Everyday Russia
How life in Russia actually looks day to day — prices, transport, food, Moscow, and foreigners who live there.
Foreign creators connected to Russia — the directorySub-sections
How to Choose a University in Russia: Filter by Country, Field and Budget
A checked 2026 guide for international students: admission routes, teaching language, indicative tuition and 14 universities filtered by field, budget and city.
Students from Brazil, Angola and Nigeria in Russia
The fastest-growing group of newcomers is not Western. Why they choose Moscow and St Petersburg, and what actually surprises them.
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.
Why Gen Z loves Soviet panel blocks and the doomer wave
Concrete estates, night kitchens and post-Soviet post-punk: what the aesthetic is actually about, and what a khrushchyovka really is.
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.
Start here
Three good entry points into the rest of the site.
Guides
Visas, flights, trains, bank cards, SIM and relocation — the paperwork side, with current numbers.
ExploreLanguage
The alphabet, first phrases and free tools — enough Russian to read a sign and order coffee.
ExploreRussia now
Everything we write about what is happening in Russia — long reads, opinion, weekly issues and fact checks. Pick a topic below.
ExploreFrom Vlad
Everything made by Vlad Lario himself — his own texts, weekly issues and videos, in one place.
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