This week, Lukashenko turns action hero; chocolate is serious business; and a classic Russian author is proven to be right all along.

What unites Khabarovsk and Minsk?

This week Russians get diet advice, the president of Belarus gets kicked out of a neighboring country, and even cats aren't excused from social distancing.

“If the government thinks that it [wearing masks] is necessary, it should provide them free of charge, just like shoe covers are provided free of charge in medical organizations.”

– Alexander Saversky, President of the Russian organization League of Patients' Defenders, who started a petition against wearing masks

In disappointing-but-not-altogether-unexpected news, a prominent Kremlin critic gets hit with tea-borne poisoning.

Recounting a 2008 meeting with activist Alexei Navalny, before he rose to prominence.

This week, mammoths are ripe for the picking; fishy business practices turn violent; and a TV show is labelled a bad influence on Russian families.

The President of Russia's neighboring Belarus says he had coronavirus, but even that didn't keep him down.

This week, Spotify comes to Russia, Crimea is a hot tourist destination (like always), and three cases of corruption: one big, one small, and one straight out of a spy movie.

This week, drivers' licenses get a much-overdue update, utility bills make headlines, and we learn that pirates abound in Russia. 

Ultra-conservative Russian Orthodox priest Father Sergei has had quite the summer.

This week, Russia's government grapples with the ins-and-outs of distance learning, the Ministry of Economic Development is nonplussed by the effects of coronavirus, and we know what side of the bread a shipbuilder's head's butter is on.