Aha! In a rather obtuse fashion, something you wrote makes my point. Derision may not solve anything, but the thing is, as most Russians (as most ANY nationality) would laugh derisively simply because their issues are NOT for outsiders to "solve." Do you recall how well the recent advice from Britain went over with Americans?
Bottom line, it's not our business what other countries do. To discuss it as if it *is* our business is wildly presumptuous. Some may choose anyway to discuss it in a public forum, of course, but that doesn't make it right, nor can such participants expect citizens of the country being discussed to be anything short of derisive.
Derision is expressed precisely *because* (and probably to prevent!) of the notion that outsiders are trying to "solve things" that are actually none of their affairs.
Excuse me, Dashkova, but I believe my point was that derision never facilitates an intellectual argument. It ends it. Because derision is not only the height of rudeness, it is also anti-intellectual. It is the refuge of those who prefer the personal attack to the real discussion.
I would never presume to "solve" Russia's problems. I have yet to encounter anyone, either in history books or in life, who has ever been able to solve the myriad, on-going problems of that nation.
But for some obscure reason you now feel entitled to forbid all of us who are not Russian to refrain from offering any opinions on contemporary Russia whatsoever. This is as anti-intellectual as it gets. And I categorically refuse to be told to shut up, in so many words, by you or anyone else.
