Move over Disney and Nickelodeon: Russia has launched Bibigon.

Bibigon is a new children's television channel, that was launched on Saturday, by the Russian TV and radio company VGTRK, with--as several news reports were quick to point out--key backing by Russian President Vladimir Putin. You can see the channel's Internet home page here (or read through a lumpy English translation, courtesy of Babelfish.

The channel is named for a character created by the Russian children's poet Korney Chukovsky. More about him in a minute. According to a report on a TV trade Web site, it has a $39 million budget, much of which will be channeled into Russian-made programs.

Russia has had children's programming before, but never an entire channel devoted to kids' TV. Perhaps the best known character was Cheburashka, a fuzzy-eared, bear-like character often paired with a crocodile named Gena. There was a large picture of Cheburashka and Gena decorating the waiting room of my older son's baby home in Vladivostok.

Judging by the programs announced on the Bibigon Web site, it looks to have a lot in common with the children's TV programming that those of us who already are adoptive parents have come to know in the U.S: A mix of cartoon shows, and scripted dramas and comedies featuring teenage stars. There will also be science shows and quiz shows (though hopefully not something like Nick GAS, which always seems to end with a bucket of green goop being dumped on the contestants). Bibigon says its audience will range from 4 to 16 in age.

I'm not familiar with the character Bibigon, though I did find several pages of one of the Bibigon stories here. The character seems to always be pictured as riding a duck or a goose and wearing a Napoleonic-style hat. According to Wikipedia, Korney Chukovsky was the pen name for Nikolay Vasilyevich Korneychukov, who lived from 1882 to 1969. While he wrote some essays for adults, he is best known for his poems for children, which were adapted into animated cartoons and other works for children. He remained popular even after Russia became the Soviet Union.

If any of you who will be traveling to Russia for your adoption journeys get to watch Bibigon, I hope you'll let us know what it's like.

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