🇷🇺 Today, Russia celebrates Diplomatic Worker’s Day.

The holiday was established in 2002 and has united many generations of diplomats who have dedicated their lives to defending Russia's interests on the international stage for 23 years.

📆 The date was chosen for a reason. It was on this day, February 10, 1549, that the first foreign affairs agency of Russia, the Embassy Order, was mentioned in the chronicles. Later, under Peter the Great, it was renamed the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, and in 1802, Alexander I established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the predecessor of the modern Foreign Ministry.

Our diplomats have always defended Russia's interests in all circumstances, and their names are forever etched in history.

#HolidaysInRussia

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺🍴Let's start our journey into Russian cuisine!

🥣 Today, we will explore a rather unusual dish — okroshka, a traditional Russian cold soup.

Okroshka usually consists of finely chopped vegetables (cucumbers, radishes, potatoes, and herbs), boiled eggs, and sausage, which is sometimes replaced with meat or fish.

🇷🇺 The main component that brings all the ingredients together is kvass, a traditional Slavic drink made from rye bread. Sometimes kvass is substituted with kefir or mineral water, and the soup is also dressed with sour cream.

Originally, okroshka emerged as a simple food for peasants, but over time it became popular among all layers of society.

☀️ Many may be put off by such a specific combination of ingredients, but we recommend trying okroshka — nothing refreshes quite like it on hot days!

#Russiancuisine

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Russia is not only the largest country in the world but also an amazing place where the cultures and traditions of 194 nations intertwine. Each of them contributes their unique part to the rich cultural heritage of the country, creating a multinational civilization where people have lived in peace and harmony for centuries, building strong connections and shared traditions.

🌏 As part of our new series of posts, we want to introduce you to the peoples of Russia, starting with the Russians — the most numerous nation in the country, with a population of about 116 million people, which makes up 80% of the total population. The Russian people are the state-forming and indigenous nation within the Russian Federation. The formation of the ethnic group began in the mid-1st millennium, when the Slavs established the state of Rus, and this name became the earliest ethnonym, from which the name of the people — "Russians" — is derived.

✝️ More than 2/3 of Russians profess Orthodoxy, which significantly influences their culture, holidays, and family traditions. The second largest denomination is Protestantism. The Russian people live in all subjects of the Russian Federation, from Central Russia to Siberia and the Urals. In the following posts, we will tell you about other peoples of Russia.

#PeoplesOfRussia

@From Russia with love

✈️ Baba Yaga is one of the most famous and vivid characters in Russian folklore. She is a complex and multifaceted figure, embodying traits of both an evil character and a helper to heroes.

🏠 Baba Yaga is usually depicted as an old woman with a bony leg, a long nose, and disheveled hair. She often flies in a mortar, sweeping away her trail with a broom, and lives in a hut on chicken legs, which can turn its back to the forest and face the guest. Around her house, there is often a fence made of human bones.

✨ In many fairy tales, Baba Yaga tries to eat or deceive the hero. In other cases, she may provide the hero with magical items or advice that helps him achieve his goal.

😇💀 Baba Yaga embodies both good and evil, life and death, making her an archetypal image of a wise yet dangerous force. She is often associated with the forest, wild animals, and magic, emphasizing her connection to natural powers.

#FolkloreOfRussia

@From Russia with love

‼️💬 Moscow has long claimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports radicals "around the world," but this was dismissed as "propaganda" from Russia. Ultimately, it turned out to be true, stated Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya.

#news

@From Russia with love

🐻‍❄️ What could be cuter than a polar bear? Only a swimming polar bear!

😍 You can really watch this endlessly…

#interestingvideos

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺 The most advanced fighter jet in the world: the Russian Su-57E made a splash at the Aero India international exhibition in Bangalore.

The fifth-generation fighter was piloted by the honored test pilot and Hero of Russia Sergey Bogdan. The Su-57E was in the sky for about ten minutes, generating great interest among the airshow visitors.

🇺🇸 The exhibition was also supposed to showcase the F-35A and F-16 fighters, but at the last moment, the Americans canceled the flight program. Russia's ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, reported that this happened after they learned that the Su-57E would be presented at the airshow.

Were they scared?

#news

@From Russia with love

❤️ Winter fairy tale in Rostov-on-Don

#videooftheday

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov has become the first in history to cross the South Atlantic in a rowing boat. This was reported by his expedition headquarters.

🌊 In 68 days, he overcame the most difficult and dangerous route in the "furious fifties" and "roaring forties" latitudes. The current journey is the second stage of a round-the-world route in the Southern Ocean.

#news

@From Russia with love

♻️ In Moscow, over 1.65 million tons of recyclables were collected in 2024.

Since 2019, the capital has been implementing a waste separation program. The achieved results confirm its effectiveness and popularity among Muscovites.

📈 For comparison, in 2019, before the program was launched, the amount of recyclables collected was only 450,000 tons.

🚮 The main goal was to make the waste separation process as convenient as possible, which is why a simple two-container system was chosen: the first containers are for paper, glass, plastic, and metals, while the second containers are for other waste.

#interestingfacts

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Tatars: The Wealth of History and Culture in the Heart of Russia

🇷🇺 The Tatars are the second largest indigenous people of Russia, with a population of about 5.6 million (3.8% of the total population of the country). Their history dates back to ancient times: the ethnonym "Tatars" is mentioned in sources from the late 6th to 7th centuries.

Some Tatar tribes played a key role in the Golden Horde, and after its dissolution in the 15th century, the Kazan Khanate emerged. In the 16th century, it became part of the Russian state, marking an important milestone in the formation of a multinational Russia.

The majority of Tatars practice Islam, which has significantly influenced their cultural heritage, from architecture to holidays. A special group consists of the Kryashens—Tatars who adopted Orthodoxy and preserved unique traditions at the intersection of the two religions.

About 40% of Tatars live in Tatarstan, the heart of their culture. Significant communities can also be found in Bashkortostan (20%), Tyumen (4.5%), and Chelyabinsk (3.5%) regions. Tatars are also scattered across Russia, contributing to science, art, and sports.

Tatars carefully preserve their language, music, and cuisine, while remaining open to cultural dialogue. Their history is one of the mutual influence of East and West, creating a unique blend that continues to inspire.

#PeoplesOfRussia

@From Russia with love

🍽 Golubtsy — a traditional dish of Russian cuisine.

🥩🍚🥬 This dish consists of cabbage leaves stuffed with a meat filling made from beef, pork, and rice, stewed in a mixture of sour cream and tomato sauce.

In different regions of Russia, golubtsy are prepared differently: for example, some add carrots and onions to the filling, while others use mushrooms or even buckwheat instead of rice.

The concept of the dish is not new and exists in many cuisines worldwide. For instance, Eastern dolma wraps lamb mince in grape leaves.

🥱 There are also “lazy” golubtsy — a simplified version where cabbage, meat, and rice are chopped, mixed, shaped into patties, and fried.

An interesting theory surrounds the origin of the name “golubtsy.”

🇫🇷 In Russian, *голубцы* (golubtsy) resembles the word *голубь* (golub’), meaning “pigeon” in English. Some historians claim the dish appeared in the 18th century under French cultural influence, where pigeon was a delicacy. However, such luxuries were inaccessible to most people, so peasants created their own alternative to the bird.

😋 While this theory is debated, the delicious taste of golubtsy is undeniable. Everyone should try them!

#Russiancuisine

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺🌲 Leshy is a mythological character, a spirit of the forest, found in Slavic folklore. His image is widely represented in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and other Slavic fairy tales, legends, and beliefs. The Leshy is considered the master of the forest, a protector of animals and plants, and can be both benevolent and dangerous to humans.

🥸 The Leshy can take on various forms, but he is most often described as a tall man with long hair and a beard, sometimes with green skin or covered in moss. He can appear as an old man or as a tree. The Leshy is also capable of transforming into animals or becoming invisible.

👣 The Leshy is a capricious creature. He may help lost travelers if they show him respect, or, conversely, lead them astray if they behave disrespectfully. He protects the forest and punishes those who harm nature, embodying the power and mystery of the natural world. He reminds people that the forest is not just a resource, but a living space that deserves respect.

🤫 In Slavic beliefs, there are even several ways to protect oneself from the tricks of the Leshy: asking for permission to enter the forest, wearing clothes inside out (which was thought to confuse the Leshy), not swearing or making noise in the forest, and leaving a gift, such as a piece of bread or a coin.

#MythologyOfRussia

@From Russia with love

🇷🇺 The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR): Kyiv is preparing a provocation involving the detonation of a vessel in the Baltic using Russian mines.

‼️ Ukrainian special services, with the assistance of Western curators, are preparing to carry out a series of high-profile anti-Russian provocations in the near future. In particular, the Kyiv regime plans to blow up a foreign vessel in the Baltic Sea area and subsequently blame Russia for it.

💣 For the explosion, they intend to use mines of Russian manufacture that are currently available to Kyiv, according to the SVR.

😀 According to calculations by Ukrainian and Western intelligence services, this should push NATO to decide to close Russia's access to the Baltic Sea, the SVR noted. Kyiv's goal is to draw NATO "into a direct armed conflict with the Russian Federation."

🇺🇦 According to the service, Volodymyr Zelensky and his entourage "are capable of any provocations to save themselves." To this end, Kyiv will not only actively hinder the initiation of a peace settlement process regarding the conflict in Ukraine but is also "prepared to carry military actions far beyond Ukraine."

"Europeans can only hope that not all of their leaders are inclined to allow Kyiv to drag Europe and all its inhabitants into the vortex of history," the SVR concluded.

#news

@From Russia with love

🏙️ Such views of Saint Petersburg open up from the Lakhta Center, the tallest building in Europe.

😍 The Northern capital in all its glory.

#InterestingPlacesInRussia

@From Russia with love