MARCH, 18. BELGOROD. The city council accepted a proposal for the quarterly city-wide "Carfree Day", and the first one took place on March, 18. The event was poorly advertised, so a few city habitants were aware about it. Although some city officials switched to public transit or walked to their workplaces on that day. One of them even said: "We need to think about transit problems more thoroughly, if we really were able to go without cars today". Next carfree day is scheduled for the next quarter and is going to be organized much better. Also some measures for resolving Belgorod transportation issues are to be planned. Some bike paths are already being built in this 350-thousand city in the south of Russia.

APRIL, 18. NIZHNY NOVGOROD. After Moscow's successful experience in 2002 and 2003, carfree "Transportation" game were conducted in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia's third largest city) by local ecology NGOs. They described their goal "to see the historical city center without cars, with only pedestrians and tram lines" and performed the event as this vision has already come true. For every "Transportation" participant Nizhny Novgorod is a living organism, not a faceless sum of roads, buildings and parking lots, and unlikely any of players will be ever a car-addict. To prove this, everyone in the game received a "certificate of a pedestrian andcity streets expert".

APRIL, 24. MOSCOW. The third Moscow "Transportation" game was organized on this day by "Carfree Russia" movement for the loyal carfree and public transit amateurs community. This time game was dedicated to the Earth Day 2004 and was precedeed by a ecological quiz. 36 participants, or 18 teams of two, ran across two districts of Moscow for three and half hours using 5 types of local mass transit, completing simple but interesting tasks on each of 4 control points. More details available on http://www.carfree.org.ru/game/ (in Russian).

APRIL, 25. MOSCOW. The first large Critical Mass happened in Moscow - to became the most notable Russian carfree event ever. It was actively organized and supported by "Carfree Russia" movement, "Muscovites for the Tram" committee and other ecogroups and activists. The initiative was meet with support of city bikers community, and about 150 people gathered around the one of Moscow central squares that Sunday. The mass immediately filled the streets of Russian capital for the 15 km distance. After the mass finished, participants were able to get a free vegan food by "Food Not Bombs" and join the carfree culture party in the local underground club.

The first Moscow city-wide Critical Mass received a huge, mostly positive response in media and excited the bike community of the 10-million megapolis. A lot of discussions about Critical Mass phenomenon and the problem of car expansion covered major bike forums in Russia.

It was decided to continue to promote the Critical Mass idea not only in Moscow, but over the whole Russian Federation and neighbour countries.

MAY, 15. ST.PETERSBURG. Inspired by the huge success of Moscow's Critical Mass, the north capital of Russia conducted the local bike event, with a help of local velo-activists. Because of poor weather conditions, the number of bikers participated in the first St. Petersburg CM was lower than expected, but 70 people were happy to ride even under the rain, and "it was fun and cool thing to do", as they reported afterwards.

The growing Critical Mass was actually the first stroungly pronounced carfree action in the ex-Leningrad. In spite of expectations, city officials, pedestrians and even car owners were positive about it, and there were no accidents - probably thanks to a week-end.

Saint-Petersburg is known not only for its famous architecture, but also for the stupid officials' ideas to ban the bike usage on the central streets and closure of tram lines. The Critical Mass has a lot things to fight for in this town.

JUNE, 12. RUSSIA. The nation-wide "Car Independence Day" action is announced as a sequel to very positive expirience of Critical Masses in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Activists from all over Russia choose the unpopular Russia's Independence Day (June, 12) to promote the carfree ideas and to pack this day with a totally new meaning. The Critical Mass will take place on this day in a number of big Russian cities - for the right to go and ride safely on the streets of Carfree Russia.