On the Soviet and not-so Soviet traditions

Russia is one of the most desired destinations to visit in the world, but there are some things that you should know before you embark on such journey. Russia is nothing you have seen before, a strange mixture of third-world backwardness and modernity, the soviet wounds and its own ancient customers and traditions. I intend to write a series of articles exploring things that you should know before you travel to Russia. This one is about strangers' starring and Russian bureaucrats.

And the first thing you should keep in mind is that when you travel to Russia you will discover that people don't like you, at least so it seems from the first impression. Strangers will be looking at you as if you had done something terrible wrong. Don't worry; it is just Russians don't smile to strangers. In Russian culture it is acceptable to look at a person with a cold for more than 2 seconds - something that takes many westerners off, at first. This does not mean that these people don't like you though. Who knows why Russians don't smile to strangers, perhaps just another soviet legacy.