As it currently stands, there are nearly 500,000 iPhone users in Russia - an ostensibly notable achievement for Apple. The only problem is that the world-popular handset is not officially sold there.

Of course this doesn't impede its mass availability nor lower its hefty $700 price. This is according to the Washington Post report, which also reveals that the iPhone's cachet in the new Russia has spilled beyond gadget lovers of means to include prominent politicians and even heads of state. Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev and the minister of regional development Dmitry Kozak are just a two of the many civic leaders to join the phone's growing user base.

This would be of less concern if imported iPhones, bought in bulk in the US, were treated as mere electronic souvenirs. Instead, it is the phone's wireless integration that's raising eyebrows here in the West. That's because "AT&T is Apple's exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States, and the phone is locked to prevent its use on another wireless network." However, for roughly $40 tech-savvy Russian teenagers are able to unlock the phone, install a Russian language pack, and make it work with Russia's wireless telecoms.

All legal drama aside, Russian elite's fascination with the iPhone may actually do some good. At a recent business conference in the nation's southern city of Krasnodar, president elect Medvedev and Chechnya's willful leader Ramzan Kadyrov seemed to have put their political differences aside only to have fun with a hi-tech toy from America.