Crime and (no) punishment

Larry Smith Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day 1991. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Parliament dissolved itself. Those events had a profound and lasting effect on a young KGB officer named Vladimir Putin. Putin’s hurt and embarrassment has never dissipated, either in his head or in his heart. This blow to his pride would be utterly irrelevant were it not for the fact that he is now a megalomaniacal, homicidal would-be despot who presides over a vast nuclear arsenal. Putin’s dream is to reconstitute the Russian Empire (which, incidentally, is different from the Soviet Empire). In his eyes that is the only way to restore the honor, respect, and fear that he believes Russia is due. Those who cross Putin must be dealt with decisively, especially if they are Russian. That certainly was this case with his long-term nemesis, Alexsei Navalny. To Putin, Navalny was not so much a person to be thwarted as he was an obstacle to be annihilated.& & The charismatic Navalny died last week under very questionable circumstances in a remote Russian prison. (The murder is so brazen, and the surrounding secrecy so cliché, it would be rejected as a plot in a John...