Great Piece From Dmitry Orlov...

At The Saker's blog. Cuts to the chase without unnecessary decorum. I agree with this piece wholeheartedly. 

It must also be understood that there are no other candidates for this role. There is no LGBT insanity, sexual harassment mania or violent reverse racism in North Korea, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or China, but these examples are all far too exotic and come with toxic baggage of their own. What the persecuted white Western Christian conservative heterosexual male needs is a normal European country, full of white people, comfortable for living in, but without any of the things he hates. What other options are there? It is not a competition if there is just one contestant.

Read the whole thing, which is written with typical Orlov's finesse. As I am on record non-stop in the past few years, for very many Westerners acquaintance with modern Russia can provide a massive cultural shock. Not only by increasing manifestation of the wealth, but by the atmosphere in which people are free. As any country, Russia has blemishes and is far from perfect but the vector is unmistakable. And then, there are Moscow and St. Petersburg--cities so dazzling in their beauty, scale and grandeur, that for many Westerners (and non-Westerners alike) the experience could be overwhelming, even life-changing, especially coming from the life dominated by russophobic propaganda in Western media. This is a soft power.