Russia
Russian licence plates are fully white with black text.
NOTE: Most European counterparts will feature a blue strip on the left hand side.
The Russian word for street is улица (ulitsa), sometimes abbreviated ул. (ul.).
NOTE: Bulgarian and most other Slavic languages also use улица / ulica. The Ukrainian word however is вулиця (vulytsya), abbreviated вул. (vul.).
The Russian word for city is город (gorod), abbreviated г. (g.).
NOTE: The Ukrainian word is місто (misto), abbreviated м. (m.).
Russia has three main types of bollards: a very thin type being attached to a stick, one with a black top section and a red vertical reflector below and a German-style bollard.
Near intersections in Russia you will commonly see a very large number of bollards.
Along with containing a large number of bollards, many intersections are unusually wide compared to other countries.
Signposts in Russia often have black painted bottoms.
NOTE: This is also common in Kazakhstan.
You can often see concrete support blocks at the bottom of utility poles, with wooden poles often being raised above ground by the support.
NOTE: Similar blocks are found in several Central and Eastern European countries.
Russian pedestrian signs have a simply drawn person and three stripes. Signs will commonly have a bright yellow border.
NOTE: Ukraine, Lithuania, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan use the same design.
Russian pedestrian crossings contain alternating white and yellow stripes.
NOTE: This is also common in Kazakhstan.
Black and white striped guardrails, kerbs and bridge barriers are common in russia.
Three Generation 3 Street View cars are commonly found in Russia. The two most useful ones for recognising Russia are a black and a white car, both with a long antenna. You may also see a short antenna without a visible car.
The vast majority of urban housing in Russia are large rectangular apartment buildings made of simple concrete. Newer buildings in wealthier areas appear more modern.
Rural housing in Russia consists mostly of a basic wooden structure with metal roofs.
This style of richly decorated window frames is commonly found on traditional Russian homes, especially on log cabins. They are often painted blue.
Black & white-striped pole shields are common along highways, especially in European Russia.
Birch trees, identified by their white peeling bark, have a wide range in Russia. Notably they are almost never found far south or far north in the western part of the country.
Birches very close together, as well as forests consisting of only birches, are indicative of areas east of the Urals, most commonly between Chelyabinsk Oblast and Novosibirsk Oblast.
Siberian larches are one of the dominant tree species in much of eastern Russia, recognized by their unique needle-like leaves. Generally speaking, they become more prevalent the further east you go in the country, as well as at high elevations.
Giant butterbur (commonly referred to as Sakhalin cabbage) is very common in Sakhalin Oblast, particularly in the southern half. Related plants can very rarely be found in Adygea.
This type of white flower (heracleum sosnowskyi) is most commonly found around Moscow, Komi Republic, and Perm Krai.
Large amounts of the pink or red flower fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) typically indicates a northern region of Russia. Similarly, most places north of Moscow commonly have fireweed.
Sunflowers are common along the border with Ukraine as well as more eastern oblasts like Ulyanovsk, Samara, and northern Orenburg.
Blue-pod lupines appear very commonly in northern Vladimir Oblast, eastern Ivanovo Oblast, and southwestern Kostroma Oblast. It can also be found less commonly elsewhere in Kirov Oblast and towards the Baltics.
The black poplar is commonly found south, near the border with Ukraine, as well as toward the western border with Kazakhstan.
The Russian olive is typically found along the Kazakhstan border.
Lined oak trees, often with a single white stripe around the trunk, are extremely common in Kaliningrad.
Sparsely planted larches along the road with open rolling fields is common in Tatarstan and adjacent federal subjects.
Sandy roadsides are common in Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets and adjacent subjects, as well as areas around Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga river. Other notable areas are Karelia, Murmansk, and western Sakha. Beware, however, that sandy roadsides can less commonly be found near rivers in other regions.
Red soil is common in the highlighted areas, notably around Izhevsk and Perm, much of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, and Pskov Oblast, and near Volgograd and Astrakhan. Note that this map is by no means exhaustive; red soil can be found almost anywhere in the country near water or iron mines.
The Kamchatka peninsula has unique grey gravelly soil, as well as the largest number of volcanoes of any region in Russia. They are frequently seen across the peninsula, and in some places can appear quite close such as in Klyuchi.
Extremely gravelly and sometimes dark soil appears as you approach the mountains east of Yakutsk, starting around Keskil.
Lush and diverse forests in a hilly landscape characterises the noticeably warmer region around Vladivostok. Most of the coverage is overcast and has a white car with a long antenna. Further south, near the tri-border, you will find a more open rolling hill landscape.
The eastern half of the Kolyma Highway going to Magadan features a lot of tall hills and mountains, usually shrouded in a haze. Most of the roads are unpaved and feature dark gravelly soil. The haze is not present in the western half.
A presence of Siberian larches and large mountains on a mostly paved, but sometimes wide-gravel road indicates the main road south of Yakutsk, with Generation 4 white car appearing north of Berkakit.
Very hazy coverage is found east and south of Mirny, especially along the Vilyuy river. The colour of the haze varies, but it is often orange or white.
The landscape in Buryatia is very unique, containing open grassy landscape with shrubs and mountains. It is lusher near Baikal, but the mountains persist.
This forest fire haze is found near Lake Gusinoye, southwest of Ulan-Ude in Buryatia. While similar to the haze found near Mirny, the Buryatia haze coverage can typically be recognised by the open rolling landscape, which is not found near Mirny.
The main road of Altai Republic has a black car long antenna driving north through the Altai Mountains, often with foggy or rainy coverage.
Dry steppe mountains with a long antenna will usually indicate the Tuva Republic. The south part of the main road in the Altai Republic and Tuva can appear similarly dry, so things such as driving direction and cloudiness can be used to distinguish them.
The landscape in the far north can be recognised by the relatively flat landscape, with very low vegetation.
The coverage in Omsk Oblast is some of the most recognizable in Russia. It is typically summer Generation 4 and has a distinct landscape consisting of green agricultural fields, which are interrupted by isolated patches of (primarily) birch forest.
Note that in Generation 3, this landscape can be seen in a much larger area of Russia.
NOTE: This combination of coverage and landscape spills over slightly into the neighbouring Tyumen and Novosibirsk Oblasts (in the south, and near Tatarsk, respectively).
The area west of the Caspian Sea can often be recognised by its extremely dry and flat landscape, especially in Kalmykia, Astrakhan Oblast, and Dagestan.
Grassy fields, with bushy vegetation, in early spring Generation 4 coverage is typical for Dagestan. The landscape can either be completely flat or mountainous. These flowers are also quite common in the Generation 4 Dagestan coverage.
The Caucasus mountain range is one of the largest mountain ranges in Russia. The tallest mountain in Russia, Mount Elbrus, can be found on the border of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and Karachay-Cherkessia.
Rocks along the road are extremely common throughout most of Karelia and Murmansk Oblast. They can also be found in Perm Krai and Buryatia but are less common and smaller in size.
An open, hilly landscape with low shrubbery and fireweed usually indicates Murmansk. The lower the shrubbery, the more north it generally is.
This is a map of Russian area codes. Notably, area codes starting with 8 are in the west, codes starting with 3 are fairly central and codes starting with 4 are either east or around Moscow.
In Generation 3 coverage you will somewhat commonly find unblurred licence plates, featuring a regional code on the right side. The codes are generally ordered alphabetically within each type of federal subject, starting at republics and ending with autonomous okrugs. Therefore, the Republic of Adygea will be represented by 01, and the Amur Oblast by 28, both being the first alphabetical subjects of republics and oblasts respectively. If you encounter a three digit code, the second and third digit will form the regional code, in this case 123 becomes 23, for Krasnodar Krai. You may also find the codes written out on the back of trucks and vans.
These are the bus stops unique to specific federal subjects in Russia. Notably common and memorable ones include Krasnoyarsk Krai, Chuvashia, Tatarstan, and Mari El Republic.
Japanese-made cars with the steering wheel on the right become more common the further east you go, generally starting around Novosibirsk.
Russian bollards that appear very thin and attached to a stick are usually found in the eastern part of the country, starting around Omsk. Note that ordinary Russian bollards are still plentiful in this part of the country.
This black traffic sign bottom is primarily found in Stavropol and Chechnya, as well as western Dagestan. Rarely, exceptions can be found in other southern federal subjects such as Kabardino Balkaria, but these will typically be uncolored.
Clips on edges of signposts are found in Leningrad and St. Petersburg, and very rarely in Pskov, Novgorod or elsewhere.
Outer dashed road lines are usually found throughout Kursk Oblast. An exception can be found in Tuva Republic. Rarer exceptions include the Republic of Karelia, Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai.
As you go further north in Russia, some roads are made out of several concrete blocks. It is notably common in the Komi Republic, Nenets, and Yamalo-Nenets.
These alternating red and white poles are mainly found in Ulyanovsk city, but also less commonly in the greater Nizhny Novgorod area as well as somewhat randomly elsewhere in the country.
These striped red and white poles are found mostly in Saransk, but also in a few other cities in Mordovia.
Some republics of Russia with minority languages use bilingual town entry and directional signs, such as in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan displaying Bashkir and Tatar respectively.
Town names written in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are common near the Baltic border and around Moscow, and to a lesser extent in federal subjects on the Finnish border.
These brown signs, pointing to typical tourist attractions, are common in Moscow Oblast and the oblasts bordering it. However, they can also less commonly be seen in city centres or near tourist attractions of other regions.
Buildings made of white limestone brick are indicative of Dagestan, as well as adjacent regions.
Buildings built almost entirely of red brick are mostly found south, but other notable exceptions include Magnitogorsk, Orsk, and Omsk.
While mosques can be found everywhere in Russia, they are by far most common in areas with a Muslim majority, mainly in much of south Russia as well as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
Historical buildings in Mari El often have a unique architecture style. You will frequently see design patterns that include green roofs, red brick sprinkled with white stone details. Local churches commonly feature a similar style.