You know, it is the best place in the World ;)
"Praise for a country is noise, because everyone already expects it and knows what sort of things it will say."
Russia is a huge piece of land straddling the EuroAsianContinent?. It's the world's largest country, ahead of Canada and the USA.
For most westerners, Russia is associated with its European cities - Moscow, St Petersburg and Murmansk. This is the heartland of Imperial Russia, and these great and ancient cities often become the focus for most tourists. However, there is much more to Russia, a country that spans eleven time zones and two continents, ending less than 50 miles from North America. Within this vast expanse lie the largest freshwater lake in the world, rivers and forests teeming with fish and wildlife, awe inspiring volcanos, and towering mountains. Russia is the largest country on earth, with enormous tracts of land that have been opened to travellers only in the last few years.
While MoscowCity? and some Siberian towns prosper, many parts of Russia are literally deserted.
This is where IsaacAsimov, AynRand are from
True enough, but it should also be pointed out that they both left the Soviet Union to come to the US.
It's not hard to see AtlasShrugged as a deep, heart-rending plea against the terrors of the CyrillicAlphabet. Same for EyeRobot?, except in a different way.