As for the torpedo base, as far as I am aware, it’s still there. The base at the far end of the lake is still there, and is one of the few areas still off limits to foreigners. One of our staff did manage to get in and onto a speed boat a few years ago and we looked into the possibility of offering it as an option to clients, but apparently the Russians in Siberia have had a bad experience with “military tourism” in the past and it proved to be a “no-go”.

It was also referred to in a post on RIA Novositi last week.

It would be good to see you if you do get here later in the year. Good luck with Tajikistan. I am intrigued. We seem to be getting a few enquiries about Tajikistan this year, sometimes it feels like more than we are getting for Kyrgystan – but that’s probably just a a gut feeling arising from the paucity of requests received as a result of our little local difficulties last year.