Letter from Russia

I have come to the city of Samara a second time, to visit a Russian friend I first met in St Louis. The city lies 1000 kilometres south-east of Moscow, and stands at the confluence of two wide rivers, the Volga and the Samara. Founded in 1586 as a small fortress, it now has more than one million inhabitants. The Samara region, rich in oil and minerals, is reputed to have the highest per capita wealth of any region after Moscow.