A quick update for my readers about what I’ve been up to.
Some of you probably remember that we took the pets and ourselves from Moscow to our house in Crimea and plan to spend most of our time here moving forward. So I wanted to write a note telling everyone what we’ve been up to.
Getting the animals settled in their new environment took some time, plus there was some construction work that still needs to be finished. But for the most part I’ve found my rhythm, so updates on the blog should go back to normal without serious disruptions.
Sorry for the delays in this topic, but the Russian translations will get updates again. I just finished Chapter 3 of the 1947 Stalin biography, the Rokossovsky memoir is next on my list of things to do.
As I mentioned in my previous announcement, I re-installed Tolstoy Comments, which is the best comments plugin I have found for WordPress, but had stopped using in 2022 due to sanctions and DDoS attacks. The nice thing about TC is that they have a very nice third party server, which means commenters can do things you previously couldn’t, like upload pictures and other files. In the main menu of the site there is a link to your user profile (which appears after you log in). Navigating the comment menus isn’t quite as intuitive as I prefer, but it’s got some very robust features that I hope the regulars here will enjoy using.
I know everyone’s talking about Iran right now and, aside with the podcast write-up, I have only made one post about it. I do have other things to say, there is just some fact-finding I need to do before making grandiose statements (facts? Who needs those?).
This actually happened before we left for Crimea I just forgot to mention it; my Amazon account was approved and no longer in probation hell, which means I might receive commissions for qualifying traffic and referal sales this website sends to Amazon through links (like this one). All of my movie and book reviews have links to whatever I’m reviewing in those posts.
As far as my Russia News Substack goes, that will be a once-a-week thing for now, with special issues for holidays.
Several readers have suggested “walk and talk” video commentaries, and finally convinced me to try it. They will likely be around 5-15 minutes each about whatever is hot at the moment. Their format is up in the air a little but they will definitely be on my existing YouTube channel which you can follow here if you haven’t already.
X is a dumpster fire but I have very carefully nurtured the algorithm to give me just what I need for the Russia News Reports and I mirror some of my entries there as well. If you have X, feel free to connect with me there too, though I probably can’t follow you back, as that would taint my feed that I’ve so tenderly trained to focus on Russian news and that alone.
As some of you have heard already, all of my Facebook accounts except for one are nuked, and that one I am keeping dormant. Due to problems I encountered on previous trips to Crimea, I suspected something like this would happen. If Russia is Mordor, then Crimea is Double-Mordor. Therefore, if you like one of my posts in particular, it’s always good to share, because maybe your friends will like it too 🙂
There are still some lingering backend technical issues I need to fix on the site, but most aren’t too noticeable. There is one category of posts I used to write that I still haven’t revived, but will at some point when I get the chance. Until then it will just be a secret.
I appreciate all of you and hope you enjoy my work here.
The header image of this post is a photo I took of the Genoese fortress in Feodosia, one of the many cool historic sites around here.
Ian Kummer
I now have a new YouTube channel that I will use to upload videos from my travels around Russia. Expect new content there soon. Please give me a follow here.
Also feel free to connect with me on Quora (I sometimes share unique articles there).
