Dear friends,

Some of you may have noticed that a few comments have been posted here accusing me of spreading the rumor of Strelkov’s death.  The same nonsense has also been posted elsewhere on the Internet.

Just to make things clear, I was told about these rumors this morning from several readers.  I replied to them that I did not believe that this was true.  The origin of these rumors might be this:

http://crimelist.ru/archives/49674-kriminalnaya-hronika-rossii

Just in case somebody removes this page, here it is:

Apparently, Wikipedia also picked up this story.

You can check for yourself what I actually posted here.

For the life of me I cannot imagine how anybody mentally sane could take a paragraph containing the following and conclude that I was announcing Strelkov’s death (emphasis added)

While I cannot prove a negative, so far NOT A SINGLE RUSSIAN OR NOVORUSSIAN SOURCE HAS CONFIRMED THIS including his friend el-Miurid. So I suggest that we take a deep breath, say a prayer, and wait before coming to conclusions.

Maybe a drooling idiot can, but not somebody mentally normal.  Alas, it appears that drooling idiots are the least of my problems.

I am sorry to announce that I have come to the conclusion that the people “systematically misunderstanding” what I write here are neither idiots nor trolls.   There is a group of individuals which have embarked on a campaign to slander and discredit me.  If they only called me names, that would not be too bad, the problem is that they systematically distort what I actually write here and “creatively re-interpret” it in order to make me say things I never said.  The example with the Strelkov death rumor is just the latest example of that.  Then, when I prove that they twisted and misrepresented what I actually said, they say that I changed my tune and that I am a liar.  Lately, they have also  been hinting at some dark nefarious “agenda” of mine (-: I suppose that Wikipedia is on it too, that we are all part of the same conspiracy :-)

I suppose that this was to be expected and that the success of this blog and the community around it is making some circles very angry, though dumb jealously might also play a role.

My warning to you all, my friends and readers, to be aware of this campaign to slander and discredit me comes with a request.  If tomorrow you read that I said X, Y or Z – please come back here and carefully check what I did or did not say.

My second warning is that I will not answer any strawman posts or comments.  If some folks cannot read what it actually says, they need to learn that skill before reading this blog.  As for those who deliberately try to twist my words, I have nothing to say to them anyway.

I am sorry to have to bring up this distasteful matter, but this latest nonsense about me spreading rumors about Strelkov’s alleged suicide is really to disgusting and too toxic to ignore.

Kind regards to all,

The Saker