Reply #5: I would say the reverse - there's far too much Russophilia.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

An awful lot of people are willing to overlook e.g. Russia's abominable human rights abuses in Chechenya, it's murder of Alexander Litvinenko in the UK (the man who probably did that is now in the Duma), its government's naked contempt for democracy and human rights, etc, and to try to justify its invasion of Georgia.

What's really worrying is that it's very obvious that most of the people doing so are doing so not for the reasons they claim, but for the very simple reason that Russia is an enemy of George W. Bush, and they're willing to applaud anyone who is that, no matter how bad.

Putin is a far, far worse leader than Bush. He's not just "trying to get Russia back on track"; he's trying to consolidate his own power, and he doesn't give a damn about the Russian people or anyone else.