111–120 of 371 posts
This is the second time they've done this, IIRC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal It's pretty much the ultimate flex, no? "We can kill anyone we want in any country, and you can't do shit about it."
Who is they?
As far as I'm concerned, the Germans are about as trustworthy as Russia. They are currently closing the investigation around the Breitscheidplatz[1] terror attack, which has uncovered massive tampering with evidence and more open questions than answers. And let's not forget their history of false flag attacks.[2] Most of you will likely disagree, based on their current public image vs. Russia's, but ask yourselves wh…
Considering Putin has had journalists and opposition leaders killed before, and the Russian government tried to prevent the opposition from leaving the country or seeing outside doctors, one has to choose an answer which makes the least assumptions:
* Would the Russian dictator once again attempt to murder his most prominent critic?
* Or would the German government... falsify the poisoning, even though he was hospitalized... as a false flag... but domestic inside of Russia... during a period where the West is collapsing and USA is run by someone who is likely under Russian control meaning triggering Russia into conflict would be to do so during a period when you are least likely to be backed up by the only other nuclear power with a capable enough triad to M.A.D./stalemate it out?
You can make the assumptions you want, but man your route seems to make a lot more of them.
If you ever wonder about the extent of Russia's online efforts consider that the comments on this HN thread might be part of things. Not saying anything in here is good/bad/other but you rarely see this level of flagged and down-voted comments in a HN thread.
Stupidly to poison someone, and then give them to other country.... 0_0 Say someone is a leader this less then 2% stupidly too...
We've seen this poisoning technique used plenty of times by the Kremlin. The message here isn't "we want you dead" but an empirical demonstration that "we can, if we want, kill you anywhere, any time and it doesn't matter how obvious it is that we're the ones doing it. We will face no consequences. In fact we'll make sure to 'sign' our poisoning attempt and do it in a place you think you're safe." Killing a member of…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not if your objective is to send a public message. Putin isn't afraid of the foreign response. He's afraid of domestic enemies gaining enough confidence to attempt a coup. Domestic enemies are the sole threat to Putin. He wants them terrified; he wants them to understand that he will kill them as necessary. Putin knows very well the first rule of being a dictator (which Lukashenko has forgotten): if you want to be di…
> Domestic enemies are the sole threat to Putin. He wants them terrified; NATO has enough commandos to take down Russian political leadership in a single evening. NATO is a big gun, but it has no trigger.
And Russia probably has enough commandos to do the same to NATO leadership as well. Neither side actually does that because it would be a suicide mission that would just result in a war.
This guy has gotta be one of the bravest and most principled people out there. Almost anyone else would have determined that fighting this fight has no practical utility, since nothing short of a massive popular uprising could unseat Putin at this point, and Russians apparently have no appetite for such an uprising today. Hard enough to risk your life for something that might have a good outcome. To me, it's almost i…
Anyone with such a cynical attitude like yours is inevitably doomed to failure. I’m not picking on you, specifically, just pointing out why these powers can hold such a firm grasp. Hope is really scarce these days.
This cynical attitude would condemn the OP to a mundane life rather than being poisoned by a dictator. Opposition politicans in dictatorships are brave... And arguably suicidal...
As far as I'm concerned, the Germans are about as trustworthy as Russia. They are currently closing the investigation around the Breitscheidplatz[1] terror attack, which has uncovered massive tampering with evidence and more open questions than answers. And let's not forget their history of false flag attacks.[2] Most of you will likely disagree, based on their current public image vs. Russia's, but ask yourselves wh…
As far as I'm concerned, the Germans are about as trustworthy as Russia. They are currently closing the investigation around the Breitscheidplatz[1] terror attack, which has uncovered massive tampering with evidence and more open questions than answers. And let's not forget their history of false flag attacks.[2] Most of you will likely disagree, based on their current public image vs. Russia's, but ask yourselves wh…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Terrorists prefer simpler approaches. that is a very dangerous assumption to make.
Why? It’s likely the reason why we have seen terrorist attacks where people drive into crowds of people. Cars and trucks is everywhere, its easily accessible. I would argue that the other way around is the dangerous assumption, that people will NOT use the easiest accessible means to hurt other people.
Because the goal is reaching the goal, not the process.
Undoubtedly, if s terrorist group has access to this stuff, they won't reject the idea of using it just because driving a van or yielding a knife might appear simpler.
We're talking about lines of thinking that planned hijacking three commercial airplanes simultaneously to fly them into high visibility targets.
How is spreading poison something that's outlandish when compared to that?
And also, arguably this case is already the doing of a terrorist group. I mean, the end goal obviously was to get opposites to think twice for fear of risking their lives.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A reliable source Right...my reliable source just verified that they might not be poisoned.
Not my reliable source, but the Government of Germany.
Creator of novichok, about poisen