Rolls-Royce has opened its latest showroom at 1 Red Square, Moscow, in a converted museum next door to the Kremlin and opposite St. Basil's Cathedral.

Following a move into the Russian market that must have the Bolsheviks spinning in their graves, Rolls-Royce's new Moscow showroom is almost next door to Lenin's mausoleum. But some communists appreciated the ultimate in capitalist status symbols - Rolls-Royce is displaying the new Phantom alongside a Rolls-Royce that belonged to Lenin, which is on special loan.

Lenin may have used the Rolls as a state car, but one of his successors, Leonid Brezhnev, was adept at collecting luxury cars for his personal use, some of them presented as trubutes by western leaders.