte,
lovely to meet you.
Can we come in? Yes, yes.
Natalia Budkevich works
at a state-run theatre.
So sweet. Look at that. Come.
What a lovely place you've got.
You've got a grand piano in here!
Yeah, yeah, I've got it.
Every little bit of it has
memories and meaning to you.
The government has passed
legislation to demolish more than
half of Moscow's Khrushchevkas.
A population equivalent to
San Francisco will be relocated to
brand-new high-rise apartments.
The world's biggest demolition order
was signed by the president,
with little public discussion,
at a stroke of a pen.
Natalia has no grounds to appeal.
I wanted to see what happened to
Natalia when she tried to protest
against her eviction.
That's you. Yeah, it's me.
So you were standing,
protesting, on your own or
with a couple of other people?
No, just on my own.
Just on your own?
Oh, my God!
It sounds like you
feel quite powerless.
The authorities here say
they are trying to replace
substandard housing.
Opponents think it's all
a money-making exercise
for the government and property
developers who are given
the lucrative contracts.
The demolition plan helped inspire
a new wave of protests, with huge
numbers of Russians taking to
the streets in anti-corruption
demonstrations.
Many have been arrested.
Russian law requires protests by
more than one person to have state
approval. Natalia insists she was
demonstrating alone, and she invited
me to her first appearance
in a Russian court.
(THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN)
Yeah, that's it, that's it.
Good luck.
Well, that was very odd.
We were allowed to film in
the courtroom, but only for about
a minute, and then we had to get
the camera out. The judge came in,
the case lasted about ten minutes,
and now I'm just waiting for Natalia
to come out and
tell me what's happened.
Fingers crossed for her.
The odds on anyone getting
an acquittal in a Russian court
are slim. Russian courts
have a 99% conviction rate.
Are you OK? Yeah, I'm OK.
Is this your first experience
of that side of life here?
It's Russia, it's hard-core, you know?
(SHE LAUGHS)
Really hope it goes OK. Good luck.
Thank you. See you. See you.
Bye-bye. Good luck. Bye. Bye-bye.
There's long been some
sort of unspoken agreement
here between President Putin
and the Russian people.
It goes something like, "I will
give you jobs, a bit of money",
you'll have a chance to buy stuff
and occasionally take
a foreign holiday,
but don't question my power."
(THUNDER)
That agreement is now
starting to break down.
Russians are saying, "We've had
enough of being treated like sheep.
We want to know where Russia's
wealth is going."
(THUNDER)
You can probably hear the thunder.
Appropriately enough,
there's a storm coming.
I headed west, out of Moscow
and towards Russia's
other great city.
We get to do something most
travellers don't do
when they come to Russia.
Most people go to Moscow
and/or St Petersburg.
I'm going to explore the countryside
in between those two great cities.
I was taking the long route, off
the main roads and through the rural
heartland of the far west.
The Volga! That's known
as the Mother Of Rivers.
In Russian folklore, the Volga
is the lifeblood of the country.
This used to be an important
agricultural region.
Can we just stop here for a second?
Now, everywhere, there were signs
of neglect and slow decay.
I presume this is some sort
of grain silo.
We're just a few hours
from Moscow but this is, um
this feels like forgotten,
emptied Russia.
This was probably part of a huge
collective farm in Soviet times,
so this whole area was
farmed industrially,
under state control.
On collective farms, workers were
poor but they had a steady income.
Less productive regions of Russia
were supported by the state.
Now there are no such guarantees.
Jobs have disappeared.
Logging timber is one of the few
flourishing industries around here,
and much of that is done illegally.
With few jobs, many Russians
in isolated regions like this have
a very basic existence.
Wow.
This is like stepping back
a century.
There's smoke coming from a couple
of the chimneys, though, so there
must be some people living here.
(DOGS BARK IN DISTANCE)
Let's see if we can find anyone.
This place doesn't get
too many visitors
but I met a villager
called Tatiana Zavreskaya,
who was a bit surprised
at my interest.
Only three families left?
(MOSQUITOES BUZZ)
And, and quite a lot of mosquitoes.
(SHE CHUCKLES)
(SHE LAUGHS)
Wow!
They are hungry, aren't they?
Take us in, Tatiana,
away from the mozzies!
(THEY LAUGH)
(CAT MEOWS)
Mama Dasha. This is Mama,
Mama Dasha.
All right, so in here
Thanks, Tatiana.
So I'm going to stay in here.
I think we'll involve
on the sofa there.
What a place, eh?
Oh, it must be tough
to survive here.
They're not completely cut off.
There's an outside phone
offering free emergency calls.
They have some power.
If they want to boil a kettle,
they need to warn their neighbours,
but it's enough to watch the TV.
(SHE LAUGHS)
What do you make of what's going on
in the world at the moment?
I feel really confused by things,
because I grew up on the other side
of the Iron Curtain from you.
I grew up in Britain
during the Cold War,
and there, then I was quite
scared of the Soviet Union.
Then the Iron Curtain came down
and we became friends.
And now it sounds like we're
becoming enemies again.
I think it sounds very sad.
(SHE LAUGHS)
No, you look like somebody we should
be holding hands with, Tatiana.
Of course YOU do.
Almost all Russians
get their news from TV.
Of course, Russia's not alone in
having broadcasters who pump
propaganda, but Putin's almost total
control of Russia's TV networks has
been absolutely key to his
popularity and his grip on power.
I should be OK in here.
Those little critters
won't get through this.
Even Russian mosquitoes
can't get through this net.
Night-night.
This feels ancient.
The cheeky frog!
(LAUGHTER)
It feels like a an old
way of life.
(SHE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN)
Is that about right?
So, as you look out
on the village here,
with so many of
the houses decaying away,
what do you think the future holds
for this village?
(SHE CHUCKLES)
I do think
there's some tragedy in the loss of
all the culture and traditions that
are wrapped up inside
Russian village life.
(SHE LAUGHS)
(HE LAUGHS)
Isn't it extraordinary that life
now, and where people want to live,
is often at least partly
dictated by broadband speeds?
Isn't that an extraordinary thing?
The whole world is urbanising,
but the Russian countryside is being
emptied at an astonishing rate.
Since the end of communism,
roughly three villages
have been abandoned every day.
It's had a devastating
impact on rural life.
At a small cottage hospital,
I found Dr Sergey Vishnyakov,
who arrived here in Soviet times.
We now know much more about
the brutality of that era,
but Sergey has a rosy view of
the health system back then.
It's claimed more than 15,000
Russian towns and villages have
no medical infrastructure at all.
Budgets are being slashed.
So far, Sergey's managed to fight
off plans to close this hospital.
He's the sort of doctor
you want, isn't he?
A doctor who's got almost boundless
reserves of knowledge and care.
Spasibo, spasibo.
For you, living out here in
an area that used to be busy,
where there used to be
the collective farms,
do you think life was
better in Soviet times?
So this is the bus stop that people
here would need to wait at for quite
a long time, if they can't get
treatment at that hospital,
if it was to close as
per the government plan.
The next place for medical treatment
is a city called Rzhev,
which is about an hour away.
And the buses here only
run on the weekend.
Russia now likes to project
an image of strength.
Because of its size,
space programme, nuclear weapons,
its foreign conflicts,
it is a global power.
But as I'd seen
so often on my journey,
much of it is poor
and underdeveloped,
and its wealth is in
the hands of the few.
It's even more unequal than
the United States or Britain.
Russia is the most unequal country
of the world's major economies.
Sad, given the history of communism
here and the attempt, at least at
some point, to achieve
equality amongst the masses.
Not sure where the local budget
for maintenance has gone here.
After 12 hours travelling
towards St Petersburg,
the road was getting
worse and worse.
Our driver said he was worried
about his shock absorbers,
and he was going slower and slower.
Can we stop here?
I think I've been slightly
defeated by its size,
like just about every
other foreigner, outsider,
invader who has travelled
through this part of the country.
You just can't appreciate the scale
of it until you're here.
The roads here are
pretty rubbish, frankly.
At some points,
we're doing about 15mph.
Honestly, if you had to travel the
length of time I have through this
glorious yet monotonous landscape,
you'd get the train as well.
My journey across Russia
had begun in the Far East.
Travelling more than 4,000 miles
and across nine time zones,
I was arriving at
my final destination on
the edge of the Baltic,
St Petersburg.
Oh, my goodness, look at this place!
St Petersburg was built 300 years
ago by Peter the Great
as the Venice of the North.
He wanted to change the image of
Russia from a land of backward
peasants to a modern
civilised nation.
St Petersburg was
designed to impress.
It was built to make
Russia appear European.
Russia's current leader
was born and raised here.
This grand building is rather key
to the story of Vladimir Putin.
Young Vladimir came here
to start practising judo.
What's also astonishing to me is
just how incredibly talented so many
of his judo buddies must have
been, because so many of them now
seem to be running
this country or owning it.
Peter the Great wanted to
transform the image of Russia.
So does Vladimir Putin.
One of his priorities has been
changing the caricature of
Russian men as unhealthy,
smoking drinkers.
The judo-loving President promotes
and encourages a more muscular
vision, supporting mixed martial
arts and even cage fighters.
I went to visit a local club.
(THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN)
I've got a bad feeling
about what's going on here.
I
I had a feeling trainer
Eduard Cherbokov was lining me up
for ritual sacrifice.
Lamb, slaughter.
These two guys?
They look very tough!
I'm nervous, actually.
I think I'm going to puke.
And they were gentle with me.
(PUFFING AND PANTING)
I think I might be sick.
Why are you doing this?
How key is faith to you and
to what you're doing here?
(PUFFING AND GRUNTING)
Under Putin, the Russian
Orthodox Church has been
completely rejuvenated.
The president would love this place.
These fighters are all tough,
healthy and religious.
For many here,
being Orthodox is about faith,
but it's also about
a patriotic identity.
Grigori Guyvoronsky
helps lead this club.
It's growing,
and we have more and
more churches in Russia.
Actually, more and more
people come to church.
They come back to our tradition,
to our faith, the faith of our
grandfathers and our fathers,
you know? Historically, Russia is
supposed to be a Christian country.
It was created as a Christian state.
You're conservative Orthodox.
So you think traditional
values are important?
Yes. What's your view on, I don't
know, gay marriage for example?
It's negative. Right.
Cos we believe in God,
and God says it's a sin.
How strongly do you believe that?
I don't agree that it's normal.
Right. In Europe, people try
to say that it's normal and
everybody has
a right to do this.
We just say it's not normal.
It's wrong, that's how we say it.
Orthodox views are on the rise here.
Encouraged by the president and
the newly powerful Orthodox Church,
many Russians appear
to be turning their backs
on modern Western values.
Many here support
Putin's core ideology,
which is nationalism accompanied
by anti-Westernism.
It harks back to the past.
This is a very fitting place
for me to end my journey.
This is the Hermitage Museum,
but it was the Winter Palace,
an official residence of
the tsars for nearly 200 years.
It was stormed during
the Russian Revolution,
and that was a defining moment in
the Communist takeover
of this vast country.
In Russia's most famous museum,
I was expecting a major exhibition
marking the centenary of
the Revolution. To my surprise,
it was hardly registered.
Oh, that's interesting!
Look. So there should be
Normally, there's a portrait of
Nicholas II hanging here,
but it's currently displayed at
a temporary exhibition,
Romanovs And Revolution:
The End Of Monarchy,
that's happening in Amsterdam.
The government here can't quite seem
to decide how to mark the centenary
of the Revolution, this huge event.
They don't really want to
commemorate it, perhaps because
Tsar Nicholas II was a weak leader,
and President Putin
does not like weak leaders.
But they don't really want
to celebrate it either,
because President Putin certainly
doesn't want to encourage any more
revolution.
The Russians might not be sure how
to mark it,
but the Revolution remains one of
the landmarks of modern history -
a shattering event that transformed
and then shaped our entire world,
even if sometimes,
in at least one way,
it can seem little has changed here.
I think the saddest realisation
for me on this journey was that,
100 years on from the Revolution
that was supposed to
change everything, there's an
all-powerful tsar back in charge
at the top.
I'd loved almost every moment of
my epic journey across Russia.
From the frozen wilderness of
Kamchatka on the shores of
the Pacific to here at
the edge of the Baltic,
I'd travelled this vast country
in wonder and been awed.
This journey has really shown me the
stunning diversity of a country and
a people I really didn't know.
Russians have a cold, tough
reputation, but time and again,
I've seen that, once you break
their hard outer shell,
there is warmth and
there is welcome.
I have to hope for an end to the
current animosity between Russia and
the West, for better relations
between us and them.