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

The threat of coronavirus is not funny, but advertisements for tongue-in-cheek “remedies” are catching on among entrepreneurial Russians.

Two young Russians fall in love in the midst of a Coronavirus quarantine.

This week's Odder News: Belarus, the "Switzerland of the East," quiet hours, and tank-fueled wedding proposals.

“We wanted to draw attention to the problem: a lack of medical masks in pharmacies, the lack of information on the coronavirus. We were not trying to scare our compatriots or laugh at a hot topic. We just set up a social experiment.”

– One of two men fined for their video pranking the coronavirus

Curious about vodka stats? Russia's Research Center for the Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets has you covered.

From salty baths to salt caves, sanatoriums throughout Eurasia have, over the centuries, changed in form, but not in spirit. 

“Alcohol is the most harmless component of beer. The remaining minor components that give the beer its properties - foam, color, taste - are extremely unhealthy compounds for human health.”

- Expert in narcology, Daniil Pokrovsky

This week's Odder News features three survival stories: survival in the Russian wilderness, on the internet, and in a world filled with cell phones.

It’s that time of year: Americans are busy making — and breaking — their New Year’s resolutions. Russians are too smart to put themselves through such torture.

The All-Russia People’s Front, an organization founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently counts teenagers as part of all Russian people.

This week’s “criminals”: politicians with dead souls, chocolate Robin Hoods, kid-conductors, and a woman who just wants to go home.