Ekaterinburg
Ekaterinburg's claim to fame is a bloody one - this is where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children were executed in 1918, in the basement of a house belonging to the engineer Ipatiev. The house was turned into the Museum of the Workers Revenge following the assassination, but…
Vladivostok
So far east it's almost in China, Vladivostok was off limits for all foreigners and many Russians until 1991. Now it's open to all and a veritable free for all too, as a bustling port city and a final stop on one of the epic Trans-Siberian routes.
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal sits long and deep and remote, surrounded by mile-high snow-capped mountains. Hundreds of miles in length, it's also the world's deepest lake, up to 1,637 metres deep, and believed to hold around a fifth of the world's freshwater.