American politicians are now brand names, packaged like breakfast cereal. Anybody and any idea can be sold with a bright ribbon and a catchy jingle.

The bravery of those who found their social conscience, overcame fear, and stood up to communist dictatorship remains fresh in my memory. It reminds me of the jingle of keys that rang out on Prague s Wenceslas Square and later around the rest of what was then Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1989.

This should not, of course, be taken to mean that the patriots gushing over Lugovoi s achievement concede the justice of the British allegations. The social awareness of Homo Putinicus, meticulously burnished by television propagandists, is such that pride in Lugovoi s achievement and indignation at the infamous campaign unleashed against him by those who hate Russia can jangle within the breast of ordinary Russians without the slightest dissonance.