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Safari Clothing

Essential outdoor & safari clothing which is lightweight and made for comfort, protection, and style on your next outdoor adventure - and on safari. Expedition-tested to ensure that it performs for the toughest in the outdoor & on safari. Classically styled so you look as good as you feel whenever you step our your front door - or travel further afield to Africa, India or beyond.

• Boys & Girls
• Trousers & Shorts
• Jackets & Fleeces
• Safari Hats
• Beanies & Scarves
• Dresses & Skorts
• Shoes & Boots
• Socks & Ankle Gaiters
• Holdalls & Duffle Bags
• Weekenders & Carry-ons
• Backpacks, Satchels & Small Bags
• Toiletry Bags for Travel
• Totes & Champagne Coolers
• Business bags
• Luggage Trolley
• Pannier Bags
• Pet Feeders
• Locks & Scales
• Gift Vouchers
• Books & Maps
• Multi-tools
• Insect Repellent
• Torches (flashlights)
• Straps & Mounts
• Trophy Cameras
• Binocular Photography
• Cleaning Kits
• Essential Accessories
• Travel Essentials
• Travel Adaptors
• Evenings, Outdoor & Travel Clothing
• Outdoor, Travel & More
• Safe drinking water
• Rufiji™
• Mara&Meru™
• Barmah Hats
• Thusk™

Technologies

• Insect Protection
• Sun Protection
• Anti-bacterial
• Wicking & QuickDry
• BUGTech™
• Elasticated cuff
• Bonded Fleece
• Security Pocket
• Roll-up sleeve tabs
• MaraTech™
• Feminine cut
• Blister Protection
• Protect Yourself
• Sunglasses Loop
• SAFARITech™

Safari Shirts Read our Safari Shirts Advice Guide

The advice below is a summary. If you are looking for more information & expert advice then please click here for our full safari shirt advice section

• It is important that you pack safari-suitable shirts for your children on safari which also offer maximum protection from the elements and defence from most biting insects.
• Pack children's safari shirts in neutral, natural tones such as shades of khaki, brown, and green.
• We recommend long-sleeved safari shirts for children with roll-up sleeve tabs over short-sleeved shirts. These enable boys and girls to roll their sleeves up and down to stay cool, keep warm, or to avoid sunburn on their arms. It also increases defence from most biting insects when sleeves are rolled down, which is further increased when the fabric is treated with insect repellent.
• Kids' safari shirts with a collar also give your kids added protection from sunburn - and, again, from insect bites.
• Look for children's safari shirts which have the following key characteristics: the ability to wick moisture to keep them cool, high level of sun protection (SPF50+ is best), and an anti-insect fabric finish assists in reducing bites from most flying and biting insects.
• Pack more children's safari shirts made from man-made fibres (polyamide) than natural fibres (such as cotton). Man-made fibres are better at wicking moisture from the skin - and it is this movement of moisture which will keep them cool.

Number of children's safari shirts to pack for their safari: Up to 4-day safari: x 2; Up to 8-day safari: x 4; Up to 12-day safari: x 6

Boys' & Girls' BUGTech Anti-Insect Safari Shirt in Katavi Khaki

Boys' & girls' bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in willow, men's explorer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in katavi khaki, men's explorer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in khaki olive, men's explorer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in baobab khaki, men's explorer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in dark olive, women's pioneer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in katavi khaki, women's pioneer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in khaki olive, women's pioneer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in baobab khaki, women's pioneer bugtech anti-insect safari shirt in dark olive, men's explorer safaritech shirt in katavi khaki, women's pioneer safaritech shirt in katavi khaki, women's bugtech anti-insect everything safari shirt in baobab khaki, women's bugtech anti-insect everything safari shirt in safari willow, men's bugtech anti-insect everything safari shirt in safari willow, men's bugtech anti-insect everything safari shirt in baobab khaki, men's bugtech anti-insect everything safari shirt in katavi khaki, women's serengeti v-neck safari t-shirt in safari dusk, women's serengeti v-neck safari t-shirt in safari bushwillow, women's serengeti v-neck safari t-shirt in safari earth, girls' young rangers club v-neck t-shirt in desert olive, men's everyday safari shirt, bugtech in katavi khaki, men's everyday safari shirt, bugtech in safari willow, women's everyday safari shirt, bugtech in katavi khaki, women's everyday safari shirt, bugtech in baobab khaki, women's long sleeve serengeti v-neck t-shirt in safari dusk, women's long sleeve serengeti v-neck t-shirt in safari bushwillow, women's long sleeve serengeti v-neck t-shirt in safari earth, women's nosilife adventure long-sleeved safari shirt in soft moss, women's nosilife pro safari shirt in khaki mushroom, mara&meru™ laced safari tank top in safari forest green, men's savute safari t-shirt in desert olive, men's savute safari t-shirt in desert olive (new fit), boys' young rangers club round-neck t-shirt in safari kudu, men's adventure anti-insect safari shirt in dark khaki, men's kiwi safari shirt in safari pebble, boys' & girls' adventure trek long-sleeved shirt in dark khaki, safari trousers & shorts read our safari trousers & shorts advice guide.

• When packing safari trousers for your children, pack children's safari pants made from safari-suitable colours (shades of green, khaki, and brown) and lightweight, strong fabric. Nothing beats the feeling they will get when they wear safari trousers worthy of a great conservationist or early explorer.
• Children's safari zip-off/convertible trousers are the simplest safari trousers to pack for children as they allow for maximum versatility. By removing or adding the legs, you are able to convert them from trousers when cool to shorts when hot. Children's convertible zip-off safari pants also save on valuable packing space by being two garments in one. The legs on the children's safari convertible pants also give added protection from the sun and defence from most biting insects - even more so when their safari trousers are treated with built-in sun protection and anti-insect treatment.
• The ideal children's safari trousers and safari shorts should offer the perfect blend of the following functionality: lightweight with built-in ripstop for added strength, a high level of built-in sun protection (SPF50+ is best), and an anti-insect finish.
• Children's safari trousers which are made from man-made fibres (such as polyamide) are preferred over those made from natural fibres (such as cotton) to keep your children cool while on safari. These fabrics also allow your child to dry off faster should their safari trousers get wet from a rain shower or from mucking about in a stream (a crocodile- and hippo-free stream of course).
• What is more, you will be able to wash and dry your kid's safari trousers much faster when made from man-made fibres such as polyamide.

Boys' & Girls' BUGTech Zip-Off Safari Trousers in Baobab

Boys' & girls' bugtech zip-off safari trousers in willow, boys' & girls' bugtech zip-off safari trousers in katavi khaki (new fit leg), boys' & girls' bugtech zip-off safari trousers in willow (new fit leg), men’s explorer bugtech anti-insect cargo zip-off safari trousers in katavi khaki (32-inch leg), men’s explorer bugtech anti-insect cargo zip-off safari trousers in khaki olive (32-inch leg), men’s explorer bugtech anti-insect cargo zip-off safari trousers in katavi khaki (34-inch leg), men’s explorer bugtech anti-insect cargo zip-off safari trousers in katavi khaki (30-inch leg), women’s pioneer bugtech anti-insect zip-off cargo outdoor & safari trousers in katavi khaki (new fit. 29-inch leg), women’s pioneer bugtech anti-insect zip-off cargo outdoor & safari trousers in khaki olive (new fit. 29-inch leg), women’s pioneer bugtech anti-insect zip-off cargo outdoor & safari trousers in katavi khaki (new fit. 32-inch leg), men's adventurer all-day-longs, bugtech cargo trousers in katavi khaki (32-inch leg), women’s serengeti safari shorts with stretch in forest, women’s serengeti safari shorts with stretch in savannah, women’s serengeti safari shorts with stretch in savannah (new fit), men’s savute safari cargo trousers with stretch in forest, men’s savute safari cargo trousers with stretch in kalahari, men’s savute safari cargo trousers with stretch in forest (32-inch), men’s savute safari cargo shorts with stretch in kalahari, men’s savute safari cargo shorts with stretch in forest, women's serengeti ii jogger pants with stretch in savannah, women's serengeti ii jogger pants with stretch in forest, women's serengeti ii jogger pants with stretch in savannah (new fit), women's serengeti ii jogger pants with stretch in forest (new fit), women's serengeti leggings in batoka brown, women's nosilife pro ii zip-off safari trousers in safari mushroom. 28-inch leg, men's nosilife ii anti-insect zip-off safari trousers in safari pebble (33 inch leg), boys' & girls' maratech™ zip-off safari trousers in serengeti stone, boys' & girls' maratech™ zip-off safari trousers in okavango olive, men's birdseye safari shorts in safari bark, men's mara&meru™ everything trousers in safari beige, waterproof packaway over trousers (unisex) in khaki, safari jackets & fleeces read our safari jackets & fleeces advice guide.

• Children feel the cold faster than adults and so it is important when going on safari to pack a children's safari fleece to keep them warm and snug on early morning and evening game drives and through the African winter.
• Pack a kid's safari fleece which is made from safari-friendly colours such as brown, greens, and khaki.
• Pack a safari-coloured waterproof layer for each child if you are travelling over the rainy season for your safari.
• Having lived in Africa through the rains we are also able to advise that the daytime temperature goes from very hot before the rains start, to much cooler once the rains have settled in. The difference may be as much as 10 to 15 degrees celsius below the average temperatures and so again we advise that a fleece or jacket is packed to keep you warm.

Number of boys' and girls' safari jackets or safari fleeces to pack for your safari: 1 x safari fleece or jacket; 1 x waterproof safari jacket should you be travelling over the rainy season.

Men's SafariElite Bonded Safari Fleece in Safari Sage

Women's safarielite bonded safari fleece in safari sand, men's explorer safari jacket with micro-fleece lining & bugtech in katavi khaki, men's explorer safari jacket with micro-fleece lining & bugtech in dark olive, women's pioneer safari jacket with micro-fleece lining & bugtech in katavi khaki, women's pioneer safari jacket with micro-fleece lining & bugtech in dark olive, boys' & girls' safarielite bonded safari fleece in safari sage & sand, ultimate safari hoodie in safari khaki, waterproof packaway safari jacket (unisex) in khaki, rufiji™ maratech™ multi-pocket safari gilet (unisex) in wild sage, waterproof packaway safari jacket for kids in safari green, essential waterproof safari poncho in khaki, safari shoes & boots read our safari shoes & boots advice guide.

• If you are going on a classic game drive type of safari, then pack comfortable women's safari shoes to wear on game drive but which are able to double as good walking shoes for a walk in the bush - an activity we highly recommend. Note that if you do not have walking shoes with you on game drive then your guide may decide against a quick impromptu walk in the bush
• Also take a pair of women's safari shoes to wear around the camp. These may be the same pair as your select for the above, but it may also be a pair of cooler sandals, pumps, or similar.
• For full-on walking safaris make sure you take women's safari shoes which are made for longer hikes - and ensure that you walk them in properly before you go on safari. You may prefer low rise canvas trail shoes or leather higher rise boots - the preference is purely personal.
• If you are going on a walking safari in sandy areas (check with the walking safari company you have booked with) then we suggest that you pack higher rise boots with a built in tongue - such as our Rufiji™ APU Safari Combat Boots - as this will minimise the amount of sand which goes into the shoe which will cause discomfort.
• We would still take a a pair of cooler women's shoes or sandals for before and after walks when around the camp.
• Safari tip: always check your shoes for small snakes, scorpions, spiders and insects before putting them on.

Rufiji™ Explorer Safari Veldskoen Shoes in Ruaha Rust

Rufiji™ explorer safari veldskoen shoes in kalahari khaki, rufiji™ apu combat safari boots in wildebeest brown, the buffalo boot in buffalo brown, veldskoen desert safari boots in khaki, women's leather safari sandals in brown, safari hats read our safari hats advice guide.

The advice below is a summary . If you are looking for more information & expert advice then please click here for our full safari hat advice guide .

• For the best protection from the strength of the midday sun in Africa - for your neck and face - pack a wide-brimmed women's safari hat.
• With mean high temperatures reaching mid-20 to mid-30 degrees Celsius on most safaris and with safari areas in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, and Zambia high above sea level, the effects of the sun will be pronounced and the risk of being burnt by the sun will be high. A wide-brimmed women's safari hat is literally your first line of defence against sunburn.
• Wide-brimmed women's safari hats also provide shelter when it rains. We find that a wide-brimmed safari hat definitely makes it more comfortable when you are caught out on a walk or game drive by a sudden thunderstorm or tropical shower, as at least your face remains dry and fewer drops go into your eyes.
• Colour is key when choosing a women's safari hat - with neutral shades such as khaki, green, or brown the best. Your safari hat will often be the most conspicuous part of you while viewing wildlife on a walking safari.
• Pack a women's safari hat which suits your safari style. Fortunately, there are more styles available for women today which range from leather hats to classically-styled indie and panama-shaped hats.
• Modern wide-brimmed women's safari hats are also conveniently packable and are easy manipulate back into shape. A note though: not all hats are packable and should be carried with your carry-on luggage - and, even when a hat is packable, never crush your safari hat under a hard object - such as shoes or binoculars - when packing.

Number of wide-brimmed women's safari hats to pack for your safari: 1 x wide-brimmed safari hat per person. *Pack a warm and cosy safari beanie for cold mornings and the African winter too.

Men's Explorer Canvas Safari Hat (Adjustable) in Meerkat

Men's explorer canvas safari hat (adjustable) in khaki, men's explorer leather safari hat (adjustable) in driftwood, women's explorer canvas safari hat (adjustable) in khaki, women's explorer canvas safari hat (adjustable) in meerkat, adventurer hat in khaki, adventurer hat in olive, women's indie safari hat in winter grass, women's serengeti safari hat in tawny, women's explorer leather safari hat (adjustable) in driftwood, removable, adjustable chin strap for hats in olive, removable, adjustable chin strap for hats in khaki, men's panama safari hat (adjustable) in tawny, women's panama safari hat (adjustable) in tawny, squashy leather oiled safari hat in dark brown, foldaway leather suede safari hat in hickory, foldaway bronco full grain leather safari hat in dark brown, barmah hats waterproofing and conditioning spray – 150ml pump spray (suitable for leather & suede), safari dresses & skorts read our safari dresses & skorts advice guide.

• Pack a women's safari dress and a pair of women's safari skorts to add variety to your wardrobe.
• Ensure that you select women's safari dresses and skorts which are made in safari-suitable colours.
• A women's safari dress can also be very versatile when worn with tights, as a longer shirt, or tucked into your safari trousers.
• Women's safari skorts - which are a combination of shorts and a skirt, with the shorts inside the skorts - are great for safaris in 4x4s as you are able to climb on to and off of the game drive vehicle without worrying about your underwear showing.
• While, by their design, both safari dresses and safari skorts do allow for a good flow of air around the body to keep you cool, it is still worth looking for styles made in technical fabrics simply as they are usually lighter, easier to pack, and perform better in the heat.

Pack any combination of women's safari dresses & skorts to get the following totals: Up to 4-day safari: x 1; Up to 8-day safari: x 2; Up to 12-day safari: x 3

Women's Serengeti Safari sKorts with Stretch in Savannah

Women's serengeti safari skorts with stretch in forest, women's rufiji™ maratech™ safari skorts in serengeti stone, women's rufiji™ maratech™ safari skorts in okavango olive, mara&meru™ all day casual safari dress in safari forest green, safari socks & ankle gaiters read our safari socks & ankle gaiters advice guide.

• Walking in the bush while on safari is the quintessential experience. We recommend it to all who go to Africa.
• Whether you go for a short nature walk with your guide or a multi-day walking safari, please ensure that you pack safari-coloured safari socks which offer a double layer for blister protection. Bad blisters ruin good walks.
• Ankle gaiters are ideal for walking in the bush as they offer both your ankles and socks more protection from thorns, wet grass, grass seeds, and anything scurrying around at ankle level. A must-have for longer walking safaris, but useful on any bush walk.

Number of blister-proof socks to pack for your safari: Up to 4-day safari: x 2; Up to 8-day safari: x 3; Up to 12-day safari: x 4.

Number of Ankle Gaiters to pack for your safari: Pack 1 x Pair per person.

Mara&Meru Ultimate Anti-Blister Socks (Active, Everyday, Safari) in Olive Green

Safari canvas gaiters, rufiji™ safari canvas gaiters (unisex) in safari tan, rufiji™ safari suede gaiters (unisex), safari beanies & scarves read our safari beanies & scarves advice guide.

• Pack a multi-functional Head&Neck scarf for just about all outdoor adventures, including safari. Head&Neck Scarves keep your neck and head out of the sun when it is hot, and provide an element of warmth too when it starts to get cold. They offer maximum versatility.
• It can and does get cold on safari. See our Womens Safari Jackets and Fleeces page for more information on why this is the case.
• Pack women's garments and accessories for your safari which keep you warm. Women's safari scarves, safari beanies, and safari gloves should be considered a packing essential over the African winter - and may also be required for some mornings on summer safaris too.
• At the very least, we recommend packing a safari beanie on any safari as they are so small and light to carry in your luggage, yet have a big effect on how warm you are should you get cold. Keep your safari beanie in the bag you take on game drives. You may well get some envious stares from others who have not had the foresight to pack a safari beanie.
• Further to the point above, for the African summer, pack a women's safari beanie just in case. For the most part, your women's wide-brimmed safari hat should keep you warm enough, but why take the risk? Please also take note of the altitude of the area in which you are going on safari. The Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, as an example, is over 2000 metres above sea level and most camps are on the rim of the crater and so may have cold temperatures (morning and evenings in particular) and precipitation throughout the year, so we would recommend taking warmer safari accessories just in case.
• Pack safari scarves, safari beanies, and safari gloves in safari colours.

Number of women's safari scarves, safari beanies, and safari gloves to pack for your safari: 1 x women's safari scarf; 1 x women's safari beanie; 1 x women's safari gloves - although you should be fine tucking your hands into your women's safari jacket or fleece to keep them warm.

Thusk™ Zulu Knitted Headband in Winter Sand

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Moscow parks – leisure, nature and historical

Moscow is the most green megapolis in the world. There are over a hundred parks and green spaces like gardens, squares and boulevards. You will definitely bump into a few of them wherever you go. Whether you are interested in memorial, historic parks, parks of wildlife or you just want to have a calm break from the speedy city life – city parks have something special for everyone.

Moscow leisure parks

The leisure Moscow parks are undoubtedly the most popular and famous with the locals and travelers. Today such parks provide a great number of exciting entertainments for Muscovites and city guests, adults and children.

The Gorky Park

Gorky Park opened in 1928 and was the first holiday park in the Soviet Union with playgrounds, a sports stadium, exhibition halls and attractions for kids. Today it has a fresh, vibrant appearance. The park features bike rental stations, a comfortable business area with Wi-Fi, an outdoor movie theatre and a greenhouse where you can buy fresh greens such as basil and lettuce. To contemplate the sky and the stars, go to the observatory and look through the telescope while listening to fascinating stories from astronomers. Enjoy many sports in the park: volleyball, handball, football or a peaceful jog around the beautiful surroundings.

Zaryadye Park

Opened in September 2017, Zaryadye is the youngest on our list. Located just a few minutes away from Red Square, it includes various activities like the floating bridge with its thin V-form extension, an ice cave, also concert hall and an amphitheater. The entire territory of the park was divided into four zones of Russia: forest, steppe, tundra, and the floodplains.

Neskuchny Sad

By walking along the Moskva River’s bank from the Gorky Park towards Vorobievy Gory (Sparrow Hills) you’ll reach Neskuchny Sad («Not Boring» garden), a wonderful place in the Moscow center, one of Moscow’s oldest parks, charming slice of wildlife. The park mostly consists of pristine forest, dotted with old summer pavilions, ponds and quaint little stone bridges. There are a lot of opportunities for different activities lots of children playground, a ping-pong and chess clubs, football fields and tennis courts, horse riding, tree climbing and having rest in one of the nice cafes.

Museon Park

Hermitage Garden

Hermitage Garden has always been known as an amusement, entertainment center with theatres, shows, cafes, summer pavilions, pergolas since 1830. Shalyapin, Sobinov, Nezhdanova – great Russian opera singers starred on the garden stage. Famous Russian composer Rakhmaninov conducted the orchestra. Sara Bernar, Maria Yermolova, outstanding actresses, played in the open air performances. Tolstoy and Lenin had a stroll in the garden. So lots of celebrities from different epoques liked it a lot and spent their time in Hermitage Garden. You can find here three theatres in the garden: Hermitage, Sphere and New Opera. During winter an ice rink works here and in summer a musical stage is assembled to host jazz and brass band festivals.

In Sokolniki Park visitors can play billiard, chess or draughts, table tennis, as well as go cycling, roller blading and swimming in the summer and ice skating or skiing in winter. Each season is highlighted by special memorable and bright events, for example, Summer Jazz Festival or Baby Fest (for future mums), open air beach disco parties, Ice Cream Day, International Clown Festival and many other shows and exhibitions. The park has an observatory, kids center and a co-working zone with free Wi-Fi which is really nice for spending high quality work time there.

Moscow nature parks

The nature parks are national reserves with the amazing forestry and incredible variety of animals and plants there. The breath of wildlife and the chance to be closer to the virgin nature excites both children and grownups. Hundreds of different species of animals can be found in Moscow nature parks. The richest woodlands with old and even ancient trees, like a 200 years pine-tree in the Elk Island National Nature Park, are the point of passionate interest for visitors.

Aptekarsky Ogorod

Aptekarsky Ogorod (Apothecary Garden)

Aptekarsky Ogorod (Apothecary Garden) is one of the oldest gardens in Moscow. It was founded in the XVIII century by Peter the First (great Russian emperor). A larch that he planted himself still grows in the garden, so it’s more than 250 years old. At the time of its foundation, it was a garden with herbs and medicinal plants and was used as an educational center for doctors. Today there are the orangery with its tropical palms, the carp pond, and the immense trees that dot the landscape and turn wonderful golden shades in the autumn. Several restaurants and cafes work here making it a very nice spot for relaxation no matter what season it is. You can book a special tour or join the guided excursion group.

Losiny Ostrov

Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island Park)

Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island Park) is located at the north of Moscow. It covers 22 km from the west to the east and 10 km from the north to the south and it’s one of the most beautiful national parks in Moscow. Two rivers, Yausa and Pechorka begin here. You can find lots of fields, ponds, meadows, streams in the park as well as elks. Here you can enjoy guided tours, available in English. You can choose a guided tour about flora and fauna of the area, you’ll learn why elks are there, which animals are their neighbors. Or enjoy another excursion, which is totally devoted to historical past of ancient tribes once lived there, you’ll know about old Russian mythology, rituals and traditions.

Serebyany Bor

Serebyany Bor (Silver Forest)

Serebyany Bor (Silver Forest) is a famous pine forest in the west of Moscow. The park has 230 forms of plant life, and is also home to watersports complex, providing a lot of activities for visitors. The layout of Serebryany Bor is unusual, as it is located on an artificial island between a meander in the Moscow River and a channel. There is an artificial lake, the Deep Gulf and picturesque Bezdonnoe (Bottomless) Lake in the depths of the forest. Serebryany Bor’s beaches are the cleanest in the city and very popular among Muscovites. On weekends it is difficult to find a free spot here, especially because a whole range of services are offered to visitors, from simple deckchairs to catamaran and yacht rides. Driving is prohibited on the territory of the island so be ready to use trolleybus to reach the entrance.

Botanichesky Sad

Greenhouse of Botanical Garden

Main Botanical Garden of The Russian Academy of Sciences is the largest and most famous is Moscow. The garden is a real museum of nature with a very rich (more than 18000 types) collection of plants. The park was founded in 1945 at the place of the 17th century Apothecaries’ Gardens. The garden’s collection is turned into botanical expositions, made with use of modern receptions of landscape architecture. Here you can see a tree nursery, a shadow garden, hothouse complex, collection of flowers, a rosary, exposition of coastal plants, garden of continuous blossoming, Japanese garden and expositions of cultural plants and natural flora plants. The biggest part of Garden is the Tree nursery occupying the space of 75 hectares. About 2 thousand wood plants grow here. Another big exposition of the Garden is nature Flora, divided into six botanic-geographical collections: European part of Russia, Caucuses, Central Asia, Siberia and Far East. Pride of the Main Botanical Garden is the collection of tropical, coastal and water plants, which is considered as the best in Europe. The Japanese garden, a great model of Japanese landscape gardening art has a 13-level stone pagoda of the 18th century, stone Japanese lamps, ponds, falls and streams, tea lodges and more than 100 species of the most character Japan plants. It is especially decorative in spring, during Oriental cherry blossoming and in fall, when foliage blazes in crimson colors.

Moscow historic parks

Historic nature parks and estates once were the mansions of the Moscow aristocracy. At that far times the estates were outside the Moscow city limits, but after the city expansion and urbanization, they became easily accessible.

Kolomenskoye

Kolomenskoye Museum and Park

The chief attraction of the park is undoubtedly the stone Church of the Ascension of the Lord. It was constructed in 1532 by order of Tsar Vasily III to commemorate the birth of his son and heir, Ivan the Terrible. But there is a lot more to see in the park: the pretty Church of the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan – with its bright azure domes and plenty of gold. Further into the park there is a charming Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist, built by Ivan the Terrible to mark his coronation.

Kuskovo Park

Kuskovo Park is one of the oldest country estates in Moscow. It was given to General Sheremetev by Peter the Great in 1715, but was left to fall into neglect before being plundered by Napoleon’s troops in 1812. Nowadays the estate has been restored to its former glory and is a good example of Russian 18th Century imperial architecture. The palace is a fine and rare example of wooden neoclassicism. It was completed in 1775, and the rich interiors remain unchanged since 1779. It includes a room hung with exclusive exquisite Flemish tapestries, an abundance of silk wallpaper and an impressive collection of 18th century European and Russian paintings. The palace looks onto the lake, which is surrounded by smaller pavilions: pretty Italian, Dutch and Swiss Cottages, Blank’s Hermitage and the old Orangery, where the State Ceramics Museum is located now, an extensive and absorbing collection of porcelain from the 18th century to the present day. On the other side of the lake is a large wood popular with local cyclists and joggers.

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Home » Best Safaris Near Me – Drive-through Safaris in the US

Best Safaris Near Me – Drive-through Safaris in the US

With so many finding respite in the presence of wildlife, many travelers may wonder “Where are the best safaris near me?” Across the country, there are opportunities everywhere to see animals—zoos, nature centers, national parks, and wildlife preserves.

While many safaris (or game drives) are self-driven, this post will also share destinations where visitors can enjoy a guided animal safari. All these places will offer something on par with an African safari but are hosted closer to home, right here in the United States.

Safaris in the USA

For those looking for a safari experience close to home, each region hosts a variety of great options. Additionally, each park offers a genuine safari adventure, complete with roaming animals, open lands, and some type of drive-through navigation.

SAFARIS NEAR ME

Select a region or scroll down to view all.

Pacific Southwest Rocky Mountain Midwest Northeast Southeast

Be aware that some safari experiences are for adults only, while others are more for families. It is important to note, that for the safety of the animals, each one has a strict no-pets allowed policy. Sorry, Benji, you must stay in the hotel room.

Safaris Near Me >> Pacific Coastal

Along the country’s Pacific coastline, travelers will find a variety of wildlife experiences—ranging from a safari featuring Africa’s most endangered creatures and a mock hot air balloon safari to a farm offering time with Zodiak bears.

Safari West – Santa Rosa, CA

Located 12 miles north of Santa Rosa, Safari West is a wildlife preserve offering conservation safaris and tented glamping. Over 900 animals from over 90 different species freely roam the 400-acre property—Safari West is about as close as you can get in the U.S. to a traditional African safari .

Climb aboard one of the custom safari vehicles to explore the Sonoma Serengeti where you can see zebras, giraffes, ostriches, antelope, and more. What’s special about Safari West is that the experience can be modified to fit the needs of both adult-only trips and families with children.

For example, if you book a private safari, wine, beer, and appetizers can be added to the tour for an extra cost. For families, the Cozy Cottage has sleeping capabilities for six, with a king bed and a double bunk bed.

To check prices or to make reservations, click here >> Safari West

B. Bryan Preserve – Point Arena, CA

In Point Arena, guests can appreciate a slice of Africa on the Mendocino Coast at B. Bryan Preserve , which focuses on the breeding and conservation of Africa’s most endangered species. These include very specific herds of zebra, antelope, and giraffe. A variety of tour options are available for booking, including self-guided car safaris, VIP tours, and guided tours.

Hand-feeding the giraffes is always a highlight on each visit. If a daytime visit just isn’t enough, the property hosts three cottages and one carriage house—each offering a full kitchen and a private hot tub.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park – San Diego, CA

Sister attraction to the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park allows visitors to choose from a number of different safari opportunities. Home to over 3,600 animals, some unique wildlife excursions are available, such as a Flightline safari and a tethered balloon safari. Take note, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is primarily a walk-through sanctuary. Safari tram tours are another option but are an additional cost.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park – Eatonville, WA

With a focus on wildlife from America’s Northwest, the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park offers three methods of exploration—walking paths, Wild Drives self-drives, and Keeper Adventure Jeep Tours. Photography safaris are another option.

The park’s free-roaming area comprises 435 acres for herds of elk, bison, moose, caribou, deer, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats. There are no opportunities for 1:1 animal interactions, so no feeding or petting is allowed.

Wildlife Safari –  Winston, OR

Open year-round, Wildlife Safari is a fun-filled family attraction where you can observe over 500 animals roaming freely from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The park is over 600 acres and it takes about one to two hours to complete the 4.5-mile drive.

If you or a loved one has a favorite animal, Encounters allow you the opportunity to spend quality time with one! There are daily meet and greets with tigers, lions, red pandas, elephants, giraffes, bears, hippos, cheetahs, and more.

The Hampton Inn & Suites Roseburg is a comfortable option for nearby lodging.

Olympia Game Farm – Sequim, WA

If your family loves animals, then the Olympia Game Farm welcomes visitors with year-round game drive tours. The farm offers 84 acres of terrain full of wildlife, such as llamas, elk, zebra, deer, yaks, American bison, and Zodiak bears. The tour takes about an hour. Additionally, there are certain times when you can feed animals wheat bread that is supplied by the farm.

Safaris Near Me >> Southwest

If you find yourself in Texas looking for wildlife experiences, you’re in luck. The state offers an abundance of safari opportunities, everything from traditional hunting safaris to family-friendly self-driven tours.

Exotic Resort Zoo – Johnson City, TX

Geared toward children and family vacations, the Exotic Resort Zoo offers two options for a kid-friendly safari—a guided tractor ride or self-drive. If wildlife fuels your family’s travels, then consider a stay on one of the property’s safari cabins that feature two resort-style swimming pools. Overnight stays include complimentary zoo experiences.

Johnson City is also the home to the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, Pedernales Falls State Park,  Lyndon B. Johnson’s Boyhood Home, and the Texas White House. Also, there are several nearby wineries to tour—making it the perfect place for an extended weekend or vacation. Pair up the Exotic Resort Zoo with a stay at the Carter Creek Winery Resort & Spa for a relaxing retreat.

Cherokee Trace – Jacksonville, TX

This 300-acre animal reserve offers self-drive safaris and the chance to hand-feed dozens of endangered animals and 25 exotic species from around the world. It takes about 1-2 hours to tour Cherokee Trace , however, the admission price permits as many drives as time allows. The majority of the wildlife is hooved animals, mostly deer, zebra, and antelope.

Aggieland Safari – Bryan, TX

Deemed the “ Serengeti of the South ,” Aggieland Safari allows guests to get up close and personal with free-roaming wildlife in over 250 acres of grassy plain pastures. During a self-safari, visitors may interact with local residents including bison, ostrich, zebras, antelope, wildebeest, and more.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch – San Antonio, TX

Experience the essence of an African Safari—Texas style! The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch has over 700 animals and 45 species spread out over 450 acres of Texas Hill Country. The self-drive route lasts six scenic miles and passes over creek beds, rolling hills, and oak tree forests.

The drive takes about 1-2 hours but admission offers multiple trips if time allows. Feed is available for about $5 per bag. Guided safari tours are also available in a custom-built Safari Rover or Safari Shuttle and can be booked online.

Families may enjoy pairing up Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch with The Resort At Schlitterbahn , one of America’s most popular and largest waterparks.

Star S Ranch – Mason, TX

With the goal to create a true Texas safari, the 14,000-acre Star S Ranch is geared toward hunting African wildlife . In fact, the Star S Ranch hosts the largest herds of African wildlife, outside of Africa. With the Star S Ranch private airport, Hunter’s Lodge, and four casitas, this is as close as you’ll get to a traditional game safari, on this side of the world.

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center – Glen Rose, TX

Dedicated to conservation, the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center considers the 1,800-acre property more of a sanctuary, rather than just another drive-through safari. The 7.2-mile route allows guests to interact with approximately 1,100 different roaming animals.

While there are a number of African Plains game , opportunities to see giraffes, cheetahs, and rhinos are visitor favorites. There are multiple visiting options available. These include self-driving tours, public guided tours, privately guided tours, twilight tours, photography tours, or behind-the-scenes guided tours.

Out of Africa – Camp Verde, AZ

Going beyond the concept of a basic drive-through park, Out of Africa strives to replicate a real African bush safari. Located in the beautiful Black Hills of Camp Verde, the wildlife preserve offers animal shows, specialty encounters, and organized feeds.

A 30-minute narrated African Bush Safari tour is included in the price and showcases herd-style animals that free roam including water buffalo, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, and ostriches. An upgraded, longer tour aboard a SuperMog is another option.

To customize your visit, the preserve has a variety of different opportunities, including bundle packages, Zip lining, VIP tours, and more private experiences.

Bearizona Wildlife Park – Williams, AZ

Drive through the Arizona ponderosa pine forest to enjoy the local North American wildlife from the comfort of your own vehicle. Guests of Bearizona Wildlife Park are welcome to drive the 3-mile route at their own pace.

Featured animals include bears, wolves, bison, elk, and other hooved animals. Admission includes unlimited passes through the route however you cannot leave and return.

Bearizona is a popular stop for motorists as it is one of the best attractions along historic Route 66 . Also, it’s near Grand Canyon National Park , making the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel a perfect accommodation option.

Safaris Near Me >> Rocky Mountains

While most of the Rocky Mountain region is full of rugged landscapes, Nevada’s desert-like climate is the perfect destination for a camel safari.

Camel Safari – Bunkerville, NV

Located about an hour north of Las Vegas, Camel Safari offers two-hour desert safaris by camel, ATV, or by tram. Exotic enough to be seen on “ The Bachelorette ” those that can’t make the trip to Morocco may appreciate the next best thing.

Budget Tip : The Camel Safari – Safari Tram Ride and Zoo Tour from Las Vegas makes it easy and affordable to visit.

Yellowstone Bear World – Rexburg, ID

Idaho’s most popular wildlife attraction is Yellowstone Bear World . This wildlife safari is often visited by travelers from West Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. As you drive your own vehicle through the park, you’ll encounter the very best Rocky Mountain animals including, elk, bison, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goats, and of course, both American black bear and grizzly bear.

One nice characteristic about this particular safari is that large vehicles, such as RVs and motorhomes are welcome to drive the route. While there are more private wildlife experiences offered at an additional cost, general admission also includes the amusement rides, the petting zoo, and as many drives through the park that day as your time allows.

Safaris Near Me >> Midwest

Surprisingly, Ohio hosts some of the most authentic safari experiences that travelers can find in the USA. Just be aware, many parks and outfitters work seasonally.

The Wilds – Cumberland, OH

If you’re an American who will never be able to check an African safari off your bucket list, then this is the travel experience you’ve been looking for. The Wilds is probably one of the most authentic safari experiences available in the USA.

Knowledgeable guides take guests on a two-hour adventure through open habitats to see cheetahs, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, and much more. The conservation center also has opportunities to make your safari complete, with overnight yurt stays, 3-course dinners, and specialty off-roading drives to scout for animals. For family vacations, there are cabins and a 12-person lodge is also available.

Other than hand-feeding the animals, most guests agree that the highlight is sitting around the campfire as night falls, watching the watering hole for wildlife enjoying a bottle of wine.

Generally, safaris operate from May through October, however, there are winter tours too. This would be an amazing honeymoon, engagement, or anniversary trip idea because overnight yurt stays are 21+ only.

African Safari Wildlife Park – Clinton, OH

With the warning of “not for those who like pristine vehicles,” the 100-acre African Safari Wildlife Park offers a chance to come face to face with various hoofed animals. Visitors can self-drive the route as many times as they’d like but the journey is expensive, so be sure to bring a heavy wallet.

Unfortunately, the park only provides one cup of animal feed per group (not per individual) and all other attractions or cups of feed are an additional charge. Visitors can’t help but notice the placement of the car vacuums at the exit for an additional fee of $2.00.

Buffalo Safari Jeep Tours – Custer, SD

One reason travelers decide to take a Buffalo Safari Jeep Tour is to give themselves a break from driving and let someone else play tour guide. Many families appreciate the opportunity to sit back, enjoy the ride, and listen to narration from a local guide.

On this 1.5 to 2-hour safari, guests set out in search of buffalo, deer, longhorn sheep, prairie dogs, elk, and pronghorn. Take note, going off-road seems to depend on where the animals are congregating. Therefore, off-roading is not a guarantee. If wildlife is along the main road, that’s where you’ll spend the majority of your time.

Budget Tip: Pair this safari with the Mount Rushmore and Black Hills Tour with Two Meals and a Music Variety Show tour. Stay at the Bavarian Inn , a European-inspired boutique mountain resort.

Eureka Springs Safari Park – Eagle Rock, MO

Offering a 4-mile drive-through safari and a petting zoo, Eureka Springs Safari Park is home to over 500 animals from all over the world, representing 56 species. Visitors can see camels, emus, kangaroos, deer, and buffalo. There are opportunities to hand-feed select animals. When seasonally available, VIP ATV tours are also an option. Eureka Springs Safari Park is the sister park to Branson’s Promised Land Zoo, both of which are faith-based attractions.

Branson’s Promised Land Zoo – Branson, MO

From the comfort of your own vehicle, families can set off on a 45-minute drive-through safari to feed a variety of farm and hooved animals. Many visitors take advantage of the VIP experience to enjoy a tram tour and 1:1 interactions with specialty animals such as baby kangaroos, lemurs, or spider monkeys. Affiliated with Eureka Springs Safari Park, Branson’s Promised Land Zoo is also a faith-based attraction.

After the safari, keep the outdoorsy feel going by staying at the Lodge of the Ozarks which captures the spirit and the beauty of the great outdoors.

Springfield Wild Animal Safari – Strafford, MO

This 5-mile drive drive-through safari allows guests to choose their own adventure, whether by private car, rented safari vehicle, or open bus. Set among 350 acres, visitors will note no cages, only free-roaming wildlife and beautiful scenic views.

Visitors of Springfield Wild Animal Safari love the opportunity to feed and interact with unique wildlife like zebras, emus, and llamas.

Budget Tip : Be sure to stay in the same room as Elvis Presley at the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven .

Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari – Ashland, NE

The 440-acre drive-through Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Park allows visitors to explore several different animal lands. Considered a self-safari, the featured wildlife includes antelope, deer, sandhill cranes, and a large buffalo herd. A short walk takes guests to see the wolves’ woods exhibit. The Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Park is open from April through October.

Lee Richarson Zoo – Garden City, KS

Although technically not a safari, the Lee Richardson Zoo deserves a feature for being the only self-drive zoo in the country. Additionally, this is a great attraction option for those on a tight budget. Admission to the zoo is always free for pedestrians and the self-drive is only $10 per vehicle. Even further, throughout the year, the zoo offers Wild Wednesdays which is the drive-through that is also free for all guests.

Safaris Near Me >> Northeast

The Mid-Atlantic region has some great safari opportunities but all parks operate seasonally. Please be sure to check websites for hours of operation. Some parks offer both walking and driving wildlife encounters.

Keystone Safari – Grove City, PA

See over 100 grazing animals at the Keystone Safari , an interactive, 144-acre drive-through safari park. As all of the animals are considered non-dangerous, visitors are welcome to purchase animal feed to lure the animals right to their car windows. Standout animals include zebras, bison, and emus.

Lake Tobias Wildlife Park – Halifax, PA

Pennsylvania’s rolling hills are a great place to enjoy an American-style safari . Visitors can climb aboard an open-air cruiser with a knowledgeable guide to learn fun facts about wildlife. Many of the 150 acres simulate the animals’ natural habitats.

Each tour lasts about 45 minutes and guests are welcome to purchase special feed to lure the animals to the cruiser. Take note, in April and November guests are allowed to use their own vehicle to enjoy the safari.

Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari – Jackson, NJ

Using your own vehicle, visitors can see over 1,200 animals from six continents including tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos, and giraffes. There are 11 sections to explore, with each different land highlighting its native animals. Almost all animals roam freely with only the predators kept safely behind fences. The 5-mile route traverses 350 acres and takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Catoctin Wildlife Preserve – Thurmont, MD

African zebras, camels, and American bison are some of the wildlife you’ll encounter at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve. Guests explore 25 wooded acres in an open-air safari cruiser with opportunities for photography and animal feeding. The safari lasts about 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the wildlife encounters.

Safaris Near Me >> Southeast

Maybe chalk it up to year-round visiting weather, but the Southeast region of the U.S. boasts some of the best safari experiences in the country.

Virginia Safari Park – Natural Bridge, VA

On a mission to allow guests to see animals in a more natural environment, the Virginia Safari Park hosts 180 acres of free-roaming animals. Safaris are self-driven and guests are welcome to stop and feed the animals at their leisure. Located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, this safari experience is consistently ranked as one of the best safari experiences in the country.

Some bonuses of this park include the freedom to drive through as many times as you’d like, a free guidebook , and the ability for guests to ride in the back of pick-up trucks. Pair this experience with the best historical sites in Virginia .

Pine Mountain Safari – Pine Mountain, GA

If you love exotic animals, then a day at Pine Mountain Safari is a walk on the wild side! From your own vehicle, guests can come face-to-face with 75 species of animals across a 250-acre park.

The route is 2.5 miles route is an opportunity to encounter zebras, emus, ostrich, American bison, watusi, and many other animals in a natural habitat. Feeding is permitted within the park with provided feed only.

Lion Country Safari – Loxahatchee, Florida

Offering Florida’s only drive-through safari experience, Lion Country Safari claims to be the first cageless zoo in the United States. The route is divided into seven habitats across 600 acres featuring hundreds of animals. The park also has the largest herds of zebra, rhino, and giraffes in the country. Boasting both a free audio guide and an online guidebook , it is easy to see why Lion Country consistently ranks as one of the best safari experiences in the United States.

Kilimanjaro Safaris (Disney) – Lake Buena Vista, FL

Located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom , Kilimanjaro Safaris simulates an 18-minute expedition through the lush African savannah. Thirty species of African wildlife roam freely through 110 acres, while an expert safari guide points out animals and shares fascinating facts.

The open-air safari is part of the experience at the Animal Kingdom. To check current prices or to make reservations, click here >> Animal Kingdom Lodge .

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9 Things to See in Moscow's Red Square

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In most cases, you'll be entering Red Square from the north, passing landmarks such as the Bolshoi Theatre and Duma parliament building as you make your way southward. Although you don't necessarily have to pass through the Voskresensky (or Resurrection in English) Gates in order to gain access to the square these days, they definitely provide a sense of arrival, to say nothing of the way their left arch frame's St. Basil's Cathedral if you look from just the right angle.

An interesting fact is that while a gate of some kind has stood here since the mid-16th century, the one you currently see wasn't built until 1994, having been destroyed in 1931 so that tanks could enter and exit Red Square during military parades.

St. Basil's Cathedral

TripSavvy / Christopher Larson 

Few sights are as iconic not only of Moscow and Red Square but indeed of Russia than St. Basil's Cathedral, whose colorful, onion-shaped domes are a symbol of the country around the world. Officially known as the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, this church has stood since 1561, which is quite miraculous when you consider all the turbulent history that has transpired since then.

Among other things, religion was severely prohibited during the Soviet period , which led some to believe that this emblem of the Russian Orthodox church might not withstand the tenure of the USSR. 

An interesting fact is that St. Basil's is the so-called "Kilometer Zero" of Russia; all of Moscow's main roads (which can take you anywhere in Russia) begin at the exits to Red Square. In this way, St. Basil's iconic status also has an extremely tangible element.

The Kremlin

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When you think of The Kremlin, it's unlikely that positive images enter your mind. The fact that simply saying the word "Kremlin" is too vague a descriptor (most Russian cities have their own Kremlin complexes; you should say "Moscow Kremlin") notwithstanding, this misunderstood place is incredibly beautiful, even if you don't like the policy that comes out of it.

Senate Square

In spite of its name, which refers to the role the building that rises above the square played during Imperial Russia, Senate Square is actually home to Russia's presidential administration, currently helmed by Vladimir Putin. In order to see where Russia's legislature operates from, walk just outside Red Square to the Duma parliament building.

Dormition Cathedral

Dating back to the year 1479, the gold-domed Dormition Cathedral pays homage to an Orthodox religious feast that commemorates the death of the Virgin Mary . As is the case with St. Basil's, it is curious that such a conspicuously religious structure was able to survive through the Soviet period.

Armoury Chamber

Though it takes its name from the fact that it housed Russia's royal arsenal when it was built in the 16th century, the most notable resident of the Kremlin's Armoury Chamber today is the Russian Diamond Fund.

Notable Kremlin Towers

Robert Schrader

The interior of the Moscow Kremlin is more beautiful and inviting than you'd expect, but the walls and towers that rise around it better live up to the intimidation with which the complex is associated. 

Borovitskaya Tower

Named to commemorate the dense forest that once stood atop the mount where it's built, this tower is extremely picturesque. Built in the late 15th century, it's visible from most places in the square, and also as you walk along the Moskva River.

Nikolskaya Tower

Also built in the year 1491, this tower currently suffered destruction at the hands of Napoleon's army in the 19th century. What you see now is the result of an 1816 re-design and renovation, though artillery fire during the Russian Revolution also caused superficial damage to the tower, named to honor St. Nikolas of Mozhaysk , so it's difficult to know which elements of it are original.

Spasskaya Tower

Known in English as the "Savior's Tower," this iconic, star-topped tower is perhaps the best-known of all the Kremlin's towers. Built in 1491 like the other two towers on this list, it's certainly the most photographed. As a result of its proximity to St. Basil's, it often makes its way into tourists' pictures.

Mausoleum of Lenin

Just as it's strange to learn how many religious monuments survived through the Soviet period, it's a bit odd to think that Lenin's preserved body still sits in a mausoleum just beneath the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square, given the lack of consensus about the ultimate impact of his Revolution, even in Russia.

It's not guaranteed that you'll be able to see the body (which, believe it or not, seems to be improving with age ) when you go, and if you do you will likely have to wait in line, but even strolling past the outside of the Lenin Mausoleum, flanked by stone-faced guards that almost look like statues, illuminates the gravity of his body still being here.

GUM Shopping Center

You might cringe, at least initially, when you realize that one of the most iconic stops on a tour of Red Square is a department store—until you see said department store, that is. Built in 1893 and known during Soviet times as the State Department Store, GUM  ( Glávnyj Universáľnyj Magazín​ or Main Universal Store in English) hearkens back to the grandeur of the late 19th century, both seen from the outside (especially, when lit up at night) and the interior, which might have you feeling like you're further west in Europe.

A trip inside GUM is a particularly good idea during winter, when frigid temperatures outside will have you savoring the heat, the quality of souvenirs, confections and other goods sold inside notwithstanding. Also, make sure not to confuse GUM with CDM, which sits near the Bolshoi Theatre, even though both are stunning and iconic in their own right.

State Historical Museum

The Russian State Historical Museum is located near Voskresensky Gates, though you should wait until after you've seen the first few attractions of Red Square and the Kremlin to head back there and go inside. To be sure, as you pass by its facade (whose late-19th century grandeur somewhat obscures that fact that it's currently a museum accessible to the public) you might not even think to try and gain entry.

Once inside the museum, you can plan to spend at least a couple of hours, given that artifacts here date back to the very beginning of the Russian state in the ninth century. As is the case with GUM, this will be a particularly alluring prospect if you visit in winter, when Moscow is arguably at its most beautiful, but certainly at its least tolerable. 

Minin-Pozharsky Monument

It's somewhat easy to disregard this monument, which pays homage to the two Russian princes who ended the so-called "Time of Troubles" in the mid-16th century, during which Polish-Lithuanian forces occupied Russia, among other awful things including a famine. That's because the statue currently sits just at the base of St. Basil's Cathedral, which makes it very difficult to photograph or even see without being overwhelmed by that much more famous edifice.

Though the statue originally sat at the very center of Red Square, it came to be an obstacle to the movement of tanks during the Soviet period, much like the Voskresensky Gates. As a result, authorities moved it during that time, and it's stayed where you currently find it ever since.

Kazan Cathedral

Taken by itself, the smokey-pink Kazan Cathedral is an architectural marvel; originally built in the 17th century, the church you find here today, located just north of the GUM department store, dates back only to 1993.

Unfortunately, since it sits not only in the shadow of GUM, but also in the shadow St. Basil's and the Towers of the Kremlin, it's easy to miss entirely if you aren't looking. As a result, you might wait until you've seen just about everything else in Red Square before coming here to take photos, and to appreciate the understated beauty of this oft-overlooked cathedral.

Moskva River

As you head south from St. Basil's Cathedral to exit Red Square, make sure to walk onto Bolshoy Moskvoretskiy Bridge, which crosses the Moskva River. If you look due north, you can get an excellent shot of the church framed, on the left, by the towers of the Kremlin. Directing your gaze a bit to the west allows you to see the skyscrapers of Moscow City as they rise above the Kremlin's walls.

Walking westward along the riverbank is also a worthwhile excursion, for the views it provides of Red Square and the Kremlin, as well as the fact that doing so takes you to other iconic Moscow attractions, including Gorky Park and the Pushkin Museum. The views you enjoy from the river and the bridge are particularly stunning at night, though you should make sure you bring a tripod if you want to get a clear picture, given how strong winds over and near the river can be.

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Masha Borak

Inside Safe City, Moscow’s AI Surveillance Dystopia

Sergey Vyborov was on his way to the Moscow Metro’s Aeroport station last September when police officers stopped him. The 49-year-old knew that taking the metro could spell trouble. During a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, police had fingerprinted and photographed him. He’d already been detained four times in 2022. But he was rushing to his daughter’s birthday, so he took a chance.

Vyborov wasn’t arrested that day, but the police informed him that he was under surveillance through Sfera, one of Moscow’s face recognition systems, for participating in unsanctioned rallies. Considered one of the most efficient surveillance systems, Sfera led to the detention of  141 people last year. “Facial recognition, and video cameras in general in a totalitarian state, are an absolute evil,” Vyborov says. 

Vyborov finds himself at the bottom of a slippery slope that privacy advocates have long warned about . Under the guise of smart city technology, authoritarian and democratic governments have rolled out huge networks of security cameras and used artificial intelligence to try to ensure there is no place to hide. Cities have touted the ability of such systems to tackle crime, manage crowds, and better respond to emergencies. Privacy campaigners say such systems could be used as tools of oppression. In Moscow, Vyborov and countless others now face that oppression on a daily basis.

The Russian capital is now the  seventh -most-surveilled city in the world. Across Russia, there are an  estimated 21 million surveillance cameras, and the country ranks among the top in the world in terms of the number of connected surveillance cameras. The system created by Moscow’s government, dubbed Safe City, was touted by city officials as a way to streamline its public safety systems. In recent years, however, its  217,000 surveillance cameras, designed to catch criminals and terrorists, have been turned against protestors, political rivals, and journalists. 

“Facial recognition was supposed to be the ‘cherry on top,’ the reason why all of this was built,” says a former employee of NTechLab, one of the principal companies building Safe City’s face recognition system.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Safe City’s data collection practices have become increasingly opaque. The project is now seen as a tool of rising digital repression as Russia wages war against Ukraine and dissenting voices within its own borders. It is an example of the danger smart city technologies pose. And for the engineers and programmers who built such systems, its transformation into a tool of oppression has led to a moment of reckoning. 

Founded in 2015, NTechLab  caught the attention of the global press with the February 2016 launch of FindFace, an app that allowed anyone to identify faces by matching them with images gathered from social network  VKontakte , Russia’s Facebook equivalent. Met with warnings of the  “end to public anonymity,” the app was reportedly downloaded by 500,000 people within two months of its launch. But for NTechLab, it was primarily a proof of concept for its nascent face recognition algorithm.

NTechLab still felt like a startup when one former employee, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, joined the company. And he was drawn in by the complexity of the work.

Amanda Hoover

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“From [an] engineering point of view, it’s very interesting to work with: It’s very difficult,” he says. 

After the release of FindFace, NTechLab began selling its face recognition tech to small businesses, such as shopping malls that could use it to catch shoplifters or see how many people return to certain stores. But NTechLab was also working with the Moscow Department of IT Technology (DIT), the government department tasked with building Moscow’s digital infrastructure. In 2018, when Russia hosted the FIFA World Cup, NTechLab’s face recognition tech was connected to more than 450 security cameras around Moscow, and its tech  reportedly helped police detain 180 people whom the state deemed “wanted criminals.”

At its inception, Moscow’s face recognition system was fed official watchlists, like the database of wanted people. The system uses these lists to notify the police once a person on the list is detected, but law enforcement can also upload an image and search for where a person has appeared. Over the years, security and law enforcement agencies have compiled a database of the leaders of the political opposition and prominent activists, according to Sarkis Darbinyan, cofounder of digital rights group Roskomsvoboda, which has been campaigning for a suspension of the technology. It remains unclear who is in charge of adding activists and protesters to watchlists.

In March 2019, following the success of the World Cup trial—some of Russia’s “most wanted” people were arrested while trying to attend matches—the Moscow Department of Transportation, which operates the city’s metro, launched its own surveillance system, Sfera. By October 2019, 3,000 of the city’s 160,000 cameras were enabled with face recognition tech, according to interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

NTechLab was one of many companies building the slew of systems that would later be branded Safe City. International companies, from US tech firms such as Nvidia, Intel, and Broadcom to South Korea’s Samsung and Chinese camera maker Hikvision, worked alongside local firms such as  HeadPoint ,  Netris , and  Rostelecom  that have developed various components of the surveillance systems. According to procurement documents cited by the UK’s BBC, three companies besides NTechLab created face recognition tech for Moscow’s growing surveillance apparatus, including Tevian, and Kipod, and VisionLabs. Moscow's Transportation Department said in social media posts that Sfera was built using VisionLabs technology, although the company downplays its involvement.

NtechLab says it operates in compliance with local laws and does not have access to customer data or camera video streams. Nvidia and Intel say they left Russia in 2022, with Nvidia adding that it does not create software or algorithms for surveillance. Broadcom and Samsung also say they stopped doing business in Russia following the invasion. VisionLabs says it only provides the Moscow Metro with its face recognition payment system. Other companies did not respond to requests for comment. The DIT and the Moscow Department of Transportation did not respond to requests for comment.

At the end of 2018, as Russia cracked down harder on political dissent online and in the streets, the DIT started to change, says a former employee who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. The department used to just be the “technical guys” providing assistance to security services, with the Moscow government recruiting highly paid IT specialists to make the most efficient systems possible, according to Andrey Soldatov, an investigative journalist and Russian security services expert. But according to the former employee, the DIT was beginning to reflect the Kremlin’s authoritarian bent.

Then came Covid. 

Safe City launched in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Russia, like some other countries, seemingly used the pandemic as grounds to expand its surveillance systems to catch people breaking self-isolation rules. By mid-March 2020, Safe City’s face recognition system had  caught 200 people breaking lockdown restrictions. At the same time, Moscow  introduced a regulatory sandbox for the development of AI applications with the participation of large IT companies, exempting authorities from the country’s already lax data protection requirements. “With Covid, [the DIT] essentially became a part of the repressive apparatus,” says Soldatov.

In addition to its network of more than 200,000 cameras, Safe City also incorporates data from  169  information systems, managing data on citizens, public services, transportation, and nearly everything else that makes up Moscow’s infrastructure. This includes anonymized cell phone geolocation data collection, vehicle license plate recognition, data from ride-hailing services, and voice recognition devices. As Safe City was still rolling out in 2020, the Russian government  announced  plans to spend $1.3 billion deploying similar Safe City systems across Russia. From the outside, the potential for the system to be abused seemed obvious. But for those involved in its development, it looked like many other smart city projects. “No one expected that the country would turn into hell in two years,” says one former NTechLab employee, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

Attempts to break open Moscow’s digital black box have been stonewalled. Alena Popova, whose image was captured during a protest against  politician Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky in April 2018, filed the first lawsuit against Moscow’s DIT for allegedly violating her privacy, seeking a ban on face recognition tech. The case was  thrown out , but Popova has continued to file lawsuits, including one at the European Court of Human Rights—which Russia is  no longer a part of. 

While Moscow operates one of the world’s most pervasive surveillance systems, Russian law does not safeguard individual privacy. With seemingly no hope of recourse, some activists have been forced to leave Russia altogether. Popova is now on the list of foreign agents and is living in an undisclosed overseas location. “I will not apply to any political asylum in any country because I would like to go back to my own country and fight back,” she says.

A key concern is that Moscow’s surveillance system was designed to conceal its data collection from Moscow’s 12 million residents, says Sergey Ross, founder of the Collective Action Center think tank and a former Moscow politician. Although the system is run by the Moscow government, elected members of the Moscow City Duma  say  they are excluded from regulating face recognition systems and have little insight into how it is being used. “It’s a complete black box,” says Ross.

“It was clear that sooner or later the technology would be used to catch activists and dissenters,” says Roskomsvoboda’s Darbinyan. 

Russia made  almost 20,500 political arrests in 2022 , according to data from human rights media organization OVD-Info, which characterizes the number as “unprecedented.” The arrests have sparked fears that Safe City will be expanded to catch draft dodgers—although former NTechLab employees say that doing so would be technically difficult to pull it off because of too many false positives. Still, Moscow police appear to be using face recognition to aid Russia’s war efforts in other ways.

In September 2022, just after Putin announced additional mobilization for the war against Ukraine, Viktor Kapitonov, a 27-year-old activist who’d protested regularly since 2013, was stopped by two police officers after being flagged by face recognition surveillance while he approached the turnstiles in Moscow’s marble-covered Avtozavdodskaya metro station. The officers took him to the military recruitment office, where around 15 people were waiting to enlist in Putin’s newly announced draft. 

“They let me in without waiting in line as if I were some sort of VIP person,” he says. The recruiters wanted to force Kapitonov to enlist, but he ended up escaping the draft. “I explained that I am not fit, I have a disability.”

From 2017 to 2020, NTechLab became one of Russia’s  fastest-growing companies. Other face recognition firms have cashed in as well: The revenue of Russian face recognition developers  grew between 30 and 35 percent in 2022, thanks in part to deals struck in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, and South America. Russia’s national AI strategy has supported such firms with grants, tax exemptions, and subsidies, which have benefited both startups and state corporations, including tech and finance giant Sber , telecom provider  Rostelecom , and defense firm Rostec, which previously owned a minority stake in NTechLab. While NTechLab continues to work globally, reporting a revenue increase of 35 percent in 2022, it has also faced a backlash against its work with the Russian state.

In June of last year, a “name-and-shame” list of NTechLab employees was  published [in Russian] with information collected from social media. The project went viral, and some employees reported being harassed online. Artem Zinnatullin, a software engineer now based in the US, says he published the list after NTechLab  sold its new  silhouette recognition technology to the Moscow government in June 2022. To him, it signaled support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. In the post, he called NTechLab “the blacksmith of the Digital Gulag.” Zinnatullin, who says he knew people arrested with the help of face recognition technology, believes publishing the list of NTechLab employees was only fair. “You recognize people on the street, it’s only fair if we use public data to recognize who you are,” he says.

Unlike many face recognition companies that keep a low profile, NTechLab’s splash with FindFace has turned it into a recognized brand. Employees say this high profile has made them into scapegoats. 

As arrests of activists and politicians mounted, the ethics of NTechLab’s technology became a recurring topic at company meetings. NTechLab staff have resisted the use of the company’s face recognition in rallies and refused to sell the technology to the military, according to people familiar with these discussions. Still, the NTechLab leadership concluded that the technology was ultimately positive—even if the occasional dissenting voice was arrested because of it. 

“We all saw these positive examples, we saw how it really catches criminals,” says one former NTechLab employee. “Most people in NTechLab would say they were doing something very good, technologies that can help and save people’s lives. It really did.”

As Russia furthered its march toward authoritarianism in 2021, NTechLab leadership began talking about moving the company abroad, according to people familiar with internal company discussions. But with lucrative government contracts abounding—NTechLab  received a $13 million investment from the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, in September 2020—its investors resisted the idea. The company was also changing. Its founders, Alexander Kabakov and Artem Kukharenko, stepped down from NTechLab—and both left Russia in December 2021 and February 2022, respectively, declaring   their  anti-war stance on social media. 

Other employees left amid an exodus of IT talent from Russia. The war changed how they viewed their work. “Looking back, we realize that we shouldn’t have done it,” says an NTechLab employee. “But even in 2017 and 2018, it was a completely different country. At least, that’s how it seemed to those who weren’t very immersed in politics.”

Russia’s Safe City projects show no sign of slowing. As more surveillance systems are deployed across the country, Moscow’s DIT is planning to centralize video streams collected across all regions into its own system. And new projects to digitize public services may make it even easier for the government to eventually create large databases where everyone can be found, according to Popova. “It is really scary,” she says. “If they digitalize all the databases and combine them to make this joint database, they can find everybody.” In July, Putin  signed a federal law that funnels personal biometric data collected in the country into a single system—an effort to obtain an “almost unlimited monopoly” on the collection and storage of biometrics, says Roskomsvoboda’s Darbinyan. 

In a further expansion of the Safe City project, Rostec is also  reportedly  developing software that will help authorities predict riots and prevent their escalation by analyzing media reports, data from social networks, video cameras, and other sources. Rostec did not respond to a request for comment on its development of these systems.

Similar systems have been developed in some Chinese cities, and Russia is now playing catch-up. “The Russian government would probably like to move toward China, but they do not yet have the necessary technology,” says Kiril Koroteev, head of international practice at the Russia-based Agora International Human Rights Group.

For now, many activists in Russia are left to do whatever they can to skirt the country’s growing surveillance apparatus, including avoiding the Moscow Metro. Kapitonov hopes that a balaclava will keep him safe, while Vyborov aims to ride the metro early in the morning, when there are fewer police around to detain him. 

“I think that it was inevitable that such a system would be made sooner or later,” says one former NTechLab employee. Face recognition is like a knife, he says: It can be used to cut food, but it can also be used to cut innocent people. He now regrets that NTechLab played a key role in building Moscow’s Safe City project. He has left Russia and doesn’t think he will work on face recognition again. “I do not want to mess with it anymore,” he says.

Update 9:25 am ET, February 6, 2023: Clarified the role of VisionLabs in the Sfera system and that NTechLab's founders have since left the company.

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A Guide to the Most Beautiful Green Spaces in Moscow

Home to more parks than any other city in Russia , Moscow offers a cornucopia of choice when it comes to green spaces. From innovative wild urbanism to 18th-century royal estates, here are the best places to escape from the city buzz in Russia’s capital.

Spread over a territory of almost 300 acres, Gorky Park is Moscow’s most popular green space. Opened in 1928, it was designed as ‘a city inside a city’ with its own telegraph, police unit and a doctor’s office. Some 90 years later, Gorky Park offers everything from segway rides to an open-air movie theatre, through to illuminating lectures and fantastic dining spots.

9 Krimsky Val, Moscow, Russia , +7 495 995 00 20

As the name implies, Muzeon is perfect for art lovers. The park plays host to art fairs, exhibitions, music festivals and video performances. But even if you don’t care for art, Muzeon has a lot to offer: from an elegant boardwalk to hip coffee shops to an in-ground fountain, where you can actually cool off in summer.

2 Krimsky Val, Moscow, Russia , +7 985 382 27 32

Hermitage Garden

Opened in 1894, the Hermitage garden is a lovely compact park, nestled between high rise buildings in Moscow center. Home to theaters New Opera, Hermitage and Sphera, the garden is predictably crowded, with theatre-goers along with office workers from the business centres in Tverskaya – all flock here for a green respite.

3 Karetnyy Ryad, Moscow, Russia , +7 495 699 04 32

Sokolniki Park

An open-air cinema, a rope course, amusement park, bike rentals and more – Sokolniki is 1,275 acres of fun. In winter the whole park turns into one of Moscow’s most famous skating rinks. Sokolniki gradually blends into Losiny Ostrov National Park – the world’s third largest forest in a city.

1 Sokol’nicheskiy Val, bld. 1, Moscow, Russia , +7 499 393 92 22

Izmailovsky Park

Moscow’s biggest park, Izmailovsky stretches for almost 3,800 acres. Particularly favored by hikers and cyclists, the forest-like park is a popular family spot, equipped with a ferris wheel, outdoor gyms and all kinds of places to eat.

7 Alleya Bol’shogo Kruga, Moscow, Russia , +7 499 166 61 19

Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve

Tsaritsyno estate is a perfectly reconstructed specimen of 18th century architecture set amid a lush green forested area. The only park in Moscow that boasts a light and music fountain, Tsaritsyno draws crowds with spectacular night water shows.

1 Dol’skaya Ulitsa, Moscow, Russia , +7 499 725 72 87

Severnoye Tushino Park

Despite a rather remote location, this park is definitely worth a visit. A half-a-century old apple garden, serene views on Khimkinskoye reservoir and a dry-docked submarine housing a Museum of Submarine Navy will definitely make up for the ride from the city centre.

Ulitsa Svobody, Moscow, Russia , +7 495 640 73 55

Kolomenskoye

Kolomenskoye Park is not merely a tranquil green space, but a celebrated museum reserve, where nature and historically significant architecture blend together. Here you can see one of Moscow’s oldest churches Church of the Ascension and a former residence of the Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov, the father of Peter the Great. It’s also perfect for romantic walks along the Moskva river.

39 Andropova Ave, Moscow, Russia , +7 499 782 89 17

In this park you’re guaranteed to encounter some ducks, woodpeckers, squirrels, hares and urban wildlife. The park is also famous for its beautiful boardwalk, open-air cinema, ropes course Panda Park, gallery of retro cars and a variety of places to eat.

22/1 Ulitsa Bol’shaya Filevskaya, Moscow, Russia , +7 499 145 45 05

The former estate of the Sheremetev family, Kuskovo is a fascinating piece of 18th-century Russia. Home to 20 unique architectural monuments, it is Moscow’s only historical park with a French formal garden, decorated with green walkways, marble statue and state-of-the art pavilions.

44/2 3-Ya Muzeynaya Ulitsa, Moscow, Russia

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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21 Things to Know Before You Go to Moscow

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17 Top Tourist Attractions in Moscow

The capital of Russia is an incredible place to explore. Visitors to Moscow come away spellbound at all the amazing sights, impressed at the sheer size and grandeur of the city. Lying at the heart of Moscow, the Red Square and the Kremlin are just two of the must-see tourist attractions; they are the historical, political and spiritual heart of the city – and indeed Russia itself.

A fascinating city to wander around, stunning cathedrals, churches, and palaces lie side-by-side with bleak grey monuments and remains from the Soviet state. In addition to its plethora of historical and cultural tourist attractions, Moscow is home to world-class museums, theaters and art galleries.

Renowned for its performing arts, fantastic ballets and amazing circus acts, catching a show while in Moscow is a must. The wealth of brilliant restaurants, trendy bars, and lively nightlife means there is something for everyone to enjoy.

See also: Where to Stay in Moscow

17. Tsaritsyno Palace

Once the summer residence of Catherine the Great, the stunning Tsaritsyno Palace is now a museum-reserve. The architecture is magnificent and there is a lovely park surrounding it for visitors to explore.

Located in the south of Moscow, the palace was commissioned in 1775 and recent renovations mean its lavish interior looks better than ever before with its elegant halls and beautiful staircases.

The exhibits on display look at the life of the empress as well as the history of Tsaritsyno itself. The huge palace grounds are also home to some other delightful buildings with the elegant opera house and wonderful brickwork of the Small Palace being particularly impressive to gaze upon.

Starting out in 1935 as the ‘All-Union Agricultural Exhibition’, VDNKh has slowly morphed over the years into the fascinating open-air museum of today. Remarkably, over 400 buildings can now be found within its confines.

The huge park complex has numerous pavilions representing former Soviet republics on show, such as those of Armenia and Turkmenistan and the distinctive architecture of each of the buildings is always interesting to gaze upon. In addition to this there is the fascinating Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics which is dedicated to space exploration and the fun Moskvarium aquarium even offers you the chance to swim with dolphins.

With lots of eateries scattered about and numerous entertainment options such as horse-riding and zip-lining, there is something for everyone to enjoy; the Friendship of Nations fountain truly is wonderful.

15. Kremlin Armoury

One of the oldest museums in the city, the Kremlin Armoury has a wealth of treasures; highlights include the ornate Grand Siberian Railway egg, the historic Cap of Monomakh and the stunning Imperial Crown of Russia which often has a crowd of tourists around it, jostling to take a photo.

Once the royal armory, there are loads of fascinating objects on display. Perusing the many sabers, jewelry, armor and more is as interesting as it is educational and entertaining and the swords are so finely crafted that you’ll almost wish you could pick up one and wield if yourself.

Established in 1851, the museum is situated in the Moscow Kremlin.

14. GUM Department Store

Standing for ‘Main Universal Store’ in Russian, GUM is stunning. Its wonderful skylights and beautiful facades mean it doesn’t look out of place alongside its illustrious neighbors on Red Square.

With over 200 shops, boutiques and upmarket eateries inside, it is a shopaholic’s heaven and concerned partners will be glad to find more affordable options alongside luxury brands such as Dior and Prada.

The main department store in the city, GUM was opened in 1893. The stunning architecture makes it well worth a visit even if shopping isn’t your thing.

13. Moscow Metro

It’s not often that public transport looks like a work of art. So many stops on the Moscow Metro will astound visitors with their beauty and elegance.

Decked in marble and with frescoes covering the walls, the stations are amazing to gaze upon and are part of one of the longest metro systems in the world, with the first stations opened in 1935.

Using the metro is the quickest and easiest way to get around Moscow and braving the crowds of commuters is well worth it for the beauty all around you.

12. Arbat Street

An elegant yet lively street, Arbat is full of impressive architecture and was once a popular place to live for aristocrats, artists, and academics.

A historic place, it is down Arbat Street that Napoleon’s troops are said to have headed on their way to capture the Kremlin.

Nowadays, there are many cafes, restaurants, and shops, as well as various monuments and statues to former residents such as Alexander Pushkin who was reputed to be a lover of the Russian Empress due to his massive influence in court.

11. Novodevichy Convent

Drenched in history, the Novodevichy Convent is located in a striking building that was once a fortress. This captivating place is well worth visiting when in Moscow.

Founded in 1524, the convent houses four cathedrals; Smolensk Cathedral is the undoubted highlight due to its delightful 16th-century frescoes.

Wandering around the grounds is like stepping back in time. The Novodevichy Cemetery is where many famous leaders of the Soviet Union are buried, such as Yeltsin and Khrushchev.

10. Pushkin Museum

Despite its name, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts actually has no connection at all to the famous poet other than that it was named in his honor after his death. A delight to visit, its extensive collection focuses on European art with masterpieces by Botticelli, Rembrandt, and van Gogh all featuring.

Sculptures, graphic art, paintings and more can be found in its beautiful galleries; various sections look at themes and epochs such as the Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age, and Byzantine art.

Among the many highlights are the clownish characters which can be found in Cezanne’s Fastnacht (Mardi Gras) and the twirling ballerinas who look so elegant in Degas’ Blue Dancers. Picasso’s Young acrobat on a Ball is also well worth checking out for its interesting use of shapes and colors.

9. Christ The Savior Cathedral

This gorgeous Russian Orthodox cathedral is located on the banks of the Moskva River, just a stone’s throw away from the Kremlin.

The church as it stands today was consecrated in 2000, as the original church that stood here was destroyed on the command of Josef Stalin in 1931 due to the anti-religious campaign.

With its delightful golden dome, spires and dazzling white facades, the Christ the Savior Cathedral is stunning. The interior is just as captivating to wander around, with its beautifully tiled floors and impressive altar.

8. Lenin Mausoleum

Opened to the public in 1924, Lenin’s Mausoleum is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Moscow. The red granite structure is located at the heart of the city in Red Square.

Lenin’s embalmed body lies in a glass sarcophagus; it is a somewhat eerie experience walking past the former leader of the Soviet Union but is well worth doing as you understandably can’t do it anywhere else in the world.

After visiting the mausoleum, head to the Kremlin wall right next to it for more graves of important communist figures such as Stalin and Brezhnev.

7. Tretyakov Gallery

Home to the most extensive and impressive collection of Russian fine art in the world, the State Tretyakov Gallery is definitely worth visiting when in Moscow for the wealth of amazing art pieces that it has on display.

Having started out as the private art collection of the Tretyakov brothers, there are now over 130,000 exhibits. Highlights include the iconic Theotokos of Vladimir which you will almost certainly recognise despite probably not knowing the name and Rublev’s Trinity which is considered to be one of highest achievements in Russian art.

An absolute must for art lovers, the State Tretyakov Gallery will delight visitors with all that is has to offer.

6. Kolomenskoye

Once a royal estate, Kolomenskoye is now a museum-reserve and lies a few kilometers outside of the city center. A captivating place to visit, there is a plethora of history on show and the site overlooks the Moskva River.

Consisting of four historical sites, there are extensive gardens for visitors to explore, as well as loads of interesting old buildings, the former village of Kolomenskoye itself and the impressive Palace of the Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich – once considered the Eighth Wonder of the World by contemporaries.

Among the many stunning sights, it is the brilliantly white Ascension Church that is the undoubted highlight – dating back to 1532.

5. Gorky Park

Lying alongside the Moskva River, the huge Gorky Park is a lovely place to visit. Its extensive gardens are home to numerous cultural institutions and visitors should definitely check out the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and while the eclectic exhibits may not always feature such incredible sights as a balloon-covered rider on a zebra; they certainly always succeed in pushing back the boundaries of art.

Pop-up exhibitions and festivals can be found from time to time in the park itself and there is an open-air theatre and numerous eateries alongside a plethora of leisure activities.

Whether it’s cycling, table tennis or yoga that you are after or beach volleyball and rowing, Gorky Park certainly has it. In winter, there is a huge ice rink for visitors to enjoy.

4. Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is the main theater in the country. The amazing opera and ballet performances it has put on over the centuries go a long way in explaining Russia’s rich history of performing arts.

While the Bolshoi Ballet Company was established in 1776, the theater itself was opened in 1825. The glittering, six-tier auditorium is lavishly and decadently decorated; it is a fitting setting for the world-class performances that take place on its stage.

Spending a night watching a performance of such classics as The Nutcracker or Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre is sure to be a memorable experience and the beauty all around you only adds to the sense of occasion.

3. Moscow Kremlin

This famously fortified complex is remarkably home to five palaces and four cathedrals and is the historic, political and spiritual center of the city. The Kremlin serves as the residence for the country’s president. It has been used as a fort, and this fact is made clear by its sheer size. The Kremlin’s outer walls were built in the late 1400s.

Under Ivan III, better known as Ivan the Great, the Kremlin became the center of a unified Russian state, and was extensively remodeled. Three of the Kremlin’s cathedrals date to his reign that lasted from 1462-1505. The Deposition Church and the Palace of Facets were also constructed during this time. The Ivan the Great Bell Tower was built in 1508. It is the tallest tower at the Kremlin with a height of 266 feet (81 meters).

Joseph Stalin removed many of the relics from the tsarist regimes. However, the Tsar Bell, the world’s largest bell, and the Tsar Cannon, the largest bombard by caliber in the world, are among the remaining items from that era. The Kremlin Armory is one of Moscow’s oldest museums as it was established more than 200 years ago. Its diamond collection is impressive.

The Kremlin’s gardens – Taynitsky, Grand Kremlin Public and Alexander – are beautiful. The Kremlin has also served as the religious center of the country, and there is a tremendous number of preserved churches and cathedrals here. The collections contained within the museums include more than 60,000 historical, cultural and artistic monuments. Those who enjoy the performing arts will want to consider attending a ballet or concert at the State Kremlin Palace. Completed in 1961, it is the only modern building in the Kremlin.

2. Red Square

Lying at the heart of Moscow, Red Square is the most important and impressive square in the city. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions due to its wealth of historical sights and cultural landmarks.

Drenched in history, the huge square is home to incredible sights such as the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and Lenin’s Mausoleum, among others. Consequently, it is not to be missed when in Moscow as it really is home to the city’s most stunning monuments.

It is here that many important moments in Russian history took place; the former marketplace has hosted everything from Tsar’s coronations and public ceremonies to rock concerts and Soviet military parades. Wandering around the massive square is a humbling experience and undoubtedly one of the highlights the city has to offer.

1. Saint Basil’s Cathedral

Located in the impressive Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral is gorgeous; its delightful spires appear as if out of a fairytale. The most recognizable building in the country, the cathedral is very much a symbol of Russia. No visit to Moscow is complete without having taken in its unique and distinctive features.

Ivan the Terrible ordered the cathedral’s construction in the mid-16th century, and legend holds that Ivan put out the architect’s eyes so that he would be unable to build another cathedral more glorious than St. Basil’s. Designed to resemble the shape of a bonfire in full flame, the architecture is not only unique to the period in which it was built but to any subsequent period. For various reasons, both Napoleon and Stalin wanted to destroy the cathedral but fortunately did not succeed.

Known for its various colors, shapes and geometric patterns, St. Basil’s Cathedral houses nine different chapels that are all connected by a winding labyrinth of corridors and stairways. On the lower floor, St. Basil’s Chapel contains a silver casket bearing the body of St. Basil the Blessed.

Throughout the cathedral are many beautiful murals, frescoes, wooden icons and other art works and artifacts. Outside the cathedral is a lovely garden with the bronze Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied an all-volunteer Russian army against Polish invaders during a period of the late 16th century known as the Times of Troubles.

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• Explore the majestic St Petersburg & Moscow on private city tours
• Admire the rich Russian history, art and architecture
• Travel to Moscow on a highspeed train
• Enjoy the local cuisine in stylish restaurants

Lower Volga Voyage

• Visit magnificent Red Square and Kremlin and examine the collection at theKremlin’s State Armory.
• Experience Russia’s diverse musical traditions at lively folk music performances
• Explore Volgograd, the site of the decisive battle of World War II’s eastern front

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White Russian - 7 days

• Discover Moscow's UNESCO-listed Red Square, home to spectacular St Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum and the historic GUM Department store
• Explore the grounds of Moscow's mighty Kremlin, with its numerous governmentbuildings, gold-domed cathedrals and the giant tsar bell
• Celebrate New Year's Eve in Moscow!
• Take in the highlights of St Petersburg including a guided tour of the exquisite Church on Spilled Blood, Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral
• Take a guided tour of the remarkable Hermitage Museum at the Winter Palace

Vodka Shot - 6 days

• Explore the beautiful city of St Petersburg, including the exquisite Church on Spilled Blood, Peter & Paul Fortress and Nevsky Prospekt
• Marvel at the dazzling array of art and exhibits in the world-famous Hermitage Museum, at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg
• Discover a lavish residence of the tsars on a day trip to Catherine Palace at Tsarkoe Selo (winter: mid-October to April) or Peterhof Palace and gardens (summer: May to mid-October)
• Take in the highlights of the capital on a walking tour, visiting Moscow's famous Red Square, home to the historic GUM Department Store, Lenin’s Mausoleum and spectacular St Basil’s Cathedral
• Take a guided tour of the Moscow Kremlin, Russia’s political power house. Stroll around the grounds of this fortified complex, visit the Kremlin's cathedrals and see the mighty Tsar Bell

Route of the Romanovs - 10 days

• Learn about the last days of the Romanovs in Yekaterinburg, visiting the sites where Tsar Nicolas II and his family were assassinated and buried
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New Year's in Moscow - 9 days

• Visit Catherine Palace at Tsarkoe Selo on Christmas Day and marvel at the incredible Amber Room
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Tsaritsyno: The idyllic palace park where Muscovites escape the big city (PHOTOS)

Tsaritsyno Park offers one of the most impressive examples of Russian garden design from the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Located in southern Moscow, it is just a short walk from (you guessed it!) Tsaritsyno metro station .

Visitors often crowd around an enormous fountain near the park’s entrance, but you’ll find the palace towers a bit farther away among the trees.  

The estate originally belonged to Dimitrie Cantemir, a Moldavian prince allied with Imperial Russia. He built a church and a wooden palace on the site .

His French-style garden was designed according to the baroque architectural styles of that time and included pathways and flowerbeds that were made according to strict geometrical rules .

Catherine the Great fell in love with the estate so much that she decided to buy it. At the time, English-style gardens that artistically imitated natural landscapes were popular, and so two gardeners named John Munro and Francis Reid were brought over from England to work on the estate .

There’s nothing better than wandering through the forest along the winding cobblestone pathways, which are lined with antique statues and pavilions with huge pillars. As you walk, you hear the melodic singing of birds, which heightens the whole experience and takes you away from the chaos of the city center .

Monument to the architects Vasilii Bazhenov and Matvei Kazakov

Tsaritsyno’s construction began in 1779 under the supervision of architect Vasili Bazhenov. Unfortunately, just as construction work was almost complete, Catherine visited the palace and expressed dissatisfaction with its design. In 1785, she ordered the palace to be demolished and rebuilt. This time, she tasked Matvey Kazakov, one of Bazhenov’s students, with overseeing the project .

Main palace

Kazakov designed a three-story building that he hoped would capture the glory of Catherine’s reign. However, when work was suspended for three years due to a lack of funds, the empress ordered him to alter the plans, advising him to construct a two-story building and simplify the design of the roof .

Following Catherine’s death in 1796, work on the project came to a standstill once again, and the unfinished palace was left in ruins throughout the 19 th century. Local residents ransacked the place, removing window frames as well as stone walls .

Between 1950 and 1980, the ruins of the Grand Palace even became an unexpected rock-climbing site .

This finally changed between 2006 and 2007, when the city undertook a huge construction project to restore the park and architectural complex, bringing it back to its original beauty and splendor .

The main building still contains ornate reception rooms, but the annexes have been turned into a museum.

You might even stumble upon a ballroom scene in the middle of the forest, like something straight out of a movie, except with older people gathering to dance to electro or disco music .

These vast green spaces serve as a haven for Muscovites looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and find respite in a tranquil, serene setting. A lot of people come here just to lounge on the grass, play badminton or take a peaceful stroll in the shade .

If you wander around the forest, you might even come across a strange sight under the treetops: a sacred site maintained by local followers of Shamanism. Here you’ll find totem poles decorated with ribbons, symbols and all sorts of offerings, such as pieces of bread, semolina or candy (which you can see being stolen from right under our noses by a squirrel in the picture above).

Read more: What to do in Kolomenskoye, one of Moscow's oldest parks

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FEIG ELECTRONIC: Moscow-City Skyscrapers Streamline Parking Access and Control with Secure RFID

Feig electronic partners with isbc group to deploy ucode dna rfid security and parking access control solution in moscow business district.

Weilburg, Germany  — December 3,  2019  —  FEIG ELECTRONIC , a leading global supplier of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers and antennas with fifty years of industry experience, announces deployment of the UCODE DNA RFID security and parking contactless identification solution in the Moscow International Business Center, known as Moscow-City, one of the world’s largest business district projects.

The management of Moscow-City not only selected long-range, passive UHF RFID to implement in its controlled parking areas, it also chose to implement UCODE DNA , the highest form of secure RAIN RFID technology, developed by NXP Semiconductors.

Panoramic view of Moscow city and Moskva River at sunset. New modern futuristic skyscrapers of Moscow-City – International Business Center, toned

“Underscoring NXP’s innovation and leadership in developing advanced RAIN RFID technologies, our UCODE DNA was chosen to be incorporated with the FEIG and ISBC implementation of the contactless identification system in the prestigious Moscow-City,” said Mahdi Mekic, marketing director for RAIN RFID with NXP Semiconductors. “This exciting project represents yet another successful deployment of NXP’s contactless portfolio, and showcases our continued ability to meet the high-security requirements of highly demanding applications without compromising user convenience.”

“UCODE DNA is considered the only identification technology to match the physical protection of a barrier with the cybersecurity necessary to truly protect entrances from unauthorized access,” said Manuel Haertlé, senior product manager for FEIG Electronic. “As a respected contactless payment technology company, FEIG applies security know-how from its payment terminals, which are fully certified according to the latest high-class security standards, into our RFID systems. FEIG vehicle access control RFID readers incorporate advanced secure key storage elements, supporting various methods for secure key injection.”

FEIG’s partner ISBC Group provided the knowledge and support for this successful implementation using  FEIG’s long-range UHF RFID . The resulting system enables authorized vehicle entry into areas reserved for private residential use or corporate tenants, while also allowing availability of temporary, fee-based visitor parking. Thanks to the cryptographic authentication of UCODE DNA, both the tag and reader must go through an authentication procedure before the reader will validate the data from the tag, which is transmitted wirelessly. This level of authentication is typically used in the most secure data communication networks.

“The system’s two-step authentication means that only authorized equipment can handle the secure protocol and the data exchange with the UCODE DNA based tag. Without the required cryptographic secrets, other readers would query the tag in vain, because the tag’s response cannot be interpreted or understood,” said Andrey Krasovskiy, director of the RFID department at ISBC Group. “On top of this, each data exchange in the authentication process is unique, so even if a malicious actor were to intercept the communication, the transmission is only good for a single exchange and the tag’s unique identity is protected from cloning.”

Established in 1992 and still growing, Moscow-City is the revitalization and transformation of an industrial riverfront into a new, modern, vibrant and upscale business and residential district. A mix of residential, hotel, office, retail and entertainment facilities, it is located about four kilometers west of Red Square along the Moscow River. Twelve of the twenty-three planned facilities have already been completed, with seven currently under construction. Six skyscrapers in Moscow-City reach a height of at least 300 meters, including Europe’s tallest building, Federation Tower, which rises more than 100 stories.

Partnering with ISBC and deploying FEIG Electronic RFID solutions, the Moscow International Business Center is delivering security and access control to its city center today, as it grows into the city of tomorrow.

About FEIG ELECTRONIC

FEIG ELECTRONIC GmbH, a leading global supplier of RFID readers and antennas is one of the few suppliers worldwide offering RFID readers and antennas for all standard operating frequencies: LF (125 kHz), HF (13.56 MHz), UHF (860-960 MHz). A trusted pioneer in RFID with more than 50 years of industry experience, FEIG ELECTRONIC delivers unrivaled data collection, authentication, and identification solutions, as well as secure contactless payment systems. Readers from FEIG ELECTRONIC, which are available for plug-in, desktop, and handheld applications, support next-generation contactless credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, NFC and access control credentials to enable fast, accurate, reliable and secure transactions. For more information, visit:  www.feig.de/en

Founded in Moscow in 2002, ISBC Group provides knowledge and support to integrators for their successful implementation of RFID and smart card-based solutions. The company specializes in the distribution of smart card equipment, contact and contactless card manufacturing, smart card and RFID personalization services, and information security.  Its Research and Design Center is focused specifically on RFID, primarily HF and UHF solutions with NXP tags, and software development for the smart card industry. For more information visit:  https://isbc-cards.com/

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David Pecker returns to witness stand in Trump's hush money trial

Moscow residents full of questions for home depot.

Nov. 4—Moscow residents pressed Home Depot officials on matters like traffic, jobs and water use during a community meeting Friday in Moscow.

In August, the Idaho State Board of Education unanimously approved a ground lease between Home Depot and the University of Idaho to build a 138,000-square-foot store and garden center on UI land just north of the Palouse Mall. Home Depot plans to open the store in 2025.

According to Moscow's city code, a large retailer like Home Depot is required to hold a community meeting before establishing a store in the city. Approximately 50 people attended that meeting Friday at the Best Western Plus University Inn.

People who attended, including employees of Moscow-Pullman Building Supply, questioned the officials about the economic effects of introducing Home Depot into a small community like Moscow.

Barry Simmons, Home Depot's real estate manager, said many smaller businesses actually want to be close to Home Depot stores because they drive traffic to the area.

Dan Zoldak, the site development coordinator for Home Depot, said it will benefit the community by bringing business and jobs to the market. He said Home Depot stores also attract contractors to cities they are located in.

According to Home Depot, the company drives $1 billion in economic activity in Idaho already.

Home Depot plans to hire 150 to 200 part-time and full-time employees in the Moscow store. This topic sparked some debate Friday as the Home Depot officials did not know what percentage of its employees will be part-time.

Alan Espenschade, director of operations for Moscow-Pullman Building Supply, said many local companies primarily hire full-time employees. He said 85 to 90% of Moscow-Pullman Building Supply's employees are full-time.

To compete with Home Depot's prices, Espenschade said Moscow-Pullman Building Supply may have to consider hiring fewer full-time employees,"which goes against our entire culture."

"It's the ideology of a big box store versus your more small to mid-level mom and pop stores.," he said.

Espenschade assumed that Home Depot would hire a much larger percentage of part-time employees, but the Home Depot officials could not say with certainty what that percentage would be.

"We cannot honestly tell you two years in the future how many part-time employees it will have," said Eric Douglas, manager of Home Depot's government relations.

Several people, including Moscow City Council candidate Evan Holmes, brought up concerns about the store's water use. Holmes asked for Home Depot to show the community a plan to minimize its water consumption.

Zoldak said the store will meet Moscow's low-flow requirements and use drought-tolerant landscaping. They also appeared open to the suggestion of recapturing rainwater from the store's roof.

Others pointed out that this does not account for the water required to sustain Home Depot's garden center. Tyler Garrett, Moscow-Pullman Building Supply CEO, said Home Depot said his store uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per year on its nursery.

As for traffic effects, Home Depot completed a traffic study that has not yet been approved by the city of Moscow. Home Depot plans to cover the cost of extending A Street along the front of the store. Zoldak said there will probably be a four-way stop at the A Street and Farm Road intersection.

Garrett said that section of A Street is already busy with traffic, and he is worried the new store will create "a traffic jam for blocks."

The Moscow store will likely reduce the amount of people driving to the Lewiston Home Depot. Simmons said about 20% of Lewiston's sales will migrate to the Moscow store.

"I do believe there is a good portion of the community here that would benefit from a Home Depot and actually prefer not to have to drive as far to get some of the materials they need," Simmons said.

The Home Depot district manager who oversees the Lewiston store did not attend Friday's meeting.

When asked about the lights outside the Home Depot, Zoldak said the lights will be dimmed after the store closes each night.

Zoldak said he believes the store meets all of the city's codes, but the plans still have to be approved by Moscow officials. He said the store is not a done deal, but he hopes to start getting construction bids in December or January.

Some questioned why Moscow city officials were not present at the meeting.

Moscow City Supervisor Bill Belknap said that Friday's gathering was an informal, off-record meeting. He said the city issues permits for this project, so it would not be appropriate for anyone affiliated with the city government to be present at such an event.

"The City is the permitting authority and members of the City's Zoning Board of Adjustment and City Council may be called to act as hearing examiners to consider any appeals based upon the official record," Belknap wrote in an email. "As a result, it is not appropriate for staff or the Mayor or City Council to participate in the meeting or gather information outside the official record which could jeopardize their ability to participate as hearing examiners."

Espenschade said after the meeting he is worried this store signals a paradigm shift for Moscow, which he fears is becoming homogenized like other cities.

"You used to come to Moscow, Idaho, because you could buy a coffee at One World, not Starbucks," he said. "You could go to Moscow-Building Supply, not Home Depot."

He said competition is great for the consumer and even businesses, but he is concerned Moscow is losing its identity.

"Everything's becoming vanilla," he said.

Kuipers can be reached at [email protected] .

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Watch CBS News

Moscow court rejects opposition leader Alexey Navalny's appeal against his prison sentence

Updated on: February 20, 2021 / 12:43 PM EST / AP

A Moscow court on Saturday rejected Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's appeal against his prison sentence, even as the country faced a top European rights court's order to free the Kremlin's most prominent foe.

A few hours later, a judge in a separate case ordered Navalny to pay a fine for defaming a World War II veteran.

During the first court hearing, Navalny urged Russians to stand up to the Kremlin in a fiery speech mixing references to the Bible and "Harry Potter."

Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption crusader and President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.

Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. He appealed the sentence and asked to be released. A Moscow City Court judge instead reduced the prison sentence to just over 2 1/2 years, deducting a month-and-a-half that Navalny spent under house arrest in early 2015.

The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and the European Сourt of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful.

Navalny has been held in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison, but Russian news reports said that after losing his appeal, he would likely be sent to a prison in the western part of Russia within the next few days to serve out his sentence. 

His arrest and imprisonment have fueled a huge wave of protests across Russia. Authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown, detaining about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.

In his speech at the hearing, Navalny referenced the Bible as well as "Harry Potter" and the animated sitcom "Rick and Morty" as he urged Russians to resist pressure from authorities and challenge the Kremlin to build a fairer and more prosperous country.

"The government's task is to scare you and then persuade you that you are alone," he said. "Our Voldemort in his palace also wants me to feel cut off," he added, in a reference to Putin.

"To live is to risk it all," he said, citing "Rick and Morty." "Otherwise, you're just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you."

Navalny also addressed the judge and the prosecutor, arguing that they could have a much better life in a new Russia.

"Just imagine how wonderful life would be without constant lying," he said. "Imagine how great it would be to work as a judge ... when no one would be able to call you and give you directions what verdicts to issue."

He insisted that he was unable to report to the authorities in line with his probation requirements while he was convalescing in Germany after his poisoning, emphasizing that he returned to Russia immediately after his health allowed.

"I wasn't hiding," he said. "The entire world knew where I was."

Navalny said he was an atheist before but has come to believe in God, adding that his faith helped him face his challenges. He said he believed the Bible phrase that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, and that he felt no regret about deciding to return home to Russia.

"Even though our country is built on injustice and we all constantly face injustice ... we also see that millions of people, tens of millions of people, want righteousness," Navalny told the court. "They want the righteousness and sooner or later they will have it."

Asked about the impact of Navalny's prison sentence on Russia's politics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the country's "rich and multifaceted" political scene will develop regardless of the verdict.

Russia has rejected Western criticism of Navalny's arrest and the crackdown on demonstrations as meddling in its internal affairs.

In a ruling Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Russian government to release Navalny, citing "the nature and extent of risk to the applicant's life." The Strasbourg-based court noted that Navalny has contested Russian authorities' argument that they had taken sufficient measures to safeguard his life and well-being in custody following the nerve agent attack.

The Russian government has rebuffed the European court's demand, describing the ruling as unlawful and "inadmissible" meddling in Russia's affairs. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Russian Justice Ministry on Saturday sent a letter to the court asking it to revise its order.

In the past, Moscow has abided by European Court of Human Rights rulings awarding compensations to Russian citizens who have contested verdicts in Russian courts, but it never faced a demand by the European court to set a convict free.

In a sign of its long-held annoyance with the Strasbourg court's verdicts, Russia last year adopted a constitutional amendment declaring the priority of national legislation over international law. Russian authorities might now use that provision to reject the ECHR's ruling.

After losing his appeal, Navalny had a second court hearing on charges of slandering a World War II veteran and was ordered to pay a fine of 850,000 rubles (about $11,500). Prosecutors asked for a 950,000-rubles ($13,000) fine.

Navalny called the 94-year-old veteran and other people featured in a pro-Kremlin video last year as "corrupt stooges," "people without conscience" and "traitors." He rejected the slander charges, describing them as part of official efforts to disparage him.

Navalny said at the hearing that his accusers "will burn in hell."

• Alexei Navalny
• Vladimir Putin

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