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