This week, officials make outrageous demands, maps cost a man his job, and science meets geopolitics.

"McDonald's is expanding its geographic presence and plans to open the first factories in the Far Eastern Federal District in December 2020."

– Press announcement by McDonald’s, which plans to open its first restaurants in Russia’s Far East

Two hundred years ago, the first sighting of Antarctica was recorded – by a Russian expedition. The author retraces the expedition’s steps, and not without hiccups.

The Mari People * Life in Isolation * Russia's Discovery of Antarctica * Raspberry Picking * Semyonovsky Revolt * Battle on the Ugra * Sergei Bondarchuk * Table Russian * Bird Language * Apple Fritters * Chicks the TV Series * Kamchatka and Belarus

We have all had to experience some unplanned isolation during the pandemic. So we decided to visit some Russians who have long been living isolated lives.

The smallest ethnos in the Russian Federation is an Avar sub-culture in the Caucasus.

On the founding of the Russian Geographical Society 175 years ago.

“Geography is destiny,” Napoleon is said to have uttered. Shortly afterward he invaded Russia, proving both his maxim and that of one of his imperialistic predecessors, Julius Caesar: “It’s only hubris if I fail.”

Find out what the deal is with Russia's stone belt – the Ural Mountains.

14 members of Russia’s flora and fauna community that should be known to any self-respecting Russophile.

The Caucasus had a fast-growing plant that the Soviets wanted to plant up north to use for animal feed. What could possibly go wrong?

A shortage of clean drinking water threatens to become the main ecological problem of our time.