As of writing interesting things have happened in the ongoing saga of the poisoning of Alexander Livinenko and the subsequent escalation of tensions between the UK and British governments. I dont have much to add to that which isnt self evident by the news coverage but I was taken by this particular piece in the English-language Kommersant, a Russian online newspaper which gives a pretty good insight into Russian thinking on the ground.

I immediately noted this except from the opening paragraph:

"In essence, London has begun an information war aimed at convincing the European Union to voice more decisive support for the UK in its conflict with Russia."

Thats clearly absurd. The British government simply doesnt have the ability to mobilise the British press for any such aim, our press doesnt work like Russian press does and I think theyd do well to remember that.

Yet for the seemingly out of place headline the whole article is pretty well written and isnt hysterical or overtly toeing some Russian propaganda line. However it does seem to make that common mistake I see with a lot of commentary out of Russia. Their assumption is basically that because a particular story is in the British media then it forms the basis of a British campaign, in this case to demonise Russia and obtain sympathy from the rest of Europe to act against Russia. It is, of course, complete and utter nonsense. There is no united front of British media.

Heres a relevant bit:

"This diplomatic stance by the British authorities is curious, given that the leaks to the press came from MI6 and the RAF, both government entities. In any case, these leaks achieved at least one goal: they helped consolidate British public opinion..."

The central idea here is that if the British press found out about any development concerning Russia from a governmental agency, then the leak of this information must be the result of an underhand policy of the British government. This is of course utter nonsense. We have an active free press in this country and they have a great many sources which wont be official lines of communication. Of course that doesnt mean these *werent* deliberate leaks, but Kommersant infers that this could only be the case.

I found the article interesting because it seems a pretty well written and thought out analysis albeit with one or two common Russian misconceptions about how things work in the West. Then it seems to have been sexed up with the hysterical headline (Britain sounds Air Raid Warning) and with a claim that its all part of a propaganda campaign. You can almost see the copy coming in and then being edited in this way by the newspaper fearful of their position in the tenuous Russian media industry.