7. Spy Game

The Golden eagle visits two cities that were completely closed to foreigners until relatively recently. yekaterinburg, founded by peter the Great in 1723, is best known as the city where the Romanovs were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Less well known was its extensive complement of Soviet-era armament factories, which led to the city being closed to foreigners until 1991. There are areas on its outskirts that remain closed, where armaments are still manufactured. There is time to visit the sprawling yekaterinburg military Technology museum, which, in addition to menacing-looking Hind military helicopters, armoured trains and modern jet bombers, exhibits fragments of the american U2 spy plane shot down while pilot Gary power was recording images of the city’s factories. The final destination of the journey, Vladivostok, home to the Russian navy’s pacific Fleet, was closed to Westerners until 1992.