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.

As you can see, there was a lot of Putin. There was some Medvedev. Lots of gloomy economic crisis-related news. Many fires.

Have fun with the list and stay tuned for the next installment: the list of how many times Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said "I am sorry" on the record, and why.

Infogram by Gorbunov Design Bureau. Data provided by the Public Opinion Foundation of Russia. In 2009, two thousand people responded to the weekly question: "What news stories interested you the most this week?".