A special edition of Russia! will hit bookstores on Dec. 1. Its cover story is the seizure of the Lenta retail chain by the U.S. fund TPG Capital and VTB, a major Russian bank.

This Friday, Moscow District Court issued a judgement against The New York Times for defamation of the Moscow Mayor. Kommersant, a Russian business daily newspaper, reports that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov filed a lawsuit against the Times and its reporter Clifford Levy for statements which "are false and give the mayor the negative image."

Successfully fighting the severe media recession, a popular magazine uses its glossy pages as God intended: to print photos of stunning naked Russian go-go dancers.

The end is neigh, comrades. Here's Russia's own, brand new sign: a holy-words-producing baby leg.

Our latest video segment is fished out of one Russia's most ridiculous tv-programs, Heartfelt Confessions. Meet Mr Shahov - prophet, alien worshipper, poet, family man. We've subtitled his rants/teachings for your viewing pleasure.

Naomi Campbell just caused another world wide media stir by scratching and whacking an Italian paparazzi with a handbag while on vacation with her Russian billionaire boyfriend, who the US and UK press keeps saying is Mikhail Prokhorov. It's actually Vladislav Doronin. Oops.

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.

Exciting news for Russian Interneters! Tomorrow, your president, Dmitry Medvedev, will join LiveJournal, the MySpace-like blog platform that took Russia by storm in the early part of this century and has yet to let go. Starting tomorrow, the President – the President! – will mingle in your lowly mingling places and discuss with you your silly thoughts on politics! On the Internet! The President!

Kreditny Krisis (“Credit crisis” in Russian, for those who need the translation) appeared on the front page of the Financial Times today. It’s the second Russian phrase on the front page of the major newspaper or magazine, after Londongrad.

Tori Spelling, American actress, jewelry designer, and daughter of Hollywood legend Aaron Spelling, is to be the new editor-in-chief of trend-setting lifestyle magazine RUSSIA!

Vladimir Putin made his presence felt in Russia’s Kremlin-controlled newsrooms this week -- more than usual, that is. Not only did state press agency RIA Novosti come out with a video titled “Prime Minister Visits Russia’s Most Advanced Newsroom” (that being their own), but this just in from Anglophone Kremlin cheerleader Russia Today: “Putin Visits RT.” That’s as much a coincidence as the visits themselves were spontaneous.

There’s nothing like a well-made fake. And conspiracy theory blog MIR-12 is nothing like a well-made fake. Granted, the production values for the site, part of the viral campaign for an upcoming video game called Singularity, are very high. But that’s just the problem. If real conspiracy theorists had made it, the homepage logo wouldn’t be nearly as slick, nor would the conspiracy, which involves a Chernobyl-type accident at a top-secret Russian weapons facility, be so involved. Then again, the fact that we’re sitting here writing about the stupid thing probably means the advertisers are getting exactly the response they want.

Writing about Russia always carries a whiff of proselytizing. The reason is simple: people tend to either be obsessed with it (that includes the obsessive loathing, too) or know next to nothing about it; the first group are invariably the ones doing the writing for the second one. As a result, even the best writers are forced to pick from a woefully tiny toolbox of memes and metaphors that would make the material “sing” to the general public. Below, the five journalistic devices we never, ever want to see used again.

Congratulations, young people of Russia! It’s your year — 2009 is officially the Year of Youth. But before you get too excited, you should know that the authorities did not do this to celebrate you. They did this to highlight the fact that you are lazy, drug-addicted hamburger eaters who are driving their great nation into the ground. In fact, they’ve made a 3 1/2-minute PSA to guilt-trip you about it. Now don’t take it too personally; Mommy and Daddy are just stressed about the financial crisis — which, by the way, you caused by not having enough babies. (Why the hell did you think they made 2007 “Year of the Child”?) The video, along with our handy translation, after the jump.