** RUSSIAN PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES. The sensational London murder of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko by radiation poisoning, coming as it does on the heels of the gunning down last month in Moscow of prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya, would seem to presage a new time of tension between what we used to call the West and the East. Yet behind the scenes, Russia is being more helpful to the US than is commonly realized.
None of which is to say that the regime of former KGB colonel and St. Petersburg deputy mayor-turned-Russian President Vladimir Putin is not problematic. More than a dozen journalistic critics of the unique way of doing things in Russia have been murdered in the last few years. This includes Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of the war in Chechnya and of Putin, as well as the editor of Forbes Russia, an American citizen, no less, gunned down on the streets of Moscow. All of the Russian journalist murders remain unsolved.
Were New West Notes operating in Russia, I wouldn’t simply be kidding around about packing heat, as I do with Jerry and Anne Brown before coming to Oakland.
Notwithstanding the current veneer of designer clothes and luxury brands, not to mention the world’s largest urban agglomeration of billionaires, Moscow is something of a Wild West city, and has been for years, ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall gave rise to Chanel envy. In the ’90s, I advised one of the Russian reform political parties. One of the party’s prominent members was placed with me, among others, by the U.S. State Department to learn about American politics. He spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time on the phone to Moscow. Not infrequently, he would tell me about prominent party members who had been shot or mugged. While he ended up in the Duma, the Russian parliament, it would be hard to say that my advisor role was highly successful. The last time I checked, the party’s web site was a porn site.
The advent of Putin has brought a new measure of pride to a Russia reeling from the loss of the prideful Soviet empire and the rise of buccaneeer capitalism. A friend of mine, a Russian emigre, used to fantasize about being Putin’s daughter. The fact that she, a model, is nearly a half-foot taller than the diminutive power broker did not diminish her regard. The return of some power and a measure of prestige to what was, until 15 years ago, one of the world’s two superpowers, can’t be underestimated.
But this pride seems problematical. Litvinenko, who wrote of what he described as the extreme corruption and ruthlessness of Putin’s Russia, claimed before he died that he was murdered on order of the president. As the Russian saying goes, who can really say?
Nevertheless, the fact that clearly political murders routinely go unsolved in one of the world’s major cities is more than a bit suspicious.
That said, no one should become too excited about a possible return of a US/Russia cold war. Russia, according to sources, has been a regular source of intelligence about the Islamic Jihadist threat, from providing the best mapping of Afghanistan onward. Putin, following two private meetings with President George W. Bush over the past week, has agreed to back America’s play in pressuring Iran to forestall its nuclear weapons program. And Russia is playing a backchannel role with regard to the emerging US priority for Iran to help settle the Iraq crisis. Even as it delivers rockets to protect Iranian nuclear facilities from possible air strikes.
So those looking to the Bush Administration to raise a hue and cry about the Litvinenko and Politkovskaya murders may be disappointed. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair may hold his tongue, despite the sensational murder of Litvinenko in his own capital city. Though I rather doubt that. Someone went too far. London is capital of the English-speaking rodina.
** Track computer memory prices on a daily basis. Memory prices are stable.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are back up around $60 per barrel on signs of some OPEC production cuts and lower oil tanker fees.
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Oil prices seem manipulated. Down before the election, up after, who is fooled by this now?
The Russian stuff is fascinating.
Putin is such an obvious thug. You don’t need friends attracted to that.
Could not Mr. Litvinenko have poisoned himself? I hate to say this but he may have felt pressured to produce on his sensational charge that the Russian secret service blew up apartment buildings in Moscow to pave the way for Putin’s rise. That would be a very Russian thing to do, to kill oneself and draw attention to an even more sensational charge.
I’ve learned not to be too critical of friends’ choices. The Russian experience is unique in the modern world. Imagine that we had grown up with our typical sense of American exceptionalism. But without the material wellbeing that surrounds us. Yet in a profoundly materialist society. That was the Russian experience.
Then what was special was taken away, with the fall of the Soviet Union.
No wonder Russia, and so many Russians, are untethered.
I hadn’t thought about Litvinenko possibly kllling himself before. He had not only accused the intelligence services of blowing up Moscow apartments but also Putin of having the journalist murdered. Those would be hard things for him to prove from London. But dying, and the manner of his dying, certainly shines a spotlight on his charges.
Even if Russia’s help in the war in Afghanistan, and counter-terror efforts, are valuable, one has to worry about giving Putin a pass for so long that he really does consolidate Russia into a completely centralized, unfree country, setting us up for another Cold War… The US has a habit of creating new enemies in its effort to defeat the old ones. (see: Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein.) I wish I had the sense that there were more people in the administration who understood that, or even that Bush might listen to the ones who are there…
Good points.
Certainly, the people who used this poison knew this story would blow up like this. Come on. Instead of just shooting him, they use this trick James Bond like Polonium element used to heat Lunar Rovers used in missions to the Moon. As much as I hate to, I agree with Hemlock.
That makes a lot of sense.
Not to stray off-topic (or at least back to a topic from several days ago), has anyone seen Kaus’s writeup on Sanford Bishop, summarizing several news and blog pieces? They seem to have found a face-saving way out of the Harman/Hastings standoff… I’d be happy with just about anyone but Hastings…
Re: the suicide theory — on the one hand, you’d think the Russians would be more circumspect these days, but on the other, they and their allies have a long and colorful history of weird, showy assassinations. Georgi Markov, defector and BBC journalist, was killed using an umbrella gun that injected a tiny platinum sphere full of ricin.
Also, Jonathan has an awfully appropriate name for this topic. *g*
The point is not to avoid embarrassment at House Intelligence, the point is to achieve excellence.
That name is only speculation, in any event.
Isn’t the real American agenda to do whatever it takes to settle the chaos down in Iraq before getting out?
That’s why Russia is in play with Bush.
Pelolsi should name Harman.
Bush is going to use Putin get out of Iraq. Even Bill’s Pajamista colleagues must know what a horrorshow disaster Iraq has become.
I don’t actually wear pajamas.
Ann, that’s a wonderful typo just above!! Full marks! lol indeed.
What typi?
When will someone expose technorati.com?