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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Even the Russophiles can no Longer Stomach Putin's Russia


Who said this, while describing the contract murder of Russian Central Banker Andrei Kozlov:

One of the most discouraging things about this murder is its reminder that life can be very cheap in Russia. For all the decency that I have seen in people in my travels in Russia, there is also a dark side, all too well known by Russians.The outcome of the Kozlov murder is likely to be minimal. Financial markets will remain intact. Someone may be arrested and even tried for the murder. But that person will only be the one who pulled the trigger and not the real parties responsible for such injustices.Real criminals have no fear of being touched in Russia. And while there will be shock and sadness over Kozlov's murder - will there be the anger or determination to do anything about it?
Must have been some evil "Russophobe," huh? Russians don't care about human life, huh? Dark side to Russians, and they know it huh? Doubts Russians will do a thing about this cowardly murder, much less the others that are sure to follow, huh? Massive societal corruption and conspriracy, huh? Yeah, gotta be an anti-Slavic racist, right? Actually, it was none other than the Accidental Russophile Wally Shedd. La Russophobe can only stand on the sidelines and applaud.

Just one problem, of course. Exactly the way the family of an alcoholic can do him more harm than his worst enemy by enabling his drinking and thereby killing him, dear darling Wally has for months now been spewing out all sorts of rationalizations assisting, in his own little way, those who would do so to justify Russia's slide back into totalitarian darkness. And he's not done yet. Why, even as we speak, he's posted something from propaganda machine Russian Life magagazine showing how mean and cruel and unfair to Russia American cartoons were about Russia 100 years ago. Does he also show how unfair Russian cartoons (like the one above, for instance, entitled "Freedom American-Style") were to America? No. Does he pause to notice how hypocritical he's being, attacking a one-sided portrait of Russia while painting one himself? No. He complains that Russians are shown persecuting Jews, but does he discuss the extent to which Russians actually did persecute Jews? No. He complains of an "overreaction" to Russia's "emergence as a world power" but does he mention what followed, namely Stalin and the Cold War? No. And does he ask whether, today, Russia has a magazine published in Russian that explores American culture the way Russian Life explores Russian culture in English? Once again, no.

Wally makes reference to "Conservative Harper's Weekly and other pro-Republican press at this time" causing lots of problems for poor, innocent little Russia. Hmmm, could it be that our Wally is an idealogue, a Democratic partisan? That wouldn't make sense, of course, because for the last six years America's greatest Russophile has been arch-conservative Republican president George Bush, who "looked into the eyes of Putin." But then, not much your average Russophile does makes sense, which is the main point.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You're an idiot.

Being interested in Russian culture and history does not mean a blind devotion to every aspect of Russian history or even all aspects of its current government. I have and always will write critical articles .. as well as admiring articles.

Your inability to separate these issues is what makes you a hatemongering bigot, who upholds every negative attribute that most of the world sees in many Americans behaviors.

I would ask you not to link to my blog again. If you have some commentary to make about something I wrote, you can do so in a polite fashion on my blog, so that myself and others might rebut your hostile and ignorant point of view.

This will be the last time you'll hear from me on this embarassment that you call a "blog". Your link just was called to my attention and I felt it should not go without comment.

La Russophobe said...

My, what a very thoughtful response Wally the Russophile makes. No sir, nobody can accuse HIM of hatemongering. What a wonderful example that I will try to follow to the best of my ability. But perhaps Wally is just jealous because I have so much more traffic then he does.