"It's true that Russia can be a tough and frankly life-sapping place to live. The seemingly endless winter that begins in the sheer misery of the soggy November darkness; the sometimes inexplicably abrupt behaviour of people in public life; the traffic jams that turn any outing into an operation requiring military planning. But I could not imagine anywhere more enthralling on earth," writes former Moscow correspondent Stuart Williams, bidding farewell to Russia after more than five years in the country.