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?
Expat Cultural Shock
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.

