Siberia is different. The city of Nizhnevartovsk, four hours flying time and two time zones east of Moscow is typical of many Siberian cities. With a population of some 150,000, it is a one-industry town, like many in the vast Siberian taiga stretching from the Urals mountains to the Sea of Japan. The city itself is hardly an inspiring place. Like many built in Soviet times, it consists of a series of large, featureless apartment blocks built with utility, not beauty, in mind, and has little to distinguish it from a thousand others in Russia.
Russian cities are like that.
But Nizhnevartovsk is easy to escape. Wilderness starts on the doorstep in Siberia. Sparse, sturdy pine trees stand out against the snow. Lakes abound, and are identifiable in winter only by an absence of trees on the snow. Not that that is considered cold.