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flight paths, access corridors and high-speed rail links. We should have approached the matter in terms of integration into Europe. We should have said, yes, we accept the option involving visas, but only so as to have guarantees that the whole of Russia will become part of Europe’s borderless Schengen zone within a specified number of years. This discussion never took place for the simple reason that for many centuries the Russian political elite has deeply mistrusted its own powers. Russia does not believe it is capable of taking a bet on what will happen in five or ten years’ time. Russia does not believe in its own strength. We want to be in Europe, but are afraid of that.

In the post-Soviet territories we have also suffered a complete rout. The Commonwealth of Independent States no longer exists as a unified political and economic community. That is a fait accompli. There are American troops in Central Asia and Georgia, the Baltic Region is in NATO. Relations with Belarus have only got worse. As regards more distant borders, the most striking example is Iraq. We are losing it. We took a serious step away from Iraq and lost political and economic influence in the region. I recollect the games played in 2002, manipulating a $40 billion co-operation deal as if it was just a game of “Now you see it, now you don’t.” The Kremlin is occupied by a bunch of sleight-of-hand spivs who think that if they tear up a $40 billion contract the Americans won’t invade Iraq, or will pay us back afterwards.

In addition, Russia has suffered a huge moral reverse. Most people in the West are increasingly coming to the view that Russia is not a democratic country. It is not following a liberal path, but exactly the opposite, destroying the fundamental mechanisms of democratic statehood.

Afterword

And that was all. On that note my tape ran out. It was time to come back to Moscow. It can happen that even demonic geniuses make mistakes, and if they get it wrong once then what guarantee is there that they will not get it wrong again? It has to be said, though, that however things actually turn out, people think devilishly freely in London. The Kremlin it isn’t.

THE MADNESS OF TRIBALISM, OR THE LAW OF THE CONSERVATION OF EVIL

March 18, 2004

Late information: first, a letter delivered by post to the Office of the Prime Minister of France threatens terrorist acts and is signed by Movsar Barayev, leader of the terrorists who took captive the audience of the Nord-Ost musical. In the letter he styles himself as the leader of an organization called “The Servants of Allah.”

Next, a reference to unnamed sources in the FSB. The FSB has a hand in the projected explosions in France, for which 200 kilograms of explosives was transported some time ago by diplomatic bag to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Paris, where it is now stored.

Except that Barayev is dead, despite numerous tales that he “was allowed to escape” from Nord-Ost. No less certainly, the diplomatic post cannot be used for transporting 200 kilograms of compounds which every frontier dog in the world has been trained to sniff out.

This is the madness of tribalism. It is a modern, virulent disease which causes more and more people to want to commit acts of retaliative terrorism against someone or something. The prognosis for eliminating the disease is not good. The madness of tribalism is set to spread.

Islamophobia is being ratcheted up, with Muslims viewed as outcasts and pressure put at every opportunity on the Islamic world both generally and at a local level. “Everything is their fault,” because the more we give them a hard time, the more they will return the favor. This is the long-familiar Law of the Conservation of Evil.

The incompetence, inefficiency and perfidy of Russia’s secret services is becoming increasingly evident. They are partners in an international coalition which they cherish and, as we have seen, the more acts of terrorism there are, the more financial resources and power the secret services demand for themselves, including the right to take measures