Dear friends,

A couple of things I wanted to share with you

Tons of thanks for your letters!

First, I want to begin by thanking all those who wrote to me by snail mail – thank you for the donations, of course, but also thank you for your very kind letters and words of support. Here are the initials of those whom I want to thank:

NS, ЕБ, PTT, TE, BF, HB (2 letters), BA (I think, for NB Canada), SJ, SK (Japan!), RG, AC, anonymous (from Los Angeles)

Friends, to all of you: please forgive me for not writing back to you, I physically don’t have time to do so.  But please be assured that I really treasure each letter of yours.  For one thing, a paper (snail mail) letter somehow touches me more than an email.  When I have my 3D days (disgusted, discouraged and depressed) nothing helps us much as a few kind words on paper.

The one thing which always puts a smile of joy on my face is anonymous letters.  Believe it or not, if I did get a lot of hate mail by email, I never got an anonymous letter of insults! All the anonymous letters I get are filled with kindness.  I have even gotten anonymous letter not even signed by an alias, but with some cash inside.  These are interesting times, for sure, when completely anonymous people send cash to an anonymous blogger, amazing, no?

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all most sincerely.  There is nothing I love as much as going to my PO box and suddenly getting a letter from a faraway place (though sometimes I also get them from my fellow Floridians like BF!).

And it’s me, myself and I? (not!)

Quite a few of you have been very kind and told me that I don’t write enough myself and that they miss my writing style.  Friends, this is very flattering (and certainly undeserved), but please consider this:

1) I am not arrogant enough to believe that I can write better than anybody else on any topic out there.  Really, while you might appreciate my informal and direct way of putting things, you don’t want this to turn into a “me, myself and I” kind of blog.  There are a lot of other folks who write much better than I do and how know much more than I do.  Besides, there is safety in numbers, in diversity and I think that by selecting good guest authors I offer you a much more interesting diversity of views than just my own stuff, “wall to wall” so to speak.

2) Actually, I do write regularly.  Most of the posts in the “analyses” section are by me, as are most of the interviews.  And for “Saker fluff” there is my beloved “Sandbox”.

3) A lot also depends on what is happening.  If you have any doubts about that, check out my “posting density” during the crisis moments in the Ukraine (or the 08.08.08 war).  Right now, there is a bizarre and ominous game of “wait and see” going on in the Ukraine, a “violent peace”, a “ceasefire with artillery shelling”.  I have written analyses about what I think is taking place and where this is all headed, but I cannot add anything more to what I wrote until events get back in motion.

But I promise to try to be as “present” as I can, especially if the proverbial bovine excreta hits the fan (which it most likely will, and soon, alas).  And when that happens, all the background work I do behind the scene will really prove it’s importance – I promise you that!

A little info on some of what I am doing behind the scenes

And since we are on that topic, I want to share with you some of what that I do behind the scenes.  Here is a sampling of where my time goes:

1) Monitoring the Russian media and Runet:  The Russian media has become extremely interesting and diverse, but to find the “precious nugget” in the vast amount of info produced every day takes time.  For example, there are 4 or 5 talkshows which I consider a “must” to monitor on a weekly basis, then there are 10-12 newspapers which also should be checked daily, then no less than 20 YouTube channels, another 10-15 websites and a few radio shows.  Then, of course, there are all the government websites and the very specialized media (military industry for example).  On top of that, I am in regular, sometimes daily, contact with a few correspondents in Russia and the Ukraine who point out to me stuff that they find of interest.  I estimate that I spend no less than 4 hours per day doing this kind of monitoring.  But that is the minimum required to get a sense of what is really happening.

2) Targeted research: that is when I know exactly what I am looking for and most of my time goes into locating the specific info.  Recently, one of my research assistants has begun doing that kind of “targeted research” for me and her first results were very good.  But there always will be plenty of research I will have to do myself.

3) SITREPs: alas, the persons who wrote the Nigerian, Iraqi and Transnistria SITREPs have all basically disappeared with no warning.  I am trying to find volunteers and that is really hard.  My immense luck is that at least the Ukrainian SITREPs are now (brilliantly) done by my 3 research assistants on weekdays and by Baaz on Sundays (this week-end was an exception due to “meatspace” issues they have had to deal with).  I believe that between the daily SITREPS of the Scott, Raskolnikova, Duff and Baaz, and the daily videos of SouthFront, you get an truly excellent daily overview of the situation in the Ukraine.  Insha’Allah in the future a person from the Mashriq will volunteer to do Middle-East SITREPs!

4) Interviews.  This is also time consuming.  Not just to write the 10-12 questions, but to get the entire thing rolling and done.  The worst part is when some prospect interviewees simply never reply (this just happened to my recently again).  Frankly, I consider that these interviews are some of the best stuff I ever post on the blog (I hope that you agree).

5) “Revitalizing activities” as I call them: this is when I email this or that person and say “you promised to do XYZ, please don’t forget to do it” just to make sure that something gets done.  I wish I did not have to do that, but I still spend a lot of time making sure that stuff get’s done.

6) Answering emails and maintaining working contacts.  I still get tons of them every day and I try to reply as often as I can.

[One thing which made my life easier is that I got myself a cheap but very helpful Chromebook: the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670.  Currently available on Amazon for $165 this is a *fantastic* deal as long as you understand what you are getting.  A Chromebook is not really a “laptop” at all, it is just a “browser in a box”.  But for me, I can use it to comfortably work away from home (I use my phone as a hotspot).   That, plus my absolutely fantastic research assistants (thanks ladies!!) made my life much easier.]

But I still have a full-time “meatspace” job too.  So I still feel like I never have enough time to get everything done – like the next podcast (sigh…).   Did I mention that I also have a (wonderful) family?  As for working on my thesis, I have long given up on that (sobs…).  As for “vacations” I have forgotten the meaning of this word.

MY WISH LIST!!

Since we are discussing my time and the blog’s difficulties, let me present you with my wish list.  I need:

1) The single most important skillset which I most desperately need are folks capable of adding English subtitles to a Russian video.  I have enough translators.  Well, no, there are never “enough” translators but, thank God, I have a few.  So I still could use more (Russian->English).  And most of the time, I can get a text translated reasonably fast.  But a Russian video usually has to be transcribed first, and I sure don’t have enough people doing that. Then, once the translation is made, the English text has to be added to the Russian video and that requires a person with at least a passive knowledge of Russian, a basic understanding of audio/video technologies and the ability to use the software to add subtitles.  Recently, my good friend Tatzhit Mikhailovich as done some amazing work for me, for which I am truly immensely grateful (спасибо, брат!), but I cannot continue dumping all my needs on him, if only because he also has his own LiveLeak Channel very busy “meatspace” life.  (By the way, Tatzhit is a very interesting guy – I want to interview him sometimes this summer, I think that you will enjoy this).

2) I need a correspondent in the Middle-East to primarily “cover” Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.  Ideally, that would be a person fluent in English and Arabic, with first hand knowledge of what is really happening in the region, capable of writing a regular (weekly?) SITREP and available for consultations (by email) for me to ask questions.  Ideally, I would want to work with somebody with a good understanding of, and sympathy with, the position of the Syrian government, the Resistance in Lebanon and the Shia minorities in Bahrain, Yemen and everywhere.

3) I also would need a correspondent in the Caucasus, either a person living in these regions or a person with first hand and strong knowledge of the Caucasus.  Ideally, I am looking for somebody with with a good understanding of, and sympathy with, the position of the Chechen government.

4) Moderators: KK and the other mods are doing a fantastic (and difficult) job, but there are still too few moderators to cover all the time slots.  If you can help with moderations, please email KK at vineyard.mod_kk@unseen.is.

If you can help with any of the above – please email me, okay?

I wish you all a joy-filled and peaceful week.

Cheers and hugs,

The Saker