The place where I met the love of my life — there’s now a shitshow

I’m neither impressionable nor melodramatic. As years and decades go by, it’s inevitable that the places that played a role in your life undergo transformations, often losing the identity you remember.

I’m not nostalgic either. I used to love Moscow, my home city, but after I left in 2013, I never looked back. The events of recent years only increased the perceived distance from my ex-home country. When I write or reminisce about Russia, however, I try not to paint everything in dark colors — like I said, it used to…