Recent articles on paid troll organizations in Russia haven’t surprised me – ’cause they’re not that recent a phenomenon (though lately, it seems, they are going after Western publications with a vengeance). The thing about a paid troll is that you can rationalize their actions. When I get messages that are apparently sincere in their utter hatred – I don’t know what to do. Well, aside from responding with gifs, I guess. The guy below is one of the “regulars” here. My latest appearance on a HuffPost Live panel has upset him.
For a Russian state media hack, you are remarkably good at crying crocodile tears about what’s happening in Ukraine, the homeland you have egregiously betrayed.
Russian trolls are also fond of blathering about “traitors” among us. At least they usually do it in a more entertaining way.
Lest your readers forget, you worked at RIA Novosti before moving on to Russia Beyond The Headlines. YOU’RE A HACK.
A grateful hack, too. Grateful to have worked at The Moscow News/RIA Novosti, grateful to have stayed there all the way until the bitter end, grateful to have excellent Russian colleagues at Russia Beyond and in general.
And the fact that you appear to be taken seriously at decent media just makes this reader want to dig around and see who it is you’re doing favors for and the nature of these favors. The public at large knows that Russia is very good at using supple young women to promote its agenda abroad.
See this accusation keeps coming up AGAIN and AGAIN, and it’s really interesting, because what it basically comes down to is that, “All Russians are barbaric neanderthals. All of the editors at the Western media outlets you work with are also barbaric neanderthals. Sexism is not cool when the Russians engage in it, but it’s perfectly OK for me to be a sexist dick, ’cause my name is not Vladimir. I’d never accuse a man of what I’m accusing you of, but I’m still an enlightened member of a clearly superior society.”
Right.
It is not a fucking compliment, Natty. Whores engage in more honest business.
ACCUSING A WOMAN OF SLEEPING WITH HER EDITORS IN ORDER TO GET PUBLISHED IS NOT A FUCKING COMPLIMENT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Your Twitter attacks on Timothy Snyder have been duly noted. Who’s paying you for that huh? And is the money really that good?
EGAD. Someone has discovered my secret gig! I get paid to disagree with historians on social media! Now this has totally RUINED things for me, of course, because now everyone is going to want to sign up.
Honestly what makes you think as if you are even worthy to speak on the subject of Snyder’s work? You are barely educated.
It’s true. As we all know, people who disagree with Timothy Snyder on the internet have all graduated from the Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too.
In conclusion, go ahead and be a ‘comfort woman’ for the Russians if they pay you so well. Just don’t imagine it will save you from the Gulagg. Whores are especially expendable at time of war.
Because I was somewhat trained in literary criticism (my professors will probably disagree on how well I responded to the training), I am actually amazed that it takes this guy so long to just come out and call me a whore. You can kind of see him building up to it, then abandoning that track, then coming back to it, for reasons that would probably be fascinating if I was into serious criticism of batshit comments on the Internet.
Also, “the Gulagg.”
And quit your crying about how “bad” you feel about what is happening to Ukraine. Collaborationist pigs don’t get to have have a voice. In any just society they’d cute off the pretty hair of yours and march you through the streets. Bitch.
You know, I’m not going to pretend that crap like this doesn’t get to me. It’s really low, obviously deranged, and it comes from what appears to be a very tiny group of people on the Internet, but it still gets to me sometimes. Especially now, when things are so hard, on various fronts. When they are too hard to even talk about.
PS you looked like a whore at HUFFPOLIVE today. But this is what you people do isn’t it – show skin when you have nothing interesting to say except for the usual “rah rah Russia” dung.
Good to know that me wearing a damn sundress in the middle of a heatwave in Moscow can now also be used against me.
Just in case anyone is wondering, this is what I looked like on HuffPost Live today:
I know I shouldn’t be responding to any of this. I know I shouldn’t be justifying anything – or, for that matter, producing actual screenshots of what I looked like on a political panel in order to counter a stupid troll – but it’s the kind of week when merely ignoring it, deleting, and forgetting doesn’t help.
It especially doesn’t help that one of the people who writes me these things is very much a “real” person, someone whom I have a friend in common with back in the States, someone who has been to Russia – so not the kind of person you can stick into the “anonymous crazies” folder you will then demonstrably burn.
And it’s especially hard, because things in Ukraine are not getting better. The east of the country is descending into full-blown civil war. These aren’t just headlines from far away – this is personal, and it is terrifying, and dealing with trolls in the midst of it is profoundly ugly, and I can only cope with it by ridiculing it publicly, I guess.
And breaking out the ice cream after that. And the mint juleps, which go well with this heat, and make everything that much more tolerable.
Natalia A. 
Interesting HuffPost Live presentation. Serious question: Why do you wear sunglasses indoors? Does that help your presentation? (actually a serious question)
Why are you living in Russia ?, you are clearly completely Americanized,And i do think you care about Ukraine, and actualy what do you consider yourself to be Ukrainian,American,or Russian.
I think you are brave and stalwart to keep writing as you do. I could probably write a blog or some articles or maybe even a book. I have some education and knowledge and experience that might produce something worth reading, but I don’t want to have to deal with the uninformed criticism and malicious feedback. So I just keep my ideas to myself and deprive the world of that benefit. As somebody once said, Don’t cast pearls before swine. Fortunately I no longer have to make a living with my words as I once did for a time. (I was a minister. Not a particularly good one as you might guess.) As for myself, I am most distressed and ashamed of America’s role in this situation.
I got a softer version of these comments on FB when the crisis was just breaking out, but it was ongoing, and I had to block people – not just on social media but email etc. Yup, people I have been ‘real life’ friends in NYC for years. Then the trolling started on my blog – which is about pretty Moscow buildings and leopard-print clothing I photograph furtively on the subway. The good still way outweighs the bad, but I dont know if I could deal with the kind of vitriol you get. I’m glad that you are though 🙂
PS – congrats on the RBTH move!
Sorry dollface, but I’d rather just let both sides of Ukraine & Russia simply rot.
Kill each other for all I care. You people don’t contribute anything of worth to world civilization anyway. It’s pointless. Nobody cares. It’s inferior genetic material when you get right down to it. I don’t know how much vodka you personally have in your veins, but I’ve seen enough of your people to be disgusted by them. I don’t see any difference between the Russians and Ukrainians. You’re genetic offal. If the world stayed out of your affairs and carried on with its business we would be better off.
Sorry that’s how I see it.