3 ms·

c'mon, nobody has been impaled or had his head axed (and having an American passport does help immensely in that regard in Russia). In general there is an unbel

c'mon, nobody has been impaled or had his head axed (and having an American passport does help immensely in that regard in Russia). In general there is an unbelievably great progress on impalement made during the mere recent five centuries in Russia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037824/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037824/). Just wait a couple thousands years more and the freedom of speech and other human rights may start gradually coming to Russia (my beloved - the farther i'm from it, the more beloved - Fatherland)

lzw 16y ago
It has always stymied me why Russia is so messed up when almost every Russian I meet seems to be great and cynical. Maybe Russia being messed up makes the Russian people great... And maybe unlike Americans Russians can conceive of corruption in government....so. Maybe you couldn't have one without the other.
- VladRussian 16y ago
  > ... almost every Russian I meet seems to be great and cynical. Maybe Russia being messed up makes the Russian people great... No. Russia being messed up makes some of the relatively well educated and open minded Russian people leave the country, and that results in the very skewed representation of Russians.
tomh 16y ago
Um, yeah, right. I know you're kidding, but it's in really bad taste. Having an American passport didn't help this guy from getting axed in 2004: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klebnikov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klebnikov Having an American passport didn't help this guy get threatened repeated times through the 90s and 2000s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder
- VladRussian 16y ago
  Re: Klebnikov - even American passport can't stop bullet of TT. Re: Browder - compare with the Browder's Russian lawyer fate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky - the 37 years old guy dies after 11 month in pre-trial detention vs. "Bill Browder was expelled from Russia as a national threat"

lzw 16y ago

It has always stymied me why Russia is so messed up when almost every Russian I meet seems to be great and cynical. Maybe Russia being messed up makes the Russian people great... And maybe unlike Americans Russians can conceive of corruption in government....so. Maybe you couldn't have one without the other.

VladRussian 16y ago
> ... almost every Russian I meet seems to be great and cynical. Maybe Russia being messed up makes the Russian people great... No. Russia being messed up makes some of the relatively well educated and open minded Russian people leave the country, and that results in the very skewed representation of Russians.

tomh 16y ago

Um, yeah, right. I know you're kidding, but it's in really bad taste. Having an American passport didn't help this guy from getting axed in 2004: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klebnikov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klebnikov Having an American passport didn't help this guy get threatened repeated times through the 90s and 2000s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder

VladRussian 16y ago
Re: Klebnikov - even American passport can't stop bullet of TT. Re: Browder - compare with the Browder's Russian lawyer fate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky - the 37 years old guy dies after 11 month in pre-trial detention vs. "Bill Browder was expelled from Russia as a national threat"