On the simplistic left-right, political spectrum, every good USian knows that communism is on the far left. Anti-capitalism. The Soviet Union and Russia today equals communism regardless of how little or poorly implemented such an economic policy prevails there. They are the enemy. And Putin is always guilty.
Putin’s Foe Boris Nemtsov Gunned Down Outside Kremlin, Days After Family Predicted His Murder
Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, just a day before a planned protest against the government.
The death of Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, ignited a fury among opposition figures who called the brutal killing an assassination. Putin quickly offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation.
Nemtsov himself had said in recent days that his family believed he would be murdered for his anti-Putin activism. Britain has said it will follow closely investigations in to the killing.
…
“He did so without fear, and never gave in to intimidation. He was greatly admired in Britain, not least by his friend Lady Thatcher, who visited him in Russia and who would have been appalled by today’s news.
Boris Nemtsov is dead. Another opponent of Putin gunned down or poisoned or imprisoned. No-one can claim these are coincidences.
The quick denunciation of Putin in the west whenever a Russian of minor or modest public profile who opposed the Russian government is murdered is interesting because high level, western leaders are never suspected when one of their opponents is bumped off. Not that assassinations and murders of politicians, judges, and journalists are unheard of in the west. (Ten US assassinations in the past eighteen years.) And no, the CT folks that finger LBJ in the assassination of JFK is not analogous to accusing Putin of the murder of Nemtsov in Russia.
We have to go somewhat far back in time to consider something that could have been similar. Not for how it would have played in the US, but in the USSR. Did Moscow newspaper headlines scream in 1935:
Roosevelt rival assassinated!
With opinions from the press and denizens of the Kremlin not too subtly suggesting that FDR was the murderer? After all, politically Huey Long was further to the left than FDR and many viewed FDR as having dictatorial aspirations.
Long often attempted to upstage FDR and the congressional leadership by mounting populist appeals of his own, most notably his “Share Our Wealth” program.
…
In the critical 100 days in spring 1933 Long was generally a strong supporter of the New Deal, but differed with the president on patronage. Roosevelt wanted control of the patronage and the two men broke in late 1933. Aware that Roosevelt had no intention to radically redistribute the country’s wealth, Long became one of the few national politicians to oppose Roosevelt’s New Deal policies from the left.
…
Long was shot [9/8/35] a month after announcing that he would run for president. …
Americans would have rightly scoffed at suggestions from the USSR that FDR had Long assassinated.
The Vineyard of the Saker provides an antidote to the anti-Putin western hysteria with regard to this murder, but likely errs as well.
There is no doubt in my mind at all that either this is a fantastically unlikely but always possible case of really bad luck for Putin and Nemtsov was shot by some nutcase or mugged, or this was a absolutely prototypical western false flag: you take a spent politician who has no credibility left with anyone with an IQ over 70, and you turn him into an instant “martyr for freedom, democracy, human right and civilization”.
“Nutcases” are too frequently responsible for assassinations of political figures to declare that it would be “fanstastically unlikely” in the case of Nemtsov. What’s more typical is that assassinations are perpetrated by powerless or not powerful people that have a personal grudge against the target or an intra-group conflict. Long’s assassin was the son-in-law of a Long LA political rival. Ousted American Nazi Party member murdered George Rockwell. Derwin Brown, sheriff-elect, was a contract killing by his defeated opponent. General rule, losers murder.
Don’t necessarily disagree with Saker that the assassination of a “spent politician” can turn him/her into an instant martyr. (Why I said a little prayer for the odious George Wallace to live after he was shot.) But it’s not a guarantee, and seriously question the assertion that it’s a “prototypical western false flag.” Saker should have stuck with the observation that Nemtsov wasn’t much of a threat to Putin and Putin isn’t Stalin (or J. Edgar Hoover or the mafia). OTOH, would rule out an anti-Russian Ukrainian “false flag” in this instance. Considering that when the 55 year old Nemstov was murdered, he was in the company of his 23 year old anti-Russia Ukrainian girlfriend. Plenty of anti-Russian Ukrainians could have come up with such a plot all on their own.
Update –
Suspects Named in Nemtsov’s murder
The Nemtsov murder investigation has focused on the theory that the crime was organized by a Chechen militant commander Adam Osmayev, of the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, who also was named in the case concerning the attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin. …
I have no idea how credible this source is, but it appears to me that this reported focus of the Russian investigators is spot on even if they don’t catch the operational perps and those who directed the assassination.
This was a sophisticated hit. Not Russian. Only remotely possible that there was any US involvement. Possible but unlikely that the Kiev government was a participant. More possible that Kolomoisky, one of his associates, or his Dnipro Battalion were involved. However, in tone and feel, it points to someone educated in the west, and that’s a reason why Adam Osmayev is at the top of the focus list.
Things I didn’t know that are required to appreciate why it was Nemtsov that was assassinated.
In a statement dated August 28, Isa Munayev appeals to the United States and “the countries of the democratic world” to provide “comprehensive military assistance” to the Ukrainian people, whom Munayev describes as victims of Russian imperial aggression, just as the Chechens were 20 years ago.
Munayev identified himself in that statement as commander of the Dzhokhar Dudayev international volunteer peacekeeping battalion and a brigadier general of the armed forces of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI) of which Dudayev was the first president. He spoke to RFE/RL’s Radio Marsho a week ago, shortly before he travelled to Ukraine to show “international support for the Ukrainian people.” The strength of his battalion, and who is bankrolling it, is not known.
Munayev died fighting in Ukraine on 2/1/15. Revenge for his death is one motive for the assassination of Nemtsov. Not an intuitively obvious target since he was aligned with Kiev. They want Putin. But Nemtsov held the potential to be an even better than a direct hit on Putin. A detour is needed to explain that.
With the Muslim Kadyrov as President of Chechnya, he, and not Russia and Putin, handle the internal conflicts (and alliances) with the remaining Muslim rebel separatists and apparently with little regard for human rights. Yet,
…
Meanwhile, evidence continues to mount of the presence on the side of the pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine of hundreds of fighters sent by Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov. Those fighters are apparently primarily volunteers from among the various police and security forces subordinate to Kadyrov, who has consistently denied that there are any “Chechen battalions” in Ukraine, even after the “Financial Times” quoted a fighter named Zelimkhan who said he and his comrades in arms had been sent to Ukraine in mid-May on Kadyrov’s orders.
…
An enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of situation. (We USians have some experience with that, but the shifting alliances in many conflicts confounds us. One reason we should stay away from them.) A recent confounding variable in the three-part (Chechnya, Ukraine, Russia) internal-external nexis takes us to France. The Charlie Hebdo cartoons and the Islamic terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo personnel on January 7, 2015. “Je suis Charlie Hebdo” didn’t take hold everywhere.
In January 2015, Kadyrov said he would organize protests if a Russian newspaper published the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, saying “we will not allow anyone to insult the prophet, even if it will cost us our lives.”
Nemtsov got on the “Je suis Charlie Hebdo” side. That made this darling of the west, Kiev supporter, and Putin opponent the perfect, expendable martyr for Muslim Chechen purposes. DC, London, Kiev, etc. fell for it faster than a New York minute. Confirmation that Putin is a monster. Now, surely monies and arms would quickly begin to flow to rebel Chechen fighters in Ukraine. An alliance that wants to take out Putin and take down Russia. Because funding the Afghan Mujahideen and the imported Saudi fighters worked out so well for the US.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
And the same damn architect of that the Afghanistan debacle continues playing his fiddle:
Brzezinski also said that Western governments should provide “defensive” weapons to Ukraine …
Update #2 Rounding up the usual suspects?
From RT 5 suspects arrested over Nemtsov murder, 1 ‘confessed’ – court RT lists the names of those charged but little else.
Al Jezeera released more
State news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti said they were detained in Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya, citing Ingush Security Council chief Albert Barakhoev.
Zaur Dadayev, served in a battalion of Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya, Barakhoev was quoted as saying.
He said Anzor Gubashev, had worked in a private security company in Moscow, according to the reports.
According to the WSJ, Chechen officials aren’t talking other than Kadyrov who has denied any involvement in the murder. The sparse information released according to a senior security official in Ingushetia. So, was the assassination plot hatched in Chechnya, Ingushetia, or a joint effort?
Plenty of animosity and armed conflicts between Ingushetia rebels and Moscow. A cursory impression is that Nemtsov as a target of these rebels seems a stretch as they and Nemtsov were on the same side in support of Kiev and opposed to Putin, but anything to make Putin appear bad can’t be rejected. Note:
10 December 2013 Ingush opposition leader Magomed Khazbiev, who was a close friend of assassinated Magomed Yevloyev, attends Euromaidan in Ukraine and participates in anti-Russian campaign there after which his parents were threatened and harassed in Russia. On his website he writes: “the fact that Putin’s slaves harass my parents do not make any sense, if you [Russians] want me to stop you have to kill me like Magomed Yevloyev and Makhsharip Aushev”
Not noted in the first update is that there was personal animosity between Kadyrov and Nemtsov.
Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty (no less !! )
But the possibility of a Chechen connection should not be dismissed out of hand, given Nemtsov’s repeated criticism of Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, and the fact that since 2011, security personnel loyal to Kadyrov have reportedly engaged with total impunity in abductions and killings in Moscow. …
Radio Free Europe is not exactly a reputable source, but this information is probably correct. Particularly since the report went on to speculate that Kadyrov could have ordered the murder as a favor to Putin. Doubt Mr. Putin would consider this a favor.
The NYTimes reports that the suspects are Chechen. Will wait for further confirmation* as it’s possible that the NYTimes reporters accepted “ethnic north Caucus” suspects to mean that they are, or was in the case of the one that blew himself up before being apprehended, Chechens.
Also note that western leaders and media are backing away from the strident accusations that the murder of Nemtsov was a Putin/Moscow/FSB hit job.
*Several sources now reporting that Zaur Dadayev, who has allegedly confessed to the murder, is Chechen and had recently been dismissed as deputy commander of a unit of the Chechen Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs’s “Sever” battalion per Sputnik News
Your list actually makes the case for Putin involvement in a way. Since 2000 there are 8 that have been killed:
2000 Derwin Brown – killed by the candidate he defeated in a Sherrif’s race
2003 James Davis – killed by a prospective challenger
2008 – Bill Gwatney – Dem Party Chair in Arkansas – assailant unknown
2008 – Mike Swoboda Mayor of Kirkland ill – killed in retaliation for code violations fines
2013 – Mark Hasse – ADA in Texas, killed by former justice of the peace who Mark convicted
2013 – Mike McLelland – DA in Texas killed killed by former justice of the peace who Mark convicted
2011 – John Roll, US District Judge, Killed in crossfire related to congressman giffords shooting
2011 – John Thornton, mayor washington park illinois – unknown
Many of these assassinations relate directly to actions taken while in office. The list includes Republicans and Democrats – no evidence of a systematic attempt to kill politicians on either side of the isle.
And none of them come close to the figure Nemtsov was. In the days of social networks the conspiracy theories that would have flooded the world in the aftermath of the JFK, RFK or MLK assassinations boggle the mind.
I don’t know the evidence. But if it can be shown that in fact what Sager says is true – that those that are killed are uniformly opposed to Putin, then suspicion seems more than reasonable. Suspicion is not the same as knowing something of course.
For those who follow Russian politics Nemtsov was one of the few lonely believers in the liberal dream in Russia that died with Putin. Why a liberal in America would not mourn that strikes me as odd.
Once again — losers not winners are the known perpetrators in the assassinations you list.
You’re definition of “liberal” is apparently not one I share. Free-market capitalism and selling off state assets for a penny on the dollar aren’t liberal concepts. Putin and Nemtsov both thrived under the Yeltsin years of unbridled disaster capitalism. Putin pushed a bit back to the left of that and Nemtsov didn’t. Neither is liberal — but the economic damage during Yeltsin’s tenure was profound for ordinary people. Exhibit one is that life expectancy plunged and has only slowly improved with Putin’s very modest restoration of some socialism.
In Nemtsov’s last election for a minor office he received only 14% of the vote. So, describing him as a “spent politician” seems accurate enough. On the order of Bachmann in the US. Palin could probably still get at least 20% of the vote if she ran for anything.
“Free-market capitalism and selling off state assets for a penny on the dollar aren’t liberal concepts”
Democracy is more likely to exist in capitalist states.
The communist state was dying. Bankrupt. In crisis. It is why it fell. In the aftermath a million mistakes were made. And corruption was endemic. Nemstov was there.
That does not mean that someone who stands up for free elections in an autocratic state isn’t a liberal. Before he was killed he argued against the annexation of the Ukraine.
Pretending that didn’t require courage and didn’t challenge directly the state is absurd.
And when Bachman opposes a US invasion your comparison will make sense.
Only named Bachmann as a spent political force that opposed the current POTUS and was not referring to any specific policy that she objected to.
Putin isn’t interested in annexing Ukraine. It’s difficult to come up with a hypothetical US analogy to the Russia-Ukraine situation because once WE own, we never leave. Plus, geographically, we only share land borders with two countries. But do recall that one political party in the US freaked out when the canal zone was transferred to Panama, and before the final transfer, the US invaded that country when we didn’t like its government. Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine. The Russian speaking eastern Ukrainians are justifiably fearful of the current powers in western Ukraine — they recall the suffering their families experienced at the hands of Nazis.
Gorbachev seemed to me like a decent leader at one time, but Russians rejected him. Their choice. That’s democracy. Currently, they’re sticking with Putin and weren’t interested in Nemtsov. Rather arrogant of you to tell them that Nemtsov was the democracy/freedom loving guy.
I look at the pictures this morning.
He is nothing like Putin, and he was not a spent force.
If you are arguing that the most recent elections in Russia were free and fair you are lost.
Be honest — he was a good looking guy (with a multiple mistresses (four children with three different women), the latest a 23 year old) that wanted his understanding of more, western style capitalism in Russia, and in your opinion, that should rock the boats of Russian voters. That it didn’t, in your opinion, can only mean that the election wasn’t free and/or fair.
Whenever an election in a foreign country doesn’t go the way US PTB and/or USians think it should go, they always claim that the election was rigged or not fair. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. More often when foreign elections results go the way WE want them to is when they are the most rigged.
Absent a well educated and informed electorate that hasn’t been propagandized into irrational beliefs (such as kneejerk, rabid anti-communism), elections are never free and fair. Ignorant and stupid people vote for the best looking, best talking and best funded version of themselves. Or haven’t you noticed the total crazies running many US states and Congress today?
Are you a Russian citizen? Educated and steeped in the history and culture of your country? Did you live there as an adult from 1980 through 2014? If not, you don’t know anything about the people or country. You are nothing but a well-Americanized US citizen consuming mostly western biased news about Russia seen through your thoroughly American eyes. I’m not, nor can’t be, much different, but at least I fucking know that and make serious attempts to get as close to the edge of the box as I can. You seem oblivious not only to the box you’re in but how near the center you are in it.
Peter Baker, the author of “Kremlin Rising” and a New York Times reporter, told CNN that Nemtsov used to be powerful but had been marginalized since Putin was elected.
○ Boris Nemtsov on BBC Hard Talk – 2011
Why put any stock in anything regarding the various PermaWar government written by anybody who works for the (Judith Miller/pro-Bush II/pro-Iraq II) NY Times?
Please.
And:
Like dat.
As far as i am concerned the only even remotely believable feature in the entire NY Times is the recipe section. No, not the “Recipe For Disaster” pages that comprise most of its bullshit. The recipe page. Not the reviews of books or movies or restaurants or sports or theater either, nor the so-called “science” pages.
Why?
Because:
A-I can try the recipes with little expense and no danger whatsoever. Most of them are quite good. Bravo Sam Sifton!!! (See the possible “danger” part re Michael Hastings.)
and
B-There’s no real graft money available with recipes. Everything else in that…and every other…media outlet is potentially up for sale to the highest bidder, up to and including people who have the power to make offers one simply cannot refuse.
Bet on it.
AG
US arrogance to prescribe under what sytem a sovereign country should live .. is part of the illusion to promote regime change by any means. Look around, the Middle East in turmoil after 9/11 and the US War on Terror … it’s only expanding a worst kind of terrorism by ISIS.
○ US a capitalist democracy or oligarchy
○ Democracy vs. Oligarchy by Senator Bernie Sanders
○ Prosperity Without Growth by Prof. Tim Jackson
You also seem to be missing my point that USians are quick to see Putin as an assassin but deny the existence of any such powerful political actors in domestic assassinations. If presented as a Venn diagram with a circle of those USians that believe JFK, RFK, and MLK were murdered by senior and powerful US political figures and another circle of those that believe Putin is an assassin, would there be much, if any, overlap between the two circles?
Don’t recall western media calling Yeltsin an assassin when numerous journalists were murdered during his tenure. Were no political opponents murdered during those years?
Is there any politically powerful person that doesn’t have many opponents? JFK apparently had so many opponents and enemies that nobody to this day can make a rational, evidence based case for one person or faction over another as the murderer.
I brought up JFK to show that conspiracy theories around a powerful person proliferate here.
Yeltsin was not perfect. Pretending he was not vastly different from what came before, or preferable to his opponents is not defensible. He ran against Communists who wanted to restore a criminal state. Were opponents of Yelstin more likely to be murdered than supporters? I don’t remember that argument.
The reason for suspicion of Putin is that he is running an authoritarian regime in which opponents only are being killed.
I don’t see that as remotely similar to the comparison to US cases you site – there was not anything systematic about them. In none of them was the person killed one of the chief opponents of an invasion.
To pretend this is not suspicious is unreasonable.
o
JFK was POTUS. JFK was assassinated. Those in the US that suggest, think, or believe that the official assassination narrative is false are dismissed as CT nuts. There is no agreement among the CTs as to who perpetrated the alleged assassination plot and only one of those names LBJ who at the time was subordinate to JFK.
Nemtsov recently held no political office in Russia. Nemtsov was assassinated. Westerners, including Americans, and not Russians are alleging that the President of Russia had Nemtsov bumped off.
Can you not see that there is no corollary between these two assassinations and the response to them by Americans?
Russia turned into a highly criminal state under Yeltsin. Do you not know that he spawned the Russian kleptocratic oligarchy? That criminal gangs murdered with impunity? And he was an autocrat that had no respect for the law. Or are you unfamiliar with that as well.
You’re conflating political systems with economic systems. The opposite of communism isn’t democracy but laissez-faire capitalism. Pure communism is an abstraction — never existed anywhere outside of small tribal groups. Good faith attempts at it as in Cuba and Vietnam were subverted by US forces, and let’s not overlook/dismiss that western forces were active in subverting communism shortly after the Russian Revolution. Laissez-faire capitalism is less rare — Somalia today might qualify. All governments are to some degree authoritarian. The opposite of that isn’t freedom but anarchy.
Haven’t seen freedom loving Americans rise up against the proliferation of NSA spying, the militarization of local law enforcement, the prison-industrial complex, or US invasions anywhere the elites choose to employ the US MIC. Most of which they cheer on. We did flip out when the USSR began moving missiles near our shores, but for some reason, we expect Putin and Russians to be delighted with US/NATO missiles placed on their borders.
on multiple levels.
So we hear again the old broken syllogism: there is injustice in the US so the US cannot criticize anyone else. Someone opposes the US: so they must be defended.
The tired old excuses for the communists. Castro is really a democrat. So is Vietnam.
The economic system of communism required the dictatorship of the proletariat. The logical outcome of that logic is “liquidation of the Kulaks as a class”. You have it backwards. The economic system of communism requires a police state. It cannot exist any other way – and every place where the economic system was adopted the firing squads followed closely behind.
What Marx would have made is anyone guess. It is hard to read his articles for the Herald Tribune and not think he would have been appalled. He misjudged the importance of “bourgeois democracy”
I have heard the tired excuses for dictators before. Are you going to compare freedom of expression under Yeltsin to that which existed before. To freedom in the US versus freedom in Russia.
You are wrong. Obama was elected because he opposed the Iraq War. The are politicians who oppose loudly the militarization of law enforcement.
You are wrong. Ukraine was scarred of being invaded by the Russians. The Poles were. Virtually all of the former Warsaw Pact countries fear Russian domination. To you these are fears based on nothing but Western Propaganda. The fact these countries were occupied and as a result suffered under totalitarian regimes means noting.
Because NATO was no different than Warsaw I guess.
This morning tens of thousands in Moscow protest. There are the forces that seek a more open and democratic russia.
Amnesty International called Nemstov a Prisoner of Conscience. You compare him to Michelle Bachman. Nemostov was arrested multiple times.
You make excuses for Putin – an autocrat.
With respect, you are not close to reading these events correctly.
“You are wrong. Ukraine was scared of being invaded by the Russians. The Poles were. Virtually all of the former Warsaw Pact countries fear Russian domination. To you these are fears based on nothing but Western Propaganda. The fact these countries were occupied and as a result suffered under totalitarian regimes means nothing.”
Yes, you believe the bs neocon propaganda of recent years. Washington’s push into the Ukraine is a pure capitalist expansion into Europe. The US with its fracking technology and gas export seeks to pull Europe back from the “abyss” of further integration with western Russia and “dependence” on Gazprom gas.
Where Clinton, Bush and Obama failed in the wars in the Caspian Sea region, Obama and his neocon minions have decided to use the Ukraine as conflict zone to make Russia a pariah state – see policy statements by NATO and the Atlantic Council. The US through close ally Britain wants to tie capitalist rules to the European Union – see the secret negotiations on free trade TTIP.
BTW Due to the Ukraine crisis, the nations bound by NATO have agreed Russia is an evil empire and defense spending should double! Guess who is prime source for new fighter planes, missiles, drones and precision guided munition. Joe Biden traveling the warzones in the Gulf States, Middle East and Eastern Europe as Pentagon representative and US Defense Industry salesman.
Downthread Oui helpfully posted a picture of the US, primo bomb, bomb, bomb all the time, freedom and democracy lovin guy with one of his BFF — Nemtsov. The same guy that told the world that the red-hot Tundra Mama was qualified to be POTUS. Good rule of thumb — any foreign national that is approved by John McCain is an authoritarian, anti-egalitarian asshole.
Be honest. Before he was murdered, had you ever even heard the name Nemtsov much less knew anything about him?
○ Opposition Movement Solidarnost Least Trusted in Russia – 2009 Poll
The Solidarnost movement, which unites prominent opposition politicians Garri Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov, and others, has the lowest number of supporters – 5 percent. Sixteen percent had negative feelings about the movement and 32 percent were indifferent. Twenty-eight percent said they did not know anything about the movement.
before trotting out an old meme.
Good news out of Russia – even the “non-system” opposition refuses to blame the Kremlin
Surprised you didn’t mention James Garfield. Yes, it’s relatively far away in historical terms, but it combines both the themes of disgruntled, intra-group conflicts and “nut cases”.
Linked to the Wikipedia page for perusal of my point that we don’t see the powerful perpetrating political assassinations. The Hamilton-Burr duel could be seen as exception, but it was personal and while Burr lived, his political career was over. Plus neither hired assassins and did the deed themselves.
It would not surprise me if Putin was in that car. Not that it’s likely, of course, but still…he was a nuts and bolts working spy when Berlin was a violent east-west war zone and he is obviously a hands-on kind of leader. It’s just a matter of how hands-on he is. His macho isn’t fake, that I will guarantee. i have had some martial arts experience and i am here to tell you that anyone who is a competent judoka is in no way faint at heart. Bet on it. Some reports…like this one, possibly U.S. disinfo, equally possibly not…describe him as up close and personal acting more like a gangster on vacation than your usual head of state. (Excepting Cheney, of course.)
Hmmmm…
AG
Link doesn’t work (thank goodness ;-))
○ Down the River With Vladimir Putin – 2001
○ Vox Populi
Compared to former president George Bush is Vladimir Putin a pretty sane individual, just saying.
○ Gary Kasparov during the Bush term – 2006
○ West’s battle for Russian ‘hearts and minds’: NGOs on steroids (Op-Ed) – 2012
Yes, Oui. Thanks. “Down the River With Vladimir Putin – 2001” That’s the one. Dunno why mine didn’t work. The other links are good too. Thanks again.
AG
Utter political bs in line with Western propaganda … Nemtsov Killed Over Plan To Reveal Moscow Links To Ukraine Conflict | RFERL |.
Fortunately the Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya at his side wasn’t hurt in the attack.
○ Yesterday: Deaths shake Ukraine truce; Poroshenko wary of Russian threat
○ Wary Of Russian Aggression, Vilnius Creates How-To Manual For Dealing With Foreign Invasion
○ British Defense Minister Says Russia’s Putin Poses ‘Danger’ to Baltic States
As an aside … a Chechen freed by Georgia now a commander of IS in Syria. Love those US supported “Freedom Fighters”
who also take the fight to Russia in the Ukraine!
○ Russian Citizen Linked To Lopota Gorge Incident Now Heads IS Battalion In Syria
Suppose we not going to learn any details about this girlfriend of Nemtsov’s. Such as where she worked and lived (cities not addresses) for the past three years that she was involved with Nemtsov and who else she has palled around with.
The timing of our false flags is so predictable. Putin is not going to kill someone like Nemtsov with a 1% popularity rating because he’s a threat. No, Nemtsov was used by the west, most recently on an anti-Putin propaganda show on Frontline. His use-by date had passed. He was worth more to the West as faux martyr than anything he’s done in Russia for the past 20 years.
Russians recognize the war being waged against them by the US. That’s why Memtsov, connected with western neoliberals who gutted Russia in the 90s. That’s why the less than 45% of Russians who even recognize his name generally distrust him. He was seen as an agent of the neoliberals, which he was, wittingly or not.
Here’s an easy prediction: McCain, Inhofe or one of the other chuckleheads in Washington will use this guy’s death as a reason for rearming the fascists in Kiev. Expect it.
Yes — but, while I’m not dismissing that the assassination of Nemtsov could be a false flag, evidence for that conclusion doesn’t (yet) exist and if so, there is more than one possible perpetrator(s). The biggest problem with “false flag” conjectures is that there are a range of possible responses/outcomes to perpetrating one. Why even bother creating such an event when it’s easier to simply make up the existence of a N. Vietnamese attack on the US ship or WMD in Iraq?
The European press I read suggested it as a planned hit, not a mugging, which means to me either his gf or someone in the restaurant may have signaled when they were leaving; there are plenty of possibilities for who carried this out including personal grudges, in addition to the cui bono question in the larger picture. I haven’t followed his story enough to have any thoughts who might be behind it, just disenheartened that the incident is fanning the drumbeat to war.
Of course was it a targeted assasination, six shots fired, four bullets hit him in the back. Media indicates he had received serious death threats recently, no specifics mentioned. In which US city can someone stroll/walk with his girlfriend for approximately a half hour just around midnight? I couldn’t name a single large metropolitan area .. in Canada and Europe one may find a few cities. So apparently Nemtsov felt save in the Russian capital Moscow of Putin.
New York, I do it all the time
Me too. Even inna Bronx. Not alla da Bronx, though.
AG
same here, I mean not alla Manhattan
“of course” someone mentioned a a mugging.
Manhattan is fine btw. walking a couple miles to bus, train, subway or to the store all night. everyone I know, including me, does it every day
Or…how about a false flag false flag operation? Putin kills an enemy, manages to blame it on the U.S. as a false flag operation.
We are now officially in SpyVs.SpyLand.
Bet on it.
AG
AKA — keystone kops which is closer to the reality of spy operations than all those slick and exciting spy novels and movies.
Not Le Carré. probably too close to the truth of the matter. Rotted-out intelligence agencies on every side, with the occasional tragically honest hero.
AG
Yes, probably should have excluded Le Carré from my comment.
His archive at Global Research. Links added in article below are mine.
○ Russia Ousts Meddling US NGOs, Fake Protests Peter Out
○ Putin Bashing Crowd in Overdrive Over Nemtsov Killing
Thank you for your most worthy contributions to this thread.
The typical analysis is:
No doubt someone is watching the bereaved young lady.
Latest from Saker – Good news out of Russia – even the “non-system” opposition refuses to blame the Kremlin
Entire piece is worth reading.
Well, yes, because It Can’t Happen Here, at least in the view of our various political/social Establishments. America, the Exceptional Country.
And when it does happen here, e.g. the Banker’s Plot to topple FDR ca 1934, that officially gathered information was buried. Would be too upsetting to the structures of govt and to the folks.
Yes, we use one rule book to evaluate domestic events and different rule books to evaluate similar events in other countries.
This Tom Gauld cartoon illustrates the usual interpretation.
As billmon points out the rule book for Israel is unique:
Ukrainian Model Duritskaya, his girlfriend of three years, didn’t see anything. Let me go, I want to return to Kiev, my country Ukraine. Technically Nemtsov was still married …
The Ukrainian model was unharmed in the incident …. perhaps an indication where to start the investigation. She has nothing to say as a witness, a Russian extremist would not let her leave unharmed, and an Ukrainian plot could at least have winged her so there would be a reason for her “blindness” or “amnesia” of the moment shots were fired at Nemtsov. An Islamist extremist from Chechnya would have killed both without any further thought. Or another Putin opposition figure who wanted to embarrass the Russian state at this junction in time with Ukraine and the Minsk ceasefire agreement.
unless she was part of the Ukrainian plot
If the report that she’d been in a relationship with Nemtsov for three years is true, extremely unlikely that she would have been a participant in his murder. For all we know, she may be apolitical. Nemtsov was a good looking older guy with money (or at a minimum with access to money for partying), a magnet for young, attractive women with no or celebrity type career ambitions.
Well we don’t know unless we learn more about her. what you suggest for her motives are about the side benefits not “love”, and someone might have offered her more. She isn’t showing much interest in finding the real killer[s].
Wasn’t he still consulting for the Ukrainians?
Have no idea. Other than her age, nationality, alleged profession “model,” and alleged three year relationship with Nemtsov, don’t know anything about her. While not the norm, a love relationship between and older man and younger woman isn’t uncommon and some of those matches last for life, at least for the man. I confess to having a grudging admiration for successful gold-diggers and whatever it they do to keep the old guy happy and his pocketbook open.
If there are no objective reasons — such as associates, unexplained and questionable travel, and political activities – she doesn’t deserve to be treated like a suspect. What was done in the US to Monica Lewinsky by the press, public, and special council was a travesty. Sexual relationships between consenting adults is a private and not criminal matter. Even if one party is married and POTUS. I say that as someone that doesn’t respect adulterers/cheaters.
who cares about the relationship? the issue is her information about the event for which she is obviously a good source. I’m just pointing out if she’s a gold digger, what’s not to say she was more interested in the gold itself than the guy who was dispensing it?
What makes you conclude that she’s a good source for information about the event? Bystander eyewitnesses know little and much of what they may think they know is usually inaccurate. Don’t doubt that she’s already told the police what she thinks she saw and experienced if she was not a participant in the murder. Or a story that could be partially concocted if she was a participant. They already have all she’s able or willing to disclose.
Her relationship with Nemtsov is important to eliminate any possibility that she could have knowingly or unknowingly played a role in the murder. For example, was it reasonably ordinary for them to dine and then walk across the bridge back to his apartment? If yes and there are others that can confirm that (or if others are aware that this was usual for him with other women he dined with), it reduces the possibility of participation by her to close to zero. If never been done before — problematical for her because it appears that the murderer was pre-positioned on the bridge.
I just saw a news item on France24 tv that witness Duritskaya has left Moscow.
○ Opposition politician Nemtsov’s murder caught on CCTV camera
○ Obama: Nemtsov’s Murder Sign of Worsening Climate in Russia plus RFERL on Nemtsov [both are voices of propaganda – Oui]
○ Inna Duritskaya, mother of Anna Duritskaya, speaks to the Associated Press in Kiev, Ukraine
Thanks. Would guess that Moscow has cleared her.
○ She could have been a sparrow! … for the Kremlin? If these guys are CIA veterans, I do now understand the global mess we’re in.
Cleared? Not necessarily .. let her go and flush out her contacts. Ukraine government [or USB] is cooperating in her getaway after landing in Kiev.
So, Becket was to Henry II what Nemtsov was to Putin? Unless this is just a half-baked PR claim, those folks at the CIA seem to be getting dumber and more ignorant with time. Nice touch that they’re also trying and convicting a young western Ukrainian woman as a Putin operative. And contrary to the CIA assertions, the hit was far from professional.
Considered the possibility that Moscow could have released her to track her contacts. But does Moscow have adequate tracking assets in Kiev.
This is interesting Nemtsov shooting — this is how they did it. Doubt it holds up.
-why are there only 2 options. could have been Ukrainian oligarchs who have an interest in a provocative incident to get usa to become more involved? I thought you were of the school of though that airplane was shot down by Ukrainians?
there’s also the other option: that it was a non-political incident relating to personal ties of him or someone close to him (exes, hired by his wife, the “model”‘s ex, whatever). maybe [re: Oui’s reasoning on why she wasn’t shot] she is unscathed because it was a warning to her.
btw she isn’t “an eyewitness” she is a participant: whose idea was it to walk home? when did they decide? any telephone calls at dinner? whose idea to go to that restaurant? what about his reaction to the interview earlier in the evening? she was [evidently] with him all evening.
Too many plausible and possible perpetrators and too little verified information for armchair sleuths to draw any conclusions. Western pundits and the CIA apparently don’t need no stinking information to accuse Putin. But since they rarely get anything right and have an obvious interest in blaming the all powerful Putin of another crime, they aren’t credible.
a Ukrainian plot;
Mark Ames on Nemtsov
Two suspects in the high-profile murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov have been detained, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported. According to FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, the suspects were identified as Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev.
Bortnikov said both suspects come from Russia’s southern region of the North Caucasus, a restive place with insurgency and crime problems. The investigation into the crime is ongoing …
[Earliest reports mentioned the car used in the murder had license plates from the Caucases, from memory South Ossetia – Oui]
Possible that there was some conflict and/or personal animosities between the perps and Nemtsov and it’s merely coincidental that they fit right in with my speculative Update as to why Nemtsov made such an excellent theoretical target. Didn’t work as well as hoped for in Russia, but the west fell hard for it in the initial going.
Appears a closer link to the Boston bombing than to Putin and the Kremlin. Don’t tell the GOP though, or NATO commander General Breedlove, bad for western anti-Putin propaganda.
See my new diary – Nemtsov Murder a Chechen Provocation.
Update from The Saker
Additional information Chechen probe of confessed murderer”>Sputnik News
Curious — does this make it more or less complex?
Trying to keep in mind that what drives one person to murder another (others) often appears to be such a flimsy reason. And that some of those murderous actions have been elaborately planned (Aurora theater) and less often includes more than one participant (OKC bombing).
Prime suspect says Nemtsov killed over ‘negative comments on Muslims’ – report
Would be easier to accept that if he acted alone or with one or two buddies. A stretch to accept that this would motivate six or more co-conspirators. Although all of them could be “devout” Muslims and thought that Nemtsov was a really powerful Russian leader.
Then there’s this:
Well, Kadyrov probably should be put in jail for a number of things, but doubt that’s what Dadaev disapproves of. So, what is Kadyrov’s crimin in Dadaev’s mind? Failure to kill a few non-Muslims that didn’t denounced Charlie Hebdo cartoons?
More from The Saker Nemtsov murder – more questions than answers. He has the full transcript of Kadyrov’s remarks. And apparently Dadayev wasn’t dismissed from his security job but resigned or took a leave of absence.
Dadayev is enough of a security pro that the gun used as well as the number of bullets and the misses makes even less sense then before a suspect had been identified. Saker points out other things that now also make less sense.
Am in agreement with Saker here: At this point I will readily admit that I am unable to connect the dots, hopefully somebody else will do better. But until then, I reserve judgment about what really happened.