Ben

Sadly, I think the constructor's fear bore true for me. I understand the sense in which HOPE is being clued, but I think it's a rather weak clue, and I really do think the ts romanization of царь is to be preferred. I liked the "White Russians" clue, until I realized that it was using the obsolete romanization.

This one really didn't do it for me; the filler felt more like gunk than glue

Well, not a puzzle I'm fond of in the slightest; found the number of names/screwball phrasings to be rather excessive. If I wanted inane trivia, I'd go to a pub; they serve beer there too.

Not my cup of tea. The constructor notes the lower-right as an area they're not fond of, but for me the upper-left was honestly just annoying; in the lower-right I felt that even the rather blah answers were fairly standard crosswordese with fairly standard crosswordese clues.

Insanely frustrating that a rebus puzzle that calls for numerical answers does not accept numerals in the grid

Really not to my taste