Editorial Bear

In Pierce Brosnan's debut as James Bond, he faced renegade Russians trying to hijack a satellite weapon. And his opinions of the new "Glasnost" Russian democracy?

"Governments change. The lies stay the same."

Ten years later, it looks like Pierce was on the money.

It seems Russia has never been destined to succeed. From the days of the Tsars to the reign of Stalin, the government has always been corrupted and discension dealt with by silver or lead. And while the free market economy has arrived behind what was once the iron curtain, it appears other facets of western culture haven't.

I blame that bastard Putin. It's becoming more and more obvious that his government was up to the neck in the murder of outspoken journalist Politkovskaya - brutally shot dead in her apartment. And when an exiled journalist, Alexander Litvinenko, met with one of his sources to learn more on her murder, the steely hand of the Russian government reached out to touch him.

Radioactive thallium is believed to have been slipped into a cup of tea and now Litvinenko lies in a hospital bed, possibly close to death. Thallium, as it happens, has been a regular contributer to the unexplained (yet inexplicably convenient) deaths of outspoken reporters.

It was back in 1978 when another Russian journlist, Georgi Markov, was murdered with a very James-Bond poisoned umbrella in an attack on the London Underground. It just goes to show that the shadow of Soviet Russia is still hanging over that country and Britain and America should regard the great Russian bear with as much suspicion and concern as we did during the Cold War.