Anatoly sobchak puttin on the ritz
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Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solved his own murder
The Millennium hotel is an unusual spot for a murder. It overlooks Grosvenor Square, and is practically next door to the heavily guarded US embassy, where, it is rumoured, the CIA has its station on the fourth floor. A statue of Franklin D Roosevelt – wearing a large cape and holding a stick – dominates the north side of the square. In 2011 another statue would appear: that of the late US president Ronald Reagan. An inscription hails Reagan’s contribution to world history and his “determined intervention to end the cold war”. A friendly tribute from Mikhail Gorbachev reads: “With President Reagan, we travelled the world from confrontation to cooperation.”
The quotes would seem mordantly ironic in the light of events that took place just around the corner, and amid Vladimir Putin’s apparent attempt to turn the clock back to 1982, when the former KGB boss Yuri Andropov – the secret policeman’s secret policeman – was in charge of a doomed empire known as the Soviet Union. Next to the inscriptions is a sandy-coloured chunk of masonry. It is a piece of the Berlin Wall, retrieved from the east side. Reagan, the monument says, defeated communism. This was an enduring triumph for the west, democratic values, and for free societ
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How Trump walked into Putin’s web
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The wild life of Ksenia Sobchak, Putin's rumored god-daughter and former presidential candidate who dramatically fled Russia
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- Russian media star Ksenia Sobchak has fled Russia for Lithuania.
- Rumored to be Putin's god-daughter, she once challenged him for his presidency.
- Here's how her she went from celebrity to activist to runaway.
Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian TV host, actress, socialite, former presidential candidate, and the rumored god-daughter of President Vladimir Putin, has fled Russia for Lithuania.
Sobchak, whose father Anatoly Sobchak was the first elected mayor of St. Petersburg, is a nationally recognized figure in the country and was at one time known to the West as "Russia's Paris Hilton."
Her family ties with Putin go back to before she was born, when her father helped him enter national politics. And when she transformed herself from glamorous socialite and TV star to progressive politician, Putin made no attempt to stop her.
"She has always got away with stuff, and it's always been understood that Putin's presidential administration made sure she didn't get into too muc