Does La Russophobe dare to wonder what Britain would say if Americans citizens were funding Irish terrorism? (Which they did). Of course she doesn't, because Russia is apparently the source of all evil, while America is the source of goodness, constitutionalism, and all things fuzzy.

REITH: If America funded anti-English terrorists, England would have every right in the world to fund anti-American terrorists.

But you ignore my question in your typical mendacious way: I asked what RUSSIANS would say if Israel funded the Chechens the way Russia is funding Hamas. Why are you afraid to answer that question?

Like all your questions, it does not warrant an answer as it based on fallacious and wrong-headed logic. Like it or not, the government of Palestine is democratically elected, which the so-called Chechen parliament is not. If that government collapses, the region will descend into an even worse spiral of violence and terrorism.
The criticisms are tinged with typical hypocrisy of Americans, who have been generously funding Israel over the years, in spite of its multiple breaches of international law.

Winston -- funding of the IRA in the US was done with the tacit approval of the US government. Everyone -- especially the IRA -- knew that. That's why it was such a blow when the entry of senior Sinn Fein figures (including Gerry Adams) to the US was blocked. The funding was also carried out with help from senior US politicians.

What a horrible scenario in Russia. You mean the government would actually close down a group raising money for terrorists?

REITH: Do you always just ignore and rationalize questions you find too hard to answer? It's amazing that you can talk about American hypocrisy when any ape can see that if anyone provided financial support to Chechen terrorists, whether or not they had been elected, Russians would go postal. Yet, they have no problem aiding terrorists who are attacking countries other than Russia. Both Europe and the US are boycotting Hamas and Russia is running the boycott. It has chosen a side and will pay the appropropriate price for doing so.

REITH: To continue your line of thinking, since the government of Ukraine has been freely elected they are perfectly free to join NATO and allow NATO to build bases on Ukrainian territory, right? And Russia will have no objection because that Ukrainian regime was elected, right?

Don't you ever get tired of spewing such embarrassingly vacuous propaganda? Doesn't it bother you in the least to defend the payment of money to terrorists who kill children?

IVAN: All right, I accept the overlap between PARTS of the US political establishment and the support for the IRA but you can't get away with

"You mean the (Russian) government would actually close down a group raising money for terrorists?"

I didn't say that....

The Russian government would actually close down ANY group they didn't like. Even an old ladies' knitting group. If they wanted to. And given their warped logic, they might do just that to an old ladies' knitting group.**

The American government couldn't.

Simple.

I don't really see how you can equate the two. But there we go. This is a Western blog and you can say what you like. In Russia the blog would be closed down.

**And before you say I am using a ridiculous example just consider the current ban (The Moscow Times, Russia - 13 Apr 2006, its off line at the moment)on the Salvation Army in Moscow because they are "too militarised".

Scuse me?!

Here is the original report on the BBC in 2001(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1111092.stm)

"The authorities in Moscow have refused to re-register the Salvation Army, claiming it to be a dangerous group."

Perhaps they poison homeless people with their soup, knock them over the head with rolled up old clothes and sell the bodies to medical students.

This blog would be closed down in Russia?

Oh dear.

Winston, that is total nonsense, I'm afraid.


I take it you've never read Kommersant?
(www.kommersant.ru)

IVAN: Oh dear. You are a bit behind. Todays release from RFE/RL on the subject of the state takeover of the media:

"Last week Russian Railways director
Vladimir Yakunin said his company was in the running to take over the
newspaper (Kommersant)."

And don't bother trying to find other exceptions. The state supression of the media is a work in progress. What they don't get this year, they'll get next year, or the year after.

And even when they are privately owned the pressure is on them. Potanin sacked the Izvestia editor when he upset the Kremlin over the Beslan front page photo. I'm sure his huge holdings in Norilsk Nickel didn't have anything to do with that. Now Gazprom own Izvestia anyway

Winston, you said this blog would be closed down in Russia.

That, thankfully, is nonsense.

I doubt even Russophobe would claim that one.

In any case, no one's doubting the Kremlin's control of the media. But things are just a little bit more complicated than you seem to think. I live here. I read the media every day. I'm not Russian. I don't like Putin. The most aggressive serious anti-Putin commentary I've read has been in... wait for it... Russian.

In Russia.

Some of it in print, some of it online. The Russophobe even links to some Russian websites that -- amazingly! -- haven't been closed down yet.

And I'm glad you googled Kommersant and found some news from RFE about its potential takeover. If you'd looked a bit further, you might have found that Gazprom is also considering an attempt to get a controlling stake. I'm hoping the takeover attempts are resisted.

But if you think that's the end of the story, it probably means you're not too familiar with Ekho Moskvy, either (serious; oppositionist; yet controlled by Gazprom). Or been into many bookshops in Russia. (Heard of Limonov? Heard of his new book? Didn't think so. Back to google.)

There are serious discussions to be had about the media in Russia, which is in a bad state. But, judging from your comment about the blog, you need to do a bit more reading before you engage in one. Things are a tad more sophisticated.

If a blog like this exists on a Russian server, La Russophobe would love to see it. That's means she's got a friend somewhere, out there. Please cite links boys! Can you?

La Russophobe is still waiting to hear about blogs on Russian servers equivalent to this one. Hmmm . . . I wonder if the boys were just shooting off their mouths . . . again?