Litvinenko’s murder is the latest evidence of Putin’s dictatorship, says edward luttwak |
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The accusation that the former KGB/FSB secret policeman Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by his former colleagues to stop his denunciations of President Putin is all too plausible.
But there is really no need to speculate about the murder of Litvinenko - only one of several recent victims - to form an opinion of Vladimir Putin's regime. The fact is that we are witnessing a return to Old Russia.
When the neat and Western-looking young law graduate from St Petersburg first became president in 1999, it seemed certain that he would strive to westernise Russia. His favourite subject was Russia's urgent need for more legality in all things, with fair and independent courts, honest and professional police forces, even competent lawyers. Putin also seemed to favour foreign investment and the continued liberalisation of the Russian |
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| Once again, whoever sits in the Kremlin is not subject to the law and, instead, controls its application |
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economy. Not much remains of these hopes.
When Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia's richest man, started to campaign for the presidency in 2003, he was arrested and charged with tax evasion. In the ensuing trial, the judges rejected almost every defence motion, and accepted almost every prosecution motion, and their 662-page verdict in May 2005 repeated the prosecution's accusations almost word for word.
In August 2005, Khodorkovsky, already in prison to serve a nine-year sentence, said he would run for parliament. Legally he was entitled to do so while his case was still in the appeal court, a process that usually takes a year or so. Instead, the final verdict came in two weeks - wholly unprecedented - precluding any parliamentary campaign. By then, nobody could believe either in Khodorkovsky's guilt, or in the independence of the courts that found him guilty. Once again, whoever sits in the Kremlin is not subject to the law and, instead, controls its application. 
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