evidence: Michael was born in the United States and had lived in New York for a long time, before moving to Barcelona in 2020. Over the past ten years, he worked as an Uber driver. Then he became one of those rare foreigners to repeatedly undertake trips to one of Russia’s most remote and unique corners - the Tuva Republic, on the border with Mongolia. [...] The capital city of Tuva, Kyzyl, is some 4,658 kilometers east of Moscow. There are no major megapolises there and no business hubs or active tourism, either. Around 80 percent of the republic is taken up by mountains, with the remainder of the area being predominantly steppes. The territory is four times the size of Switzerland, yet it is only inhabited by some 332,500 people. [...] At the same time, Kyzyl - and Tuva in general - as well as their inhabitants, don’t come across as decidedly Russian or Asiatic, Michael believes: "The Tuvan people, in my opinion, are neither Asian or Russian. They have Mongolian features, but are their own distinct race, much different than the Mongolians. There’s only approximately 300,000 Tuvans on the planet. They are a very small group of people, which I believe makes them incredibly unique."