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US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

cnn.com

11–20 of 47 posts

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CNN et al also claimed knowing it was Russia. They did? Source?

They did not. There was all sorts of speculation and enough circumstantial evidence to implicate either Russia or Ukraine or the US depending on what your threshold is.

CNN has this trademark way of saying what they want to say while maintaining plausible deniability precisely so that people can write the above comment. Politico seems to have the same editor.

Usually it goes like this: axis of evil horrible rouge state X has done bad things in the past and we all know how they are bad. There is some evidence to suggest they are at it again. Totally compromised person you shouldn't trust (and did we mention their horrible fashion sense?) suggested it may not have been rouge country X. There is no consensus.

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#12

> “We’re seeing sabotage, we’re seeing assassination plots, we’re seeing arson. We’re seeing things that have a cost in human lives,” a senior NATO official told reporters on Tuesday. “I believe very much that we’re seeing a campaign of covert sabotage activities from Russia that have strategic consequences.” Uh, yeah, they are literally at war. Is this the next stage of trying to rope NATO into this?

Yes, they are at war, they are all-in, while we are not. Maybe it’s time to consider we are at war too? How long are we going to let them wage information war, sabotage, political interference and corruption against us? They talk on state sponsored TV about nuking London, invading Europe, while we carefully consider whether Ukraine should be allowed to retaliate against Russian air bases that target civilians in purp…

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Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CNN et al also claimed knowing it was Russia. They did? Source?

They did not. There was all sorts of speculation and enough circumstantial evidence to implicate either Russia or Ukraine or the US depending on what your threshold is.

> They did not. There was all sorts of speculation and enough circumstantial evidence to implicate either Russia or (...) depending on what your threshold is.

There was circunstancial evidence implicating Russia, and there is Russia's firehose of falsehood spewing industrial levels of propaganda accusing everyone else ranging from Mickey Mouse to moon nazis.

In the meantime, Russian ships were found to have been involved in suspicious movements in the area in the days and months leading up to the blasts. Russia itself started blaming the US and the UK before pointing the firehose of falsehood at Ukraine.

Just take a look at how Russia handled its latest bombing of Ukraine's children's hospital. First it was Ukraine, them they admitted they themselves bombed the hospital but it was a military hospital, then it was a children's hospital again but it was a US missile, then it was all propaganda...

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#14
Russia has famously poisoned or otherwise assassinated countless dissidents and political opponents. But as far as I can tell, they have never openly killed a NATO citizen in a NATO country. That would be a substantial bridge to cross, and I expect there would need to be retribution for such an act.

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#16

Russia has famously poisoned or otherwise assassinated countless dissidents and political opponents. But as far as I can tell, they have never openly killed a NATO citizen in a NATO country. That would be a substantial bridge to cross, and I expect there would need to be retribution for such an act.

I don’t know if this counts as “openly”, and he was naturalized, not native born, but Alexander Litvinenko was a British citizen poisoned in London.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#17
post #16

Russia has famously poisoned or otherwise assassinated countless dissidents and political opponents. But as far as I can tell, they have never openly killed a NATO citizen in a NATO country. That would be a substantial bridge to cross, and I expect there would need to be retribution for such an act.

I don’t know if this counts as “openly”, and he was naturalized, not native born, but Alexander Litvinenko was a British citizen poisoned in London. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

Ah, I didn't realize Litvinenko had been naturalized.

Re: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

#18

Russia has famously poisoned or otherwise assassinated countless dissidents and political opponents. But as far as I can tell, they have never openly killed a NATO citizen in a NATO country. That would be a substantial bridge to cross, and I expect there would need to be retribution for such an act.

Two Czechs were killed when the Russians blew up a Czech ammunition depot in 2014. That's about as open as this is.

You could maybe argue it was incidental rather than intended, like the woman killed in the botched Salisbury poisoning, but it's a natural outcome of these kinds of plots.

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