The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel: Putin apologist and all-around idiot

Michael Moynihan at Reason's blog shares with us video of an appalling performance by The Nation's editor and publisher (as in, the most important person at the magazine) Katrina vanden Heuvel, who dismisses critics of Putin with regards to journalistic freedom by noting The Nation's ties with Novaya Gazeta, saying "they're thriving." Uh, I guess if you ignore the constant threats to their journalists' lives by the Kremlin.

She even has the gall to blame "the neo-Nazi groups" for the Novaya Gazeta lawyer and journalist killed recently in Moscow. Funny, because her dear friends at Novaya Gazeta have a distinctly different take on the murder:

In the opinion of the Novaya Gazeta staff, of which I am a member, the Russian security services or rogue elements within these services are the prime suspects in the murders of Baburova and Markelov. The boldness of the attack by a single gunman in broad daylight in the center of Moscow required professional preliminary planning and surveillance that would necessitate the security services, which closely control that particular neighborhood, turning a blind eye. The use of a gun with a silencer does not fit with the usual pattern of murders by nationalist neo-Nazi youth groups in Russia, which use homemade explosives, knifes, and group assaults to beat up and stab opponents to death.

Update: Here is an article from 2006 by Katrina vanden Heuvel, arguing that the American and British media were unfairly biased against Russia in their fairly unanimous opinion that Putin or his coterie were behind Alexander Litvinenko's radiation poisoning. Honestly – how dense can you be?