EDITORIAL
Russia Today is Really Tragic
By now most Russia watchers are aware that the Putin Kremlin is squandering millions of dollars badly needed by its sick population (Russians don’t rank in the top 120 countries of the world for adult lifespan) on a shameless English-language propaganda TV network known as “Russia Today.”
It goes without saying that there is no more reliable information to be found in RT’s broadcasts than there was on the pages of Pravda or Izvestia in Soviet Times. But the fully neo-Soviet character of the network’s material is nonetheless surprising and revolting.
Take, for instance, a recent report on religious freedom in Russia.
That the Russian Orthodox Church is dominating and excluding every other religious faith in the country would hardly seem to be a matter of debate among intelligent people. After all, Vladimir Putin was repeatedly blessed and supported by Alexei II, the Russian pope, throughout his years in office, and Russia is infamous around the world for cracking down on other faiths.
But according to Russia Today, all is bliss and those faiths have no complaints whatsoever.
RT’s piece was a direct response to a formal U.S. government finding that religious diversity is under seige in Russia. The report lumps Russia together with Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela as the worst worldwide oppressors of religous diversity (to read more about the oppression of religious diversity in Putin’s Russia, click the “religion” category in our sidebar). The piece was not signed by any journalist, and for all we readers know what written by someone in the Kremlin itself.
The Kremlin's view of the importance of religious diversity
You can probably understand all you need to about the RT/Kremlin “analysis” of the issue by having a look at the crude, vulgar cartoon that accompanied it and which appears at left. Just as was the case when RT tried to advertise its “services” with a billboard pointing out that Josef Stalin was “also a romantic poet” as an example of the important facts RT would teach Russia neophytes to help them understand Russia better, it seems never to have occurred to RT that a cartoon like this is totally inappropriate within a discussion of relgious persecution (it’s notable that the article also contains a screen shot from the TV show South Park which routinely lampoons religions of all kinds; one wonders how RT would respond if South Park put the Russian Orthodox Church in its sights, something it has of course never done). The drawing underlines the total inability of Rusians to comprehend the values of freedom of expression, only the drawbacks. It’s a sad exclamation point on the notion that Russia remains a crudely backward, second-rate nation when compared to the civilized world.
If you then review the text, you can feel your stomach turning.
RT quotes some one called Farid Asaddullin from Russia’s “Council of Mufti.” Asaddullin says that the U.S. report doesn’t mention the number of mosques and religious schools built in Russia in “the past 10-15 years.” Interestingly, Asaddulin makes no attempt to mention the number either. It’s well known, of course, that the Kremlin has aggressively sought to co-opt some Islamic leaders, most notably in Chechnya, just as the KGB is rumored to have done with the Orthodox Church itself in Soviet times (many believe that Alexei II was a KGB agent). No discussion of the state’s illicit involvement in the Orthodox Church appears in the RT report, nor is there any attempt to quote ordinary Muslims unconnected to the Kremlin’s power about how they are persecuted on a daily basis. Many dark-skinned people, of course, have been murdered on sight in Russia just for being non-Slavic. Not a word about those killings appears in the RT “report.”
The only negative comments RT will acknowledge come from the leaders of obscure cults like the Vaishnavists and the Shamanists, consistent with the cartoon message shown above. No comments of any kind are printed from mainstream religions leaders representing Catholicism or Protestantism or Judaeism. Of course, there’s not the slighest attempt to quote any of the groups which have been most vehemently assaulted, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Over and over again, however, it quotes spokesmen for the Russian Orthodox Church proclaiming their innocence. None are asked any hard questions about their nexus to the Kremlin or the incidents of persecution documented in the U.S. report.
That report, indeed, recites a litany of horrific acts of persecution against Russian religious minority groups. Here’s RT’s response: “While many examples of religious intolerance cited by the US commission report do depict genuine problems in Russian society, some may raise questions.” That’s right: It doesn’t give the details of one single incident that is “genuine” but turns immediately instead to attack those it feels are vulnerable, the classic tactic of a propagandist. And it doesn’t make any attempt to confront the Kremlin officials responsible for religion with the incidents that are admittedly “genuine.” That’s jouranlism, Russia style.
Then the RT report gets quite touchy, ending with the following poisonous diatribe that sounds as if it came directly from the lips of Vladimir Putin:
Russia, for its part, is told to amend its legislation, which mentions four predominant religions – Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism – as “traditional,” claiming it violates the rights of members of other religions. The document doesn’t explain how the situation in Russia is worse than, say, mentioning Roman Catholicism as the traditional religion in Poland, or Judaism as the state religion in Israel.
As for the US government, some of the panel’s suggestions are quite unorthodox. The report suggests linking religious freedom in Russia with the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and the lifting of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, the trade regulation that was imposed against the Soviet Union in protest against the restriction of the immigration of Russian Jews. What Russia’s trade relations have to do with religious freedoms is not revealed.
Well, so much for journalism!
It’s really hard to imagine what sort of “logic” would lead RT to the conclusion that it can win more even-handed coverage of Russia by covering Russia so one-sidedly. As with its Stalin advertisement, it’s clear that RT’s publishers see their audience as a group of ignorant simpletons who can be easily duped, just the same way the Politburo used to see the world. It sees things that way because there is nobody in the organization to tell it any different, just as there isn’t any such person in the Kremlin itself.
So what we have is, just a few years after the collapse of the USSR, history repeating itself. A proud KGB spy rules Russia through lies and repression. Russia once again spirals to collapse and suffering.
La Russophobe 
Dear La Russophobe, Yes, thank you for this excellent article. Please keep up your good work. I agree with what you say here. However, genuine/free Russian Orthodoxy, as a religion, and in itself, is not the culprit in what is going on in Putin’s KGB-gang ruled Russian Federation, and in it’s pseudo-‘church’ the 1943 Stalin-created ‘Moscow Patriarchy’. At the very start of the bolshevik take-over of Russia, those criminals knew that their number one enemy that they had to liquidate, was the national-ancestral religion, the Russian Orthodox Church. So, they tried that, with the murder of millions, and the destruction of countless churches and religious institutions, etc. Then, Stalin saw that he needed that religion, or at least his captive semblance of it, to inspire the common & basically religiously oriented Russian to help him repluse the Germans. And, as time went on, under various commisars, that religion was, on-and-off, infiltrated and wrecked from the top down, and from the bottom up. Yet, that still did not destroy the basic faith in that religion, of many common Russians. We know, as there are many facts to support this, that the majority top-episcopal leadership of this official state-church, organization, are full KGB/FSB agents/actors in clerical garb and titles, belonging to a special department of the KGB, most who have gone thru seminary training (afterall, the 2000 plus years old, ornate and complicated Byzantine rituals and prayers of Eastern Orthodoxy, do take much time to learn, by either real believers, or….trained actors playing clergy-roles). The overall, long-range communist master plan, has been, to eventually 100% liquidate ALL religion, …in all the world, when they take over the whole earth! but most especially this native thorn-in-their-side, ancestral Russian Orthodoxy. The Russian Orthodox Religion, has been and still is, thus, ENEMY NUMBER ONE to those rascals, not any other religion in their territory. At the very heart of Eastern Orthodoxy, is: we are to obey God, and not man!…i.e. God…is the center, not any earthly power. So, today, we are hearing more and more reports, of the re-surgance of state persecution (after a breather under Gorbachev and Yeltzin) of any and all dissenting, and anti-state church, Russian Orthodox episcopates andf their followers, -which claim the loyalty of millions!….and also, of Catholics and Protestants. Moslems, generally, the state treats more gingerly, as the KGB is affraid to harass them too much, for fear of an international Moslem backlash. Dissident Russian Orthodox, have no such foreign power base to help them now. Catholics have their Pope to scream, ‘unfair!’. These native-Russian Orthodox dissenters, are currently lumped into the general mix, of persecuted, foreign-‘sects’. So, I could say much more on this complicated subject, but all the world does need to see what is going on in Russia, and to at least., not turn a blind eye to all the neo-soviet trashing of ALL human and civil rights. It is back to the glory-days, of Uncle Joe, apparently.
A dissenter and anti-KGB run, ‘Moscow Patriarchy’, Russian Orthodox Believer,
Reader Daniel in USA
LET ‘EM HAVE IT! La Russophobe!
“Moslems, generally, the state treats more gingerly, as the KGB is affraid to harass them too much, for fear of an international Moslem backlash.”
There is only “official/traiditional Islam” (read: state-controlled) allowed. The independent Islam is branded “wakhabi” and ruthlessly persecuted. Of course “wakhabi” is just a code-word, like was “kulak” for an independent peasant – the Kremlin has excellent biliteral relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the country that was built around the actual doctrine of Wahhabi – something they lack with, say, the Vatican). While back in Russia, anyone branded a “wahkabi” (having a beard is enough, a simple copy of Koran may be called “wakhabi literature”) might be repressed: beaten, arrested, kidnapped, tortured – even murdered.
To Robert, I’m sure you know what you are saying here. I know less about Moslems in Russia, than I do about fellow dissident-Russian Orthodox., who are NOT part of the system, hense they suffer….more and more now. Speaking about Moslems, especially in those areas where they are the dominant population, they do have some weight, simply by the fact of their sheer numbers- when they have some control of the local power-structure. But, sure, from the start of the communist take-over of Russia, till what we have there now, from once attempting to 100% eradicate ALL religions, the nomenklatura KGB gang, now tolerates…to varying degrees, ‘registered’ religions, as long as they are in submission and to some degree, usefull to
the government. As to those Moslem areas, such as Chechnaya, etc. yes, we certainly know that the Kremlin wants to crush and destroy the populations there. But as to my point: that the Kremlin gang…..deals more carefully with Moslems, than with dissident-Russian Orthodox,
I still think that the Orthodox Christians, labeled now as, ‘sectarians’, are currently receiving A LOT of direct and indirect attacks, (because THEY have NO powerful foreign supporters to threaten the Kremlin). And because, why should the Catholic Pope or western Protestants protest….for, dissident-Russian Orthodox living in Russia? Those churches, will speak up for THEIR members in Russia, of course. Of course too, when speaking about any and all governmental persecutions directed against ….anyone, for any reasons, the picture depends on local-authorities and where their sympathies/prejudices lie, and sometimes, those locals countermand Moscow. Sometimes this governmental-dis-unity can work either for, or against local religious believers, of all faiths. So don’t get me wrong: it is a toss-up as to the final answer to the question: “which religion is MOST persecuted now, in Russia?”
The present Russian Federation, is afterall, sort of a three-ring circus, just not a funny one, like a side-show horror-theme-park. But yes, I do believe with you, that the Moslems there, as with all religions, SHOULD! be free of any state harrassment. Human beings, all over the world!should have the right, to freely choose what religion they believe in,…or none, ALWAYS!
As you point out, outside political/economic clout, can help persecuted ones inside the RF, …but only if and when those outside entities WISH to help.
Saudi Arabia seems more interested in preserving it’s huge wealth for it’s ruling class, than in coming to the aid of persecuted fellow Moslems in the RF,
not to mention also Iran and some other Moslem countries, which could yell at the Kremlin, but apparently do not, because of MONEY and military connections, etc.
But, alas! isn’t that the same old story around the world?…i.e. great money and big power=self-centeredness of nations, and that is common for ALL religions.
Reader Daniel
Btw Chechnya, in entire Soviet Grozny there were only 1 mosque and 1 church. This church was destroyed by the Russians in January 1995, rebuilt only recently (for whom? there’s only a handful Russians left, even soldiers don’t go there) – at the same time, the Kremlin built the Kadyrov Mosque “the biggest mosque in Europe” (or they claim it is one). You know where they built this, this Kadyrov Square near Putin Street? It is the place where once mostly the ethnic Russians lived, their apartment blocks literally leveled by the Russian military (no trace of them now) – in the campaigns blessed by the Russian official church and supported by majority of the Russian population elsewhere.
Voice of America, February 2000:
A drab gray overcast adds to the surreal atmosphere of Grozny this chilly February morning.
Every square meter of this once-elegant regional capital is littered with the debris of war — rocket parts, twisted pieces of metal.
The only sounds are the occasional crack of rifle fire, and the distant roar of Russian military vehicles on patrol. The streets are mostly deserted.
But in what must be a triumph of sheer will power over adversity, 60-year old Viktor Yermolenko is out in his front yard on Tuchin Street inspecting his bomb-damaged house. Standing on a ladder, he says the roof appears to be beyond repair.
He says “Everything is destroyed.” But his sentence is interrupted by a long burst of gunfire.
(…)
Survivors wandering the streets say life in Grozny remains difficult, even though the bombing has stopped. There is no food, fresh water, gas or electricity, except what the Emergencies Ministry supplies.
A large percentage of those who endured the months of bombing are ethnic Russians who have lived in Chechnya all their lives. Many, like 50-year old Taia Petrenko say they were left behind when others fled because they are either too old or too poor.
She says “Where can I go, my mother is 85 and I have no money, so I stayed”.
54-year old Galina Ivchenko endured four freezing months huddled in an eight meter by 10 meter room with 120 others, the oldest of whom was 98 years old.
“It was a cold, concrete basement,” she says. “We were hungry and the children were sick. It was miserable, and there was nobody to complain to.”
Most say they would prefer to live out their lives in Grozny, but they realize there is little hope the city they called home can be resurrected. Vitaly Gemai, a retired electrical engineer, says it would probably be better to simply bulldoze the remains and close Grozny
forever.
He says “anything can be rebuilt, but it would just cause additional pain to the survivors. It’s just not worth it”.
But for some, these heaps of rubble are all they have to live for. Sixty-five-year old Tamara Vitayeva is one of those. Three months ago, at the height of the bombing, a group of men came to her basement and took away her only son. These days, she spends her time sitting in a central meeting place waiting for her boy to come back.
“They told me they would move me”, she says “but I told them I will sit here until my son returns.”
I hope this (long) link works:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=Mod_ViewBox.ViewBoxZoom_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOY76OAIH&IT=ImageZoom01&PN=5&STM=T&DTTM=Image&SP=Album&IID=2TYRYD1Z33EE&SAKL=T&SGBT=T&DT=Image
This is the “Putin’s Course” – for all Russians.
If world Orthodoxy would recognize an independent and equal Ukrainian Orthodox church with a truly independent Ukrainian patriarch, it would be a great step towards the legitimacy of eastern orthodoxy.
The Ecumenical Patriarchiate of Constantinople, sold the Ukrainian Church to the Russian Church in 1685 for the price of 120 sable furs and 200 pieces of gold. The Czar as Autocrat was head of the Church as well. There never was separation of church and state in Rasha anyway. Just loatsum.
To Gordon, WOW! couldn’t you think of a MORE complicated of a proposition!? ‘World Orthodoxy’, so called, is mired in the deep and smelly mud of international worldly politics,…caught between Putin;’s MP machinations and of his rival, those of the Ecumenical Patriarcate in Istanbul, for ultimate supremacy over world-wide Eastern Orthodoxy. and since all the official Orthodox national-church Patriarchs, recognize as valid and are ‘in full communion with’ the KGB usurper, Kirill II of Moscow, your hope for, ‘ a truly independent Ukrainian patriarch’ has as much hope for becoming a reality, right now anyway, as the proverbial snowball in hades, etc. I do agree with you, that such a thing should be, but…….when/how? is another thorny matter. As from a recent comprehensive religious national census of Ukraine, if one adds together, all the various Orthodox jurisdictions there, (large and small) then Orthodoxy is, by far, number one in total membership, and the Catholics (Latin Rite and Eastern Rite) come in number two.
And, of the two main/largest Orthodox churches, the largest is a subservient appendage of the Moscow-MP, and the other one, seems to be some sort of a rebelious schism from Moscow. At any rate, Moscow still calls a lot of the shots in Ukraine, either in religious affairs, or politically otherwise, as you no doubt painfully know, I’m sure.
My bishop, born and raised in Odessa, & still residing there today, Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky) is a Ukrainian citizen, who has said: ‘my father was Russian and my mother was Ukrainian’, and he heads the dissident/free from Moscow, Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which refused the ‘union’ with the KGB-MP church, in 1970. Thus, our church, has a large component of Ukrainians, in Ukraine, and also is spread around the free world. Our faithful now, are also suffering more persecution, inside the Russian Federation.
But, of course, our church is unhampered in the free Ukraine. But, yes, I with you, welcome the day when there will be one/free/valid/united Ukrainian Patriarcate, fully traditionally Orthodox, and fully Ukrainian!. God grant this!
Reader Daniel in USA
Small factions in Catholicism, especially in SA, and the now notorious Church of England which has now devolved into Islamofascist appeasers aren’t immune in throwing their support behind stupid lefty One World utopian politics. I’m only bring it up because in a democracy that can be openly debated and rebuked and since they don’t get any state funding to survive they have to listen to us.
Religions aren’t above politics, sadly. During the Irish uprisings the Catholic church there notoriously distinguished itself by threatening to ex-communicate the rebels.
The marriage between the upper echelon of the ROC and Putin is disgusting, but, then unlike European and US religions they depended on the largesse of the state. They’ll pay dearly for it if Russians ever rise up and revolt. And, they have have discredited themselves with the young if and when they ever get politicized.
To Penny and all, Well, I’m not sure if I can add more to your good points. But since all religions have always been made up of faulty humanoids, including my Eastern Orthodoxy, and since all organized human existence is tied up in politics,
as politics=life, like it or not, there has not yet been created a perfect religion or a perfect society.
That is exactly, the big problem with Marxist-Lenism, …that it promised a utopian-society, yet in fact, created it’s own, hell-on-earth.
Since Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire, under St. Constantine the Great, ‘Equal-to-the-Apostles’, Eastern Christianity has had it’s ups and downs
with imperial/and or secular authority. Some of these imperial caesars or kings or queens, allowed the church much leeway and did not interfer in it’s internal workings, some others, put their heavy hand upon it, some severely harmed it, but none before the bolsheviks, ever tried to totally liquidate it, or…..make it into what the enslaved Moscow Patriarchy in Russia…or the other national Orthodox churches under communist rule were twisted into. Sure, Eastern Christianity & the cultures which it has helped to form, is a far cry from our western/democratic norms. Our western norms being more a product of the Protestant revolt against the abuses of Rome. Yet, in some fundamental ways it is not
different, as in my church, freewill, and the duty of each believer to …obey God first and last, and Caesar or others, secondly, is a paramount
teaching. It has not always worked, on the ground, of course. But, no, American style politics, probably can never fit a Russian reality. Yet, Russians as fellow human beings, DO WANT their freedoms and to be able to live in a peaceful and prosperous society. Your average Russian, has a lot to say about a lot of things!….as long as he DARE open his mouth without fear of reprisals. Yes, Russians are used to autocratic rulers, and Orthodoxy is also. “Orthodoxy and Autocracy!” was the motto, in old Russia. Also, ‘If your’re Russian, your’re Orthodox!, and if your’re Orthodox, your’re Russian!’….was echoed by both church and state in old Russia. Doesn’t sound very tolerant, does it? Yet, in all the long and complicated centuries of Russian history, with all the contributions of the many non-Russians inside of Russia, much that was/still is universally good and precious was accomplished, and a lot of very good Russians were slaughtered, so that this present continuation of the soviet-system could still run the show there. As far as what young Russians (the ones not drugged out of their minds) think about anything: …of course, many who are spiritually seeking, have indeed turned their backs on the suspect nationa-lchurch, this KGB-thing, and turned enthusiastically to…..just about ANY foreign religion, trusting ALL foreignors as being (automatically) more honest and truthful, than anyone or anything, ‘Russian’…so disgusted are many of them of their own society and government, etc. But, yes, I do agree, my religion, a universal church, after all, does have it’s flaws, but after it’s 2000 plus years, how could it not? Still too, it has a few good qualities. Submitted to an athiestic KGB run state, however, it’s ecclesiastical organization then, STINKS to high heaven! That is the KGB-front outfit, called ‘The Moscow Patriarchy’, now part of the Putin international imperialistic espionage machine. But then, I…and many other Orthodox Christians, KNOW, that that monstrosity is NOT our true religion.
Just my thoughts……
Reader Daniel…. An American by birth and culture…
“Many dark-skinned people, of course, have been murdered on sight in Russia just for being non-Slavic. ”
And non-dark-skinned alike.
You just really don’t get it, do you? A resurgence of the Russian Orthodox faith is one of the best things that could happen to Russia because that would mean there was a decent religious faith standing against the cult that is Islam. The worst thing that could happen would be an increase in Islam in Russia. Russia is not our true enemy: Islam is. If you truly care about human rights, democracy, and such, perhaps you ought to consider focusing on countries that actually pose a threat to Western civilisation, namely Islamic countries.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
With all due respect my dear, you’re the one who doesn’t get it. Russia has MILLIONS of Muslim citizens, and will soon be majority Islamic. You’ve just disqualified half the country from citizenship. Moreover, the church is corrupt and controlled not by God but by the Kremlin, as in Soviet times.
And would you say that an Islamic Russia would be a good thing?
And who’s to blame for not decolonizing Russia (Muslim-majority areas forcibly kept) and the continued rapid decline of the ethnic Russian population in the entire territory?
But if Russia had let those regions go, then all we’d have would be more independent Muslim countries, and that’s the last thing the world needs right now.
Religion haven’t a big influence in Russia. Both Christianity and Islam. Practically, majority of Russians is atheists. And I very glad to this fact.
Natalie,
First let me say – I like your blog and I like your postings. Congratulation on finishing the exams. So, I am going to avoid sarcasm, and in return you are going to avoid things like “You just really don’t get it”, ok?
Now to the point. What I don’t see in your post above – is any argument that Russia is in any way stands against Islam. With selling arms to Iran, keeping a blind eye to Vakhabbist resurgence in Dagestan and Ingushetia, giving cart-blanche to introducing Sharia law by Karimov – I really don’t see how you can say that!
And Orthodox church has always been so intermingled with power that it’s hard for me to understand where one starts and another ends.
C’mon – Internet is a big place, there is room for both!
Hello, Felix. Thanks for visiting my blog and such :)
Russia has a rather strange stance towards Islam, I admit. Yes, I know they’ve been too lenient by letting sharia law be introduced in certain areas and they’ve most likely sold Iran weapons/other stuff I’d rather that they didn’t sell. But they also said to the Saudis that in order for a mosque to be build in Moscow, the Saudis would have to allow the Russians to build a church in Saudi Arabia (http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/023773.php).
Basically, I think Russia could stand in the way of Islam a lot more than they do now, and they’d be more wiling to do so if America did not continue to alienate them. From an objective point of view, both America and Russia have a common enemy, Islam, so therefore they ought to be closer allies against this common enemy. Russia’s support of Iran is, in my opinion, only happening so they can undermine the United States, to “get back” at us, so to speak, because they don’t like how we’ve treated them since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia is not a flawless country, of course. They could stand to have lots of improvement in many areas. What I find objectionable about this particular blog are the reasons given for hating Russia (I’m sorry, but saying that Russian food is “gross” is not a valid reason to hate the country; it’s a fallacious ad hominem attack) and the disconnect between condemning Russia for being un-democratic while supporting Kazakhstan, which has a much dictatorial government than Russia and is in vastly worse shape. (I elaborated on the latter point on my blog back in March.)
“keeping a blind eye to Vakhabbist resurgence in Dagestan and Ingushetia”
What.
Natalie, you write
Obviously, you have every right to think that way, and I have every right to think that this supposition is wrong. I think that the foundation of Putin’s Russian policy is adversarial relationship with the West (not with particular Western government, but with the West in general and Americans [pindosy] in particular). Look at the first words and action of Putin and Medvedev after Obama was elected in November. Missiles in Kalinigrad and patronizing instructions how to restructure Wall Street and European security. I felt that Russia was afraid that they are about to lose their favorite enemy. And Islamists (not just Iran, but also Hamas, Syria and others) are “enemy of my main enemy” – so they are almost friends. Along with Venesuela, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua.
Standing up to Saudi Arabia fits this approach pretty well. First, they are too cozy with US – so it doesn’t hurt to kick them a little bit. Second, they are Iran’s enemy as well; so it sure helps Russia in their negotiations regarding Bushir nuclear reactor. And third, unlike Dubai and Abu Dabi, no Russian oligarchs vacation in Saudi Arabia. So, there is no danger to Russian villas… Bottom line – Saudi Arabia is a good target to piss off for cheap!
If you have any evidence to prove that Russia is indeed stands up to world Islamists, I am very eager to see it.