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The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

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Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#171

Post by tim333 »

mcsb4 wrote: post #54
mhh__ wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Russia has used a nerve agent near where I live I'll give the media a pass on demonising Russia.

I don't know what happened there but the official version leaves some serious doubts open. For example there was a long time talk of a "nurse" that found them. Only by accident it was revealed that this nurse was the head-nurse of the UK forces, i.e. in the rank of a general, well versed in chemical warfare. Also why was never the full tracks of the two Russians the victims revealed? There is CCTV on every corner in…

>Also why was never the full tracks of the two Russians the victims revealed?

They are revealed here pretty well: https://web.archive.org/web/20180927051828/http://news.met.p...

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#172

Post by dunkelheit »

johnmcauley wrote: post #162
dunkelheit wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Russian, I have definitely felt a change in attitude towards Russia fairly recently (since Crimea probably). Overall feelings switched more towards fear, distrust and annoyance that Russia is punching above its weight (wanting to be a Great Power while having a relatively puny economy). Recent case in point that comes to mind: one of the characters in the show Devs is Russian. Spoiler alert, he is definitely not…

I agree and think that view of Russia is unfair to be honest. I’m Irish and the Irish have a relatively similar history (we had feudalism and colonialism and Russia had feudalism and communism - neither is democracy or “freedom”). Russia, and the Russian people, have done fantastic things in literature and science, and their history is amazing. I met a Russian girl recently and she called me her enemy. I was a little…

Thanks for the kind words. I think you are onto something - the sentiment you describe runs deep, especially among older people. It is of course generously fueled by state propaganda with "see how they treated us" being one of the favorite talking points. So distrust grows from both sides.

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#173

Post by aaron695 »

Alexey Navalny has not been poisoned from 'tea'

I know HN cannot think for themselves. But for a crazy idea try.

Show me why should think Navalny has been poisoned and how it might have been done.

100% happy to look at unsubstantiated things like tweets of leaks from the hospital. Or random rumours.

[edit] The evidence Alexei Navalny has been poisoned before is weak. Obviously as an opposition leader if I had anything vague happen that might look like poisoning I would definitely allow that rumour spread. His previous medical attacks don't seem like poisoning to me, compared to what happened to Pyotr Verzilov for instance.

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#174

Post by thrwway34 »

boo_boo wrote: post #50
supernova87a wrote: post #10

I remember an essay a few years ago (it was the Ukrainian poisoning?) where the author essentially said that Russia's brand has basically been spoiled for outsiders. (political brand certainly, but maybe overall as a country). As in, Russia is no longer a trustworthy seeming, interesting, attractive place to want to go visit or collaborate with or be associated with. I mean, of course it depends on the level of detai…

Woah... it's almost as if Russia has been the target of western propaganda ever since the establishment of the Soviet Union. What's up with that?

Yeah, attacking all their neighbors, conspiring against rest of them, sending assassins across the globe... What's wrong with that, eh?

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#175

Post by thrwway34 »

vogre wrote: post #34
leokennis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example where Russia is portrayed unfairly?

You may start with this article https://medium.com/@dominicbasulto/russophobia-and-the-dark-... It has some great images, especially in the final part.

I think I read similar piece when they tried to shuffle their shooting of MH-17 and point the finger on Ukraine. Turns out to be propaganda as well.

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#176

Post by thrwway34 »

raverbashing wrote: post #144
nate_meurer wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read my comment again. I said that if SA were to do what Russia did -- invade a peaceful neighbor with no provocation and steal a portion of their country -- then I'm confident that sanctions would be levied against them. Pretty simple proposition, really.

So you don't think the Yemen situation is worse than Crimea (which is a complicated issue in itself?). Or even SA financing the expansion of Wahhabism? I think SA gets too little sanctions for what they do. Too little. And by the way, I'm totally in favour of Russia sanctions. I'm not questioning any of that.

What's complicated about Crimea?

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#177

Post by thrwway34 »

vkou wrote: post #131
jetzzz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And IntelliJ IDEA of course, which I think many HN visitors are using in one form or another. This still doesn't change the original point that Putin regime has been very damaging to Russia.

Was it more or less damaging then the tire-pyre disaster that the country went through in the 90s, prior to him taking power? That's when my family left, and while my remaining relatives have soured against Putin in recent years (Funny how that happened... They were all for him, right up until ~2017, or so), nobody feels nostalgic for the 90s. Let's not whitewash history. The Russian public has only recently started…

And the drain stopped because he worked hard to eliminate poverty and bring stable relations with the rest of the world? Nope.

So brain drain became even more of a problem under his rule.

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#178

Post by thrwway34 »

notsureaboutpg wrote: post #76
throwaway122kk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had Name any political, cultural, economic, literature, sports achievement in last 30 years to come out of Russia. That's right Internet trolls which are an evolution on kgbs psyops

Russians have won 3 Nobel prizes in Physics since 2000. I think that's a cultural/economic achievement

We're those Russians working in Russia?

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#179

Post by sterlind »

mcsb4 wrote: post #145
zipwitch wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every decent chemist can produce that stuff. After reading, "Novichok agents: a historical, current, and toxicological perspective"[1] it looks like the only places to have produced such agents are Russian chemical weapon labs and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Central Analytical Database. Maybe someone who works in the field can provide some more evidence either way? [1] https://www.ncbi.n…

Iranians were the first to publish about the synthesis: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rcm.7757 https://analyticalscience.wiley.com/do/10.1002/sepspec.1591c... I am pretty sure that the Porton Down military research facility next to Salisbury is capable or producing it too - but that doesn't mean they produced the specific poison used to attack the Skipals. The same for VX gas that was used to kill K…

You're right - any well-equipped state could have synthesized the nerve agent used on the Skripals. But that's not the only evidence: two suspects were identified, who traveled from Russia and stayed at a local hotel. The nerve agent was found in their hotel room.

Of course, you could argue that British intelligence framed those Russians during the investigation, and poisoned the Skripals themselves as some sort of ruse for expelling diplomats. But if you deny the evidence and proceed down that path, you've made the decision not to alter your beliefs and no discussion will change your mind.

Re: The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary

#180

Post by KMag »

hn_check wrote: post #154
hn_check wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saudi Arabia exports oil but apart from that is generally just completely irrelevant. It is a terrible, despotic regressive craphole, but it doesn't have context enough in the world to come up a lot.

To the dead reply to me - lol. Saudi Arabia's geopolitical power is entirely predicated on the US acting in its interest, which was a premise that only held when the US was dependent on oil imports. Saudi Arabia's economy is non-existent and hyper-unproductive, and its military is farcical. While it has some modern hardware, it has F-15s being staffed by profoundly incompetent princlings (just another example of the…

Back in 2004, I did some consulting work for a manufacturer of Identification Friend-Foe (IFF) equipment. One of my colleagues had to go in and replace an IFF transponder on a Saudi military boat after its commander (a minor member of the royal family) decided, during the First Gulf War, to take it out of port despite knowing the IFF transponder was not working. A British RAF Tornado mistook the boat for Iraqi after it failed to auto-respond the pilot's IFF interrogation message. One HARM anti-radiation missile later, and anything near or behind the boat's radar dish looked like Swiss chesese, including the IFF transponder and pretty much everything in the mess hall. My colleague said that the mess hall looked like someone walked in with a shotgun and a ton of shells and just started blasting in all directions.

That commander had no business being in charge of a lemonade stand, much less a military vessel, and I'm told such nepotism is rampant in the Saudi military. People who have been isolated from all consequences of their actions for their whole lives tend to make terrible leaders.

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