In 874 days when I look back at events that I had noted over the course of this countdown, and if President Putin is presiding over the opening of the World Cup it will be quite unbelievable that he is still President Putin and not Vladimir Putin, disgraced ex-President, hounded out of office by his own government in disgust at the strong suspicion that he masterminded the murder of a spy turned critic of the Russian spy service and government. But then, on the other hand, it would be equally surprising if Putin, who has made himself so untouchable, suffered any consequences after today's news.
For my memory, 874 days from now, today was the day that a public inquiry in England concluded that the murder of the ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was "approved" by Putin.
In a normal, sane world it would also be surprising if England, the US (if they qualified) and many other Western countries went ahead with their participation in the World Cup in Putin's country as though nothing happened. But then we have to remember what was happening in Syria, 874 days ago and previous, how Russia held the trump card as the only way to get at President Assad. And Putin, consciously or unintentionally, held the West to ransom over Syria, keeping the civil war status quo with Assad in power for as long as he saw fit. Any punishment over the questionable murder of a spy and Putin ends the possibility of making Assad finally see sense.
And with all that who would, or should, really care if football suffers?
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