Youāve mentioned this twice, and Iāve not seen it mentioned anywhere else. Where did the information come from? I canāt quite see what a former spy, twenty years after being active, would have to offer MI5, but you never know.
Incidentally, if it is the case that Skripal had been meeting an MI5 handler every week, then Iād have thought this would make him a much more likely target for the GRU. Generally, swapped spies donāt get touched, but I imagine that unwritten rule could easily fall by the wayside if a swapped spy had gone back to espionage work.
As an after thought it emerged today that the Tory Government have received more than 3 million pounds in donations from Russian billionaires and oligarchsā, since their return to government in 2010. Oligarch is just another name for the corrupt elite in Russia who accumilated vast amounts of stolen money during privatization in Russia. Most of this was initially made during the drunk Boris Yeltsinās tenure as president. So Jeremy Corbyn gets crucified for having a cup of tea 35 years ago with a Czech, who may , or may not have been a spy, but the current Tory government are bankrolled by Russia. And we should not treat this as an issue. Yeah, right!
I was reading a BBC article on this subject today. Lots of conjecture, but I noticed one important little qualifier. A sentence toward the end began āIf the Kremlin is found to be responsibleā, and that for me sums up how ridiculous this situation is. We donāt even know who is responsible, yet weāve proceeded as if itās definitely the Kremlin.
Whatever the fuck happened to gathering a bit of evidence before drawing a conclusion?
Well, in Russiaās case, itās because āthems the bad guysā. Gavin Williamson and his Tory pals are feeding off a long-nurtured, perhaps once justified, xenophobia against Russia. Boris Johnson, the complete fucking nutcase, has been talking about bringing them to heel. With what, I might ask?
And how are we going to succeed when 4 million ideologically Wehrmacht in a race war couldnāt, and we probably canāt count on the help of the US in this grand endeavour?
Small correction, the Oligarchs that donated to the Tory party were UK citizens (ostensibly).
It doesnāt change the point youāre making about them being potential shit-bags but John McDonnell made this qualification in response to a question on Marr this morning.
He was asked if the Tory donations should be returned.
His view was that as there are lots of rules governing donations to political parties, then if those rules were passed he was happy for the donations to stand (paraphrasing).
Cynically made me wonder if the Labour party might be in a similar position.
I remember someone once asked me how it was that Abramovich had got his hands on all that lovely oil - as in, how did he get the finance to pay for it? Simple enough, I said. If I were to approach a bank and ask for a loan of (for example) Ā£1 billion, Iād be told to fuck right off, unless I could show some kind of realistic plan to pay it all back. If, at that point, I produce a verifiable document offering me assets worth Ā£10 billion for the price of Ā£1 billion, their view might change somewhat.
Which is pretty much how it happened with Abramovich and however many other Russian ābusinessmenā. And all done by the Russian government, following the wise advice of our very own Adma Smith Institute.
Cheers @saint-or-sinner . Quite like the comment"ā¦Russian oligarchs and their associates had registered donations of Ā£826,100 to the Tories since Theresa May entered No 10ā¦"
The bold bit implying that donations were made in such a way that the primary donor was kept out of the limelight?
I donāt think you have to be cynical. Blair and Mandelson were running things at some point. Neither has struck me as particularly contemplative when making business deals. Mandy was ejected from governments several times for it. Blair has spent his post PM life being a PR agent for dictators of former Soviet Republics.
Since Corbyn joined, party membership has rocketed to the point where the party doesnāt have to rely on one or two very influential donors. The subs put Labour in the black within months.
Even so, most voters arenāt as analytical when looking at the Labour Party. McDonnell knows he canāt trade on this without tripping on some of the landmines scattered around the partyās historical accounts.
May/Rudd/rest of the shit cunts, will use this picture next year as irrefutable proof that the emergency services are immune to everything, including inflation and the need for food.
It was reported yesterday in The Guardian and Independent. Hasenāt been refuted. Met in the same restaurant every month. As regards him being a target, of course. But who knows what has been going on, we will never be told the truth. It will be spun to suit the agenda. There are usually only two relevent questions with this sort of thing. Follow the money, and cui bono. Not Putin thats for sure.
Wrong thread and an old article, but there is a connection, it mentions the white helmets and more importantly the propaganda agencies behind it(all comes back to the same issue, as it always does).
If you can be bothered to read this itās a great reminder of the games being very deliberately played.
I think itās hugely significant. To me, it suggests the man was maybe not retired. To me it suggests he was maybe still on active duty. To me it suggests he may still be obtaining and providing useful information on Putinās Russia. To me it suggests he might be more of a thorn in the side of Putin than he was when he was in jail over there. To me that suggests that while Putin was happy to let him free in the spy swap, circumstances had changed. Maybe itās just me though.
It is now established that there was no āreckless spraying of nerve gas in a public shopping precinct, putting hundreds of innocent lives at riskā. The incident happened in Mr Skripolās home. But of course, much better to keep up the pretence of the āhundreds of innocent lives being put at riskā scenario, and keep it going as long as possible, itās what the Sun and Mail readers desperately want to believe anyway.
You may be on to something. The sun and mail seem to have found out a story about a spy who was found in a public place suffering the effects of some deadly substance and ran with it. If I ran a paper and my readers wanted to hear about reckless spraying of nerve gas in public places, youād be damned sure I would print that with the little I had to go on that they did.
I think we all know that there is only going to be one outcome, despite all logic pointing the other way, this will be the work of the āevil Russiansā.
I think to apply logic successfully you need all the facts. As you say, we donāt and never will. Itās just one opinion against another.
No one considered that he might have still been working for the Russians and his handlers over here found out, so decided to do away with him, whilst blaming Russia?
