Leonid Rozhetskin And How We Hanker For The Cold War
LEONID Rozhetskin is missing.
Says the Mail on Sunday’s front-page headline: “KGB PLOT FEARS AS LONDON OLIGARCH VANISHES.”
Reading on we learn that Leonid Rozhetskin, “an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, vanished from his £1 million home just outside the Latvian capital Riga a week ago”.
Interesting. But why front-page news? The paper says the Russian-born Rozhetskin is a “British media magnate”. His “mysterious disappearance has possible links to the murder of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko”.
Cold Case
One thing at a time. What media does Mr Rozhetskin own? He is revealed to be one of the co-founders and major shareholders in British business newspaper City AM, the free daily business newspaper business-minded Londoners look to for the horoscopes.
We learn that Mr Rozhetskin’s “six-bedroom mansion, in the most expensive residential area of Latvia, is set in its own gardens and surrounded by thick woods.”
Six bedrooms, you say. In Latvia…
The Mail goes on: “It enjoys views of Riga Bay which, at 25 miles long, boasts the longest white sand beach in the Baltic states.”
Yes, but 6 bedrooms. It’s not very much, is it? And for the cost of the property, Mr Rozhetskin could have invested in a started home in Rhyl.
Or nondescript semi-detached bungalow, in an area of Kilmarnock called Moscow, where the Mail says Mr Rozhetskin is registered as living on the electoral roll.
The paper says the building “appears abandoned, with barely a stick of furniture inside and sheets covering the windows”.
Of course being an oligarch, Mr Rozhetskin can have this and his home in Latvia. Such is the way of the mega-rich.
Sex And War
Says the Mail:
On the night he went missing, Mr Rozhetskin – who has dyed blond hair – was said by local sources to have taken a taxi from his home to the centre of Riga with two men. The three were dropped outside the XXL gay nightclub, which bills itself as “a modern club of European glamour” and has rooms in which gay films are screened. Its website claims: “In XXL club, everything is possible.”
Other than giving the Mail’s writers reason to investigate gay websites, the story reads like an attempt to rekindle the Cold War, with the Litvinenko murder providing the story’s backdrop.
This might be because the Mail, like many of us, has become bored with reading of and talking about bearded loons screaming about death to one and all. It craves a little of the subterfuge and skulduggery of the Cold War.
Asks the Guardian: “Is City AM founder’s disappearance linked to the murder of Litvinenko?”
One picture is captioned: “Mr Rozhetskin with wife Natalya, left, and model Victoria Silvstedt at a French Riviera party in 2006.”
Models and blondes. If only Osama bin Laden would raise his game.
The War On Terror is just so horribly devoid of sex…
Posted: 23rd, March 2008 | In: Tabloids Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
