Snowboard manufacturer Burton's official distributor in Russia held a countrywide contest rewarding cities with new snow parks, and the comparatively small Petropavlovsk was in the running. A mob gathered in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on April 27. Its participants were young, wearing bright colors, refreshing the Internet connection on their cell phones constantly...

... is developed by the same firm, Rosinka International Group. Angelovo’s management company is a subsidiary of Rosinka. Angelovo residents pay a service fee of roughly $1,000 per month that covers trash pickup, staffed entrances, landscaping and snow shoveling, residents said in interviews. It doesn’t include gas, electricity or Internet hookups or use of the pool at Rosinka. Angelovo doesn’t have its own pool, kindergarten or grade school, as is common at such complexes. A handful...

Whenever you feel the urge to complain about the injustice of the climate where you live, you can always comfort yourself with the fact that it's probably colder in Murmansk, where snow can linger into May and reappear in September. Murmansk Population: 307,700 Main industries: Shipping, fishing City manager: Andrei Sysoyev Founded in 1916 Interesting fact: Murmansk is home to the tallest building in the Arctic...

... posted a terrible greenish shot on Twitter showing him in a ruffled shirt and bow tie with pop singers Stas Mikhailov and Grigory Leps in the Kremlin. "Brothers at the inauguration," he wrote. Again no surprises, Leps performed at the Putin snow-blown rally at Luzhniki and Mikhailov was one of Putin's "representatives." Even at the inauguration, Mikhailov wore his shirt unbuttoned to reveal his hairy chest and gold chain with a cross. Although the dress code was a dark suit. Analysts...

... their way to offer them a seat on the crowded metro or to show your family the way to the correct office to get your immigration forms stamped. Elderly museum attendants will — once they have overcome their innate suspicion of children not clad in snow pants in September — smile benignly and ferret around for cards giving you a translation of the legends on the wall. And the dreaded queue systems... well... Not long after we moved over here, my sons (then 4 and 6) and I found ourselves in...

... chance to become a part of this glorious world where everything that is make-believe is more important than life itself? Perhaps that is what Mikhail Bulgakov was thinking when he wrote "Theatrical Novel," also known in English as "Black Snow." At least, those were the thoughts I had after attending a dramatization of the novel at the Fomenko Studio. Pyotr Fomenko and his leading actor Kirill Pirogov are listed as "authors" of the production, which I suspect means they...

... approach can be compared to one of the principles in Putin's favorite sport — judo. Many judo moves are modeled after the cherry tree branch, or sakura, found in Japan and other Asian countries that first bends under the mounting weight of falling snow, and then forcefully snaps back into position. In this way, the sakura move is designed to use the enemy's force against him. Putin purposefully let the opposition expend all of its energy on the streets. Then, as many had expected, the opposition...

... Yelena Fomenko of the American Councils for International Education, a Washington-based NGO that runs the FLEX travel-study program with funding from the U.S. State Department. Host parents also might ask you to do "man's work" like shoveling snow, said Fomenko, herself a FLEX alumna. Girls in the room tittered. The dangers of online social networks were also expounded upon. "You're going to America to learn about American culture. How can you do that when you're constantly talking to...

... Agent K. Oktyabr Premiere showing Fri. at 7:30 a.m. Dubbed. Pyat Zvyozd-Paveletskaya Wed. at 12:10 a.m. Dubbed. Mirror Mirror (Belosnezhka i Mest Gnomov, 2012): Tarsem Singh’s adventure fantasy based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “Snow White” stars Lily Collins, Julia Roberts and Armie Hammer. Pyat Zvyozd-Novokuznetskaya Thurs. to Wed. at 11:10 a.m. Dubbed. Safe (Zashchitnik, 2012): An ex-cage fighter comes to the aid of a young girl pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob...