Inside Skolkovo, Moscow's self-styled Silicon Valley

With buildings like the Hypercube and the Matrix, the Russian startup hub looks the part - but corruption allegations, the parlous international situation and getting on the wrong side of Vladimir Putin have all made life difficult

There's a machine that can print a thyroid gland, a mechanised suit that is helping a paraplegic play football and a lifelike bust of Alan Turing answering questions in a robotic drawl.

Welcome to Skolkovo, a 400-hectare plot of land west of Moscow that is trying to style itself as Russia's coming Silicon Valley. On a glorious day, surrounded by suitably named buildings like the Hypercube, the Matrix and the Technopark, a cluster of prodigies that put the star into start-up are showing off their ideas to a trickle of potential investors, venture capitalists from Russia and abroad.