Amid ethnic and racial tensions, Moscow experiences something different for a change: a group of “Africans from over twenty countries (Congo and Ethiopia included), Iranians, and Iraqis [were] all raking leaves as part of a subbotnik organized by Opora, a Moscow NGO run by Ethiopian Dr. Gezahgn Wordofa. This was Opora's way of saying thanks to Moscow for letting this city be home for them,” reports Raffi Aftandelian of maaskva: nashimi glazami.