She is less successful in her attempts to capture broader sweeps of Russian society her sketches of the street children of a Moscow railway station, for example, and of the inmates of a women's prison, are heartfelt but not terribly perceptive.

ECONOMIST: Modern Russia

Set just east of Nakhodka at the Pacific terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway, Vostochny is the largest and probably the best managed port in the Russian Far East.

ECONOMIST: It looks good, even with North Korea as a partner

Having updated Lonely Planet's Trans-Siberian Railway guide a couple times, and clocked something like 15 to 20 days of Russian rail time in my life, my first remembrances of the Trans-Siberian rarely consider what is out the window.

BBC: Riding the virtual Trans-Siberian