LIVING IN MOSCOW IN THE ’00s TURNED ME INTO CITY-GUIDE GIRL, for better or for worse. It was due to pity, basically. If there’s any destination more forbidding or user-unfriendly than Russia, I have yet to find it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Moscow this weekend, and his travel agenda was less than inspiring.

California Governor rode the Moscow metro today. We have to say, Mr. Schwarzenegger is becoming one of the most popular politicians in Russia -- the blogosphere here is filled with “Arnie for Moscow Mayor” slogans and suggestions of metro stops worth visiting.

Nice, a southern French resort town, once popular among Russian intelligentsia and aristocracy, is getting a regular train service to Moscow again, almost a 100 years since it’s been shut down by the Soviet government (apparently, there was not much travel between Moscow and Nice in those days).

A turbulent economy and soaring real estate prices that transformed Moscow into one of the most exciting cities in the world, failed to reach for Kasimov, a small town a mere 150 miles East of Russian capital. Russia! continues its apparently doomed search for a decent breakfast in the provincia.

The heat wave in Moscow breaks all temperature records possible. All air conditioners are sold out, the government is taking emergency measures to help farmers amid the worst draught in 130 years, people are drowning while trying to cool off, and the Kremlin guard regiment has been cancelled due to danger of heat exhaustion.

Russia! introduces a series of reports from towns small and large around Moscow. This week, it’s Dubna and Kymri, situated on the banks of Volga river, 120 kilometers south of the Russian capital.

INFORMATION DESIGNER ERIC FISCHER created a geo-tagged world atlas, where color density on the maps of world's largest cities represents the number of photos uploaded by Flickr users.

DHL, one of the top companies shipping to Russia from the US and Europe, banned non-letter shipment to this country, sighting recent changes in customs regulations and clearance delays.

If you decide to go around Moscow with $1 Million in your bag, here is an advice: Don't. It sounds like a silly advice, doesn't it? But it is not.

One good thing about being a Russian citizen is that you could enjoy the "Russian citizens prices" in some hotels and museums around the country, which often are 30% to 50% lower than those for the foreign nationals. Sounds a bit like discrimination against foreigners? Well, it is.

"I took the new train to Sheremetyevo. It's brilliant!" In September, our Facebook page was filled with similar messages from our Moscow friends, who tried taking the new high-speed train from downtown Moscow to the city's busiest international airport, Sheremetyevo, and loved it. Travellers were no doubt counting the days until the train service was open -- it now takes 35 minutes to get to the airport instead of dreadful two or more hours of sitting in a giant traffic jam that is Moscow.

Aeroflot, the biggest Russian airline, is planning to make cellphones available during flights. The carrier is installing cellular stations on its airplanes -- a costly technology which will allow the passengers to use their cellphones and blackberries in the air. According to the Aeroflot spokesperson, the first stations will be installed as early as next year.

A new report by the World Economic Forum, an organization which holds an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, placed Russia 114th out of 121 nations in how easy it is to trade with. According to the report, Russia apparently has problems with trade friendliness, red tape, tariffs, corruption and... roads.

Barack Obama's 3-day trip to Moscow is to begin on July 6, but the US President is already the center of attention in Russia. Bolshoi Gorod, a popular Moscow bi-weekly, published the "Travel guide for Obama issue", where it tracks the President's route and suggests some tourist sights (Obama is expected to speak at the university graduation and hold talks with Prime Minister Putin and president Medvedev.)