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What to do about the nerve agent assassination attempt in UK?

UCFKnight85

GOL's Inner Circle
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May 6, 2003
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I've heard a lot of interesting debate on the subject of "what to do with Russia" in response to this. On one hand, it was a targeted assassination attempt on a former spy that is not that uncommon with "spy wackings" of past.

On the other hand, the Russians apparently snuck in and deployed a chemical weapon within the borders of a NATO member.

Does that constitute an act of war? If so, what to do?
 
nothing will happen and russia will grow bolder

I’m afraid of this too. They/we need to hit back. This is an act of war IMO. Normal Russian brutality but with a nerve agent on foreign soil. I’m just not sure of a proper response.
 
I’m afraid of this too. They/we need to hit back. This is an act of war IMO. Normal Russian brutality but with a nerve agent on foreign soil. I’m just not sure of a proper response.

Do you lob cruise missiles into population areas over an assassination? That's the issue.
 
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I’m afraid of this too. They/we need to hit back. This is an act of war IMO. Normal Russian brutality but with a nerve agent on foreign soil. I’m just not sure of a proper response.
too bad nato doesnt have the balls or the ability to do something about it. i believe weve been telling them to bump up their defense spending for quite some time now.
 
Do you lob cruise missiles into population areas over an assassination? That's the issue.

I think it’s one of those things, where a response will happen, but we won’t hear about it.

Like a known Russian spy in Britain will “accidentally fall down some stairs” breaking bones in the process kind of thing. The intel agencies we’ll do some kind of tit for tat with this, guaranteed.
 
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We need to get out of NATO if the rest don't start ponying up for defense. Russia is going to invade Europe sooner than later and we're going to be stuck saving those surrender pansies for a third time.
 
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I think it’s one of those things, where a response will happen, but we won’t hear about it.

Like a known Russian spy in Britain will “accidentally fall down some stairs” breaking bones in the process kind of thing. The intel agencies we’ll do some kind of tit for tat with this, guaranteed.

That wouldn’t really matter. Putin wacks his own guys all the time.
 
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That's pretty damn brazen. The entire UK was up in arms over using chemical weapons on their soil, and yet the Russians go ahead and off another foe.
 
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I've heard a lot of interesting debate on the subject of "what to do with Russia" in response to this. On one hand, it was a targeted assassination attempt on a former spy that is not that uncommon with "spy wackings" of past.

On the other hand, the Russians apparently snuck in and deployed a chemical weapon within the borders of a NATO member.

Does that constitute an act of war? If so, what to do?
I honestly believe the issue is this ...

Russia, like Iran, has so many state sponsored entities they don't have direct control over. There is no accountability, endless plausible deniability, etc... There is just too much power and support given to these entities that are almost 'stateless,' but have state backing.

At some point Russia will be taught a lesson, regardless of whether it's Putin calling the shots, or some entity that he gives the authority to operate, but doesn't care what they do.

But the US media won't care. They only complain about entities that hurt Progressive interests, not the ones that hurt Conservative interests.
 
has the uk done anything yet?

Expelled 23 diplomats that Russia probably doesn't care about anyways.

It's pretty interesting to read up on this. Russian oligarchs have all flocked to London to buy mega expensive real estate and are largely credited for helping prop up the market. Wealthy Russians who both are aligned with Putin, and his opponents. This apparently has created a scenario where Russia has huge amounts of spies all over the UK to "monitor" them.
 
Expelled 23 diplomats that Russia probably doesn't care about anyways.

It's pretty interesting to read up on this. Russian oligarchs have all flocked to London to buy mega expensive real estate and are largely credited for helping prop up the market. Wealthy Russians who both are aligned with Putin, and his opponents. This apparently has created a scenario where Russia has huge amounts of spies all over the UK to "monitor" them.
The UK ambassador to the US was on NPR this morning. NPR asked him if they might retaliate against those real estate holders.

He was quite direct about the UK always welcoming and respecting anyone of any nation that obeys their laws. I was a bit shocked the NPR personality even asked that question, and the UK ambassador handled it very well, and made the point without being confrontational.

Although the follow-up question was better, and the UK ambassador made the point that the UK takes the 'funding' of such purchases 'seriously,' including stopping any 'questionable' purchases, especially with several laws they've passed in the last few years.

BTW, if you don't normally listen to NPR**
they're doing a pretty good job breaking through the US media 'hype' on school shootings right now, using actual statistics -- everything from various ways you can die from guns and non-guns, as well as the 'golden age of school shootings' being in the '90s, right after the 1990 federal 'gun free zone' law, especially late with lots of copycats, because of the emergence of 24x7 news channels.

I.e., schools and communities are getting better so fewer people die, and kids are exposed earlier, before they do something -- even in this age of even more 24x7 news coverage.
 
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I might read this if it weren't behind a paywall. And I for sure am not paying for the Bezos Times.

Not behind a paywall for me, basically talks about why would Putin kill someone in such a brazen manner, since it's so obvious that he was trying to assassinate this dude in England. Breaks it down into 3 different theories: Russia was sloppy, Russia didn't care if the world knew, or trying to make a point to other potential defectors.
 
Not behind a paywall for me, basically talks about why would Putin kill someone in such a brazen manner, since it's so obvious that he was trying to assassinate this dude in England. Breaks it down into 3 different theories: Russia was sloppy, Russia didn't care if the world knew, or trying to make a point to other potential defectors.

It's all three. Putin thinks he has big balls now that he has a playground in Syria.
 
Not behind a paywall for me, basically talks about why would Putin kill someone in such a brazen manner, since it's so obvious that he was trying to assassinate this dude in England. Breaks it down into 3 different theories: Russia was sloppy, Russia didn't care if the world knew, or trying to make a point to other potential defectors.

I am pretty sure that Putin knows he can basically do what he wants, and no one is going to do anything about it. We're already at peak sanctions that we can apply and yet the guy just won another 6 years with 73% of the vote (yes, it's a sham election).

He probably used a nerve agent purely as another F You to the west.
 
Not behind a paywall for me, basically talks about why would Putin kill someone in such a brazen manner, since it's so obvious that he was trying to assassinate this dude in England. Breaks it down into 3 different theories: Russia was sloppy, Russia didn't care if the world knew, or trying to make a point to other potential defectors.

Definitely 2 and 3. I wouldn’t consider it sloppy considering the nerve agent was distributed through the guys car ventilation and air system. That’s a pretty sophisticated delivery method imo.
 
It's all three. Putin thinks he has big balls now that he has a playground in Syria.

Can't really be all 3, since the first option implies Putin was not in control and this was an unintentional killing. The last 2 yes, it could be Putin knows the world will not act, just like the world did not act on Crimea.
 
Can't really be all 3, since the first option implies Putin was not in control and this was an unintentional killing. The last 2 yes, it could be Putin knows the world will not act, just like the world did not act on Crimea.

It was a very sloppy attempted assassination. It didn't say anything about Putin not being involved or it being unintentional because it was sloppy.
 
It was a very sloppy attempted assassination. It didn't say anything about Putin not being involved or it being unintentional because it was sloppy.

I'll dumb it down further, since evidently that is needed. Scenario #1 implies Putin did not mean to send a message, it was just a sloppy attempted killing that was supposed to be kept under wraps. Scenarios 2 and 3 imply Putin very much meant everyone to know that he wants this guy dead, to show that he can do what he wants and as a warning to other potential defectors.

It is literally not possible to be all 3 as the first scenario contradicts the other 2.
 
I'll dumb it down further, since evidently that is needed. Scenario #1 implies Putin did not mean to send a message, it was just a sloppy attempted killing that was supposed to be kept under wraps. Scenarios 2 and 3 imply Putin very much meant everyone to know that he wants this guy dead, to show that he can do what he wants and as a warning to other potential defectors.

It is literally not possible to be all 3 as the first scenario contradicts the other 2.

It was meant to send a message to the West and other traitors. It was also done very sloppily as evidenced by the guy still being alive and his daughter being a part of the attack. It is all three. A clean kill on a former spy in England would send the same message to the West and defectors as the sloppy botched attempt.
 
It was meant to send a message to the West and other traitors. It was also done very sloppily as evidenced by the guy still being alive and his daughter being a part of the attack. It is all three. A clean kill on a former spy in England would send the same message to the West and defectors as the sloppy botched attempt.

The "sloppy" part was in reference to the incredibly obvious method of attempted murdered, using a super exotic nerve agent that was easily traced back to Russia. There have been dozens of suspicious deaths of Russians overseas, but this was either them getting sloppy on their assassination methods and letting everyone find out, or Putin just not giving a shit anymore and flexing his muscle.
 
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