As La Russophobe has already reported, Russia has embarked upon a practice of coddling war criminals. RIA Novosti reports that this practice is continuing, with a direct challenge to the President of Georgia:

MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow could grant political asylum to Georgia's former state security minister, Russia's deputy prosecutor general said Monday. Igor Georgadze, who was charged over an assassination attempt against former President Eduard Shevardnadze and put on the international wanted list in 1995, is currently one of Georgia's opposition leaders. He ran as a presidential and parliamentary candidate several times by proxy. "I saw the materials which the Georgian side had forwarded [to Russia], with a request to detain and extradite him [to Georgia]," Vladimir Kolesnikov said. He added that if Georgadze asked Russia for political asylum, his request could be granted.

La Russophobe does not dare to imagine what Russians would do if someone attempted to assassinate Vladimir Putin (a Chechen, mayhap), tried to be elected to office and then sought to flee the country to avoid procecution and was then given sanctuary in the United States. But it seems that the term "hypocrisy" either has no meaning in Russia or is actually coming to be viewed as a virtue, much as in Soviet Times. Welcome to the neo-USSR!