The diplomatic confrontation between Russian and Britain is hitting a boiling point. In response to the expulsions, Russia said they were “russophobic,” ‘immoral,” and part of “a carefully choreographed action” that could result in a political backlash. Nevertheless, Mikhail Kamynin, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, reiterated Russia’s willingness to cooperate with Britain in the Litvinenko case.

That doesn’t mean that Russia is going to sit idle. Alexander Grushko was quoted in the Guardian saying that Russia will give their response soon adding that whatever it will berespo1 Russian-British business ties will be kept in mind. Russia’s Resources Minister, Yuri Trutnev, told reporters that “I don’t think it makes sense to impose restrictions that would affect the investment climate, because that would be very expensive, including for Britain.” He’s right and the Guardian concurs. There is no way Russian or British elites are going to pump this crisis up far enough so it starts hitting their wallets. For what? Justice? Lugovoi? Pride? There are limits to pride and they usually begin and end with one’s pocket book. As Marsellus Wallace said in Pulp Fiction, “Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.”

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that the crisis will be free of all sorts of historical imagery and comparisons. The Guardian declared that “Cold War Diplomacy is Back as UK Expels Spies” but failed to explain the connection. The Daily Telegraph stated that Britain’s actions hark back to the “depths of the Cold War” when Russian and Britain engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions in 1985. The article then proceeds to recount the 1985 crisis to suggest continuity.

Russia also pulled out some historical arrows from its rhetorical quiver. One Kremlin adviser, Sergei Markov said that Britain was behaving in an “imperial” manner. Vladimir Zhirinovsky dug deep into the history books saying that Britain’s machinations can be spotted not only in the Crimean War, which Russia lost against Britain, but also in Alexander II’s assassination, and the Russo-Japanese War. Zhiri is always good for a laugh. I’m surprised he didn’t bring up the 1927 war scare over Britain’s proposal to give Germany Danzig and the Polish Corridor in the Western powers efforts to redraw the Eastern European map. Just for fun, if historical allusions must be made, I think that revisiting the “Great Game” of the 19th century is the most promising and often neglected because of the Cold War’s continued hegemony of historical memory.

Andrei Lugovoi has also responded to Norberto Andrade’s claims that he was distracted the night of Litvinenko’s poisoning. Lugovoi called Andrade’s statements “laughable” and either “a lie or stupidity.”

Lie maybe, stupidity, well, that certainly can’t be applied to Mr. Andrade alone. It’s clear that both Britain and Russia are skipping hand in hand down Stupid Lane quite gaily.

The Moscow Times reports that the Russian government published its blacklist of books, articles, pamphlets, films and records in Rossiiskaya gazeta on Saturday. The list includes 14 works that the Putin government says incites racial and political hatred. Sergei Vasil’ev, the Head of the State Registrar, told the state newspaper that “Russian citizens must know that displays are one of the sources for extremism that are dangerous enemies to society’s stability and well being.”

There are currently two statutes on the Russian Criminal Code that pertain to extremist speech. The first concerns calling out for or verballing inciting “extremist activities.” The other punishes the “agitation of hatred, animosity, or degradation of human dignity”. Conviction of either carries of a maximum prison sentence of five years.

The list consists of the following:

1. “Music for White People,” The Order.
2. Book of Monotheism, Muhammed idn Sulaiman al-Tamimi.
3. Letters of the Kuban Rada of the Spiritual Ancestral Power of Rus’, N. M. Lezinskii, V. M. Gerasev.
4. For Russian People, newspaper.
5. The Eternal Jew (1940)
6. Mother Earth: the Miraculous Miracle, the Marvellous Marvel. An Introduction to Geobiology , A. A. Dobrovol’skii.
7. “Paganism as Magic,” A. A. Dobrovol’skii.
8. “Who is Afraid of Russian National Socialism,” A. A. Dobrovol’skii.
9. “The Judeo-Christian Plague,” A. A. Dobrovol’skii
10. “Svatoslavie,” A. A. Dobrovol’skii.
11. One Day We Will Come from Rotten Tomatoes, A. A. Nikolaevnko.
12. The SS Knocked on Your Door, the Bastards . . ., A. A. Nikolaevnko.
13. Fulfilling the Wishes of the Lord’s Thought, A. A. Nikolaevnko.
14. The Most Constructive Party,” A. A. Nikolaevnko.

One can see from the list the targets are Neo-Nazism, Islamic fundamentalism, and radical Russian nationalism. Particularly cited are the works of A. A. Dobrovol’skii and A. A. Nikolaevnko. According to the Russian human rights group, Demos, the latter was convicted in July 2005 for the publication of his article, “The Most Constructive Party” in the newspaper Kurs. He was sentenced six months in a labor colony and deprived of practicing journalism for two years.

Dobrovolskii is an advocate for neo-paganism which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as the wave of “Third Russian Nationalism.” The publication of his articles have led to several convictions in local Russian courts.