Where is it? Tver Oblast is located in northwestern Russia. The Moscow region is its immediate neighbor to the east, so it is in the Moscow time zone. On its other borders are the regions of Smolensk, Novgorod and Vogograd. The Volga River flows through the region and its main city.

What's the biggest city? Tver, whose population includes 408,903 of the region's 1,471,459 million people, according to the 2002 census. From 1931 to 1990, the... more

Where is it? Murmansk Oblast is located on the Kola peninsula, which juts into the Barents Sea in northwestern Russia and includes Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. It is, however, in the Moscow time zone, and you can find the local time here.

What's the biggest city? Murmansk, whose population includes 336,137 of the region's 892,534 million people, according to the 2002 census.

Who lives here? ... more

Those of you who are getting ready to travel to Russia to complete adoptions with newly accredited agencies may want to read a new feature story on the Associated Press wire.

Then again, you may not. It's all about Russian air safety, or more properly, the lack of air safety.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know the basic issues involving aviation in Russia: deregulation, competition--and too many fatal crashes. (Read the previous posts "How... more

Where is it? Chelyabinsk Oblast is at the crossroads of the European and Asian sides of Russia, at the foot of the Urals mountains. Chelyabinsk is two hours ahead of Moscow and you can find the local time here.

What's the biggest city? Chelyabinsk, whose population includes some 1 million of the region's 3.6 million people, according to the 2002 census.

Who lives here? Ethnic Russians account for more than... more

Where is it? Yaroslavl Oblast is located in western Russian about equidistant from Moscow and St. Petersburg. It borders the Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma and Vologda Oblasts. It is in the same time zone as Moscow.

What's the biggest city? Yaroslavl, whose population was recently estimated at 613,088 out of a total of 1.4 million for... more

Rose Alaimo has only been in Russia a few days, but her experience is already proving an eye-opener.

You might remember that, back in late May, I introduced you to a Cornell University veterinary student who decided to go to Russia for what some people call a "volunteer vacation". Rose is doing a lot of volunteering, but she clearly isn't getting a lot of time for rest. And it doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

Rose arrived in Yaroslavl on July 23... more

Where is it? Perm Krai is located in western Russian at the foot of the Ural Mountains. It borders the Komi Republic, and the Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, Kirovskaya and Sverdlovskaya Oblasts. It has a two-hour time difference from Moscow and you can find the local time here.

What's the biggest city? Perm, whose population was recently estimated at 976,116 out of a total of 3 million for the entire region. The city's name is derived from... more

Where is it? Novosibirsk Oblast is located, as you might have guessed from the name, in western Siberia. It is bordered by Omsk and Tomsk oblasts, Kemerovo Oblast and Altai Krai. Kazahkstan is just to the south. The Ob River cuts through the region. Though it is small, the economic importance of its largest city has merited the Novosibirsk region its own time zone, and you can find the local time here.

What's... more

Now that larger numbers of people are going to be traveling again, I thought I'd better circle back to the practical stuff. I've given you my tips for trip one and my thoughts on what to do when you meet your child for the first time. Your second trip will have its own challenges, though, so I thought it might help to pass on what I did then as well.

First up: How... more

What with the need for a trip one, trip two, packing, regional pointers and the like, there's always a lot of talk about travel on the Russia Adoption forum board. But a new thread popped up last week with a fun idea: Travel to Russia to see the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and take the kids along.

As you may have seen in the news last week, on July 4 Russia won its... more