Russia

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) recently won a competition to design a new concert hall in Russia. The forward-thinking firm is rarely satisfied to play it safe, and this once again prove to be the case as it produced an unusual design inspired by sound waves.

Renault is apparently big in Russia, owning almost a third of the market through its main brand and majority ownership of Lada. And apparently, Russians want to see more cars with the ground clearance and 4-wheel-drive capability of an SUV, but the body of a sedan.

Facebook has removed another batch of pages, groups and accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." This time originating in Iran, the pages targeted hundreds of thousands of people across the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US with political content designed to shape their opinions.

Rising over the historic city of St. Petersburg like an elegant glazed bullet, the 87-story Lakhta Center, is nearing completion. The supertall skyscraper is 462 m (1,516 ft)-tall, making it Europe's new tallest building and the 13th tallest building in the world.

Two worms frozen in the Siberian permafrost for around 40,000 years have now been thawed and revived, making them the oldest living creatures on the planet and the first multicellular organisms to have survived such long-term cryobiosis.

Following an architectural competition, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has been given the nod to head a 13.9 hectare (34 acre) development of Russia's largest shipping port, Novorossiysk. The project is due to begin construction in the second half of 2019.

Russian firm DublDom recently installed an off-grid cabin in Kandalaksha, Russia, that sleeps up to eight people. Located north of the Arctic Circle, the remote area features a harsh landscape. Owing to these challenges, the cabin had to be delivered in sections by helicopter.

Last weekend, Russia's floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, was towed out to sea for the first time, beginning its voyage from St Petersburg to Murmansk, where it will be eventually loaded up with nuclear fuel and started up sometime in 2019.

The Pleistocene Park project is aiming to rebuild a lost Ice Age ecosystem in Siberia, and its directors, Sergey and Nikita Zimov, say it could help slow the effects of climate change. Now, the initiative is running a crowdfunding campaign to help transport a new herd of animals to the park.

Thorium reactors have long been proposed as a cleaner, safer alternative to nuclear energy. Now Russian scientists propose a new thorium reactor design that can burn weapons-grade plutonium, producing power and thermal energy while disposing of nuclear waste at the same time.

Forever synonymous with the AK-47 assault rifle, Russian company Kalashnikov has been branching out in all sorts of interesting directions of late. Hoverbikes, UAVs, boats, autonomous gun turrets... And now, an electric off-road motorcycle for police and military use.

​To experience life in and around the ISS requires years of astronaut training, but technology does continue to bring us closer to the experience. The latest example is a 360-degree video that places the viewer in the thick of the action as Russian cosmonauts carry out a spacewalk.