I ya otvechayu: Ugh. I have a hangover. Too much goddamn vodka last night.
Johnson's a good guy and the JRL is a good source, but the guy's got his own agenda.
Military advisors are there (and have been for quite some time). As to troops: no way, no how. That would be politically impossible, even if the Kremlin wanted it.
I hated Putin for ideological and a whole plethora of other reasons before I came here, and I would love to hate him now, but I can't bring myself to. The fact of the matter is that he's been very, very good for this country. I used to despise him for his KGB background -- but the secret services are the only, I repeat the only, significant faction in the Russian elite that gives a rat's ass about the country. It's the KGB or death in Russia right now (and it's a pretty lukewarm KGB too boot -- contrary to what you might have heard, there's a lot of free, albeit highly partisan, speech in Russia). There are no other forces capable of taking control and doing anything positive at all, except maybe the CPRF, who are probably unviable due to the overriding power of the oligarchs, their popularity notwithstanding. My view of the world has changed completely since I moved to Russia -- I used to actually think Boris Kagarlitsky was worth reading as a political analyst, for instance. Now I think he's completely out of touch with reality.
I must also say that, after a squalid decade with fuckhead extraordinaire Yeltsin at the helm, whose policy was the result of a mix of overweening megalomania and constant intoxication, and who sold the Russian people out at every opportunity, the ascendency of Vladimir Vladimirovich is like the coming of rosy-fingered Dawn. It's very, very hard to live in Russia and not like Putin. Everybody loves the guy. Gorby is a big Putin fan, by the way -- the way he's restrustured the political system is highly reminescent of Gorbachev's goal in political reform.
By the way, we interviewed a bevy of Afghan refugees re their reaction to the US attacks (there are 150,000 in Russia). They are mighty pissed-off at the US for bombing the country (duh) and funding the mujaheedin, and at Russia for having "abandoned us."
Chris Doss The Russia Journal