When you aspire to the role of a leading man on the world stage, to being the political equivalent of a rock star, you have your work cut out for you. And that work is never done. One such would-be leading man would be Russian President Vlad Putin. With just eight months of the year completed Putin has claimed the North Pole for Mother Russia, found time to pose shirtless in Siberia (Think of all the hours in the gym it took to pump up his pecs to those prodigious proportions- eat your heart out Obama and Sarkozy), restarted Cold War era nuclear bomber runs, smacked down some pesky Persian theocrats over the status of their nuclear "power" plants, (possibly) went nuclear on a loud-mouthed dissident in the UK, bagged the 2014 Winter Olympics and just this weekend announced plans to plant the hammer and sickle on the moon. And as if that weren't enough, today comes news that Vladimir the Great is also hard at work (re)educating the Motherland's children:

Russia is to launch the country's first TV project aimed at children on Saturday, the start of the new academic year, in an initiative personally backed by President Vladimir Putin. The "Bibigon" project has a 39-million-dollar (29-million-euro) budget and will air more than five hours of children's programming a day on the state-run Rossiya, Kultura and Sport channels, government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta announced Friday. Funding for the channel, named after a children's literature character, will come from advertising revenues on public television, the newspaper said. Russian-produced programming will be favoured over imports. "Bibigon was created at the personal demand of Vladimir Putin," Rossiiskaya Gazeta said. Kommersant daily quoted Oleg Dobrodeyev, head of Russia's public Rossiya channel, as saying that Putin "took part in the creation (of the project) and in debates on a number of details."

And should Mr. Putin decide cast himself in a leading or supporting role on Bibigon, one introducing kids to his re-expanding neighborhood, I know the perfect fashion accessory: Mr. Roger's red sweater. Besides having the obvious virtue of being red, it was hand-knitted by Mr. Roger's mother. It's currently on display at the National Museum of American History, but given all that's been accomplished this year, it ought to be a cinch to have some appartatchik nick it at night.

Not linked to The Carnival of the Insanities