Made several visits to the Big Onion between March 1996 and October 1997, usually with stops in Moscow to visit colleagues in the former Min/GoskomPriroda - the Ministry or State Committee for the Environment, now subsumed under the Ministry of Natural Resources. The change between my first visit as a language student in the summer of 1985 to the summer of 1997, when a glittery, neon-festooned Moscow was celebrating it's 850th anniversary was astounding, and welcome.