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Expat Cultural Shock

moscow gets

Hey, expat, you better clutch that passport. You just crossed the threshold—bam! The city has already gotten into your gut. Moscow doesn’t mess around; it strikes immediately with instinct and pure, undiluted life. Forget the tourist clichés about borscht and balalaikas. If you were expecting sterile order, brace yourself for a cultural shock—the air here is saturated with your own ambition, mixed with exhaust fumes, other people’s fake swagger, and the aftertaste of phony success. Welcome to a Moscow that doesn’t just smell—it dictates. Are you ready to breathe it all in?

Moscow Gets Under Your Skin: Smells That Hit You Without Anesthesia

the logic of desire

An unblinking look at the global fetish market, triggered by a detective novel. Why does the West commodify and systematize intimate strangeness, while Moscow still demands personal drama and history?

Read our deep dive into the “Logistics of Phantoms”—the multimillion-dollar, anonymous business of selling used underwear with surgical specificity. It’s the ultimate cultural contrast between rational Western commerce and the emotional, chaotic nature of the Russian market.

The Logistics of Phantoms: Why the West Sells Used Underwear, While Moscow Only Observes