An unexpected sight on Moscow's highways

A big high speed rail project between Moscow and St P will reduce travel time from 4 hours 5 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes. Knowing this country, and my home country, I'm sure we'll see it up and running before we ever get HS2 in the UK daily.afisha.ru/news/89543-mos…

The battle for Wildberries is fascinating but, as often in Russia, maybe not all that meets the eye. The talk in Moscow a few years ago was that Tanya Bakalchuk, who rose from nowhere, was a front for the Rotenbergs. She certainly had silent investors. ft.com/content/b2332f…

Watched the Russia House last night. One of Le Carre’s most staid books and an unexciting film. But, given how the world is now, very striking to see a Western picture filmed on location in Russia. It won’t happen again for a long time.

A good thread on the evolving relationship between Russian oppositionists -- I won't call them liberals because I'm not sure they are, in the (wrong) American sense, meaning leftist, or in the (correct) British sense, meaning centrist -- and Ukrainians x.com/emubrigadier/s…

10 August in Moscow and that first drifting scent of autumn in the air tonight. The best time of the year, and the best time for dressing, is just around the corner.

One of the classic images of any Russian summer

You can still find the good stuff in Azbuka

Blat Summer -- a couple of weeks on the Volga, where I heard the name of a local politician made big at almost every turn. New road? New market? It's all thanks to him, I was told open.substack.com/pub/kotelnaya/…

A mini time capsule of sorts, showing the decline in Western immigration to Moscow from the 90s to the 10s but also the growing popularity of Rugby among Russians.

Summer in Moscow refusing to leave the stage quietly. It's absolutely roasting. As an autumn person, I find this particularly jarring.

Conflicting Autumn onset vibes -- it's too warm in Moscow but the Russian hockey season has started. Just a month until the NHL starts, too, and we can finally declare the good part of the year has arrived

It's 25 degrees today in Moscow. I've got the air conditioning on. But Russians will insist that "Autumn" began 12 days ago.