TheSequitur.com Editorial Board
Dec. 23, 2006

The recent tragic deaths of two Russians, one a former spy and the other an outspoken journalist, not to mention many others reporting ill, leads us to believe that Mother Russia is still up to her characteristic shenanigans.

The poisoning of former KGB spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko – if proven to be done by Russia or its emissaries – could be the latest example of the reemergence of the Soviet-style tactics from Moscow.

Litvinenko had been critical of another former KGB agent – Russian President Vladmir Putin.  Litvinenko blamed him for the murder of journalist Anna Polikovskaya, a detractor of Russia’s military actions in Chechnya, shortly before Putin’s trip to Germany in October.

Months earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney skewered Moscow for oppressing dissidents and civil society in the old Soviet Republic. In a speech, scheduled purposely two months before the G8 Summit in Russia, Cheney accused Moscow of backsliding toward autocracy.
 
According to the Washington Post, Russia has rigged or cancelled elections, prosecuted dissidents and took control of independent television. Plus, Putin has been accused of harassing groups in civil society to deflect criticism of his administration.

“In many areas of civil society, from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties, the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people,” Cheney said of Russia.

In his speech in the former Soviet nation of Lithuania, Cheney also criticized Russia for using its oil and other natural resources as “tools of intimidation and blackmail” against its neighboring countries, including the perennially problematic provinces Georgia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan and Moldova

But the United States has recently found itself in a conflicting stance on Russia.  While Cheney urges for reform, the administration cuts funding for democratic opposition groups and President Bush plays nice with Putin, as he seeks help against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The one carrot the United States has over Russia is its admittance into the World Trade Organization, something Putin has lobbied Bush personally for but has failed to seal.

In fact, Russia has made some uncharacteristic moves in hopes of garnering enough support for admittance into the WTO. One example of a policy change is the lift on the ban of Moldavian meats and wines. Conversely, a ban on European Union meats has jeopardized Eurasian nation’s chances of joining the WTO. The policies, regardless of what superficially seems to be the intent, are all tainted with provisions that only benefit Russia, usually to an extreme degree and tantamount to highway robbery on an international scale. 

Discussion over the deaths of Litevenko and Polikovskaya and WTO eligibility merely scratches the surface of a more troublesome trend. Russia and her satellite states are in greater disarray than many in the West seem to fully realize.

Within the last year, there has been civil unrest in the northwestern region of Karelia, where ‘pogroms’ – a classical term for small-scale ‘ethnic cleansing’ – have been enacted upon people of Caucasian descent, in a scene eerily similar to the days of both the Tsars and the Soviets. There is a great deal finger-pointing about the cause of all the chaos and a permanently peaceful resolution seems far, far away.

Probably one of the more troublesome issues with Russia is her policy of selling arms to countries with less-than-savory reputations, such as Iran and possibly North Korea. Historically, rogue groups and terrorists have utilized Russian weaponry - most notably the infamous AK-47 – and the Russians seem to have indiscriminately doled out devices of war to anyone with a fist full of cash.

Alas, one cannot discuss the ruthlessness of the Russians without mentioning their mafia. The Russian mafia is the most prominent network of organized crime on the globe and – with the possible exception of the Japanese Yakuza – reputed as the most ruthless as well.

As the evidence becomes more and more conclusive, it unfortunately seems that some things never change, and Mother Russia seems quite content with her nasty, old habits. Must the world’s largest country forever be the biggest bully on the block?