A smart person won’t climb the mountain… By Grigory Pasko, journalist The complete text of the ancient Russian saying cited in the title of this essay reads thus: A smart person won’t climb the mountain; a smart person will go around the mountain. I really don’t enjoy writing about fools and roads in Russia all the time. But unfortunately, life keeps throwing such stories my way that I simply can’t not respond to them. Here’s a recent, and in my opinion demonstrative, story. Literally a few days ago, the head of the administration for the struggle with organized crime (UBOP) of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the Caucasus, police colonel Anatoly Kyarov, was mortally wounded as the result of his official vehicle being gunned down by unknown assailants. Also killed on the spot in the ambush was a plenipotentiary of a special designation [spetsnaz] detachment of the UBOP. The driver of the car – an UBOP employee – found in the interior of the car with them received a perforating gunshot wound in the area of the ribcage. What is noteworthy here is that the director of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, was found in Kabardino-Balkaria at this very time. Nikolai Patrushev, Hero of Russia. The heading reads “The FSB is changing its image”