If you want to get a real idea of what is Russia about, just go a bit to the surrealistic outskirts of Moscow and it will be your adventure for this day...

Gary Tatintsian Gallery is a leading contemporary art gallery representing many of the most important international artists of the 21st century

Great place! Minimalist design, good ambient music, helpful staff. Very delicious food, This isn't Russian cuisine, or Scandinavian, or any kind of national cookery. The dishes have been created by the restauranteurs.

One of the lesser known examples of the 1920s constructivist architecture, for which Moscow if famous, is the Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage built in 1929 to a design by renowned Russian constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov and engineer Vladimir Shukhov. There are plans to convert it into an arts center.

Red October is a former industrial area in central Moscow that's included a chocolate factory Red October, hence the name. Today it's one of the most flamboyant altough inconveniently located cultural quarters, full of art galleries, bars, fashion stores, a design school, night clubs and edtiorial offices of magazines. The photo (depicting a rather typical business redevelopment on the other shore of the Moskva River) was taken from a terrace that's part of the editorial office of Bolshoi Gorod magazine for which I have the privilege to photograph from time to time.