Guardian/UK
Behind the assassins, the grim truth of Putin's Russia
Leader Sunday November 26, 2006 The Observer
A former Russian intelligence agent is poisoned with a radioactive substance. He is a crony of Russian businessmen in London, men who got rich in Moscow under the lawless presidency of Boris Yeltsin. They are sworn enemies of Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin. Alexander Litvinenko lived dangerously and died mysteriously.
That is where facts end and speculation begins. Because the crime happened in democratic Britain, the public genuinely hopes police might solve it. Had it happened in Moscow, the response would be different: weary acceptance that the case is unfathomable. In Russia, audacious public assassination is a familiar story. Businessmen, politicians and journalists regularly meet such a fate (although usually they are gunned down, not poisoned with radiation). The crimes go unsolved. The truth is lost in conspiracy theories.
Mr Litvinenko's murder is an outbreak in the London diaspora of a disease that is rife in the motherland and there isn't much hope of it being solved. But while the police do their best, it is a moment for Britain to look eastwards and ask what sort of a country Russia has become. The answer is: 'Grim.' The rule of law in Russia is weak; justice is applied selectively to serve political and commercial interests.
Television networks are controlled by the Kremlin. Exercising free speech can be perilous. Journalists risk prison or death if they are too critical of the authorities. Parliament is supine. Independent political activity is stifled. State media promote a neo-Soviet cult of state power and xenophobia. Racist violence is out of control. Last year, at least 28 people were murdered and 366 assaulted on racial grounds. Non-whites live in fear of skinhead gangs.
Internationally, Moscow uses its natural resources to compromise the independence of neighbouring states, threatening to turn off the taps if it suspects former Soviet satellites of disloyalty. Foreign companies working in Russia fear arbitrary expropriation of their assets and extortion by corrupt bureaucrats.
President Putin is genuinely popular with many Russians. He has brought stability while high energy prices have subsidised rising living standards. But the brutish cynicism that made Russian streets dangerous in the capitalist free-for-all of the Yeltsin years has been concealed, not eliminated, by Mr Putin's bullying state.
The Russian President, meanwhile, is greeted as an ally in Western capitals for two reasons. First, with a quarter of the world's natural gas at its disposal, Gazprom, the state monopoly, can supply Europe's growing energy needs. Second, in 2001, Mr Putin convinced Britain and America that his dirty war in the Chechen republic, now run by a Kremlin-backed puppet regime with a reputation for systematic torture and repression, is a front in the 'war on terror'. In exchange for supporting the war in Afghanistan, Mr Putin won a moratorium on criticism of his undemocratic tendencies. That deal has expired.
The West should continue to engage with Mr Putin. Russia is too big to ignore and its interests and energy infrastructure too intertwined with Europe's for it to be isolated. But we must be clear about who we are dealing with. Britain should, for example, look sceptically at Gazprom's declared interest in buying Centrica, formerly British Gas. Gazprom is an arm of the Russian state and should not be allowed control of such a vital asset.
Energy relations with Moscow must be negotiated at the level of the EU, paying heed to new members from the old eastern bloc with their insights into how Russia does business. Economic co-operation with Moscow should come with strings attached to political and judicial reform.
By necessity, we must treat Moscow as a partner in some spheres, but Mr Putin has much to prove before he can be trusted as an ally.