Is Putin the new Stalin?

I have tried to read what I can and understand the case before drawing any conclusions regarding the murder of Alexander Litvinenko with the use of radioactive polonium. I find it a bit disconcerting as a restaurant in London seems to be one place of contamination in Piccadilly. Disconcerting since I was in Piccadilly very recently myself. Though polonium really has to get into the body to be deadly and that means ingesting it.

Now an Italian academic, Mario Scaramella, who met with Litvinenko in Piccadilly has been admitted to hospital with the same poisoning.

Numerous Russian critics of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin have turned up dead. Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister of Russia is now in hospital and is said to have been poisoned. The polonium has come from Russia. It was taken to London on a British Airways flight from Moscow. Three planes are now grounded as because of contamination. Twelve sites in London have been identified as being contaminated.

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death in her apartment building. She was a fierce critic of Putin. Other opponents of Putin have been jailed. Putin has taken steps to control the media and to establish control over non-profit organizations. He has solidified control over the economy and is slowly establishing a new form of Stalinism in Russia.

Litvinenko was an agent of the KGB where he specialized in antiterrorism and in fighting organized crime. He became convinced that Putin was deeply involved in the criminal underground and that the war in Chechnya was fraudulent -- that is that Putin was responsible for the bombings which were blamed on separatists in Chechnya. Politkovskaya also had similar views.

Some apologists for Putin claim that Litvinenko was not really a major opponent of Putin until very recently. In fact four years ago he published a book Blowing Up Russia which said that Russian security agents blew up the apartment building that killed 300 and which was blamed on Chechen separatists. Putin had the book confiscated in Russia. In another book Litvinenko said Putin was directly involved in organized crime.

I don’t know if this is true or not. What I do know is that Putin is intentionally pushing for a dictatorship. I know he jails critics and I know that many people who were working to expose Putin have ended up dead. I know the polonium killing requires access to a nuclear reactor. It appears the polonium has been traced to Russia. And the number of killings of Putin critics is beyond coincidence.

I suspect, but wouldn’t try to prove yet, that Putin is behind these murders. I have no hesitation saying Putin is a tyrant. And it ought to worry libertarians when some “antiwar” experts defend Putin every chance they get. Something very bizarre is going on there. One need not be pro-war to be anti-Putin. Apparently some people only hate big government when it is American and turn a blind eye when discussing tyrants like Putin. (Another fan of Putin is white supremacist David Duke who also finds Jewish plots regularly.)