Posted by Sean on March 18, 2007
The New York Times continues to follow the windy road of the murder investigation. Including the notion that Litvinenko or one of the people he met shortly before his illness was trafficking polonium. So far, who exactly possessed said polonium remains unclear. Was it Dmitry Kovtun, Andrei Lugovoi, or Litvinenko himself?
German police have summoned Kovtun to discuss this question. But according to the NY Times, Kovtun calims “It wannit me.” In fact,
Mr. Kovtun says they have it backward, maintaining that Oct. 16 was the day that Mr. Litvinenko exposed him to the poison, polonium 210. “I am far from thinking that something was premeditated,” Mr. Kovtun said. “I think things that were not premeditated were happening.”
That said, Kovtun and Lugovoi also have no idea how he was exposed or whether Litvinenko had the polonium on him. ..read more
Posted by Sean on March 18, 2007
Gotcha! Actually, there is still nothing new concerning the shooting of Paul Joyal, though it appears that DC police are pretty much convinced it was an ordinary crime. According to the Washington Post, “sources with knowledge of the investigation said this week they are increasingly convinced that the incident is the work of ordinary criminals rather than part of a wider conspiracy.”
Joyal has yet to make a statement to the public. I find this a bit strange considering the media attention and allegations that the incident was another Kremlin conspiracy and just one more example of Russia’s “dying democracy.” He has apparently given his account of the incident to the cops.
[Oleg] Kalugin [former KGB General, longtime friend, and former business partner] said this week that Joyal is in stable condition and has given a partial account ..read more
Posted by Sean on March 18, 2007
By N. S. Rubashov
Thanks to the widely-held view that Russia’s regional parliamentary elections held on Sunday were a “dress rehearsal” for December’s upcoming Duma elections, the former have received a considerable amount of attention from Russia analysts. One particularly interesting discussion that has emerged is the question of whether we are seeing the emergence of a two-party system in Russia, as the “Just Russia” party has recently been born to serve as a center-left counterweight to United Russia.
Most analysts recognize the fact that Just Russia is, like United Russia, a Kremlin creation and will not truly play the role of an oppositional party as understood in the western democratic sense. It is for this reason that it is misleading and dangerous (from an analytical standpoint) to speak of the creation of a two-party system, as the term implies true competition for power. ..read more
