Fingerprints

The present regime in Russia represents more than just a few out-of-control thugs. It is an attempt to retaliate for all that has happened. It was entirely predictable, even though nobody saw it coming. The “Putinism” which has taken root in Russia is the old, familiar everyday Soviet fascism, if now in a less original guise. I recall Mr Anatoly Chubais gloating over the mass slaughter of Chechens in the winter of 1999-2000 and declaring that Russia’s Army was being reborn in Chechnya. He was absolutely right. The Chechens were the first to be on the receiving end of Russia’s rebirth. Later it was the turn of some of the oligarchs, of so-called democrats, human rights activists, journalists and others. It is beginning to dawn on certain groups in the West just what Mr Putin represents. Certainly, his fingerprints are all over London.

Akhmed Zakayev, in Chechenpress