I think it's a combination of things. The aura of KGB, their old style of dealing with people who get in their way certainly points in their direction. After all, Putin is ex-KGB. Then you have the element of mafia that took over the country pretty much, in terms of any kind of decent size business or at least involved in it, with a number of KGB people out of work suddenly finding work. I'm sure you've heard that as brutal as people on Soprano's were - they don't hold a candle to what Russian mafia did and does. It could be a coincidence that this guy, being ex-KGB, being anti-Putin, all of a sudden dies by poisoning and if it was food poisoning I'd tend to believe that it could be unr...

I think it's a combination of things. The aura of KGB, their old style of dealing with people who get in their way certainly points in their direction. After all, Putin is ex-KGB. Then you have the element of mafia that took over the country pretty much, in terms of any kind of decent size business or at least involved in it, with a number of KGB people out of work suddenly finding work. I'm sure you've heard that as brutal as people on Soprano's were - they don't hold a candle to what Russian mafia did and does. It could be a coincidence that this guy, being ex-KGB, being anti-Putin, all of a sudden dies by poisoning and if it was food poisoning I'd tend to believe that it could be unrelated, but since he died of radiation poisoning - that's a totally different beast, not something you contract by catching someone sneeze... so it looks like a pro job and it smells like it was done by people who... let's say 'disagreed' with his sentiments on the subject. And no, Russians don't mess around, at least on the smaller scale. On a big scale they don't have the same luck (Afghanistan, Chechnya).

There were lots of people employed by the KGB (btw, KGB stands for Committee for National Safety and it was suppose to be kind of equivalent to FBI here, although acting quite a bit differently. People here scream about the Patriot Act infringing on people's rights - they have no idea what infringement is if they look at what KGB used to do in the old days). I'll let you do the math - I used to live in a building of 216 families. 2 of such buildings were 'monitored' by a KGB agent, which roughly translates to one person handling maybe 1000 people or so. The country had 250 million back then... that's one big organization. And it had unreal number of management steps on top of that.

Of course there's also the other hand... Putin is a very smart fellow and he would've known this move would very likely get many people on his case... which begs 'why would he do it?'

Unfortunately our enemies dictate changes in the old status quo. Liberty in everything shouldn't equate to stupidity when it comes to enemies. There are good reasons why yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater isn't protected by the 1st Amendment and it wasn't the Patriot Act that created that limitation. The whole US system of government (with term limits, various branches etc.) pretty much would negate any possibility of the soviet-style dictatorship becoming possible. The last election was another proof of the system.

As for the 'fascination' with first hand accounts... I had my information from a pretty reliable source working for the KGB, but I certainly had no way to verify it... so j...

Unfortunately our enemies dictate changes in the old status quo. Liberty in everything shouldn't equate to stupidity when it comes to enemies. There are good reasons why yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater isn't protected by the 1st Amendment and it wasn't the Patriot Act that created that limitation. The whole US system of government (with term limits, various branches etc.) pretty much would negate any possibility of the soviet-style dictatorship becoming possible. The last election was another proof of the system.

As for the 'fascination' with first hand accounts... I had my information from a pretty reliable source working for the KGB, but I certainly had no way to verify it... so just telling you what I've been told. My grandpa had numerous friends and acquaintances who disappeared here and there in the 50's.