In front of Moscow's ornate Bolshoi Theatre, its soft yellow lights illuminating a snowstorm in the Russian capital, Valentina Ivakina had come to "escape today's problems" ... .
Museum attendance in Moscow, which competes with Saint Petersburg as Russia’s cultural capital, jumped 30 percent last year, Mowcow Deputy MayorNatalya Sergunina said ...Perhaps that’s where this surge in interest in culture comes from,” he said.