Nationalism: The New Black

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about -- one of our little English Groupie friends, who I've know for about four years, is now a snarling member of the Putin Youth, a political group called Nashe -- "Ours" -- don't know their website, but I can find it -- they have big patriotic rallies frequently, protest volubly against America, Israel, the Oligarchs and anyone who dares to criticize Putin. They wear red t-shirts when they march.

The other evening I was speaking with her and she shared her feeling that Anna Politkavskaya, the award-winning journalist critical of Putin's Kremlin who was shot to death by persons unknown a few months ago, was "a prostitute." To her credit, she doesn't believe the CIA killed her and that spy who was poisoned with Polonium; she thinks it's a plot by Boris Berzovsky

Here's a picture of this girl a few years ago at a party. Back then, she wanted little more than to marry a foreigner. Here she's trying on the gifts I bought her from America.