A young man in Russia was hospitalized and treated for kidney failure after doing 2,000 squats to win a bet with a friend.

Doctors at the nephrology department at the Vladivostok Clinical Hospital No. 2, in Primorsky Krai, Russia, recently reported the unusual case of a man in his early 20s who was hospitalized with severely reduced kidney function as a result of physical overextension. The patient told doctors that his troubles began after winning a bet with a friend who challenged him to do 2,000 squats in a set period of time. Confident in his physical abilities, he accepted, but after completing the challenge, he began experiencing troubling symptoms. His legs, which had never failed him before, became sore and extremely swollen, his urine turned dark brown, and before long, he couldn’t urinate at all. Scared, he sought medical help and was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.

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Members of the State Duma (Russian Parliament) and activist organizations in Russia have called for the ban of Turkish soap operas because their perfect male protagonists put Russian men in a bad light.

Representatives of the “Veterans of Russia” movement have appealed to the Russian State Duma and Roskomnadzor (the agency responsible for monitoring and censoring the media in Russia) to ban Turkish soap operas, due to their projection of an “unrealistic image of men,” which makes women lose interest in Russian men, ultimately contributing to the country’s demographic decline. In its petition, Veterans of Russia proposed introducing the concept of ‘destructive propaganda,’ calling Turkish soap operas part of an ‘ideologic war for minds’ that target Russian women and threaten to destroy the institution of family in the country.

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At age 16, Pavel Stepchenko joined the school of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs as a student, and by age 23, he had already retired, becoming the country;s youngest pensioner.

Retirement is traditionally associated with old age, and while today’s youth dream of retiring young to focus on living their best lives, that usually means retiring by age 40 or so. Well, one Russian youth managed to do something most of us can only dream of – retire with a full pension in his early 20s. Pavel Stepchenko’s story is an unusual one. He enrolled in the educational institution of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs at age 16 and after five years of diligent studies, he began working in the territorial division of the internal affairs system. The young man from Donetsk only worked there for two years, because at age 23, he officially retired, taking full advantage of a special provision stating that for each month of service during a period of martial law, a person received three months of credited length of service.

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The Murmansk branch of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia political party made the controversial decision of gifting meat grinders to mothers of soldiers killed in the war with Ukraine to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Over the past three years, the meat grinder has become a symbol of the Russian military’s high casualty rate in its assault on neighboring Ukraine, so the decision of the United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region to celebrate mothers whose sons died in the war by gifting them meat grinders on March 8 can be considered questionable, at best. Photos published on the party’s social media account last Wednesday show the executive secretary of the Polyarnye Zori United Russia branch, Anna Makhunova, alongside Maxim Chengaev, representative of the “Defenders of the Fatherland in the Murmansk Region Foundation” posing next to women who lost their sons in the war against Ukraine, smiling and holding meat grinders.

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A Russian man has allegedly been trying to force his neighbors into selling their share of a communal apartment by playing the national anthem and other patriotic songs from early morning until late at night.

Several tenants and apartment owners in an apartment building in Volgograd, Russia, have been complaining of insufferable loud music playing on repeat in a communal apartment there, but so far, no one has been able to do anything about it. It all started on February 5, when Maxim (pseudonym), the owner of a room in a communal apartment in building No. 2A on Volgograd’s Engels Boulevard, installed a pair of powerful speakers and started playing the Russian national anthem, other patriotic songs like “I Am Russian”, and the sound of dogs barking. The entire building has been subjected to this musical torture every day since, and despite contacting the police, no one has been able to stop it.

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Russian media outlets have been hailing a Russian soldier as a hero for allegedly continuing to fight in the Kursk region for a week after getting shot in the head.

The unnamed man, reportedly a member of the 155th Marine Brigade of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, was fighting Ukrainian troops in Kursk when he got shot. At the time, his helmet was blown off of his head, but he thought the bullet must have ricocheted from it. He developed a hematoma above his right eye which eventually caused his eye to swallow shut, but he just went about his business, thinking the swelling would heal on its own. It was only after suffering another shrapnel-related injury that the man ended up in the hospital and learned that the bullet that had knocked his helmet off had actually pierced his skull and was lodged in his brain.

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The mayor of Berezovsky shockingly lost the recent local elections to a “puppet candidate” who happens to be his subordinate and the wife of his personal driver.

Russian media has been reporting on the surprising outcome of the mayoral race in Berezovsky, a satellite city of Yekaterinburg, in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region. The reelection of Yevgeny Pistsov, who was trying to secure a fourth consecutive term as mayor, seemed little more than a formality, as he was running against a fellow member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia political party who also happened to be a subordinate of his and the wife of his personal driver. No one expected Yulia Maslakova to win, she even told reporters that she ran as a “sparring partner” for Pistov, but the impossible happened and now she is doing everything in her power to avoid being sworn in as mayor.

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Russian police have been enforcing the country’s controversial anti-LGBT legislation by arresting people for dressing in ways that made them “look too gay”.

“Trying to arouse interest in non-traditional sexual relations” has been considered a crime in Russia for over a decade, but the law was usually enforced against individuals and organizations that published and promoted LGBT “propaganda”. However, a recent analysis of court documentation by an independent news outlet revealed that the Kremlin’s strategy to promote ‘traditional values’ now includes detaining and fining people for “looking too gay”. The Russian news website Verstka revealed an incident that occurred back in February of last year but was never covered by the media in which eight individuals were detained by police for wearing clothing that promoted “non-traditional sexual relations”.

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A mini Mercedes G Class SUV with an electric motor and luxury trimmings has gone viral in Russia for costing 11 million rubles ($110,000) despite being somewhat of a children’s toy.

It’s no secret that the Mercedes G-Wagon is a lot of young people’s dream car, but would you pay over $100,000 to buy a miniature version for your teenage kid? A dealership in Moscow, Russia, is selling an electric Mercedes G-Class aimed at young people below the legal driving age for a whopping 11 million rubles ($110,000). At only 800 kg, it’s considerably smaller than the regular G-Wagon, and comes with a parental control function that allows you to limit the vehicle’s speed from 60km/h to 40km/h or 20km/h. But other than that, it comes with all the bells and whistles of a normal G Class, including leather seats, a digital display, parking sensors, soundproofing, steering wheel controls, and a rearview camera for parking.

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Russian entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck have started selling twigs online, marketing them as “perfect snowman arms” and asking for up to 5,300 rubles ($50) per pair.

Russian media recently reported that online classifieds platforms have been inundated with ads for snowman spare parts. Apart from the snow itself, you can buy pretty much anything online, from the hat and carrot nose to the coal eyes and buttons. Wooden twigs as arms have been particularly popular, with sellers asking from 500 rubles ($4.8) per pair to a whopping 5,300 rubles ($50), discounted from 5,900 rubles. Marketed as “long-lasting”, strong, reliable and unique – like snowflakes in winter – the wooden snowman arms are said to be the perfect purchase this holiday season.

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A middle-aged Russian man suffering from diabetes and poor blood clotting tragically lost his life after being scratched on the leg by his pet cat.

On November 22, Dmitry Ukhin, a 55-year-old man from the Kirishi district, in Russia’s Leningrad region, went looking for his pet cat Styopka around the neighborhood. The feline had an independent streak and liked nothing more than to walk around the neighborhood freely. Eyewitnesses later told police that Ukhin found his beloved pet and took it home with him, but couldn’t really explain why or how the cat scratched his leg so badly that he bled to death in a matter of minutes.

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A Belarusian blogger managed to convince dozens of Russian teachers to make and wear tinfoil hats as means of protection against radiation from NATO satellites.

Vladislav Bokhan, a Belarussian blogger and activist known for his elaborate pranks, made headlines earlier this month when he released several photos of dozens of Russian teachers wearing tinfoil hats decorated with the Russian flag. He reportedly contacted multiple schools in Russia’s Voronezh region, introducing himself as an official from the local branch of United Russia (the country’s ruling party), and ordered them to hold a patriotic master class called “Helmet of the Fatherland.” Bokhan demanded that teachers working at these schools make tinfoil hats to “demonstrate their readiness to protect themselves from radiation from NATO satellites,” and to his surprise, seven of the schools he contacted actually followed his instructions without question.

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A 46-year-old Russian man was recently rescued after spending 67 days drifting through the icy waters of the Russian Far East in an inflatable raft.

On August 9, Mikhail Pichugin, his 49-year-old brother Sergey, and his 15-year-old nephew Ilya set out for Sakhalin Island from the far eastern Khabarovsk region in an inflatable raft. A few days later, their families announced their disappearance, and a search and rescue operation was mounted using planes and helicopters. All efforts to locate the inflatable boat failed, and with each passing day, hopes of finding any of the three men alive faded. By September, the chances of finding the boat had plummeted towards zero, but on Monday, October 14, the inflatable boat was spotted in the Sea of Okhotsk, about 1,000km (670 miles) from where it had set off 67 days prior. Miraculously, one of the three men was still alive.

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Lake Burlinskoye, a salty lake located in Russia’s Altai region close to the border with Kazakhstan, is famous both for its pink color during the summer and the freight train passing through it every day.

Seeing an old freight train seemingly floating over a pink lake in Western Siberia is quite a bizarre experience, but somehow it all makes sense. Lake Burlinskoye is the largest single salt deposit in Siberia, with a saltiness that rivals that of the Dead Sea. It is precisely this exceptionally high saltiness that attracts a species of microscopic brine shrimp called Artemia salina which, as they multiply, end up turning the lake bright pink during the summer months. Siberia’s pink lake is a strange enough sight, but what really sets Burlinskoye apart from other bodies of water is the freight train traversing it several times per day.

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Kroshik, a 14-year-old ginger cat from the Russian city of Perm lost his ability to walk after ballooning to a whopping 17 kilograms (38 pounds) in weight due to overfeeding by his loving humans.

Photos of the obese Kroshik went viral last week after being shared on Russian social network VKontakte by volunteers at the Matroskin Animal Shelter in Perm. In them, a young woman is struggling to hold him in her arms, which makes sense, considering he weighs three times as much as he should. According to Matroskin staff, Kroshik was rescued from a local hospital whose staff contacted them after the 14-year-old feline lost his ability to walk due to his weight and advanced age. Kroshik had been living in the hospital basement for years, hunting rodents and enjoying the affection of humans, but in the last few years, he ballooned in seize due to overfeeding. When he got so fat that he literally couldn’t stand on his four legs, nurses at the hospital called the animal shelter.

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