don't like it.

but she left for the US as a child with her parents and she is now an American living in Russia
and working as a Russian correspondent for US News & World Report. She hardly has standing
to apologize on behalf of Russian people to anybody.

Masha Gessen is a journalist in Moscow. Her biography of Vladimir Putin, “The Man Without a Face,” will be published March 1.

country. The issue is not her passport, but her sentiments and the quality of her reasoning.

of every outlet of western MSM. Why does she even feel the need to apologize for actions
of the Russian government? Is she afraid that pro-protest Syrian émigrés will invade and
trash her dacha in the Catskills? Well, then she should be safe now.

Because that is the only original point I could extract from her "apology". If they did, then they and Masha are
both wrong. If most Russians wanted to help the Syrian "revolution" to do a regime change in Syria, Russian
commandos would already be in Damascus doing just that and helping Putin's reelection chances. The fact of the
matter is that, while up to half of Russians may be critical of other Putin's policies, over 90% of them agree
with his opposition to Western intervention in the Middle East. That is just a fact and Masha Gessen is just lying.
Kinda par for the course for a western "journalist".

Your equating her time in Russia to a "whole month" is blatant disinformation.

a typical Russian citizen is blatant disinformation.

But if you think you've got a free pass, think again.

My "co-religionists"? I assume you mean my fellow DUers who aren't buying the blatant propaganda you're spewing. Yes, I'm proud to be in their company.

some deep argument hidden by the jury or otherwise concealed which I missed. That's what
"religionist" means - someone whose convictions are not affected by the lack of rational
arguments.

Yes, you did miss something. Some of us constantly question our own beliefs. Apparently, you do not do that. You remind me of someone...

Back in the '04 campaign, there were these Swiftboater guys who lied through their teeth. One of them, Jerome Corsi, got on camera a lot. And when his interviewers absolutely debunked his claims, he didn't even blink. He kept repeating his false claims.

Yeah, that's who you remind me of...and if you think you're getting a "free pass" ...you're nuts.

"absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen". That's just from the Oath of Allegiance all naturalized US citizens are supposed to take. So much for where her true allegiances lie. Unless, she didn't mean it and lied under oath, which would be a whole other
thing entirely.

You're trying too hard to rationalize your biases. Really.

Masha Gessen does. Comparison with Napoleon was actually more apt than seems obvious -
both he and Masha Gessen considered it their mission to bring western enlightenment and
civilized "liberalism" to unwashed and barbaric Russia. In comparison to this essential similarity,
the fact that Masha Gessen happened to be born in Moscow and is more fluent in Russian is
just purely accidental happenstance.

Nobody bought your pro-Gaddafi posts on Libya and nobody's buying your pro-Assad BS on Syria. Nobody needs to be "brilliant" to see that.

can accuse the pro-demonstrator side of being "neocon". Something tells me that real "neocons" are quite happy to have dictators control their populations by whatever means necessary as this makes it easier for them to pursue their agenda. Anyone who thinks that "neocons" oppose dictatorships on some lofty principle has a much more positive view of them than I do.

That wasn't Napoleon's aim at all. His goal wasn't to occupy Russia or transform its political/social systems. The goal was to inflict a sound defeat on the Russian army and force the Tsar to accede to his demands to adhere to the Continental System and possibly add to a French-sponsored Polish state incorporating territory that still remained in Russian control.

Comparing Gessen to Napoleon is utterly ridiculous.

how he rationalize his aggressive expansionism. All aggressors do it the same way since time immemorial.
Just read Caesar's "Gallic wars", he could have been writing about "bringing democracy" to Iraq. It's not
Masha Gessen I am comparing to Napoleon, in case you missed another obvious point, that's her masters,
whose plans for Russia and its people are no less despicable than those of the diminutive emperor himself.

The US planned to overthrow the Iraqi government, occupy the country, and shepherd into a new system under US tutelage.

That wasn't Napoleon's plan in Russia. His goal was to force a big battle where he would defeat the Tsar's armies and thus force him to accede to his demands. Those demands did not include his ouster. They included adhering to the Continental system and to reconstruct a larger Polish state.

The goal was never to transform the Russian political or social system. It was to use force of arms to get Alexander I to do what he wanted, which was essentially behave the way Alexander had promised to do after Tilsit. When the Tsar showed he wasn't going to do that, Napoleon decided an invasion was necessary to force the matter.

This wasn't regime change. it was using war to attempt to force behavior on a leader who wasn't cooperating.

I recently gave this book away as a gift.

http://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Sinai-Adventurers-Discovered-Gospels/dp/1400034744/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328597344&sr=1-1

"Orange Revolution" type forces can't even garner low single digits of the vote. Independent polling corroborates this. Someone can live in Moscow but their heart is beating elsewhere.

Since when does DU favor authoritarian regimes over liberal intellectuals?

You're right that people will vote. But how free and fair will that vote be? It's kind of hard to have free elections when you don't have a free press, isn't it?

the vote is only considered "free" when pro-american liberals are elected. In all other cases it is just a
pretext for a street protest.

It's not good. At least according to international monitoring organizations.

It is certainly better than that is in the US. At least different and even opposite points of view can
be found in Russian media outlets, and that includes the Syria issue. That is much more than
can be said about the US media where only one point of view, that of the US Government, is
represented.

You're completely divorced from reality. Here's Freedom House's take on it:

http://blog.freedomhouse.org/weblog/2011/11/russias-revolution-wont-be-televised.html

The BS from this one knows no bounds!

Clinton was all smiles with him, even when he bombed parliament and dissolved the supreme court. No, "authoritarian regimes" are only born when they oppose the US "consensus" an any matter of importance.

I don't think that's really in dispute. He was an autocrat, or at least fancied himself as one.

danie lgene Daniel Hernandez Fascinating. Tom Friedman says Putin needs votes in big arms industry cities, and vetoed UN rez to protect their contracts in #Syria.2 hours ago

or the russian?
for whose benefit is this written?