.A level-headed article at last, but far too late to do any good. The mud has been cast and the boobs used up all their attention span just figuring out what the hell polonium is when it's at home.

All that the Putin-bashers have to do is put up a headline quoting some Berezovsky flunky about evil Russians and the media goes into a feeding frenzy.

It's the sort of juicy James Bond stuff that the boobs want to read, alongside the periodic Al Qaeda plots that provide them with their dose of fright infotainment.

Who cares if a couple of weeks after everybody has been cavity searched for liquid explosives the whole thing fades away into oblivion?

Berezovsky is a murderer and thief. For Euros and Yanks he's a "businessman." Litvinienko was in charge of an FSB section tasked with preventing the infiltration of the FSB by the Russian mob - by people like Berezovsky IOW.

He decided he would be better off working for the mob. He became Berezovsky's hit man, bumping off rival mafiosi and nosy journalists like Vlad Listyev and Paul Klebnikov. IOW he was a dirty-cop-turned-mobster.

For Euros and Yanks, that makes him a "dissident."

Litvinienko's greed got the better of him. When Boris wouldn't make him a partner, he decided to blackmail him. After all, he knew where all the bodies were buried. He didn't count on Boris's long arm.

One day an Italian called him for an emergency meeting. He told him he had documents about the Anna Politkovskaya murder. Litvinienko was curious to see these, especially since he had probably contracted the Chechen hit man himself.

The Italian, a cetain Scaramella, was the nuke expert of the shady SISMI and a member of the Russia-bashing Mithrokin committee. For the Euro and Yank press, he was an "academic." It turned out - to Litvinenko's puzzlement and relief - that he had nothing to show him but an email printout.

One hour after the sushi restaurant meeting Litvinenko started throwing up. That's how long polonium takes to show its first effects.

Can there be any conceivable connection between a SISMI agent - especially one whose job is to dig dirt on Russia - and an alleged Russian plot to kill a so-called dissident? Of course not.

Considering the timing of the sushi meal and the first signs of poisoning, could any other of the suspects have done it? Of course not.

Considering Scaramella's unique background as the top nuke expert of Italy's shady intelligence agency, is there anyone else among the suspects who had more ready access to polonium? Of course not.

I have a strong vested interest in the affairs of the Federation of Russia. These interests, unlike some of my friends, are not in financial matters, rather, personal affairs.

Russia is nothing if not enigmatic.

The lasting impression of those natives who have left the massive country is the relative lack of paranoia in whatever new home they have found.

Russians, and those people of the former USSR were raised, cultivated, educated, clothed and drenched in a uniquely paranoid culture. It is part of a very old system derived from a nightmare realm where no one can be truly relied upon when personal danger arrives. Every state official, every state agent, every local constable, every Orthodox functionary and every man on the street is convinced that someone is out to get him. It is impossible to understand the history of Russian Communism if you ignore the reach and prowess of paranoia.

Joseph Stalin murdered, in one week, every personal physician he had (eleven, of the countries best), due to the remote possibility that they were trying to kill him. One simply can’t be too careful.

In the Russian Federation, Murder, suicide, and robbery are rampant, and become worse every year this current travesty of democracy holds power. However, the crimes are not new or novel occurrences.

There is no middle class there and has not been—EVER—not under Lenin et al, not under the Romanovs or any preceding tribal heads or governments—going back, at least, to the 12th century AD. There have always been The Power and The Poor.

Today, there are the Mafia businessmen and their protectors, the State. Beyond these are artisans, shopkeeper and the variously described poor—comprising the far greater percentage of the populace.

In sewers, under the streets of Moscow, live thousands of feral children—just as they did under Stalin. The nation leads the world in per-capita orphans. Most of these children are not orphaned by parental death—rather are left at orphanages by parents that i- cannot afford the costs of raising the child—ii are alcoholic or drug addicted—iii- simply do not want the child. At fifteen, the children are put into the streets; hence the sewer population.

Russia recently experienced a brief period during which much of its petroleum (which is vast) was privately controlled. During this period, benzene (gasoline) was state subsidized, resulting in prices about one-third of that of the U.S. consumer. The state expropriated the private petroleum, imprisoned/exiled the private ownerships and gasoline prices shot up by a factor of three.

The recent income tax (as you point out) is flat and clearly regressive; the Mafia pays at the same rate as the poor.

The old, shabby and ubiquitous “Stalin” apartments were sold to private owners—not because of charitable or free enterprise motives—but because the upkeep was deemed too high for the state. Under the new arrangement, these five to six-story facilities, built before elevators, were rented at costs reflecting the floor of occupancy. The top floors—accessible by endless concrete stairways—were taken by the old and infirmed, because these only were affordable.

The Russian people are accustomed to hardships and struggles—they joke about conditions that would erupt in revolution in many of the world’s nations. They are a very compliant people—many seldom, if ever, hope for a better world.

The state leaders are comforted by the certain fact that no one is old enough to remember when the common people were better off.

The present regime’s governmental transition has produced better PR for the country’s leadership, but has produced little for the common man.

The average citizen has never questioned their leader’s capacity (or even their right) to assinate potentially troublesome functionaries—public or private. These are considered as mere casualties of maintaining power and order. Nothing personal, just loyalty in maintaining efficient government.

Almost certainly, Russia has been guilty of murdering more innocent people than any country of the last two-hundred years. The theory is that’s it’s better kill an innocent than allowing a guilty to live. The innocent should be glad to sacrifice his life for the safety of his country.

Is the Russian government responsible for the recent deaths of international notoriety?

Well, no one really knows—and, after all—one shouldn’t be paranoid.