Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning • Hacker News Board

Re: Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning

#51

Post by favorited » Fri, Jan 22, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

kyrieeschaton wrote: post #29

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ignore the evidence outside molecular signature yes, the “Moon of Alabama” hypothesis sounds plausible. Given the facts and circumstances, however, the conclusion becomes unavoidable.

The circumstances are that an english-tweeting western-sponsored Yale World Fellow with approximately zero actual Russian support found himself "poisoned" (nonfatally, of course) in a way politically useful to the west in their ongoing project of destabilizing Russia, as diagnosed by western security services.

If he has "zero actual Russian support," why would western security services go through the trouble of staging this?

Re: Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning

#52

Post by hvis » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 12:24 AM UTC

gdy wrote: post #46

nikivi wrote: post #6

The things happening in Russia before the protest on Saturday is dystopian. Police take into custody anyone who is trying to promote it, schools are suddenly open and students are being scared by threats of disqualification if they go outside on that day. I hope this dictatorship ends soon. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where nearly all your taxes get spent on building a palace and enforcing more police and mi…

"I wouldn’t want to live in a country where nearly all your taxes get spent on building a palace and enforcing more police and military." I wouldn't want to have UKOS returned to the owners who got it dirt-cheap during 'privatization' in 90s and taxes on the extraction of natural resources reduced to the pre-Putin level. This one thing -- raising taxes on the wealth generated from selling natural resources -- pays a…

That extracted wealth should flow back into the country and translate into well-being of your citizens.

Not just continue lining the pockets of the president's closest friends.

I'd rather have our military strong on the borders of our country and outside of it. Instead of having that military power used to strong-arm Russian citizens (and yes, the opposition is among them).

Re: Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning

#53

Post by waypoint100 » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 2:21 AM UTC

jannes wrote: post #48

waypoint100 wrote: post #43

It's amazing that people really believe in these conspiracy theories about evil Russian government which tries to kill people with Novichok, an agent so powerful that it cant kill anyone. There are much more simple and effective ways. E.g. just hire a street thug, pretend a robbery

Did you not see the YouTube video where one of the agents admits it on the phone and describes the process? I thought it was already established that Russia did this beyond reasonable doubt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwvA49ZXnf8

Well if you watch that carefully, you'd see that Navalny pushing hard his version of events on that other guy, who pretty much responds mostly "I don't know much".

Now imagine a situation that bellingcat picked up this poor guy, who might be nothing but part of surveillance team and carefully staged this phone record to create an impression that the guy is some sort of a hitman.

In the West people might think that Navalny is a prominent opposition hero, but in reality he's known to be a some sort of "attention whore", has a limited popularity

Re: Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning

#54

Post by gdy » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 9:45 AM UTC

hvis wrote: post #52

gdy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I wouldn’t want to live in a country where nearly all your taxes get spent on building a palace and enforcing more police and military." I wouldn't want to have UKOS returned to the owners who got it dirt-cheap during 'privatization' in 90s and taxes on the extraction of natural resources reduced to the pre-Putin level. This one thing -- raising taxes on the wealth generated from selling natural resources -- pays a…

That extracted wealth should flow back into the country and translate into well-being of your citizens. Not just continue lining the pockets of the president's closest friends. I'd rather have our military strong on the borders of our country and outside of it. Instead of having that military power used to strong-arm Russian citizens (and yes, the opposition is among them).

It does flow back. About half of the federal budget is formed from the taxes on natural resources.

I think last time our military was used against Russian citizens was during Chechen wars. Another time was in 1993 when Eltsin used it to shoot at the Parliament building.

Re: Novichok Nerve Agent Poisoning

#55

Post by gdy » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 9:51 AM UTC

nikivi wrote: post #50

twelve40 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"nearly all your taxes get spent on building a palace" hyperbole much? like, really? "all your taxes" - 12 trillion roubles, roughly $171 billion in one year out of the total federal budget of ~20 trillion roubles ($285 billion) Федеральная налоговая служба администрировала за год доходы на 12 трлн 612,13 млрд рублей https://www.interfax.ru/business/691856 the palace, whoever owns it, cost ~$1.5 billion, presumably o…

The palace is just one event. Lots more money gets stolen not for the sake of building a palace but enriching few individuals in various other ways. It is a hyperbole indeed and thank you for the detailed breakdown. The truth is, if not 'nearly all', it's certainly a very sizable portion of the tax budget that gets stolen. Enjoyed this video on the topic from one politician in Moscow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…

"It is a hyperbole indeed"

I'd say it was a lie.