“This dish is eaten in almost every home. I don’t understand Russian people’s tastes at all.”

- Chinese blogger on herring under a fur coat, one of six items he listed as unusual Russian dishes

“If you meet a boar, don’t approach it and don’t look it in the eye … if you meet a whole herd, stay away from the piglets.”

- Advice in a note from the Moscow mayor's official website on the appearance of wild boars in some Moscow parks

“Women most often think about new breasts and buttocks, some receive such operations as a gift from their gentlemen. For men, surgery to correct the shape of the nose and ears is now popular. We took a closer look at ourselves, sitting at home, and apparently decided to improve our aesthetic appearance.”

- Plastic surgeon Dmitry Elenshleger on the popularity plastic surgery in Russia, now that the quarantine is being lifted

“It's nice to receive such news from Europe!”

- Ukrainian singer Ani Lorak on winning the revote for Eurovision 2008

“This is a good deed, one of the great opportunities to pay attention to people who need special support and attention, and, if necessary, help, especially in the current difficult epidemiological situation.”

– Advisor to the Governor of the Rostov region Anton Alekseyev on the online project “Smotri pesni” (“Watch Songs”)

“It’s not clear how he found himself at school: maybe someone threw him out or he crawled away. As our specialist said, the python is full. Such an animal is able to swallow even a cat. And it’s a great happiness that no one was hurt.”

– Alena Shibanova, a representative from the Good Home Animal Shelter, on a two-meter python found near a school in Kineshma

“It’s all bullsh*t… It’s all exaggerated. It’s an acute respiratory disease with minimal mortality.”

-Alexander Myasnikov, appointed in April as Russia’s head of coronavirus information

“On the day of his 80th birthday, Brodsky returned to Pestel Street—he is looking directly at his balcony in the house where he lived, those same one and a half rooms from where he left forever. But poets always return.”

– Creators of a large graffiti display depicting the poet Joseph Brodsky

“I think that, first of all, viewers will want to watch something easy. Comedy, melodramas about love, and, of course, blockbusters, but they won’t start to be released right away, because the pandemic should not only end for us, but all over the world.”

– Kirill Razlogov, president of the Guild of Film Critics and Film Critics of the Russian Federation

This project is free, there is no monetization in it… I don’t know what will be ahead, but it doesn’t interest me now. ‘Stoyanov in isolation’ is a way of emotional and professional survival."

– Russian actor Yuri Stoyanov, on his new YouTube show “Stoyanov in Isolation"

“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

“People here usually say to me: you are different than we thought and from the way American people are shown on TV. And I am happy.” 

– Sean Quirk, an American who has been living in Tuva, Siberia for almost 20 years, and knowns the Tuvan language better than Russian