A few minutes ago La Russophobe was pleased to welcome the 10,000th visit to the blog. Visit #10,000 came from Egham, Slough, United Kingdom.

It took La Russophobe 153 days to reach this milestone, meaning that she averaged 65 visits per day during the first 5+ months of her existence (visit #10,000 came six days after her five-month anniversary). At her current rate of traffic, it will only take about 105 days for her to accrue a second 10,000 visits.

Though she knows she's still a baby, La Russophobe is already a force to be reckoned with in the Russia-watching world because she is the most heavily trafficked and most content-rich Russia specialty blog on the planet.

If you are reading these words, (and especially if you are writing or commenting on others) you are a part of La Russophobe and her accomplishments are yours as well. But her challenges are also yours, and there is a long, long way to go before even a reasonable semblance of democracy or freedom arrives in Russia, much less a benign, non-imperial government (if it ever does). La Russophobe thanks all her readers and especially her contributors for their continuing support and courage in the face of the rising Neo-Soviet monstrosity.