A friend writes from the deathbed of Alexander Litvinenko

Anti-Democracy: A letter from Russia by Andrei Nekrasov

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This article, posted in full in our weekly material, is the complete transcript of a letter sent to Helsingin Sanomat by Russian documentary film director Andrei Nekrasov from the bedside of his poisoned friend Alexander Litvinenko.
      Litvinenko, a former officer in the Russian FSB, died in a London hospital on Thursday evening, apparently the victim of poisoning, allegedly for his criticism of the Moscow government.
      In his letter, which was published in slightly abridged form in Finnish in the print newspaper, Nekrasov blames Russian President Vladimir Putin and the West for the fact that Russia has been left at the mercy of nationalist zealots.
      “There are corpses in the foundation of the new stability [in Russia], ghosts that speak to those who risk to venture into the night to heed them”, writes Nekrasov.
     
Nekrasov's lengthy presentation  of the connections between the culture of corruption, the decline of a free press, the trappings of oil wealth, political murders, and burgeoning nationalism in Russia makes compelling reading.


See also:
  Anti-democracy: A letter from Russia by Andrei Nekrasov (24.11.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat