Putin administration's critic poisoned

Originally Posted by Skexis

I wonder more and more now how much Russia can manage to keep under wraps, or if they're trusting the U.S. relations with North Korea and the middle east to keep the spotlight.

Considering that Russia was able to flatten Grozny with nary an ill effect, I'd wager that they can get away with quite a bit.

However, even if the U.S. wasn't tied down with the Middle East and North Korea, why would the suspicious deaths of critics of the Russian government be worth the U.S. government's attention? And even if it was, what could we do about it? Russia isn't quite as disorganized as it was when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the U.S. government's failure to realize this and adjust the mindset and strategy with which they've dealt with Russia accordingly is probably one of bigger mistakes they've made.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I suppose this represents an ideological divide between us, because the sanctity of Russia's press isn't something I feel justifies some kind of confrontation with Russia over. Particularly since Russia has more than enough weapons at its disposal to make such a confrontation painful.

For example, the vast majority of Europe's natural gas is provided by a Russian company, Gazprom. The Russian government controls a large share of Gazprom's stock, and is represented by a majority of Gazprom's board of directors. Presumably, many Europeans could be made to not worry about what President Putin does to dissidents if they don't want to freeze in the winter.

Similarly, Russia has developed considerable influence in Central Asia and the Middle East, both of which are areas of interest to the United States. Any deal with Iran we try to reach with Iran about it's nuclear program would be useless if Russia doesn't agree to go along with it. The U.S. government could be concievably be made to care less about Russian dissidents if the pressure it tries to exert makes Russia less worried about a nuclear Iran.

There's also the problem of China, which is also less than totally free in its press. They, like the Russians, don't want the U.S. to establish any kind of foothold in Central Asia and are less than happy about our commitments in East Asia. It has been so unhappy about it that it effectively allied with Russia against the U.S. in Central Asia.

Which doesn't say anything about the influence they both hold with North Korea, and any agreement we try to reach concerning the North Korean nuclear program.

There's nowhere I can't reach.