I spent over four months in Russia in 2001, researching the second edition (the previous edition dates from 1993) of the Traveler's Russia Companion.

I travelled from the European North and St. Petersburg down to the south and the Caucasus, from Pskov in the west to Vladivostok and Kamchatka in the east.

The acerbic Marquis de Custine remarked (it's among the nicer things he had to say on his travels in the mid-nineteenth century), "Russia is a country where everyone is part of a conspiracy to mystify the foreigner." I agree wholeheartedly. But then, everyone loves a good conspiracy theory...