From Russia With ... Conspiracy Theories?

I’m not saying the British Government are perfect, far from it. I don’t like politicians much, agreeing with Bill Hicks: “All politicians are lying cocksuckers”. Certainly true of Peter Mandelson, and Jeffrey Archer (in no particular order). Crude perhaps, but my point is this; the current “sleaze” of British politicians and respective peers - using their status to get things they want, and for all the charmless drudgery of Gordon Brown’s chubby fingered grip on power - things are much worse in Russia.

Last week Stanislav Markelov, a Russian, Moscow based Human Rights lawyer, was shot dead. He was shot dead at 3pm, outside a 17th century palace, and the 25 year old reporter who was with him was executed too. There were no witnesses and the hit was performed with “professional” accuracy. Moreover, Markelov was a very well known Human rights lawyer, with a record of taking on difficult cases against the government for crimes committed against Chechens. He 'defended those who were killed or humiliated by the State'. The reporter, Anastasia Baburova, worked for Novaya Gazeta, about the only opposition left to Putin’s government.

Strangely enough there were no words of condemnation from any of Putin’s team. There were no police around at the time of the murders, when there ought to have been, and the whole thing stinks of either a shadowy agency, or possibly the Chechens, operating without the Government's orders but with it’s blessing. Or from the actual Government itself. I find this very, very scary. Really you want your Government only killing people in private (China), abroad (Britain and USA) or not at all*… May have to google that one, but I imagine the Swiss have a fairly good Human Rights record.

This is not the first time an outspoken critic of Putin has turned up dead, or close to it. Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London with Polonium and Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in her apartment elevator. No one has come to any punishment for each of these crimes. The owner of Novaya Gazeta now claims most of his reporters carry guns they are so scared. With the efficiency of these hits there seems little point.

*I'm partial to this one

He Had a Dream: Day 1

As Barack Obama kicks his naff job title suffix into touch and simultaneously grabs the Shake n' Vac to rid the White House of the Bush stench that's thoroughly ingrained in the parquet flooring, the rest of us wonder about the 'ifs'.

If, like his predecessors, he'll solicit headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons. If, aside from the much talked about melanin, the legacy of a Black man in a White House will leave us, the lovers of the free world, with anything noticeably different. If, he'll take the opportunity to pad around his new palatial surrounds in the buff, straddling the opulent upholstery and haranguing the portraits of his infamous predecessors before the wife and kids descend...

Read more: Black man. White man. Grey area.
(An altogether more thought out piece)