A couple of short items about Russia Insider and book for donations

Dear friends,

First, I want to thank you all for your support and kind words about the Russia Insider project.  I am also truly delighted to be associated with this endeavor.

Second, I wanted to clarify a few things about Russia Insider and my role in it.  Russia Insider is not a blog or a collective of blogs.  The format used by RI is deliberately kept to short(er) posts, not long analytical essays.  The idea is to offer a go-to place to get a quick reaction to current events, along with a short commentary and enough links and sources for any reader to follow up should he/she decide to do so.  In my case, this is not unlike what I sometimes do with my mini-SITREPs.  I see that as very nicely complementing the much longer analyses I do here on this blog.

Also, no worries, most of my time will still be dedicated to this blog.

As for my contributions to Russia Insider, I have not been told to change my views, not say this or that or not to use this or that term.  Just like with any such project, if the editor in chief does not like something he can refuse to publish it, which is fine by me as long as I get to post whatever I want here, on my blog.  Please do not worry, my freedom is truly sacred to me and I would never associate myself to any project which would limit it.  The beauty in Russia Insider is that they fully share that philosophy.  Besides, I dare say that I am in pretty darn good company there, so I have no worries on that account at all.

Finally, please notice the new window on the left hand column which announces that author Yuri Dia Konov, whose book Russia's Diamond Ruble I recently reviewed on this blog, has offered to send any of his books (in English or Russian!) for free to anybody sending a donation to the Saker Blog.  So please do press that "donation" button and then email Yuri and tell him which book you want, and he will email you the PDF right back!

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker