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

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

.... Which is about one of the Skrpal poisoners.... duh.

And somebody would claim that the Russians are not welcome in UK.
Any other govt would be so generous to spend such big money for Russian citizens rescue? (and revanche either...)

(BTW, the Russian govt haven't spent anything for them)

^Been reading Republic ?

Columnist Oleg Kashin warns that Russians who are helping to unmask the Salisbury suspects have chosen the ‘wrong side’

In a new op-ed for Republic, columnist Oleg Kashin argues that Russians face a moral dilemma when assisting in the exposure of Russian intelligence agents working abroad. Kashin posits two scenarios that test Russians’ relationship with their state: (1) an undercover cop embedded in a social group, and (2) a secret agent working against foreign operatives. The first situation is modeled explicitly on the controversial criminal case against the “New Greatness” extremist movement (where undercover police officers allegedly set up several young people for felony charges), and the latter is based on the unmasking of the two Salisbury attack suspects as GRU officers.


In the former case, Kashin says, outing the cop’s true identity is unambiguously the right choice for Russian civilians, as it could keep innocents out of jail. The same isn’t true, when it comes to helping foreigners, Kashin argues.


“There are no moral grounds for siding with foreigners in the Russian state’s confrontations with other states. No state in the world is interested in protecting Russians, and Russian citizens act against their own interests by siding with another state and its intelligence agencies,” Kashin writes, implicitly criticizing journalist Sergey Kanev, who recently fled Russia, after publishing an investigative report claiming that Salisbury suspect Anatoly Chepiga received a medal for his part in bringing deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to Russia in February 2014. Kanev also supplied evidence that likely ties “Alexander Petrov,” the other Salisbury suspect, to Russia’s military intelligence.


Kashin warns that anti-Putin sentiment sometimes drives Russians to root for the Kremlin's adversaries, for example, even when it’s Ukraine’s notorious “Azov” battalion. In addition to being morally questionable, Kashin says it’s likely impractical, arguing that Moscow’s defeat abroad does not benefit ordinary Russians at home. Exposing weakness in the Russian armed forces, moreover, could prompt a new wave of militarism, defense allocations, and social-spending austerity measures. Kashin cites Russia’s struggles in the 2008 Georgian War as a catalyst for “the Russian militarism of our era.”


It so happens that Oleg Kashin has written about citizen-state relations in Russia before. As Conflict Intelligence Team researcher Kirill Mikhailov pointed out on Twitter, Kashin wrote an article in August 2015 that argues roughly the opposite of what he said in his new Republic piece. “Let the Russian Federation be ashamed of the Russian Federation,” Kashin said more than two years ago. “It’s not us, and it has nothing to do with us. It’s not our state, and it’s hostile to any Russian person anywhere. Treat it like ISIS.”


https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10...the-wrong-side

Putin calls Sergey Skripal a ‘scumbag’ and a ‘traitor to his homeland’

Speaking on Wednesday at the Russian Energy Week International Forum in Moscow, Vladimir Putin called former GRU officer Sergey Skripal a “scumbag” and a “traitor to his homeland,” referring to the double agent who spied for the British before being arrested for treason and later swapped with the West. In March 2018, Skripal was nearly killed in an apparent assassination attempt allegedly by Russian intelligence agents.


“As for Skripal and so on, this is just the latest spy scandal to be inflated artificially. I follow different information sources, and your colleagues are promoting the idea that Mr. Skripal is nearly some kind of human rights activist. He’s just a spy — a traitor to his homeland. Think about it: a national traitor,” Putin said. The president also called Skripal “nothing more than a scumbag,” and said he welcomes an end to the “informational campaign” surrounding Skripal's poisoning.



https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/10/03...o-his-homeland

Originally Posted by misskit

Putin calls Sergey Skripal a ‘scumbag’ and a ‘traitor to his homeland’

Speaking on Wednesday at the Russian Energy Week International Forum in Moscow, Vladimir Putin called former GRU officer Sergey Skripal a “scumbag” and a “traitor to his homeland,” referring to the double agent who spied for the British before being arrested for treason and later swapped with the West. In March 2018, Skripal was nearly killed in an apparent assassination attempt allegedly by Russian intelligence agents.


“As for Skripal and so on, this is just the latest spy scandal to be inflated artificially. I follow different information sources, and your colleagues are promoting the idea that Mr. Skripal is nearly some kind of human rights activist. He’s just a spy — a traitor to his homeland. Think about it: a national traitor,” Putin said. The president also called Skripal “nothing more than a scumbag,” and said he welcomes an end to the “informational campaign” surrounding Skripal's poisoning.



https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/10/03...o-his-homeland

Sounds a bit pissed off that his henchmen failed...

Originally Posted by misskit

Putin calls Sergey Skripal a ‘scumbag’ and a ‘traitor to his homeland’

And he is perfectly right in his assessment. Skripal sold his country out for financial rewards. But what I do not understand is why Skripal was allowed to leave prison alive if Putin wanted him dead?

Originally Posted by misskit

Putin calls Sergey Skripal a ‘scumbag’ and a ‘traitor to his homeland’

As a matter of fact, what is untrue on that statement?

^ Anyone stating it isn’t true? I’m sure that is why Skripal ended up dead.

People going to England to kill him is the problem. Keep the dirty work at home.

I expect the drones will be along to tell us they were just there to take photos of windmills and tulips, and the antenna was to listen to their favourite Russian pop radio station.

Picture released by Dutch security services of the four Russian GRU agents accompanied by a Russian diplomat with his face obscured



Four Russian intelligence agents part of the GRU were caught “in flagrante” attempting to hack the headquarters of the chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands, Whitehall officials have said. A joint operation by Dutch and British intelligence services intercepted the group, who had hired a car with a boot full of IT equipment that was being used for “close access attack” of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. The operation occurred in April, where the Russian agents were caught trying to hack into the OPCW, where investigations into the chemical weapons used in Salisbury and Douma, Syria, were being carried out.

It followed two previous hacking attempts on UK soil, including targeting the Foreign Office and the Porton Down chemical weapons facility in Salisbury. In a joint statement from Theresa May and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said the spy agency had shown a “disregard for the global values and rules that keep us safe”. Details were released in a co-ordinated release by the UK and Dutch authorities on Thursday.

The four men travelled into Amsterdam using diplomatic passports, and were escorted by a member of the Russian embassy in the Netherlands. The men hired a car filled with specialised equipment, including an antenna which was hidden under a coat in the boot, to try and hack the wifi network of the OPCW. It followed previous “spear-fishing” attempts by state-backed hackers in Moscow, including sending emails to OPCW employees to try and break into the organisation’s IT systems.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/ru...e-netherlands/

Seems somewhat blatant for them to all be seen together knowing full well, as known members of the GRU, they would be recognised. I just don't buy it.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Seems somewhat blatant for them to all be seen together knowing full well, as known members of the GRU, they would be recognised. I just don't buy it.

It happened in April.

Perhaps they didn't identify them until now. At the time they were caught they were travelling on diplomatic passports.

You don't get this fucking spying game at all, do you?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You don't get this fucking spying game at all, do you?

Nah, I'm fcuked. I'll wait for the movie to come out.

From:

Behind the Anglo American War on Russia
Behind the Anglo American War on Russia

Recently the US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Wess Mitchell, testified to the Senate where he candidly revealed the true reasons for current Washington and London campaigns and sanctions against Russia. It has nothing to do with faked allegations of US election interference; it has nothing to do with poorly-staged false flag poisoning of the Russian Skripals. It’s far more fundamental and takes us back to the era before the First World War more than a century ago.

“Contrary to the hopeful assumptions of previous administrations, Russia and China are serious competitors that are building up the material and ideological wherewithal to contest US primacy and leadership in the 21st Century. It continues to be among the foremost national security interests of the United States to prevent the domination of the Eurasian landmass by hostile powers. The central aim of the administration’s foreign policy is to prepare our nation to confront this challenge by systematically strengthening the military, economic and political fundaments of American power.”

more at the link...

Ah the old OhOh "But what about..." irrelevant shite again.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

What does this have to do with Putin sending out assassins to kill people?

It's about the real reasons for the "Anglo-American" campaign against Russia...

Originally Posted by SKkin

Wess Mitchell, testified to the Senate where he candidly revealed the true reasons for current Washington and London campaigns and sanctions against Russia. It has nothing to do with faked allegations of US election interference; it has nothing to do with poorly-staged false flag poisoning of the Russian Skripals.

Originally Posted by SKkin

It's about the real reasons for the "Anglo-American" campaign against Russia...

No it's not, it's about how some whackjob interpreted what the bloke said to fit his looney tunes fairy story, you daft git.

These supposed Russian spies are really fooking dumb. If it is true?

Revealed: Second novichok poisoning suspect is unmasked as Russian military doctor after he used his own address at GRU spy agency HQ and real date of birth for his undercover identity

Source: Daily Mail and other newspapers Harry..

^Then, no need for MI6, just any amateur investigator, e.g. Belingcat (why always only this one?) can discover who dunnit...

Russian Secret Service: Why do you want to join the Secret Service?
Candidate: Well...
Russian Secret Service: Can you keep a secret?
Candidate: Yes.
Interviewer: Right, well you're in then.....


Apologies Monty Python

One would almost think Putin is saying to the world "Look, you can't stop me doing what I want and I don't care"...

Russian federal agents allegedly arrest Border Service official for selling information from the closed database that helped identify the Salisbury suspects

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has reportedly carried out a massive review of the private detectives and state officials who allegedly sell information from closed databases. A source familiar with the situation told the news agency Rosbalt that the FSB has conducted more than 60 raids in the investigation.


The same source claims that the FSB has arrested a State Border Service employee in Russia’s Northwestern Federal District and a staff member at a Federal Tax Service branch. “The first [suspect] supposedly sold information about foreign travel by [Alexander] Petrov, [Ruslan] Boshirov, and several others,” the source told Rosbalt, clarifying that the arrests, however, are tied to leaking information about other persons, not the “Salisbury tourists.”


The British authorities identified Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the men likely responsible for poisoning double agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, this March. Investigative reporters at Bellingcat and The Insider used extracts from different closed databases to compile evidence that these two suspects are actually two Russian military intelligence agents named Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga.


https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/10/30...sbury-suspects

Never ending story

Russia to face 'more draconian' US sanctions over Skripal poisoning
6 Nov 2018Moscow failed to show it had given up chemical weapons
Sanctions could include diplomatic, trade or banking ties

Russia faces new US sanctions after failing to take steps to prove it has ended its chemical weapons programme in the wake of the Skripal nerve agent attack in the UK in March, the state department has said.

It is unclear what form of sanctions the US will impose but US officials have warned that they would be substantial, potentially affecting diplomatic relations, trade or banking ties.

The US imposed preliminary sanctions on security-related technology to Russia in August, in a signal that it accepted the UK’s assessment that Russian military intelligence was behind the use of the novichok agent in Salisbury against Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy and his daughter Yulia.

Dawn Sturgess died in July after handling a small bottle contaminated with the nerve agent apparently discarded by Skripal’s attackers. Her partner, Charlie Rowley, was also taken ill after being exposed to the nerve agent.

Under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination (CBW) Act, the Kremlin was then told it had 90 days to take “remedial measures” to include a formal renunciation of chemical and biological weapon use and admission to suspect sites of international inspectors.

On Tuesday, state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert issued a statement saying “we could not certify that the Russian Federation met the conditions required by [the CBW Act]”.

“The department is consulting with Congress regarding next steps as required 90 days after the initial determination on August 6, 2018,” Nauert said in her statement. “We intend to proceed in accordance with the terms of the CBW Act, which directs the implementation of additional sanctions.”

She did not specify the sanctions under consideration, but under the legislation the president is obliged to impose three sets of sanctions from a menu of six, which includes restrictions on development assistance, bank loans, general non-food imports and exports, downgrading diplomatic relations and suspending landing rights for the national airline, Aeroflot.

At the time the preliminary sanctions were imposed, a senior administration official said the second round would be “more draconian than the first round”.

“It’s designed to be a sliding scale of pressure,” the official said.

The new measures will be additional to already substantial US sanctions against Russia, including those imposed in 2014 for its military intervention in Ukraine, and the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which targets the oligarchs supporting and working on behalf of the Kremlin.

Congress is meanwhile considering its own sanctions bills, which could also have far-reaching effects on the Russian economy. They include the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act, which would put restrictions on Americans buying Russian sovereign debt and curb investments in Russian energy projects.

Russia denies responsibility for the Skripal attack, suggesting – among other options – that it was a “false flag” provocation by the UK intelligence services. Moscow denounced the first set of sanctions under the CBW act as “illegal”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ipal-poisoning