To My Russian Friends

As I've noted a few times, because I have had to, this column is an interesting read in Russia.  Periodically, and for no particular reason, the report of IP address sources of those who read me starts getting heavy on Russian readers.  That would be until I would point it out in an article, after which time the Russian reading would simply stop.  For a while.

This week, it went nuts.  Aside to vendors of borscht and vodka -- if you want to reach a receptive audience, definitely start advertising here.  At one point, the majority of readers in the preceding 24 hours were Russians.

So this time, using the relatively primitive analytics and simplistic results available via the Blogger capability, I thought I would try to match the readers with the pieces and see what I came up with.  And this is what I saw.

You would have thought that the Russians were interested in one or perhaps two pieces that I had done in which Russians were mentioned, or which were about a topic of great interest in Moscow or Dnepopetrovsk.  I certainly would have thought that, myself.

But no, actually, it wasn't that way at all.

The Russians were reading all of the recent month or so worth of articles, without any apparent preference for one or the other or any specific piece.  There was no one piece that was so specifically highly read by the Russians, as to think it was the specific content of a piece or anything I had written that encouraged their interest.

So what we are dealing with at this point is that, for reasons which escape me, the Russians really like the stuff I write.  And so this piece is to celebrate my newly-minted Russian friends and tell them "hello."

Let's face it, I have not a shred of animosity against Russians simply for being Russian.  As even Nancy Pelosi would have to agree, I'm not an anti-Russian bigot.  My favorite hockey team for some reason is the Washington Capitals, and they are led by Russian Alexander Ovechkin, and their roster is led by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dimitry Orlov, both Russians.

I'm not a real fan of their government, of course, but I am rooting for more global warming so that more of Russia will be able to be farmed for longer periods, to help feed the hungry around the world.  I seem to be alone on that.

So to the Russians out there who are reading me, hearts and flowers to you all, but I sure wish that if you like my writing so much, that you would help keep this column alive by advertising in its pages.  There over 680 pieces here and they're all really good essays that your Russian friends would surely love, even if they're all in English and I don't speak Russian.

After all, if they are reading not just one piece they deem inflammatory, but actually a whole month or two worth, it must mean that they like me, they really, really like me, and who couldn't be happy with that?

Hoping that they won't get scared off by being referred to yet once again.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here?  There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."  Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.