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23 photos inside dreary Moscow dorms show what college life is like in Russia

Sarah JacobsAug 21, 2016, 23:09 IST

Pascal DumontStudents Christopher Onoja and Issac Ismaila in their dorm room in Moscow.

It's that time of year again - the start of the school year, when wide-eyed college freshman in the US are decking out their dorm rooms and marking their small bit of new territory. Some are even going viral for their over-the-top interior-design choices.

While dorms in the US can cost up to $14,000 a year to live in, it's a different story in Russia. In 2014, photographer and reporter Pascal Dumont documented a dozen dormitories at various schools for The Moscow Times.

There, he found students living with bedbugs and roaches, underneath leaky ceilings. Obshagas, the Russian word for dorms, are not any of these students' first choice for living accommodations. But due to what Dumont calls "astronomical" rent in Moscow, many are left without a choice.

(Captions by Sarah Jacobs and Pascal Dumont)