I hope the Republicans in Congress come to their senses and stop blocking funds for Ukraine. On the drive back from Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport, Tommy’s friend Martin asked what I thought of Putin. Although sleep-deprived and jetlagged, I replied, “Putin murders people.” I can’t remember anyone asking me that question during my stay in the USA, although I did discuss the Russian dictator with Yelena Lembersky, author of Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour, a memoir of her childhood in St. Petersburg. Anyone who does not understand Putin should read both Yelena’s book and Masha Gessen’s The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. Here’s a short piece I wrote ten years ago that would be a good lead-in to a discussion of Putin’s behavior. “When the former mayor of Leningrad switched on the lamp in his hotel room, the electricity generated heat, vaporizing a toxic substance on the light bulb. Anatoly Sobchak died of a heart attack. Or so the government claimed. His two bodyguards spent the night in the hospital, where they were treated for minor poisoning.” A final analysis of Sobchak’s mysterious death in February 2000 has not appeared in the press because Russians, living in Russia, need to use caution in discussing such things. Europeans realize Russian misinformation campaigns and propaganda are not all people living here need to worry about. Last spring, Russian trawlers were spotted off the Swedish and Norwegian coasts. As a result, Sweden has started training exercises to stay on top of what must be considered a new threat to the “critical infrastructure on the seabed.” It seems that once Sweden joins NATO, Russia is poised to disrupt underwater communication avenues. This week, the Turkish parliament voted to approve Sweden’s ascension into NATO. No sign of this potential for aggression at the bottom of our road, where all is peaceful.
