For fans of Russian rails and trains, Russian Railways has opened a new museum in St. Petersburg to mark the service’s 180th anniversary last year. In an old train depot near the city’s Baltic Rail Station, one can see old steam and electric engines, engage with interactive displays, and hear the sounds of various engines.
Some 3,500 artifacts are on display and the museum is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 10:30 am to 6 pm.
rzd-museum.ru
The Northern Capital also unveiled a new planetarium, said to be the world’s largest, constructed inside a former gas storage building. The domed roof’s diameter is 37 meters and the attraction is located near St. Petersburg’s city center, on the banks of Obvodny Canal.
This is Piter’s second planetarium (a Soviet-era institution is still functioning), and a third will open next year in the giant Lakhta Tower.
In this new, largest facility, an imposing screen towers over soft bean bags, from where visitors watch films about the history of the universe and about the lives of cosmonauts on the ISS. Organizers say they will also be building an observatory and will host lectures and labs for people interested in science.
planetarium.one
Under a new law signed by President Vladimir Putin, Russia will introduce tax-free shopping for foreign tourists starting in 2018. Citizens of countries that are not part of the Eurasian Economic Union will be able to get a refund on the Union’s VAT, imposed mainly on luxury goods, normally at 18 percent.
The benefit will be introduced on a limited basis during 2018 at some centrally located shopping malls, such as GUM on Red Square or TsUM next to the Bolshoi Theater, though the government wants to expand the range of tax-free products to include edibles like caviar and honey – things that tourists often purchase. According to Kommersant, only tourists who claim expenditures of at least R10,000 ($150) are likely to benefit from the law. It is still not yet clear where tourists would claim cash back after presenting customs officials with their tax-free receipts at the airport.
After decades of restoration, the city of Tver has re-opened its Imperial Palace. The palace houses the Tver Regional Art Gallery, which has operated in a shopping center since 2012.
The palace, located in downtown Tver, was built for Catherine II in the eighteenth century as a so-called putevoy (“excursion”) palace, a place for the empress to stay while traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the nineteenth century, it became the cultural hub of the region when Tsar Alexander I’s sister organized a literary salon there that was frequented by the beau monde of Russia’s two capitals.
After the revolution, the palace housed the city’s central library, before being transformed into an art gallery in 1923. Restoration work began on the premises in 1995.
Admission to the gallery in the palace, which is open Wednesday to Sunday, is R500 for non-Russians.
The city of Perm has unveiled a new airport terminal to meet the region’s growing demand. Bolshoye Savino Airport, located about 16 kilometers from the city, will begin serving international passengers in February. It will replace a Soviet-era terminal constructed in the 1950s that cannot cope with current passenger volumes. The new terminal’s capacity is up to 4.5 million passengers per year.
Kazan’s eclectic “Church of all Religions,” a colorful building that combines an Orthodox church, a mosque, a synagogue, and a Buddhist temple, is now open to visitors, according to a city hall spokesperson.
The complex was built not far from the Tatarstan capital, in the village of Staroye Arakchino. It is the brainchild of local artist Ildar Khanov, and resulted from his travels in India and Tibet, where he envisioned an architectural symbol of the unity of human civilization.
Khanov created the whimsical building by adding on to his family’s wooden house, and it also includes a tea room and art gallery. The house began to fall into disrepair after Khanov’s death in 2013, and was not previously open to the public.
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