As for wasting my time with LR - I should point out that this is the first in a series of interviews with people who blog about Russia, and I'll be speaking to both pro- and anti- Kremlin bloggers (as well as bloggers of pretty much every shade in between).
Really, I'm just asking the questions and providing the platform - its up to the interviewees to convince you of their wisdom. Or lack thereof...
You have professional haters everywhere. For French haters, please go to http://merdeinfrance.blogspot.com/, you'll feel dirty enough.
I quit halfway through the above interview. Anyone who will interchangeably use the words "Russia", "the Russians", "Putin", as if the nation, the people, the regime, the autocrat, etc, were all the same, isn't worth more than 2 minutes of my time.