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St. Petersburg is a wonderful city. You have wonderful parks, birds singing in the trees, manatees in the water, pelicans. So it's like this little paradise on Earth.

I absolutely fell in love with Moscow. It's one of those places where you can't help but trip over history at every turn. It's a city of enormous contradictions. Within a few yards of Lenin's Tomb is some of the most expensive shopping in the world.

I don't like Moscow. It's not my city.

Moscow is a huge inspiration for me. I love what I find here, I love being here.

I first came to Russia because of the culture, literature and music... and my interest in the 19th-century revolutionary spirit of Herzen, Bakunin and Kropotkin. Russia is a wonderful place to bring new clowns because Russians give back a wonderful response.

I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.

I've never been to St. Petersburg in my life.

The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.

All in all, I think Kazan is Russia's sportiest city after Moscow, leaving all the others far behind.

Russia is very big and very varied. People are different in different regions.