Few month ago, a major Russian Internet company Yandex decided to close its rating of Russian blog posts [ENG]. This decision raised a lot of debates revolving around the assumption that the decision was a form of political censorship. One one hand, Yandex claimed that the rating was closed since it was vulnerable to manipulation by bloggers. One the other hand, some people claimed that the rating, which was shaped according to algorithm and not editing policy, turned to be an alternative mechanism of agenda setting for Russian media environment since it provided significant visibility to topics that were raised by bloggers, and not only by traditional media. Because of the rating, the blogosphere turned to be not just a space of informational chaos of thousands of bloggers, but something that have actual impact on public opinion. As we might see in the following story, the Russian blogosphere indeed might create a significant political effect threatening the image of Russian government even without the blog posts rating. It doesn’t necessary have to be a pure news story with a critical approach to one of the Russian officials. Unlike traditional media, social media space, and blogs in particular, provide a unique environment for development of Internet memes [ENG]. Unlike news story that appears and vanish next day, memes might have a long range impact on shaping perception of the political leaders. It might be based on a particular news story, but its consequences are much far going than news. Moreover, in a case of memes, the question of credibility of information is secondary and that makes the meme immune to attempts to deny it. At the beginning of February, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Omsk, a big city in Siberia. The visit raised a lot of media attention due the scandal around a promotion poster for Russian ruling party “Edinaya Rossiya” that had a portrait of both Russian leaders Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. Few days before the visit, local officials have decided to remove Putin from the poster and leave only Medevedev on it. When the story was exposed, Putin was moved back and few people from local government lost their jobs. Few days later, the incident with Putin’s removal was shadowed by a story of another poster. On February 18, one week after the Medvedev’s visit, a regional media blog on the Web site of radio station“Echo Moskvy” republished an article [RUS] titled “Tragicomedy. ‘President is coming to us: A screenplay for one spectator that was directed by the government of Omsk region.'”(Трагикомедия. «К нам едет президент». Пьеса для одного зрителя в постановке правительства Омской области). The article was written by a journalist from Omsk Andre Zaharyin. He described a long list of radical (and foolish) steps taken by the Omsk government before the president's visit (e.g. spreading a fresh snow on the local river). Злые языки утверждают, что перед приездом президента с театра-студии Любови Ермолаевой была снята афиша спектакля «Ждём тебя, весёлый гном». Возможно из-за того, что Дмитрий Медведев, человек невысокого роста, мог принять это на свой счёт. Правда, в театре эту информацию не подтверждают. The poster in question was designed for the children's New Year theater show about gnome from Lapland who came to visit Russian Santa Claus (Ded Moroz) to celebrate the New Year. According to the report, the poster was removed from a street where the president's convoy was supposed to pass during his visit to Omsk. Other Russian news Web sites added [RUS] how the poster was actually removed: По свидетельству очевидцев, афишу детской сказки убрали чуть ли не топорами с молниеносной скоростью. They also emphasized that the main sources of information for this story were “regional media and blogs”. The story was soon published almost in every Russian online media outlet. Some of journalists recalled the 2008 article [ENG] from British Guardian “Who is the shortest world leader?” that claimed that Russian president might be the shortest leader in the world. The story about the fairy tale poster, gnome and president Medvedev also quickly reached the international media. Reuters published [ENG] a story “Gnome poster removed before Medvedev visit?” The incident turned to be one of the most discussed topics on the Russian blogosphere. Some of comment were very brief. “Paranoids,” wrote user tankar. “A country of idiots,” wrote kliuv. The user hel_sim wrote [RUS]: Напоминает советские времена с поисками вторых и третьих смыслов. Висела бы себе афиша и ничего. A blogger Alek-ya shared [RUS] his concerns in regard to publication of fairy tales with gnomes in Russia. Не везет России с кремлевскими карликами.