Introduction

In wake of Anders Aslund's overly rhetorical Johnson's Russia List post of August 9, 2005, I'm finally taking up the suggestion to start my own blog.

I'm a New York based independent foreign policy analyst, whose recent commentary can be found via the Current Issues, International Affairs, Media and Letters to/from the Editor sections at http://english.intelligent.ru

I regularly participate in several net forums including The New York Times' Russia/East Europe Forum, located in the International folder of Readers' Opinions via http://www.nytimes.com, several forums at http://www.russia.com/forums and two Guardian International forums (entitled LYING ABOUT RUSSIA & AMERICAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA SKEWS COVERAGE OF CHECHNYA AGAINST RUSSIA) which can be accessed via http://www.guardian.co.uk/talk