A question from Yahoo! Answers:

Where can I find maps that will show transportation infrastructure in southern Russia?

I am looking for maps depicting viable transportation routes between Magadan, Russia and Ulannbaatar, Mongolia. More specifically, roads, commercial roads, and rail roads. I have been able to locate a few good maps of Mongolia, but none with both Magadan and Ulaanbaatar. My need for this information is purely academic as I am writing a logisitics paper, attempting to determine alternative delivery routes for heavy equipment replacement parts.

First of all, Magadan is not in Southern Russia. “Southern Russia” actually refers to the Southern part of EUROPEAN Russia, regions located along lower Don and lower Volga, as well as in the Northern Caucasus (Rostov, Volgograd, Astrakhan’, Krasnodar, Stavropol’, etc.) Magadan is thought to be in the Russian Far East.

More to the point, the only viable transportation route between Magadan and Ulanbaatar is by air. Magadan is not connected to the ouside world by either paved roads or railways. If you read Russian, here are a couple of links on the subject:

http://www.tormozi.ru/1/5382/
http://news.maxtorg.ru/in_world/dv/Jakut…

Alternatively, Magadan has a seaport, so it could be possible to transport from Magadan to Vladivostok or one of Chinese ports by sea, and then haul to Mongolia by rail…