You often hear talk about the failure and corruption of the Russian justice system, or the bias/censorship of the press. The West loves jumping onto that high moral ground whenever something happens here. Take the murder of journalist Anna Politkowska or the assassination of bank head, Alexander Slesarev.

It’s been very interesting for me to watch the developments surrounding the death of Mark Blanco in this light.

If the Russian system is so bad, surely the UK system would manage to run an investigation that would uncover the truth about this case?

But no. There has been a complete failure by the police to investigate the incident or even question the witnesses. They seem to have dismissed any evidence that would point to suspicious circumstances. To all appearances they had closed this case before it had even started. It took an effort for them even to bother questioning Doherty at all, and then they did it days later over a telephone chat.

Even the material in the ‘free’ media has been greatly misleading. It’s seemed more like a carefully managed PR exercise in spin than a real investigation of the facts. The coverage soon ended after speculation suggested that the CCTV evidence would clear Doherty of any wrong doing. As with the best game of chinese whispers, this speculation soon became fact and everyone had a nice tidy ending to the story.

It all leaves you with a bad taste in the mouth and the knowledge that although Russia has it’s problems so definitely does the West.

As Richard Ingram writes in the Independent, the Mark Blanco case is similar to that of Stuart Lubbock, who’s body was found in Michael Barrymore’s swimming pool in 2001. Despite evidence suggestive of sexual assault, no one has ever been charged.

If the Barrymore case is anything to go by, they may have to wait some time before the authorities get round to discovering what happened.

So the next time you hear the news broadcasters or editorials explain that Russian cases are left unsolved due to their corrupt or ineffective system - remember Mark. Justice doesn’t always happen over there either.