The prospects for a Russian Grand Prix have taken a sharp rise this year, when F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone visited Moscow and met with the local developers. There is a tentative date: 2003; there is a developing venue, Nagatino island; and Herman Tilke is already working on the circuit design. Timothy Collings travelled to Moscow, to meet with the head developers and review the state of motor racing in Russia, and he brings an exclusive report on the state of what could become one of the most intriguing Grand Prix venues

The arrival of the Russian winter had claimed 44 lives in Moscow by mid-October, most of them homeless people falling victim to hypothermia as the temperatures plummeted at night. Snow fell and hot-water jets were required to de-ice the Aeroflot planes before take-off, as passengers, mostly wrapped in long coats, prepared for a flight to warm and temperate London.

Hardly the conditions, you might think, for a country to use as a temptation for the glamorous world of Formula One motor racing and the prospect of a Russian Grand Prix. If you did, you would be wrong because, in less than two years, the city of the Bolshoi and beetroot soup will be reverberating to the sound of Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and the rest if plans are realised in the next 18 months.

Yes, despite the sad seasonal routines of death in winter and queues for everything in this magical capital, where cars of a certain age joust for air alongside trolley-buses, trams and pedestrians, and where the first sod has yet to be turned in the creation of a suitable circuit, the local entrepreneurs are convinced they are on course to welcome Formula One and host a first Russian Grand Prix, in the summer of 2003. Then, thankfully, the temperatures will soar into the thirties and the city that shivers and shuffles in winter will be dancing as energetically to the capitalist beat as any other on Bernie Ecclestone's calendar.

A site for a Formula One racing track - on Nagatino island in the Moskva river, seven kilometres to the south-east of the Kremlin - has been identified; the plans drawn and the relevant political support obtained. The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has given final approval for the project, which has been driven towards reality by the combined efforts of Grigori Antioufeev, the chairman of the Committee for Tourism of the Moscow City Government, and Tom Walkinshaw, owner of TWR and the Arrows Formula One team.

The municipal green light, a highly significant event, signalled work will begin this month and continue, non-stop they hope, throughout the worst excesses of the winter when workmen are paid multiple-rates to encourage them to ignore the icy air and freezing conditions.

"It is a Russian joke that the outdoor builders work harder in the winter than the summer," says Antioufeev. "It is normal to work through the winter, down to minus 20 degrees Celsius. We are used to it. We have built roads and buildings before."

The chairman, a motoring enthusiast who is also vice-president of the Russian Automobile Federation, spoke to Atlas F1 during an exclusive meeting held in his committee headquarters in Novy Arbat street, high above the dense traffic, puddles and ruts of the roadside, the sweets-for-sale stalls in the shadows of the street and the new Muscovites in furs and boots.

A career committee-man in dark suit and white collar, he is also a progressive who is championing the Grand Prix of Russia as a project that will open up Moscow to the world. Yet, like his city, he remains contained by the old infrastructures of the past, a heavy bureaucracy and slow administrative machine, as progress is made.

Speaking through an interpreter, Antioufeev says his committee had a draft budget of 3.5 million dollars in place, but would be seeking "dozens of millions of dollars" from investors. He displayed plans for the projected circuit, designed by Herman Tilke, the German expert who created the state-of-the-art Sepang circuit at Kuala Lumpur, and recalled Ecclestone's visit to Moscow last May, when the Formula One ringmaster gave the project his blessing. "'It will be a unique race track venue,' he told us," says Antioufeev. He is not wrong.

The Nagatino island, an area of reclaimed flood plain currently used as a scruffy public park and home to flea markets and strolling unemployed, is to be transformed into a development that will include a cinema, casino, family amusement arcades, a luxury hotel, food courts, cafes, apartments and offices as well as all the usual paraphernalia of a major motor racing circuit.

Grandstands with seating for 100,000 spectators are planned as are a yacht club and marina; lavish indications, as if they were needed, that the emerging new bourgeoisie of modern Moscow can afford to burn thousands of roubles on the roulette tables at night and then sail around without a care in the world.

"Our planning for this includes using the biggest and most famous building companies in our country, but a final decision on who does what has not yet been taken," Antioufeev says. "One of these companies built the Moscow ring road which is 110 kilometres long and has 10 lanes, 17 bridges and is fully equipped with modern lighting, communications and traffic systems. It was completed quickly, taking less than three years to build. We will work with our English partners to find the right way to use international experience."

Antioufeev is justified in his pride. Moscow's outer ring road, five lanes each way, was clean and clear and made one think twice about the joys of England's notorious M25. An inner ring road for Moscow is already under construction and its trajectory takes it within easy strolling distance of the proposed circuit at Nagatino.

Metro train links are also in close proximity with stations at Nagatinskaya and Kolomenskaya with plans to build an overland link to the island. In all, it seems that this project has been researched in depth with serious foundations and infrastructure put in place.

"We have done all the drillings with the English engineers," he continues. "So we have all the data needed for climate, temperatures, soils and so on. It has been a joint effort by the British and the Moscow authorities in this. We are confident there are no mistakes."

He adds, too, that the island had no apartment blocks and never will, a feature that helped make it a suitable venue for the circuit because it will appear more attractive on television. The circuit will be only 3.6 kilometres long, however, making it shorter than any other on the current Formula One calendar other than Monte Carlo.

Coincidentally, the Monaco Grand Prix is the only one to which Antioufeev has travelled to gain first-hand experience of an event, though he does admit he realised it was exceptional and not typical. He adds that he has visited Silverstone, but not during the British Grand Prix, and named Arrows's flying Dutchman Jos Verstappen as his favourite current driver.

Asked to volunteer some information about his private car, the one he drives at home at weekends, he delivers an engaging, but elusive, answer that suggests it may be a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW. Such data, apparently, has to remain unconfirmed for fear of embarrassment in a city where personal trappings are not revealed by politicians.

Antioufeev, however, is more outgoing on his meetings with Ecclestone, who he met for the first time in London in February this year. "We expected to see him only for 15 minutes, but in fact our meeting lasted one hour," he smiles. "At first, he was stern. He took me aback. 'Who are you?' he said. I told him I was the chairman of the Committee of Tourism... Then he said 'what do you need for Formula One in Russia?' Then the situation improved and an atmosphere of trust was created. Later, we exchanged our telephone and fax numbers and we stayed in touch."

Touchingly, Antioufeev reveals, the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, sent Ecclestone a jar of his home-made honey on the morning after his visit to the city in May. "It was quite a successful meeting," he explains. "He impressed me. There were two traits I liked about him: his very quick and sharp brain and his great patience and calm. He always remained cool and in control."

Given Ecclestone's influence over so much of Formula One, it is the last observation that may yet prove most prophetic.

"If he did, it would be fantastic," says Abkhazava. "We would all go crazy with happiness." The first step, however, is to realise a race on Nagatino island, which will become not only the venue for the Russian Grand Prix, but the national home for Formula Three. "We are all hoping," he says. "Hoping, and waiting."