Moscow: russia's cosmopolitan capital is more than just the kremlin

The city will host football matches in the 2017 Confederations Cup and the 2018 Fifa World Cup, so the race is on to bring an inkling of the ultra-modern to a metropolis renowned for

bombastic architecture. The new Ramenskoye Airport and a new metro line will mean an all-time high in the city’s connectivity, and Moscow will gain a blockbuster attraction in the

Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre, relocated to a dramatic building in the Vorobyovy Gory hills. TELL ME MORE…  For some time Moscow has been showing the world it’s got far more in

store for visitors than its iconic, dome-studded Red Square skyline. Besides classic culture-vulture haunts like the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, the long list of world-class museums and

galleries here is embellished on an almost annual basis. Take the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the city’s foremost modern-art museums, founded by Roman Abramovich’s wife Dasha

Zhukova and moved in 2015 to a new location in Gorky Park, or the brand-new Russian Impressionist Museum, a mammoth collection of 19th century Russian art in a former confectionery factory.

AT BOLSHOI, WORLD BALLET STARS DANCE FOR UKRAINE GETTY The entrance to Gorky Park Moscow has embraced the trend of converting industrial spaces into contemporary art venues. > Russia’s 

most splendid night out awaits at the Bolshoi Theatre Red October, Winzawod, Flakon and ArtPlay are among the former factories taken over by artists and designers, with cool cafes and clubs.

UNMISSABLE EXPERIENCES Russia’s most splendid night out awaits at the Bolshoi Theatre, a lavish 18th-century hub of ballet and opera. GETTY The dazzling Bolshoi Theatre Works by Tchaikovsky

and Rachmaninoff have premiered here. Moscow’s revamped green spaces, Gorky Park and Hermitage Gardens, are now vibrant centres of urban life, with music festivals, art exhibitions, street

food, dance classes and public bike paths. GETTY The Pushkin Cafe, one of Moscow's best restaurants You can relive decadent Tsarist Russia at Café Pushkin, one of Moscow’s best

restaurants. _| Extract from Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel 2017 (£9.99)_ THE KNOWLEDGE Abercrombie & Kent (01242 547 922/abercrombiekent.co.uk) offers three nights at Ararat Park Hyatt

from £975pp (two sharing), B&B. Price includes return flights from Heathrow, transfers and walking tour. Russia tourism: visitrussia.org.uk