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Winter’s majestic carpet may transform Karabash, in the Russian rust belt, into a fairytale world that seems sprinkled with icing sugar, says Steve Rosenberg, but the reality is far from magical. There he meets a man who might just be a spy.

Kate Adie introduces some of the many memorable meetings our correspondents have shared in 2018.

Mathew Charles spends a twitchy night out in the company of a drug dealer and cartel hitman who explains how Colombia’s narco trade is changing.

Helen Nianias has coffee with a man who left Kosovo to fight jihad in Syria, but who was back less than two weeks later before his mum even realised he'd gone.

Aisha Gani stumbles across a rave in a refugee camp in Bangladesh – home to some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who’ve fled violence in neighboring Myanmar.

And Gabriel Gatehouse has a mysterious encounter with a troll in Sweden.

Producer: Joe Kent.