This is, in my mind, very big. Alexander Solzhenitsyn is one of the great dissidents from the days of the Soviet Union. He's the author of .The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This is big news, IMHO.
More below the fold:
Here's the link to the story from the International Herald Tribune via the AP:
Sozhenitsyn supports Putin.
Why is this important? It seems that the West has decided that Putin's Russia is going to be an opponent rather than a partner. Last week, British planes were scrambled to intercept Russian bombers that were closing in on British territory. Think about that for a second. From my reading, the bobmers were on a routine training run and on a course which is one they usually use. Why would the Brits scramble their planes for a training run on usual course, unless they want to ratchet up pressure on the Russians?
We, of course, know about the Alexander Litvinenko affair. Mr. Litvinenko was poisoned with highly radiocative polonium 210. Litvinenko blamed Putin and Russia. The Russians seem to be biding their time in turning over who may have committed the murder, perhaps hoping for a quid pro quo, or waiting for their justice system to do it's investigation.
I, for one, can't imagine that Alexander Solzhenitsyn would support Putin in the face of this unless he felt that Putin didn't order the hit. It will be interesting to see how things play out. I certainly don't think this is worth starting a war between the British and Russians.