Putin vows to (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) hunt down reporter's killer

[Devastatin Dave]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...src=rss&rpc=22

Uhhh-huuu
Anyway anyone want to predict who will be the Patsy for ol' Valdy, everyone's favorite "ex" commie KGB colonel.

[Papewaio]

If he can blame the Chechnyan's he can kill two birds with one stone...

[Tribesman]

Anyway anyone want to predict who will be the Patsy for ol' Valdy, everyone's favorite "ex" commie KGB colonel.

I wonder what sort of comments were made about this reporter and Putin on this forum at the time of Beslan ?

[Major Robert Dump]

The gunman didn't wear a mask. The fact that someone may, at some point, be able to identify him tells me that whoever hired him simply offed him when it was done.

Or, he was just a drug addict stalking someone he thought had dineros.

[Mithras]

their's a fair chance he didnt know, the sheer scale of corruption in the Russian goverment makes it a possibility that somebody did this behind his back-even if they support him. More likely is that he gave a subordinate a nod or quiet word and it will be impossible to make anything stick to him.

[Husar]

This whole thing with russia and Putin dounds pretty weird, at first I liked him, Schröder likes him, then I hear about things like no media freedom, soldiers being violent, his imperial dreams and so on and erm, I wonder where he wants to get with all this?
Personally, I would prefer more friendship between Russia and Europe(and Russia and the US) but it seems like Putin has to go for that to happen and he is rather young...

[Pannonian]

This whole thing with russia and Putin dounds pretty weird, at first I liked him, Schröder likes him, then I hear about things like no media freedom, soldiers being violent, his imperial dreams and so on and erm, I wonder where he wants to get with all this?
Personally, I would prefer more friendship between Russia and Europe(and Russia and the US) but it seems like Putin has to go for that to happen and he is rather young...

He's said that he won't stand for re-election, so you'll just have to wait his term out. I'm not so sure that a different approach would be good news for us, given that Putin has successfully stabilised Russia and made a start on the corruption. As we've seen with Iraq, a tyrannical but stable neighbour may well be better than a theoretically "free" but unstable version (see Yeltsin). As long as Europe can predict Russia's behaviour, we should be content.

[rory_20_uk]

Shock horror! Politicians killing civilians! Whatever next? Illegal invasions?

Nah, the UK and USA have that one sewn up.

And one casualty? Pah - we've caused thousands

[macsen rufus]

"Who will rid me of this turbulent Press?"

I don't like Putin, never have. He represents Russia returning to character after the brief escape attempt from its past it made under Gorbachev (and the befuddled tottering around under Yeltsin). He's an archetypal Russian strongman with oppressive/militaristic/nationalistic tendencies, of the type typified by Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, Stalin et al. Stability at a terrible cost, but the Russian national psyche seems to need these ruthless types. I don't honestly believe he has to look very far or very hard to get to the root of this murder/assassination. Of course, it COULD all be a horrible coincidence....

Besides, his eyes are too close together

[Fragony]

It does make for great humor though. A few years ago when russians were freezing their nuts off this old man explained that Russia has only 4 real problems, spring, summer, fall and winter

[Devastatin Dave]

Did you quit smoking?

[Lemur]

And one casualty? Pah - we've caused thousands

Hmm, there's a false equivalence being drawn here. A least in the West, when our governments decide to screw up big, we have the freedom to yell and scream and call them names. That's worth something.

It's difficult to overrate the importance of a free press and an independent judiciary. They're two of the things we find very hard to re-create in other environments. I wouldn't take press assassinations lightly, nor equate them with legitimate (if misguided) policies taken by representative governments.

[Gregoshi]

Maybe they can join OJ Simpson on the golf courses of America as he hunts down his wife's killer. Golf courses are the first place murderers go after the crime.

[Xiahou]

Hmm, there's a false equivalence being drawn here.

There's the backroom in a nutshell for ya.

[rory_20_uk]

To call teh "evidence" of the iraq war legitimate is slightly optimistic. that politicians can talk in definites when intelligence was talking in probabilities is pretty damning.

Yes we can talk and scream... Little more than that. Demonstration is illegal outside Westminster.

Some countries people can't talk out. Amateurs. Here, we can talk out - just nothing really gets done about it. Even if a President or PM is caught detaining, transporting, torturing the fair and free courts can take years to point out the blindingly obvious. Then our democratically chosen stooge (from a choice of 2 in the US, 3 in the UK) does what they are told and if required legalises what was illegal.

When in the UK police arrested protesters when the head of China visited the investigation found that this was wrong... Months after he went home and of course nothing really happened.

[Lemur]

Rory, sounds like you're pretty cynical about our governments. Allow me to throw down a quote from one of your more famous contrymen: "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

[Spino]

In bad taste but this incident reminds me of a Yakov Smirnoff joke from a 1980s beer commercial...

"In Russia you don't need to find Party Putin... Party Putin find you."

[Ice]

"Who will rid me of this turbulent Press?"

I don't like Putin, never have. He represents Russia returning to character after the brief escape attempt from its past it made under Gorbachev (and the befuddled tottering around under Yeltsin). He's an archetypal Russian strongman with oppressive/militaristic/nationalistic tendencies, of the type typified by Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, Stalin et al. Stability at a terrible cost, but the Russian national psyche seems to need these ruthless types. I don't honestly believe he has to look very far or very hard to get to the root of this murder/assassination. Of course, it COULD all be a horrible coincidence....

Besides, his eyes are too close together

Bullseye. I agree 100%. I guess Russia isn't meant to have the freedoms we take for granted in the west.