Putin -- love him or else

[Ned]

Whatever happened to that thread about Putin poisoning his rivals and opponents? Well, it looks like he was successful once more. "[T]he killers of Alexander Litvinenko also tried to poison Mario Scaramella, an Italian security expert who met the Russian exile on the day that he fell ill. Toxicologists confirmed yesterday that Mr Scaramella had also been contaminated by a “significant” amount of deadly polonium-210. The level leads them to suspect that it was more than he could have ingested from simple physical contact with Litvinenko."

Other stories have linked the poison to the FSB and a Russian reactor. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/01122006/34...hit-squad.html

While some may believe that Putin had nothing to do with this, I would suggest that if he does nothing to investigate this matter but simply continues to issue denials, we should all draw the necessary conclusions. This is much like Serbia saying it had nothing to do with the assassination of the Archduke. It's denials fell flat when it refused an Austrian demand to join the investigation. We later found out that Serbia was indeed behind the plot.

[Lancer]

Big improvement over the old Soviet leaders. Putin may be out to make himself rich, powerful, feared...but he's not out to spread his political system by force of arms. Well, yet.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Lancer
Big improvement over the old Soviet leaders. Putin may be out to make himself rich, powerful, feared...but he's not out to spread his political system by force of arms. Well, yet.

That's why I was asking in an earlier thread whether Putin had an ideology. If he did, he would be a lot more dangerous. But, we may be wrong in this as he seems to be ruthlessly trying to restore the Russian (Soviet) Empire and supply arms to enemies of the US and Israel.

[Lancer]

I didn't know that Ned. Good luck restoring empire though, most of it is in NATO now. Or,is that really meaningful anymore? What about the moslems to his south,common ground of a sort, yes? Dangerous to sell arms to enemies of Israel when they are moslem states. Or are the Russians buying them off?

[Ned]

I wasn't thinking so far as the Warsaw Pact. But he did poison the current Ukrainian president before his election because of his pro-West stance.

As to the Muslim South, like Chechnya, I think they want a "federation" with them within and economic commonwealth under Russian security.

[Nubclear]

Putin -- love him or else

I choose "love him"

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar

Putin -- love him or else

I choose "love him"

... He love you too... by sucking your precious young blood!! ...

[Admiral]

It's really a sad story to watch. Putin has been steadily eroding Russian freedom since he took office. I suppose that's who you get when you elect a former member of the KGB. And anyone who thinks he won't continue to run the government after he steps down from President is an idiot.

[Nubclear]

Meh.

[Heresson]

Litvinenko's friend accused Scaramella of poisoning him; Scaramella came to London to visit him, yet during a sushi lunch in Piccadily Circus he seemed strangely nervous, barely talked and avoided Litvinenko for the rest of his stay.

[Pekka]

There's much more play in Russia than Putin. I think it is deceptive to our knowledge and assesments that we are not well informed about other groups and power relations in Russia.

For example, there was this one dude who said (friend of Litvinenko), that there is a power strugle about the power soon to come. That is, when Putin steps down, who gets the power.

There's dudes who are like 'KGB, military and the likes' according to him and the other side is oligarks etc. So these groups are battling quietly and it can 'be rough'.

SO who knows who is doing what.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Admiral
It's really a sad story to watch. Putin has been steadily eroding Russian freedom since he took office.

He's got lots in common with Blair. They should go out on a date - a nice candlelit meal - preferably without any polonium-210 on it

[Provost Harrison]

Topical question of the day: Who discovered polonium? (no googling please!)

[Admiral]

Polonius?

[Provost Harrison]

No, the name derives from the fact that it was named after Poland (now there's a big clue!)