Some Big and Nasty People

Peter Hitchens writes:

Do you really think the Russian deep state couldn’t have murdered Alexander Litvinenko secretly, in such a way that we could never have traced it to them?

The oddest thing about this case is the use of a violently radioactive, totally traceable poison, and the conduct of the two alleged killers, whose revolting deed was mismanaged in a way that would be comic if a man had not died as a result.

Meanwhile, the two suspects prance about in public (I once met a smirking Andrei Lugovoi in Moscow, as he strolled through an expensive hotel). 

This is surely a gesture of angry contempt, against which Moscow knows we are more or less powerless to react effectively.

We might wonder why.

Maybe it has something to do with our courts refusing to extradite people such as the Chechen leader Akhmed Zakayev, regarded in Moscow as terrorists, and then giving them political asylum.

Whether this decision was right or wrong (and I don’t know enough to say), you can see why it might annoy them.

Despite being an increasingly insignificant country, we have got ourselves involved with some big and nasty people in a rather rough neighbourhood.

I hope it’s worth it.