“This is war. The enemy is invisible, but some lines of the front are clear. Today's difficulties, of course, are far from the horrors known to our history, and that includes the Blockade. That was much worse than today, and scarier.... The noble experience and mysticism of the besieged Hermitage remains with us always and serves as an example.”

- General Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky, in a Facebook post on how the Hermitage is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic

Russia’s Ministry of Health discussed ways vodka can affect the coronavirus (spoiler alert: not much).

In this week's Odder News, the Moscow Zoo tries a new marketing tactic; a consumer protection agency gives its condom recommendations; and high winds call for desperate measures.

“Should I stock up on buckwheat?”

– Headline of an interview with Mikhail Delyagin, Director of the Institute for Globalization

An Archangelsk police chief is in hot water for using his subordinates to build a banya.

A doctor believes that Russia isn’t ready for vegetarians.

Russian alcohol deaths are down, thanks to a mild January.

In this week's Odder News, cheerleaders and lawmakers band together, croquet culture spreads to Russia, and youthful exuberance leads to a joyride.

In this week's Odder News: Putin's smartphone habits, Russian homophones make a headache for the police, and a coronavirus serenade.

“Maybe we should change our perspective on how to communicate with patients? What technologies and working methods should we use?”

– Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko

A family in Yekaterinburg raised 153 million rubles ($2.3 million) to save their five-month-old daughter's life.

In this week's Odder News, regions work on ethnic villages, presidents get songs written about them, and coronavirus countermeasures take a surprising twist.