Vladimir Putin Thinks He Can Get Away With Anything.
'Why has the poisoning of Alexei Navalny been met with Western silence?
It is now an established fact, confirmed by laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union. The powerful poison, which has been used in at least one previous assassination attempt against foes of the Russian regime, was this time employed against a domestic opposition leader who operated openly to expose corruption and challenge the Kremlin. It requires a serious response.
In the face of Kremlin stonewalling, many questions remain unanswered and are likely to remain so. Chief among them is whether President Vladimir Putin ordered or approved the attempted assassination. Then there is the fact that once again, the victim survived the attack, and the nerve agent was identified. Mr. Navalny had been flying home from Siberia to Moscow when he was stricken. Did his poisoners want him to perish on the way, as the timetable of the attack suggests, and want to cover up the reason? Or was it their intention to convey a brutal warning of what happens to those who challenge the Kremlin?
Mr. Navalny may have survived largely because of the pilots alacrity in landing and getting him to a hospital. The government later allowed him to be taken to Germany for further treatment. Once they heard of his collapse, Mr. Navalnys colleagues quickly collected what they could from his last hotel in Siberia and got the evidence to Germany, where traces of Novichok were found on a water bottle.
Whatever the full story, the Russian governments contemptible posturing as an aggrieved victim of unfair suspicions only intensify the need to demand a reckoning from the Kremlin. Mr. Putin knows what happened, or he can find out, and if he continues to hide behind glaringly phony denials and ridiculous accusations, he only strengthens the suspicion that this was a deliberate, state-sanctioned hit. He had the greatest motive, means and opportunity. . .
Mr. Putin must believe that there is not much the West can do that it hasnt already done by way of sanctions. President Trump, for reasons that remain one of the top mysteries of his administration, has largely closed his eyes to Mr. Putins serial transgressions, whether its meddling in American elections, annexing Crimea or stonewalling on the poisoning of dissidents.
The surest sign of European anger would be cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a gas conduit from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. But the project is nearly completed, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, is reluctant to take a step that would be costly for Europe and that would look like bowing to threats from the Trump administration, which has demanded cancellation of the pipeline.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/opinion/vladimir-putin-navalny-poisoning.html?
sfstaxprep
(9,998 posts)I bet he could poison someone in Red Square and get away with it.
NRaleighLiberal
(59,940 posts)we've watched orange asshole trample decency and commit mass murder - a complete disaster for nearly 4 years - and he keeps going.
I've no idea what the answer is.
elleng
(130,127 posts)LisaL
(44,962 posts)He certainly has so far.
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)The fucking moron is merely a figurehead, PUTIN'S PUPPET. Mr. KGB knew what he was/is doing. Can the CIA give Putin some "tea"?
Aristus
(66,090 posts)Russia isn't a nation so much as a crime syndicate with a flag. No one is going to do anything to rein him in...