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| Britain | |
| Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card | |
| 2018-03-14 | |
| [Guardian] Insiders say all trails lead back to Moscow, suggesting a deliberate act to incite row with UK The response from the Kremlin has been uncompromising. The foreign ministry described Theresa May’s accusation against Moscow as a "circus show". Its boss Sergei Lavrov said there was no proof the poison used against Sergei Skripal came from Russia. And the embassy in London promised an "equal and opposite reaction" to any UK measures. Beneath this bluster, however, is cool calculation. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury with a Moscow-made military nerve agent, developed during the 1970s and 1980s during the cold war. Whoever wanted to murder him might have used a subtler weapon. Instead, his assassins picked novichok. How it was deployed remains unclear. One former employee of the Russian special services said nerve agents were used only if the goal was to draw attention. "This is a very dirty method. There’s a risk of contaminating other people, which creates additional difficulties," he told the Kommersant newspaper, adding: "There are far more delicate methods that professionals use." In other words, novichok was a gruesome calling card. As those who organised the hit must have known, the trail goes directly back to Moscow. The incident even took place down the road from Porton Down, the government’s military research base, which swiftly tested and identified the toxin. All of which means Vladimir Putin and his FSB spy agency have probably sought to engineer a confrontation with the UK. Why now? Russian double agent was poisoned when he opened his red BMW [MAIL] Whitehall sources last night said Mr Skripal was poisoned when he touched the door handle of his car, which had been smeared with a deadly nerve agent. Detectives said the pair arrived in the city at about 1.40pm but officers want CCTV from 1pm. Mr Skripal’s home is a ten-minute drive from where he parked, raising questions about what they were doing in the meantime. Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu said: 'The public are going to continue to see a great deal of police activity in and around the city, including potentially more cordons being erected, but please don't be alarmed.
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| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 Was the Polonium Thing smart or dumb? Compare it to Droning, 2-3 specific casualties or familial collateral damage. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-03-14 23:30 |
| #10 Was the Polonium Thing smart or dumb? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2018-03-14 20:55 |
| #9 pretty rough and "dumb as shit" are two different things. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-03-14 12:19 |
| #8 Putin has been known to play pretty rough. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2018-03-14 12:02 |
| #7 I'd say a strong runup to the elections. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-03-14 11:55 |
| #6 I'd say Ukraine myself. This just doesn't fit with the way Putin plays. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2018-03-14 11:44 |
| #5 I dunno. Somehow the pieces don't seem to fit together quite so tidy, not the least of which is the way Teresa May has jumped right into it. Makes me feel like someone is trying to sell me something. I do like the last para in the article: Anyone thinking of cooperating with Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating collusion, will think twice. Well, sure. Because RUSSIANS! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2018-03-14 11:34 |
| #4 Because he could, he did. And the West will show once again how impotent they are. The same West that welcomes the Islamic threat into their own living rooms. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-03-14 08:26 |
| #3 Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card Most tyrants have their own brand of Jim and Susan McDougal, Arkansas real estate scandal. Fraudulent gains, stolen money, people in need of becoming dead, that sort of thing. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-03-14 05:50 |
| #2 Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card Because he became an idiot - I see no other reason I find convincing. On the other hand, I just wonder: would Ukrainians, or Baltics, or anybody else wishing Russia to look bad (like certain people in, ahem) have Soviet nerve agents from 50 years ago? p.s. What really worries me about the whole story is Muzzies getting ideas. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-03-14 01:59 |
| #1 You spawned a CBRN Event in the UK. Many others were affected. This is an act of WAR, Putin. You thug. I AM tired of your shit. Curse you and Russia. |
| Posted by: newc 2018-03-14 01:18 |