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Views of Sochi, five years after the close of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in that southern city.

Falling from a Russian sky near you: airplanes, bags of money, and well-timed lightning bolts!

Beachgoers bathe in potable sludge, Russians weigh in on replacements for sanctioned food, and the Kremlin revamps funerals. Plus, Putin goes fishing. 

This week we travel to Russia's warmer climes. Lesya Polyakova gives us a quick tour of Sochi.

There is nothing like a good old Russian ochered (line) to get close to the narod (people) and get some inside info. Standing in line, Russians tend to show solidarity, to open up and loosen their tongues. The perfect environment for a journalist... 

So you, dear readers, think that the Olympics is all about sports? Nay! It is of course all about the souvenirs! And about how a miserly correspondent is supposed to buy them in sufficient quantity for the many friends and family left behind on the "mainland" while he is "roughing it" in Sochi...

Why is it that the Twitter hashtag #sochiproblems has more followers than the Twitter feed for the games? How is it that all we hear from the Western press is negativism, while from the athletes and local observers there are only raves for the fantastic facilities? Why do pictures of double toilets and unfinished hotels continue to flood the inter-tubes? And what idiot gave the order to kill puppies in Sochi?

Sometimes the life of a sports editor is trying: back of the bus treatment, spotty food, rough accommodations. But Sochi, as Russian Life sports editor Mikhail Ivanov reports, is a breath of fresh air for this seasoned sports reporter.