Like a poke with a umbrella...

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

A top doctor at the Russian hospital where opposition leader Alexey Navalny was treated immediately after his poisoning last summer has died, the hospital said on Thursday.

Sergey Maximishin, who was the deputy chief physician of the Omsk emergency hospital, "suddenly" died at the age of 55, according to a statement released by the hospital.
...
A spokeswoman from Omsk's regional health ministry told CNN on Friday that according to "preliminary data" Maximishin had died as a result of a heart attack. She would not provide further details.
...
Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, confirmed Maximishin was in charge of treating the opposition leader. "Sergey Maximishin was the head of department that treated Alexey Navalny and was in charge of his treatment -- specifically his medically induced coma," Volkov told CNN.

"(Maximishin) knew more than anyone else about Alexey's condition so I can't dismiss possibility of foul play," he added.

"However Russia's health care system is very poor and it's not uncommon for doctors of his age to suddenly die. I doubt there will any investigation into his death," Volkov continued.

[Isgrimnur]

NPR

Russia said Friday that it is prepared to cut ties with the European Union if the bloc slaps economic sanctions on the Kremlin in retaliation for the detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was asked in an interview on the Russian YouTube channel Solovyov Live whether Moscow is moving toward severing ties with the EU.

"We proceed from the fact that we're ready [for that]. In the event that we again see sanctions imposed in some sectors that create risks for our economy, including in the most sensitive spheres," he said.

"We don't want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we have to be ready for that. If you want peace then prepare for war," Lavrov said in the interview which appears on a YouTube channel run by Russia's foreign ministry.
...
Last week, the EU's high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, visited Russia, reportedly to plead for Navalny's release and in hopes of easing tense relations with the Kremlin. Instead, he was rebuffed and embarrassed, with Russia expelling three EU diplomats while he was holding talks.

After his return, Borrell, addressing the European Parliament earlier this week, said his visit had confirmed his view that Moscow wanted to sever ties with Europe and divide the West. He said the Kremlin sees democracy as an "existential threat."

[hitbyambulance]

NPR

He said the Kremlin sees democracy as an "existential threat."

as well as nu-G.O.P.

[Holman]

Wouldn't Russia cutting ties with the EU be economic suicide?

Russia is a one-crop state depending entirely on oil exports. Cutting off Europe (maybe 40% of their market) would cripple them and make them a Chinese (much of the rest%) client state overnight.

[Max Peck]

Navalny: Jailed Putin critic 'losing sensation in legs and hands'

The health of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is deteriorating and he is beginning to lose sensation in his legs and hands, his lawyer says.

Vadim Kobzev said Navalny, who is in a penal colony serving a sentence for embezzlement, had been diagnosed with two spinal hernias.

Last week, Navalny started a hunger strike to demand proper treatment for acute back and leg pain.

The White House said reports that his health was worsening were disturbing.

Mr Kobzev, who visited Navalny on Wednesday, said on Twitter (in Russian): "Alexei is walking himself. He feels pain while walking. It is very concerning that the illness is clearly progressing in terms of losing sensation in his legs, palms and wrists."

Sounds like a completely natural minor health issue and not at all yet another Putin adversary being used to send a message to anyone contemplating dissent or disloyalty.

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has been moved from a penal colony to a regional hospital for prisoners east of Moscow as concerns grow over his health.
...
The statement said that Navalny was in "satisfactory" condition and is being examined by a doctor every day. With Navalny's consent, he has been prescribed "vitamin therapy," the penitentiary service added.

Navalny has been on hunger strike since March 31, demanding "proper medical care" and to be examined by an independent doctor -- something his team claims he has been unable to get in the penal colony in Pokrov.

Navalny's supporters say that his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating. His press secretary said over the weekend that Navalny was "dying" and his doctors said medical tests showed he was at growing risk of renal failure and heart problems. CNN is unable to independently verify the state of Navalny's health.

His supporters also criticized the choice of prison hospital that Navalny was moved to. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), told CNN that "it's a transfer to the same torture colony -- only this is where seriously ill patients are transferred."
...
On Sunday, United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration was weighing options to punish Russia if Navalny dies in state custody.

[Holman]

https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/sta ... 27104?s=20

[LawBeefaroni]

https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/sta ... 27104?s=20

Some brave people right there.

[stessier]

There's only 1 protestor in that picture surrounded by 1500 KGB agents.

[Max Peck]

Russian top doctor who treated Navalny emerges from forest

The former head of the Russian hospital which treated Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last year has emerged from a Siberian forest, having been missing.

Teams using a helicopter and drones spent the weekend searching the swampy area in the Omsk region.

Dr Alexander Murakhovsky, 49, disappeared from a hunting base on Friday. But officials say he reached a village on Monday, looking healthy.

He reappeared in Basly, 32km (20 miles) from the hunting base.

His all-terrain vehicle had been found 6.5km from the base in Pospelovo, another village. The doctor is now having a medical check, the Omsk government told Russian media.

Last August Navalny collapsed on a flight and was treated in Omsk, then airlifted to Berlin. Western experts concluded that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Russian military-grade nerve agent.

Two senior doctors at the Omsk hospital died aged 55 and 63 this year.

The hospital, headed by Dr Murakhovsky last year, insisted that it had found no trace of nerve agent while treating Navalny.

[Holman]

Russian top doctor who treated Navalny emerges from forest

[Alefroth]

I assumed this had already been concluded.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/10392249 ... ghts-putin

The European Court of Human Rights has found the Kremlin responsible for the 2006 assassination by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence official who defected to the West.

[Alefroth]

I assumed this had already been concluded.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/10392249 ... ghts-putin

The European Court of Human Rights has found the Kremlin responsible for the 2006 assassination by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence official who defected to the West.

Look out Kremlin, you're in trouble now.

[Max Peck]

BBC

...
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old former Chechen rebel commander, was shot in the head from behind in the Kleiner Tiergarten park in August.

A man was quickly arrested but has given little information to police.
...

Germany expels Russian diplomats after hitman sentenced in Berlin

Germany is expelling two Russian diplomats after a German court jailed a Russian man for life for a murder in a Berlin park and said it had been ordered by Moscow.

Vadim Krasikov was found guilty of shooting Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in the head at close range in August 2019.

The victim was a former Chechen rebel commander of Georgian origin.

Prosecutors said Krasikov came up behind Khangoshvili on a bicycle and fired a shot into his torso using a silenced Glock 26 pistol. He then fired two more shots into the victim's head as he lay on the ground, killing him, prosecutors said.

Krasikov was arrested shortly after the killing, which happened just a short walk away from Germany's parliament.

During the trial, prosecutors said the attacker was acting on orders from Russia, and that he belonged to a special unit of its secret service, the FSB.

Prosecutors said Krasikov flew from Moscow to Paris and from there to Warsaw, before arriving in Berlin, using a passport in the name of Vadim Krasikov.

"He liquidated a political opponent as an act of retaliation," prosecutor Lars Malkies told the court.

In his defence, lawyers said the suspect was a construction worker. He identified himself as Vadim Sokolov and denied being known as Krasikov, telling the court: "I know of no-one by this name".

[Holman]

Another case of the Russian Flu...

https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/ ... 54278?s=20

Although you might expect a Russian ultranationalist to be friendly to Putin, this one was a Putin critic. The regime does not tolerate un-managed political voices of any kind.

[Alefroth]

They have some of the worst anti-defenestration measures I've seen.

[Max Peck]

Boris Nemtsov: Murdered Putin rival 'tailed' by agent linked to FSB hit squad

Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shadowed by an agent linked to a political assassination team for almost a year before he was shot dead, an investigation has found.

Nemtsov was a fierce adversary of President Vladimir Putin. His murder in 2015 is the highest-profile political killing since Putin came to power.

The authorities deny any involvement.

Bellingcat, The Insider and the BBC found evidence that Nemtsov was shadowed on 13 trips before his murder.

Boris Nemtsov rose to prominence in the 1990s, served as deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, and was widely tipped to be Yeltsin's successor.

Instead, Mr Putin came to power and Mr Nemtsov was pushed to the margins of Russian politics. He became an effective campaigner, exposing corruption and denouncing Russia's 2014 attack on eastern Ukraine.

On 27 February 2015, Mr Nemtsov was shot dead just yards from the Kremlin, and just days before he was due to lead a protest against the war.

Five men of Chechen origin were quickly arrested and later jailed for his murder. But the official investigation left the most urgent questions unanswered: who ordered the killing and why?

Seven years later, the BBC - working with the investigative websites Bellingcat and The Insider - can reveal evidence that in the months running up to the killing, Nemtsov was being followed across Russia by a government agent linked to a secret assassination squad.

In more current events, it seems like everyone wants to deny that the alleged poisoning of Ukrainian negotiators earlier this month actually occurred, possibly because it is more convenient to sweep it under the rug than to escalate the situation. Or maybe it was just hay fever...

Roman Abramovich suffered 'suspected poisoning' at talks

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning at peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border earlier this month, sources close to him say.

The Chelsea FC owner - who has now recovered - reportedly suffered sore eyes and peeling skin.

Two Ukrainian peace negotiators were also said to have been affected.

One report said the alleged poisoning was orchestrated by Russian hardliners who wanted to sabotage the talks.

Shortly after the allegations emerged, an unnamed US official was quoted by Reuters as saying that intelligence suggested the men's symptoms were due to "environmental" factors, not poisoning.

And later an official in the Ukrainian president's office, Ihor Zhovkva, told the BBC that while he hadn't spoken to Mr Abramovich, members of the Ukrainian delegation were "fine" and one had said the story was "false".

However, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says it would hardly be surprising that the US would want to dampen down suggestions that anyone - especially Russia - had used a chemical weapon in Ukraine, as this could push them into retaliatory action that they are extremely reluctant to take.

[Unagi]

Not sure why you are saying it's being hushed ...


"Ukraine to negotiators: Don’t eat or drink at Russia talks amid poison concern"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/uk ... 777a0a02e1

And I've read a number of other articles about it.

[Max Peck]

Not sure why you are saying it's being hushed ...

Ukrainian officials (on the record) have said it didn't happen and an American official (on background) said it was likely an "environmental" effect rather than a poisoning. If the talks in Turkey are actually making progress as has been reported, it makes sense that they'd downplay it for the moment to avoid triggering a breakdown, or (as stated in the BBC article) to avoid being forced to respond to the use of a chemical agent.

[Unagi]

OK, thanks - I get it now. But what you say now sounds more like a pragmatic and temporary thing: "it makes sense that they'd downplay it for the moment to avoid triggering a breakdown"...

Whereas before you phrased it like: "everyone wants to deny that the alleged poisoning of Ukrainian negotiators earlier this month actually occurred, possibly because it is more convenient to sweep it under the rug than to escalate the situation." , which sounded way more condemning of a permanent diplomatic position on the event. Which I hope is not true.

[malchior]

Not sure why you are saying it's being hushed ...

Ukrainian officials (on the record) have said it didn't happen and an American official (on background) said it was likely an "environmental" effect rather than a poisoning. If the talks in Turkey are actually making progress as has been reported, it makes sense that they'd downplay it for the moment to avoid triggering a breakdown, or (as stated in the BBC article) to avoid being forced to respond to the use of a chemical agent.

Right. The officials are almost certainly lying but for good reasons. If the hardliner element is true then they want to avoid the escalation that the attack was meant to cause in the first place.

Still the reporting was that Abramovich went blind for some period of time and apparently some people had their skin peel off their faces. I don't know what 'environmental' effect causes such.

[Blackhawk]

Environmental hazard, from Wikipedia:

It can include any single or combination of toxic chemical, biological, or physical agents in the environment, resulting from human activities or natural processes, that may impact the health of exposed subjects, including pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, biological contaminants, toxic waste, industrial and home chemicals.[3]

A chemical weapon could conceivably be called environmental from that perspective. Affecting their eyes and faces - maybe a gas?

[Max Peck]

Probably just a coincidence and totally not someone tidying up loose ends or settling scores.

2 Russian oligarchs were found dead one day apart alongside their wives and children, reports say

Two Russian oligarchs were found dead alongside their wives and children one day apart, according to multiple reports.

Vladislav Avayev, the former vice president of Gazprombank, was found dead of a gunshot wound in his Moscow apartment on Monday, Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported.

The Moscow investigations department did not name the victims in its public statement about the case, but Tass said an unnamed source confirmed their identities.

Investigators wrote in their statement that they are prioritizing a theory that Avayev shot his wife and daughter, and then himself.

More than 2,000 miles away, in Spain, another oligarch — Sergei Protosenya — was found hanged, with his wife and daughter stabbed to death, Spanish TV channel Telecinco reported. His body was found Tuesday, Spanish outlet El Punta Vui reported.

He was found with a bloodstained knife and an ax at his side, Telecinco reported.

Protosenya was the former vice president and chief accountant of Novatek, a major gas company with close connections to Gazprombank.

[LordMortis]

Navalny has died

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russ ... -rcna79718

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country's state media reported Friday, ending a yearslong fight against corruption and the Kremlin that saw him survive several poisoning attempts.

Such a brave man.

[Pyperkub]

Just plain old bullets for this defector:

Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR), confirmed to Kyiv Post the death of Russian pilot Kuzminov, who seized control of a Russian armored combat Mi-8 helicopter and brought it safely to an airbase in the Kharkiv region back in August of 2023.

"We can confirm the fact of death," Yusov told Kyiv Post, providing no additional details.

According to Russian media, Maksim Kuzminov was shot dead, with at least five bullets in his body. He was found in an underground parking lot in the municipality of Villajoyosa, in the province of Alicante, Spain.

[Moliere]

Interesting background showing the good and bad.

[hepcat]

If you can't get the Kremlin's side of things, you can always go to Grayzone.

[Max Peck]

I guess it occurred to someone in the Kremlin that there are windows in Germany...

German shock at reported Russian assassination plot

German political figures have reacted angrily to a report that Russia had plotted to kill the head of Germany's biggest arms company Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger.

The CNN report said US officials had told their counterparts in Berlin earlier this year and security around him was stepped up.

Germany's interior ministry refused to comment but Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appeared to confirm the details.

"In view of latest reports on Rheinmetall, this is what we have actually been communicating more and more clearly in recent months," she told reporters at the Nato summit in Washington. "Russia is waging a hybrid war of aggression."

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations. "It's all presented in the style of another fake story, so such reports cannot be taken seriously."

Rheinmetall avoided commenting on issues of "corporate security", but Mr Papperger is now being described as the most highly protected figure in Germany's economy. He told the Financial Times that German authorities had imposed a "great deal of security around my person".

The company is one of the world's biggest producers of ammunition and has become key to supplying Ukraine with arms, armoured vehicles and other military equipment.

Rheinmetall recently opened a tank repair plant in western Ukraine. Last month, it signed an agreement with Ukraine to expand co-operation in the coming years, including a joint venture to produce artillery shells.

[waitingtoconnect]

Yes it’s always a shame when a top executive of a key company accidentally falls out of their basement window to the ground above.

[LordMortis]

One would think attempted an failed assassination against someone who makes their living as the head of an entity with an intentional cause of the potential deaths of countless is going to end in covert retribution to avoid political impact.