It sits confidently at the end of every color spectrum. Stoic and without compromise. Mystery tangled in its darkness. A sibling to the deepest shadow. Befriending the night. Simple. Complicated. The only color that can pull you in while pushing you away is… Black.

But Russia is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, tied in a hankie, rolled in a blanket, and packed in a box full of little Styrofoam peanuts,” said Winston Churchill, or something like that.