Globalista

Kazan. Be surprised, be very surprised. This is where Central Asia meets Boom Town, Russian style. Oil rich and dominated by a minareted citadel straight out of central casting, Kazan has ruled the mid Volga for a thousand years. Once the northwestern stronghold of the Mongol Khanate, sacked by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, still the gateway to Siberia, Kazan (now capital of the predominately Muslim Republic of Tatarstan) is the frontier between the Turkic descendants of Genghis Khan's army and the Christian West. Two races, two languages, two religions living harmoniously, helped by five TV stations, an opera, theatres and shopping malls. Good hotels are plentiful, the night life buzzing, the people obliging. Trains, boats and planes abound and the limitless forest that surrounds it, harbours tranquil whitewashed monasteries with breathtaking icons and 17th-century frescoes.