Well, it’s another reason for our collective pride. A feature story in the popular science magazine GEO (Russia) about environmental problems of Baikal. Unusual and ancient animals, Baikalian sponges are responsible for the purity of Baikal water. But something happened, and the epidemic broke out in the sponges. What happens at the bottom of Baikal, what do scientists do, and how to find the cause of the disease – in this piece for GEO, September 2016.