MoA - Poisioned British-Russian Double-Agent Has Links To Clinton Campaign

March 08, 2018

Poisioned British-Russian Double-Agent Has Links To Clinton Campaign

On Sunday a former British-Russian double agent and his daughter were seriously injured in a mysterious incident in Salisbury, England. The British government says that both were hurt due to "exposure to a nerve agent". Speculative media reports talk of Sarin and VX, two deadly nerve-agents used in military chemical weapons. Anonymous officials strongly hint that 'Russia did it'.

New reports though point to a deep connection between the case and the anti-Trump/anti-Russia propaganda drive run by the Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton election campaign.

Sergei Skripal once was a colonel in a Russian military intelligence service. In the early 1990s he was recruited by the MI6 agent Pablo Miller. He continued to spy for the Brits after his 1999 retirement. The Russian FSB claims that the British MI6 paid him $100,000 for his service. At that time a Russian officer would only make a few hundred bucks per month. Skripal was finally uncovered in 2004 and two years later convicted for spying for Britain. He was sentenced to 18 years and in 2010 he and other agents ware exchanged in a large spy swap between the United States and Russia. Skripal was granted refuge in Britain and has since lived openly under his own name in Salisbury. His wife and his son died over the last years of natural causes. The only near relative he has left is his daughter who continued to live in Russia.

Last week his daughter flew to Britain and met him in Salisbury. On Sunday they went to a pub and a restaurant. At some point they were poisoned or poisoned themselves. They collapsed on a public bench and are now in intensive care. A policeman on the scene was also seriously effected.

Authorities have declined to name the substance to which the pair is suspected to have been exposed, but:

Local media had on Monday reported the substance found at the scene to be similar to fentanyl: a lethally strong opioid available even on Salisbury's soporific streets.

The British government is hinting at Russian involvement:

The attempted murder of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, using a nerve agent was a "brazen and reckless" act, [home secretary] Amber Rudd has said.

Mr Skripal and his daughter are still critically ill after being found collapsed on a bench in Salisbury city centre on Sunday.

...

Ms Rudd told MPs it was an "outrageous crime", adding that the government would "act without hesitation as the facts become clearer".

She refused to speculate on whether the Russian state might have been involved in the attack, saying the police investigation should be based on "facts, not rumour".

While the British government is preparing the facts as it needs them, let us ask the ever important question of motive.

It was not Russian vengeance for Skripal's earlier spying. He had been in Russian jails for four years and lived openly in Salisbury for eight. There was plenty of time to off him. Russia certainly does not need any more anti-Russian propaganda in "western" media. If a Russian service would want to kill someone it would do so without making such noise.

The former British ambassador Craig Murray suspects a different motive and culprit:

Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg - 10:21 AM - 8 Mar 2018

Russophobia is extremely profitable to the armaments, security and spying industries and Russophobia reinforces intellectually challenged voters in their Tory loyalty. Ramping Russophobia is the most convincing motive for the Skripal attack.

Ambassador Murray also points out that Salisbury, where the incident took place, is just 8 miles away from Porton Down, a chemical weapon test site run by the British government. As the BBC noted in a report about the place:

... chemical agents such as VX and mustard gas are still manufactured on site ...

I believe that Craig Murray is wrong. Russophobia can be stoked without attempting to publicly kill a retired spy and his daughter.

More likely motives can be found in the tight connection to another important affair. The British Telegraphreports today:

A security consultant who has worked for the company that compiled the controversial dossier on Donald Trump was close to the Russian double agent poisoned last weekend, it has been claimed.

The consultant, who The Telegraph is declining to identify, lived close to Col Skripal and is understood to have known him for some time.

...

The Telegraph understands that Col Skripal moved to Salisbury in 2010 in a spy swap and became close to a security consultant employed by Christopher Steele, who compiled the Trump dossier.

The British security consultant, according to a LinkedIn social network account that was removed from the internet in the past few days, is also based in Salisbury.

On the same LinkedIn account, the man listed consultancy work with Orbis Business Intelligence, according to reports.

Meduzanamed the man the Telegraph declines to identify as:

Pablo Miller, who at the time was posing as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo and working in Britain’s embassy in Tallinn. Russia’s Federal Security Service says Miller was actually an undercover MI6 agent tasked with recruiting Russians.

Orbis is Christopher Steele's company which was paid by the Clinton campaign to make up or find 'dirt' about Trump. Sergei Skripal was an agent Steele himself was likely involved with:

Steele had spent more than twenty years in M.I.6, most of it focussing on Russia. For three years, in the nineties, he spied in Moscow under diplomatic cover. Between 2006 and 2009, he ran the service’s Russia desk, at its headquarters, in London. He was fluent in Russian, and widely considered to be an expert on the country.

Steele was an MI6 undercover agent in Moscow around the time when Skripal was recruited and handed over Russian secrets to the MI6. He also ran the MI6 Russia desk so anything about Skripal will have passed through him. It is very likely that they personally knew each other. Pablo Miller, who worked for Steele's private company, lived in the same town as Skripal and they seems to have been friends since Miller had recruited him. Miller or someone else attempted to cover up the connection to Steele by editing his LinkedIn entry.

Here are some question:

If there is a connection between the dossier and Skripal, which seems very likely to me, then there are a number of people and organizations with potential motives to kill him. Lots of shady folks and officials on both sides of the Atlantic were involved in creating and running the anti-Trump/anti-Russia campaign. There are several investigations and some very dirty laundry might one day come to light. Removing Skripal while putting the blame on Russia looks like a convenient way to get rid of a potential witness.

Update: Steele's company issued a weak denial of Skripal's involvement in the dossier:

Sources close to Orbis, the business intelligence firm run by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, who was behind a dossier of compromising allegations against Donald Trump, said Mr Skripal did not contribute to the file. But they could not say whether Mr Skripal was involved in different investigations into the US President for other interested parties.

The most curious point in the affair though is the visit of the daughter. She had just come from Moscow to visit her lonely father when both were poisoned in a rather sensational way. There must be some reason why she was involved in this.

or

The above questions are all highly speculative. But the connection between Steele and Skripal is way too deep to be irrelevant here. It certainly deserves more digging.

Unfortunately it is likely that the British government, and its U.S. cousin, will come up with some "blame Russia" story for the gullible people and leave it at that. That story will involve some "brazen and reckless" Russian plot and an "outrageous" attempt by Putin himself to publicly kill a friend of Britain with some with highly dangerous weapon of mass destruction. This will then be used to throw up new tensions, to put more sanctions on Russia and to sell more weapons.

That official story though is unlikely to be the true one.

---

h/t to commenter yoffa for providing the Meduza link.

Posted by b on March 8, 2018 at 04:04 PM | Permalink

Seth Rich.

Awesome, thank you b,

I think this event is a ramp to offing Knesia Sobchak prior to or just after the national poll. She is a pawn of the West. She has been directed to consolidate the disparate liberal opposition campaigns by the use of primaries...which would just happen to result in her primacy. The idea is to have her win enough vote it can be alleged that she has embarrassed Putin...and then they six her using VX. Her father was close go Putin during Putin's early years in St Pete. The BBC has been running chaff out the foot saying Putin killed his mentor Anatoly Sobchak. Knesia has been moved into position. She will be offed to harm Putin's reputation but also to place e a complex wound in him. The West are monsters

Posted by: Whorin Piece | Mar 8, 2018 4:30:36 PM | 1

Ms Rudd told MPs it was an "outrageous crime", adding that the government would "act without hesitation as the facts become clearer".

Yeah, right.

Like the illegal invasion of a sovereign foreign country based on the lies by the same 'government', with a million+ casualties among the middle eastern population.

That kind of outrageous crime, correct?

One day the pendulum will swing back hard and merciless at these criminal warmongers and war profiteers. Disgusting how low what goes for 'homo sapiens' can sink.

Posted by: notheonly1 | Mar 8, 2018 4:40:39 PM | 3

I was wondering if Grigory Rodchenkov was in danger of meeting the same fate by some of the more unsavory elements of U.S. Intelligence Agencies. He would become a poster boy for Russian assassinations on U.S. soil.

One thing about Rodchenkov, if the doping was not state sponsored, what motive would have have for doing it on his own, is there enough money in the Olympics that individual athletes would bribe him or would it make him look better if his athletes did better? I don't buy that it was state sponsored, or at least there is no evidence to that affect.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Mar 8, 2018 4:43:02 PM | 4

b... this is excellent coverage and speculation on your part.. thanks! i linked to that craig murray article the other day here.. i am sorry the guy had to suffer this, but man you are asking some good and hard questions that we may never get the answers to.. be interesting to see how much info if any, comes out on this..

Posted by: james | Mar 8, 2018 4:43:44 PM | 5

Sadly @3 we may have to wait for Judgement Day for that to happen. But if it comes about sooner, and in our lifetime, it will be a day of rejoicing!

Posted by: xLemming | Mar 8, 2018 5:05:53 PM | 7

@yoffa @2 - thank you. Your link does not work, here is a good one: A hundred grand and hundreds of betrayed agentsWhat was former GRU Colonel Sergey Skripal's treason against Russia?

Having worked for Russia’s Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) since the Soviet era, Sergey Skripal was recruited in 1995 by the British agent Pablo Miller, who at the time was posing as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo and working in Britain’s embassy in Tallinn. Russia’s Federal Security Service says Miller was actually an undercover MI6 agent tasked with recruiting Russians.

The first reports about Miller's work in Russia emerged in the early 2000s, after multiple Russians arrested for spying fingered Miller as their recruiter. For example, former tax police Major Vyacheslav Zharko says it was Miller who recruited him. He says it was Boris Berezovsky and former Federal Security Service (FSB) agent Alexander Litvinenko who introduced him to British intelligence agents. Zharko surrendered himself to Russian officials when he learned about the British authorities’ suspicions that another former FSB officer, Andrey Lugovoi, had poisoned Litvinenko with polonium.

Litvinenko also worked for MI6 ..

Skripal, however, never turned himself in. For nine years, according to the FSB, he collaborated actively with British intelligence, transmitting information about Russian agents.

Nikolai Luzan, who calls himself a colonel and a veteran of Russia’s security agencies, wrote a detailed book about how the British recruited Sergey Skripal. Luzan says his book, “A Devil’s Counterintelligence Dozen,” is an “artistic-documentary production.”

If we assume that Luzan’s account is generally accurate, then Skripal was recruited during a long-term assignment in Malta and Spain, where he “got greedy.”

...

Further on:

Skripal led a quiet life in Salisbury, where he reportedly bought an average house for 340,000 British pounds (about $472,000). His neighbors describe him as an ordinary, reasonably friendly pensioner. When he moved to the area, he even invited the whole street over for a housewarming party.

It’s unclear why Skripal decided to resettle specifically in Salisbury, but LinkedIn indicates that Pablo Miller — the MI6 agent who recruited him — lives in the same town. In 2015, the year he retired, Miller received the Order of the British Empire for services to Her Majesty’s Government.

Skripal’s wife, Lyudmila, lived with him in Salisbury until her death a few years ago. His son died from liver failure in 2017 in St. Petersburg.

It must be Pablo Miller who worked with Steele ...

Who/what paid Skripal a $472,000 house and a pension? That is way more than the reported $100,000 he earlier got. What did he do to earn the higher pay?

Posted by: b | Mar 8, 2018 5:07:11 PM | 8

Seems Skripal was a British spy at the end. If he required killing, it would have happened long ago as b asserts. Clearly, he knew something dangerously compromising to make himself a target. The UK's fairly well covered by CCTV; I'd be very interested in what those in Salisbury observed. The incident has La Carre written all over it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 8, 2018 5:12:03 PM | 9

If someone like MI6 for FSB wanted him dead they would be instantly in a car accident of robbery attempt, they whoever they are, wanted this to thing to prolong in time to feed the press Russia gate and wanted people like b to follow the trap since most of the info here can be found just after few clicks, will be picked up by rational people.

If b is too moral to consider killing injuring unrelated, innocent people for propaganda as it was 9/11 whoever did it, he must wake up. These days, days of phony YT,FB Twitter reality, the only value is propaganda value nothing else, anybody will be thrown under the bus if this fits aims of ruling elite even some oligarchs who are rich only because their submit to rape of ruling elite as high paid prostitute while the rest are raped for free.

If fact they will supress details of that crime just to obfuscate obvious perpetrators in a cloud of conspiracy theories in fact mining people's brains busy them up like little ants like Bitcoin miners waste electricity and computer power for delusional quest of riches.

In the society of control ruling elite controls everything it needs to control and hence is responsible for this. Case closed.

Posted by: Kalen | Mar 8, 2018 5:21:30 PM | 10

@all - I updated the piece with some of the new details the Yoffa link @2 provided.

Posted by: b | Mar 8, 2018 5:33:45 PM | 11

The Independent: Sergei Skripal: Former double agent may have been poisoned with nerve agent over 'freelance' spying, sources say

The Russian double agent poisoned in Salisbury may have become a target after using his contacts in the intelligence community to work for private security firms, investigators believe.

Sergei Skripal could have come to the attention of certain people in Russia by attempting to “freelance” for companies run by former MI5, MI6 and GCHQ spies, security sources say.

...

Sources close to Orbis, the business intelligence firm run by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, who was behind a dossier of compromising allegations against Donald Trump, said Mr Skripal did not contribute to the file. But they could not say whether Mr Skripal was involved in different investigations into the US President for other interested parties.

A very believable denial by Steele. Not.

Posted by: b | Mar 8, 2018 5:39:21 PM | 12

it's interesting how quickly the denial from steele comes out...

is skripal dead yet, or still alive? i wonder if he comes back, what he says? i guess we will never know either way...

Posted by: james | Mar 8, 2018 5:56:08 PM | 13

For me it was particularly suss when the Leceister Police who are the coppers on the ground in Salisbury were heavied by Scotland Yuk ( or 'the met' as englander papers call that gang of proven torturers & murderers) to turn the Skripsky investigation over to the 'counter-terror squad' - the mob of thugs whose skillful manipulation of england's media combined with evidence falsification made their indicted murder of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes seem like an heroic act by playing the old honest whitefella card - "all those brownfellas look the same, who can tell the difference?" . No copper, not the killers or the idiot in charge suffered any disciplinary actiion, much less a criminal one. IIRC the policeperson in charge who claimed to be 'in the bathroom' at the time of de Menzeses murder, one Cressida Dick, is now chief commissioner, the boss of Scotland Yuk.

The local coppers know the area and will have a rapport with witnesses that a mob of arseholes in sharp suits backed by balaclava wearing armed heavies is unlikely to enjoy, so why grab the gig especially since it is certain to remain unsolved?

Well partly that, to make sure it remains unsolved, but also because counter-terror plays the press release regurgitators who are englander 'journos' like a fine old violin. Questions about fentanyl being a nerve agent get tricky? Spin the chooks a yarn about evil a-rabs you have met.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 6:02:23 PM | 14

Kalen is right. Such a flamboyant killing is not how modern intelligence agencies dispose of problems. Unless they want to draw attention to their work.

Maybe there's a bunch of people around the Christopher Steele dossier thinking of talking. What better way to shut them up than to knock off a Steele source.

Posted by: Uncoy | Mar 8, 2018 6:21:20 PM | 15

Very good work, B. Thanks for your website, best on the web.

Posted by: Peter | Mar 8, 2018 6:33:27 PM | 16

It could always be a simple & rather human explanation - The daughter was struggling for cash at home, dad was old but refused to die & had a stash of cash from his past, she knocked him off to get an earlier inheritance but being an amateur at this she did herself in too, which would be poetic justice...?

Posted by: sadness | Mar 8, 2018 6:41:55 PM | 17

....oh i forgot to add....or it was a sad suicide pact between them when all else was lost & over

Posted by: sadness | Mar 8, 2018 6:49:11 PM | 18

It is highly unlikely that fentanyl was the toxin that poisoned Skribal and his daughter. That hypothesis should be excluded at this point.

The main reason for this is that the patrol man who discovered them also came down with similar symptoms. Fentanyl is extremely toxic when injected intravenously. But not to any one coming into contact with them, touching them or even performing mouth to mouth resusication.

There are numerous acetyl choline inhibitors (e.g. sarin, vx, and many other similar compounds that have never been approved for chemical warfare) that can cause symptoms if someone comes into contact with an intoxicated patient especially one has be exposed externally.

Also the Portland Down lab has identified an ACE inhibitor (of course, that is part of the British military and they could very easily be lying.)

In any case, this looks like a nerve toxin poison, fentanyl is not in that class.

Posted by: ToivoS | Mar 8, 2018 7:08:41 PM | 19

Fentanyl patchs are used to control intense chronic pain...If he resigned from GRU because of health issues, as the "Meduzas" affirm, it might be related to this chronic pain and so he could well be a patient using this drug for pain control.....

Thus, fentanyl is not a nerve agent, but an anesthesic in any case....All could well be a performance...to blame the Russians and contribute to scare the population about them previous to some machination to be mounted at......Do not forget that that factory of mannequin challenges broadcasts, the White Helmets, is also a British "enterprise", creation of "former" MI6 LeMesurier....

Posted by: Fatima Manoubia | Mar 8, 2018 7:08:44 PM | 20

Yesterday when questions about fentanyl were raised, the sick policeman was identified, up until that point all that had been said was that the bill first on the scene were admitted to be checked out by medics. Today the close to death's door copper is in fine fettle once again. I leave it up to others to decide whether he was crook (sick - an Oz term) or the imported police were crooks (lying).

Media management and playing the old "backs to the wall boys & girls, its the blitz all over again" is what the 'counter-terror' mob do. If they were really opposed to scaring the bejeezuz outta englanders which is what their name implies they would A) be better at preventing actions which they hadn't cranked up themselves for entrapment and B) not imagine it was on the up and up to terrify the burghers of Salisbury with yarns about possible 'nerve agent' on the loose that were placing the town's population at risk.

The initial cops played the whole thing really low key, it seemed as tho they wanted to get to the bottom of whatever happened, but their replacements 'counter-terror' appear to devote more time and energy to seducing credulous journos than they do trying to find out what actually did occur. The form of this gang of sleek deceitful killers means that just because they claim this local woodentop was poisoned, it doesn't mean that is what actually befell him.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 7:40:41 PM | 21

Over in the states there have been reports about carfentanil poisoning responders to overdoses because of trace amounts. It is reported as 100 x as powerful as fentanyl. So maybe a chemical cousin is a possible consideration.

Posted by: Duck1 | Mar 8, 2018 7:49:18 PM | 22

It seems that MI6 was keeping Sergei Skripal on a tight leash by having him live in Salisbury close to Pablo Miller who must be the old fellow's minder as well as recruiter. One way of keeping Skripal on this leash must be to supply him with an addictive painkiller, for whatever pain he is suffering (physical, perhaps psychological?), and fentanyl fits the bill.

Fentanyl also fits the bill for a poisoning agent that also affected the police officer who attended the Skripals. The fentanyl epidemic is apparently forcing emergency and first-response personnel to re-evaluate procedures in handling patients so that they themselves are not affected by sniffing fentanyl accidentally.

B's suggestion that Skripal might be longing to return to and die in Russia, and that he was offering a "gift" to Moscow via his daughter (or maybe even a letter apologising for his treachery and begging for forgiveness, Berezovsky-style) is a stroke of genius. Makes me think that Boris Berezovsky's death merits more attention and cannot be brushed off as a suicide.

Posted by: Jen | Mar 8, 2018 7:54:30 PM | 23

sadness @17 & 18--

Nobody died. Only 3 remain in hospital and are not endangered.

On a park bench, they were discovered. I'll bet my best fishing lure that location's covered by a CCTV whose footage will provide all the answers--unless we aren't to be shown, due to national security or some such.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 8, 2018 7:59:42 PM | 24

The question raised by the link offered by Oyyo at 6 (at least 21 affected by the "neurotoxin"), the comments offered by Debisdead at 21, and the note from Craig Murry about the nearby chemical site: Was this an attack targeting Skripal at all, or some other kind of "misadventure"? There are so many opportunities to use this kind of incident, by entities capable of spinning it this way and that, that it doesn't give to us individuals reading the news much hope of ever learning the truth.

Posted by: Briar Patch | Mar 8, 2018 8:05:32 PM | 25

>>>>> ToivoS | Mar 8, 2018 7:08:41 PM | 19

Fentanyl can enter the body through the skin:

A police officer in East Liverpool, Ohio, collapsed and was rushed to the hospital after he brushed fentanyl residue off his uniform, allowing the drug to enter his system through his hands. The officer had apparently encountered the opioid earlier in the day while making a drug bust.

Fenatanyl acts on the nervous system so could be described as a "nerve agent", particularly by a British politician or civil servant.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 8, 2018 8:16:50 PM | 26

Very good. Made me see it from a different perspective which now fills in some misding gaps.

Posted by: Hermius | Mar 8, 2018 8:30:36 PM | 27

Missing not "misding".....typo error

Posted by: Hermius | Mar 8, 2018 8:32:05 PM | 28

>>>: Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 6:02:23 PM | 14

For me it was particularly suss when the Leceister(sic) Police who are the coppers on the ground in Salisbury

Leicestershire Police is responsible for Leicestershire and Rutland. Wiltshire Police is responsible for Wiltshire, including Salisbury, and Swindon. So i'd be very surprised if Leicestershire Police were "the coppers on the ground".

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 8, 2018 8:48:23 PM | 29

I love it when the UK media call it a "professional hit job." No, it's not. In a professional hit job the person ends up dead.

Posted by: WorldBLee | Mar 8, 2018 8:49:38 PM | 30

Meanwhile The Guardian is spewing its usual bilge.

Russian spy attack inquiry widens after medics treat 21 people

Statement from Wiltshire Police:

In addition to the three inpatients**** who are currently receiving treatment in relation to the incident, in line with Public Health England guidance, which asked anyone who was in the area and is concerned because they feel unwell to come forward, the Trust has seen and assessed a number of people who did not need treatment.

**** - These are Sgt Nick Bailey & the two original victims.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 8, 2018 9:02:37 PM | 31

The longer Skripal and his daughter stay alive, the more propaganda can be rung out of his death. Be worth watching to see how many sanctions and laws the UK can push through before he finally snuffs it.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Mar 8, 2018 9:04:33 PM | 32

Very sloppy management by the news, where initial reporting identified the exact age of the female "companion", inadvertently letting on to knowledge of identity of the "unknown" victim. It's this kind of stuff in the MSM that just causes immediate distrust of the reporting and the sources thereof.

Posted by: YY | Mar 8, 2018 9:30:37 PM | 33

Ooops nearly compounded the error by writing "leicester or wiltshire they're both north of watford so who knows or cares" until my vague memories of england geography reminded me that leicester is west not north so I better not add to the mistake. This is what happens when TV news temporarily distracts without properly informing. I spose I may have picked up the error if the article I linked to had included the town's name, but I didn't pick up on it mainly because I didn't check - so my fault.

I still maintain that swapping investigators was more about controlling the message than solving the crime though.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 9:38:33 PM | 34

see, I did it again wiltshire is north & leicester is west. It has been a long time since I prowled england.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 9:43:36 PM | 35

countries swap spies that have been caught, spooks that are loyal to and working for their country. I take it Skripal was in jail from 2004 until the swap in 2001. It appears he sold out his country for money, rather than any ideological convictions. Why would the US/UK want to swap a Russian spook for a traitor that sold out his country purely for financial gain?

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Mar 8, 2018 9:48:23 PM | 36

Latest Meyssan, very interesting, quite revealing about the global stage:

The new Russian nuclear arsenal restores world bipolarity

While the experts were wondering about the possible evolution of the world order towards a multipolar system, or even a simple tripolar system, the sudden advances of Russian military technology force the return to a bipolar organisation. Let’s take another look at what we have learned over the last three years, until the President Putin’s revelations on 1 March 2018.

We’re back to square one – the world is once again bipolar. The United States, certain of their superiority, never imagined the rebirth of Russian military capability.

In the second quarter of 2012, Russia and its allies agreed to deploy a peace force in Syria as soon as the Geneva agreement was concluded.

But everything changed when France rebooted the war in July 2012. Although Russia had obtained recognition by the UNO of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in order to deploy Muslim soldiers, mainly from Kazakhstan, nothing was happening. Despite the calls for help from Damascus, Moscow remained silent for a long time. It was only three years later that the Russian Air Force arrived, and bombed the jihadists’ underground installations.

During the three years that followed, there were many military incidents which opposed Russia to the United States. For example, the Pentagon complained about the strange aggressivity of Russian bombers which approached the US coast. In Damascus, we sought an explanation for Moscow’s silence, and asked ourselves if Russia had forgotten its engagements. None of that was true. Russia was secretly building a new arsenal, and moved in only when it was ready.

From the beginning of its intervention, the Russian army installed a system which did not simply scramble NATO commands, but disconnected them within a range of 300 kilometres around Lattakia. Thereafter, it deployed the same system in the Black Sea and at Kaliningrad. Apart from their new aircraft, Russia used cruise missiles which were more accurate than those of the USA, fired by the navy from the Caspian Sea. Last month, on the battle field, it tested multi-purpose planes with capacities as yet unknown.

[..]

Posted by: PeacefulProsperity | Mar 8, 2018 10:18:50 PM | 37

BTW The Clinton Body Count increases again:

"FBI Special Agent David Raynor was suicided yesterday while he was investigating why former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met this past June (2017) with Baltimore Police Department Detective Sean Suiter—who was a member of the wildly corrupt Baltimore police unit called the Gun Trace Task Force linked to the “Operation Fast and Furious” gun scandal covered up the Obama regime—but with Detective Suiter being murdered with his own gun on 15 November (2017) the day before he was due to testify before a US Federal Grand Jury..."

Posted by: PeacefulProsperity | Mar 8, 2018 10:35:35 PM | 38

>>>> Debsisdead | Mar 8, 2018 9:43:36 PM | 35

see, I did it again wiltshire is north & leicester is west. It has been a long time since I prowled england.

Nah, Wiltshire is west and Leicestershire in north.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 8, 2018 10:45:56 PM | 40

Debs

you're losing it mate.

Think london 4 oclock, wiltshire 7 oclock and leicester 10 oclock

otherwise look at a map.

:)

Posted by: m | Mar 9, 2018 2:34:26 AM | 41

Ah! But the point is: where are they in relation to Watford, which is 10 o'clock in relation to London?

Posted by: Shakesvshav | Mar 9, 2018 4:26:10 AM | 42

Why wait for a report, facts? Just bomb Russia....-seems to be the argument in the media in the west.

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 9, 2018 4:49:45 AM | 43

When we look at how the corporate media is spinning this story, it seems to me that Craig Murray's theory about using the incident to ramp up Russophobia has its merits.

Posted by: Dee Drake | Mar 9, 2018 4:58:36 AM | 44

Big gulf between fentanyl and nerve gas. Curious to see how they "reslove" this gulf in a way that can plausibly frame Russia.

Posted by: JC | Mar 9, 2018 10:12:53 AM | 45

No, I think MoA has this wrong. The fact the connection with Steele is being touted by outlets such as Meduza tells us this is being put out there as an “emerging” narrative. It will be “weakly” denied by officials and allowed to exist as a “suppressed” truth. Because the Steele connection offers a reason why Russia would off Skripal after all this time. It actually SUPPORTS the western narrative.

Frankly the degree of press coverage and seemingly pre-planned roll out here is more than enough to convince me this is part of an orchestrated new wave of anti-Russia propaganda, maybe as a prelude to intensified economic war.

Posted by: Neve | Mar 9, 2018 10:16:27 AM | 46

Skripal got off very lightly in Russia from his conviction. The linked article mentioned a comparison to Penkovsky who was supposedly executed by firing squad. Actually he was (allegedly) allegedly strapped to a trolly and wheeled live into his cremation. Penkovsky's treason was really massive. All the same, betraying 300 colleagues to the British as Skripal was supposed to have done is pretty disgusting.

If the British murdered their agent Skripal as a 'convenience' to get out of an embarassment that would be typical, as the British have zero loyalty and faithfulness towards their faithful servants.

In the second world war the British were reading all the German coded wireless transmissions using the world's first computer at Bletchley Park, which gave them a massive military advantage they would otherwise not have. The most critical component that made this possible after the capture of a coding machine in Poland was the leak of the German codebook. Were the British grateful to their source who most dangerously and laboriously leaked out the code bit by bit, by scribbling bits on a piece of paper which he hid in his backside during trips to the toilet? Once he had almost completed his task he was murdered in Amsterdam by pushing him into a speeding bus - not by the Germans but by the British!

Posted by: BM | Mar 9, 2018 10:26:22 AM | 47

The cremation story is lifted from an early scene in the Bond movie “Diamonds Are Forever,” BM #47.

So, for Skripal it should have been crushing by prams rolling down steps. Or maybe cutting with a laser beam.

Posted by: Cortes | Mar 9, 2018 10:38:55 AM | 48

His daughter worked for Nike in Moscow and according to her social media posts is currently working for PepsiCo in Moscow.

Posted by: Nard | Mar 9, 2018 11:08:50 AM | 49

The cremation story was not lifted from a movie it came from another source which I do not intend to name. It is probable, on the contrary, that the movie story was lifted from that source, whether directly or indirectly.

Posted by: BM | Mar 9, 2018 11:42:05 AM | 50

O/t

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/08/president-trumps-stunningly-effective-north-korea-policy-leaves-professional-diplomatic-corps-gobsmacked/

Supposedly according to a statement by South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong, Kim Jong-un is 'ready' to negotiate away with the US his nuclear deterrance and has asked to meet Trump. The allegations in the above report cannot be true, they would be suicidal. Kim Jong-un is far too intelligent for that. I think more likely the report is seriously distorted by Chung Eui-yong as a means of stupid and naive manipulation - if so that would be a sinister development.

The US is not capable of entering into any legal agreement under which it can be trusted to abide by the terms for more than 5 minutes - that has been proved multiple times over in the recent years. Qadhafy also negotiated away his nuclear programme with legal agreements and where did he end up? And that was before the more recent TOTAL renunciation of adherence to international law by the US which is no longer even covered by a fig leaf!

Kim has claimed (reasonably) before that IF North Korea's security COULD be adequately guaranteed he would be ready to give up his nuclear weapons. That does NOT mean it is POSSIBLE to achieve any such guarantee - who could ever make any such guarantee and how could it be enforced, and what would the interests of the enforcers be? It seems impossible to me. Certainly any bilateral agreement between the US and Kim has no relevance whatsoever to with Kim's offer - it would be like signing his own death warrant.

What makes the report especially implausible by many orders of magnitude is the pitiful allegation in the statement:

“I told President Trump that in our meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is committed to denuclearization. Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests; he understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue. And he expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.”

...

“Along with President Trump we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to test the possibility of a peaceful resolution. The Republic of Korea, The United States and our partners stand together in insisting that we not repeat the mistakes of the past; and that the pressure will continue until North Korea matches it’s words with concrete actions. Thank You.”

In other words, according to (what I presume is a US puppet and beneficiary of the warmongering) Chung Eui-yong, Kim Jong-un bows down to the supreme military superiority of the US and humbly begs for promises that are not worth writing on toilet paper. Anybody who believes that is a moron. Chung Eui-yong is obviously deliberately distorting Kim's position, as an attempt to sabotage the peace negotiations, the treacherous monster. I can well understand that Kim Jong-un would be horrified by Chung Eui-yong's statement which would massively increase distrust and undermine the tremendous recent diplomatic advances between North and South Korea, but hopefully Kim will navigate around it. Chung Eui-yong must be fired immediately.

I cannot see how North Korea's security could possibly be guaranteed without its nuclear weapons, unless the US gives up all its weapons, navy and worldwide bases. If any such possibility exists it would certainly be dependent on guarantees from many parties including (most crucially) Russia and China, but also the SCO, EU, NATO and the US. The Iran agreement already had multiple guarantors but even that is threatening to unravel, and the US is threatening to tear it up. How could Kim trust that he will not end up sodomised with a bayonet like Qadhafy? The real problem is how can any agreement be enforced if the US tears it up?

Probably any solution if it exists must include arming North Korea with the latest Russian non-nuclear defence equipment with guarantees to upgrade them, combined with defence agreements, investments in the economy, and certainly with multi-year transition arrangements before nuclear weapons are actually removed.

Forget about signing a piece of toilet paper with the US - it is meaningless unless North Korea has POTENT means to enforce US compliance with any such agreement. Such enforcement cannot rely on legal channels because the US is a rogue state with no respect for the law.

"he understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue" - bad joke, bad taste.

Posted by: BM | Mar 9, 2018 11:43:07 AM | 51

Add to the above ...

A large-scale strategically and economically important industrial project as joint development with Russia and China could maybe go a long way to increasing Kim Jong-un's confidence in Russia's and China's interests in enforcing any agreement. North Korean, Russian and Chinese geostrategic interests need to be made to coincide far more than they do currently.

Posted by: BM | Mar 9, 2018 11:54:30 AM | 52

as mentioned above, the UK is saturated with CCTV cameras. in all the MSM screeching i have yet to hear about any footage being examined.

as for murray's theory, i think you're both right. while i doubt the primary reason was to gin up more russophobia (they usually just make stuff up out of thin air and it usually works) it is a pleasant side effect for the brit officials who have recently been groveling for more war profiteering under the pretense of "russia on our doorstep".

they seem to have the same mentality rahm emanuel had when he said (regarding the 2008 collapse that decimated giant swathes of the US economy) "never let a good crisis go to waste". maybe an even better analogy would be churchill praying for a german attack to justify his bloodlust as seen in dresden and other firebombing targets.

Posted by: the pair | Mar 9, 2018 2:14:50 PM | 56

the fact that putin has elections and the media came out with the story that this move would ensure after the elections that other spies won't have any doubts.....are prepared statements. if your spies were in syria from rus and from us. i think most people know who would have the heavier conscience. and in fact it is reminding their own what they are worth to them .... genius. actually.

before cctv were widespread among civil infrastructure, the opponents against the idea realized that people can just erase the time stamp and put on different ones and have actors act it out and placed onto television as proof. but we see they usually go for the afp reported from cnn report from 50 agencies unnamed unsourced deparment heads, circular fun.

i am not so much interested in the videos from nearby stores and streets, as if one really were to investigate, looking through weeks of tapes is not difficult. i am more interested in Britain next move.

i think it would be easier to britain to just mute this guy permanently if he were to wake up with ideas that it wasn't putin its a big problem for all the milking they are doing on it.

a. he makes it out of the hospital and comes out and becomes anti putin fanatic and makes it believable.

b. he makes it out of the hospital and goes back to normal life.

c. he makes it out of the hospital and is immediately gunned/poisoned by "russians".

d. he doesn't make it out of the hospital and goes back to normal life anyways.

e. he doesn't make it out of the hospital......but his daughter does.

f. he doesn't make it out of the hospital and is in coma indefinitely.

g. he is dropped from the news altogether due to security censorship.

Posted by: jason | Mar 9, 2018 3:40:04 PM | 57

Ah, wrong link, please delete my two comments, b! Darn.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Mar 9, 2018 6:29:46 PM | 60

The police sgt. that became ill wasn't at the initial scene, he later searched the home of the two victims. So someone is making the assumption that they may have been poisoned at their home since that is where the police officer who later became ill was assigned.

Posted by: luke8929 | Mar 9, 2018 11:54:55 PM | 61

There is a possible scenario that he was in possession of a nerve agent, and accidentally poisoned himself and his daughter

Porton Down is only 8 miles down the road

Posted by: francesca | Mar 10, 2018 12:49:40 AM | 62

I believe Craig Murray.

Anyone who remembers the 9/11 Anthrax scare that threatened US decision makers?

Posted by: somebody | Mar 10, 2018 5:45:04 AM | 63

I believe Craig Murray.

...

Posted by: somebody | Mar 10, 2018 5:45:04 AM | 63

Craig Murray smelt a rat and made his suspicions clear, publicly. Whether Murray's speculation is better or worse than anyone else's is unresolved and could remain that way, if History is any guide.

We seem no closer to discovering the ID of the instigators of the sordid and spectacularly public murder of Kim Jong-nam.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 10, 2018 9:58:06 AM | 65

The BBC has reported that a "source familiar with the investigation" said the nerve agent was "likely to be rarer than sarin or VX". This suggests that the ground is being prepared for announcing a result that will implicate Russia.

Kaszeta on bellingcat.com brings up the story of "novichoks" a class of organophosphate compounds allegedly developed as military nerve agents in the USSR. Russian chemists published papers in the open literature on these compounds from the 1960s to the 1980s. The story that they were developed for military use and given the name "novichok" comes from a defector in the 1990s, Vil Mirzayanov. An authoritative review by Robin Black notes that there is no independent evidence supporting Mirzayanov's claims about the properties of these compounds.

Kaszeta's comments are relevant because he works closely with Bellingcat and it appears from his output that since 2013 he has been used to channel information originating from western intelligence services about alleged chemical attacks, based on his status as an independent expert with his company Strongpoint Security. The accounts filed for this company show that its turnover was not enough to provide Kaszeta with a living, raising obvious questions about who or what was paying him.

Posted by: yoffa | Mar 10, 2018 10:29:38 AM | 66

65, Hw... Murray has a lot more insider information than he lets on, often couching it as speculation, probably partly to protect sources. He can be admirably or foolishly blunt at times ("z' is b'sh!")but with delicate issues, he often alludes at things insteda of saying outright. He has retained deep connections with many (at least partially like-minded) people at the FCO, the diplomatic corps and (indeed) MS5 and 6.

Posted by: Petra | Mar 10, 2018 10:45:44 AM | 67

@66 yoffa

"Novichok" was just used in the plot of the latest Strike Back TV series, from the Wikipedia article-

"She discovers that Zaryn is in fact Karim Markov, a Russian scientist who allegedly killed his colleagues with Novichok, a nerve agent they invented"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back:_Retribution

Posted by: TJ | Mar 10, 2018 11:32:45 AM | 70

You can delete my comment at #68, sorry, I thought it was not posted, but, in the end, the second one gets clearer...

Posted by: Fatima Manoubia | Mar 10, 2018 12:03:15 PM | 71

The commenter "Abben" is making some more comments below, besides of the first one at that post linked, just scroll down the comments to find it...

Posted by: Fatima Manoubia | Mar 10, 2018 12:07:10 PM | 72

65, Hw... Murray has a lot more insider information than he lets on.

...

Posted by: Petra | Mar 10, 2018 10:45:44 AM | 67

His Former British Ambassador status bolsters his street cred. OTOH one imagines that he is acutely aware of the line dividing whistle-blowing from treason.

On the other, other hand, b is a quite diligent and competent sleuth too, and has more than a passing interest in military/defense intrigue and intel.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 10, 2018 12:53:16 PM | 73

Goodness, the poster of #1 just thoroughly discredited him/her self.

Sobchak is a Judas goat. Perhaps this poster should know that Sobchak's father was the former employer of Putin when said individual was mayor of St. Petersburg.

Equally, choosing Sobchak as an agent would class as one of the most idiotic of all time - only to be exceeded if Paris Hilton was a Russian agent. The two ladies employed much the same routes to fame...

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 10, 2018 8:52:12 PM | 76

Who gives a fukc about pathetic Tavistock City of London propaganda spewed by that pimply lardass Bilecunt paid by MI6?

Posted by: PeacefulProsperity | Mar 10, 2018 11:34:32 PM | 77

@66 yoffa... did you read craig murrays post The Elephant In The Room ???

the reason i ask is the line of info the bbc is pushing via the one bellingcat is taking up, is very connected to craigs comment. "Nerve agents including Sarin and VX are manufactured by the British Government in Porton Down, just 8 miles from where Sergei Skripal was attacked." indeed no one in the western msm is making any connection with porton down and the special chemical substance under question, that could only be made by a state player whether it be in the uk or russia or wherever... it would seem to me that the uk has spent an inordinate amount of effort trying to frame russia, not the least being the steele dossier that remains central to the mueller investigation...

just how this witch hunt to frame russia is supposed to play out, remains to be seen, but it sure looks it's still in overdrive.. any time i see the name bellingcat, i'm immediately reminded of those outlets that are a part of this same effort too! oh well.. glad to know bellingcat is still on the payroll.. i'm sure they have something to say that is tailor made to make russia out to look guilty.. i have never seen anything else from them, but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know where some of that 40 million us$ for propaganda goes.. i guess this is how they remain on the payroll! make it look official it's from russia.. use a fun word like "novichoks".. if only steele could be given a 2nd chance, i am sure he could find some choice russian sounding words to spice up another dossier! i guess steeles retirement in the uk will be fine at any rate.. too bad bellingcat wasn't put out to pasture sooner too..

Posted by: james | Mar 10, 2018 11:50:01 PM | 78

lol peacefulprosperity... i didn't see your post until after i posted!!

Posted by: james | Mar 10, 2018 11:50:50 PM | 79

The Brits.. brought in democracy to pacify the peasants. The good idea spread around a bit and reached its peak in the days of the cold war. With the collapse of the USSR, such extreme measures were no longer needed. A little disinformation operation masquerading as bloggers to waylay any foolish enough question the narrative is thought to be all that is required.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Mar 11, 2018 12:48:40 AM | 80

And who gets to drive the inquiry on the gassing of two Russians ?

Well - no other than Porton Down.

Who got to drive the inquiry on MH17 .

Well no other than the Dutch.

Who got to drive the inquiry on 9/11 .

Well no other than a US Secret Commission.

Results - NONE.

Posted by: Jack | Mar 11, 2018 6:14:16 AM | 81

RFI writes with a bit of sarcasm that the Brits refuse to name the nerve agents but after it ahs been found at the pub and restaurant which the guy used to visit regularly, they advise all customers to wash everything and are afraid the effects might take months to appear

but the effects appeared to be harmful just when his daughter was in town?

Posted by: Mina | Mar 11, 2018 12:09:02 PM | 82

another Clinton crime?

Posted by: steve | Mar 13, 2018 8:16:21 AM | 83

Everyone here is a crazy conspiracy theorist - wow!

Posted by: Alana Adel | Mar 13, 2018 10:00:05 AM | 84

Fourth paragraph above last sentence

... the scene was also seriously *effected*.

Should that be affected?

Posted by: Reader | Mar 14, 2018 3:05:44 PM | 85

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/03/spy-posions-spy-and-the-anti-trump-campaign.html