Still More About Russia

Directly related to the last post, here's another story on the dangers of being an opponent of the Putin regime, this one from the Telegraph.

Speculation of the involvement of Russian agents intent on silencing opponents to President Vladimir Putin's regime, wherever they may be, has increased with an attempted murder in America and an apparent suicide in Moscow.

On the face of it the two incidents appear to have nothing in common, but Paul Joyal, shot in Adelphi, Maryland, on Saturday, is a friend of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy poisoned with polonium in London last year.

And in Moscow, Ivan Safronov, 51, was an ex-colonel and journalist for Kommersant who had irritated the Russian FSB security service with his frequent exposes.

He was reported dead yesterday after apparently falling from a fourth floor window of his apartment block on Friday.

The shooting of Mr Joyal, 53, was part of an apparent robbery, but law enforcement sources last night said it could merely have been a set-up. Mr Joyal, who struck up a friendship with Mr Litvinenko during visits to London, had recently told NBC's Dateline programme that the Russian's death was an act of "political retribution".

There are simply too many "coincidences" happening all at once. The Joyal shooting could have nothing whatsoever to do with Putin's government, but it seems more than a bit odd, doesn't it?