The brilliant Economist columnist Edward Lucas describes the battle for hearts and minds now going on in London over the Russian attack on Litvinenko. He says there are three camps, with Berezovsky's and Khodorkovsky's in the unfortunately divided opposition going up against the Kremlin's onslaught. He aptly sums it it up: "the mood in moneyed London is still largely positive towards Russia. In thinking London it is increasingly negative. The battle continues." A moronic Russophile commenter named "Martin" launches the usual crude personal abuse, and Edward lays him to waste with ease.

Valiant Estonia has passed a law calling for the destruction of Soviet monuments in the country, which Estonians view as salutes to Russian imperialism and rape of their nation.

The New York Post publishes three letters from ordinary Americans condemning the Putin regime's outrageous provocation at Munich ("America says 'nyet' to Putin's politics") in response to the Post's earlier article exposing Putin as a neo-Cold Warrior.

A Russian government report says that a Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 returning to St. Petersburg from the Black Sea went down on Aug. 22, 2006, near the southeastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, after its crew sent distress signals as a storm raged in the area, because a pilot-in-training was at the wheel, wwith the the plane's 10 crew members 160 passengers, all killed, as guinea pigs.

The Times of London reports that even the Kremlin cannot agree on the terrifying scope of Gazprom's power, resulting in a visible fissure.

A Moscow suburb has been quarantined for deadly bird flu according to the AP.

In a timely reminder, Time magazine tells us about a film now in theaters that reminds us about the dangers of the Soviet Union.

An anonymous commenter notes a story on Pravda about "a secret cemetery has recently been discovered in the vicinity of the city of Nizhni Tagil in Russia’s Ural" being reported by Komsomolskaya Pravda. KP claims "the cemetery was used by an organized criminal group for burying bodies of women who refused to work as prostitutes for the benefit of the gang."

Russian Kafe posts photographs of the laughable (and gross!) old Soviet "gas water" soda machines. Unable to afford cans or bottles, the machines relied on rinsing the same drinking glass for patron after patron. Apparently, Russians are hot to return to those good old days. Isn't that sad?