1) The so-called ‘traditionality’ of meetings of US presidents with russian opposition is not a point of view only taken by RussiaToday. For instance, in the (liberal) journal The New Republic, we read the following: “Meeting with the opposition, or something close to it, is oftentimes part of the choreography when American presidents travel to Russia.” Now, surely the Russian government doesn’t control the New Republic? Also, there obviously haven’t been that many American presidents since Reagan, so even though Bush never visited the opposition, this doesn’t mean it can’t be something of a tradition.

2) It’s funny that ChessBase says RussiaToday was ‘forced to mention Kasparov’s’ name. One could also argue that in fact they were trying to bring uncensored news… Anyway, showing footage of Kasparov and Limonov sitting next to each other, however ‘mechanically’ it was done, doesn’t make it less interesting or sad. The least is shows is how opportunistic the opposition leaders, including Kasparov, sometimes are. Indeed, this is also the point of view in the New Republic article (titled ‘So this is what passes for opposition these days’): “Moreover, the Kremlin is not protesting, and the invited opposition, for their part, have decided not to complain to Obama of internal politics, and instead promise to talk about issues like the global economic crisis, as if, in a hyper-centralized state, they are in any position to help resolve it.” Again, this opinion is not particularly special for the RussiaToday report.

I can’t wait.