For his latest column, Gideon Rachman of the FT talked with Mikhail Kasyanov about why the Russian government is cracking down with such exceptional brutality before an election they seem guaranteed to win. Yesterday Bob commented on a couple of these theories on the blog, while Kasyanov simply points to the risk averse mentality of the KGB: The trouble is that in eliminating one minor risk – that the liberal opposition might do better than expected – Putin’s government seems to be creating a bigger risk. According to Kasyanov (admittedly, not an impartial observer), Putin is keen to stick formally to the constitution and step down as president next year because “he wants to be viewed by you guys as a democrat.” But when famous opposition figures like Gary Kasparov are being slung into jail, Putin’s democratic credentials appear more and more tarnished in the west. Today’s highly acerbic FT leader is – I think – fairly representative of how opinion in the west is shifting. Quentin Peel wasn’t going to let his colleague have all the fun, so he has chimed in to comment that democracy is failing in Russia because the people don’t care, and have a conflicted understanding of what it means as a governing system.