About

Welcome back, everyone. I used to write a blog called The Kremlin Stooge, but through carelessness I somehow got logged out and was unable to supply the correct password to get back in. The email address I had used to set up the blog was an old one that was closed out years back, so WordPress couldn’t send me a password reset link. Water under the bridge.

I’m Mark Chapman, I was born and raised in Canada and have always lived here, currently in Victoria, British Columbia.

Anyway, this blog is mostly about issues relating to Russia, its politics and policies and its place in the world. The family into which I married is Russian, and this blog has a noticeably pro-Russian slant. That said, I hope I am able to acknowledge failures and shortcomings in the way the Russian government runs the country, when they are discussed in a constructive manner and include suggestions on how they could be improved upon.

That brings us around to the issue of Russophobia, which is the chief reason I am interested in blogging. Because most of Russia’s failings and problems are discussed in the popular press in the sort of gloating or hysterical tone which suggests the authors are not at all sad to see Russians have problems, and that they perhaps deserve them simply for being Russian. That’s without even approaching the outright lying that goes on, so regularly as to to be almost unworthy of remark.

That’s where we come in.