Chess Player Allegedly Tries to Poison Rival by Smearing Chessboard with Mercury

A Russian chess player is facing a lifetime ban from official competitions after allegedly trying to poison an opponent by spreading mercury compounds on her chess board. Amina Abakarova, a 40-year-old chess player from the Russian Republic of Dagestan, stands accused of trying to poison another female player during a chess tournament in Makhachkala. Surveillance […]
Man Who Lived in Pain for 9 Years Had a Glass Shard Embedded in His Liver

A Russian man who had experienced pain and discomfort under his ribs for the last nine years was shocked to discover that he had a 9 cm glass shard embedded in his liver. The 53-year-old unnamed man told doctors at the Kirov Regional Clinical Hospital, in Russia, that he had long experienced sharp pain and […]
Russian Woman Learns She Is Married to Egyptian Man After Losing Her Passport

A 24-year-old Russian woman recently got the shock of her life when learning that she had been married to an Egyptian citizen since 2022, about a year after losing her passport. The unnamed St. Petersburg resident lost her passport in the summer of 2021, but despite declaring the loss to the local police, she never […]
World’s Longest Football Match Ends After 26 Hours of Play and 825 Goals

A football field at the Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex on the outskirts of Moscow recently hosted the world’s longest football game, which lasted a total of 26 hours. To celebrate All-Russian Football Day last Saturday, two teams of 7 players each gathered at the Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex to break the record for the longest […]
People Lick Supermarket Eggs in Hopes of Getting Food Infection and Receiving Compensation

After the owner of a Russian supermarket chain announced that he would be paying 1 million rubles to each person proven to have gotten food poisoning from the store’s products, many decided to take him up on his offer. Earlier this month, Yekaterinburg-based supermarket chain Zhiznmart came under fire for allegedly selling compromised food products […]
Russian Woman Wakes Up to Boa Constrictor Coming Out of Her Toilet

A Moscow woman recently got the shock of her life when she entered her bathroom and saw a full-grown white Boa constrictor snake hanging out on her toilet bowl. Exotic snakes crawling up from toilets may not be a worthy news topic in countries like Australia or Brazil, where the slithering reptiles are virtually a […]
Russian Man Gets Prosecuted for Dyeing His Hair Yellow and Blue

A young Moscow resident was recently fined and prosecuted by police for dyeing his hair yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. On the night of April 27, Stanislav Netesov was attacked by unknown assailants at a bus stop in the center of Moscow as he was returning from work. He had his […]
Russian Tattoo Artist Detained for Hurting the Feelings of Christians with Her Tattoos

A young tattoo artist from St. Petersburg, Russia, was recently detained for insulting religious believers with controversial tattoos featuring Jesus Christ, the cross and other Christian symbols. Daria Krichker is facing up to one year in jail for her crimes. According to the Orthodox activist group that filed a complaint against her, she has committed […]
Security Guard at Art Exhibition Tries to Eat Art Exhibit While on the Job

A rather bizarre act of vandalism was recently reported at an art exhibition in Moscow, where a security guard damaged an art exhibit and tried to eat it. Last week, the organizers of a contemporary art exhibition at Moscow’s VDNKh permanent exhibition center noticed that one of the exhibits was missing its main protagonist. Named […]
Russian Man Uses ChatGPT to Find Love Online, Goes Viral

A 23-year-old Russian man recently revealed that he trained and used ChatGPT to filter through 5,239 girls’ dating profiles and then date the best matches until he found his soon-to-be wife. Alexander Zhadan first made waves on RuNet – the online Russian-speaking community – a year ago, when he tweeted that he wrote an academic […]
Russian Government Fires Geneticist Who Claimed Humans Used to Live for 900 Years

Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science recently fired the director of the prestigious Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences allegedly for controversial remarks that are incompatible with science. Geneticist Alexander Kudryavtsev was named director of the General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in June of 2021 and was scheduled […]
Russian Electric Car Prototype Becomes Laughing Stock of the Internet

The Amber Yantar, a new electric vehicle prototype from Russia, has been dubbed the world’s ugliest car because of its bizarre, unattractive design. Car prototypes usually have eye-catching designs that capture viewers’ imagination. Even if the vehicle that reaches the production line turns out to be very different, or if it never actually goes into […]
Scientist Spends 10 Months in Prison After AI System Wrongly Identifies Him as Murderer

Russian hydrologist Alexander Tsvetkov was detained in February 2023, after an AI system determined that his face was a 55% match to the sketch of a murderer drawn 20 years ago by a witness. Alexander Tsvetkov, a scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Inland Water Biology, has been living a nightmare for […]
Stray Dog in Russia Suffers from Extreme Obesity, Weighs Almost 100 Kilograms

It’s rare for any dog to reach 100 kilograms, let alone a stray one, but Krugets, a stray dog living in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, has become so fat that he can barely get up. The Great Dane, the world’s largest dog breed, weighs between 300 (136 kg) and 400 pounds (181 kg), […]
Man Steals 53 iPhones on His First Day of Work at Electronics Store

A Russian man was recently arrested after stealing 53 new iPhones on his very first day of work at a Moscow electronics store. Earlier this month, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs published a short clip of a man “cleaning up” an electronics store in Moscow and filling a small suitcase and several bags with […]