Katerina Lobanova Reaching the monasteries is no easy task. You won’t find them on the map. 300km from the nearest small town, you can only travel there during Spring and Autumn, when the waters of the Bolshoi Yenisey river, a major artery of the Siberian Taiga, become navigable. Deep in the Russian hinterland, these wild, marshy, forest territories are home to Russia’s Old Believers. Their impossible geography owes itself to persecution.

Vedomosti Russia's Kremlin-backed search enginecould soon close after capturing less than one percent of thecountry's online market. Launched in early 2014, the Sputniksearch engine prioritized government sources for Russian internetsearches. The project, which initially cost some $20 million dollars,also hoped to see Russia's state media harness the power of largernews aggregators such as Yandex and Google, the Vedomosti newspaperreported Friday.

Unable to comply to idealized and unrealistic body shapes, the number of Russians struggling with body issues is increasing exponentially, says psychologist Maria Belyakova. Michaela Rehle / Reuters When an Aeroflot flight attendant sued the company for discrimination, she became an unlikely champion of body image issues in a society that has traditionally proven reluctant to embrace the overweight and the obese.

Russian security forces have discovered ahomemade bomb in the Moscow apartment of a man linked to theSt.Petersburg terror attack. Officers raided the home ofMuhammadyusup Ermatov after arresting his brother Ibragimzhon onThursday, Russia's Interfax news agency reported . Both men are beingheld for terror offenses. Prosecutors told Moscow's BasmannyCourt that police had uncovered a bomb made from a fire extinguisher,similar to the device detonated on the St. Petersburg metro on April3.

An unknown number of computers at the Russian Interior Ministry have been infected with a virus that is crippling computers around the world this Friday, according to the news sites Mediazona and Varlamov.ru. The virus has reportedly infected the Interior Ministry’s internal computer system, though it’s unknown how many machines are affected. Cyber experts say the Russian government’s computers have likely succumbed to the “WCry” virus (also known by the names “WannaCry” and “WannaCryptor”).

A Satanic religious group has been operating in Russia as an officially recognized church for the past year, according to the news website 66.ru. What's more, the Satanists are using their one-year anniversary to declare opposition to religious extremism. The Satanic Church of Russia received legal recognition on May 10, 2016 — a date they subsequently declared “the day of Russian Satanism,” 66.ru reported.

Nick Wass / AP Russian hockey star Alexander Ovechkin won't be playing on Team Russia this year, after the 31-year-old Moscow native suffered lower body injuries during NHL playoffs. Ovechkin sustained the injuries during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, when his team, the Washington Capitols, faced the Toronto Maple Leaves. Ovechkin was hip checked by an opposing player, and had to be removed from the rink. However, he returned at intermission and finished the game.

The United States has released a report criticizing Russia’s inability to curb intellectual property crimes. The report says that Russia hasn’t done enough to fight counterfeiters and pirates. According to the report, film piracy in Russia is the most pressing issue — with piracy of books, music and other media coming up close behind.

The Shiveluch volcano in Russia's FarEastern Kamchatka region has erupted, spewing ash some 13km above sealevel. Experts from the Russian Academy ofSciences measured the plumes using seismic data as the ash column mixed with low-lying clouds. Officials from the region's EmergencySituations Ministry have confirmed that the ash is not expected toland on nearby settlements, Russia's Interfax news agency reported Friday.

NOON AGAINST PUTIN Russians Abroad Take Part in Anti-Putin Election Protest, In Pictures Russians living across the world took part in the anti-Putin protest on the last day of voting in the presidential election. 1 Min read

Moscow police have refused to investigate an attack on a leading human rights official after claiming the assault was carried out to “protect” Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Igor Kalyapin, a member of Russia's Human Rights Council, was pelted with eggs in December 2014. He had appeared at a conference condemning Chechen authorities for their use of "mass punishment" as a weapon against armed groups.

Five people have been arrested while delivering a petition calling for an investigation into the reported abuse of LGBT people in Russia's southern Chechen republic. The group, who planned to hand in the petition at the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow, had collected more than two million signatures from online activism platforms such as Change.org, All Out and Avaaz.

Alexander Shcherbak / TASS “What is it about Sergey V. Lavrov that always makes high-ranking American officials look hapless?” The New York Times posed this question on Thursday , after Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency published photos of the Russian foreign minister’s meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Отказ : refusal You goofed.You agreed to take your significant other’s cousin’s mother’s best friend tothe mall for a day of shopping, and then you realized you couldn’t. It’s notthat you don’t want to — such fun, right? — but you completely forgot anothercommitment. There are alot of ways to describe backing out of something in Russian.

Muscovites forced from their homes under a controversial demolition scheme will be able to decide between cash compensation or a replacement apartment, City Hall has announced. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Friday that residents could choose to be reimbursed for the value of their previous property. Muscovites had previously only been given the option of relocating to a newly-built apartment elsewhere in the capital.