Russia is a little out of touch with reality this week: gates lead to nowhere, cows get VR, and bankers think the economy is like Harry Potter.

Fall starts on a harmonious note, Putin’s meeting with the Saudis — not so much. Also, happy birthday to vodka!

While city vehicles go for a stroll, death comes knocking — twice.

In the public mind, Russian forests have always been an unlimited resource. Not any longer.

Known as “Russia’s Tibet,” the Altai region is vast, unpeopled, and brimming with energy centers.

Vladimir left the big city to set up a farm in rural Lipetsk Oblast. And he doesn’t regret it one bit.

A telling photo from Voronezh's Central Market.

A former lawyer saves 233 lives, and a guy finds hell in Yaroslavl. Also, your next delivery guy might deliver on horseback.

Sleepy Pskov has everything a historic Russian town ever needed: a winding river, a kremlin, and whitewashed churches – all of which have finally received global recognition from UNESCO.

A funeral for a trolley, a near-funeral for a pianist, and scared birds: all this and more on this week’s TWERF.

A shortage of clean drinking water threatens to become the main ecological problem of our time.

A journalist meets a painter in the distant outback of Siberia. They share a love for the untamed wilderness, and we learn a thing or two about the challenges of painting in the wild.