The walk across Russia

For 26 days in October, the walk led me into and across five republics and one Oblast of the Russian Federation: North Ossetia–Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kalmykia, and Astrakhan-Oblast.

So as to still have time for some days off, I opted to walk just over a marathon a day, and so covered the  750 kilometres between Georgia and Kazakhstan in 16 walking days, taking days off in Grozny (Chechnya), Kizlyar (Dagestan), Liman, and the city of Astrakhan.

While in Russia, I had to hide any writing from the regular scrutiny of the police, the army, and the FSB. Now in Kazakhstan I can begin sharing that writing and, for the sake of continuity, I will back date these to when they were written, beginning with what I wrote in Vladikavkaz on October 1st after crossing from Georgia via the Larsi Checkpoint.

Part 1: The Larsi Checkpoint