[simon]

Originally Posted by Argos

What an argument! Politkovskaya's murder had nothing to do with the Kremlin. She had practically no influence on politics and public opinion and was of no danger for Putin whatsoever. Better look for the assassinators in another direction.

I also mentioned her poisoning on her way to Beslan. Politkovskaya was unimportant domestically, but important and famous internationally. She was an irritant to the Kremlin and its puppet government in Chechnya. Nobody else seems to have had a strong motive to kill her.

Litvinenko was a Polonium dealer. He transported that substance (in huge amounts!!!) in a not correctly closed container and the Polonium vaporized and contaminated every location, where Litvinenko went, for days. He simply inhaled enough that he had to die of a lethal dosis. It was an accident. It's quite unlogical to assume that somebody tried to kill him like this. It's like giving him a motor-cycle expecting he would die in a road accident. Assassinators work differently.

Do you have any evidence for this extraordinary allegation? The forensic evidence actually shows that Lugovoi and Kovtun were already contminated with polonium before they met with Litvinenko. They were travelling with polonium, Litvinenko was living quietly in London. Yet Litvinenko was the one who got a lethal dose of polonium at their meeting, not them.

Russia has tried for years to convince EU and USA to help solve the ethnic problems in these countries, but they refused, IT'S NOT IN THEIR INTEREST. They have their fun seeing Russia surrounded by their numerous problems with their former 'provinces', keeping them constantly occupied with unsolved conflicts, so they can't work on foreign politics of global scales. Russia now does what they have to do, no matter whether we like it or not. We had our chance.

The last years we have witnessed more than enough of those strategies, thought up in Washington, to keep Russia at it's place. It's a simple defence concept of the USA to keep their power. A high amount of conflict potential lets the USA remain the most powerful country in the world. An almost conflictfree, prospering world, especially in Eastern Europe and West Asia, makes the EU stronger. Therefore the EU should help solve the problems there, not support the USA with those politics. Helping Russia to develop it's economy and solving the numerous problems of this area will make Europe the most powerful institution of the world and it's really sad that an alcohol-abuse demented Texas cowboy takes us Europeans by the nosering and pulls us everywhere he wants. (Well, what to expect from a region, whose name comes from a cow, who was the fuck-toy of the Big Boss - who obviously fucks her till now!)

Your conspiracy theories are demented. The US and EU aren't forcing Russia to occupy part of Moldova, blockade Georgia, cut off Lithuania's oil pipeline or threaten to cripple Estonia's economy. Those are Russia's decisions.

It's not important, who is right or who is wrong, and what happened in the past - the main concern is the future. The neighbour-countries will have much profit from a working-together with Russia, there is no use for nationalist actions and revenge for things, which are not in the responsibility of the current political leaders in Russia.

Russia's current leaders are responsible for their bullying of their neighbours.

Another fact to observe: Putin had to fight from the first day of his reign against the 'family' and the nationalist military fraction. Every nationalist conflict in the former republics with their strong Russian minorities strengthens the power of the military and puts pressure on the government to act 'appropriately' and Russia is in constant danger that they may overtake the government or at least win the next presidental elections, which will be a highly undesired development for the EU. The EU should consider, how to build the house Europe for the future as long as we are able to do it.

Russia is indeed a threat to its neighbours. We shouldn't appease Russian nationalist bullying as you suggest, we should stand up to it.