Ruminations on Russia brilliantly exposes the fundamental fraud that lies behind Russia Blog, an embarasment to the entire blogosphere. Not surprisingly, Russia Blog attempted to censor the blogger's attempt to comment on Russia Blog's post itself, even though the blogger allowed the author of the post to comment on his comments (Russia Blog won't let La Russophobe comment either). It's the classic stuff of the neo-Soviet Union, perfectly encapsulated in the blogosphere. The author of a post on Russia blog referred to in the critique, a Kremlin shil named Vladimir Kuznetsov, makes money by convincing people to invest money in Russia by telling them how wonderful and perfect it is; naturally, he's a perfect fit for the cretinous Russophile slobs at Russia Blog. Here's his response to ROR's criticism:

On a personal note, last week I was amused to read some derogatory remarks about my opinions from an anonymous blogger, who wrote about “the crap peddled by Kuznetsov from FINAM”. Apparently my "crap" is quite popular with readers visiting my site from the servers of leading global financial institutions (some people brag about the traffic to their site, but I prefer to know who is reading rather than how many).

Did he just say what we think he said? Did he say that a tiny number of people read his blog, but that tiny number is significant enough to justify whatever garbage he might choose to churn out because it's not zero? Gosh, that logic would fully justify Hitler too, wouldn't it? Reading between the lines, what he's really admitting is that nobody reads his blog, it's an obscure backwater of meaningless gibberish, which is comforting since he's a raving, pathological propagandist making a one-sided sales pitch for personal gain and hoping to delude the unwary into plunging their money into Russia. His claim about lots of businessmen visiting his blog is belied by (a) the total absence of any actual data to support his bald claims (this is routinely the case with whatever Russia Blog publishes) and (b) the total absence of any other Technorati blog linking to him besides Russia Blog, where he republishes his filth, to say nothing of websites of famous businessmen (his blog doesn't make the LR index) and (c) his classic, haughty "I was amused" statement and his attack on ROR's anonymity -- only uttered by the most crazed and arrogant Russophile nutjobs after they've been laid low (would he have mentioned anonymity if ROR had been complimenting him? it seems highly unlikely, to say the least), and (d) the fact that he has less than 300 profile views (LR has more than 5,000 and ROR has more than 1,000) and is confirmed by (d) his pathetically puny Alexa traffic rating (the relatively obscure White Sun of the Desert has far more traffic than Kuznetsov).

Here's the ROR post in full. Mind you, ROR is himself a borderline Russophile who makes money off Russia as it is and therefore has a vested interest in sucking up to the Putin administration by attacking its critics. If HE is attacking Russia Blog for playing fast and loose with the facts, then you have some idea how very far removed from truth and reality Russia Blog really is. Simply not reliable, that's all there is to it.

The Russia Blog, see link below, is some form of propaganda tool designed to paint a contrasting picture of Russia from the propaganda written by the western MSM. As such, I have no particular problem with it. However, where it falls apart in its role as purveyor of good news where little exists is that it knows as much about business as my now dead grandfather. The business stuff peddled by Charles Ganske is plain laughable [LR: As we've previously told you, until recently this so-called Russia expert, who doesn't speak the language, had never once set foot in Russia], which is OK because he has been hired to pump out stories not to understand them, more entertaining is the crap peddled by Kuznetsov from FINAM. As convincing a sell signal on FINAM as you would ever need. I knew more about investing at kindergarten.

Which brings me slowly to the point of this post. I have been trying to discover the logic of bringing Total in to Shtockman (so naiive; logic and the Russian government in the same sentence) so amongst other trusted sources I went to The Russia Blog to see if it would peddle me an insight. Instead, is this heap of intellectual dog s**t . I cannot even bring myself to copy all of it below. (More on Total / GAZP in another post.)Two of the more egregious sentences are quoted below, but its pretty difficult differentiating between the rubbish:

Last week France's Total S.A. agreed to a 25% stake in a major Russian oil and gas project, while the state-owned firm OAO Rosneft forged a new partnership with Royal Dutch Shell.

In an attempt to head off any future supply crunch, the Russian government is now allowing Gazprom to raise rates across the board, while encouraging the development of coal and nuclear power plants to diversify fuel sources for the power grid.

I attempted to comment on the post but I was told that it did not exist. So below is my comment in full and without editing:

If you have even the slightest pretense at intellectual honesty you will re-write this entry somewhat along the following lines;

1. BP, Shell and Total sign long-term meaningless agreements to develop russian reserves after having had to sell down their holdings in major opportunities after pressure was exerted for them to do just that - the new owner being allowed to continue to do what the previous owner was not allowed to.

2. Oil production at post-soviet peak, but declines now forecast by everyone as the easy post-soviet workovers are now done and no one has invested in exploration for almost 2 decades.

3. Total, a company with no arctic experience brought in to Shtockman to....increase arctic experience.

4.Gazprom, despite having a monopoly on export cannot meet current domestic demand, ask Luzhkov, and is getting Russian local prices up to export netback whilst keeping its export and pipeline monopoly. To hide the fact that it has not invested in upstream for 2 decades is buying in to coal and electricity, it being easier to engineer a purchase in the kremlin that find gas in the arctic - see total.

We all know that you write propaganda, sometimes its ok, this however flies in the face of all established facts. the trouble with hiring liberal arts students to write is that they know nothing about business and cannot be bothered to research it and don't understand it when they do.

NB: ROR's anger-inspired profanity has been edited by LR.