The Siberian concert industry is still reeling from the revelation that a top employee of House of Brrr! Concerts was actually a spy for rival promotion company SFXski. The “mole” passed information on HOB’s failed negotiations to book Vince Neil for the annual “364 Days Of Winter” celebration, as well as attempts to sign The Lovin’ Spoonful and Head East for last month’s figure skating tribute to Metallica, entitled “Lars On Ice.”

Internet song-trading company, Swipeyerstuffster reports that it has removed all links to copies of Russian hit songs from their system. Company founder, Shawn Fannysfreezinov, said that all traces to the infringing songs were removed by Tuesday afternoon. “We would have done it sooner,” said Fannysfreezinov, “But the Russian recording industry didn’t tell us which two songs to remove until right before lunch time.”

The Siberian concert industry is busy planning for the summer. While there hasn’t been any official announcements, inside sources report that Wynonna might consider headlining Northern Siberia’s Damnitscoldski 2001 festival in July. There are also reports that promoters are courting Will Hoge and Richard Thompson for the first ever Hyperthermiaov!, planned for August in a supposedly abandoned gulag located just north of Northern Siberia.

Organizers report that the Mardi Gras festival, held annually in the town of Snotfrozonface, was a smashing success despite no-shows by U2 and Sting. Responding to complaints that rampant drunkenness and public nudity hardly qualified the festival as a “family event,” organizers promised that next year, families will be screened out at the gates.

And that’s all the news permitted to be reported from Mother Russia. Next week I’ll have the latest on attempts to lure Billy Bacon & the Forbidden Pigs to play Radio Kindov Free Siberia’s Frozen Tripe, Dirt and Blues Fest. Until then, this is Pollstar.com Siberian correspondent, Igor Petrov, signing off.