Category Archives: announcements

EDITORIAL: How We’re Doing

EDITORIAL

How We’re Doing

Our first year on WordPress ends with a bang

Our first year on WordPress ends with a bang

This month marks our one-year anniversary here on the WordPress server.  We take this opportunity to offer a little review of our progress in our new home, where by and large we are very happy.

Last month, as the graph above shows, we set another new record for most visits to the blog in a month, with 117,480 in total.  In seven of the past eleven months, we had likewise set new records for monthly visitation, breaking the 100,000 threshold for the first time two months ago.  In less than one year here on WordPress, our monthly visitation has doubled.  We are on pace to become the first English-language Russia politics blog ever to post 1,000,000 visits on a public counter by the end of this month.

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EDITORIAL: Another Major LR Milestone

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EDITORIAL 

Another Major LR Milestone

May 2009 was the best month we’ve ever had here at La Russophobe in terms of visitation.  Every week during the month our traffic increased significantly from the week before, meaning we set  a new all-time record every seven days.  For the first time ever, we were visited more than 25,000 times in a single week, and by month’s end, for the first time ever, we had been visted more than 100,000 times in a single month! On top of all that, at mid-month (as we reported then) we received one-millionth visit.  Wow. What a month!

And there’s more.

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Happy Birthday, La Russophobe!

lr-monthlies

As indicated by the chart above, which shows our web traffic here on WordPress, March 2009 was La Russophobe’s best month ever for visitation. For the first time in our history, we welcomed more than 90,000 visitors in a single month.  There are many Russia blogs which have existed for years and haven’t had that many visitors in their entire histories.

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Special Extra: Half a Million Visits for La Russophobe!

Another milestone for La Russophobe

Another milestone for La Russophobe

Over the weekend this blog was pleased to welcome its 500,000th visitor — a mighty achievement for an unfunded specialty blog like ours (our counter visitor counter registered its 220,000th hit, which combined with the 280,000+ on our old counter over at the Google address at the time we vacated pushed the total visits over half a million).  Soon, our blog will record the 1,000,000th page view of our content and publish its 12,000th comment.  Founded by Kim Zigfeld in April 2006, we have grown to become one of the most formidable voices on neo-Soviet Russia in the world, and our visitation statistics — as we have often said before — are as much due to the efforts of you the reader as they are to those who create our content. So pat yourself on the back for playing your part in confronting the neo-Soviet horror of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But this is no time to rest on our laurels.  The enemy we face is monumental and utterly evil.  Our struggle against it has only just begun.  We encourage you to see this milestone as confirmation that your efforts are paying off, and to redouble your efforts to publicize our content using services like Digg, Delicious, Dogpile, Reddit, Yahoo! Buzz and others to tag and circulate our web pages.

Just in time to celebrate this occasion, commenter “Charlotte” writes in response to our list of unreformed Russian vices, our most-commented-upon web page with over 300 comments to date:

I’m an American who has recently moved to Russia… and it’s a whole different world. Like a time warp, really. The only thing I could compare it to would be Nixon-era America… but even that is not quite strong enough. About the most I can say for Russia is that it’s exactly like you’d think it would be after decades of Communism. The New Russia, like the FSB, seems to be the same old… “stuff” rebranded.

Well said, Charlotte, well said. And good luck in your daily struggle for change! Russia can’t have too many Americans in country.

An Open Letter to the Editor of the Moscow Times

LR publisher Kim Zigfeld recently sent the following letter to the editor of the Moscow Times. As we’ve previously indicated, it seems unlikely he has the fortitude to publish it.

To the Editor:

It was rather amusing to read in an op-ed from Kremlin supporter Vladimir Frolov (7/14) that “President Dmitry Medvedev has clearly passed muster at his first Group of Eight summit in Japan last week.” The contrast with a news article the same date on declarations from Washington and London which basically called Medvedev a liar for breaking a previous promise to support UN sanctions against the rogue dictatorship in Zimbabwe could not be more stark. You reported: “In an unusually harsh statement, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, accused Medvedev of going back on an earlier promise and ‘standing with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe. The U-turn in the Russian position is particularly surprising and disturbing … [and] raises questions about its reliability as a G8 partner.'”

If Medvedev had really been so impressive at the G-8, then Khalilzad wouldn’t have used such intensely confrontational rhetoric. Mr. Frolov doesn’t seem to realize that Russia, much less well qualified for G-8 membership than India and Brazil and not yet even a member of the WTO, is standing on the brink of international pariah status. As is so often the case behind the iron curtain, few are able to realize that the Emperor has no clothes.

Kim Zigfeld
Publisher, La Russophobe

Happy Independence Day!

On July 4, 1776, a ragtag group of American colonists stood up to the world’s only superpower and demanded the right to live in freedom. For the next six years, they risked their lives as one, spilling their blood on battlefield after battlefield, losing over and over again, determined in the words of the license plates on all cars from the State of New Hampshire, whose ratification of the U.S. Constitution made us a country, to “life free or die.”

Those brave men and women set an example for all the world to follow. They showed that no matter how overwhelming the odds might seem, those who are determined to struggle for liberty can carry the day. When the apparently mighty edifice of the USSR toppled and fell, the world was reminded not only of this fact, but also that it takes more than the collapse of dictatorship to earn freedom, it takes a concerted effort of all the nation’s people to preserve what has been won. So far, the people of Russia have proven unwilling to put forth that effort, and the result is that the average Russian man doesn’t live to see his 60th year or earn as much as $5/hour for his labor.

We hope that one day the people of Russia will recognize Thomas Jefferson’s self-evident truths and stand together as one to fight for them.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

The Sunday Seminar

PRESS RELEASE

04.06.2008

FINROSFORUM 2008 | Helsinki 9-10 June 2008

The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (www.finrosforum.fi) will organise a seminar, FINROSFORUM 2008, in the fortress of Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) in Helsinki on 9-10 June 2008. The conference venue is the Tenaille von Fersen.

This is the second annual seminar of its kind. The participants at this year’s event include several members of the human rights and democracy movement in Russia as well as Russian experts from Finland, Estonia, and elsewhere.

The themes of the seminar include the economic costs of an authoritarian regime, the rule of law in Russia, the conflict in North Caucasus, the refugee problem in Russia, ethnic relations and nationalism, as well as censorship and self-censorship.

A detailed programme, together with short speaker biographies, is available. The programme is available in Finnish, Russian, and Swedish at http://www.finrosforum.fi. NB: Oleg Kozlovsky is scheduled to attend, stop by to meet him if you are in Finland!

The main languages at the seminar will be Finnish and Russian. Translation will be provided. The seminar is open to the public. Participation is free of charge, but we will charge the cost price for meals.

Ferry timetables to and detailed map of Sveaborg at http://www.suomenlinna.fi.

NB! Advance registration is required at http://www.finrosforum.fi/registration.

More information:

Heidi Hautala
Chair
Finnish-Russian Civic Forum
+358 50 511 3129

Iida Simes
Press Secretary
Finnish-Russian Civic Forum
+358 40 720 5985

Kerkko Paananen
Secretary
Finnish-Russian Civic Forum
+358 44 070 7710

The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum was established in January 2007 by a group of people concerned about the erosion of democracy and human rights in Russia.

The organisation strives to promote cooperation between the peoples of Finland and Russia by supporting civic initiatives for democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech in Russia.

Finnish-Russian Civic Forum
http://www.finrosforum.fi/

An Open Letter to Russia Today

La Russophobe‘s publisher Kim Zigfeld wrote the following e-mail to the press secretary of the Russia Today TV network on Thursday April 8th:

Dear Press Office,

I am a well-known Russia blogger; my work appears on Pajamas Media, Instablogs, Publius Pundit and La Russophobe, and has been noted in by the Associated Press, the Washington Post and The Moscow Times, among many others.

I would like to interview a Russia Today editor of your choosing and publish the transcript of the interview, which I would conduct by e-mail, on one or more of my blogs. I would appreciate it if you could put me in e-mail contact with an editor who can tell me about Russia Today’s news coverage, editorial positions, mission and market performance.

Thank you for your assistance.

Kim Zigfeld

To date, Kim has received no response of any kind. Hey, Russia Today — why won’t you be interviewed? Are you scared? Do you have something to hide?

We’d like to know.

Happy Birthday to La Russophobe

Today, this blog celebrates its two-year anniversary. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!

This blog was born on April 2, 2006. Since then, we’ve received nearly a quarter million visits as well as nearly half a million page views. We’ve published over 3,000 posts including original essays and translations from dozens of contributors, and we’ve received nearly 4,000 comments. If you tallied up all the comments we’ve generated on other blogs as well, you’d see that we’ve provoked far more debate on Russia than any other commentator in the blogosphere. We’ve become one of the world’s leading voices of opposition to the rise of a neo-Soviet dictatorship in Russia — and we’ve only just begun to fight!

We humbly thank our contributors and readers for supporting this blog and congratulate them on their achievement. We promise to redouble our efforts in our thirde year to make it even bigger and brasher than our second. What we really hope, though, is that the Russian people will put us out of business by establishing a civilized government that will make our criticism unnecessary.

Happy Birthday old girl! You don’t look a day over six months to us!

Milestones


This blog began publishing on April 2, 2006, and it took us until May 31, 2007, to receive our first 100,000 visits from our readers — a total of almost 14 months, but still an astounding feat for a specialized publication, blowing the accomplishments of all other Russia blogs that had come before right out of the water.

Last Friday, more than two months shy of our second anniversary, we collected our 200,000th visit from a reader — which means it took us less than eight months to collect our second 100,000 visits; in other words, our traffic over our second year has been nearly twice as high as it was during our first.

Web pages created by this blog (which, as of December 19th, numbered over 3,000) have now been viewed by readers almost half a million times in the period of less than two years we have existed. If you consider the traffic we generate on Publius Pundit and Pajamas Media, it becomes abundantly clear that we are the most significant Russia bloggers in the world in terms of traffic (with our fearless leader Kim Zigfeld being first and foremost among us, of course).

Another thing our counter doesn’t record is visits to our backup blog on WordPress, a format some readers prefer. Amazing as it seems, on January 8th the counter on that blog caught and passed the counter on venerable Russia blogger Vilhelm Konnander’s actual blog, which has existed much longer. That’s right, our backup blog, whose only purpose is to safeguard our data and whose contents are often weeks out of date, is more popular — far, far more popular — than Konnander’s actual blog. Rather odd, then, that his blogroll doesn’t even acknowledge we exist, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s a clerical error.

The average reader who visits this blog spends over four minutes perusing our content, an astoundingly long period by blogosphere standards.

And YOU are responsible for all this impressive data, as we’ve said many times before. This is YOUR accomplishment as much as it is ours, especially if you are a regular reader and/or commenter.

Merry Christmas, Every One!

The Publisher, Editors and
Staff of La Russophobe
wish a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS
to all their contributors,
commenters and readers
around the world.

We were, of course, reluctant to post this greeting in light of what has happened to our friend Oleg Kozlovsky. But we decided a bit of lightness is necessary in this gathering gloom, and we feel that the hope for fellowship and peace offered by this season has never been more desperately needed where Russia is concerned than this year, as we watch the country slip deeper and deeper into the abyss of dictatorship. Say a Christmas prayer for Russia if you are so inclined, and remember that Christmas is a day that reminds us of the ever-present possibility of salvation, no matter how dark the dawn.

There were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo! An Angel of the Lord appeared before them, and the Glory of the Lord shown round about them, and they were sore afraid. But the Angel said unto them: “Fear not! For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people! For unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior – tis Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger!” Then there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and singing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth Peace among those with whom He is pleased.”

La Russophobe will resume publication on Wednesday December 26th.

Thank You, Hard-Working Laborers!

La Russophobe will not be posting today, September 3, 2007, to celebrate LABOR DAY and honor the millions of hard-working Americans and American residents who toil tirelessly to make America the world’s most vibrant and dynamic economy — and all the other hard working people of the globe — especially those who labor for truth, freedom and democracy in Russia.

Can you Feel the Love Tonight?

La Russophobe set a new record for page views last month, recording 28,164 according to StatCounter, and more recently our performance has grown even stronger. As shown above, SiteMeter’s numbers indicate we are currently averaging nearly 1,100 page views (and over 600 unique visits) per day on this blog, and we are about to roll past the quarter million page-view milestone some time in the next few days. This doesn’t count the traffic we generate on Publius Pundit or on our backup blog on WordPress. Once again, we emphasize that these are as much the accomplishments of you the reader as they of our publisher and contributors, so pat yourself on the back! Can you feel the love tonight?

Happy Birthday, America!


In 1893, at the age of five, Israel Isidore Baline (pictured above) immigrated with his family from the city of Mogilev in what is now Belarus (then, imperial Russia) to the United States. He would change his name to Irving Berlin and go on to write some of the greatest popular songs in the American pantheon of music, including this one in 1938, as America stood on the brink of war with Germany (the lyric still rings true today, as we watch the rise of the neo-Soviet state far across the sea):

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:

God Bless America, land that I love,
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above!
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam,
God bless America, my home sweet home.

Russians like to brag about their achievements in the arts but has Russia, in all her hundreds of years of history, ever attracted person from a truly foreign land to come to Russia and write a song like that about his new homeland, a song that was adopted and beloved by all the people of Russia thereafter? Perhaps the answer sheds considerable light on why, today, Russia’s population is violently shrinking whilst America’s is booming.

Happy (belated) 219th* birthday, America!
You don’t look a day over 150!

*America, of course, was “born” as a country on the day the U.S. Constitution became effective, which according to its terms was when the 9th state ratified it. That state was New Hampshire, and the date it ratified the document was June 21, 1788 — America’s actual birthday. So by celebrating its birthday on July 4th America is actually two weeks late, and this year it turns 219 years old — not 231 years, as they July 4th date implies (July 4, 1776, was the date the Declaration of Independance was signed, but America didn’t become a country then nor when it later won the Revolutionary War in 1781 — at that time nationhood was rejected by the people of the country, fearing that a new central government would mean a new dictatorship, and only accepted years later as the threat of new invasion by Britain loomed; the British did in fact invade in 1812).

You Can’t Get Stupider than Russia Blog and its Readers: LR’s Response to Anonymous Unpublished Comment

Ignoring our rules, someone left a comment titled “anonymous” on our most recent post about Russia Blog, seeking to defend that malignant institution of lies and deception. For this reason, and because Russia Blog doesn’t publish comments from us, this pathetic “comment” won’t be published. However, we feel compelled to respond to its absurdly dishonest claims since they undoubtedly represent some of the lies being told about us within the warren-like dark places of the Russophile minions.

This commenter stated: “You have fewer published comments than Russia Blog.” It’s quite clear that this commenter, in the classic style of the Russophile idiot, made no actual attempt to count the number of comments the two blogs have received since he/she failed to state the numbers. Apparently, he/she thought we wouldn’t do so. We have, and we admit we’re a bit surprised by the results. In the month of June 2007, this blog received 430 comments. During that same period, Russia Blog had just 90 comments — over four times fewer than LR had. Russia Blog generated 34 posts during June and nearly a quarter of them (eight) received zero comments, while an additional eight received only one comment (for a total of nearly half Russia Blog’s posts generating one or zero comments). Only ten posts (less than a third) had more than two comments. Once again, the mendacious lies from the animals at Russia Blog and their crazed “readers” is exposed as a pathetic sham. Note that this doesn’t even count the comments received by LR on the Publius Pundit blog, which if included would make the picture even more overwhelmingly lopsided. Our most-commented-upon post of the month, about Nashi, had almost twice as many comments (27) as Russia Blog’s most-commented-upon post (15) about their extremist wacko leader’s weird little trip to Russia (after which he purports to be an expert).

Now, let’s be clear: La Russophobe has never said she wishes to attract comments, has never bragged about getting them, nor has she ever said that the number of comments a blog receives is an indicia of its quality. The purpose of this blog is to record history, not serve as a discussion forum, but we are happy to allow comments within reasonable limits. Comments are no part of the LR index (though given the above data, maybe they should be; if they were, the gap between LR and Russia Blog would grow even wider). Many fine blogs don’t even allow comments, or actively discourage them, or simply don’t receive them for whatever reason (Robert Amsterdam and David McDuff leap to mind). The only reason we even mention this issue is because of the SPAM-like comment we’ve received from this Russophile slob, perhaps (indeed, probably) from the publishers of Russia Blog itself in disguise . What we’ve said is that the ridiculously small number of comments received by Russia Blog belies its claimed level of traffic, indicating that SPAM technology is being used to generate artificial traffic. The same can be said of the puny number of links from other blogs that Russia Blog has received when compared to its alleged monumental traffic (with far less traffic, for instance, Robert Amsterdam generates far more Technorati links per month than does Russia Blog). Our point is simply this: Russia Blog claims to have thousands of visitors every day. If they are legitimate visitors, they should be leaving far more comments than they do (unless of course Russia Blog is simply censoring a mountain of criticism, which we admit is quite possible). That’s all we’ve ever said, and we wouldn’t expect the illiterate publishers of Russia Blog (or their insane cohorts) to understand.

The moronic and egregiously dishonest anonymous commenter also stated: “Your method of measuring traffic, based on Technorati tags from blogs, is a joke.” Our method of measuring traffic has nothing whatsoever to do with Technorati. We rely on Alexa, the most respected source of information on blog traffic, for that data, and we have repeatedly acknowledged that Alexa shows Russia Blog has a higher level of traffic than any other Russia blog (the crudely dishonest, thug-like commenter chose to ignore that fact). We use Technorati information, unquestionably the leading source in the blogosphere, for data on links from other blogs, as do many substantial corporations who based investment decisions on Technorati data. La Russphobe far exceeds Russia Blog in Technorati links per month of existence and Technorati favorites, two more indications that its traffic is a sham. But the best indication of all of the hollowness of Russia Blog’s traffic claims is that they are not transparent. Russia Blog has never provided any data whatsoever to document its claims despite specific requests that it do so, and it doesn’t even have a public counter. We blend Technorati and Alexa data so that a range of criteria, fair for all blogs, is utilized — and when we do, we come out on top. Naturally, that’s much to the chagrin of the scum-sucking parasites at Russia Blogl, and they respond in the only way they can — with bile.

And to top it all off, this asinine wacko actually had the audacity to complain that “nobody knows who you are” (referring to LR). This from a little microbe who couldn’t even think of a name for himself, much less create a blog to stand behind it. This is yet one more indication of the nature of the opponent we are struggling with, an opponent who thinks nothing of telling the most ridiculous lies in order to get what it wants, just like the old USSR used to do. In that way, it’s a perfect embodiment of neo-Soviet Russia — utter failure, embarassing to anyone who sees it.

To this commenter we say: We doubt you have the guts to stand behind your outrageous statements, but if you do then we demand an apology for your recklessly false statements. However, we greatly appreciate the confirmation of the fundamentally dishonest nature of both Russia Blog and its readers.

You Can’t Get Stupider than Russia Blog and its Readers: LR’s Response to Anonymous Unpublished Comment

Ignoring our rules, someone left a comment titled “anonymous” on our most recent post about Russia Blog, seeking to defend that malignant institution of lies and deception. For this reason, and because Russia Blog doesn’t publish comments from us, this pathetic “comment” won’t be published. However, we feel compelled to respond to its absurdly dishonest claims since they undoubtedly represent some of the lies being told about us within the warren-like dark places of the Russophile minions.

This commenter stated: “You have fewer published comments than Russia Blog.” It’s quite clear that this commenter, in the classic style of the Russophile idiot, made no actual attempt to count the number of comments the two blogs have received since he/she failed to state the numbers. Apparently, he/she thought we wouldn’t do so. We have, and we admit we’re a bit surprised by the results. In the month of June 2007, this blog received 430 comments. During that same period, Russia Blog had just 90 comments — over four times fewer than LR had. Russia Blog generated 34 posts during June and nearly a quarter of them (eight) received zero comments, while an additional eight received only one comment (for a total of nearly half Russia Blog’s posts generating one or zero comments). Only ten posts (less than a third) had more than two comments. Once again, the mendacious lies from the animals at Russia Blog and their crazed “readers” is exposed as a pathetic sham. Note that this doesn’t even count the comments received by LR on the Publius Pundit blog, which if included would make the picture even more overwhelmingly lopsided. Our most-commented-upon post of the month, about Nashi, had almost twice as many comments (27) as Russia Blog’s most-commented-upon post (15) about their extremist wacko leader’s weird little trip to Russia (after which he purports to be an expert).

Now, let’s be clear: La Russophobe has never said she wishes to attract comments, has never bragged about getting them, nor has she ever said that the number of comments a blog receives is an indicia of its quality. The purpose of this blog is to record history, not serve as a discussion forum, but we are happy to allow comments within reasonable limits. Comments are no part of the LR index (though given the above data, maybe they should be; if they were, the gap between LR and Russia Blog would grow even wider). Many fine blogs don’t even allow comments, or actively discourage them, or simply don’t receive them for whatever reason (Robert Amsterdam and David McDuff leap to mind). The only reason we even mention this issue is because of the SPAM-like comment we’ve received from this Russophile slob, perhaps (indeed, probably) from the publishers of Russia Blog itself in disguise . What we’ve said is that the ridiculously small number of comments received by Russia Blog belies its claimed level of traffic, indicating that SPAM technology is being used to generate artificial traffic. The same can be said of the puny number of links from other blogs that Russia Blog has received when compared to its alleged monumental traffic (with far less traffic, for instance, Robert Amsterdam generates far more Technorati links per month than does Russia Blog). Our point is simply this: Russia Blog claims to have thousands of visitors every day. If they are legitimate visitors, they should be leaving far more comments than they do (unless of course Russia Blog is simply censoring a mountain of criticism, which we admit is quite possible). That’s all we’ve ever said, and we wouldn’t expect the illiterate publishers of Russia Blog (or their insane cohorts) to understand.

The moronic and egregiously dishonest anonymous commenter also stated: “Your method of measuring traffic, based on Technorati tags from blogs, is a joke.” Our method of measuring traffic has nothing whatsoever to do with Technorati. We rely on Alexa, the most respected source of information on blog traffic, for that data, and we have repeatedly acknowledged that Alexa shows Russia Blog has a higher level of traffic than any other Russia blog (the crudely dishonest, thug-like commenter chose to ignore that fact). We use Technorati information, unquestionably the leading source in the blogosphere, for data on links from other blogs, as do many substantial corporations who based investment decisions on Technorati data. La Russphobe far exceeds Russia Blog in Technorati links per month of existence and Technorati favorites, two more indications that its traffic is a sham. But the best indication of all of the hollowness of Russia Blog’s traffic claims is that they are not transparent. Russia Blog has never provided any data whatsoever to document its claims despite specific requests that it do so, and it doesn’t even have a public counter. We blend Technorati and Alexa data so that a range of criteria, fair for all blogs, is utilized — and when we do, we come out on top. Naturally, that’s much to the chagrin of the scum-sucking parasites at Russia Blogl, and they respond in the only way they can — with bile.

And to top it all off, this asinine wacko actually had the audacity to complain that “nobody knows who you are” (referring to LR). This from a little microbe who couldn’t even think of a name for himself, much less create a blog to stand behind it. This is yet one more indication of the nature of the opponent we are struggling with, an opponent who thinks nothing of telling the most ridiculous lies in order to get what it wants, just like the old USSR used to do. In that way, it’s a perfect embodiment of neo-Soviet Russia — utter failure, embarassing to anyone who sees it.

To this commenter we say: We doubt you have the guts to stand behind your outrageous statements, but if you do then we demand an apology for your recklessly false statements. However, we greatly appreciate the confirmation of the fundamentally dishonest nature of both Russia Blog and its readers.

You Can’t Get Stupider than Russia Blog and its Readers: LR’s Response to Anonymous Unpublished Comment

Ignoring our rules, someone left a comment titled “anonymous” on our most recent post about Russia Blog, seeking to defend that malignant institution of lies and deception. For this reason, and because Russia Blog doesn’t publish comments from us, this pathetic “comment” won’t be published. However, we feel compelled to respond to its absurdly dishonest claims since they undoubtedly represent some of the lies being told about us within the warren-like dark places of the Russophile minions.

This commenter stated: “You have fewer published comments than Russia Blog.” It’s quite clear that this commenter, in the classic style of the Russophile idiot, made no actual attempt to count the number of comments the two blogs have received since he/she failed to state the numbers. Apparently, he/she thought we wouldn’t do so. We have, and we admit we’re a bit surprised by the results. In the month of June 2007, this blog received 430 comments. During that same period, Russia Blog had just 90 comments — over four times fewer than LR had. Russia Blog generated 34 posts during June and nearly a quarter of them (eight) received zero comments, while an additional eight received only one comment (for a total of nearly half Russia Blog’s posts generating one or zero comments). Only ten posts (less than a third) had more than two comments. Once again, the mendacious lies from the animals at Russia Blog and their crazed “readers” is exposed as a pathetic sham. Note that this doesn’t even count the comments received by LR on the Publius Pundit blog, which if included would make the picture even more overwhelmingly lopsided. Our most-commented-upon post of the month, about Nashi, had almost twice as many comments (27) as Russia Blog’s most-commented-upon post (15) about their extremist wacko leader’s weird little trip to Russia (after which he purports to be an expert).

Now, let’s be clear: La Russophobe has never said she wishes to attract comments, has never bragged about getting them, nor has she ever said that the number of comments a blog receives is an indicia of its quality. The purpose of this blog is to record history, not serve as a discussion forum, but we are happy to allow comments within reasonable limits. Comments are no part of the LR index (though given the above data, maybe they should be; if they were, the gap between LR and Russia Blog would grow even wider). Many fine blogs don’t even allow comments, or actively discourage them, or simply don’t receive them for whatever reason (Robert Amsterdam and David McDuff leap to mind). The only reason we even mention this issue is because of the SPAM-like comment we’ve received from this Russophile slob, perhaps (indeed, probably) from the publishers of Russia Blog itself in disguise . What we’ve said is that the ridiculously small number of comments received by Russia Blog belies its claimed level of traffic, indicating that SPAM technology is being used to generate artificial traffic. The same can be said of the puny number of links from other blogs that Russia Blog has received when compared to its alleged monumental traffic (with far less traffic, for instance, Robert Amsterdam generates far more Technorati links per month than does Russia Blog). Our point is simply this: Russia Blog claims to have thousands of visitors every day. If they are legitimate visitors, they should be leaving far more comments than they do (unless of course Russia Blog is simply censoring a mountain of criticism, which we admit is quite possible). That’s all we’ve ever said, and we wouldn’t expect the illiterate publishers of Russia Blog (or their insane cohorts) to understand.

The moronic and egregiously dishonest anonymous commenter also stated: “Your method of measuring traffic, based on Technorati tags from blogs, is a joke.” Our method of measuring traffic has nothing whatsoever to do with Technorati. We rely on Alexa, the most respected source of information on blog traffic, for that data, and we have repeatedly acknowledged that Alexa shows Russia Blog has a higher level of traffic than any other Russia blog (the crudely dishonest, thug-like commenter chose to ignore that fact). We use Technorati information, unquestionably the leading source in the blogosphere, for data on links from other blogs, as do many substantial corporations who based investment decisions on Technorati data. La Russphobe far exceeds Russia Blog in Technorati links per month of existence and Technorati favorites, two more indications that its traffic is a sham. But the best indication of all of the hollowness of Russia Blog’s traffic claims is that they are not transparent. Russia Blog has never provided any data whatsoever to document its claims despite specific requests that it do so, and it doesn’t even have a public counter. We blend Technorati and Alexa data so that a range of criteria, fair for all blogs, is utilized — and when we do, we come out on top. Naturally, that’s much to the chagrin of the scum-sucking parasites at Russia Blogl, and they respond in the only way they can — with bile.

And to top it all off, this asinine wacko actually had the audacity to complain that “nobody knows who you are” (referring to LR). This from a little microbe who couldn’t even think of a name for himself, much less create a blog to stand behind it. This is yet one more indication of the nature of the opponent we are struggling with, an opponent who thinks nothing of telling the most ridiculous lies in order to get what it wants, just like the old USSR used to do. In that way, it’s a perfect embodiment of neo-Soviet Russia — utter failure, embarassing to anyone who sees it.

To this commenter we say: We doubt you have the guts to stand behind your outrageous statements, but if you do then we demand an apology for your recklessly false statements. However, we greatly appreciate the confirmation of the fundamentally dishonest nature of both Russia Blog and its readers.

You Can’t Get Stupider than Russia Blog and its Readers: LR’s Response to Anonymous Unpublished Comment

Ignoring our rules, someone left a comment titled “anonymous” on our most recent post about Russia Blog, seeking to defend that malignant institution of lies and deception. For this reason, and because Russia Blog doesn’t publish comments from us, this pathetic “comment” won’t be published. However, we feel compelled to respond to its absurdly dishonest claims since they undoubtedly represent some of the lies being told about us within the warren-like dark places of the Russophile minions.

This commenter stated: “You have fewer published comments than Russia Blog.” It’s quite clear that this commenter, in the classic style of the Russophile idiot, made no actual attempt to count the number of comments the two blogs have received since he/she failed to state the numbers. Apparently, he/she thought we wouldn’t do so. We have, and we admit we’re a bit surprised by the results. In the month of June 2007, this blog received 430 comments. During that same period, Russia Blog had just 90 comments — over four times fewer than LR had. Russia Blog generated 34 posts during June and nearly a quarter of them (eight) received zero comments, while an additional eight received only one comment (for a total of nearly half Russia Blog’s posts generating one or zero comments). Only ten posts (less than a third) had more than two comments. Once again, the mendacious lies from the animals at Russia Blog and their crazed “readers” is exposed as a pathetic sham. Note that this doesn’t even count the comments received by LR on the Publius Pundit blog, which if included would make the picture even more overwhelmingly lopsided. Our most-commented-upon post of the month, about Nashi, had almost twice as many comments (27) as Russia Blog’s most-commented-upon post (15) about their extremist wacko leader’s weird little trip to Russia (after which he purports to be an expert).

Now, let’s be clear: La Russophobe has never said she wishes to attract comments, has never bragged about getting them, nor has she ever said that the number of comments a blog receives is an indicia of its quality. The purpose of this blog is to record history, not serve as a discussion forum, but we are happy to allow comments within reasonable limits. Comments are no part of the LR index (though given the above data, maybe they should be; if they were, the gap between LR and Russia Blog would grow even wider). Many fine blogs don’t even allow comments, or actively discourage them, or simply don’t receive them for whatever reason (Robert Amsterdam and David McDuff leap to mind). The only reason we even mention this issue is because of the SPAM-like comment we’ve received from this Russophile slob, perhaps (indeed, probably) from the publishers of Russia Blog itself in disguise . What we’ve said is that the ridiculously small number of comments received by Russia Blog belies its claimed level of traffic, indicating that SPAM technology is being used to generate artificial traffic. The same can be said of the puny number of links from other blogs that Russia Blog has received when compared to its alleged monumental traffic (with far less traffic, for instance, Robert Amsterdam generates far more Technorati links per month than does Russia Blog). Our point is simply this: Russia Blog claims to have thousands of visitors every day. If they are legitimate visitors, they should be leaving far more comments than they do (unless of course Russia Blog is simply censoring a mountain of criticism, which we admit is quite possible). That’s all we’ve ever said, and we wouldn’t expect the illiterate publishers of Russia Blog (or their insane cohorts) to understand.

The moronic and egregiously dishonest anonymous commenter also stated: “Your method of measuring traffic, based on Technorati tags from blogs, is a joke.” Our method of measuring traffic has nothing whatsoever to do with Technorati. We rely on Alexa, the most respected source of information on blog traffic, for that data, and we have repeatedly acknowledged that Alexa shows Russia Blog has a higher level of traffic than any other Russia blog (the crudely dishonest, thug-like commenter chose to ignore that fact). We use Technorati information, unquestionably the leading source in the blogosphere, for data on links from other blogs, as do many substantial corporations who based investment decisions on Technorati data. La Russphobe far exceeds Russia Blog in Technorati links per month of existence and Technorati favorites, two more indications that its traffic is a sham. But the best indication of all of the hollowness of Russia Blog’s traffic claims is that they are not transparent. Russia Blog has never provided any data whatsoever to document its claims despite specific requests that it do so, and it doesn’t even have a public counter. We blend Technorati and Alexa data so that a range of criteria, fair for all blogs, is utilized — and when we do, we come out on top. Naturally, that’s much to the chagrin of the scum-sucking parasites at Russia Blogl, and they respond in the only way they can — with bile.

And to top it all off, this asinine wacko actually had the audacity to complain that “nobody knows who you are” (referring to LR). This from a little microbe who couldn’t even think of a name for himself, much less create a blog to stand behind it. This is yet one more indication of the nature of the opponent we are struggling with, an opponent who thinks nothing of telling the most ridiculous lies in order to get what it wants, just like the old USSR used to do. In that way, it’s a perfect embodiment of neo-Soviet Russia — utter failure, embarassing to anyone who sees it.

To this commenter we say: We doubt you have the guts to stand behind your outrageous statements, but if you do then we demand an apology for your recklessly false statements. However, we greatly appreciate the confirmation of the fundamentally dishonest nature of both Russia Blog and its readers.

You Can’t Get Stupider than Russia Blog and its Readers: LR’s Response to Anonymous Unpublished Comment

Ignoring our rules, someone left a comment titled “anonymous” on our most recent post about Russia Blog, seeking to defend that malignant institution of lies and deception. For this reason, and because Russia Blog doesn’t publish comments from us, this pathetic “comment” won’t be published. However, we feel compelled to respond to its absurdly dishonest claims since they undoubtedly represent some of the lies being told about us within the warren-like dark places of the Russophile minions.

This commenter stated: “You have fewer published comments than Russia Blog.” It’s quite clear that this commenter, in the classic style of the Russophile idiot, made no actual attempt to count the number of comments the two blogs have received since he/she failed to state the numbers. Apparently, he/she thought we wouldn’t do so. We have, and we admit we’re a bit surprised by the results. In the month of June 2007, this blog received 430 comments. During that same period, Russia Blog had just 90 comments — over four times fewer than LR had. Russia Blog generated 34 posts during June and nearly a quarter of them (eight) received zero comments, while an additional eight received only one comment (for a total of nearly half Russia Blog’s posts generating one or zero comments). Only ten posts (less than a third) had more than two comments. Once again, the mendacious lies from the animals at Russia Blog and their crazed “readers” is exposed as a pathetic sham. Note that this doesn’t even count the comments received by LR on the Publius Pundit blog, which if included would make the picture even more overwhelmingly lopsided. Our most-commented-upon post of the month, about Nashi, had almost twice as many comments (27) as Russia Blog’s most-commented-upon post (15) about their extremist wacko leader’s weird little trip to Russia (after which he purports to be an expert).

Now, let’s be clear: La Russophobe has never said she wishes to attract comments, has never bragged about getting them, nor has she ever said that the number of comments a blog receives is an indicia of its quality. The purpose of this blog is to record history, not serve as a discussion forum, but we are happy to allow comments within reasonable limits. Comments are no part of the LR index (though given the above data, maybe they should be; if they were, the gap between LR and Russia Blog would grow even wider). Many fine blogs don’t even allow comments, or actively discourage them, or simply don’t receive them for whatever reason (Robert Amsterdam and David McDuff leap to mind). The only reason we even mention this issue is because of the SPAM-like comment we’ve received from this Russophile slob, perhaps (indeed, probably) from the publishers of Russia Blog itself in disguise . What we’ve said is that the ridiculously small number of comments received by Russia Blog belies its claimed level of traffic, indicating that SPAM technology is being used to generate artificial traffic. The same can be said of the puny number of links from other blogs that Russia Blog has received when compared to its alleged monumental traffic (with far less traffic, for instance, Robert Amsterdam generates far more Technorati links per month than does Russia Blog). Our point is simply this: Russia Blog claims to have thousands of visitors every day. If they are legitimate visitors, they should be leaving far more comments than they do (unless of course Russia Blog is simply censoring a mountain of criticism, which we admit is quite possible). That’s all we’ve ever said, and we wouldn’t expect the illiterate publishers of Russia Blog (or their insane cohorts) to understand.

The moronic and egregiously dishonest anonymous commenter also stated: “Your method of measuring traffic, based on Technorati tags from blogs, is a joke.” Our method of measuring traffic has nothing whatsoever to do with Technorati. We rely on Alexa, the most respected source of information on blog traffic, for that data, and we have repeatedly acknowledged that Alexa shows Russia Blog has a higher level of traffic than any other Russia blog (the crudely dishonest, thug-like commenter chose to ignore that fact). We use Technorati information, unquestionably the leading source in the blogosphere, for data on links from other blogs, as do many substantial corporations who based investment decisions on Technorati data. La Russphobe far exceeds Russia Blog in Technorati links per month of existence and Technorati favorites, two more indications that its traffic is a sham. But the best indication of all of the hollowness of Russia Blog’s traffic claims is that they are not transparent. Russia Blog has never provided any data whatsoever to document its claims despite specific requests that it do so, and it doesn’t even have a public counter. We blend Technorati and Alexa data so that a range of criteria, fair for all blogs, is utilized — and when we do, we come out on top. Naturally, that’s much to the chagrin of the scum-sucking parasites at Russia Blogl, and they respond in the only way they can — with bile.

And to top it all off, this asinine wacko actually had the audacity to complain that “nobody knows who you are” (referring to LR). This from a little microbe who couldn’t even think of a name for himself, much less create a blog to stand behind it. This is yet one more indication of the nature of the opponent we are struggling with, an opponent who thinks nothing of telling the most ridiculous lies in order to get what it wants, just like the old USSR used to do. In that way, it’s a perfect embodiment of neo-Soviet Russia — utter failure, embarassing to anyone who sees it.

To this commenter we say: We doubt you have the guts to stand behind your outrageous statements, but if you do then we demand an apology for your recklessly false statements. However, we greatly appreciate the confirmation of the fundamentally dishonest nature of both Russia Blog and its readers.

Comment Publication Guidelines

We must moderate comments (i.e., view them before they appear on the blog) because, fortunately, our blog has plenty of enemies who attempt to attack it with spam rather than reasoned argument. The following guidelines will make sure your comment gets published (which should happen within hours if not minutes of your submission, except due to occasional technical or human error, in which case simply resubmit):

If thou wants to be sure thine comment
on this blog will be published, then thou shalt:


1. Not be racist. This includes slurs on gender, religion, creed, etc. You can bash “Americans” or “Russians” or “Germans” all you like. Nationalities are fair game. You choose them. Things you can’t choose are off limits.

2. Not direct personal abuse at a fellow commenter. You can personally abuse La Russophobe all you like, and if you do you can be sure she’ll personally abuse you right back. But see #4.

3. Not be “anonymous”. You don’t have to tell anyone any real information about yourself, but if you call yourself “anonymous” your comment might be rejected. Choose a name for yourself. Preferably, join blogger and use your identity.

4. Not use obscenity or profanity. It will never be published under any circumstances except if a post you are commenting on already contains it.

5. Not SPAM. A comment which does not deal directly with the substance of the post it appears on, or a comment already published on that post, may be rejected. If you want to communicate on a random topic, send LR an e-mail.

If you don’t violate these simple rules your comment will be published after moderation within a few hours (to block spammers while allowing unregistered comment), guaranteed.

Recent Milestones

La Russophobe is pleased to announce the following milestones in the history of our blog:

  • On May 27th, we recorded profile view # 5,000
  • On May 31st, we received visit #100,000

Upcoming milestones we anticipate occurring in the near future:

  • Our 150th Technorati linking blog
  • Our 2,000th post and our 2,000th link to a post from a blog
  • Our 75,000th Google hit
  • Our 200,000th page view

We’ve said before and we’ll say again: These are as much the accomplishments of you the reader as they are of those who publish and contribute to this blog, so you should take pride in your accomplishment!

As shown in the SiteMeter graphic below (SiteMeter’s counter is displayed at the bottom of our home page), May was La Russophobe‘s best month ever in terms of visitation. For the first time, we recorded over 15,000 visits in one month, and for the second time we recorded over 14,000 visits (and 25,000 page views) in one month. SiteMeter said we had 15,001 visits and 27,173 page views in May, averaging 484 visits and 877 page views per day.

As shown in the StatCounter graph below (StatCounter’s counter is invisible), our performance in the month of May was even stronger than what SiteMeter registered. According to StatCounter, we had 17,053 unique visits in the month of May, averaging 550 per day, and 28,596 page views during that time, averaging 922 per day.

If the StatCounter data is to be believed, then the counter at the bottom of our page should currently read over 115,000 visits and we have already passed the 200,000 page view milestone.

Our performance would have been even stronger, but remember that we closed the blog in observance of Memorial Day for four days, and our traffic visibly dipped during that time when new content was not available.

Finally, we’d like to point out that anyone judging our traffic should also bear in mind that we place a good deal of our content on the Publius Pundit blog, and none of that traffic is reflected in the data shown above. We are not aware that any other Russia blogger does something like this, it’s a testament to our work ethic and prolific output in the service of Russian democracy (if we do say so ourselves).

Thank You, Valiant Fighting Men and Women of America! Happy Memorial Day!

In our traditional show of respect to America’s brave fighting men and women, who are honored on Monday with the Memorial Day holiday, La Russophobe will not post new content after today’s (following, see a remarkable new installment from columnist Dave Essel on neo-Soviet ecnomics) until Tuesday, May 29th.

We invite readers to post news items they think are of interest in the comments section of today’s contents post, including hyperlinks to source material if possible. You’ll have your own mini-blog! We also encourage readers to poke around our archives in the sidebar for things they may have missed and visit the blogs and websites listed there — especially our new translations library. You can go to the “Index of Recent Posts” area at the bottom of the side bar and click a topic of interest to read posts on that subject (we especially suggest the “Essel” tag, where you can read an archive of fascinating essays and translations by Dave Essel which are original to this blog), or you can open a month in the “archive” area at the bottom of the sidebar and browse the posts for that month, going all the way back to April 2006.

We also invite you to show your support for this blog by creating a Technorati account (easy, fast, free, anonymous) and using it to favorite this blog and/or the translation library blog. It’s something easy and effective that you can do to register your dissatisfaction with Russia’s current course and to call for change, to say nothing of supporting the efforts of all those who work hard, for free, to generate this blog’s content.

Let’s pause a moment to honor the spirit of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and democracy in the world:

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

by Julia Ward Howe

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, we will die to make them free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.


U.S. Marine Corps Anthem

The oldest current American miltary song
Author Unknown

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We will fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight — for right and freedom and
To keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marines.

Our flag’s unfurled in every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in ev’ry clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job–
The United States Marines.

Here’s health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve
In many a strife we’ve fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

Timoshenko in Foreign Affairs?

Does anyone know what Itar-Tass is talking about?

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Timoshenko’s anti-Russian rhetoric in an influential American magazine. “This is an anti-Russian manifesto and an attempt to bring the world back into atmosphere of the Cold War,” the ministry said on Monday, commenting on Timoshenko’s article in the Foreign Affairs magazine.

We’ve looked at both the Foriegn Affairs and Foreign Policy sites and can’t find a trace of something like this. Can anyone help?

LR on PP

Check out La Russophobe’s latest installment on Publius Pundit, where she exposes how the so-called “conservatives” at the Discovery Institute are betraying the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan by supporting the rise of dicatorship in Russia with a deluge of Soviet-like propaganda. Now, they’ve even dared to invoke Reagan’s hallowed name in support of their nefarious activities, and that’s going one step too far for even the most hardened proponent of “intelligent design” (DI’s pet project) to stomach.

LR on PP

Check out La Russophobe‘s latest post on Publius Pundit, where she reports the latest news on the efforts of senior Russian legislator Sergei Mironov to change the Russian Constitution and allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power indefinitely. Moscow strongman Yuri Luzhkov has jumped on the bandwagon, attacking America in an ignorant and typically crude manner.