Least Surprising News Story Of the Day...

[Lord Jim]

Boris Nemtsov, leading Putin critic, shot and killed in Moscow

A top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed early Saturday in central Moscow, Russian police said, one day before an opposition rally was scheduled to take place.

Boris Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters on the scene that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn't hurt.

Putin, who quickly offered his condolences (:lol:) and called the murder a provocation, ordered Russia's top law enforcement chiefs to personally oversee the probe of Nemtsov's killing. [What do you want to bet that this "investigation" will discover that some other Putin critic was behind this...or maybe those "Nazis" in Ukraine...]

But the shooting potentially could create a political crisis in Russia, regardless of the motive or who was behind the shooting.

A sharp critic of Putin, Nemtsov assailed the government's inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin's policy on Ukraine, which has strained Russia-West ties to a degree unseen since Cold War times. The Washington Post reported that Nemtsov had angered Putin's government two years ago when he charged that billions of dollars had been stolen from funds designated for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, his hometown.

He served as a deputy prime minister in the 1990s, and once was seen as a possible successor to Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first elected president.

In condemning what he called Nemtsov's "brutal murder," President Obama urged the Russian government to conduct a "prompt, impartial and transparent investigation."

"Nemtsov was a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled," Obama said in a statement. "I admired Nemtsov’s courageous dedication to the struggle against corruption in Russia and appreciated his willingness to share his candid views with me when we met in Moscow in 2009."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Nemtsov committed his life to a more democratic Russia, "and to strong relationships between Russia and its neighbors and partners, including the United States."

Meanwhile, in Russia and elsewhere, reaction and analysis poured in about Nemtsov and the implications of his killing.

Opposition activist Ilya Yashin said on Ekho Moskvy radio that he last spoke with Nemtsov two days before the killing. Nemtsov was working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the separatist rebellion that erupted in eastern Ukraine last year.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of backing the rebels there with troops and weapons. Moscow has denied the accusations, but large numbers of sophisticated heavy weapons in the rebels' possession has strained the credibility of its denials.

Yashin said he had no doubt that Nemtsov's murder was politically motivated.

"Boris Nemtsov was a stark opposition leader who criticized the most important state officials in our country, including President Vladimir Putin. As we have seen, such criticism in Russia is dangerous for one's life," he said.[ It's still early, but that's my nominee for "Understatement Of the Year"...]

Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told Ekho Mosvky radio station that he did not believe that Nemtsov's death would in any way serve Putin's interests.

"But the atmosphere of hatred toward alternative thinkers that has formed over the past year, since the annexation of Crimea, may have played its role," Belkovsky said, referring to the surge of intense and officially endorsed nationalist discourse increasingly prevalent in Russia since it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Irina Khakamada, a prominent opposition figure who co-founded a liberal party with Nemtsov, also blamed a climate of intimidation and warned that the murder could herald a dangerous destabilization.

"It's a provocation that is clearly not in Putin's interests, it's aimed at rocking the situation," she said in remarks carried by RIA Novosti news agency.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement late Friday that "Boris is dead because of the environment of impunity that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia, where individuals are routinely persecuted and attacked for their beliefs, including by the Russian government, and no one is ever held responsible."

Russia's human rights commissioner, Yelena Panfilova, said "it wasn't just a shot in Nemtsov's back, it was a shot in the back of Russia."

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a longtime political ally of Nemtsov, blamed Putin for fueling "the atmosphere of hatred toward those with different views, the atmosphere of violence and aggression that now exists in the country."

He was one of the organizers of the Spring March opposition protest set for Sunday, which comes amid a severe economic downturn in Russia caused by low oil prices and Western sanctions.[Now there's a remarkable coincidence...]

Nemtsov said during a radio interview just before his death that it was hard to live under constant intimidation and pressure.

"I won't hide the fact that the opposition is under strong pressure," he said. "Lies are spread about the people, and one has to be a very strong person to cope with all this. I know this from my own experience."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/27 ... in-moscow/

[Lord Jim]

I've seen where some commentators have said, "well, Putin wouldn't have been behind this, it's not in his best interest"...

I think that attitude shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Putin, and how he defines his "best interest"...

The way Putin looks at it, dead opponents are always to be preferred to live ones; and he figures he can always ride out the backlash for knocking them off...(And why shouldn't he think that? He's been able to do so every previous time)

This guy's gotten away with murder, (literally) over and over again...why would he think this would be any different?

He stood up and said with a straight face (Vlad does a really good straight face; deadpan humor is his strong suit) that there were no Russian troops in Crimea, while Russian tank columns rumbling on the roads of Crimea were being broadcast on television, and Russian soldiers in Crimea were posting selfies on Instagram...

He's pulling the same absurd "Who me?" nonsense in Eastern Ukraine now and getting away with it...

He's had numerous political and journalistic opponents murdered or tossed in prison without due process and gotten away with it...

Why would he think he'd be held to account for gunning down one more on the streets of Moscow in broad daylight?

Putin doesn't care about creating "Martyrs"...He figures he can weather that...

Like any good old time Mafia boss, he wants to create "examples" to show what happens if you cross the boss...

He wants to send the message that he can act with absolute impunity, anywhere, anytime...

Even if Putin didn't directly order this hit, (Which I would find hard to believe; very little happens in a Mafia Family without the Don's approval) whoever did knew this was the way to advance....

One of the fellows who was involved in the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, (another Putin opponent, who was murdered in London in 2006) is now Deputy Speaker of the Russian Duma...

That's how one "moves up" in The Mob; by "making your bones" killing one of the Boss's enemies...

And that is exactly what Putin's Russia is...

It is a complete Mafia style organized crime syndicate, (with Vladimir Putin playing Michael Corleone) masquerading as a country...

[Lord Jim]

I think Putin's next move will be to test our resolve in an East European NATO country...I don't think he'd have the nerve to go at Poland, (at least not yet) but Lithuania (with a substantial ethnic Russian population) would seem like a logical target...

We should deploy 20,000 US troops to our allies in Lithuania, to let Putin know that if he crosses that line he will confront the United States Of America....

I have to laugh at Angela Merkel trying to work out a "cease fire" with Putin's thugs in Ukraine...

Putin's idea of a "cease fire" is to give him a chance to pause to re-load....

Russia under Putin is a Pariah State; a rogue nation...

We have to stop talking about "off ramps" and start talking about international isolation...

And we need to do everything we can to help our allies to get off their dependency on this Thugocracy's natural gas....

We need to start dealing with Vladimir Putin as he is and what his expansionist criminal regime represents ....

Rather than what we would prefer...

ETA:

We have to stop pretending that this guy is a person who can somehow be reasoned with and brought under the fold of international norms...

And deal with the fact that he is a sociopathic malignant narcissist who, (by his own description) considers the dissolving of the Soviet Union "the greatest disaster of the 20th Century"...

And he is bound and determined to restore as much of the Soviet Union as he can....

You cannot "reason" with a person like this...(every compromise you make with a person like this is interpreted as a sign of weakness by them...he views those who try to reach an accommodation with him with utter contempt....)

The only way to hold a person like Putin in check is to thwart him; to stand up to him early and often, and make it very clear that you know what his game is, and you will not be intimidated by his bullying...

[MajGenl.Meade]

As you point out, powerful people don't need to have certain things done. Underlings and favour-seekers know very well that some actions just might make the boss very happy in a quiet, understated way.

Sometimes the boss is even unhappy that an event occurred because of the fall-out but does indeed have that one turbulent priest out of his life - so it's not all bad.

The best that can be said of the man is that we knew Joe Stalin, and Putin is no Joe Stalin. Other than the moral-equivalence thing, of course.

[rubato]

Often I am tempted to throw up my hands and say that the Russians deserve what they are getting and what they are going to get which is still worse, especially when I see how popular Putin is. But the response to this reminds me that there is a large number of courageous Russians who oppose the totalitarian kleptocracy. See link for pictures of protest marches.:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/1/8129217/rus ... ov-protest


Putin is very skilled at propaganda, it will be difficult to show most Russians his true colors.


yrs,
rubato