This letter to the editor takes on a recent interesting article by Anatol Lieven in the Financial Times:

From Dr Igor Torbakov.

Sir, Anatol Lieven has again got Russia wrong (“Spies aside, Moscow has come in from the cold”, July 1). It is extremely naive to believe that this time the Kremlin, proceeding from what Mr Lieven calls Russia’s “national interests”, is ready for a genuine partnership with the west.

How do you define “national interests” in a country whose regime is regarded by most analysts as authoritarian? Rather, the present-day Russia is run by a relatively tiny group of people who, as one witticism has it, also own it.