Last night, all the news station carried the same story: UK expelled 4 Russian diplomats because of Kremlin’s refusal to hand over former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Lugovoi is the suspect in the murder of former KGB Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned last year in a London restaurant. The poison is said to be a radioactive material traced in Russia’s nuclear plants.

Anyhow, this post is short & sweet (I’m running out of time) so apologies in advance if you are bitin (left wanting).

It’s a good publicity for Gordon Brown’s early days in Downing Street. Set aside the fact that the Bank of England just raised the interest rates again (& is likely to do it again in 6 months’ time), his government’s response to the recent failed terrorist attack & the continuing investigation seemed to put Brown in a very positive light. You know, Man of Action, no BS. Then we got all these publicities (aka. news reports) that Brown will not be pandering to the US, you get the sense that finally UK is not US’ doormat anymore. The Blair-Bush romance is definitely over.

And now Brown said in his press statement that there is no “apologies” to the UK’s expulsion. In one newscast (I forget if it’s SkyNews or BBC News 24), the reporter said that the speech was a clear warning to any country that the UK will no longer tolerate defiance. Something to that effect, basta it looks like Brown is keen on being seen as a hard man after all. Not the sullen, boring Chancellor of Blair’s.

Now here’s my thought… All well and good. But I can’t help but wonder, if this “pressure” on Russia isn’t a joint scheme with the White House to push Putin over the edge. Recently America & Russia’s relationship has been fraught due to the bases being opened/planned in former Soviet countries. Putin didn’t like it & there were all these talks of the Cold War returning. Now with Brown’s decision, the term “Cold War” is being bandied about again.

It can make you wonder. In exchange for Brown’s PRs about distancing himself from the US, like we-don’t-need-you & Iraq is a mistake kinda-spin, we’re pulling out our troops as soon as we’re able… could it be Russia’s on a two-pronged attack from distant cousins?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.