Darkness descending.

In November, an ex-KGB-colonel-turned-dissident died in horrific pain from a poison never before seen in Britain. "This is what it takes to prove that one has been telling the truth," rasped Alexander Liwinenko to a friend as he succumbed to Pollonium-210, a radioactive substance doctors could not initially identify because they had never seen it before.

In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko blamed his condition on Russian president Vladimir Putin. "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people."

Litvinenko's death came weeks after crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down outside her Moscow apartment in October. It was her murder that Litvinenko was said to be investigating ... among other mysteries. "Putin has never freed himself from the KGB," Politskovskaya said in an interview shortly before her death, during which she described Putin as a Stalinist bureaucrat with "no understanding" that people have rights.

Although Putin dismissed Litvinenko's claims as "nonsense," the British government is now embroiled in a massive inquiry that further strains relations between Britain and Russia, many of whose citizens have been flooding into London since the early 1990s, some bringing murky Russian intrigue with them. Among them is Boris Berezovsky who became a billionaire during the chaotic collapse of Soviet communism. Berezovsky was also Litvinenko's employer.

"This is the first time a British citizen has been killed by hostile enemy security services on British soil," claimed Oleg Gordievsky, another ex-KGB spy-turned-dissident now living in Britain. Litvinenko's death came only months after the Russian State Duma passed a law allowing the president to authorize attacks by the FSB (formerly the KGB) on "terrorists" in foreign countries.

Putin, meanwhile, has been using Russia's vast oil and gas resources as a highly effective political weapon against former Soviet nations such as Ukraine and Georgia, deemed to have drifted too far into the West's orbit. His government's control of Gazprom means that Putin can, on a whim, turn off the taps on the pipeline that provides most of Europe's gas supplies.

As to where the inquiry into Litvinenko's death goes, that remains to be seen, but it began in a week that also saw:

* the assassination of Christian Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel in Beirut, in an apparent bid to topple the Lebanese government;

* the beginning of deliveries of the Russian Tor-M1 air defence rocket system to Iran;

* the surreal endorsement by Tory leader David Cameron of the Leftist policies of Guardian columnist and champagne socialist Polly Toynbee over those of Winston Churchill; and

* the chorus of silence from Prime Minister Tony Blair, David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell over British Airways's refusal to allow an employee to wear a small silver cross to work. All claim to be Christians. All claim to be defenders of British values. None spoke up.

"We don't do God," pronounced Blair's press secretary Alistair Campbell shortly after Blair became prime minister in 1997. (Editor: British Airways changed its policy after the Church of England threatened to divest itself of its 5.5 billion [pounds sterling] investment in the airline)

And so it has proved.

Over the years it has been reported in various media outlets that in 1989, Mikail Gorbachev told the Politburo: "Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about glasnost and perestroika and democracy in the coming years. These are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our aim is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep."

And so it has proved.

On July 13, 1917, less than four months before the Bolsheviks overtook Russia, Our Lady of Fatima warned that if Russia did not convert, "it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have to suffer much, and several nations will be annihilated."

And so it has proved.

Today, the world watches Christendom crumble from the lethal effects of unopposed cultural Marxism--the ultimate goal of Marxist theorists Georg Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci set in 1919 and advanced by New Left guru Herbert Marcuse in the 1960s. By calling for a "liberating tolerance," of all ideas coming from the Left and intolerance for all ideas coming from the Right, Marcuse successfully injected cultural Marxism--via relativism, political correctness and multiculturalism--into the baby boom generation and its progeny, thereby tranforming it into the state ideology of all Western nations.

Has Russia been converted? You decide.

Paula Adamick is a professional journalist She writes from London, England, where she publishes the monthly Canada Post.