GREAT news. We heard on the TV last night that Ivanovo has been given 500m roubles ($180k) to repair and reopen the city airport, closed since 1991. There have been rumours about it reopening for a while now, will all this extra oil/gas money being available for development, but this is the official confirmation everyone has been waiting for. Anna remembers taking a flight from there in 1988, but since it shut down 15 yrs ago it’s just been home to the boy racers (they use it for drag racing as it’s the best road surface in the region!).

Ivanovo is only 300km away from Moscow which in any normal situation would be say 2 or 3 hours by car - poor roads make that the best part of 6 hours here. The train isn’t much better, coming in to Moscow in 5 1/2 hours. That means it’s a two day trip going to Moscow, with a rented flat for the night (thanks Rick!). So basically we wouldn’t even think twice about paying the airfare for a 30 minute journey. Even with the old Aeroflot planes used for internal flights, I have a feeling it will be safer than traveling by car…

The airport is planning to open in the fall of this year.