The Curious Case of Alexander Litvinenko

I saw the interview with Khodorkovsky at the time and was not impressed. It is fairly well known how the Russian mafia emerged during Soviet times and took advantage of the breakdown in law and order in the 1990s, and that it has become useful to a diverse group of people with or without connections to the highest levels to the state, blurring the lines when it comes to activities like money laundering. And I don't doubt they like London because it is a relatively easy place in which to live, though I note too that the richer the Russia the greater the likelihood that they never go anywhere without a bodyguard or two, being most in danger from other Russians, rather like the tepid drama that was on the BBC recently, McMafia -based on a factual account of crime and politics in Russia by Misha Glenny. I don't know how anyone can live like that, but I guess they are used to it. All that money for so little personal freedom.

I don't see how this can prove Putin is either isolated or controlled in the way Khodorkvsky implies. On one level Putin cannot know everything that happens beneath him, and may approve of some things that do, such as the murder of Litvinenko and if he doesn't then he has the power to deal with those responsible. The point is he is the Head of State and we are always being told how powerful he is. That in reality he may not be so powerful does not remove the point that he is ultimately responsible even if his government is riddled with crooks. It was as if Khodorkovsky was trying to find a reason to excuse the man who almost ruined his life. But then it may also be a benefit to Russia that Khodorkovsky's political ambitions were crushed, even if his prison term was an excess of punishment, albeit done to prove to anyone else the risks of challenging Putin's grip on power.

I'd just like to congratulate Vladimir on his Landslide victory & giving the 77% of Russian citizens what they wanted. :claps :peanutbutter

His intolerance to "do-gooders" for me makes him The Worlds most powerful man. How about that COMRADE !

Another view of recent events.
another angry voice

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Originally Posted by Jericho

Another view of recent events.
another angry voice

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Some good, concise points in this link (esp. on Williamson and Johnson) -but offers no alternative to the origin and use of the nerve agent used in Salisbury.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

I'd just like to congratulate Vladimir on his Landslide victory & giving the 77% of Russian citizens what they wanted.
His intolerance to "do-gooders" for me makes him The Worlds most powerful man. How about that COMRADE !

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This has to be satire. And I thought 'do-gooders' were the kind of bleeding heart residents of Islington who vote Labour? Hw is your campaign against the Bolshevik Broadcasting Company proceeding?

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Originally Posted by peejaye

I'd just like to congratulate Vladimir on his Landslide victory & giving the 77% of Russian citizens what they wanted.

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At the risk of sounding like a cliche, if things are so good in Russia and so bad in the UK then why don't you migrate to Russia? Maybe you could claim political asylum as a member of a political movement being suppressed by a deep state conspiracy.

Given one of Putin's main claims to success is that he turned around the economy after the post-Soviet collapse, it's interesting that the Russian economy has been stagnant since the previous election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia

Could the economy be Putin's achilles heel, as it was for the Soviet Union in the end? The combination of a military build-up, confrontation with the West, rampant corruption and political repression is hardly the recipe for a dynamic economy. In addition, privatisation has been reversed under Putin and the state now controls 3/4 of the economy according to this article - again, not a recipe for a dynamic economy. https://www.project-syndicate.org/co...-sonin-2018-02

I'm going to take your advice as you "trolled" & stay away from you two maniacs. I've seen the drivel on other threads you two idiots are wallowing in.
You can stick all these far right websites up your arses, I've lived in Russia on & off for six years & I'm far more qualified than you will ever be on what's happening there. I spoke with my "ex" only yesterday.
Personally, I'm more concerned about sorting the country out where I live although it's so far gone now it's becoming impossible.
You two should be propping up a fucking flyover somewhere!

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Originally Posted by peejaye

I'm going to take your advice as you "trolled" & stay away from you two maniacs. I've seen the drivel on other threads you two idiots are wallowing in.
You can stick all these far right websites up your arses, I've lived in Russia on & off for six years & I'm far more qualified than you will ever be on what's happening there. I spoke with my "ex" only yesterday.
Personally, I'm more concerned about sorting the country out where I live although it's so far gone now it's becoming impossible.
You two should be propping up a fucking flyover somewhere!

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I have not linked any 'far right websites' so I would appreciate a list. It is a pity that you don't set aside your anger and debate the issues with at least some evidence to hand, even if the evidence in this case has yet to be published in full for reasons that the government must know.

I also want to see concrete action taken to address the problems we have in the UK, but do not see them as impossible to deal with, that is the cry of the desperate who are inclined to reject the existing mechanisms we have in this flawed democracy as being part of the problem, and thus call for more 'drastic measures' which will only make things worse. It goes without saying that Brexit remains the greatest opportunity or threat to our future, and you know on which side of the fence I am.

It is also the case that in the aftermath of Napoleon's domination of French politics many Europeans believed France could only be run by a dictator; the same fear was expressed of Germany after 1945; and again of the USSR when Stalin died -and since, and enough Russians seem to agree to enable the latest version to run in an election unopposed. Putin saw the way in which the USSR 'deteriorated' into a Russia run by party apparratchiks suddenly awash in cash, gangsters, foreign investors -some legal, some not- and how Russia's international profile appeared to decline, and one can at least understand his desire to clean up the yard.

Except he has not 'drained the swamp' so much as deepened it, while engaging in foreign adventures that prove how influential Russia can be and that have drawn admiration from people who should know better. But this influence has lumbered Russia with a commitment to Syria that shows no sign of ending, and is thus as potentially damaging as the USSR's 'assistance' to the Communist regime in Afghanistan in 1980.

Now may be the time for Russians to ask how much longer their military is going to remain in Syria. Bashar al-Asad is in effect, dependent on the Russians for his personal safety and that of his family business, aka the Syria Government. But the war is not over, Syria has been invaded by Turkey which has occupied Afrin and will use it as a base to harass if not exterminate as many Kurdish 'terrorists' as it can, using former members of al-Qaeda and Daesh to do it. What is Russia or NATO going to about this? Syria is ungovernable as a country, the cost of re-building shattered towns and cities runs in the Billions -are the Russians going to pay for that while their economy is unable to grow because of the country's interference in the domestic affairs of Europe and the US?

Russia has attacked the west because it wants to break up NATO, the EU seeing these processes as a means whereby it can regain the super-power status it once had. But in doing so with the actions it is taking, it is alienating itself from the very people who would rather Russia was our friend and partner, because for all my criticism of the Putin regime, I want to live in a world where I can visit St Petersburg any time I like and not be worried about some political spat making it a risky trip -and I think that is what the Russians want too.

Attachment 1064515

As an American, I'm qualified to talk about Trump, even if I'm not qualified. It's my Constitutional Right!!!
But I can't talk about England, I remember when Liberty Harkness and her TS-Friend used to talk "Benny Hill English" and I couldn't understand a word they said.
If PeeJaye gets tired of arguing, it'll get pretty boring around here, I don't even go on Twitter, the back and forth there is so intoxicating, I might get lost in there like the Bermuda Triangle and waste even more of my already wasted days........sigh.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

I'm going to take your advice as you "trolled" & stay away from you two maniacs. I've seen the drivel on other threads you two idiots are wallowing in.
You can stick all these far right websites up your arses, I've lived in Russia on & off for six years & I'm far more qualified than you will ever be on what's happening there. I spoke with my "ex" only yesterday.
Personally, I'm more concerned about sorting the country out where I live although it's so far gone now it's becoming impossible.
You two should be propping up a fucking flyover somewhere!

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You really are degenerating into a self-parody. Surely you are not going to let down all of your devoted followers here by depriving them of your incisive commentary. With so many far right websites like Wikipedia and Project Syndicate spreading misinformation about the peoples' hero they need you more than ever. Assuming this final farewell lasts as long as previous ones, perhaps you could start by sharing your list of approved information sources that are not 'far right'.

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Originally Posted by buttslinger

But I can't talk about England,

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In fact not only are you free to discuss England, and indeed, the UK, I think you should as sometimes people who don't live here may ask questions we have not thought of asking, and make comments that tell us something we did not know that perhaps we should have. I don't even think you need to have visited, though I am sure you have. As for Benny Hill...I did not understand him either, but I put that down to his Hampshire burr and the possibility that anyone who lives in Southampton for any length of time will by a process of osmosis become unintelligible, even to themselves, it is that kind of town.

[QUOTE=Stavros;1829191]In fact not only are you free to discuss England....QUOTE]

No, I mean in the US you have to make a real effort to know what's going on around the world, they just don't cover the outside world on the news, people turn the channel. Even the Newspaper only has a couple pages now, unless it's a Giant Tsunami or a Brexit, nothing. They've covered the poisoning, but only briefly. Like when Trump congratulates Putin on his election.
I only got to London once, if you're tired of London, you're tired of living, I loved it. Fucking EXPENSIVE, though.

Surprise surprise, our right wing friends haven't bothered sharing this with you all !
You guys over the pond; You think you've got problems with Trump, we've got this "full weight warmongering cunt" to deal with.

https://www.theguardian.com/football...-1936-olympics

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Originally Posted by Stavros

It goes without saying that Brexit remains the greatest opportunity or threat to our future, and you know on which side of the fence I am.

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For you privileged few, maybe? What about the 1 in 20, YES; one in fucking twenty people in this country without a roof over their heads, homeless people? I don't think they're losing much too sleep at night whittling about your millionaires club. Probably freezing, wet through & living in fear of some far right cunt kicking them half to death!
Fucking Public schoolboy! :puke

Should of read " 1 in 200 people", deliberate mistake..... :banghead

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You managed to stay away for almost 2 days this time, so you're making progress. Have you been on a bender to celebrate the 're-election' of Czar Vladimir I Hero of the People?

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Originally Posted by filghy2

You managed to stay away for almost 2 days this time, so you're making progress. Have you been on a bender to celebrate the 're-election' of Czar Vladimir I Hero of the People?

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Well I couldn't figure out whether it would make you happy me staying away? I couldn't possibly live with that so I decided to play it safe & have my say. Also, with just you and your mentor on here it would be like listening to the fucking BBC all day long!

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archi...egorical-liar/

For those that only watch the BBC news, this headline story on Independent television was omitted from BBC bulletins yesterday, probably in support of the Tory Government? ......proving the Foreign Secretary lied to the British public about the nerve agent found in Salisbury. This bunch of corrupt vermin make Putin & The Kremlin look like Florence Nightingale!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8286761.html

https://www.unian.info/world/1006937...the-times.html

Security services believe they have pinpointed the location of the covert Russian laboratory that manufactured the weapons-grade nerve agent used in Salisbury.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

For those that only watch the BBC news, this headline story on Independent television was omitted from BBC bulletins yesterday, probably in support of the Tory Government? ......proving the Foreign Secretary lied to the British public about the nerve agent found in Salisbury. This bunch of corrupt vermin make Putin & The Kremlin look like Florence Nightingale!

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The point at issue is that Boris Johnson claimed Porton Down had identified Russia as the source of the nerve agent when, as the article you linked shows, the official in charge at Porton Down said no such thing; a contradiction that was broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 yesterday. Gary Aitkenhead said

“We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to the government who have then used a number of other sources,” some of them intelligence-based.

It is typical of your Brexit boyo to make up whatever he thinks will make him sound well-informed and capable of leading the United Kingdom as its fourth Anglo-American Prime Minister, on any other occasion he would either have been sacked or forced to resign by now.

It appears that Yulia Skripal is now awake, talking and that her health is improving. Whether or not she can reveal how she and her father were poisoned we must wait to find out. If anything, it confirms yet again how risky chemical weapons are for all involved.

It is a pity for Salisbury, which is a pleasant if bland little town with an over-rated cathedral, and an under-rated bakery (but not in the town) run by the Snell family which makes a strawberry gateau that is beyond description and deserves a place in the list of the Seven Wonders of the British Isles.

You should crawl back under the stone someone dislodged.
I'm sure the Skripals will swear blind they saw Vladimir Putin on the front door step the day before it happened with the BBC at the front of the gullible queue of cunts waiting to inform the even more gullible public.
Fucking strawberry gateau...... enough said!

Clearly; Your absence from this forum whilst taking medication for your Brexit obsession didn't work ! :D
Live with it. No longer subsidizing you baskets and your wealthy friends gives me much pleasure.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

Fucking strawberry gateau...... enough said!

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Peejaye, do yourself a favour. I am sure you can get from Doncaster to Southampton by train then take a bus to Salisbury. The Strawberry Gateau will be worth it, and you can even share one slice -it looks like the corner of a wall but has the texture of your sweetheart's breath- with your latest flame, and swoon with delight. If you are diabetic, it is a great way to die, though that would not be my intention.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

Clearly; Your absence from this forum whilst taking medication for your Brexit obsession didn't work ! :D
Live with it. No longer subsidizing you baskets and your wealthy friends gives me much pleasure.

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I am on medication on a daily basis these days, and grateful to the NHS for it. I am not sure what the rest of your post means as I have but the one basket for occasional detritus, though I do recall my mother taking evening classes in basket weaving in the early 1960s -she also did carpentry- and enjoying it very much. The Russians it seems, weave more complex and tangled structures, and not very well. At some point in the future we may even know what the truth is, bearing in mind that for many years the truth, aka Pravda, was a newspapers of lies edited by a liar called Lenin.

Why the fuck are you even on this website? :ignore:




:Bowdown:

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Peejaye, do yourself a favour. I am sure you can get from Doncaster to Southampton by train then take a bus to Salisbury. The Strawberry Gateau will be worth it, and you can even share one slice -it looks like the corner of a wall but has the texture of your sweetheart's breath- with your latest flame, and swoon with delight. If you are diabetic, it is a great way to die, though that would not be my intention.

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A Public schoolboy like you probably thinks people like me have never set foot in Salisbury, I've actually being incapacitated there many times in the Hop Back brewery pub drinking "Summer Lightning" although thanks to you cunts & EU policy I can't afford the £218 return train fare now.
& why I would go to Southampton first is anyones' guess?
We do have delicatessens in Yorkshire! Not that you would know.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

Why the fuck are you even on this website? :ignore:

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Oh I don't know, maybe because I have been attracted to transgendered women since around 1968 even if I did not have my first experience until five years after that. I am also interested in politics, as you might have noticed. I don't query your right to be here, even I sometimes find your arguments are not robust, but I am not Einstein either.

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Originally Posted by peejaye

A Public schoolboy like you probably thinks people like me have never set foot in Salisbury, I've actually being incapacitated there many times in the Hop Back brewery pub drinking "Summer Lightning" although thanks to you cunts & EU policy I can't afford the £218 return train fare now.
& why I would go to Southampton first is anyones' guess?
We do have delicatessens in Yorkshire! Not that you would know.

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Even worse than you think -state school -but left at 16-, first in my family to go to university (I will spare you the ID of all three of them in case you choke with derisory laughter), and not the kind of person who drinks in pubs, unless I am obliged to if there is nowhere else to watch a Champions League match, at least they have banned smoking.

I assumed you can't get to Salisbury direct by train so would change at Southampton but you seem to know how to do it, and may even have been to Snell's. The alternative is a bicycle, I guess it would take three days from Yorkshire.

In the meantime, though their cat and two guinea pigs have been put down, both the Skripal's are in improving health, which is good news for them, and which will make for interesting times ahead, particularly if we -other than Peejaye- have all been fooled. But maybe they don't know how it happened, in which case the mystery may never be solved to anyone's satisfaction.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

which will make for interesting times ahead

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Are you serious? I can write you the story now! I'll give you a clue..... magic money tree? Bank accounts, the BBC..... :whistle:
One serious question; Do you really think those 2 would be alive & able to talk if the Russians had been involved?
I know you big Establishment people believe what you want to believe but please.....

Why us? :smh

Attachment 1067782

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Originally Posted by peejaye

Why us? :smh

Attachment 1067782

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because... you like it?

Just to muddy the waters.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peejaye

Are you serious? I can write you the story now! I'll give you a clue..... magic money tree? Bank accounts, the BBC..... :whistle:
One serious question; Do you really think those 2 would be alive & able to talk if the Russians had been involved?
I know you big Establishment people believe what you want to believe but please.....

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The apparent recovery of the Skripal's -though we do not know if or how they may have been damaged in the long term- was possible because the first responders and the NHS staff acted quickly enough to deal with the worst effects of the nerve agent used. It is also the case that 'chemical weapons' are volatile and unreliable which is why they have not become standard military grade weapons. The 1928 law that outlawed the use of chemical and biological weapons followed their use in the First World War though clearly government have continued to develop them and the Syrians have, with Russian assistance used them against their enemies in the civil war. But they remain difficult to control and do not always achieve their desired results.

The link Jericho has provided attempts to link the Skripal case to the murder of the Maltese journalist but we don't have confirmation that Skripal was investigating Cambridge Analytica, though I have said before I don't quite understand the Russian involvement with CA so cannot make a judgement on the report.

Attachment 1067963:whistle:

https://www.rt.com/news/424149-skrip...ing-bz-lavrov/

A convenient claim for Sergei Lavrov to make. The independent OPCW has issued a classified report on its findings from the Salisbury samples, yet Lavrov not only claims to have been given results directly from one of the laboratories used by the OPCW but that it proves Russia was not involved! But surely he would also need the results from the other laboratories to judge the OPCW report? It is so convenient that the Swiss lab proves what Lavrov wants it to prove, while the possibility that BZ produced in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was receiving arms from Russia could not possibly have been given to them for safe keeping, I mean, yani, that is so far fetched, ain't it?

You can't educate pork ! :shrug