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.

This week, we're warned once again to be careful on the internet; priests use their powers for good; and criminals have never been so dang cute.

“Are all these really mercenaries? // In Moscow, their voices are heard already! // The column went more and more powerfully. // They do not ask or pray, // They want the will to reach // All the ears of the people. // And there is no task to borrow, // No, it’s not their roof that is sliding. // ‘We are not stupid, we are not stupid!’ // Ah, those who don't want to hear them.”

– Sergei Shnurov, leader of the band Leningrad, and a politician and producer, who used a poem on Instagram to announce his arrival in Khabarovsk to check out the protests occuring there in response to the arrest of governor Sergei Furgal

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: stamps honor highways, grave-diggers let loose, and Russia's cutest cop takes his leave.

Moscow is seeing religious symbolism crop up in unexpected places. It’s not the first time, but there is something different about what is going on now.

School certificates in the city of Tolyatti were declared void due to spelling errors.

Authorities are searching for a couple in Ufa who became overly physical with each other in front of a school.

This week's Odder News features monuments for dead villages, ancient memes, and a mirror for Putin.

The life of Rasputin's daughter, Maria, was full of twists and turns almost as dramatic as her father's, and took her deep into the American heartland.