Writing on his blog "Accidental Russophile," crazed Kremlin apologist Wally Shedd launches an early attack on Anna Politkovskaya. Not even waiting for her corpse to grow cold, he claims that "while the BBC obituary applauds her for "honest journalism", there have been critics of her writing and reporting who cite her for wholesale invention ... or at the very least, distortion."

His "evidence" of this "distortion" and "wholesale invention"? It's a letter written to the Johnson's Russia list by crazed Slavic nationalist Kirill Pankratov, published nowhere else and relying on exactly ZERO published accusations of inaccuracy against Anna, just his own "analysis." Who is Pankratov? How is he in a position to know anything about the accuracy of Politkovskaya's writing? Well, (a) he's a physicist and (b) he writes (unpublished) hardcore eroticism. That just about says it all. In Wally's World, that makes him a Chechnya scholar, and, in the"mind" of Russophile nutjob like Wally, the word of another Russophile wacko is the equal not just of the BBC but of all the world's media. Not a word about her many international awards for the quality of her journalism. Not a single one. Not in Pankratov's "analysis" and not in Wacko Wally's post. The sum total of Pankratov's "analysis" is that since the Russian newspaper Izvestia gave a different account than Politkovskaya, the Russian paper must be right and she must be wrong. Never mind that Russian newspaper column inches are for sale and many are slaves of the Kremlin. Never mind that an army of highly respected Western had checked and touted Politkovskaya's stories (hence her awards). Only propaganda matters to these bloodthirsty crazies. The Neo-Soviet conclusion? Well, the Kremlin was just doing some much needed fact checking when it liquidated her. Pity she had to die, but truth must prevail. Is that totally sick, or what?

Wacko Wally also writes: "The Russian death toll for journalists was certainly troublesome over the past decade, with now 13 journalists murdered since Putin became President of the Russian Federation, two in 2005 and now four murdered in 2006 (thus far). Before Americans become too smug regarding these details, we should remember that despite a supposed "free press" we have our own history of violence against reporters and journalists as well (the Alan Berg murder and Dan Rather assault come to mind in recent years)."

"Troublesome"? Is that the best word for thirteen MURDERS? Well, in the eyes of a Russophile maniac, it's probably much too strong. Who is Alan Berg? Not a reporter, that's for sure. He was a talk show host, and there is not one single shred of evidence to indicate that the government was involved in his killing, which is universally acknowledged to be the case with Politkovskaya. Notice that the first thing your standard Russian propaganda always does when a Russian vice is discovered is attack some other country: How does one murder of a talk show host place America in the same company as Russia with thirteen killings of reporters? La Russophobe gave up trying to understand the crazed "minds" of Russophiles long ago (Wacko Wally begins his post by writing: "I apologize for the delay on this topic. Katja and I had a very unexpectedly busy Saturday" -- that's right, he really thinks all kinds of people have been waiting eagerly with bated breath for him to pronounce his wisdom about the killing, and he really thinks they're interested in the details of his personal life -- this is Russophile mania at its most classic).

We owe it to Anna's memory to root out this kind of outrageous, disgusting propaganda wherever it is to be found. It is "thinking" like this that led to her death in the first place.

Neeka's Backlog has more on the predictable attacks rolling in from the Russian nationalists who killed Anna and are trying to destroy all hope for Russia's future. She refers to it quite aptly as "an incredible stench."