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Hi back at you Spetznaz.

I'm fine. I decided to catch up on my reading over the holidays. Kind of hard to read and post at the same time. Plus work has been crazy, and finding down time to plug into FR, even at break time has been tough.

But I have been lurking and reading your posts, even if I haven't commented much. The last week or two I've been embroiled in a battle of wits with some of the mad-hatters at LP. There are some folks over there that have the market on tin-foil securely cornered. But I figured it was a good place to brush up on my rhetorical skills. What do you say to a guy who doesn't believe the moon landing was real?

I think Struwwel's posts are pretty much on spot as were yours. I don't think that there is much chance that Russia will revert to communism. The Russians have had enough of that nonsense I think. They'll probably have the same attitude ex-smokers have about cigs. But they will probably always have a healthy socialist contingent led by ex- true believers like Gorby.

Guys like Putin, former KGB, are least likely to go back, because they're the ones who know just how bad it really was. They also know that Russia's future lies in following a path like ours. We will however need to keep one eye on them at all times. They can be counted on to do what they feel is in their best interests. And the further along their economic recovery progresses, the less they will need our help, and the less leverage we will have to make them see things our way. Right now, their interests and our mostly coincide. We need to make all the hay out of that we can while we can.

As for Golytsin, his heart is in the right place, but he still sees state-security bogymen under the bed. he serves as a good reminder not to trust ex-communists further that you can toss them. Or as Reagan said, "Trust, but verify."

As for my papers, they are moldering away in storage. I keep meaning to go dig them up and put them in the computer, but I have not gotten to around to it. Most of those were written in my senior year of college while working with the 14th PsyOp in Mountain View, Ca.

Take Care,
Psy.