As he proceeds from Moscow to Murmansk, to the Volga, then across the Urals to Turochak on the edge of the Altai mountains and from there to Lake Baikal, Yakutsk and Kamchatka, Mr Montaigne discovers that as the Russian state disintegrates, more and more people are making a living from poaching.

ECONOMIST: Exotic sports: A new angle on Russia??s crisis | The