Buddy,

What is it with them that there is this tremendous denial of what a monster Stalin was? I too have met delightful Russians, but I tend to think that the environment over here loosens them up and encourages a more benign view of life. But, over there…

Look, when the Poles hate them, the Ukrainians hate them, the Baltic republic peoples hate them, the Caucasus peoples hate them (except the criminal Ossetians), what are we to make of that? Also, next to the French they are the world’s least popular tourists. There has to be something to it. Now, being more obnoxious than the French, that takes some doin’ (for the record, I am of French ancestry, by way of Quebec, a few generations back).