The Invited Guest - II

As tomorrow's EU Lahti summit approaches, President Putin may be feeling he would rather not attend this event and dinner, which promise to be acutely embarrassing for him. The FT gives a foretaste of what will be on the menu, quoting part of the contents of an open letter from the Liberal group in the European Parliament, which will be published in Novaya Gazeta (the paper Anna Politkovskaya worked for) and the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat, among others:

Excerpts include: "We are deeply concerned that political opposition is being slowly but surely eliminated and that those who dare to finance it, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, are being silenced and incarcerated.

"We therefore challenge you to reverse those policies which are strangling your country and its private citizens, conduct an open and independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Anna Politkovskaya and others and bring the perpetrators of this and other murders to justice." Otherwise, it says, they will be agitating against a new EU deal with Moscow.

It's enough to make Putin choke on his herrings.

See also: The Invited Guest