by Boyd Norton, Fellow, International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), September 6, 2012
You know, we Siberians live in fear of being exiled to Moscow, says Leonid Yevseyev, and we both laugh. Yevseyev, a native-born Siberian, is beside me on a promontory as we look out over a stunning panorama – the mountain-rimmed lake called “Baikal.” Here the land plunges one hundred feet to waters that are a vibrant blue-green, so transparent that rocks 10 feet beneath the surface are clearly visible in the glaring sun. Bordering the meadow around us is a dense forest of pine and larch, spreading a resinous fragrance. Exiled to Moscow? Leonid and I agree: only if they take us away from here at gunpoint.
