Tel-Chai Nation

Vladimir Putin, already establishing himself as the newest dictator in Russia, following the collapse of the almost established democracy in Russia during the 1990s, has taken to offing his critics, not just in the former USSR (which could also be returning), but also on foreign soil, the latest case being in Britain (earlier, it was a writer found dead in Russia itself). From the Wall Street Journal (via Betsy's Page), a discussion on how it's pretty obvious that Putin's got everything to do with the assassinations:

The evidence points instead to Litvinenko having been murdered by the FSB, which, together with the other "force ministries," has become the dominant political force in Russia today.

The FSB has always had a strong interest in Vladimir Putin's critics abroad. In December 2001, a Russian police official, in announcing a warrant for Mr. Berezovsky's arrest, said, "We know what he eats for breakfast, where he has lunch and where he buys his groceries." This was followed up in September 2003 with an unsuccessful attempt to kill Mr. Berezovsky with a needle camouflaged as a pen. The British reacted by granting Mr. Berezovsky political asylum. In 2004, a stranger threw a Molotov cocktail at Litvinenko and Akhmed Zakaev, the London representative of the separatist government of Chechnya, as they stood on the street near Litvinenko's residence. Besides a history of tracking Mr. Putin's opponents, the FSB could have been encouraged to kill Litvinenko because in June the Russian State Duma passed a law allowing the president to authorize attacks by the FSB on "terrorists" in foreign countries. In fact, the Russian intelligence services do not need a law to attack persons they regard as terrorists abroad. On Feb. 13, 2004, the former Chechen president, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, was killed and his 12-year-old son seriously injured when a bomb attached by Russian agents ripped apart their SUV. The new law, however, gives a seal of legitimacy to such operations and guarantees that those who carried them out will not be disowned or forgotten in the event of failure (or possibly even prosecuted in a post-Putin democratic dispensation).

In the last six years, the makeup of the ruling elite in Russia has undergone a dramatic change. Once in power, Mr. Putin filled the majority of important posts with veterans of the security services, many with ties to him dating back to his work in St. Petersburg. By 2003, the top ministers, half of the members of the Russian security council and 70% of all senior regional officials in Russia were former members of the security services. At the same time, many of these persons gained access to great wealth. Russia was already highly corrupt under Boris Yeltsin but, according to IDEM, an independent Russian think tank, with the rise in oil prices the level of corruption in Russia between 2002 and 2005 increased 900%.

The result of these developments was that Mr. Putin created an FSB ruling class. As this class became rooted, the victims of contract killers in Russia began to include some of the most prominent political figures in the country.

That Putin sought to off one of his own critics using radiation is good reason to worry. Clearly, this sinister man is willing to risk lives, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's got as many nuclear weapon plans stored away as Iran and North Korea do. He must be stopped.

Update: Daniel Freedman asks if British police will question Putin in the case. Alas, the problem is that, with the position he's in for now, they can't.

Labels: Europe, Russia