I've been a little confused by the Litvinenko stories that have taken over MSM in the UK. I don't care that much who killed him, but the story is being pushed very hard by someone. Why might tell us more about life in Russia today than the simple fact of his death. Or it might just indicate that London's climate is preferable to Chita's.
The core of the argument coming from the western-Russia blogs is that VVP's thugs were barely aware of Litvinenko and his strident criticism. Even well-informed Russians have barely heard of him. There is no chance of the narod, hearing or caring. He lived in London, not in Moscow and was incidental to Russia. If you are unaware, then you don't go to great length to find a rare radioactive material and stage a lengthy and painful death played out, finally, in the press.
If you turn on english language news you don't need me to tell you that VVP did it. There are however a number of alternate views. To give him his due copydude was the first of the Russian blogs was the first to offer up the Berezovsky connection with Saint Sasha, The Toenail Puller, which is a great headline. In quick time he followed it up with Limonov and Litvinenko, highlighting the British press' rather pathetic ability to buy a line from PR agencies. Given that copydude's previous posts (I know not all of them) have concentrated in rather different areas the strength of his convictions came through forcibly.
Sean's Russia Blog also weighs in with a meaty piece of analysis.
And its not just the blogosphere. Tom Parfitt writing in the Guardian warns that we should not rush to judgment.
Back to work, need to hire myself a PR Agency. Not that I am planning any murders; well not actively anyway.
Technorati Tags: death, Litvinenko, Putin, Russia
3 comments:
I think it's completely ridiculous to suggest that "copydude" is somehow deeply in touch with what the Kremlin knows and thinks. To the contrary, "copydude" is a russophile propagandist who loses no opportunity to defend Russia from criticism and deflect attempts to undermine Putin's power. Why is it OK for "copydude" to speculate about Berezovsky but not for us to speculate about Putin? Just plain crazy talk.
Litvinenko had just launched an investigation into the killing of Anna Politkovskaya. Had the Kremlin also never heard of her? Did it have no reason to fear the investigation of a former KGB agent with wide contacts?
If we wait until we have "proof positive" of KGB involvement, we expose ourselves just as the KGB would want. Just this kind of "wait and see" stuff lead to the consolidation of the Bolshevik regime and the erection of the Gulag archipelago, at the cost of millions of Russian lives. Let's not do it again, shall we?
Meanwhile, there is NO explanation of how such a sophisticated radioactive weapon could have been obtained from a non-state source.
In regard to Sean's blog, you fail to mention that when it was revealed that Litvinenko was not killed with rat poison as first speculated, Sean immediately attacked the West for jumping to conclusions about Kremlin involvement. Then it turned out that the actual cause of Litvinenko's killing was a radioactive weapon far more Kremlin-like than the rat poison, so Sean had a major amount of egg on his face.
POSTING: It can't be rogue agents, because Putin has firmly assured us that there are none. He said in so many words that the Moscow bombings could not possibly have been undertaken that way. So now he's hoist with his own petard, I'm afraid, and so are all his scurrying, rodent-like friends.
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