Over the last 10 years, the market for Russian art has grown by a factor of 30 and now accounts for $400 million in sales a year, and the role of Russians on the international art market is ever more noticeable. In turn, art scandals involving Russians are also increasing in number. Russia! magazine has published a Top 10 rating of the biggest scandals on the Russian art market at the beginning of 21st century.

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.

The Ukrainian city of Simferopol, on the Black sea, recently spotted over 20 Banksy-style graffiti murals. According to the UK art dealer who vacationed in Simferopol and who sold some of the Banksy’s original art works, the Ukrainian graffiti looks “very, very Banksy.”

The complete list of Forbidden Art exhibition works is published by Russia! for your viewing pleasure. This Monday, Russian court found the curators responsible for the Forbidden Art exhibition that took place in 2007 guilty in inciting religious and ethnic hatred.

We interrupt your blog to briefly note how excited we are to bring one of Russia's most interesting artists into RUSSIA! Limited Edition Series. Take a look at Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva's prints.

Works by winners and finalists of last year's Kandinsky Prize competition will be exhibited at the Louise Blouin Foundation in London starting October 17, trailing with them last year's politically charged ruckus.

This October, Moscow hosts the 3rd Contemporary Art Biennale. As exaggerated as everything else in Russia, passion for contemporary art reached previously unseen levels, with major exhibitions taking place in 39 locations across the city and thousands of people crowding the openings. Those who did not make it to the galleries still got a glimpse of the art or, rather, of the artists, whose photos, in a truly contemporary-art way, became an art installation in itself. Huge screens with photos of the 20 most celebrated Russian contemporary artists hanged from the underpass near Vinzavod Art Center, a space where Moscow's major art galleries are located.

Bad politics breeds good reactionary art. Throw in some pornography, profanity, and hard-headed art-activists, and - as the director of the Central Art House learned last weekend - there'll be a public shit storm. The lesson: next time, don't invite the Moscow art-group War to participate unless you're down with conceptual art orgies... or willing to call the cops.

Lamentably prolific sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has marked his territory all over Moscow, most prominently with the 315-foot statue of Peter the Great protruding from the Moscow River. There’s no hiding from the thing; it’s one of the tallest statues in the world. Less obtrusive but still double take-worthy is his 10-foot bronze monument to Alexy II, the first Russian Patriarch of the post-Soviet period (and an alleged KGB agent!). The 2003 monument drew attention on Monday as members of the Russian Academy of Arts gathered around it to mark the late father's 80th birthday. They dubbed the place their “spiritual courtyard.” We dub the chapel behind it “the crystal saltshaker.”

January in Moscow can be gloomy, particularly if you have to take the subway. Fortunately, the government is doing its best to keep our spirits high with its jaw-dropping propaganda efforts. This poster, from the federal department for narcotics control, encourages you to “Take part in the fate of your friends.” How? By calling an anonymous tip line and telling them your friends are using DRUGS!