New York, NY

Dear Mr. Harshaw,

Mr. Richard Pipes of Harvard pipes into the Russia debate with cynicism typical of the foreigners who have led Russia into the disastrous "reforms." "Let Russia Fend for Itself," screams your headline above his OpEd piece. If only Mr. Pipes had given that advice six years ago to his Harvard colleagues who were appointed by the Clinton administration to advise the Russian government on economic policies. For a fee, of course.

Still, I am sure that the Russians would be happy to be left to fend for themselves if the West were first to return the nearly half a trillion dollars which it had plundered from that country in the 1990s under the guise of "reforms." With the assistance of the local oligarchy, of course.

Yet, Susan Gold has no sympathy for the Russian people, either. She laments in your Aug. 29 letters section that the "young reformers, Sergei Kirienko and Boris Nemtsov, who are Jewish, have been sacked." As if their Jewishness was the reason for dismissal, rather than their incompetence and mismanagement of the economy.

Ms. Gold then takes an even greater leap of faith when she deduces that the "reformers" firing is supposedly a sign of Russia's return to "nationalism and xenophobia." And which is why the Russia now "finds the Jews or foreigners to blame for its failures."

I don't know if that's how most Russians feel. But supposing Ms. Gold's conjecture is on the money; gosh, just imagine that! The 147 million Russians no longer want to be dragged by their noses into the dustbin of history by a handful of "Jews or foreigners" and domestic quislings who have robbed them blind. And that's " nationalism and xenophobia?"

It is curious how both Ms. Gold and Mr. Pipes now want to pin the blame on the Russian people - the victims of the failed western experiments. That's like blaming the Jews for the Holocaust. Or America's Main Street for the Wall Street downturn.

Best regards,

Bob Djurdjevic

Also check out... "Does WSJ Dance to Wall St. Bankers' Tunes?",  "Clinton Fiddles While Milosevic Burns",  "Let the Bombing Begin?  Not!" , "What's Good for the Goose..."  and "Journal's Rotten Apples" (Wall Street Journal); and "Stock buybacks: Wall St.'s duping of Main St.", Business Week).