Arrival at Dawn

Rassvet - dawn, or (roughly transliterated) 'lightburst' - greets us at 5.33am in Moscow's Kievskaya station, just a mile or so from our flat, as we lug our bags out of the narrow corridors one last time.

The platform is already crowded with people meeting us arrivals, but Moscow will not wake up properly for another 3-4 hours. As far north as Edinburgh, the days are long in summer.

The ominous Foreign Ministry, 'MID', glowers quietly in the background, as it does from almost every viewpoint in the city. You know who's in charge.