Russia tests the limits of realism
Gideon Rachman
from Business Day
IN THE US, outstanding investigative journalists win Pulitzer prizes. In Russia, they get shot. Browsing through the shelves of recent books on modern Russia it is chilling to realise that the authors of two of the most interesting volumes, Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, were subsequently murdered. It is another killing — the poisoning in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent — which is today’s cause célèbre. Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister, is also in hospital — perhaps another victim of a poisoning.
British policemen are heading to Moscow to try to get to the bottom of the Litvinenko case. But one cannot be optimistic about their chances. The unsolved poisoning is an old Russian tradition. Historians are still arguing about the role of poison in the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 — as well as in those of Rasputin in 1916 and Maxim Gorky in 1936.
Prolonged exposure to Russian conspiracy theories can be damaging to mental health. But, whoever is behind the recent spate of killings, Vladimir Putin’s Russia looks like an increasingly sinister place. As José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, put it: “We have a problem with Russia... Too many people have been killed and we don’t know who killed them.”
But there is little appetite in official circles in the west for renewed confrontation with Russia. Germany and France made it clear long ago that they want to pal up with Putin. As for Washington and London, the problems of the Middle East are daunting enough already without seeking a new clash with Russia.
(The rest is here.)
from Business Day
IN THE US, outstanding investigative journalists win Pulitzer prizes. In Russia, they get shot. Browsing through the shelves of recent books on modern Russia it is chilling to realise that the authors of two of the most interesting volumes, Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, were subsequently murdered. It is another killing — the poisoning in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent — which is today’s cause célèbre. Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister, is also in hospital — perhaps another victim of a poisoning.
British policemen are heading to Moscow to try to get to the bottom of the Litvinenko case. But one cannot be optimistic about their chances. The unsolved poisoning is an old Russian tradition. Historians are still arguing about the role of poison in the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 — as well as in those of Rasputin in 1916 and Maxim Gorky in 1936.
Prolonged exposure to Russian conspiracy theories can be damaging to mental health. But, whoever is behind the recent spate of killings, Vladimir Putin’s Russia looks like an increasingly sinister place. As José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, put it: “We have a problem with Russia... Too many people have been killed and we don’t know who killed them.”
But there is little appetite in official circles in the west for renewed confrontation with Russia. Germany and France made it clear long ago that they want to pal up with Putin. As for Washington and London, the problems of the Middle East are daunting enough already without seeking a new clash with Russia.
(The rest is here.)
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