World Service's Russian row rumbles on

Nigel Chapman, the director of the BBC World Service, may be standing down, but even that hasn't curtailed the series of tit-for-tat letters criticising the running of the corporation's Russian service appearing in the Times. You can read the previous letters here, here, here and here. Monkey has intercepted the next instalment of the saga: an email from Robert Chandler, a translator of Russian literature, asking for further signatories to sign their name to the next letter in the chain. "Early this afternoon I shall send this letter to the Times," the email said. "We hope that the BBC governors will appoint, as the new director of the World Service, someone who respects the intelligence of listeners and who does not seek merely to pander to the Russian or any other authorities." Blimey. You may have thought that Chapman's decision to move on to become chief executive of a children's charity would put a stop to any further letters on the subject. You'd be wrong.