Yesterday, Russia celebrated Paratrooper Day. Or, if you want to be accurate, the paratroopers celebrated Paratrooper Day, the anniversary of the formation of the Russian Airborne Troops in the Soviet Union.
The paratroopers, known for their distinctive light blue berets, celebrated their 80th anniversary yesterday by drinking, beating up Dagestanis, drinking, storming a cafe and breaking its windows and glassware, driving a tractor onto Red Square (the driver turned out to be a paratrooper poser), drinking, and raiding a watermelon stand. (When bystanders tried to stop them, the paratroopers answered that they were taking “theirs.”)
But the thing paratroopers love to do most on such a day — other than drink, of course — is frolick. In fountains. In their underwear.
Some wonderful shots from yesterday’s celebration can be found at Zyalt’s photo blog, but the day’s spirit is best illustrated by his photoreporting from another iconic holiday, the Day of the Border Guards. It looks about the same, but better.
And that’s when the police approached Zyalt and asked him, “Are you Russian?” Yes. “Then why are you taking pictures?” What’s the big deal? “Why are you embarrassing Russia?”
via Zyalt, Miriam Elder, NewsRU
The Moscow Diaries 
In the spirit of the holiday, I submit the following Наша Russia video clip, also dedicated to ВДВ.
Julia, I know the subject I am writing about is irrelevant at this point, but I want to bring to international media’s attention this particular story ( sorry I’ve just discovered that you’ve left True/Slant as well as Mark Adomanis.)
http://www.newsland.ru/News/Detail/id/539116/
http://newsland.ru/News/Detail/id/540001/cat/42/
A gang of drunkards has beaten to death a four-week old baby moose, whom they took away from his mother. They’ve broken his skull, ribs and legs with bats and left him to die. The conservancy workers are trying to open a criminal case, ( there are witnesses there) but utterly corrupted police is refusing to open a case.
Any ideas how to make this case as public as possible? Your help would be much appreciated.