Here's how politics work in Russia: be as corrupt as you want, as long as you keep your mouth shut; but criticize those above you, and they'll use their media lackeys to crush you. Just like America, in other words.

Anna Chapman's sexy boudoir photo shoot for a Russian men's magazine was only the beginning. The flame-haired spy who stole our hearts has an "Anna cult" that follows her everywhere. Locals are composings hymns to celebrate her!

Seven hundred people are dying in Moscow every day, according to a Russian health official, as the sweltering city is choked by smog from hundreds of peat bog fires. Depressing quote from a morgue worker: "The refrigerators are full." [Guardian]

[For those of you holding out hope that sexy Anna Chapman might parachute from her plane to Russia and sneak her way back into America's pants, sorry: the ten swapped Russian spies have landed in Moscow. Image via AP.]

[This man was one of thousands who emerged from the Moskva River into the -13° air in Moscow today during a Russian Orthodox ritual celebrating Epiphany. Image via AP]

The Box is opening in Moscow! Amy Sacco is still going strong in London. Looks like Manhattan's party scene is better in other countries than here. But get ready, along with the "new Beatrice," 2010 is bringing a reopened Bungalow 8.

Here in New York, advertisers will toss up huge billboards on every flat surface, zoning laws be damned (see here for nice chart illustrating how much the police care about illegal advertising). Well that's pretty embarrassing for us, because they're even cracking down on the insane proliferation of billboards in…

Hope you don't have to travel to Moscow on your own dime! According to a corporate travel firm, Hogg Robinson Group, the average room rate in Moscow has jumped by 93 percent in the last four years, making Moscow's hotel rooms among the most expensive in the world. The Baltschug Kempinski will run you a minimum of…