OK? I've seen Ilya's posts months before I joined the MSNBC space forum. At that time (right after the Progress collision on Mir in 1997) on the CNN space BBS, there were several regular posters from Russia and a bigger number of countries (than here) plus the traditional anglo-saxon countries. Ilya IS a russian man's first name (Prigogine and Salkind are there to demonstrate it, as I posted earlier). I don't know if it's a first name like "Claude" or "Dominique" that has no gender (could be).
I know there's the picture but he could have long hair (wearing a mask doesn't help). I remember there were so many posters wondering what was his gender that he might very well just play with us, on this topic.
Anyway, Ilya IS A MAN'S FIRST NAME, that I'm absolutely sure of.

Raoul