The American Spectator

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I've read your paper "Pravda about Putin" in your periodical and was surprised by your excellent knowledge about situation in Russia and Ukraine. But I've known many facts that diverge from what I read in your article. You see, I live in Moscow and sometimes I go to Donetsk. Please, be more careful while acquiring information.

But in the past few years they, and other Russian military industries, have been funded well enough to produce new classes of nuclear submarines that are better and -- thanks to the Walker spy ring -- as quiet as ours. New types of Russian fighter aircraft are as good and maybe a bit better than anything we have other than the unaffordable expensive F-22.

Thank you for the advertisement of the Russian weapon. I work in a Russian military plant and I have some friends that work in other military plants. I know, that our weapons are worse and are produced in much less quantities than American ones (comparing classes of weapons of the same generation), except maybe tanks, ballistic missiles and the anti-missile system.

In the east, economic conditions are bad enough that fears of Russia may be subordinated to the phony promise of economic revival by Russian alignment.

I don't think so. As you know, general industry is situated in the Eastern Ukraine. For example, in Donetsk accessibility for government-paid education and amateur sports is even higher than in Moscow (while Ukraine is not as rich as Russia). I've seen that myself while visiting Donetsk Technical University. Authorities of Donetsk are more social-oriented than in Moscow, I think. That's why more than 90% of Donetsk citizens have voted for Yanukovich.

Putin, through Yanukovych, is making his first open attempt to revive Russian control over its neighbors.

Not the first. Earlier attempts were failed.

Russia's economy, though vastly better than it was under the Soviets, is in danger of stagnating because Putin is raising taxes and dealing with industry as if the government controls it, as well it may.

It's lie. Now we only just coming to the level of gross national product per a person that we had in 1989. Taxes are decreasing. Since 1 January 2004 the 5% sale-tax has been canceled, the tax for the added cost (NDS) has been decreased from 20% down to 18%. Since 1 January 2005 the united social tax (YeSN) will be decreased from 35% down to 26%. Only the export oil taxes are increasing synchronously with the oil cost in the world.

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