Jul
19
Berezovsky-fest, Russia Responds
July 19, 2007 | 8 Comments
I promise to get on to other topics but with all the drama, which I am an avid sucker for, I feel compelled to continue. I am the moth to the flame.
It appears to be Berezovsky-fest in the Western press. A Google News search reveals hundreds of articles on the alleged assassination plot against BAB. Unfortunately, there few concrete concrete details. RIA Novosti is reporting that British police lacked enough evidence to arrest the would be killer. According to an article published in the Independent, “One reason why the man was not charged was because he was not armed,” the paper said. “Although intelligence had led the security agencies to believe that a plot was being organized against Mr Berezovsky, there was not enough presentable evidence to put before a court, according to security sources.” The man police detained is said to be in his thirties and British intelligence had been tracking him for a week after his arrival in the country. Suspicion heightened when the man attempted to buy a handgun. Police detained him for two days and then handed over to immigration services. He’s since been deported. Nothing more has been said about the alleged kid the assassin was to use as a human shield. Too bad. I thought that was the most compelling part.
My question if there was not enough evidence to charge this man with attempted murder, then what evidence do the British have? Do they even have any?
No one, and I mean no one, is surprised that some powerful people want Berezovsky dead. Even Edward Lucas admits that he “wanted to strangle him.”
Whether the plot was real or not, what it has done is given BAB yet another platform to mouth off. I mean could this guy be even more of a narcissist?
“I am one of the most important witnesses in the Litvinenko murder. They are trying to reach me because I concentrate a group of people who create real opposition, an opposition able to act, and I have enough money to support this opposition.” He then admitted that he’s dumped $300-$400 million into it.
Kommersant claims that in an interview with the French paper Le Figaro, Berezovsky is claiming that he “pioneered Russian capitalism.”
Sure if by Russian capitalism, you mean crony capitalism. Hey BAB, checkity-check yo’self before ya wreckity-wreck yo’self. Is this what Chappelle meant by when keepin’ it real goes bad?
BAB did say in an interview with RFE/RL that he would accept being tried in a third country. “There are actually many countries that fit that description, such as Denmark, Norway, Germany, and one can name at east five or six other such countries in Europe,” he said. One country chomping at the bit is Brazil, whose Public Prosecutor, Rodrigo Di Grandis, issued an arrest warrant yesterday for BAB if he enters Brazil.
In other related news, Russia has expelled four British diplomats and promises to “act reciprocally” on visas in response to the British move. This tit-for-tat reminds me of “I know you are, but what am I . . .” To think that these countries are actually considered world powers.
I must say the repeated statements that “cooler heads will prevail” is getting stale. If they will, will someone please say were the hell are those cool heads gonna come from? Certainly not the US or the EU. US Secretary of State Rice and the EU are just fanning the flames with their categorical statements that Russia cooperate with the British. The EU statement evoked “unpleasant surprise” says Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov. “We would not like the principle of European solidarity to be applied selectively to Russia. That will inevitably harm Russia-EU relations,” he added. This doesn’t bode well for Rice’s doublespeak about not “isolating Russia.”
This, of course, doesn’t mean that Russia can stand there innocent and perpetually play the deck of victim cards it appears to have. Consistently claiming “russophobia” and “western plots” sounds more pathetic everyday. I think the Russians would have done well to just listen to Andy at Siberian Light and respond by giving no response to claim the moral high ground. Or they can take some advice from Don Corleone, who told a whining Johnny Fontaine, “You can act like a man! What’s the matter with you? Is this how you turned out?” But the Russians didn’t, to virtually no one’s surprise.
As many will point out at issue here is law and politics. And it is no surprise that when one side claims law, the other charges that it is really politics. True, Britain does have an obligation to solve a murder committed on its soil, especially one involving radioactive material. And Russia does have an obligation to follow its Constitution and protect its citizens from extradition.
But since Russia is certainly tired of being damned if they do and damned if they don’t, I think that they are going to hold to their guns and test how far Britain is willing to take this. Putin’s mantra is sovereignty and it appears there is no compromise on that. Considering this, we should remember whose audience Russia is more interested in addressing here: its own citizenry. Russia clearly has enough geopolitical clout to thumb its nose at the illusion that is the “international community” with little repercussion. Losing a bit more international capital is nothing compared to the domestic political capital gained from telling your people, “Look we are no longer a defeated nation and we aren’t going to take it any more.” Putin’s on a roll and with Parliamentary and a Presidential elections coming up, he’s not going to change course for anyone, let alone the British. Plus it all seems to be working. According to a recent poll conducted by VTsIOM, 90 percent of Russians polled approve of his foreign policy. Perhaps there is some Russian muzhestvennost’ at play here after all.
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Comments
8 Comments so far
Nice post. I’m a sucker for this whole thing, too, so expect more at SL over the next few days, until a more interesting story comes along. Or I get bored. Which-ever comes first.
I hadn’t seen the bit about the British police getting suspicious when the wannabe assassin tried to buy a gun.
If true, I think we can rule out any serious FSB or Russian government involvement.
Losing a bit more international capital is nothing compared to the domestic political capital gained from telling your people, “Look we are no longer a defeated nation and we aren’t going to take it any more.”
This is sadly true: most Russians would gladly go hungry and without running water if it means they can tell themselves that they are a strong country and they can thumb their nose at the west. If this is what Russians want their priorities to be, then that is their choice and I’m fine with it.
What I find odd is that the Russians who complain about the state of affairs on the ground, i.e. there being no running water, intermittent electricity, shortage of consumer goods at reasonable prices, etc. are the same Russians who think it’s a great idea for Gazprom to forcibly appropriate large chunks of foreign investment and make grandstanding speeches about pointing nuclear missiles at Europe.
As I’ve said before, I find it frustrating the way Russians are often incapable of connecting the state of affairs on the ground with the manner in which they are governed. Very few Russians realise that the reason they see old women climbing hills in the snow carrying buckets of water, the reason they get stopped by dodgy police and made to cough up a bribe, the reason they are not able to travel to Moscow to seek better work is because their leaders have their priorities all wrong.
This is sadly true: most Russians would gladly go hungry and without running water if it means they can tell themselves that they are a strong country
Thanks Tim for explaining to us our national idea. Such a wise man you are.
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Now I better understand why Miliband is doing so stupid
Sean.
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As one man said – it was very wise done by British to deport the “hitman”. So no one can even prove he existed
This is sadly true: most Russians would gladly go hungry and without running water if it means they can tell themselves that they are a strong country
Thanks Tim for explaining to us our national idea. Such a wise man you are.
Looks like Tim had nailed it right on the head.
”… most Russians would gladly go hungry and without running water if it means they can tell themselves that they are a strong country and they can thumb their nose at the west.”
This is absolutely correct. Russians do not care about the state of the country internally as long as it appears powerful. Or rather if a Russian is fed and has any sort of bearable lifestyle he is happy and f*** the rest of the country. Russia has undoubtedly one of the poorest developed senses of social justice in Europe, if not the poorest. This is shown in microscosm by appartment buildings all over the country. Inside the appartments will be clean, full of books and homely. Outside, its the jungle, and what happens outside Russians write off as ”Eto Rossiya” or some other such flippant nonsense.
But the most important thing is that Russia is looking good on the world stage. I’ll put it this way; remember the crash in Germany four or five years ago that killed around 200 people from Ufa, the mid air-collision? Russians, quite rightly, were livid about it, but crucially, a foreigner was involved -the Swiss air-traffic controller. Then came Dubrovka. Was anybody angry about the people who died afterwards cos of shite medical care, doctors not warned? Not at all. That was different. That was a Russian fuck-up, not a western one. Was Putin hauled before an public enquiry to explain what happened there or at Beslan? No way. What was the difference between the Russian government and the Swiss air controller? Both were handling tough situations. Both fucked up. People were killed. Was the Swiss man really more culpable? Surely its Putin’s job to ensure public safety, same as it was the job of the Swiss man. I’m waiting for a cacaphony of indignation; save your breath; I’ve heard it all before and am not impressed. If Russia wants to be a G8 nation, then maybe it should start to act like one.
Anyway, I’m starting to sound like LR, apologies. The bottom line is that Russia would be far better employed sorting out its wretched internal problems than throwing shapes at the west.
Anyway, I’m starting to sound like LR, apologies.
While I agree with what you said Ger, let’s not pile up on Russia alone. (And I am not saying you are). This is not a Russian phenomenon. I think most if not every culture at some point goes through this same exact state of mentality. Yes, the amount of garbage in the streets and in stairwells of apartment buildings is shocking but it is of the same nature with people emptying night pots into the streets in 18th century Edinburgh.
This and outright – almost hostile – disregard for anyone that is outside of your “circle” were the two major shocks for me when I visited Russia for the first time after 15 years of absence. I can’t find any other explanations but to attribute it to ? clannish mentality anachronism amplified by the 70 years of deprivation from any sense of responsibility for what’s yours.
To be sure, things are changing. Private ownership begins to bring responsibility as well as expanding the narrow boundaries of clannishness to eventually (I hope sooner then later) flow over them into the “treat all others like you would like to be treated yourself” mentality. This shows up first in the private service and retail sectors. When everyone is a potential client, clannish mentality breaks or fades.
Some people begin to wave others pass in traffic and dirty stairwells get cleaned when buildings get privatized.
I suspect it would have been even faster and better if it had not been for Putin and his populistic and fake charge against oligarchs. BABs and Khodorkovskys are no different from robber barons of the old US. But everything in Russia is amplified, including speed. Khodorkovsky was already beginning to reinvest back through his college for example. In less then a decade after his riches.
Unfortunately for Russia, Putin turned the clock back towards more monopolism, bigger government and bigger dependence on it while replacing real capitalist oligarchs with thieving bureaucrats. And this type only invests in themselves.
Thanks Tim for explaining to us our national idea. Such a wise man you are.
Looks like Tim had nailed it right on the head.
Posted by Cyrill
I still hope he missed the head
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