Five years after the fall of communism, the new Russia has been gripped by capitalist anarchy and spiralling inflation that has made Moscow the most expensive city outside Japan. But Magenta DeVine goes out on the town with a group of flourishing young millionaires, ending at a club with a £6,500 entrance fee.
By contrast, previously well-paid professionals are now struggling to survive. Simon O'Brien talks to one of them, a doctor who now earns more selling kebabs than saving lives.
Before leaving for St Petersburg, the pair sample Moscow's nightlife: DeVine with an elite police squad formed to combat Moscow's mafia and O'Brien with fashion-conscious clubbers living a nocturnal existence.
In St Petersburg, the country's cultural heart, the pair experience white nights at a weekend dacha party in which a 2am beach rave takes place under the sun rather than the stars.