Toasts of Celebration

Right now in Washington, dozen of galas are convening to raise a celebratory toast to a new era.  The champagne was also likely flowing in Moscow at more than one dinner table, however marking a far different type of outcome.  This excerpt comes from View from Vokzal:

Neither Markelov nor Baburova will protest any longer. Nor will they take any more holidays, read any more books, or live to be old. For standing up against cruelty in the Armed Forces, in the North Caucasus and in Russia as a whole, they had the full force of that cruelty turned upon themselves. More than one person languishing in Russia’s moral vacuum will be relieved today that they are dead. We can reasonably imagine that toasts will have been raised in celebration.