Take, for instance, Chernoy. He has been investigated or blacklisted on suspicion of money laundering, illegal business deals and connections to the Russian mafia by half a dozen European countries and barred from entry by the U.S. authorities. Two former CIA directors are reported to have resigned from the board of the Intelligence Summit -- the industry's former and acting members' annual gathering -- upon getting the news that Chernoy was sponsoring the event. However, he is welcome in Britain and reportedly is shopping for real estate and a soccer club.

Zakayev, Berezovsky's friend and one of the closest associates of the late Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who planted the dirty bomb in Moscow's Izmaylovo Park back in 1995, claimed in 2002 that the separatists may resort to attacking nuclear facilities in Russia. A former protege of Berezovsky, Alexander Litvinenko, was -- as reported by the Western media quoting the Italian rogue dealer Mario Scaramella -- involved in a nuclear-materials black market. His comrade-in-arms Leonid Nevzlin is sought by Russia on several contract killings charges. Together this group shares the wealth of several billion dollars, common hatred towards the Kremlin, sophisticated connections and support worldwide and, possibly, access to nuclear materials.

Other features that unite them are the lack of moral barriers and unwillingness to stop at anything they consider an obstacle.

The cozy reception to these people, at least explainable when coming from real-estate agents, boutique salespeople and bankrupt soccer-club management, is peculiar, to say the least, when offered by the authorities.

However wealthy or mighty this handful of personalities may be now, they are hopefully not the economic, social or -- God forbid -- political solution for Russia; neither are they a reliable tool of influencing the political processes in Moscow. They do not care whether a tyrant or a democrat sits in the Kremlin; all they seek is turning the clock back and getting back to the times of unrestricted pillaging. And the means of reaching the goals do not really matter to the oligarchs with an agenda.

Unless the strictest forms of public, media and governmental scrutiny replace the continuous conscientious naivete -- or something worse -- to keep them in check, not only another political bomb of dirt but a real dirty bomb can detonate. And this can happen not necessarily in Russia, but in any Western capital, including London, with an intention to implicate "the bloody Putin regime," a "hand of Moscow," "resurrected KGB" or whatever else the media will be eager to call the culprit. But at that tragic point the Britons would have no others but themselves to blame.