Excerpt:
‘They did not like him in St Petersburg,’ said Litvinenko, who served on the local assembly. ‘They remember Putin as taking bribes with the assistance of Mr Sechin.’
Igor Sechin was Putin’s aide. Today he is one of Russia’s most powerful men who runs the state oil firm and insists even his helicopter has spoons made of gold. He symbolises the mafia cabal that has become rich by raping their country’s wealth and doing whatever it takes to stay loyal to Putin, from buying up media outlets that spew out propaganda to funding mercenaries abroad.
Little has changed since St Petersburg beyond the ambition and scale. Putin was appointed prime minister in 1999 by a drunken president with dwindling authority – and instantly used hatred and terror to boost his popularity.
In September that year a series of bombs ripped apart four blocks of flats, killing almost 300 Russians. Security operatives were caught planting one device, while a key political ally disclosed the site of another attack three days before it took place.
Yet Putin used the slaughter to demonise Chechens and launch an onslaught on their republic. His popularity surged on a sea of patriotism, winning him the presidency months later.
This showcased Putin’s tactics: stoking fear, inflaming patriotism with a patsy media – and spilling blood. ‘This is a regime founded on terror,’ said David Satter, an American writer. ’We’ve just seen the latest manifestation of this in the UK.’
Western powers knew precisely the nature of Putin’s cruel regime from the start. Yet they chose to ignore his lies and contain, rather than confront, this malevolent man and his rapacious allies. Again and again we have seen this same appeasement of his tyranny: over wars in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine; over theft of territory in Crimea; over the shooting down of a civilian airliner; over the killing of internal enemies; over cyber-warfare; even over murder in our own land with the assassination of another former spy.
( Is this considered strength?)
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