Gorbachev—one of Russia's most simultaneously reverenced and reviled political figures—recently showed his tender side by recording an album of romantic ballads. Sold exclusively at a charitable auction, it's unavailable to the general public, but thanks to us and the internet, you are now welcome to sneak-peek of some musical glasnost.

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

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.

Russia's most famous contemporary director Timur Bekmambetov is due to release his newest slick flick in December and it's about a flying black Volga fighting crime. Knight Rider, you're about to be totally pwned.

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

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.

Canadian model Chrystal Callahan's weekly program premiered last Sunday, as we presumed. The fifteen minute show focused on positive news items and local culture of the Chechen Republic. Additionally, Callahan's background reveals the unlikely host as a bit more likely than originally thought.

On a mission to improve their world image, Republic of Chechnya has enlisted an unlikely ally - Canadian model Chrystal Callahan. The model will host her own weekly Sunday evening television show, "An Inside Look with Chrystal Callahan." The show premiers tomorrow.

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

Yesterday, several strong storms clashed above the small town of Krasnozavodsk of the Moscow region. The resulting tornado shredded through the town, overturning cars, uprooting trees and destroying homes. After devastating Krasnozavodsk, the tornado tore through the landscape 30 miles outside of Russia's capital.

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

Since Soviet times, these humble hand puppets have lead Russian children into primordial explorations of morals, codes of behavior, and neuroses. Filya the dog, Hrusha the piglet, Stepashka the baby rabbit, and Karkusha the crow (not pictured, fondly remembered) came to many of us on a nightly television program Good Night, Little Ones! They hopped around, talked and did stuff - then there was a cartoon! Though the actual adventures of our talking-animal friends have faded from memory, we know that each one was special, with its own traits, dreams, and personality disorders.

For generations of Soviet children, this was their first toy. The Russian Tilting Doll - Nevalashka - is a classic. This leering, snowman-round, colorful girl-creature is an iconic artifact and fuzzy, ting-a-ling memory for most, even those who arrived into childhood after the fall of the Union.

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

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jimmy. Perhaps the most charming of all Russian YouTube sensations, the Tajik loading worker in a small town near Moscow performs a heartbreaking version of the Bollywood classic "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" in a warehouse.