I get remarkable little hate mail these days.  When I began this blog, I got quite a few emails accusing me of being an anti-Semite, but that tide gradually petered out.  It was replaced by letters from various Jew-hating types who had hoped that I also hated Jews, only to realize that I did not. That got them angry at me too.  And then, I had the Right-wingers who hoped that I was one of their own, only to realize that I hated reactionary politics and a few Marxists who had felt that I was on their side, only to realize that while I very much shared Marx’s critique of capitalism, I was deeply hostile to the solutions offered.  What else? I got a few really offended Baathists, one well-meaning but naive Wahabi, two really offended Latin Christians, and a couple of Palestinians who were deeply outraged at a post of mine entitled Why Hamas should release Gilad Shalit.  I think that this list pretty much covers it.  But today I got one comment which really pissed me of and I decided to dedicate a full post to reply to the sorry individual who posted it.  This is the comment which I feel deserves a full answer:

Seems to be a huge pro-Russian bias here, why, exactly?
My family has lost several members directly to Russian police-state enforcement tactics, the usual, arrest in the middle of the night, then prison or a bullet in the back of the head.
If you are wondering why so many think that the only good Russian is a dead Russian, that would be the reason. I am sure you will never publish this comment, which only proves you are just another pro-Russian propaganda organ. 

OK, now let me know reply to this guy point by point:

Seems to be a huge pro-Russian bias here, why, exactly?
It impossible to prove a negative and I cannot prove the absence of a bias in me.  Besides, we all have our more or less subconscious biases.  Add to this that I was born in a family of Russian refugees and that I feel culturally fully Russian, and you have a slam-dunk “evidence” of my bias.  Except that the implication here is not only that I have a bias, but that this bias makes me lose my sense of truth, fairness, justice, honor and the fraternity of all men, all that which is so much higher than parochial nationalism or patriotism.  The implication here is that I would side with Russia no matter what, even with a murderous, genocidal and imperialistic Russia.  And that I categorically deny, and to make my case, I will use the next sentence:

My family has lost several members directly to Russian police-state enforcement tactics, the usual, arrest in the middle of the night, then prison or a bullet in the back of the head.

So? My family also lost several of its members to the Boshevik regime.  One of my relatives was boiled alive (literally) by revolutionaries.  Another spent 20 years in the Gulag (in Magadan) for something he never did.  Later, the Soviets send their NKVD agents abroad to spy on my family.  My great-father fought against the Communists during WWII in Russisches Schutzkorps of the German Wehrmacht (something I do not approve of, but which I understand), and I myself spent almost 10 years of my life fighting the Soviet regime and, especially the KGB in various types of anti-Soviet activities (sending books of Solzhenisyn or Solonevich into the Soviet Union thought merchant ships, disseminating information to counter the Soviet propaganda, sending money to the families of political prisoners, etc.).  I think I did a pretty good job since  was listed internationally by the Soviet representations abroad (with photo and all!) as a “dangerous activist” and I even got a bona fide (but illegal) death threat from a frustrated KGB agent.   I also worked with Polish exiles who were assisting Solidarnosc from aboard and I had frequent contacts with a covert representative of Ahmad Shah Massoud in Europe whom I helped making important contacts.  Last, but not least, I used to be a military analyst for the General Staff of the country in Europe were I was born, with a rank of Specialist (Major) for operational training and strategic analysis.  Can you guess against what military I was training our forces to fight?  So, believe me, I had many years to think ‘Russia, wrong or right my country”, but I never did that. 

And let me ask you now: what did YOU do to fight the Soviets and their secret police?

After 1991, was first hopeful but soon I was horrified and disgusted by what I saw in the regime of Eltsin and his Jewish oligarchs.  I was in Moscow in 1993 when these US-supported thugs crushed the opposition with tanks, snipers and Betar commandos.  At that point I just turned away in utter disgust.  And when finally Putin came to power I though “oh God, the KGB is back in command”.  But then, to my absolute amazement, I saw something completely different gradually happening.  First, in small steps, but then in bigger and bigger strides: for the first time in my life I saw Russia doing something right, standing up for things like freedom, international law, respect for human and civil right.  And one day I caught myself on the really amazing thought that I actually agreed with almost every single policy of the Kremlin (with a few exceptions like joining the WTO, betraying Iran twice, letting NATO attack Libya and a few others).  So here is the key thing you seem to miss: I began supporting Russia only when Russia began standing for everything that is right, decent, honorable and truthful.  I assure you that for a longtime anti-Soviet activist like myself, it is very, very counter-intuitive to say anything good about the Kremlin and yet I am now honestly compelled to say not only that I fully support Putin, but that I consider him to be one of the greatest statesmen in Russian history.  If in 2000 another Eltsin like US puppet had been elected Russia would have simply vanished from the world map as a country.  Instead, Putin literally resurrected it in something like 10 years!  Yes, there are still plenty of bad problems in Russia and a lot still needs to be changed, but just look back and consider the kind of Russia Putin inherited in 1999. So this is why, after some hesitation and soul-searching, and after seeing Mark Sleboda on Crossfire yesterday, I decided to place a Saint George ribbon on the top left of my blog: because today Russia does stand for freedom!

If you are wondering why so many think that the only good Russian is a dead Russian, that would be the reason.

Wrong.  The reason why not “so many” but the *western plutocrats* want Russians dead is because Russia never submitted to their rule.  Because in polar opposition to the western propaganda and cultural racism, Russians are by far the most freedom loving people in Europe who rejected every single wannabe planetary overlord that Europe produced: the Popes, Napoleon, Hitler and even Lenin/Trotsky.  And now Russia is refusing to bow down to Emperor Obama.  That is the real reason why people like you hate and fear Russia.  The so-called progressive and enlightened West not only produced all the tyrants, it also very eagerly submitted to them: Hitler was elected democratically I remind you, and with the exception of a few brave souls, very few opposed him (the Serbs, the Dutch and a few others).  The Russian civil war which followed the Bolshevik insurrection really lasted from 1918 to 1946 (even Stalin understood that the ROA was a continuation of the civil war)!  And even after that there were regular insurrections (Novocherkassk, 1962), even in the Gulag (Ekibastuz 1952, Kengir 1954)!  How does that compare with the so-called “freedom loving West” which systematically bows down before each dictator/emperor (like Obama today)?  The reason why so many want Russians dead is because they believe that Russia is what stands between them and world power.  And they are absolutely right about that.

I am sure you will never publish this comment, which only proves you are just another pro-Russian propaganda organ.
That just goes to prove how stupid and narrow-minded you are: you project unto others your own ugliness.  FYI – I never censored a single post on this blog, never, I believe in 100% freedom of speech and 100% freedom of thought.  And I loathe censorship with a special intensity, if only because I myself have been censored many times.

So is this blog just another pro-Russian propaganda organ?  You can think whatever the hell you want, but in my mind I am simply following the principle of Malcolm X who said “I am for truth, no matter who tells it” and that, today, means that, yes, I am for Russia.  But only because Russia today itself is for truth!

The Saker

PS: I forgot to mention one more accusation: some folks accused me of being a “fake Orthodox” and a Muslim which, I suppose, in their sick minds is something like the ultimate insult.  At the time I simply ignored that bonehead.