Poisoned Russian Spy Skripal tied to Steele

By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/08/2018 - 11:21am |

URL:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/poisoned-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-close-consultant-linked/

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Just as I thought the first minute I saw the first break of the story. Because if he had a Russian hit on him for some other reason, it would have happened years ago, like Litvinenko. A cavaet to keep in mind: still might not necessarily related to Trump world, could be something else unrelated to Trump that would come out in Steele or other Mueller evidence that Putin or oligarchs didn't want known. But the timing is damning, i.e. why now, why not earlier, he's been hanging in England for quite some time.

by artappraiser on Thu, 03/08/2018 - 2:25pm

Martin Longman on Cohen as Trumps clean up guy, and his mention in the Steele Dossier as cleanng up with Russians, How Stormy Daniels Explains Russian Collusion:

......More interesting is the way Trump went about trying to keep this affair secret. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, is of interest for a lot more reasons than how he’s been handling this potential scandal. For one, he’s mentioned in the Steele Dossier as a key contact with the Russians. So, to the extent that the Stormy Daniels story peels back the shroud around his methods, it’s instructive. The fact that he acted like Trump’s Mr. Fix-It in his personal life lends weight to the allegations in the dossier that he “met with Russian officials in the Czech Republic to discuss how to cover up efforts by Trump campaign officials to collude with the Russian government, secretly pay hackers who infiltrated and leaked emails from the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, and [to] keep the hacking campaign going.”

Those allegations have not been proven, but they seem less implausible every day....

by NCD on Thu, 03/08/2018 - 2:49pm

Turning into a "vast" investigation:

UK home secretary visits city where ex-Russian spy poisoned

By JILL LAWLESS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON — Mar 9, 2018

Dozens of khaki-clad troops trained in chemical warfare were deployed on the streets of the usually sleepy English city of Salisbury on Friday as part of the investigation into the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.

The sight of the soldiers, and forensic experts in bright yellow hazmat suits, added to the increasingly surreal scenes in a city best known for its towering medieval cathedral and its proximity to the ancient Stonehenge monument.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench near the River Avon in the city on Sunday. They remained in critical condition in a local hospital Friday, poisoned with what authorities say is a rare nerve agent.

A police officer who helped investigate was in serious condition, and a total of 21 people have received medical treatment [.....]

Counterterrorism detectives are leading a vast investigation. One line of inquiry is whether the pair were poisoned at Skripal's modest suburban house before going out for Sunday lunch and a visit to a pub.

On Friday, police called in about 180 marines, soldiers and air force personnel with expertise in chemical weapons, decontamination and logistics to help with the probe and to remove vehicles that might be contaminated. Military vehicles arrived at Salisbury District Hospital, where the victims are being treated, to take away a police car [.....]

by artappraiser on Sat, 03/10/2018 - 1:39am

It has become a pretty big deal in the UK, The Guardian did live reporting all day

'Highly likely' Moscow ordered attack on former Russian spy in UK – Politics live, March 13

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including PM’s statement in Commons about Salisbury attack

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 2:18am

What you need to know about Novichok, the Russian nerve agent used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal

@ BusinessInsider.com, March 12

Double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with nerve agent Novichok, Theresa May has said.
Novichok nerve agents are Cold War-era chemical weapons, up to ten times more deadly than the notorious XV nerve agent used in other assassinations.

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 2:26am

Tillerson casts poisoning as sign of more aggressive Russia

By Josh Lederman @ AP, March 12

ABOARD A U.S. GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cast the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain as part of a “certain unleashing of activity” by Russia that the United States is struggling to understand. He warned that the poisoning would “certainly trigger a response.”

Tillerson, echoing the British government’s finger-pointing toward Moscow, said he didn’t yet know whether Russia’s government knew of the attack with a military-grade nerve agent, but that one way or another, “it came from Russia.” He said it was “almost beyond comprehension” why a state actor would deploy such a dangerous substance in a public place in a foreign country where others could be exposed [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 3:22am

“almost beyond comprehension” = "message to bad dudes & traitors"

For some reason I see Tillerson as more old school corrupt as evil - which would imply it might eventually dawn on him what he's been assigned. But then, maybe I'm giving him too much credit.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 3:37am

so you got me wondering. And I googled and came up with this from Nov., surprise surprise, Walt (of the infamous Walt & Mearsheimer)

Rex Tillerson Is Underrated

A revisionist assessment of the Trump administration’s beleaguered Secretary of State.

BY Stephen M.Walt, Nov. 20

Makes some interesting points.

Aside: I haven't really spent much time on ForeignPolicy.com for years, used to really like it but now they only give 3 articles per mo. free and when I paid for a subscription back then the log-in never worked, was fubar, customer service was lousy and I got mad at them and just gave up. Maybe time to try again.

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 4:39am

P.S. The current Tillerson statement on the plane nearly contradicts what the White House presser was saying today. I didn't even bother to post that because: who cares anymore what she guesses to say? I think it's pretty clear he says whatever he thinks right, not bothering trying to please Trump.Including insulting Trump and not taking it back on Sunday TV.... I just ran across this from earlier in the month, a suggestion about how this was working before the past wild week:

McMaster caught in the middle as Mattis and Tillerson maneuver to constrain Trump on national security issues

By Brian Bennett @ LATimes.com, March 4

As President Trump appears to lurch from crisis to crisis on the world stage, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have quietly maneuvered to constrain an impulsive commander in chief, the latest sign of a national security team that is increasingly challenging the president.

Officials say the two senior Cabinet officers have slow-rolled requests for options on a wide range of policy goals, including exiting the Iran nuclear disarmament deal, reacting to missile strikes into Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, pressuring longtime ally Pakistan by cutting U.S. military aid, and possible limited airstrikes on North Korea's nuclear infrastructure.

Trump is said to blame Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, bristling when his national security advisor has not presented the options he sought, or as quickly as he demanded them. That has given rise to multiple reports that McMaster could resign or be forced out in coming weeks, and added to the portrait of a White House in perpetual turmoil.

But when he walks into the Oval Office, McMaster is often caught in a carefully orchestrated manipulation by Mattis and Tillerson to slow the delivery of options they don't want the president to take, according to two current White House officials and one former official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions [.....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 4:53am

It's really surprising that Putin killed this spy because after the Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko the UK severely punished Russia by, let's see if I remember..... Oh yeah, doing nothing. And now they've done it again. I wonder why that didn't work.

by ocean-kat on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 4:28am

The suspense is killing them, I'm sure.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 4:36am

Another one? The cops are playing it down but they've got a tent up around the entrance of his house, scroll down for the photo @ link:

Russian emigre Nikolai Glushkov found dead in London home

By Schams Elwazer and James Masters, CNN, Updated 2:23 PM ET, Tue March 13, 2018

London (CNN)Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian businessman the UK refused to extradite to Russia on fraud charges, has died in his London home, his Russian lawyer Andrei Borovkov told the Echo Moscow radio station Tuesday.

British police confirmed they were investigating the death of a man in his 60s in southwest London, but did not identify him.

Police said the death was being treated as "unexplained," adding that the counterterrorism team would lead the investigation "as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had."

"There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury," police added, referring to the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

According to the Russian Embassy in London, the UK refused to extradite Glushkov back in February 2016 on charges of large-scale fraud and embezzlement during his time as the deputy director of the Russian airline Aeroflot [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 3:01pm

More on Glushkov @ The Daily Beast, 6 hrs. ago:

[....] Glushkov, 68, was granted political asylum in the U.K. after working for Russian state airline Aeroflot and Berezovsky’s car company. While living in Russia, he was sentenced to five years in jail for money laundering and fraud in 1999, as Berezovsky fell out with Vladimir Putin and fled to the U.K.In 2011, Glushkov also gave evidence to British courts that were ruling on a lawsuit Berezovsky had filed against another Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich, who has been on good terms with the Kremlin. The judge dismissed Berezovsky’s lawsuit, and Glushkov filed a formal appeal of the case. Berezovsky was found dead in his ex-wife home's in 2013. Last year, Glushkov was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Russian court in “a trial in absentia” for allegedly stealing $123 million from the car company [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 03/13/2018 - 6:12pm

Poisoned Russian Spy Skripal tied to Steele

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