Aloi Pilioko, a Russian Polynesian who was a longtime friend with Nicolai Michoutouchkine, a French artist of Russian origin, lives on the distant island of Vanuatu in Melanesia. Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay is still remembered in Papua New Guinea; and even Russian words are used there in speech. However there is even more surprising fact: the Papuans’ life is somewhat similar to life in remote Russian villages. We spoke to Andrey Tutorskiy, an ethnographer, associate professor of the Ethnology Department of the History Faculty in the Lomonosov Moscow State University, about this distant and exotic region and about its links to Russia.

In recent years mysteries of Tunguska meteorite have been again attracting scientists from various countries of the world to Siberia. This summer the latest International expedition has come to completion in the Tunguska Nature Reserve. Professionals from Russia, the USA, Italy and the Czech Republic took part in it. One hundred and eleven years after the meteorite’s fall into the Siberian taiga, scientists still endeavour to figure out its impact onto the ecosystem.