Poaching, Internet, and Coronavirus on Ice

This week, we've got brand-new guns, poachers from an unlikely place, and the frozen north gets an internet connection.

• The construction of a high-speed fiber-optic cable in the Arctic is underway, which will bring fast internet connection to many of Russia's far northern ports. We anticipate that the tops searches will include, "How to survive a polar bear attack," "Does vodka freeze?," and "Cheap flights to Hawaii."
• We always enjoy keeping up with Russian arms manufacturers, so we had to check out the new smoothbore AK firearm. We're not quite sure why you'd want a non-rifled variation of the weapon, and no, it doesn't look like an old musket, disappointedly.
• In the midst of new hospitals being constructed to meet the coronavirus threat in Russia, an ice rink in Moscow has been retooled as a treatment center. Although, frankly, nurses on skates doesn't sound like a good idea.
• Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, recently bemoaned the use of Marvel superheroes at a local indoor playground, calling instead for the use of local national heroes. Personally, we'd love to see a Chechen Thor.
• A Siberian environmental conversationalist is under fire for poaching argali sheep at a national park. Only 1400 of the sheep, the largest sheep species in the world, remain in Russia. We're pretty sure that the hunter didn't use a smoothbore AK, however, even though it would probably work fairly well.