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

(Ruptly)

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.