Unusual Russia

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• Ilya 4:26 pm on June 28, 2026 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: immigration, military, soccer, sports, war   

  
  Three African soccer players were reportedly invited to Russia to play for FC Ural — but ended up being sent to the war in Ukraine.

  In 2025, 19-year-old Cameroonian player Stevis Astrid Mevungu Mbe, his brother, and a friend received an offer from a supposed agent to join the Russian club. Not knowing Russian, they signed documents and flew to Moscow.

  But after landing, they were taken not to a training facility, but to a military recruitment office.

  It turned out the papers they had signed were actually one-year military contracts. They were allegedly told they could return to soccer after serving.

  Stevis ended up as an assault soldier and was wounded three times. His friend was killed, and his brother was captured. After his contract ended in May, the surviving Cameroonian settled in Yekaterinburg, where he now coaches teenagers.
   

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• Ilya 11:59 am on June 16, 2026 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: airplanes, Dagestan, military, Soviet airplanes   

  

  

  Authorities in Dagestan painted a shark face on the world’s largest ekranoplan, angering locals and tourists.

  The legendary Soviet missile-carrying craft Lun has been sitting at Patriot Park near Derbent, on the Caspian Sea, since 2021. After it was turned into a museum exhibit, locals and visitors often came to take photos, film videos, and tour the giant machine.

  But recently, officials repainted its cockpit to look like a shark face with teeth. Not everyone appreciated the “creative” rebrand — many saw it as disrespectful to a unique Soviet-era object.

  The “Caspian Monster,” as U.S. intelligence once called it, is a hybrid between a ship and an airplane. It is 242 feet long, 63 feet tall, and had a takeoff weight of 380 tons. The Lun could travel over land and water at speeds of up to 186 mph.

  Park officials said they added the shark face because the missile-carrying ekranoplan visually resembles a predator.

  The craft had originally been deliberately grounded right on the beach, about 15 miles south of Derbent, near the village of Arablar. It was later pulled out of the water and onto shore — a process that took about six months, moving it only around 4 inches per day.