Ed Lucas, who recently authored the book “The New Cold War” (see the review by Latvian blogger Peteris Cedrins), has a powerful new piece running in the Times of London calling upon Europe to get firm with Russia on critical issues. With regard to the recent case-related events, he writes “Politics in Russia is a matter of life and death. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is on prison hunger strike in protest against the ill-treatment of his aide Vasily Aleksanyan. Mr Aleksanyan is confined in a filthy mould-infested cell because he refuses to sign a bogus confession incriminating Mr Khodorkovsky. His judicial torture, including denial of medical care, which has blinded him, has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. It reads like something from Dostoyevsky, not a factual account of prison conditions in supposedly one of the world’s top eight industrialised democracies.” More after the jump.