I think this is interesting

You guys, this has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's interesting. If you click on this page, look at the little cluster of republics numbered 13, 21, 12, 16, 18, 3, roughly located in the left half of the map. That area is northish of the Caspian Sea in the real world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republics_of_Russia

All those "republics" (totally surrounded, dominated, run, owned, oppressed, etc by Russia) are almost like a whole other Europe, which is never in the news. Isn't that interesting?!? In the (Western) Europe we all are familiar with, most traditional languages are classified as either Romance, Germanic, or Celtic. In this other Europe that I'm talking about right now the languages are more closely related to Finnish, Hungarian, or Turkish. It really is another "Europe," or at least another part of Europe, because it is mostly to the west of the Ural mountains, I think.

Isn't that interesting? There are other republics, and "federal subjects" of Russia, within or along the edges of Russia, which seem to be administered in various different ways according to Russian law (and by the whims of the local oligarchs, I'm sure). Some of them, especially Chechnya, have been in the news over the years. Actually, that whole area, with all the little republics along the Russian border with former Soviet Georgia, has been in the news now and then over the years, because the Caucasus in general is very violent, and always has some terrorist activity going on... like, remember the Beslan slaughter of school children in 2004? ...... Tuva, near Mongolia, was in the news too, when a Richard Feynman book called Tuva or Bust was published a few years back.

But anyway, that little cluster of republics that I was just talking about up above is almost never in the news at all. In fact, I would say it never is. Can any of you guys think of a time when you have heard about Mordovia, Chuvashia, Mari El, Udmurtia, or Bashkortostan in the news?? Maybe you have read about them on your own, at some time in your life, but have you ever seen them in the news? Sorry, this has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's interesting.