St. Petersburg's latest taxi is an ex-Soviet armoured patrol car
Russian entrepreneurs are using a decommissioned BRDM-2 to transport the public across the city
Russian cities are well-known for their Slavic smorgasbord of public transport vehicles: metro, tram, bus, trolleybus, marshrutka.
Yet in the new year, residents of St Petersburg will be able to sample a completely new type of transport when a decommissioned BRDM-2, an amphibious armoured patrol car, will begin to navigate the streets of the "Venice of the North".
Entrepreneurs in Russia's former capital will start using the patrol car as a taxi service in 2015 and while an armoured vehicle may not seem like the most practical form of transport, the amphibious nature of the BRDM-2 could prove quite useful.
Residents on Vasilyevsky Island, which is surrounded by the Neva River, will definitely enjoy the opportunity to ride on the city's roads as well as take a safe plunge into the river, protected from the water and the Russian chill by the cold, hard steel of the BRDM-2.
Furthermore, if any trouble does befall the travelling public, a heavy machine gun atop the car may come in handy.
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