I was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia. I started in the time of Chernenko and watched the whole thing develop.

I was a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy 1993-1996.

I retired in May 2008 and have been writing on Russia and related subjects on the Net ever since.

I have written for various websites and discussion groups – some since departed and some still there. I decided to start my own website with the intention that it become a repository for my writings.

Generally speaking, the predominant theme of my career was that we had a great opportunity when the USSR disappeared to make a more cooperative world. Instead, we have steadily turned Russia into an enemy – and a much more capable one than we casually assumed in the 1990s.

So here we are today. Paying for our arrogance, incompetence and maybe worse.

But I haven’t given up hope.

More information here https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2017/10/26/how-i-got-here/

I don’t take comments because I’m too lazy to police them; every now and again I bulk delete them without reading them. Much of my stuff is picked up by other sites which do. So, if you want to say something to me, you’ll have to find another way: I’m out there, so it’s possible.

Happy to have anybody quote or reprint anything anywhere at any time. The only rules are the usual ones of common decency and behaviour. Attribution Linking hyperlink No cheating or misrepresentation Addendum 12 January 2019. I specifically refuse permission to RUSSIA INSIDER to reprint my pieces because it gratuitously added a nazi anti-semitic propaganda illustration to my piece on how to read the Western news media.

My header picture is a painting by Isaac Levitan “Над вечным покоем“. Several English versions but “Eternal rest” is the one I like.