New York media is, of course, incestuous; its Russian subset even more so. Russia! magazine, edited by New York magazine contributing editor Michael Idov, is "a niche quarterly about Russian culture and design," as the Observer put it in a recent party report. The salmon-colored paper had a lot to say in a sniper-neg style that made us wonder if one of its authors had a bone to pick. Either that or they just really don't like the "inexplicable little magazine"? Oh:

We hear from insiders that a piece that Aleksandr was a wannabe Russia! contributor.

Maybe that explains how she and Leon Neyfakh described Russia! editor Michael Idov: a "fidgety modern editor" with "all the charm of a befuddled Professor Pnin;" they also wonder, "and how is your inexplicable little magazine doing, Mr. Idov?"

The rumor is floated that it could be Putin money behind the fairly obscure quarterly. (Conclusion: no.) Also, "Who were these stout men wearing white linen suits and walking around with suspicious mustaches and designer ascots? Were they speculators? Oligarchs?"

When reached for comment about the Observer piece, a touchy Idov replied,

I've been hoping that, since both Neyfakh and Aleksander are themselves Russian immigrants (something you wouldn't guess from the proudly arched American eyebrow that dominates the story), this would mean we'd be spared a Yakov Smirnoff-derived headline for once. No such luck. In Soviet Russia, the subject objects!