I have joined Russia-InfoCentre fairly recently. Being bilingual, I saw my goal as bringing my experience and expertise to the service of my home country - and luckily I found a group of dedicated people who have been doing exactly the same thing.

While we are focused on making the site easy to navigate and to use, it is inevitable that over the course of years it has expanded far and wide, and thus it is possible to get lost in its vastness. In this sense, our website epitomises Russia with its famous boundless stepp.

So, figuratively speaking, we decided to stop your cart, to change your horses, and to tell about several novelties that we have brought to the site in the recent months, starting from June.

1. Sitemap.

We have tried to streamline your journey around the site, so you can click on the Sitemap instead of navigating through the side menu. You can find the Sitemap button (a looking glass) at the top left corner, next to Russia-IC logo.

2. Email newsletter and RSS feed.

RSS feed currently aggregates all news. Features are delivered by email. Exception - biographies and features in Famous Russian People section.

3. Easy sharing.

All news articles, biographies, regions and cities profiles, and features are now accompanied with ShareThis widget at the bottom of the article. Now you can add the items you liked to Reddit, Delicious, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Google+, and indeed any social network you prefer - with one click.

4. Services.

Do you know that there's more you can do on our site, than just browsing, reading, and bookmarking? You can also book train tickets, order floral gifts, buy unique Russian souvenirs, rent a flat or book a hotel, and even apply for a visa. A full list of services is available via the link.

5. New sections.

We have recently added Sport and Society and Politics sections. Currently they only feature news articles, although we are looking to develop them further.

6. New columns.

We want your understanding and knowledge of Russia to be as ample as possible. To this end, we have introduced several new columns:

Famous Russians' Interviews - the column currently features extracts from Igor Chapurin's interview. Here we will continue publishing translations and original interviews with our celebrated contemporaries.

City Hunter - how often is it that you stumble upon a monument or a building in a city, but have no idea what it is? City Hunter column helps you gain better idea of monuments in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and other Russian cities.

Russian Internet - some of the articles here explore the state of the Russian Internet, blogosphere, social networks, etc.

Tourism and Transportation Events - when Moscow or other cities host Tourism Fairs, we try to be there.

Cultural Events - legion is their name, yet we still manage to attend a handfull of art and design weeks and various exhibitions.

7. Want to write for Russia-InfoCentre?

If you do, then we want to hear from you.

We hope you find the above changes and novelties useful, and never hesitate to let us know of any improvements we can make, to make your experience of our country and our website ever pleasant and rich.

Your Russia-InfoCentre team.