TOMSK (Russia), Jan 7: Three thousand kilometres east of Moscow and sitting on a frozen swamp the size of France, the city of Tomsk has struggled economically since the Trans-Siberian Railway passed it by at the end of the 19th Century.

Now it is at the forefront of a Siberian economic boom, fuelled by the post-Soviet privatisation of oil companies and, more recently, by high oil prices.

Oil and gas companies build sports clubs for the people of Tomsk and playgrounds for their children. —Reuters