Putin the Terrible, we love you

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1844508.ece ^ | May 27, 2007 | Mark Franchetti

[RusIvan]

Two days after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent, should be charged with the murder of his old colleague Alexan-der Litvinenko and demanded that Russia extradite him to face trial in Britain, I bumped into a Russian friend: worldly, pro-western and a fluent English speaker who has travelled dozens of times abroad.

I asked him who he thought had ordered the murder of Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic who died of a massive polonium210 dose in London six months ago. My friend had no doubts. “Boris Berezovsky of course,” he said forcefully. It was the exiled oligarch and foe of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who had smuggled polonium into Britain and ordered his protégé’s death. Why? To sully Russia’s image in the West.

However absurd that seems, many Russians would agree. Even in exile Berezovsky, once one of Moscow’s most powerful political players, is regarded as a Machiavellian figure whose influence, they believe, knows no boundaries. Those who do not share that view, including Litvinenko’s first wife, believe he was instead killed by the CIA or MI5, enemies of Russia bent on weakening it just as it is becoming strong again. Few here suspect the FSB, as the KGB is now known, or the Kremlin. Too small a fish for them to get involved, they argue.

[JasonC]

What unmitigated horsefeathers. The reason the Russian state is not cooperating with British police is emphatically not that there is no "there" there.

Putin is guilty.

Also, please remove me from your unsolicited ping lists, unsolicited pings are spam.

[freeforall]

Freedom is universal. East and west Berlin, North and South Korea are prime examples of the difference. The truth is Russia has never had any protection of the individual as the Anglo world has. In theory and practice.

[Diocletian]

Not all peoples are meant for such rule.

[M. Espinola]

Ronald Reagan defeated the Moscow's Evil Empire. Now we need to defeat Putin #2.

Which country do you reside, since you 'love Americans'?

[freeforall]

I disagree all humans are entitled to the same treatment. Why should those in authority have special rights?

[Diocletian]

Putin’s Russia is not the USSR. Sorry.

[Diocletian]

I disagree. Culture and history should be respected and it’s a mistake to assume that one system works for everyone.

[Roy Tucker]

The Soviets were done in 1991.

How enlightening, great beacon of knowledge from the Great White North deigning to bless us humble Americans with our heads in the sand with your knowledge. Were you even alive then? I was living in Europe at the time. How about you?

And to your trenchant historical note, I would say "Thank God". As would the hundreds of millions of people liberated by that event. But you can understand why for many Europeans and Asians the Soviet Union was viewed as Russian imperialism writ large. And with a former KGB agent in the Kremlin, they remain wary of their paranoid neighbor.

I will agree that economically Putin has been much better for Russia than Yeltsin and he deserves his domestic popularity. The US and the world benefit from a strong and prosperous Russia. But his stated view that the collapse of the Soviet Union was one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th Century makes his neighbors a little nervous. How about you?

[Roy Tucker]

Lest we forget. Putin and the Soviet Union

[Diocletian]

His statement about the collapse wasn’t a lament about the system but rather about Russia’s standing in the world. Hey, few were happier than my family and I that the USSR collapsed. But for Russians it is still a bitter pill to swallow to know that they’ve lost (and rightfully so) Empire. But being a Russian leader, Putin has to be sensitive to those feelings.

[Roy Tucker]

But for Russians it is still a bitter pill to swallow to know that they’ve lost (and rightfully so) Empire.

But according to you Russians and Soviets are not the same thing. All that came to an end in 1991. Now no one has anything to fear from peaceable Russia. It was those bad Soviets. So why should Russians be upset with the loss of the Soviet empire?

Care to wonder how Russia’s neighbors might feel about Putin’s “sensitive” comments?

[Diocletian]

You’re correct: Putin’s Russia is not the Soviet Union.

[Thunder90]

Don’t buy from LUKOIL or GETTY stations either. These stations get their oil from Russian and Venezuelan sources and are owned by the Russian (Soon to be Soviet again) government.

[M. Espinola]

Putin’s Russia has been transformed into the Neo-Soviet ‘energy & arms’ empire. That KGB sob arms world’s worst totalitarians, all of them hate America. That says a lot about you, since you continue defending Putin, no matter the issue, even assassination’s of scores of Putin critics.

[M. Espinola]

Thanks for the tip. I knew about LUKOIL, but now GETTY is another one which shall now remain in the rear view mirror.

[Diocletian]

even assassination’s of scores of Putin critics.

Sorry, I don't believe in Berezovsky-inpsired fairy tales. Putin took out the Chechen jihadis, and opposes the theft of Serbian land as well as Muslim control of Bosnia.

Good man.

[abigailsmybaby]

Thanks for that. None of those in my area either, but I’ll remember if I see them when traveling.

[M. Espinola]

"But being a Russian leader, Putin has to be sensitive to those feelings."

Was your hero Putin sensitive to the feelings for those he ordered murdered?

[Thunder90]

Those stations are primarly in the Northeast US.

[abigailsmybaby]

Ah!

Well it’s possible that we could be in those parts in the future. My hubby’s job entails lots of travel. We live in a 40’ fifth wheel because of it.