If you are already dreading the prospect of taking your summer visitors around the churches and museums of the Kremlin, this year promises to offer some cool consolation.

As you lag behind in the sweltering heat while your guests insist on viewing every monument along the familiar Kremlin retinue, at least you can cool your nerves with the availability of on-site refreshments. Now, cold drinks and Kremlevsky-branded pies are readily available to tourists within the Kremlin walls.

The most popular tourist spots in Moscow include the Armory Chamber, the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Archangel Cathedral, the Annunciation Cathedral, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Virgin Mary. These sites require quite a bit of walking and waiting.

According to Viktor Khrekov, the Presidential administration's press secretary, food and drink could be bought from vendors in the Kremlin six years ago. The opening of the "Kremlevsky" café-bar saw the end of those outside stalls, since museum and concert-goers could use the café instead. "Now that the Kremlevsky café is closed for renovation, the administration has reintroduced the refreshment stalls for visitors, selling cool drinks, tea, coffee and pies," said Khrekov.

According to some, the move is long overdue. "I wish they'd had refreshments when we went to the Kremlin", said Katherine Raeside, here studying Russian. "We had to queue up for ages before entering the churches, and a refreshment stall is just what I could have done with."

As the Russian saying goes: better late than never. 

By Nathalie Cooper