FLOOFY. Oh, and a really expensive watch. (Photo: GoodNewsAnimal.ru)

Hey, is BuzzFeed's transition to credentialed news organization giving other purveyors of cute animal pics ideas? We can't help but wonder, given this New York Times report that GoodNewsAnimal.ru--a kind of Russian CuteOverload--played a pivotal role in the naming and shaming of a Russian official caught wearing a suspiciously expensive watch.

As a bit of context, Russian officials apparently have a bit of a PR problem with regard to watches. Specifically, members of the powerful United Russia Party seem to be terribly fond of Breguets, which can cost north of $100,000 and are a mite pricy for a civil servant.

It was therefore embarrassing when Alexander Volkov, the president of the backwater Russian republic Udmurtia, appeared on a large zoo billboard holding a leopard cub and wearing one of the pricey accessories and, as the Times reports, that's likely why someone felt it necessary to cover it up with a sticker of a plainer one.

Mr. Volkov's spokesman attempted to do damage control by insisting that the president had no such watch, but rather that the poster's designer had added both images--the Breguet and the plainer sticker--as embellishments. But he was no match for GoodNewsAnimal.ru, which had covered the zoo visit extensively with photographs and even a video clearly showing the embarrassing watch.

Dear God, please let this be the way NowThisNews works.