Comment Policy

Here are the things you should remember if you want to have your comment published on this blog (all comments are moderated after they appear and are subject to removeal or editing based on the following guidelines):

1.  Thousands of people visit this blog each week, tens of thousands each month.  We are cited by newspapers and websites around the world on a daily basis. So, this blog is a valuable forum for ideas about Russia.  We own this blog, not you.  We work, for free, to support and nurture it. You don’t (unless you do and haven’t told us, which is the same thing).  Your ability to comment is a privilege, not a right. We make the rules, and you follow them if you want to be published here. If you don’t like our rules, go comment someplace else — or create your own blog, and find out how many people will read it.  If you argue with us about our rules or how we apply them, or otherwise imply that you think you have the right to be published or accuse us of censorship, your comment may be deleted.  We have already published nearly 25,000 comments on this blog, far more than any other Russia politics blog in the history of the world, and many of them are harshly critical of us. Accusing us of censorship is just plain idiotic.  We are merely asserting our ownership.

2.  If you make a controversial factual statement, including any claim that any statement of fact in one of our posts is false or misleading, you must back it up with a link to source material. If you don’t, your comment may be deleted.  Alternatively, we may aim a great deal of personal abuse at you as retribution and delete any response you might make.

3. You must confine yourself to the topic of the post you are commenting on.  Comments are not the place to carry on a diaglogue with us, or anybody else, on tangential topics. If you want to do that, send us an e-mail.  We routinely publish letters to the editor as their own blog posts, and will do so anonymously on request. You can make the big time!  If you go off topic in a comment on a post, your comment may be deleted.

4.  You may not aim personal abuse at other commenters. If you do, your comment may be deleted.

5.  You may not aim racist abuse at anyone. If you do, your comment may  be deleted.

6.  No profanity will be published on this blog. If you use it, we may censor your post or delete it.

7.  If you aim personal abuse at us, we may very well publish it, but there are no guarantees. If we do, we may very well respond in kind.  If you’re seriously interested in being published and have an IQ bigger than a lemon, you will be careful about how you address us.

8. This blog is guarded by the AKSIMET spam system. It’s possible that your comment, for whatever strange reason, could be mis-identified as spam and discarded by the system. Such events are rare, but they happen. We take no responsiblity for such instances. AKSIMET has already blocked 25,000 spam comments from appearing in our review queue.

9.  We may respond to your comment on the comment itself, by writing “<b>LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:</b>” and then our comments about your comment.  We respond where we think appropriate and when we have time. If you attempt to imply that because we have ignored your comment you “win,” your comment may be deleted.