From the Russian city of Perm, on the outer edges of the Ural Mountain range, to the peninsula of Crimea, it’s about 1,800 miles. By car, that’s a good 40 hours, give or take a few.
Undaunted, the Shvetsovs, Sergey and Irina, loaded their two young kids into the backseat of their Russian-made Lada — a little, ruby-red thing, all faded and rickety — and hit the highway one day early last month.