What things do you like about Russia?

I don't know. I never thought about it. Food for thought, I suppose.

Are your neighbors neighborly?

Relationships between people here are polarized: if you do well with each other, you're greeted with a sincere smile; if you don't or are neutral, most people will ignore you, only giving you attention if you ask for it (for example, by asking which way is to such-and-so-place). That being said, people generally won't refuse help, especially the older ones.

The same goes for neighbours. It's a generally accepted idea that helping out your community - in this case, your podyezd* - is a good thing, though most people wouldn't take initiative to change things if they're good enough to walk on and such. "Why fix it if it ain't broken" is a philosophy applicable to an ordinary Russian citizen.

Do guys have a zeal for sports? Music? Video games? Car culture?

People in Russia - men, mostly - have a certain zeal for football (even though it's unversally agreed upon that the prominent Russian teams' players are shit, especially when compared to the international players) and hockey (which is partly a Soviet legacy - the Soviet team was very good - and partly because the Russian team is very good, too). Many people also enjoy biathlon and tennis for the same reason as hockey. Basketball, swimming and figure skating has its following, too. I'm not a man of sport, so I can't tell you more.

Music, well... The same as everywhere, I suppose: people enjoy the sort of music that they do and are eager to visit their favourite bands' live concerts.

Video games are not yet a prominent part of the Russian culture, and are mostly considered children's toys, even though there are some online games that even my father's colleagues - mine workers in their thirties, no less - enjoy playing, like the infamous World of Tanks. On the positive side, video games don't cause such controversies as they do in the US, which is a boon for the youngsters. The age restrictions are not - or were not, the last time I bought a physical disk - imposed, so anyone could buy, say, GTA V, no questions asked.

I'm not a car person, but from what I know, the relationships with the local brands - VAZ (especially the "Zhiguli" 2107 model), UAZ, KAMAZ, all stemming from the names of their respective automobile factories (AvtoZavody in Russian) - range from vehement appreciation (patriotic in nature) to outright disgust. The bleaker end of the spectrum is due to the perceived quality and/or value of those compared to the superior imported brands.

As the Russian economy got better, more and more imported cars started to appear - and with it, came financial status stereotypes: for example, people who drove big, bulky cars were considered rich (and fuck me, one such car today could cost as much as a single-room apartment). Since then, people have been competing among themselves for the social status, possibly going into debt just to own a "respectable" car. Around 2010, the financial difference became less of an issue, and as such, far more imported brand cars were on the streets. Prominent brands include Mercedes, Honda, Chevrolet, Hundai, Toyota and some else.

Still, old-timers appreciate their old cars - Volgas, for one, which were in the Soviet Union an apex of the local automobile industry and expensive as such - and take good care of them. One of such cars stands parked in front of the house.

* Podyezd is a part of the house. Multi-storey houses - mostly khruschovkas, built under the rule of Nikita Khruschov - are separated into podyezds - the word for which literally means a place to drive close to - for example, to pick someone up as they leave the house. However, nowadays people refer to the whole part of the house they can access through a single entry door at the first floor (we count floors from the ground, so the European/American first floor would be our second) as a podyezd.