Omsk located about 2,600 km to the east of Moscow is the second largest city in Siberia. The city is standing on the banks of Irtysh river at the confluence with Om river.

The rivers connect Omsk with various coal and other mineral mining cities and towns of Kazakhstan and with oil, natural gas and lumber rich regions of Siberia. Video by Vladimir Skorokhod and Sergey Kotov.

Tags: Omsk city · time-lapse

Dagestan Republic is a federal subject of Russian Federation, part of North Caucasian Federal District, located in the North Caucasus region. The capital city and administrative center is Makhachkala.

The name of the republic is meaning “The country of mountains”. About 30 peaks in Dagestan are above 4,000 m, the highest peak Bazardyuzyu is 4,466 m. Dagestan Republic of Russian Empire was formed in 1860 after the Great Caucasus War.

Tags: Dagestan Republic · landscapes

Catherine’s Palace is the former imperial palace, one of the largest in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. The palace is located in the town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), 25 km south of St. Petersburg.

The architectural trends of each era the palace survived, and personal predilections of Russian rulers of the time were reflected in the history and architecture of the palace. The palace was built in 1717 under the direction of German architect Johann Friedrich Braunshtein as the summer residence of Empress Catherine I.

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Tags: Leningrad oblast · Saint Petersburg city

Saratov region (oblast) is located in the southeastern part of European Russia. Main river of the region is Volga dividing the region into two parts.

Saratov oblast is traditionally an agricultural region. The oblast is the 10th among Russian regions in the amount of agricultural product. The specific feature of the region is a great number of farmers having lands under crops.

The following video showing the beautiful nature of Saratov region was made by Anton Starikov.

Tags: landscapes · Saratov oblast

Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov, NASA Flight Engineer Dan Burbank and Russian Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin launched on the Russian Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft on November 14, 2011, (November 13 in the United States) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station.

Interesting video about the launch and the last preparations.

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The State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Russia, or just the Bolshoi Theater is one of the largest in Russia and one of the most significant opera and ballet theaters in the world. The complex of theater buildings is located in the center of Moscow, at the Teatralnaya (Theater) Square.

July 1, 2005 the theater was closed for the long-planned reconstruction. On Friday, October 28, 2011 after six years of large-scale reconstruction the Bolshoi Theater was reopened.

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Tags: Moscow city

Interesting set of original black&white and color photographs of the cities and towns of the Russian Empire taken in 1890-1912.

Tags: Russian Empire

Excursions in Saint Petersburg never get bored because the city is fraught with many secrets and stories.

You can see the city from the view of its founder Peter the Great if you take a river tour in St. Petersburg. After going aboard of boat you will dive into the atmosphere of the times of Peter the Great because the city was originally planned as Venice of the North or New Amsterdam.

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Tags: Saint Petersburg city

Seven tanks of water were poured on the track in a clay quarry by the organizers of “Autumn Marathon” – a trophy-sprint held annually in the village Assadulaevo, Astrakhan oblast.

September 17, 2011 the competition was attended by 17 crews from Volgograd and Astrakhan. There were almost no high-speed sections on the track. The key events unfolded in the artificially flooded pits.

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Tags: Astrakhan oblast

The Valley of Geysers is one of the largest geyser fields in the world and the only one in Eurasia. It is located in Kamchatka on the territory of Kronotsky State Biosphere Reserve. The Valley of Geysers is one of the seven wonders of Russia.

Kronotsky State Biosphere Reserve is one of the oldest reserves in Russia established in 1934. The reserve covers an area of 1,142,134 hectares (11,421 sq. km.) including 135,000 hectares (1,350 sq. km.) of sea area of the eastern coast of Kamchatka.

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Tags: Kamchatka krai