Timothy Post.com

The diplomatic poker game between Britain and Russia just got a whole lot more interesting.

The announcement on Wednesday by “… Metropolitan Police (where it was) officially confirmed that a Russian man had been detained June 21 on suspicion of plotting to kill a prominent London-based Moscow critic (aka: Boris Berezovsky. You have to love British understatement), but released two days later without charge…” is the poker equivalent of Britain “turning over” one of its “cards.”

It seems to me reasonable to infer that there is a strong causal link between this new announcement concerning a supposed plot to kill Berezovsky and Monday’s announcement that Britain would expel four Russian diplomats from the Russian Embassy in London in response to Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi. The key here is that British officials confirmed it. Normally such stories are wild spin by Berezovsky.

If Britain was under the assumption that the Kremlin had a hand in the Litvinenko murder (a big if since there is no evidence proving a link) then it would go have gone “ape shit” over supposed MI5 reports that another murder was in the works in late June. Hence, the announcement on Monday. Britain was sending a message to the Kremlin, “No more.” (BTW- Gordon Brown assumed office on June 27th and reports are that the supposed plot was broken-up on June 21st. Can you imagine the confusion inside 10 Downing Street on when they should make the announcement to expel Russia’s diplomats).

What’s interesting is that the Kremlin’s response to Monday’s announcement was not that of a guilty party. Instead, the Kremlin was left scratching its head wondering what the hell had gotten into the normally staid British government.

So that leads us to the question, “Now that Britain has turned over another card how should the Kremlin play its own hand?”

I think that this new development opens the door wide-open for Moscow to begin to change, once and for all, the erroneous perception in the West that it is lawless country where “power” is more important than “freedoms.”

The Kremlin should make an announcement immediately that it is simply appalled that one of its own citizens would attempt to travel to another country in an effort to murder another country’s citizen (although that citizen is a former Russian national). The Kremlin should further say that while it very much wants to see Mr. Berezovsky brought to justice, it certainly does not want to see him dead.

Next the Kremlin should ask MI5 and the British government to help Russian prosecutors to bring this supposed assassin to trial. The Kremlin should also publicly ask the British government why it was not informed of this horrible plot earlier. How come Britain waited almost a month before informing the Kremlin? And most importantly, why the heck did MI5 not have the proper authorities arrest and hold onto this supposed assassin? There is still a part of the story the British aren’t telling us. Why would they deport a person whom they had just arrested for plotting to murder someone?

Such a response will show that the Kremlin has no intention of protecting accused murderers even though it still can not extradite its own citizens.

Once the Kremlin has this new information it should then quickly have a very public trial (I nominate Dominick Dunne to cover it for Vanity Fair). The key is that Britain hand over the evidence so that Russia can conduct its own trials.

Such a move by the Kremlin will show that it does not tolerate politically motivated murder and that since it is a nation of laws it would rather see Berezovsky convicted than killed.

My money’s on Moscow.

// 07.18.2007 at 10:42 pm // Tagged politics, russia