I am a bit concerned today after reading an article in Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, that quotes a Russian, Sergei Markov, accusing Dick Cheney of a conspiracy to start the Georgian war in order to get McCain elected. I am no friend of Cheney's and such a theory might not be that shocking if it came from a random Russian citizen. The problem here is that Sergei Markov is the head of the Moscow Institute for Political Studies! That's right, the head of a supposedly respectable, academic institution is spouting off conspiracy theories. I know that the university of Moscow had come under suspicion lately of un-academic anti-semitism but delving into improbably conspiracy theories to bolster the regime's image is a new low.