New Yorker Responds to LR and Readers

La Russophobe is delighted to announce that the New Yorker has responded favorably to her request, bolstered by that of several readers, and placed Michael Specter’s brilliant exposé “Kremlin Inc.” up on the world wide web for all to see. Click through to read the important piece, and if you get a chance drop a note to the New Yorker to praise both the quality of Michael’s reporting and their editioral decision to release the piece: themail@newyorker.com.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

A message from LR’s Translator

In response to a reader who commented on our response to the eXile by making disparaging comments about other people’s command of Russian, LR’s translator posted a couple of observations about mistakes the commenter had made in his own Russian. Now he offers readers a few general observations about this kind of discourse:

My last two notes bring me to a larger point, something I’ve noticed over the years, and this seems like as good a place as any to mention it. The people who are most prone to basing ad hominem arguments on other people’s proficiency in Russian almost always fall into one (or more) of three categories:

1) Those who don’t speak it very well themselves, but have always dreamed of being able to scold their fellow countrymen for being narrow-minded and provincial, especially about foreign languages (these are mostly Russophile expats);

2) Those for whom it is their sole qualification for speaking on Russian affairs (these are often Russian-Americans, who forget that foreign affairs, human rights, jurisprudence, etc. are all legitimate fields of inquiry in themselves);

3) Russians who are trying to get critics to shut up so they can hear the gentle music of their own propaganda machines. (Problem is, more and more of their critics are Russians themselves… that’s where I come in.)

All (ALL) of the really competent Russian specialists I’ve known (and I’ve known a lot), regardless of whether they tended toward the Russophile orRussophobe side of the house, have religiously avoided making any mention of their or anyone else’s proficiency in the language. I’ve been delighted sometimes to discover some of them had extremely high levels of fluency in the language, because they never mentioned it to me themselves, and their friends don’t usually make a big deal out of it either. By contrast, almost every rabid Russophile I have ever met (with the exception of ethnic Russians, and I’m not sure they can be called “Russophiles” anyway) who claimed to speak Russian has disappointed me, usually very badly, when I’ve had the chance to hear them trying to do it. There’s probably a deep psychological explanation for this phenomenon — something that speaks to the origins of self-loathing and other inferiority complexes — but I’ll leave that to the specialists and those who like to speculate on such things.

LR would like to add: The very last (LAST) thing in the whole wide world that anybody who hopes for a better future for Russia should be doing is dissuading people from using the Russian language by attacking them for it when they do or by lording over them the fact that they don’t. LR reported not long ago on the possible demise of the Russian language as it goes the way of the population, which is going the way of the dodo. Once again, we see a so-called Russophile doing far more harm to Russia than the country’s worst enemies.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

A message from LR’s Translator

In response to a reader who commented on our response to the eXile by making disparaging comments about other people’s command of Russian, LR’s translator posted a couple of observations about mistakes the commenter had made in his own Russian. Now he offers readers a few general observations about this kind of discourse:

My last two notes bring me to a larger point, something I’ve noticed over the years, and this seems like as good a place as any to mention it. The people who are most prone to basing ad hominem arguments on other people’s proficiency in Russian almost always fall into one (or more) of three categories:

1) Those who don’t speak it very well themselves, but have always dreamed of being able to scold their fellow countrymen for being narrow-minded and provincial, especially about foreign languages (these are mostly Russophile expats);

2) Those for whom it is their sole qualification for speaking on Russian affairs (these are often Russian-Americans, who forget that foreign affairs, human rights, jurisprudence, etc. are all legitimate fields of inquiry in themselves);

3) Russians who are trying to get critics to shut up so they can hear the gentle music of their own propaganda machines. (Problem is, more and more of their critics are Russians themselves… that’s where I come in.)

All (ALL) of the really competent Russian specialists I’ve known (and I’ve known a lot), regardless of whether they tended toward the Russophile orRussophobe side of the house, have religiously avoided making any mention of their or anyone else’s proficiency in the language. I’ve been delighted sometimes to discover some of them had extremely high levels of fluency in the language, because they never mentioned it to me themselves, and their friends don’t usually make a big deal out of it either. By contrast, almost every rabid Russophile I have ever met (with the exception of ethnic Russians, and I’m not sure they can be called “Russophiles” anyway) who claimed to speak Russian has disappointed me, usually very badly, when I’ve had the chance to hear them trying to do it. There’s probably a deep psychological explanation for this phenomenon — something that speaks to the origins of self-loathing and other inferiority complexes — but I’ll leave that to the specialists and those who like to speculate on such things.

LR would like to add: The very last (LAST) thing in the whole wide world that anybody who hopes for a better future for Russia should be doing is dissuading people from using the Russian language by attacking them for it when they do or by lording over them the fact that they don’t. LR reported not long ago on the possible demise of the Russian language as it goes the way of the population, which is going the way of the dodo. Once again, we see a so-called Russophile doing far more harm to Russia than the country’s worst enemies.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

A message from LR’s Translator

In response to a reader who commented on our response to the eXile by making disparaging comments about other people’s command of Russian, LR’s translator posted a couple of observations about mistakes the commenter had made in his own Russian. Now he offers readers a few general observations about this kind of discourse:

My last two notes bring me to a larger point, something I’ve noticed over the years, and this seems like as good a place as any to mention it. The people who are most prone to basing ad hominem arguments on other people’s proficiency in Russian almost always fall into one (or more) of three categories:

1) Those who don’t speak it very well themselves, but have always dreamed of being able to scold their fellow countrymen for being narrow-minded and provincial, especially about foreign languages (these are mostly Russophile expats);

2) Those for whom it is their sole qualification for speaking on Russian affairs (these are often Russian-Americans, who forget that foreign affairs, human rights, jurisprudence, etc. are all legitimate fields of inquiry in themselves);

3) Russians who are trying to get critics to shut up so they can hear the gentle music of their own propaganda machines. (Problem is, more and more of their critics are Russians themselves… that’s where I come in.)

All (ALL) of the really competent Russian specialists I’ve known (and I’ve known a lot), regardless of whether they tended toward the Russophile orRussophobe side of the house, have religiously avoided making any mention of their or anyone else’s proficiency in the language. I’ve been delighted sometimes to discover some of them had extremely high levels of fluency in the language, because they never mentioned it to me themselves, and their friends don’t usually make a big deal out of it either. By contrast, almost every rabid Russophile I have ever met (with the exception of ethnic Russians, and I’m not sure they can be called “Russophiles” anyway) who claimed to speak Russian has disappointed me, usually very badly, when I’ve had the chance to hear them trying to do it. There’s probably a deep psychological explanation for this phenomenon — something that speaks to the origins of self-loathing and other inferiority complexes — but I’ll leave that to the specialists and those who like to speculate on such things.

LR would like to add: The very last (LAST) thing in the whole wide world that anybody who hopes for a better future for Russia should be doing is dissuading people from using the Russian language by attacking them for it when they do or by lording over them the fact that they don’t. LR reported not long ago on the possible demise of the Russian language as it goes the way of the population, which is going the way of the dodo. Once again, we see a so-called Russophile doing far more harm to Russia than the country’s worst enemies.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

A message from LR’s Translator

In response to a reader who commented on our response to the eXile by making disparaging comments about other people’s command of Russian, LR’s translator posted a couple of observations about mistakes the commenter had made in his own Russian. Now he offers readers a few general observations about this kind of discourse:

My last two notes bring me to a larger point, something I’ve noticed over the years, and this seems like as good a place as any to mention it. The people who are most prone to basing ad hominem arguments on other people’s proficiency in Russian almost always fall into one (or more) of three categories:

1) Those who don’t speak it very well themselves, but have always dreamed of being able to scold their fellow countrymen for being narrow-minded and provincial, especially about foreign languages (these are mostly Russophile expats);

2) Those for whom it is their sole qualification for speaking on Russian affairs (these are often Russian-Americans, who forget that foreign affairs, human rights, jurisprudence, etc. are all legitimate fields of inquiry in themselves);

3) Russians who are trying to get critics to shut up so they can hear the gentle music of their own propaganda machines. (Problem is, more and more of their critics are Russians themselves… that’s where I come in.)

All (ALL) of the really competent Russian specialists I’ve known (and I’ve known a lot), regardless of whether they tended toward the Russophile orRussophobe side of the house, have religiously avoided making any mention of their or anyone else’s proficiency in the language. I’ve been delighted sometimes to discover some of them had extremely high levels of fluency in the language, because they never mentioned it to me themselves, and their friends don’t usually make a big deal out of it either. By contrast, almost every rabid Russophile I have ever met (with the exception of ethnic Russians, and I’m not sure they can be called “Russophiles” anyway) who claimed to speak Russian has disappointed me, usually very badly, when I’ve had the chance to hear them trying to do it. There’s probably a deep psychological explanation for this phenomenon — something that speaks to the origins of self-loathing and other inferiority complexes — but I’ll leave that to the specialists and those who like to speculate on such things.

LR would like to add: The very last (LAST) thing in the whole wide world that anybody who hopes for a better future for Russia should be doing is dissuading people from using the Russian language by attacking them for it when they do or by lording over them the fact that they don’t. LR reported not long ago on the possible demise of the Russian language as it goes the way of the population, which is going the way of the dodo. Once again, we see a so-called Russophile doing far more harm to Russia than the country’s worst enemies.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

A message from LR’s Translator

In response to a reader who commented on our response to the eXile by making disparaging comments about other people’s command of Russian, LR’s translator posted a couple of observations about mistakes the commenter had made in his own Russian. Now he offers readers a few general observations about this kind of discourse:

My last two notes bring me to a larger point, something I’ve noticed over the years, and this seems like as good a place as any to mention it. The people who are most prone to basing ad hominem arguments on other people’s proficiency in Russian almost always fall into one (or more) of three categories:

1) Those who don’t speak it very well themselves, but have always dreamed of being able to scold their fellow countrymen for being narrow-minded and provincial, especially about foreign languages (these are mostly Russophile expats);

2) Those for whom it is their sole qualification for speaking on Russian affairs (these are often Russian-Americans, who forget that foreign affairs, human rights, jurisprudence, etc. are all legitimate fields of inquiry in themselves);

3) Russians who are trying to get critics to shut up so they can hear the gentle music of their own propaganda machines. (Problem is, more and more of their critics are Russians themselves… that’s where I come in.)

All (ALL) of the really competent Russian specialists I’ve known (and I’ve known a lot), regardless of whether they tended toward the Russophile orRussophobe side of the house, have religiously avoided making any mention of their or anyone else’s proficiency in the language. I’ve been delighted sometimes to discover some of them had extremely high levels of fluency in the language, because they never mentioned it to me themselves, and their friends don’t usually make a big deal out of it either. By contrast, almost every rabid Russophile I have ever met (with the exception of ethnic Russians, and I’m not sure they can be called “Russophiles” anyway) who claimed to speak Russian has disappointed me, usually very badly, when I’ve had the chance to hear them trying to do it. There’s probably a deep psychological explanation for this phenomenon — something that speaks to the origins of self-loathing and other inferiority complexes — but I’ll leave that to the specialists and those who like to speculate on such things.

LR would like to add: The very last (LAST) thing in the whole wide world that anybody who hopes for a better future for Russia should be doing is dissuading people from using the Russian language by attacking them for it when they do or by lording over them the fact that they don’t. LR reported not long ago on the possible demise of the Russian language as it goes the way of the population, which is going the way of the dodo. Once again, we see a so-called Russophile doing far more harm to Russia than the country’s worst enemies.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

The Last Nationalization Domino Tumbles

The Moscow Times reports that having nationalized the oil and gas industry, the Kremlin is now moving on the last remaining area of private ownership, minerals.

Vladimir Potanin’s buyout of CEO Mikhail Prokhorov’s blocking stake in Norilsk Nickel and other assets within the Interros holding company could well lead to state control over the company, one of the country’s last few strategic assets in private hands, analysts said Thursday.

The change in ownership appeared largely to be a surprise to the market, but comes just weeks after Prokhorov was detained by French police during an investigation into a prostitution ring and could be linked to it in some way, analysts said. Under the deal, Potanin, one of the country’s most politically savvy oligarchs who has taken care to stay loyal to the Kremlin, will have a stake of about 55 percent in Norilsk. Potanin and Prokhorov will split their shares in other Interros assets, including Polyus Gold, the country’s largest gold miner.

Shares of Norilsk on the RTS rose 5.74 percent to $175 on Thursday.

Where Potanin will get an estimated $7.8 billion to take over Prokhorov’s share of approximately 27 percent in Interros was not immediately clear. Interros gave no financial details of the buyout in its statement on the issue Wednesday. “There is absolutely no funding now,” said Rob Edwards, metals and mining analyst at Renaissance Capital, referring to estimates that Potanin would need to raise extra cash for the deal. While it is unclear exactly where Potanin will get the money to acquire Prokhorov’s share, it should be very straightforward for him to finance the buyout through loans, said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank. Servicing the debt could put more pressure on Potanin, however, and may lead to the buyout being a short-term one, with someone else stepping in over the next few months to take over the debts and assets, analysts said. Potanin may also wish to cash in some of his assets, which could lead to higher dividends or share buybacks, Deutsche UFG said in a note to investors Thursday. In any case, Potanin’s move “is not the endgame but one in a chain of events,” Edwards said.

Weafer agreed that the investment was short term rather than long term. The state or a state-controlled buyer, such as diamond monopoly Alrosa, will likely take control — first of a blocking share and later perhaps of a controlling one, he said. Norilsk, the world’s largest nickel producer, is a key strategic asset over which the state would like to have influence, Weafer said. In a note to investors Thursday, Renaissance Capital said it believed control over Norilsk Nickel would never be allowed to shift to a non-Russian or non-favored group.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Did the Kremlin Poison an EHCR Judge?

The Guardian reports (hat tip Robert Amsterdam) that the Kremlin may have attempted to kill off one of the EHCR judges who has been ruling against it:

The former president of the European Court of Human Rights today claimed he was poisoned during a visit to Russia in late October – three days before the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned in London. Luzius Wildhaber (pictured above), who retired last month as Europe’s most senior judge, told a Swiss newspaper that he had fallen violently ill after a three-day trip to Moscow.The judge has been the subject of persistent criticism from Russia for upholding a series of complaints by Chechen human rights campaigners.

In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Mr Wildhaber said he had travelled to Russia to attend an international conference for constitutional lawyers. He said that on the last day of his trip he had gone on an excursion with another Swiss lawyer, Karl Eckstein, to the historic city of Vladimir, 112 miles east of Moscow. The two men ate a meal with officials.

Two days later, on his return to his home city of Basle, Mr Wildhaber collapsed. Doctors diagnosed severe blood poisoning and said that when an ambulance arrived at his house he was minutes from death. The judge was forced to take a month off work from his job in Strasbourg.

“After everything that I have experienced at the European court I simply have to take all possibilities into account,” Mr Wildhaber said, adding that he had been threatened by Russia in the past. “The Russian government has repeatedly dubbed the court as Russia-phobic,” he said.

Russian officials today dismissed Mr Wildhaber’s allegations as laughable and said there was no evidence he had been poisoned on Russian soil. Valery Zorkin, the chairman of Russia’s constitutional court, said the allegations were perplexing. The judge had seemed fine during his three-day visit, he said. “As far as I remember, food poisoning took place in reality … it was merely food poisoning.”

Russian officials also queried why the judge had gone public with his claims now, months after his alleged poisoning.

In the interview, Mr Wildhaber said he had decided to send his blood samples to a forensic laboratory after reading about Litvinenko, who was poisoned on November 1 with a massive dose of radioactive polonium-210. But when he asked for his blood samples, he was told the Swiss clinic had destroyed them. “I wanted to solve the puzzle,” he said.

Mr Eckstein also fell ill. The lawyer found himself sleeping “18 to 20 hours a day” after their joint excursion, the judge said. “I suspect that – whatever it was – happened during our trip to Vladimir,” Mr Wildhaber said.

Today a spokesman for the European Court of Human Rights said there was “nothing to indicate that the cause of Mr Wildhaber’s illness – septicaemia caused by staphylococcal infection – was suspicious”. “The fact that Mr Wildhaber fell ill shortly after returning from Russia provides no basis for the speculation in the media,” he told the Guardian.

But officials conceded today that the Kremlin had been annoyed by a series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights and regarded it as pathologically anti-Russian and biased. The court has regularly condemned Russian human rights abuses in Chechnya, and has ruled against complaints of discrimination by ethnic Russians in the Baltics.

But an autumn 2002 ruling appears to have especially incensed Moscow. The court upheld the appeal against extradition of a group of 13 Chechens wanted by Russia who had fled to Georgia.

The Neue Züricher Zeitung said Russia’s ambassador to the Council of Europe turned up in Mr Wildhaber’s office and said that unless the men were handed over within 24 hours Russia would blame the court for the Moscow theatre siege when Chechen extremists took 850 people hostage. “It was a vile form of blackmail,” Mr Wildhaber told the paper.

The 70-year-old judge retired on January 18. He was unavailable for comment today.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

As if Everything Else Weren’t Enough, Now They’ve got ORANGE Snow!!

Reuters reports: Russia’s Emergency Ministry planned to fly a chemical laboratory on Thursday to the Omsk region in southern Siberia to analyse oily yellow and orange snow which has covered an area home to 27,000 people. “A special mobile chemical laboratory will enable us to carry out express analysis of the snow at the site,” Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. The snow covered a 1,500 sq km area with 7,280 homes, Beltsov said. Omsk is a heavily industrial city with a number of oil and gas refineries.

{Photo courtesy of English Russia from Russian TV}

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

As if Everything Else Weren’t Enough, Now They’ve got ORANGE Snow!!

Reuters reports: Russia’s Emergency Ministry planned to fly a chemical laboratory on Thursday to the Omsk region in southern Siberia to analyse oily yellow and orange snow which has covered an area home to 27,000 people. “A special mobile chemical laboratory will enable us to carry out express analysis of the snow at the site,” Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. The snow covered a 1,500 sq km area with 7,280 homes, Beltsov said. Omsk is a heavily industrial city with a number of oil and gas refineries.

{Photo courtesy of English Russia from Russian TV}

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

As if Everything Else Weren’t Enough, Now They’ve got ORANGE Snow!!

Reuters reports: Russia’s Emergency Ministry planned to fly a chemical laboratory on Thursday to the Omsk region in southern Siberia to analyse oily yellow and orange snow which has covered an area home to 27,000 people. “A special mobile chemical laboratory will enable us to carry out express analysis of the snow at the site,” Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. The snow covered a 1,500 sq km area with 7,280 homes, Beltsov said. Omsk is a heavily industrial city with a number of oil and gas refineries.

{Photo courtesy of English Russia from Russian TV}

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

As if Everything Else Weren’t Enough, Now They’ve got ORANGE Snow!!

Reuters reports: Russia’s Emergency Ministry planned to fly a chemical laboratory on Thursday to the Omsk region in southern Siberia to analyse oily yellow and orange snow which has covered an area home to 27,000 people. “A special mobile chemical laboratory will enable us to carry out express analysis of the snow at the site,” Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. The snow covered a 1,500 sq km area with 7,280 homes, Beltsov said. Omsk is a heavily industrial city with a number of oil and gas refineries.

{Photo courtesy of English Russia from Russian TV}

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

As if Everything Else Weren’t Enough, Now They’ve got ORANGE Snow!!

Reuters reports: Russia’s Emergency Ministry planned to fly a chemical laboratory on Thursday to the Omsk region in southern Siberia to analyse oily yellow and orange snow which has covered an area home to 27,000 people. “A special mobile chemical laboratory will enable us to carry out express analysis of the snow at the site,” Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. The snow covered a 1,500 sq km area with 7,280 homes, Beltsov said. Omsk is a heavily industrial city with a number of oil and gas refineries.

{Photo courtesy of English Russia from Russian TV}

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !