In Tajikistan, live swirls around wed­dings. In the coun­try, where 47.2% live below the poverty threshold, and 80% of the employ­able pop­u­la­tion work abroad as labour migrants, the amount of money spent on wed­dings per year equals the country’s budget of $2 billion.

From Cent­ral Asia to Moscow, Rid­ing the Bribery Express.

Cos­sack mil­it­ary school near Vol­go­grad (nearly 1,000km south-east of Moscow). Some 30 mil­it­ary schools, such as the one in Vol­go­grad, have opened in the country.

Rally in Yeka­ter­in­burg to protest the out­come of par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions held on Decem­ber 17, 2011

Based in Zlat­oust, a steel­mak­ing city in the Ural moun­tains, the women’s water polo team “Uralochka” is con­sidered one of its major assets. Estab­lished in 1985 “Uralochka” is one of the old­est water polo teams in Russia.

In the Urals, there is a small set­tle­ment called Arti in which a small fact­ory has been mak­ing scythes and sow­ing needles in an almost primeval man­ner since the Soviet period.