<p>Begin with eerie spy-movie music, red lighting and a silhouette creeping along a darkened hallway. Gunshot. No, make that two.
<br/>Last week, in what felt like Cold War deja vu, newspapers carried stories of dark Russian deeds.
<br/>Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in broad daylight in October. Then, just last week, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, was poisoned while in London. Both were avid critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin?s policies, according to The New York Times.
<br/>So the tally for murdered Russian officials stands at two in two months: a reporter and a spy.
<br/>In the middle of our own issues with the war on terrorism, the mass killings in Africa and the unveiling of the PlayStation 3, did we miss the slow relapse of Russia into a form of quasi-democratic, half-communist and all-shady government?
<br/>Many of us have taken history or political science classes with references to communist Russia dabbed onto textbooks or lecture notes.
<br/>Apparently, long ago, something by the name of the Soviet Union captured most of Eastern Europe, introduced it to Marxist ideals, and then an iron curtain opened which made the Poles a great deal happier.
<br/>?Because we have been taught so much about the Cold War, anything negative I hear about Russia is not surprising. It?s just Russia,? said Michael Luong, a fourth-year political science student.
<br/>However much of a hot topic Russia may have been in the 1950s, the Middle East is a more fashionable concern these days, leaving Russia to fade in and out of memories.
<br/>But with two direct assassinations in the past two months, Putin is now getting some attention. Even more than he did the time Russian lawyers almost sued Warner Brothers because Dobby from ?Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? looked too much like him.
<br/>A shocking and very public incident, Politkovskaya?s murder secured no reaction from the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian government, for days.
<br/>Finally, when Putin deigned to speak, he was quoted in the Washington Post having said, ?The level of (Politkovskaya?s) influence on political life in Russia was utterly insignificant.?
<br/>The case remains unresolved and largely uninvestigated to this day.
<br/>Almost all of UCLA had a conniption when a student was stunned with a Taser in Powell Library two weeks ago.
<br/>Now imagine a student being shot. We are just not used to overbearing, lethal acts of authority hitting anywhere close to home.
<br/>Even the aggression behind an electric hint (OK, maybe five in six minutes) can jar us if that violence is not duly addressed.
<br/>We exist behind brick walls that protect us from a society that is relatively sheltered in the first place.
<br/>The Taser incident may have jostled us awake for a moment to question the safety of our campus, but hopefully, this will be training for ensuring the safety of the global community that we will step into in a few years.
<br/>Even though the government denies being a part of these killings, a direct accusation from Litvinenko makes it difficult to believe Putin?s brief and noncommittal statements.
<br/>The voice of American news states that polonium-210, the substance that killed Litvinenko, is so rare and expensive that the assassin would have needed access to top-notch laboratories and even topper-notch funding to complete the job.
<br/>The Kremlin, in response to the hundreds of fingers pointing directly at it, declared the accusations are ?sheer nonsense? because it hasn?t permanently damaged anyone since 1959.
<br/>Forget a long nose, Pinocchio would die of chronic strokes and seizures if he were to ever repeat that statement.
<br/>The New York Times also declares that 12 journalists have been assassinated contract style ? with hired, professional killers ? since the beginning of Putin?s reign.
<br/>But hey, that could be coincidence.
<br/>None of the cases has been resolved or even thoroughly investigated, but then again, the Russian authorities have other, more pressing matters on their hands.
<br/>Putin?s pathetic track record when it comes to human rights violations and his steady denial of crimes committed by his administration constantly attract attacks by foreign governments, activists and anyone with a proper conscience.
<br/>A bloody chain connects Russia?s cover-ups, and there are only so many disguises possible: Politkovskaya was murdered while investigating the horrors in Chechnya, and Litvinenko was poisoned while investigating Politkovskaya?s death.
<br/>How much can they chalk up to mere twists of fate?
<br/>I would probably not be able to write this if I were sitting in Moscow instead of the study lounge of Rieber Terrace.
<br/>That is direct cause and effect ? no coincidence, no chance.
<br/><hr><i>Send pictures of Putin?s head on Dobby?s body to rjoshi@media,ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.</i></p><br><br><a href='http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=39141&#039; target='_blank'>http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=39141&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br>