This week we explore Soviet throwbacks, social media trends, and coronavirus fugitives.

“I don’t know what to do here. What am I supposed to do, sing, dance? I don’t understand what people do on TikTok. ”

– Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in his first post to TikTok, where he gained 130,000 followers in less than a week

Looking back at the early Soviet years when the young state launched anti-handshake campaigns.

We didn’t realize how connected we were until we had to disconnect.

This week: Russian telecomms habits shift, a St. Petersburg entrepreneur gets crafty, and being stuck at home means more alcohol intake.

The Belarusian President followed his own coronavirus advice, Pomeranian in tow.

This week inventiveness takes on coronavirus, men need red meat, and Victory Day is the pandemic's latest casualty.

The world's novel coronavirus emergency response is, it turns out, not so novel.

In 1887, Chekhov the doctor encountered typhus, leading Chekhov the writer to pen this powerful story.

What to drink in quarantine? Fortunately, a Russian expert has the answers.

Russian entrepreneurs seek to combat coronavirus with flying drones.

This week we explore the upsides and downsides of self-isolation, strange new laws, and virus testing.