If you have been with us on these ventures to not strictly stick with just covering episodes of MTV Reality shows, then we have used our blog's platform to introduce you to fascinating people from all over the world - both well-known to everyone and others not-so well-known. Some of those who have been featured here come to us from the digital world: those who are stars on YouTube like that trio of pranksters we met in Texas, those who are social influencers like that girl who dressed up as a Disney princess, and those who have massive million-plus followings like the Paul brothers. But for this latest story, our latest subjects speak a different language.
These days, there seems to be a strange or awkward feeling that can go to your head whenever you mention both the United States and Russia in the same sentence. This year, after all, marks forty years since the two nations played a Friday evening hockey game in upstate New York that turned into the defining sporting event of the 20th Century: American college kids upsetting a team of Soviet pro hockey players en route to Winter Olympic gold in Lake Placid. And since the election of our President, there's been rumblings that those in the world's largest country played a role in kick-starting the demise of American democracy and dividing our people.
However, there are some instances where Americans and Russians can amicably co-exist in the same place without the tensions of a decades-long Cold War clouding over. An example is global pop music collective Now United, who have representatives from the U.S. and Russia on the same team, but it feels that they've known each other for all their lives. Moscow dancer Sofya Plotnikova and Orange County kid Noah Urrea are two members of the supergroup, which also have performers from fourteen other countries (including Russia's longtime hockey rival Canada, represented by Edmonton native Josh Beauchamp), formed by the creator of the Spice Girls and American Idol, Simon Fuller.
Another example is this post's focus: it was several years ago that a pair of twin brothers first discovered America on a trip from their homeland and their small Russian town of Abakan at the base of the Siberian Mountains. Identical twins
Flipp & Kirill Revega had first followed in their dad's suggestion to pursue engineering after graduating high school, but it's when they launched a YouTube channel in their free time that would see their career plans take a 180 to something more lively than just doing machine building.
After their university sophomore year, Flipp & Kirill first discovered America while on a four months' summer exchange program... same went for their junior year where they first discovered the city of Los Angeles. The brothers stayed loyal to their family in completing their education back home before the allure of America brought the Revegas back to the City of Angels, this time on a permanent basis in spring 2017 to work on their entertainment careers in addition to social media. They've done acting and modeling gigs, and in the past year have explored a music career as well.
When it comes to social media, their YouTube channel might be relatively light in having only 2.5 million hits of their 300+ videos to just 12,000 followers -- same is true for their Instagram also with a small following there. But it's on TikTok that the TwinsFromRussia are much more well-known: over 1.8 million users follow Flipp & Kirill there, as they've been documenting their adventures in the Southland every day as well as giving us something to laugh. And two of their most recent videos posted over the weekend have some familiar faces -- make that, two faces to those of two shows.
As Big Brother All-Stars rolls along, the return for a third time to the series of Da'Vonne Rogers of The Challenge: Final Reckoning and War of the Worlds brings to mind the discovery she made when she was on the BB17 house back in 2015. She found that original houseguest Liz Nolan had been swapping places in the summer pad with her twin sister Julia Nolan... and if one was not evicted the first month in the house the other would join them in the house. Despite Mama Day's discovery, Liz survived the first month and Julia joined her for the rest of the summer with the former finishing runner-up, before both went onto WOTW for a short time two years later.
Over the weekend, the TwinsFromRussia and The Nolan Twins got together at The Grove in L.A. -- and when they locked eyes on each other... well, we'll let the videos below tell the story.