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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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From: ChinuSFO	12/3/2006 9:39:47 AM
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Excerpt from: theaustralian.news.com.au Whether blame for Litvinenko's death lies with Russian gangsters, rogue elements within the state's security forces who perhaps thought they were operating with a nod and a wink from Mr Putin, or even with Mr Putin himself, the case is only the latest in a series of incidents that should raise alarm bells about Russia. A state whose government is unable to prevent -- or worse, allows -- its nuclear material to be sent abroad to kill raises a horrifying spectre in the age of terrorism. And Litvinenko's death comes as former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, himself a free-marketeer and critic of Mr Putin, has been stricken by a mystery illness that saw him begin vomiting blood while attending a conference in Dublin recently. Mr Gaidar's family is attributing the illness to a poisoning attempt -- although in this case radiation poisoning has so far been ruled out. All of this suggests that as much as the attention of the world's foreign policy thinkers is focused on machinations within the Middle East, we ignore the doings of Russia at our peril. With its seat on the UN Security Council, Moscow is in a position to thwart Western foreign policy -- something it does routinely. Here it seems uncomfortably close to other strongman-led regimes, having blocked action against Sudan for its genocidal behaviour in Darfur or stymying US-led efforts at the UN to punish then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Moscow's access to nuclear material through its 31 operating nuclear reactors and its nuclear weapons (despite massive reductions in its arsenal, Russia is thought to still have around 10,000 such devices) is all the more worrisome. No matter who killed Litvinenko, the world should have serious concerns about what is going on in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

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