In The Weekly Russia File for March 31: some terrible chess puns, and how to stop traffic.

What does it look like when a whole town empties out and there’s nothing but a few decaying buildings to prove anyone lived there at all?

A church’s domes caving into the altar. A transgender couple finagles a wedding. A hospital patient shares a room with a corpse. Just another TWERF.

What do Leonardo DiCaprio and Ramzan Kadyrov have in common? Why Vladimir Putin, of course.

How are busy, young Russians coping in the era of Tinder and online dating? Our reporter finds it to be largely a world of scammers and sketchy apps.

On the one hand, social media of late was overtaken by reaction to a bigoted act against the special needs sister of a famous model; on the other hand, controversy arose about Russians being a bit too nostalgic about the 1990s.

Syrian refugees are also streaming through Russia to Europe, only along a not very hospitable path, and are forced to make the last leg on bicycles.

The news is filled with stories of refugees, migrants and barbed wire, to say nothing of xenophobic laws and sanctions. So when we came across this award-winning comic book tale by a Yekaterinburg-based artist, we had to share it.

The Caucasus is a region rich in tradition and often impenetrable to outside understanding. The modernized ritual of “bride kidnapping” is a case in point; we asked a local journalist to guide us.

This issue's Trends section looks at the impact of inflation and the dustup over Leviathan.

There has been a proliferation of professional holidays in Russia, and those falling in the spring have a peculiar "bent" toward the military and law enforcement bodies...

It seems the more removed in time the USSR becomes, the more nostalgia grows for its symbols and traditions. Increasingly, these elements are worming their way back into Russian life. If they ever left.