On this, Vladimir Putin's 69th birthday, we are reminded that even authoritarian leaders are softies for good dogs. Maybe especially so?

Meet Khokhulya: he's a Russian desman, the official eco-hero of the Kaluga Region, and now an internet personality to boot. 

"We did not have a fox in the monastery, definitely not ours, but it’s probably someone’s pet. They write that someone [at the monastery] was scared, but the fox was the most scared of all – a hundred people chased after her with their phones;  she is the main victim.”

– A resident of the Srtensky Monastery in Moscow denied that a young fox accused of terrorizing parishioners had come from the premises.

The third annual Corgi Ball took place outside Moscow, and yes, it was just as cute as it sounds like it would be. 

Life in a remote Siberian village can teach you a lot about adaptability, nature, food, and, most importantly, folklore. 

In this week's Odder News, blind dueting, cats at work, and the mice who love COVID.

You can find lots of unique and unexpected things when you take a trip into the woods in search of edible mushrooms, but a camel in Nizhny Novgorod seems to be the most outlandish find yet.  

In this week's Odder News, polling stations get wild, a family cat saves the day, and where in Russia is the head of the last Kazakh khan?

“Snrrf.” *crunching sound* *laughter* “Pant, pant…”

– A fox as it thieves a camera from tourists in Kamchatka on September 8.

In Chelyabinsk, for the first time, an agricultural enterprise is under legal heat for the mass killing of bees.

KHL-winning former NHL coach goes all in on Russia, Russia's top communist goes all in on religion, and fines for peeing on Russia.

Big cats can rest easy knowing that both the Amur Tiger and the Amur Leopard have been declared safe from the possibility of extinction.