Red Square Nights

Moscow, Russian Federation

This eerie but pretty scene is in Red Square, late February 2014, as Olympic athletes are heading home from Sochi, while some protest is anticipated in Moscow. Tonight, no access to St. Basil's Cathedral, as the uniformed gentlemen up ahead stand before the Kremlin Wall. A cool, calm night. And here is Kazan Cathedral.
(Taken in HDR on my 'toy' Pentax camera - best to be 'not paparazzi'.)

Turning back then, just there (below) is the fashionable and trendy GUM - a shopping 'emporium', to Western eyes sort of like a 'mall' but encased inside palatial walls, very old but new too. When you see it from the outside, facing Red Square and the Kremlin Wall, you might think it's a palace. In winter 2014 it was celebrating 120 years on the Square. (And Sochi too.) In front that's a skating rink which, as I was taking photos, was blaring 'All You Need is Love'. Amen.

GUM ["Not to be confused with TsUM"]

Below is something which has held me in awe since I was little, something unique, iconic, and... Russian (Orthodox) in the architecture. Actually, this was the dream cathedral of Ivan the Terrible, who (according to legend) had the architect blinded after completion, so as to never again design such a masterpiece for anyone else. (He did - once.)