Maybe, just maybe, this week brought us one step closer to a better relationship between the United States and Russia.

Yesterday, after weeks of heated exchanges between Washington and Moscow over America's plans for installing a missile defense system in eastern Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin came up with a surprise. Rather than base the system in the former Warsaw pact countries of Poland and the Czech Republic, Putin told Washington, put it in Azerbaijan. And, according to the... more

Where is it? Magadan Oblast, or region, is located in the Russian Far East north of Primorye Krai and Khabarovsk Krai along the Sea of Okhotsk. Prior to Stalin's death the region was known as Kolyma. It is in the same time zone as Vladivostok. You can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Magadan, population 99,399 as of the 2002 census, out of 182,726 total inhabitants in the region.

Who lives... more

Where is it? Khabarovsk Krai, or region, is located in the Russian Far East just north of Primorye Krai along the Sea of Okhotsk. It is in the same time zone as Vladivostok. You can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Khabarovsk, which is a major Pacific Ocean port and the second biggest city in the Russian Far East after Vladivostok. Like Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, population 579,000, grew up along the... more

Where is it? The Primorye Krai, or region, is located on the Pacific Ocean at Russia's far eastern edge.

What's the biggest city? Vladivostok, which is the home to Russia's Pacific Fleet and Russian's biggest Pacific Ocean port. Because of the naval operations, Stalin closed Vladivostok off from the world, and it remained so until 1991. Nakhodka (also written as Nahodka) is the second-largest city.

Who lives here? Mostly ethnic Russians. But there are Korean and... more

Where is it? Arkhangelsk Oblast, or region, is about 600 miles north of Moscow, just shy of the Arctic Circle. It has nearly 2,000 miles of coastline on the Barents, Kara and White seas. It is in the same time zone as Moscow.

What's the biggest city? Arkhangelsk city accounts for 356,051 of the 1,336,539 people in the region. Other big cities are Severodvinsk (once known as Molotovsk after Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin's foreign affairs minister and creator of the eponymous incendiary device), which... more

Where is it? Pskov Oblast, or region, is located in the northwest corner of Russia about 12 miles from the border of Estonia. Latvia and Belarus are also on its borders. It is in the same time zone as Moscow.

What's the biggest city? Pskov, which accounts for 202,000 of the region's 760,810 people. Other major cities are Velikie Luki, Ostrov and Nevel.

Who lives here? Overwhelmingly ethnic Russians. Pskov was an independent republic in the Middle Ages, but it was annexed by Moscow... more

Rose Alaimo doesn't know any Russian orphans. She's never been to a Russian orphanage, or even to Russia itself. But all that is going to change this summer--if Rose gets our help. This young woman from Dallas, Pa. wants to spend three weeks volunteering at a Russian orphanage. But she needs to raise money for travel and other expenses. Not much, $1,800, but that's enough to stretch the budget of somebody who's in grad school studying to be a veterinarian.

That was one of the first things to surprise me about Rose, when... more

As I have noted before, Russia has 86 governing subdivisions that are potential locations for an adoption. The 59 agencies that are now seeking accreditation and re-accreditation from the Ministry of Education each operate in only a handful of these regions. I've given you five tips on choosing a region once you have selected your agency.

But there's a lot more to learn about Russia's regions. Not only for the prospective parents now waiting... more

I wrote a while back that Moscow's subway system is one of the top five things to see when you are visiting Russia's capital city on your adoption journey. But mass transit can be an odd experience for us car-crazy Americans. So I thought I'd take a minute today to look at how to ride the Moscow Metro and the city's trams.

First, some background. While the London Underground has far more kilometers of track (408 to Moscow's... more

When I was researching Saturday's post about The Frog Princess, I got a rude awakening to just how much things have changed in Russia since my first adoption: I checked up on the Hotel Vladivostok, only to discover that its top rooms now go for more than $300 a night!

In December 1999, my room at the Hotel Vladivostok was $33 a night. It was small, with space only for a bed, a portable crib and a small television whose sole English-language... more