Back to Litvinenko - this opinion in The Times is fascinating, especially if you read some of the comments after it: "We still know Putin is a monster, so why bother"?

Is it just me, or is it true that these days the journalists working in Russian departments of many media outlets are required to leave their brains with porters when reporting to the duty? BBC positioning next to each other a link to their own story about a girl who poisoned her mother with the rat poison (thallium), and Berezovsky's statement that "Only secret services have access to thallium", is very high in my list of stupidities. Another is Le Monde's invention of Egor Gaidar meeting with Litvinenko.

Don't get me wrong - it's OK to believe that Russia, Putin, or Russians are the heart of darkness. We all have some ingrained beliefs that form a significant part of our personalities, and parting with them leaves a gaping hole in the soul. It might be safer to keep prejudices intact for personal reasons. It's stupidity which drives me nuts.