Lugovoi the Liar

With all the hoopla around the Anna Politkovskaya murder case, we’ve forgotten to check in with good ol’Andrei Lugovoi to see how he’s doing. Whether valid or not the Politikovskaya murder is often linked with the Litvinenko murder with the following terms–dissident, “fierce Kremlin critic,” Berezovsky, Chechnya, KGB/FSB, and, of course, Putin. Unlike the Politkovskaya […]

And Then There Were Nine . . .

Scratch two off the list of suspects in the Anna Politkovskaya’s murder.  Yesterday, authorities released Alexei Berkin from police custody for lack of evidence.  Prosecutors initially believed that Berkin was in league with the Chechen based Lasagna criminal gang (no really that’s what the article says ‘lasagna”  Man, these guys really need to lay off […]

The Hubris of the Populist Race Card

Alexander Zaitchik and Mark Ames tackle the rise of skinhead violence in Russia in the latest issue of the Nation. As they point out, what was a trademark of Islamists–i.e. the beheading video–has now been adopted by Russian skins. In addition to the video, they note other signs of an escalation in skinhead violence. Namely […]