This is one of the typical rants by Russian immigrant who enjoyed top quality free education in USSR/Russia which made his success possible (+ no student loans), left during turmoil of 1990-2000s and still judging Russia on that bad memories basis.
Article is full of clichés and gives general FOX news feel while reading.
I lived in Moscow in 2011 and I'm part of that creative class he mentions and no one in my social network was supporting the protests. I doesn't mean that we are happy with all that happens - we just believe in slow and steady hard work towards better Russia and progress so far proves that it's working.
Stop blaming Russia for everything - you're not USA State Department! :)
Max article seems spot on. The blame is on Russian brand - which is hijacked by current Russia power structure, not on the Russian people per se, even though they share the responsibility for that kind of government. Cliches here, unfortunately, are rooted in realities - it's sad, but compare Russia with a failed state is probably not too much of an exaggeration. The fact that US has its own corruption does little justification to - much bigger, in my opinion - problems in Russia.
What's your plan? How do you organize? How do you persuade people? How do you plan on gaining power peacefully?
> and progress so far proves that it's working.
What's your track record? How do you measure progress? This post-2006 Putin era can be just a temporary setback, but since he (and the Kremlin and the Duma) rolled back so many laws and principles, that it seems to be a seriously hard blow, very hard to stand up from for at least a generation to come, and when progress will happen, it'll be probably because of exogenous factors encouraged/forced it.
It's easy to understand the author's hidden sentiment that Russia is very ineffective state currently and depends too much on natural resources export and enforcement. But what bothers me most is that all of those former Russian immigrants sit in their comfortable chairs somewhere in Nebraska and yapping endlessly while not giving a sparrow's effort to research the actual situation and suggest anything to improve it. Instead they spread xenophobia and popularize knee-jerk reactions to events. I.e. they're just hatred-filled idiots who waste our time on reading them.
