Culture & Customs

From salty baths to salt caves, sanatoriums throughout Eurasia have, over the centuries, changed in form, but not in spirit. 

Online duty-free purchasing is taking over Russian airports. Rejoice, fans of designer cologne.

Bear with us: this week's Odder News lacks a theme. Instead, we have tomato paste, emotion workshops, and Russian pandas.

You’ll have to pay full price for that burger.

“Alcohol is the most harmless component of beer. The remaining minor components that give the beer its properties - foam, color, taste - are extremely unhealthy compounds for human health.”

- Expert in narcology, Daniil Pokrovsky

A Russian comedian made a joke and then decided he needed to flee the country to avoid arrest.

In this week's Odder News: a forgetful traveler, spaceman transport, and the seal of approval.

“We creatively solve any problems: from opening a bottle to paying taxes.”

– Russian musician Sergei Shnurov, on the Russian people.

This popular holiday tradition has believers plunging into ice-cold water… voluntarily!

Russia has everything, including Amazonians.

A panda in the Moscow zoo destroyed a pine tree. It was anything but an accident.

They could not have been more different, but both these Vladimirs had a huge impact on Russian history.