For Mikhail Orlov, founder of Black Earth Farming, the revival stirring in the neglected farming sector is a vital part of the transition from Communism.

“There have been no farmers in Russia. These people – in the sense of landowners who take responsibility for everything – have been eradicated. And whatever might have been the new seeds have been allowed to wither in the past 15 years,” he says. “There was a total absence of political support. It was a vacuum.”