A three-mile, highly publicized test drive of Mikhail Prokhorov's ë-mobile (say, "yo-mobile") natural-gas hybrid car is the big car news out of Russia this week. Given Putin's previous spin in a Renault F1 car, hopping behind the wheel of the funky-looking economy car is a definite change of pace.

Putin almost didn't give the Fatherland's hybrid a chance, joking before hand that he might not make it to his destination despite the short distance, and asking Prokhorov, "I hope it won't fall to pieces, will it?" The video below gives a nice English-language summary of the event, including some of Putin's pot shots.