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On October 17, 1994, Queen Elizabeth II became the first ruling British monarch to set foot on Russian soil.
It remains the only time the 95-year-old monarch has visited the country and Russia's invasion of Ukraine makes it unlikely any royal will consider a tour of the country any time soon.
Elizabeth made the 1994 state visit at the invitation of the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin but the three-day trip proved a personal and political minefield for the British queen.
The visit marked a crucial time in Russia's history.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yeltsin took office and limited the power and influence of the Communist Party. A state visit from Queen Elizabeth II would be used as an attempt to strengthen trade with Britain and the West.
Yeltin's spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, commented at the time on the significance of the Queen's visit at that point in Russia's history, saying: "We realize that the British queen would never have visited a Communist country."
The invitation was accepted by the U.K. government and the Queen was asked to prepare for the visit. This was not without its issues.
The trip came in a year which had proved difficult for the monarch.
It was a time of great strain for her eldest son Prince Charles who had separated from Princess Diana two years earlier.
Just before the visit was scheduled to take place, a biography of Prince Charles by broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby was published which Charles himself contributed to.
Claims made in the book about Charles' relationship with his parents and about Princess Diana caused a media frenzy that threatened to overshadow the Queen's visit to Russia.
Landing in Moscow on October 17, 1994, the Queen and Prince Philip were taken to the Kremlin where they were greeted by Yeltsin and his wife, Naina.
The distance between the British royal family and Russia had widened following the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918. The last czar was a distant cousin of both the Queen and Prince Philip.
There was much speculation about which jewels the Queen would take with her to Russia so as to not cause offense to the host nation.
Many of her most worn and impressive pieces of jewelry can have their origins traced back to Imperial Russia. These were purchased by the Queen's grandmother, Queen Mary, from descendants of aristocratic Russian refugees following the revolution.
The most impressive of the Queen's tiaras, the Grand Duchess Vladimir tiara, was purchased from the grand duchess's descendants, and was judged inappropriate for the trip. As such these pieces were left at home while the jewels the Queen did take to Russia were of less troubled provenance.
To a special performance of the Bolshoi Ballet, the Queen opted for a new tiara from her collection—a rare example of a tiara she has acquired herself and therefore posed no threat of offense.
The following evening at the state banquet held in her honor by Yeltsin, the Queen opted for a jewelry suite of diamonds and aquamarines which were presented to her as a gift by the people of Brazil. The climax of the tour was a return banquet given on the final evening by the Queen aboard the royal yacht Britannia which had sailed to St. Petersburg to meet the royal party.
When the Queen departed Russia on October 20, 1994 she broke the journey home by also paying an official visit to neighboring Finland.
Other members of the Queen's immediate family have visited Russia since 1994. Princess Anne most recently visited in 2016 to mark the 75th anniversary of the first Arctic convoys from the United Kingdom during World War II. Prince Charles made a subsequent visit to Russia in 2003 which resulted in a return invitation to President Vladimir Putin to visit Britain later that year.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more