Culture & Customs

As Americans celebrate their Independence Day, Russia may have gained a new national holiday as well: the day they beat Spain in the World Cup.

An office worker gives up his job to walk all 3,645 kilometers of Europe’s longest river. This is his story.

Things worth knowing on the travel front.

A short look at one very avid football (soccer) fan, who rode his bike all the way from Egypt to Russia for the World Cup.

Long before seasonal eating, kombucha, kimchi and other such things became a fad in the US, they were popular and well known in Russia. For the recipe we feature sour cherry vareniki (mmm!).

The life of a beloved princess changed immeasurably when her husband, an heir to the Russian throne, was murdered by terrorists.

This week Russia lost but isn’t out yet; football fans, amazingly, spread cheer across Russia; and a storm reminds us of the world outside.

Russia wins its first two World Cup games and Jeff Monson is running for CIty Council in Krasnogorsk. Does life get better than this?

Is it football or soccer? Either way, TWERF prepares for the start of the World Cup by examining Russia’s chances (not great), while still paying attention to a few other stories before the madness begins.

This week gives everybody a new lease on life, whether in the form of a photo touch up, another platform for Putin, or an actual new life for a “dead” journalist.

In a galaxy far, far away, the Millennium Falcon circled over a vicious battle with art and a dangerous passageway. That far-off galaxy being Russia, of course.

Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov is on the 15th day of a hunger strike in a northern-Siberian prison. Anton Dolin explains how Sentsov's case is a sad miscarriage of justice, and what one can or cannot do about it.