Aeroflot, Achilles, and Alushta

In this week's Odder News, UEFA soccer, cats, and fools.

• Two preschoolers from the Crimean resort town of Alushta escaped from preschool recently and went strolling about town. From the "Silver Hooves" preschool, the five-year-old boys set their own silver hooves toward the Black Sea when their group went out for a walk. The boys were pictured later in the local police station drinking water and smiling at a police officer. Some netizens have compared it to the film The Shawshank Redemption, calling the incident "Escape from Alushenka."
• Moscow has a new railway station for the first time in a century. Called Eastern Station (Vostochny), it is near Cherkizovskaya Station on the metro's red line, and social media is not impressed. Passengers practically have to jump up onto some trains, so what are the elderly or people with big suitcases to do? Some conductors installed ramps at their doors so that exiting passengers would not fall out of the train, assuming the train and platform will be level. Eastern is a modern station with a stylish cafe, a planned food court, and other amenities, but hard-to-find escalators and elevators have forced many suitcased passengers onto stairs. Human traffic jams fill the halls when trains arrive on certain tracks. It might just be growing pains, but consider leaving your anvil at home when packing for Eastern Station.
• One of the Hermitage cats has become a national soccer oracle. Achilles has a personal pass to the UEFA Euro 2020 – now in progress – VIP Zone in St. Petersburg. The deaf son of noble cat Jean-Baptiste-Michel Vallin-Delamot, Achilles clawed his way to the top of the Hermitage basement and the sports world of the Northern Capital. White-furred and blue-eyed, Achilles regularly chooses one of two food bowls to predict a sporting winner. He is seen choosing Russia over Finland with attendants behind him wearing shirts that say, "In Cat We Trust." So far, most of Achilles' predictions have come true – including the Russia/Finland contest.
• Speaking of cats, Aeroflot has just changed its flying guidelines for animals. One passenger can take up to three cats on a plane! But only two of them can sit with you. In the past, 75 dog breeds were disallowed; that has dropped to only the 12 nastiest breeds. Your animals will be photographed for a kind of pet passport. The changes might be due to a scandal last year in which a passenger's cat was fat shamed for exceeding the weight requirements.
• As the UEFA Euro 2020 month-long tournament continues on in Europe, actor Mikhail Boyarsky complained that Russia has three problems: "fools, roads, and soccer." He argued that St. Petersburg's Zenit soccer squad performs better than the Russian national team and the coaching staff should voluntarily remove themselves from their jobs for the good of the nation. We wonder what suggestions he has for fixing fools and roads.