Many Western media outlets said that there has been a media blockade in Russia of the recent spy scandal. My experience in the Moscow suburbs has been quite the opposite.

When an FBI operative--posing to be a Russian agent--gave Anna Chapman a fake passport to pass it on to another "spy," she chickened out and called her father, a former KGB senior official. He told her to give up, and she went to the NYPD, reports Gazeta.ru. Yuliya Latynina of Echo Moskvi Radio station said phrases that have been repeated around Moscow: "look at that Western media! They call her [Anna Chapman] a [James] Bond girl! Katya the Cow-Girl she is; without bra and panties... In her reports to the Russian intelligence she wrote 'imagine, in America you can come into a café with a friend and meet an important businessman; unbelievable business opportunities!' Sounds more like an opportunity for prostitution," polished off Latynina. Other outlets have also commented that the U.S. initiated the scandal to get its own spies back home safe and soon.

When Vice President Joe Biden appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" last Friday night, he said it was all right that the United States only got four accused spies from Russia while giving up 10. "We got back four really good ones," said Biden. "And the 10, they've been here a long time, but they hadn't done much." When comedy host Leno showed Biden an alluring photo of accused Russian spy Anna Chapman, a darling of New York tabloids, Biden said "let me make it clear, it wasn't my idea to send her back. I thought they'd take Rush Limbaugh."

Enjoy the full photo version of the spy swap brought to you by the Russian media (in the extended post).