Though making an ass out of yourself on the internet is not culturally exclusive, let's gander at the Slavic strain of the phenomena, distinguished by a joyous lack of judgement, heavy abuse of photoshop, and an abundance of wall carpets.

So, Shepard "Hope Poster" Fairey is still trying to ride that co-opted optimism wave — he's just co-edited the new Art for Obama book. Well, Russia's got a dusty stockpile of old presidential art too. Well, it's not "presidential" anymore/yet (Medvedev's still keeping Putin's seat warm for him until the next election). And it's less art-book and more tacky-thrift-store material, mostly. But let's dig through the pile anyway, because Yes, We Can Too... kind of.

Brezhnev and Honecker's ferocious make-out painted on the Berlin Wall has just been white-washed. But do not fear - the deadly lovers will be back in all their symbolic glory as Russian artist Dmitri Vrubel recreates the mural in time for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Today, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Igor Popov, the deputy to the artistic director of the venerable, historical, mythical Moscow Art Theater, founded by Constantin Stanislavski in 1898 and home, once upon a time, to Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov.

It’s no secret that Russians disproportionately adore the New Year. At least we used to, back in Brezhnev’s early ’80s, when it was the only truly private holiday aside from one’s birthday: intimate, all-inclusive, apolitical, non-denominational.

One good thing about being a Russian citizen is that you could enjoy the "Russian citizens prices" in some hotels and museums around the country, which often are 30% to 50% lower than those for the foreign nationals. Sounds a bit like discrimination against foreigners? Well, it is.

We'd like to join the end-of-the-year lists party and bring you a peculiar interactive list of the top Russian news stories of 2009. That is, the list that shows what the people in Russia thought were the top news stories. Oh, wait! The list shows what the Russian media said and what the people in Russia thought were the main stories.

Burger King and its Russian partners pushed back the launch of the fast food chain in Russia, citing difficulties in regaining ownership of the brand's domain name in Russia, according to Kommersant, a daily business newspaper.

Russian online newspaper gazeta.ru reported that several hours before she died, Brittany Murphy attended a VIP party in Rublevka, a luxury suburb outside of Moscow. Milla Jovovich and other celebrities were also at attendance, according to gazeta.ru.

CNN reported today that the remains of Adolf Hitler were burned in 1970 by the KGB operatives at the German military base.

A fire broke out in a night club in Perm, an industrial city in Urals, killing over a 100 people and injuring dozens.

I knew it. That popular music-channel hip-hop show promoting “a healthy lifestyle” was not for realisies, but was instead a propaganda ploy.

So for months now I’ve been watching this show when I go the gym here in Moscow. It runs on Muz-TV, the Russian MTV-analog, and it’s called “Battle for Respect: Start Today!”

This Friday, Moscow District Court issued a judgement against The New York Times for defamation of the Moscow Mayor. Kommersant, a Russian business daily newspaper, reports that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov filed a lawsuit against the Times and its reporter Clifford Levy for statements which "are false and give the mayor the negative image."