Everyday Russia
How life in Russia actually looks day to day — prices, transport, food, Moscow, and foreigners who live there.
Sub-sections
Foreigners who live in Russia
Ten verified channels filming their own daily life here, with what each one is best at.
Moscow, unfiltered
Photos and notes from the city as it looks on a normal day, not on a postcard.
Video hub
Every video on the site in one place — conversations, street footage, explainers.
Is Russia expensive for foreigners in 2026?
Food, transport and services are cheap by Western European standards; housing in Moscow, electronics and anything imported are not. A single person outside Moscow lives comfortably on far less than in the EU, while a Moscow family with a rented flat lands much closer to European numbers than the supermarket videos suggest.
What surprises foreigners most when they move to Russia?
Almost every foreign resident lands on the same short list: how fast the digital services are, how cheap and frequent public transport is, how quiet the streets feel at night, how far a smile has to be earned, and how little English there is once you leave the centre of a big city.
What is genuinely hard about living in Russia as a foreigner?
Four things come up again and again: paperwork that has to be redone in person and on schedule, banking and payments that cut you off from money held abroad, the language, and the distance from family — flights home are longer, costlier and less frequent than they were.
Is it safe for foreigners in Russia right now?
Everyday street crime is low, and every foreign resident says the same thing about walking home at night in a big city. The risks that matter to a foreigner are different in kind: legal and administrative exposure, no consular help in an emergency for some nationalities, and no working access to money held abroad.
Foreigners living in Moscow: who films it, and what it costs
Most foreign creators in Russia live in Moscow, and that skews everything you see. The metro is beautiful, the deliveries arrive in fifteen minutes, the parks are new, the salaries are the highest in the country — and none of that describes the other 88 regions.
Living in Siberia as a foreigner: Baikal, Irkutsk and the small towns
Four time zones from Moscow, the arithmetic changes: land and housing are a fraction of the capital's, and everything else — specialist medicine, imported goods, a flight home — costs more in time and money.
Foreigners in the Russian countryside: farms, villages and winter
The countryside is where the largest foreign audiences actually are: a Danish homesteader in the taiga, a Canadian family with a tractor in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a Brazilian driving a Lada between villages. Land is cheap, neighbours are curious, and the work never stops.
Cost of Living in Russia 2026: Real Numbers from Moscow to the Regions
Real 2026 prices: rent, groceries, restaurants, metro, taxi, utilities, gym and three full monthly budgets — Moscow, St. Petersburg, and a typical region.
Living in Russia in 2026: The Complete Honest Guide
Visas, money, rent, internet, VPN, healthcare, language: a no-bullshit 2026 guide to actually living in Russia, written by a Russian who comes and goes betwe…
Start here
Three good entry points into the rest of the site.
Practical
Visas, flights, trains, bank cards, SIM and relocation — the paperwork side, with current numbers.
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Everything we write about what is happening in Russia — long reads, opinion, weekly issues and fact checks. Pick a topic below.
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Everything made by Vlad Lario himself — his own texts, weekly issues and videos, in one place.
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