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And now Putin decides which bugs to crush

Who pays the price for betrayal ? Choosing is no easy task.

Again and again in his two decades in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the one thing he can never forgive is betrayal.

PHOTO: AFP

Andreas Kluth

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When

the rebellion was over

, its leader was taken to the Kremlin. He was drawn, quartered and decapitated. The Russian government then cracked down even harder. But the mutiny and its instigator captured the romantic imagination of Russians, in time inspiring some of their greatest literature.

The execution in this case took place in 1774. The rebel leader was a Cossack named Yemelyan Pugachev, his nemesis was the Tsarina Catherine the Great, and the novel – The Captain’s Daughter by Alexander Pushkin – was published a whole lifetime later.

And now Putin decides which bugs to crush

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