Unlike the busy cities along the Trans-Siberian, which have undergone rapid change over the last few years due to increased train traffic and an influx of foreign travellers, the towns along the BAM remain part of the land that time forgot, their Soviet architecture virtually unchanged.

BBC: A train to nowhere in Siberia

The Georgian government, however, is unperturbed by the critics, saying the move makes a clean break from the brutalist Soviet-era architecture that dominates Tbilisi.

CNN: , for

He also called for a new European security architecture that would give Russia greater influence, particularly in the former Soviet space.

ECONOMIST: Russia's political leaders

In the centre, the architecture ranges from neo-Baroque, turn-of-the-century mansions to sporadic Soviet-built boxes losing their tiles.

BBC: Weekend in Kiev