Tried and tested methods

In the run-up to the presidential election in Russia, the FSB (the old KGB) and its Ukrainian equivalent claim to have foiled an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin.  Frankly, if you believe the propaganda, this was more than gratuitous for Putin would have simply ripped off the arms of his assailant(s) and then fed the living remains to his dogs.  Let’s flick back to 1999, with a series of apartment bombings led to the second Chechen war which sealed Putin’s rise to the presidency.  Many feel these explosions were orchestrated by the FSB; certainly the evidence that the attack was explicitly linked to Chechen nationalism cannot be taken at face value.  And now, as the Kremlin rocks to unprecedented protests, at least since the “the greatest geo-political tragedy of the twentieth century” (quote V. Putin), the current prime minister’s fellow alumni, in conjunction with the spooks of a largely pliant neighbour, have ‘exposed’ a Chechen plot.  If the election was not already secure, Putin will get a sympathy vote (as happened over an 'attempted murder' on a candidate in a narrow Taiwanese presidential election in 2004),   Forgive me for thinking how convenient is the timing.