These days the administration of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown must surely be longing for the Khrushchev or even the Brezhnev era.

The authoritarian Putin has gone out of his way to bully and cajole his neighbors, to say nothing of his assumption of virtual dictatorial powers on the domestic stage, but then again the people of Russia seem to embrace this erosion of the few personal friends the people of Russia have ever enjoyed. It would not be an exaggeration to contend that Russians today are less free than they were during the 1980s or even the 1960s. Now it seems even Russians outside of Russia aren’t even safe.

First Putin has, former KGB agent and Putin critic, Alexander Litvinenko killed using a highly radioactive poison, endangering the lives of countless Brits, now it appears MI5 only recently foiled another Russian plot to kill billionaire Boris Berezovsky, another vocal critic of Putin. At least when Stalin had Trotsky killed, his assassins didn’t endanger the lives of other innocents.

Given Putin’s brash affront to civilized relations between nations it is no surprise Prime Minister Brown took the action he did, though it would be quite surprising if any good comes from it, after all if Russian media is to be believed, Britain and the West in general are simply targeting Russia, but then again the words “Russian media” is a euphemism for the Kremlin…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2100345.ece