This slightly worries me: Russia in the Indian ocean

Geo-politics is often about geography.

Therefore this news is a little concerning.

Seychelles and Russia are set to deepen cooperation over security issues

After all I always thought that the idea of Russia having a strong Indian Ocean presence was one of those Palmerstonian 'permanent national interests' things that we were taught about at school.

Areas of for further cooperation focused on specialized training opportunities for Seychellois personnel, Seychelles' participation in Russian-led international security forums, and greater coordination of military assets in the region.

Which I would have thought is an ingtersting development, and not one to welcomed

Only the dead can complain

Astonishing behaviour in a Moscow court in May. Reported in the Gazeta Wyborcza the court announced that only the direct victims of the Katyn massacre could demand a pro^per investigation in to the masacre,

Descendants of ten Polish officers murdered by the NKVD in Katyn in the spring of 1940 are demanding from Russia's Chief Military Prosecutor's Office that they are recognised as victims of political reprisals and officially rehabilitated.The prosecutor's office replies it cannot do that, because there is no conclusive proof that the 25,000 Polish army and police officers, border guards, officials, and business owners were murdered on the basis of an unfair ruling issued by a Soviet court.

Indeed, there's no such proof, and there won't ever be. The executions were carried out on the basis not of a court sentence, but a decision of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) Central Committee's Politburo dated 5 March 1940, which stated explicitly they were to be shot 'without interrogation, without charges, without an investigation, and without an indictment'.

The Katyn victims' relatives appealed against the prosecutor office's decision through their Moscow lawyers to the district court in Moscow Khamovniki. The court issued a ruling on 16 May, and the official writ has just reached Poland.

Judge Igor Tulenev answered the Katyn victims' relatives in a style similar to that used earlier by the military prosecutor's office: 'The literal interpretation of the meaning of the Article 8.1 of the Russian Federation's Act on the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Reprisals is such that only the citizens whose rights have been directly violated are entitled to appeal against the [Military Prosecutor's Office's] decision'. 'The judge told us clearly: only the victims would be able to appeal against the prosecutor's absurd decision. Their children don't have the right to demand justice', said Anna Stawicka, counsel to the families of the Katyn victims in Russia.

The news just keeps getting better

Today's news that the Russians have increased their hold on Europe's energy supply just twists the knife.

Vladimir Putin's own words at the ceremony at which he signed the deal that will lead to a the new Russia/Bulgaria pipeline showed just how much he was enjoying having the European Union's collective balls in his mail-fisted grip,

"There is a tough struggle among European nations for Russia to build such gas transportation networks," he said. "We don't need to convince anyone; they are pleading with us for that every day, especially in the autumn and winter period."

What is even funnier, given the current state of UK/Russian relations is how the outgoing president of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) talked about that country,

"President René van der Linden today welcomed the Russian Federation’s European orientation and its commitment to the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law".

Now Mr van der Linden did make suggestions that certain things weren't tikity boo in Mother Russia, with a side swipe at electoral processes, but this sounds like a supplicant rather than words of confidence. We must after all remember that the Russians have just elected a man to be an MP who is wanted for the brutal public killing of a British citizen in London, Alexander Litvenienko.

What makes the involvement of the Council of Europe even funnier is that the only people allied to President Putin's party in the Parliamentary Assembly are the British Tories who are part of the European Democrat Group.

The Chairman of this Group is one Mikhail Margelov, a nice chap who having been the chief spin doctor in the North Caucasus (read Chechenya) became Putin's pressman for foreigners and is currently Chairman of the Russian Foreign Affairs Committee, the sort of fellow that Tories such as the federalist North Dorset MP, Bob Walters must love to associate themselves with.

Margelov who was expected to take over the Presidency of PACE with the support of the Conservatives (as Dennis MacShane pointed out in last weeks Spectator - no link subscription only) has been blocked for the time being, but,

"The reform entails that the Assembly's presidency and committee chairmanships rotate every two years instead of three. Being the biggest group, the Socialists will nominate the first candidate, and Margelov's European Democrats will be next".

Picture AP