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

• A nifty group realizes their childhood dream of building a raft and drifting down the river, flaunting photographic evidence on LJ. And it only takes access to wood construction materials, picnic and camping accessories, 4000 empty, plastic bottles of beer and a samovar. Always, the samovar. Response: among a small sea of congratulations, one guy wonders who drank all that beer. [Поход-09 часть I - плот]

Tea atop 4000 beer bottles

• A very nostalgic blogger dotes over his image collection of Soviet-time children's toys: tiny, operational sewing machines, minimalist war-strategy games, some vague plastic forms and a hardcore substitute for legos, as in real bolts and screwdrivers... Response: deep nostalgia, passionate bitterness, hefty symbolism, wars of ideals, :-) and :( [Игрушки нашего советского детства]

Hardcore legos

• Premier Putin visits Siberia. Siberian children draw Putin. Putin struts barefoot through a wheat field, greets aliens, figure-skates with a cross-dressing pop-star and shoots at Bush with roasted chickens. Commenters question authenticity, incite mild political scuffles, comment on the penmanship. [Дети нарисовали Путина]>

"Vladimir Vladimirovich was also once a child."

• That adorable political faction "Young Russia" and a dozen of their LJ-prolific, college-aged patriots, staged a protest outside the Moscow Japanese embassy over Japan's attempt to claim property of the Russian Kuril Islands. This involved being outnumbered by reporters, chanting an untranslatable play-on-words slogan and little paper signs symbolically rolled up and handed to embassy workers. Commenters generally un-amused, request nudity. [Курилы-русская земля!]

"Kul for you, not the Kurils!" Say what?

• Bloggers are amused that the other day, on live radio, Madonna promoted her St Petersburg concert and garbled out what was sounded like the Russian word for "fucking-awesome!" The results were not awesome. Hordes of uptight officials are asking for Madonna's apology—not for the lame attempt at hipness, but for moral degradation of the city. Go figure. [:))))))))]