|
|
|
Last Updated: Jul 16, 2008 - 8:58:43 AM |
The BBC ran an
interview on July 7 with an anonymous high-ranking agent of Britain's
MI5 counterespionage unit who declared that Russian authorities were
behind the poisoning death in London of former Federal Secret Service
agent Alexander Litvinenko.
The declaration will probably lead to a new wave of angry
recriminations against foreigners, and many will be asking why this
unidentified MI5 agent made these accusations during a popular BBC
program. But the answer to that question is simple, albeit unpleasant,
for the Kremlin: to support and defend the rule of law. In normal
countries, people are not usually poisoned with polonium-210 in the
heart of a major world capital, with the murderers walking away
scot-free.
In another case, British spymaster Alex Allen, who is also chairman of
the country's Joint Intelligence Committee, was found in a coma in his
London apartment two weeks ago. British newspapers speculated that
al-Qaida or the Russian secret service might be responsible for his
condition.
To be honest, I don't think Russian agents could have pulled off such a
major feat. They are limited to more modest and blunt operations, like
blowing up a bus in Nalchik or a market in Sukhumi. But Alex Allen?
Don't make me laugh. This is nonsense. An agency more accustomed to
shooting down unarmed people in Nazran and then photographing the
bodies with planted weapons in their hands is hardly qualified to
orchestrate a sophisticated operation against an ace agent like Allen.
At the same time as these events were unfolding, the London court
agreed to hear the claims of businessman Michael Cherney against
oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Cherney accused Deripaska, his former business
partner, of failing to pay the full price for his shares in Russian
Aluminum.
I don't want to guess the outcome, but I think Cherney's claims aren't
worth the paper they were written on. Cherney's industrial empire, in
which Deripaska once participated, was built upon extremely informal
connections between the various players. The ownership documents
Cherney has in his possession, and which both he and Deripaska have
signed, are quite typical for such shady transactions -- that is, they
might carry some validity in the criminal world, but not in a British
court of law. Nonetheless, the British court agreed to hear Cherney's
case on the rationale that he was unable to obtain justice in Russia.
It is truly a sad testament to the current state of affairs when a
London court considers Russia's reputation as being worse than
Cherney's.
They say that it takes the first half of your life to build your
reputation, but during the second half, your reputation then works for
you -- or against you, as the case may be. Cesare Borgia, the
15th-century Italian military commander, probably did not sleep with
his sister, as has been claimed. He just sent killers to knock off her
husband, and when they failed in the first attempt, Borgia ordered them
to go back and try again. The second time, however, they finished off
the wounded man in his bedroom, in front of Borgia's sister.
Objectively speaking, Borgia was an excellent commander and a brilliant
statesman, and it is unlikely that he was responsible for half of the
killings attributed to him. Nonetheless, he has been stuck with a
largely negative reputation.
Before Litvinenko's poisoning death, Russia had one reputation, but now
it has a different one. That new reputation won't change until the
murder case is investigated and brought to its full conclusion -- and
until murder suspect and State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi gives an
honest deposition instead of giving self-promoting news conferences and
television interviews.
In democracies, there are certain things that should never be bargained
away or swept under the carpet. Murder is one of them.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|