I love how when the FT broke the story, the german government investigated the FT for attacking their champion. If they had instead investigated, Jan Marsalek, who seems to really be a foreign agent, he might not have evaded the authorities.
Also, Austrian politicians from the party which has a friendship contract with Putins party, helped him escape from EUrope.
And those morons had almost 30% of votes last election, but fortunately didn't get into government because no other parties wanted to work with them under their conditions.
I am surprised Dobrokhotov was still traveling to Russia after the Navalny publication and Grozev felt safe holidaying in Bulgaria. There is this interesting FT interview from August '23 where he predicts Prigozhin's death and hints at changes to their security after they were declared "foreign agents".
While there are lots of pro-Russian people in Bulgaria at large, and specificaylly in politics (including the president), and significant Russian operations in the country, it's not like it's Belarus. There isn't significantly more risk for him there than in Romania or Austria or Slovakia.
It struck me as stupid and pointless to poison Navalny. Why bother? His presence seemed a nuisance at worst and a useful foil at best. Is there just something in the Russia soul that can resist assassination plots by poison?
Besides the logical "sending a message" reasons other's mentioned, I would also like to point out that dictators, crime lords, and other "strong man" types are often acting emotionally rather than rationally.
Navalny crossed him. Of course he had to die. Pride would allow nothing else.
One of the greatest features of western democracies is that our political losers, who came at the not-a-king and missed, largely still die of old age in bed surrounded by loved ones.
This isn’t about the russian soul, it’s about a small vindictive man called Putin who has his opponents beaten to death in front of the Kremlin, or poisoned, or murdered on his birthday if the poisoning doesn’t work. He even poisons his allies to threaten them. He orders murders like this out of spite and because fear is the only weapon he understands.
This horrible little man is valorised by the current US president as ‘a genius’ so this sort of stupidity transcends national borders.
Same reason they killed the pilot that defected to Ukraine in Spain: They want to deter future critics/defectors. Thats why their OPSEC for those operations is so bad: they want people to know it was them.
Are you referring to 2020 attempt or the 2024 murder? He was a lot more than just nuisance in 2020 and could have become the gravity center for future anti-war sentiments. In 2024 Putin murdered him just because he wanted to and there was no downside.
At least non-Russia aligned European nations have gotten the message over the past 2 weeks.
I've been pessimistic about European nation's ability to coordinate after the initial Macron meeting after the MSC, but boy am I glad I was wrong.
The UK, France, Germany, and other Western+Northern European nations have finally opened their eyes, and are starting to move to integrate European capabilities.
The overtures to Turkiye, the removal of Germany's debt breaks on defense spending, the potential expansion of France+UK's nuclear umbrella, and the injection of interest and potential cash in Eutelsat OneWeb will help enhance European strategic autonomy.
If a liberal rule based order is to exist, it must be protected by all it's members, and it's up to them to help course correct wayward members of that order.
This is well beyond worrying. Just today I was arguing with other people here on hn who told that the pro Russian candidate who was arrested was a bad sign for democracy. The guy that was sponsored by literally the Kremlin, who routinely does things like planning to kill journalists
> Initially, the FSB was mainly interested in getting its hands on our equipment, presumably in the hopes of confirming its hypothesis regarding our links with the CIA.
> ...
> The FSB officers feigned surprise and promised to return the missing items immediately but succeeded in doing so only after 40 minutes had passed. Although they failed to bypass the pin codes on the phones or computer, the Kremlin’s agents did manage to install a tracker on Roman’s laptop, which he discovered within minutes.
> I had a weirdly similar experience shortly thereafter, not in Moscow, but — shockingly — in Berlin. Flying back from a screening of Navalny in New York and on the way to another one in the Hague, I was just passing via the German capital for a few hours to speak at a conference. The event was held at a pompous hotel in the city’s suburbs.
> ...
> During the event, I looked up the ownership of the hotel only to discover it was owned by a German, quite literally, “friend of Vladimir Putin”. I rushed out to get my suitcase, and the bellboy took a whopping twenty minutes to find it. On the way to the airport, I discovered a hard disk was missing from the suticase. I alerted the police who rushed to the hotel, only to be told that the security cameras had been down for maintenance.
Does this imply that the conference was held at this hotel purely to get access to his devices?
> The scheme was replete with cars bearing fake license plates, a route that avoided traffic surveillance cameras, and two speed boats that would need to be sunk at the end of the operation.
> Later on, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) informed Roman that Kyiv’s intelligence services had gathered information showing that a Ukrainian criminal group had received an “order” from Moscow to kidnap him and take him to Russia. A reward of $50,000 was offered for his capture.
> At one point, one of them even booked a seat next to him on a flight from Budapest to Berlin, wearing a hidden camera to record his screen while he texted me. Their attempt to get his smartphone pin code was off by only one digit.
How many people were working full-time to get this guy?
It does sound crazy. If they really wanted to kidnap him, they would have succeeded instead leaving so many clues. The SBU told him? I am shocked, shocked.
Getting hands on electronic equipment is what any pro-Palestinian Western journalist is familiar with at airports etc.
its crazy to me, how the author describes that they broke in his flat and stole an old laptop of a relative, like its an absolutly normal thing. He seems like he just accept its and moves on.
This what happens when despots concentrate power in their hands
When professionalism matters less than loyalty, the professionals become scarce
In the 1950s there was Soviet ideology that meant something. Now there is loyalty to Putin.
Makes me weep to see the same thing happening in the USA. Ideology can be problematic (I do not miss the Bolsheviks) but loyalty to the Big Man is much more random, and worse
>In the 1950s there was Soviet ideology that meant something. Now there is loyalty to Putin.
No, there wasn't. Soviet ideology that meant something died under Lenin, and already Stalin in those aspects of loyalty to the Big Man were way more demanding and intolerant, then Putin.
Fuck. I was born and raised in Russia. And yet, I desperately wish for Russia to be nuked to shreds. Fucking wiped off the map.Made uninhabitable for centuries and left that way as a warning to future generations.
I don't even know if there will ever be anything other than tyranny. And yes, my relatives and friends are still over there... Others have become emigrants and refugees...
Fuck, sometimes I wish it all to just end. I never chose this. I and most of my circle didn't vote for this Hitler of modernity. I don't know, maybe I should have burnt myself on the Red Square? But what for?
This is what despair looks like. I am not judging - I am from Eastern Europe, and I grew up in a country still occupied by Russians. Knowing that no matter what good I do, my life might be destroyed by Russia makes me feel all kinds of feelings too. It's hard to find solace, but one thing that helps me is that there is always a choice. They can destroy my life, but it is up to me whether I choose not to be like them. We all die sooner or later, but if I spend my life on the right side of the eternal fight between good and evil, I still win.
I know I am not original, and I am probably not explaining it well, but it gives me a bit of tranquility. I hope it will help you too.
What’s this half-baked spy thriller draft doing on HN’s front page? Plot’s a mess. I squinted at the Bulgarians intro but kept going—until, seriously, nerve toxin in underwear.
If this is supposed to be an Austin Powers reboot, the whole script needs a rethink—though at least that’d explain the lack of coherence.
Then again, filing the serial numbers off a beloved franchise to pitch fanfic probably won’t get far in an editor’s slush pile.
Then again... again, maybe it’s not slush, just GPT slop, which honestly explains more than the Austin Powers sequel theory
This fact came from one of the people who was involved in putting it there. Navalny phoned a Russian guy pretending to be another Russian official, asked him how this op went down and the dude said the toxin was in his underwear. You can see this all in the documentary.
Your attitude is misplaced, so much that one wonders why you're posting this.
I usually mentally poop on anything written by Michael Weiss's media operation (theins.press is a Michael Weiss joint) but "placing Novichok in Alexai Navaly's underwear" is how Navaly was originally poisoned.
This article needs an editor. I've no problems believing that Marsalek is a Russian agent, but Bellingcat is of course funded by the National Endowment for Democracy ...
Scandals in Germany are frequent. Olaf Scholz was investigated in the cum-ex scandal, von der Leyen in the McKinsey German army affair (von der Leyen had ruined the German army and has now a big mouth for rearmament).
In general and not related to these specific cases, certain actions by certain politicians are easier to explain if a third party has kompromat on them.
> I've no problems believing that Marsalek is a Russian agent, but Bellingcat is of course funded by the National Endowment for Democracy ...
One of the most consistently useful lessons I've learned online is that you can spot uninformed low-trust dismissals because they're always based on how someone is "funded" by someone else or advise "following the money" but their theory of how this works either doesn't exist or is obviously wrong.
Very common in /r/science for instance. They won't read a paper or check if it's preregistered etc. but they will complain if it was sponsored by someone at all associated with the topic of the paper.
> I've no problems believing that Marsalek is a Russian agent, but Bellingcat is of course funded by the National Endowment for Democracy
One, in part. Two, are you challenging Bellingcat’s credibility? On what grounds other than affiliation? They’ve been pretty spot on with all of their calls to my recollection.
Three, if you don’t like Bellingcat, maybe check out Marsalek’s Wikipedia page’s source list before creating a throwaway account to post a comment.
Not on her own, and not during her time. From what I understand, she felt she needed those external consultants to cut through the noise of her own org. Which had become known as an ineffective, design-by-committee place with no purpose other than to cover ones own asses.
Running that place (BMVg and Baainbw) was famous for being an unwinnable job. I dont love VdL, but I don't think this should be construed as her career failure.
> but Bellingcat is of course funded by the National Endowment for Democracy ...
Spooky! No need to be coy, say what you are implying.
Additionally, do you have a source that they ARE being funded solely by NED (which is currently impossible anyway) and didn't just receive some funding that one time? Not sure what advantage they gain being such an obvious "CIA front", but I'm also not playing 5D chess.
[+] [-] daedrdev|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] perihelions|1 year ago|reply
https://archive.is/l5j76
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19737795
It's really astounding incompetence/dysfunction.
[+] [-] preisschild|1 year ago|reply
And those morons had almost 30% of votes last election, but fortunately didn't get into government because no other parties wanted to work with them under their conditions.
[+] [-] throwaway_20357|1 year ago|reply
[1] https://archive.is/L6UNc
[+] [-] sofixa|1 year ago|reply
While there are lots of pro-Russian people in Bulgaria at large, and specificaylly in politics (including the president), and significant Russian operations in the country, it's not like it's Belarus. There isn't significantly more risk for him there than in Romania or Austria or Slovakia.
[+] [-] hermitcrab|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] lawgimenez|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] sva_|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] MarcelOlsz|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] einarfd|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] DaOne256|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ez_mmk|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ctrlp|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] saalweachter|1 year ago|reply
Navalny crossed him. Of course he had to die. Pride would allow nothing else.
One of the greatest features of western democracies is that our political losers, who came at the not-a-king and missed, largely still die of old age in bed surrounded by loved ones.
[+] [-] grey-area|1 year ago|reply
This horrible little man is valorised by the current US president as ‘a genius’ so this sort of stupidity transcends national borders.
[+] [-] rat9988|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] preisschild|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] entropyneur|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] tryauuum|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Paradigma11|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] evertedsphere|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] netsharc|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] alephnerd|1 year ago|reply
I've been pessimistic about European nation's ability to coordinate after the initial Macron meeting after the MSC, but boy am I glad I was wrong.
The UK, France, Germany, and other Western+Northern European nations have finally opened their eyes, and are starting to move to integrate European capabilities.
The overtures to Turkiye, the removal of Germany's debt breaks on defense spending, the potential expansion of France+UK's nuclear umbrella, and the injection of interest and potential cash in Eutelsat OneWeb will help enhance European strategic autonomy.
If a liberal rule based order is to exist, it must be protected by all it's members, and it's up to them to help course correct wayward members of that order.
[+] [-] vkou|1 year ago|reply
I am really excited to see a new chapter in nuclear proliferation unfold.
[+] [-] t_luke|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] pas|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] amarcheschi|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] inverted_flag|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] uep|1 year ago|reply
> Initially, the FSB was mainly interested in getting its hands on our equipment, presumably in the hopes of confirming its hypothesis regarding our links with the CIA. > ... > The FSB officers feigned surprise and promised to return the missing items immediately but succeeded in doing so only after 40 minutes had passed. Although they failed to bypass the pin codes on the phones or computer, the Kremlin’s agents did manage to install a tracker on Roman’s laptop, which he discovered within minutes.
> I had a weirdly similar experience shortly thereafter, not in Moscow, but — shockingly — in Berlin. Flying back from a screening of Navalny in New York and on the way to another one in the Hague, I was just passing via the German capital for a few hours to speak at a conference. The event was held at a pompous hotel in the city’s suburbs. > ... > During the event, I looked up the ownership of the hotel only to discover it was owned by a German, quite literally, “friend of Vladimir Putin”. I rushed out to get my suitcase, and the bellboy took a whopping twenty minutes to find it. On the way to the airport, I discovered a hard disk was missing from the suticase. I alerted the police who rushed to the hotel, only to be told that the security cameras had been down for maintenance.
Does this imply that the conference was held at this hotel purely to get access to his devices?
> The scheme was replete with cars bearing fake license plates, a route that avoided traffic surveillance cameras, and two speed boats that would need to be sunk at the end of the operation.
> Later on, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) informed Roman that Kyiv’s intelligence services had gathered information showing that a Ukrainian criminal group had received an “order” from Moscow to kidnap him and take him to Russia. A reward of $50,000 was offered for his capture.
> At one point, one of them even booked a seat next to him on a flight from Budapest to Berlin, wearing a hidden camera to record his screen while he texted me. Their attempt to get his smartphone pin code was off by only one digit.
How many people were working full-time to get this guy?
[+] [-] 9471agsh|1 year ago|reply
Getting hands on electronic equipment is what any pro-Palestinian Western journalist is familiar with at airports etc.
[+] [-] jcmp|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] kdmtctl|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] xutopia|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] lawgimenez|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] worik|1 year ago|reply
This what happens when despots concentrate power in their hands
When professionalism matters less than loyalty, the professionals become scarce
In the 1950s there was Soviet ideology that meant something. Now there is loyalty to Putin.
Makes me weep to see the same thing happening in the USA. Ideology can be problematic (I do not miss the Bolsheviks) but loyalty to the Big Man is much more random, and worse
[+] [-] realusername|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Ray20|1 year ago|reply
No, there wasn't. Soviet ideology that meant something died under Lenin, and already Stalin in those aspects of loyalty to the Big Man were way more demanding and intolerant, then Putin.
[+] [-] saalweachter|1 year ago|reply
You mean, after Stalin died in '53?
[+] [-] CaffeineLD50|1 year ago|reply
I'd say it takes balls of stainless steel to doxx Putin's hitmen.
And he doesn't back down.
This is next level bad-ass.
Damn.
[+] [-] wildylion|1 year ago|reply
I don't even know if there will ever be anything other than tyranny. And yes, my relatives and friends are still over there... Others have become emigrants and refugees...
Fuck, sometimes I wish it all to just end. I never chose this. I and most of my circle didn't vote for this Hitler of modernity. I don't know, maybe I should have burnt myself on the Red Square? But what for?
[+] [-] honzabe|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ineedasername|1 year ago|reply
If this is supposed to be an Austin Powers reboot, the whole script needs a rethink—though at least that’d explain the lack of coherence.
Then again, filing the serial numbers off a beloved franchise to pitch fanfic probably won’t get far in an editor’s slush pile.
Then again... again, maybe it’s not slush, just GPT slop, which honestly explains more than the Austin Powers sequel theory
[+] [-] stef25|1 year ago|reply
This fact came from one of the people who was involved in putting it there. Navalny phoned a Russian guy pretending to be another Russian official, asked him how this op went down and the dude said the toxin was in his underwear. You can see this all in the documentary.
Your attitude is misplaced, so much that one wonders why you're posting this.
[+] [-] etc-hosts|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] thgsF179|1 year ago|reply
Scandals in Germany are frequent. Olaf Scholz was investigated in the cum-ex scandal, von der Leyen in the McKinsey German army affair (von der Leyen had ruined the German army and has now a big mouth for rearmament).
In general and not related to these specific cases, certain actions by certain politicians are easier to explain if a third party has kompromat on them.
[+] [-] astrange|1 year ago|reply
One of the most consistently useful lessons I've learned online is that you can spot uninformed low-trust dismissals because they're always based on how someone is "funded" by someone else or advise "following the money" but their theory of how this works either doesn't exist or is obviously wrong.
Very common in /r/science for instance. They won't read a paper or check if it's preregistered etc. but they will complain if it was sponsored by someone at all associated with the topic of the paper.
[+] [-] JumpCrisscross|1 year ago|reply
One, in part. Two, are you challenging Bellingcat’s credibility? On what grounds other than affiliation? They’ve been pretty spot on with all of their calls to my recollection.
Three, if you don’t like Bellingcat, maybe check out Marsalek’s Wikipedia page’s source list before creating a throwaway account to post a comment.
[+] [-] hengheng|1 year ago|reply
Not on her own, and not during her time. From what I understand, she felt she needed those external consultants to cut through the noise of her own org. Which had become known as an ineffective, design-by-committee place with no purpose other than to cover ones own asses.
Running that place (BMVg and Baainbw) was famous for being an unwinnable job. I dont love VdL, but I don't think this should be construed as her career failure.
[+] [-] wadim|1 year ago|reply
Spooky! No need to be coy, say what you are implying.
Additionally, do you have a source that they ARE being funded solely by NED (which is currently impossible anyway) and didn't just receive some funding that one time? Not sure what advantage they gain being such an obvious "CIA front", but I'm also not playing 5D chess.