The Russian blogosphere conveniently, if bafflingly, revolves around LJ. Each week, Russia! scans the chatter and brings you the top five topics.

• An essayist solicits twenty- and thirty-somethings for their memories of how they viewed America as children behind the Iron Curtain. The overwhelming response includes such childhood traumas as “We hid under our desks at school waiting for America to attack”; “I had nightmares about the bomb”; and “My mother was afraid to elaborate on her business trip to America in ’82, thinking I would tell everyone at school.” Aw. Emotional scars. [Америка для самых маленьких]

• A killjoy cites children’s tiny, half-baked brains and impressionable nature among the many reasons parents shouldn’t leave the TV on all day, even if tuned to cartoons and suitable programming. A mostly favorable response, punctuated by “define child, exactly" types. Seriously. Raising children in Russia was so much easier when kids had night terrors about atomic war to occupy their time (see above). [Не забудьте выключить телевизор]

• Parents looking to fill their TV-less void (see above) can bring the little ones to the zoo, where posters of arbitrarily chosen wildlife (tarantulas, cats, foxes) implore children to stay off drugs — in verse! “Don’t try drugs, or else you’ll feel, for always and ever, like a squirrel in a wheel.” This is the first step in training the nation's future narcs. [Звери против наркотиков]

• Here’s another one for you animal lovers: 1000 rubles ($28) for each homeless and/or otherwise unleashed dog shot in Moscow. One hundred twenty brigades to be dispatched. The response: public furor. Questions like, “Where is this information coming from?” drowned out by, “Well, it’s about time.” If it means one less dog telling you not to take drugs, so be it. [В столице начнут отстрел бездомных собак]

• And if there’s no room for dogs in Moscow, there’s certainly no room for Green Peace. Photojournalism at its finest: a Greenpeace "mascot" gets accosted by a police squad, apparently for crossing the street in an improper manner. [Прием у мэра]