Meet the New Boss

Michael Idov loiters in Moscow on the eve of Dmitry Medvedev’s coronation

Georgia’s Messy Breakup

and why the August War was really a love story...

While America's Santellis and Limbaughs try to create a populist upswell against Obama, the new face of idiotic Russian populism is a young, blond Putin-ite named Maria Sergeyeva. The 24-year-old blogger bounded onto the national stage last January with her fiery speech at a pro-Kremlin rally, telling crowds she was “certain” Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev would “protect” her from the financial crisis. There's nothing particularly novel about her Nashi-esque positions, but when Sergeyeva says the Ukrainian-Russian gas dispute is an American plot, that foreign cars are Trojan Horses, or that the Central Asian immigrants should go home, people listen. Must be her delivery?

In Moscow, Halloween is celebrated by exactly 4% of Russians and is usually a holiday for going to clubs while dressed in a ridiculous fashion, which is basically a holiday for people who would spend their Saturday nights going to clubs while dressed in a ridiculous fashion anyway.

The latest cringe-worthy news from Chita, where tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is whiling away his sentence. The imprisoned ex-head of Yukos is being sued by former cellmate Alexander Kuchma for alleged sexual harassment.