Last week Nikolay Patrushev, director of the FSB (successor to the KGB), revealed to the world the frightening news that he has discovered the new Great Satan. Russia Today (the state-controlled English-language propaganda service), Pravda (the state-controlled newspaper) and RIA Novosti (the state-controlled wire service) shouted the news, breathlessly and unquestioningly, from their rooftops.

Who is it?

Who is the new most-dangerous sponsor of "international terrorism" in Russia?

Why, it's the NGOs, of course.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Chamber of Commerce.

Devious, isn't it? Who but the always-vigilant KGB could have uncovered such a mendacious and secretive plot?

Actually, though, Patrushev didn't name a single specific NGO that was supporting terror in Russia, nor did he give a single concrete example of any such activity. He simply said, in classic neo-Sovietspeak: "International terrorists and religious extremists enjoy the support of certain foreign non-governmental organizations when carrying out recruitment activities." That word "certain" was a great favorite of the Soviet criminals who ran the Politburo and drove the USSR right into the ground. It's ever so convenient, you see, seeming to say all while actually saying nothing.

Vladimir Putin has previously declared that Russia has the right to strike terrorists wherever it finds them around the world. Thus, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and the Chamber of Commerce had better expect Litvinenko-like targeting of their CEOs at any moment. Luckily, the heroic Kremlin has already shut down the evil forces of the British Council, which quite likely was responsible for the Beslan and Dubrovka terrorist atrocities. If only the Kremlin had discovered this plot sooner! Then, surely, all those innocent Russians would have survived!

How can anyone now doubt that what we see before us today is a neo-Soviet state laid bare. It is run by the KGB, something that didn't happen even in Soviet times. Sham elections, centralization of government, nationalization of the economy, wiping out domestic dissent and choking off the flow of information, and now the Kremlin turns its malignant eye toward foreigners, declaring them all to be dangerous foreign spies, just as was done in Soviet times.

If Russia is really such a pathetically weak nation that it needs to go to these ridiculous lengths to attack peaceful organizations, then there is no greater testament to Vladimir Putin's utter failure as a ruler. If it isn't, Putin is far too paranoid and malignant to be trusted as Russia's dog catcher, much less its "president."

Another thing that didn't happen in Soviet times was the admission of the Russian fox into the G-8 hen house. It's time for the Western world to to rise from its delusional slumber and realize the nature of the enemy it now faces in Russia, and to move speedily and resolutely to purge Russian influence from our democratic institutions.

If we don't do so, then we are complicit in the horror that is to come behind the new iron curtain.