Thread: Former Russian spy critically ill in Britain after exposure to unidentified substance

The expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the US, along with dozens of others from various other countries, should be a sobering moment for all of mankind. It’s a sign of how close to the brink of a major war the world is coming.

To start with, this current episode is not comparable to the 55 Soviets expelled by Ronald Reagan in 1986 or the 50 or so thrown out by George W. Bush in 2001. Those actions were directly related to spying activities – which all governments engage in, directed against their friends as well as enemies. The Russians do it, the Americans do it, everybody does it. There’s nothing remarkable about cutting the numbers down now and then, particularly after a major embarrassment like the 2001 Robert Hanssen scandal.

But these latest expulsions have nothing to do with how many of the Russians might be actual spies. Nor with the nonsensical accusations of Russian election interference to “sow discord” and “discredit democracy.”

In fact, they have almost nothing to do with the US State Department’s unsupported claim that “Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.” The absence of evidence that the Russians were behind the attack is no more relevant than repeated, equally evidence-free accusations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government. Whatever happened to the Skripals and whoever is behind it, Salisbury is a mere pretext.

No, the real purpose is much simpler. Decrying the American action, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov stated that he had told his US interlocutors that “the United States took a very bad step by cutting what very little still remains in terms of Russian-American relations.”

But severing the last vestiges of that relationship is what the expulsions are designed to do. Disrupting US-Russia ties isn’t a means to an end – it is the end.

For several years, many commentators and analysts have pondered whether the US and Russia are already in a new Cold War, and if so when things will get better. The crystal-ball gazing can now stop. The answers are all too clear.
Yes, we are in a new Cold War and have been for some time. Indeed, it is foolish to think that on the US side the first Cold War ever really stopped. As long as we had a puppet government in Moscow under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, we could do as we pleased. Plunder Russia’s resources with the assistance of corrupt oligarchs installed by Western “experts.” Expand NATO to the east after promising we wouldn’t. Bomb Serbia. Invade Iraq. Expand NATO some more. Stage regime change operations in the name of “democracy.” Declare that Ukraine and Georgia will be members of NATO.

As for the second question – no, things will not get better. Perhaps never.

What about President Donald J. Trump, the man who is supposed to be the Leader of the (anachronistically named) Free World? Hasn’t he repeatedly said he wants better relations with Russia?

The answer is supplied by the former State Department spokesman under the Obama administration, Admiral John Kirby, who said the expulsions were “… embraced by our European allies because they’ve been worried that with some of the things they’ve heard or haven't heard from this president about Russian President Vladimir Putin means he might be soft on Moscow. But this tells them that the national security professionals they’ve been talking to behind closed doors really have held sway and the US policy is following what they have always promised, which is to crack down.”

Perhaps Kirby overstates how much some of our European satellites really want more confrontation with Moscow, but he’s absolutely right about the role of the “national security professionals” operating “behind closed doors.”Make no mistake, of all of Trump’s 2016 heresies against the bipartisan establishment, none was of more concern than what seems to be his sincere wish for a new détente with Moscow.

When all is said and done, there are lots of reasons the political class hates Trump. His views on immigration and trade are near the top of the list. But for the deep state and its mainstream media arm, demonizing Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally is a dangerous obsession – and Trump presented a threat. Hence the entire Russiagate/FISAgate hysteria launched by the Steele dossier, an effort that incidentally has British (particularly MI6) fingerprints all over it. Its main goal was always to box Trump in and prevent him from pursuing any path other than the disastrous course laid out by Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama.

Recently, one prominent Democratic senator expressed his concern over the appointment of the hawkish John Bolton as Trump’s new national security adviser, suggesting that Trump was “lining up his war cabinet” that might “blunder us into another terrible conflict.” But where was that senator and his leftish colleagues in the self-declared “#Resistance” to Trump when they insisted on new legislatively mandated sanctions, demanded we send lethal weapons to Ukraine, called for bombing Syria, and generally accused Trump of being a traitor in collusion with Putin?

Well, the Trump critics have got their wish. The Democratic left, along with their GOP “Never Trump” neoconservative allies, have won and Trump has lost. As far as foreign and security policy goes, Trump might as well not be president.

The result is a world that is one “Sarajevo” moment from a new (nuclear) 1914, but not because Trump is an unpredictable, irrational “madman” who needs to be restrained by the “adults in the room.” That notion that is exactly backwards, as evidenced by the fact that the same “professionals” were aghast at his agreement to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. (In my estimation chances that the meeting will actually take place are only 50 percent and falling fast with Bolton’s appointment. Look for a “provocation” by Pyongyang that will scotch the summit. Or if the meeting does take place, look for Trump to be loaded up by his team with non-negotiable demands that will guarantee failure.)

Moscow will now consider its response to the expulsions of its diplomats, but it is in a no-win situation. If, based on past practice, the Russians respond with “proportionate” restraint so as not to permanently alienate their Western so-called “partners,” they can be sure of more of the same – and worse. On the other hand, if they hit back asymmetrically and hard – for example cancelling overflight rights of flag carriers of sanctioning states – the howls of Russian “rogue behavior” will intensify, leading to yet more and harsher sanctions, such as SWIFT cutoff. Look for a stepped-up boycott campaign against the 2018 World Cup as well as stronger calls to neutralize Moscow’s veto in the UN Security Council. Or another chemical weapons false flag in Syria. Or a possible “Krajina scenario” launched by Kiev against Donbass – in the expectation that Putin will step aside the way that Slobodan Milosevic did.

Those behind this global campaign think we can treat Russia as though it were a minor power of the magnitude of Serbia, Iraq, Libya, or Syria, or even Iran. They think if we just keep pushing, pushing, pushing, either the Russians will collapse or back down. They can see no other acceptable outcome than removing Putin and returning Russia to the condition of a Yeltsin-era vassal state – a term Putin used in his interview with Oliver Stone – or, better yet, its territorial breakup along the lines suggested by the late Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Things are going to get worse. Maybe a lot worse.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/422455-us-r...mat-expulsion/

Originally Posted by david44

to encourage the others

The episode prompted the French writer, Voltaire, to write in Candide 'Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres'. [In this country, it is customary, from time to time, to shoot an admiral, to encourage the others.] Byng is buried at All Saints Church, Southhill. [All Saints Church.

Dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encouragerles autres. (In this country England it is thought well to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others. from Candide

A Frenchman expressing his opinion of his own country, France's behaviour? An English Admiral expressing England's attitude.

Does that have some relevance to the Russian mind?

Originally Posted by mcgoo

Vlad made a comment some time ago ,

Saying " you people who accept Silver Dollars for your treachery may find them in your mouth one day " mmhh !

A source would be helpful to see the relevance to this thread.

Whereas The LORD said, when answering the question, from this recently released excellent factual and heavily edited video at 37.24 to 38.07:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3789&v=CCFs0Ptze


Scene 1:

Interviewer: Can you forgive people?
Putin: Yes, but not for everything.
Interviewer: What can't you forgive?
Putin: Betrayal!

Scene 2,

Interviewer: You said in such a voice .... You were betrayed in your life?
Putin: I would prefer not to talk about this, bye and large and I can't say that I lived through such a serious experience called betrayal. No I don't think so.
Interviewer: People were afraid to betray you?
Putin: It's hard to say. Maybe I just chose people who are non-betrayers.

Today we have reports that the Czech President would like some evidence.

"“I want to see the facts. I will certainly welcome if the United Kingdom presents some evidence that the Russians wanted to kill the double agent Skripal,” Czech President Milos Zeman told the Blesk news outlet on Tuesday."

"While Zeman did not oppose the government’s decision to expel Russian diplomats, he said it was “it's a bit superfluous.” “Let it happen. Given time, they will return,” Zeman said.


Zeman, who has often been accused of being “pro-Russian,” has also dismissed allegations that the Kremlin contacted him in an attempt to influence his stance over the Skripal case.


“No one from Moscow did not contact me and did not visit me,” he said.


On Monday, President Zeman ordered the country’s intelligence agencies to look into the allegations that the nerve agent that was allegedly used to poison Skripal might have originated from the Czech Republic.


“I do not believe this, but it is always better to have information from counterintelligence that these allegations are untrue, than to live in the belief that they might be true,” the official said."

https://www.rt.com/news/422514-zeman-skripal-uk-facts/


Some public evidence of possible BREXIT fudge from the UK Gov. "investigation" into CA/MI6 linked Gov. spies/ameristani political parties illegal activities.
Brexit under threat? UKIP deny working with Cambridge Analytica amid explosive whistleblower hearing

"UKIP has denied the party had any working relationship with Cambridge Analytica (CA), refuting the claims of whistleblower Christopher Wylie.

The former employee from the political data firm has thrown jaw-dropping allegations of corruption, law breaking, and vote swaying at the firm he has now left.


Wylie revealed at a DCMS committee in Parliament that he is “absolutely” convinced Brexit campaign groups in the EU referendum worked together – despite UK rules banning finance sharing and campaign collusion. He said he saw evidence that Vote Leave and BeLeave were in partnership with each other and with CA."

One wonders if the "classified" info, so loved by 'arry, has had any input to the softening rhetoric from UK Gov. Officers.Possibly this months bulletin, from CA to their UK Gov. sponsors, shows the trend of disbelief in the UK for the Gov.'s position on the Salisbury Skirmishis going, as we say in the trade, parabolic in a negativedirection for the UK Gov. mishandling.

https://www.rt.com/uk/422480-facebook-brexit-ukip-link/



A message to the Russian people addressed to The LORD.

"Amid a deepening diplomatic crisis, UK Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed personal condolences over Sunday’s Kemerovo shopping mall fire that has resulted in the deaths of 64 people.


“The thoughts and prayers of the British people are with the families who have lost loved ones in such terrible circumstances,” wrote May in a message posted on the Twitter feed of the British embassy in Moscow."



https://www.rt.com/news/422490-may-kemerovo-putin-condolences/

Bumbling Boris told the HOC:

"During his Q&A session in Parliament on Tuesday, Johnson told the House of Commons that the UK has “no desire to punish England fans” by refusing to take part in the World Cup, held in Russia from June 14 to July 15.

Johnson said: “There are no plans to boycott the World Cup in Russia or try to get a boycott from the England team which is a matter for the Football Association not the Government.

“We have no desire to punish England fans. There will no attendance by ministers or the Royal family as the Prime Minister told the House on March 14.

“Several other countries have decided to put in place the same measures. The onus is on the Russian authorities to honour their FIFA contract to make sure they keep Scottish fans and British fans… safe.”"

https://www.rt.com/sport/422489-bori...nd-world-cup-/




http://‘It’s of little interest what...ager Southgate

The nerve agent used could have been synthesized in several countries, including US & UK. There is no doubt about that.
If this was a Putin ordered hit, it makes the Russian intelligence services look totally laughable. It was farcical.
And why use a nuclear missile to destroy a disused barn door, then miss? There are considerably more effective and elegant ways.
So if it came from Putin, it was to make some sort of statement. But given the rampant amateurism? We expect better from the KGB.
I impatiently await any form of actual evidence beyond "Well He would, wouldn't He?" CCTV perhaps?
It appears certain the hit happened at his home, given that's where the PC copped a dose. His daughter may be the perp, but Russki's don't think so.
A puzzle within an enigma.
And why won't the Brits share a sample of the dose? That could establish where it was actually synthesized.