Alina the Tartar

We leave most of our belongings in the left luggage facility at the station in Kazan, the capital of the autonomous Muslim region of Tartarstan. It was warm when we arrived so when a chill wind brought rain later in the day, we regretted not bringing more sturdy clothing. We spent a miserable hour or so wandering about in the rain, Will looking rather beautiful in my purple cardigan, looking for an internet cafe.

Kazan ... before the rain.

When we finally find one, it's full and we can't work out the infuriatingly incomprehensible queuing system. We're soggy, bedraggled, feeling a little sorry for ourselves and (unfairly) not highly impressed with Kazan, when something wonderful happens. A girl with an American accent asks us if we need help. Alina is a native Muslim Tartar from a village outside Kazan but has been living in New York for the last three years, working and studying English. She takes us to a great cafe that has wifi and delicious cakes.

Alina is always thinking about climate change. She's noticed that it's much warmer than it used to be and believes it to be mainly caused by cities and their polluting industries. She tells me she buys energy efficient products, tries not to use more paper than necessary and gets angry about littering and the pollution of the waterways that is common here.

Alina & Emma

Alina's father works in the oil industry and he has told her that there will be enough oil for his generation and the next (i.e. Alina's) but that the next will have to find alternatives. She worries that so many of the things we rely on are made from oil at the moment.

Echoing other Russian opinions we've encountered so far, she thinks that climate change will affect animals worse than humans and this concerns her greatly. She believes everybody must think about the issue because it's coming whether we like it or not. She thinks we all needs to change the way we live but thinks that human beings are adaptable creatures and is therefore optimistic that we can.

Namik from Azerbaijan

We meet Namik on the overnight train from Moscow to Kazan. Along with our other cabin-mate, as well as half the train it seems, he is on his way to his military school reunion. He's originally from Baku in Azerbaijan and his parents never wanted him to go to military school. They warned him he would be 'married to the army'.

Will & Namik

He tells me the Western world pays more attention to issues like climate change because people from the East are more worried about today. People here are more concerned about their job and their basic needs. He says that 70% of people in Russia are not able to meet their basic needs, although from what I can gather, this may be an exaggeration.

He thinks the government here only talk about climate change because it's an issue for the West, not because it's an issue for Russia. Perhaps also, because it's less of a contentious issue than food shortages.

He tells me he's noticed that the weather is changing though. He visited a place in the North of Russia recently and was told it would get dangerously cold there but it never did. The people there said they had been used to temperatures of 35 degrees centigrade below zero but for the last four years it hadn't got anywhere near that cold.

The Russian military men ... and a gallon of brandy

It's now one thirty in the morning and it's at this point that six burly ex-military Russians stumble into our cabin with a gallon of home-brewed brandy, insisting we help them drink it. The booze is surprisingly pleasant and so is the company. The interview is over but our first night on the trans-Siberian railway has just begun.

Live simply and trust one another

According to the charming Azerbaijani Namik (pictured - far right), who we interviewed on the train from Moscow to Kazan, Lenin once said: "Live more simply and see how people will come closer to you". It's a lovely phrase and one I'd like to think is true.

We've been in Russia for nearly a week now and have interviewed about ten people so far. We had prepared ourself for a certain amount of hostility to my climate change questions - or at least apathy - yet we have found anything but. There has been curiosity, thoughtfulness and debate. They also think that most other Russians don't think about the issue but this has not been my experience. Despite some protests to the contrary, everyone I've spoken to so far has had a well developed opinion and most of them have been concerned and taking practical action.

We have noticed something odd about the Russian nature. We are constantly warned by extraordinarily friendly people that their countrymen are not to be trusted. We suspect this is a result of years of being encouraged to inform on one another during Soviet times and perhaps a feeling that the country's worst recent turmoils have been wrought from within.

Whatever the cause We'd like to suggest that they should fear less. From the eight burly Russians (pictured above) on their way to their military school reunion who plied us with Cognac and compliments on the Moscow-Kazan train to the lovely Tartar Alina (pictured) in Kazan, who stopped to ask us if we needed help in an internet cafe and ended up giving us a free personal guided tour, we have been shown nothing but kindness. Perhaps this is because we have shed most of our belongings and are living more simply but we'd like to think that Russians deserve more credit than they give one another.