The plot thickens...

Sometimes it's difficult to know what/who to believe when watching political events unfold in Russia. Here we have an opposition activist beaten in a street attack where none of her valuables were taken. Turns out that (if I'm reading the LJ time stamps correctly) not an hour before the time when Marina Litvinovich was attacked on Monday night, she posted a reminder on her LiveJournal website that on Tuesday afternoon she and fellow activists would be gathering at the office of the Presidential Administration to present a petition calling for the resignation of Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov. Apparently they had over 9,000 signatures in support of the petition.

Of course there's already one comment on Litvinovich's LJ - no doubt the first of many - suggesting that the beating was staged as a publicity stunt by Litvinovich, and the commenter links to another Russian LJ where a blogger calling himself "sumerk bogov" advances a similar theory, calling the happening a "circus," "self-PR'ing," and "self-victimization." Although I'm not sure I agree with his "versiia," Sumerk does make good sport of the prominent typo in the headline of the original NEWSru.com item:

В Мокве жестоко избита советник Гарри Каспарова Марина Литвинович

The graveyard-shift copy editor at NEWSru.com left out the first "S" in Moscow. So, blogger Sumerk ends his post on the matter thusly: "Моква слезам не верит." Or, "Mocow does not believe in tears."

I don't mean to make light of an event that seems like another horrible reminder of the political climate in Russia, but sometimes you have to laugh through the tears. Even if Mocow doesn't believe in them.