One good thing about being a Russian citizen is that you could enjoy the "Russian citizens prices" in some hotels and museums around the country, which often are 30% to 50% lower than those for the foreign nationals. Sounds a bit like discrimination against foreigners? Well, it is.

"I took the new train to Sheremetyevo. It's brilliant!" In September, our Facebook page was filled with similar messages from our Moscow friends, who tried taking the new high-speed train from downtown Moscow to the city's busiest international airport, Sheremetyevo, and loved it. Travellers were no doubt counting the days until the train service was open -- it now takes 35 minutes to get to the airport instead of dreadful two or more hours of sitting in a giant traffic jam that is Moscow.

Aeroflot, the biggest Russian airline, is planning to make cellphones available during flights. The carrier is installing cellular stations on its airplanes -- a costly technology which will allow the passengers to use their cellphones and blackberries in the air. According to the Aeroflot spokesperson, the first stations will be installed as early as next year.

A new report by the World Economic Forum, an organization which holds an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, placed Russia 114th out of 121 nations in how easy it is to trade with. According to the report, Russia apparently has problems with trade friendliness, red tape, tariffs, corruption and... roads.

Barack Obama's 3-day trip to Moscow is to begin on July 6, but the US President is already the center of attention in Russia. Bolshoi Gorod, a popular Moscow bi-weekly, published the "Travel guide for Obama issue", where it tracks the President's route and suggests some tourist sights (Obama is expected to speak at the university graduation and hold talks with Prime Minister Putin and president Medvedev.)

Now Yekaterinburg, an industrial city in the Ural mountains, has another landmark besides the church which marks the place where the last Russian tsar Nickolas the Second and his family were murdered, burned, cut into pieces and dropped in a mine. Now the city has its own Beatles monument. Why? No particular reason. They just love the Beatles.

A panel of RUSSIA! editors, contributors and invited experts will be answering readers' questions about Russia. All queries are welcome, from advice on visiting this strange land to the dreaded "Is your magazine funded by the Kremlin?" question. You can also share your own ideas and tips about Russia.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service is cracking down on good times at high prices. A new policy, currently under consideration, is going to make it much harder for Russian millionaires to invite their favorite singers, rockers, and Paris Hiltons to perform at private parties. Under the new policy, all entertainers entering Russia would need to apply for work visas, and pay the resultant taxes. Needless to say, this is a buzzkill. A work visa requires advance notice and tons of paperwork on both ends, but it's especially irksome for the performer, who must endure "labor" tests and blood work, including HIV testing. Say, this wouldn’t have anything to do with band Björn Again leaking Putin’s affinity for ABBA cover bands to the press, does it? That’ll teach foreigners to open their yappers. It’s called a private party for a reason.

We hate to do this to you, Aeroflot. We really do. But we have to add this to our string of recent Aeroflot bashings. You know the Aeroflot-Nord (an Aeroflot subsidiary) Boeing 737 that took a nosedive near the Ural mountains in Perm last autumn, killing all 88 people onboard? Well, not only have the reasons for the crash been determined as “poor training,” lack of preparedness, and the subsequent “disorientation” of the crew, but the crew commander’s blood just tested positive for alcohol in a forensic study. The revelation casts the previous drunken-pilot story in an entirely different light.

Aeroflot has issued an apology about December's drunken pilot fiasco. And in typical Aeroflot fashion, it's pretty half-assed. How can they say they’re apologizing but still not admit that the pilot was drunk? A spokesperson told the Moscow Times, “We accept that his physical condition was not good,” once again implying that he’d suffered a stroke. Slurred speech and impaired walking, granted, are symptoms of both intoxication and stroke. But considering he celebrated his birthday the night before, which do you think it was? Add to that the fact that, when accused of being drunk, he turned sheepish and promised not to touch anything. It seems Aeroflot finds the prospect of being written off as drunk Russians so terrifying, they would rather have us believe that they’re letting stroke victims fly their planes.

We’re almost too excited to write this one. Here’s the gist: Ksenya Sobchak, nominally the Russian Paris Hilton but so much more, saves Aeroflot passengers from a ride aboard the Drunk Pilot Express. But, the long story — which includes a lesson in Russia’s “customer is always wrong and will be told as much” service policy, and gives credit to Russians’ incredible drunk-dar — is even better.

Moscow's frozen Borisovsky Ponds (barely) held last night's "christening" ceremony: an altogether ungodly event marked by a queue of half-naked Muscovites and their neighbors braving subzero (°C) temperatures for a fleeting dip in arctic waters. When security tried to discourage participants from disrobing on the ice for fear of it cracking, several semi-nudes responded by hopping the metal (metal!) barriers and cutting in line.