Another Big Win For Putin!!!
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This dude 
Putin just awarded a medal of honor to the chief suspect in one of Russia's most notorious political murders
Putin just awarded a medal of honor to the chief suspect in one of Russia's most notorious political murders
- MAR. 9, 2015, 3:46 PM
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Man reportedly confesses to being involved in Russian opposition leader's murder
A suspect in the killing of a prominent Kremlin critic worked for a Russian police force
The world is facing a growing threat of nuclear war
Russian President Vladimir Putin has just awarded the chief suspect in one of the past decade's most notorious political assassinations a medal of honor, AFP reports.
The Kremlin honored Andrei Lugovoi, a member of Russia's lower house of parliament, for his "great contribution to the development of the Russian parliamentary system and his active role in lawmaking."
Lugovoi is still wanted in Britain as one of the two chief suspects in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Litvinenko, a defector from the FSB, Russia's leading intelligence service, died after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London.
After Litvinenko's defection from the FSB, he moved London where he became an outspoken critic of Putin and his regime. British intelligence believes that Lugovoi personally slipped the polonium into Litvinenko's tea during a meeting at the Millennium hotel in London in November 2006. Twenty-three days later, Litvinenko died in a London hospital.
Lugovoi was cleared of wrongdoing after a questioning by a British polygrapher in Moscow following the murder. However, the polygrapher has admitted to skewing the results and said that Lugovoi actually failed a portion of the test in which he denied having ever handled polonium-210, the Guardian reports.
Putin giving an award to Lugovoi might be aimed at undermining Britain specifically during its ongoing investigation into the 2006 assassination. London is currently holding public hearingsas part of an inquiry into Litvinenko's death.
Lugovoi is being honored less than two weeks after the murder of prominent Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov, an opposition activist and former deputy prime minister during Boris Yeltsin's presidency, was shot to death on a bridge just 200 yards from the walls of the Kremlin on February 27.
Russian investigators have claimed that Nemtsov was killed by Chechen Islamists.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
This dude
You didn't know? These aren't militants, these were the guys hunting them down
This guy was basically OMAN/FSB in Chechnya. Maybe he got "radicalized" but it's all really far fetched.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Britain may broadcast Putin's financial secrets to Russia
- MATTHEW HOLEHOUSE, THE TELEGRAPH
- MAR. 10, 2015, 10:22 PM
- 1,799
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The Russian lawmaker kicked out of the country speaks out about Putin, Snowden, and a Russian collapse
Russian military flights near Europe are heightening the risk of an aviation disaster
Putin reveals the moment he gave the order to take Crimea from Ukraine
Britain may broadcast the financial secrets of Russia’s ruling elite as part of the information war against the Putin regime, the Foreign Secretary has indicated.
Philip Hammond said he was interested by the idea of publicising the wealth of the Russian president’s inner circle in order to embarrass them in front of their people, as part of the response to the ongoing incursion into eastern Ukraine.
The Foreign Secretary warned that Putin is rapidly modernising his armed forces, and warned Russia’s bid to destabilise eastern Europe poses “the greatest single threat” to British national security.
Mr Hammond said that Britain must now “accept” that efforts to offer Russia its “rightful place” in the post-Cold War order had been “rebuffed”.
It marks a change in tone from the British government: David Cameron has repeated said that the door is open to Russia to normalise relations if it ended the assault on Ukraine.
He warned that Russia’s rapid rearmament is a “significant cause for concern,” and confirmed that British intelligence agencies are now recruiting Russian speakers.
British diplomats in Russia and Ukraine have regularly released photographs of Russian-supplied heavy weaponry as part of an information war, highlighting the Kremlin’s role in the conflict.
The EU has applied asset freezes and visa bans to 151 Russian and Ukrainian people and 37 companies regarded as complicit in the seizure of Crimea and the invasion of east Ukraine.
The wealth of Putin’s court is opaque, but undoubtedly runs into tens of billions of dollars held in offshore accounts and property in London and New York. Many of his closest associates made their fortunes during the chaotic mass privatisations of state assets during the 1990s. Official statements of Putin’s wealth - a £96,000 a year salary, a flat and three cars - are frequently met with derision.
Asked if there was a case for the “interesting” financial arrangements of members of Putin’s inner circle to be published by the British government, Mr Hammond replied: “There might be.”
“When we talk about having further steps that we can take, increasing the pressure on Russia, one the headings that we regularly review is strategic communication: how can we message the Russian people and to people that Russia is seeking to influence about what is really going on?
“It is an interesting thought and I will make sure the Strat Comms people are thinking precisely about that.”
Mr Cameron has suggested the BBC budget should be increased to help its Russian and Ukrainian language services counter Russian television propaganda.
Mr Hammond said the “generous” attempts to integrate Russia into the post-Cold War world had failed.
Putin feels the collapse of the USSR was a humiliation, and accuses the West of seeking to neuter Russia and encroach upon its borders – provoking the incursion into Ukraine.
Mr Hammond told the Royal United Services Institute: “In the case of Russia, for two decades since the end of the Cold War, we and our allies sought to draw our old adversary into the rules-based international system. We worked in a spirit of openness, generosity and partnership, to help Russia take its rightful place, as we saw it, as a major power contributing to global stability and order. We now have to accept that those efforts have been rebuffed.
"We are now faced with a Russian leader bent not on joining the international rules-based system which which keeps the peace between nations, but on subverting it," he said.
"President Putin's actions - illegally annexing Crimea and now using Russian troops to destabilise eastern Ukraine - fundamentally undermine the security of sovereign nations of Eastern Europe."
"The rapid pace with which Russia is seeking to modernise her military forces and weapons combined with the increasingly aggressive stance of the Russian military including Russian aircraft around the sovereign airspace of Nato states are all significant causes of concern.
"So we are in familiar territory for anyone over the age of about 50, with Russia's behaviour a stark reminder that it has the potential to pose the single greatest threat to our security.”
“Continuing to gather intelligence on their capabilities and intentions will remain a vital part of our intelligence effort for the foreseeable future. It is no coincidence that all the agencies are recruiting Russian speakers again.”
Putin's money men
The wealth of Putin's inner circle runs to tens of billions of pounds.
Vladimir Yakunin
The Telegraph
Head of Russian Railways, the country's biggest employer, since 2005. He has been part of Putin's St Petersburg circle since the 1990s, and is dogged by claims from opposition activists over his wealth. He accompanies Mr Putin on overseas visit, and was in charge of construction during the Sochi Winter Olympics. He has been hit with US sanctions. His network is unknown but his official salary is $15 million.
Gennady Timchenko
The Telegraph
Founder of Gunvor, the Swiss-based oil trader, he sold his stake just before being hit by US sanctions. His net worth is reckoned to be $14.5 billion, according to Forbes. Putin is said by the US to have "investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds". The company strongly denies that claim, and has not been subject to foreign sanctions.
Yuri Kovalchuk
The Telegraph
Once dubbed one of Putin's "cashiers". He is the largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya, called by the US the "personal bank for senior officials" of Russia. He is a member of the Ozero Dacha, a community of lakeside homes of Putin and his allies. His wealth is estimated to be $1.4 billion. He is hit by US and EU sanctions.
Arkady and Boris Rotenburg
Arkady is Putin's old judo partner, and is subject to EU sanctions.. The brothers have interests in pipelines, road construction and banking, and are presidents of Dinamo Moscow hockey and football clubs respectively. They received billions of dollars of contracts for the Sochi games. Their personal wealth is said to be $2.5 billion.
The Telegraph
President of Rosneft, the state oil company, and the former deputy prime minister. His salary was $50 million last year. He is one of the most powerful figures in the administration, and is said to "economic interests" with Putin.
Infowars
Tweets issued by the British embassy in Ukraine highlight how heavy weaponry used by separatists in the east of the country are Russian-supplied - and have highlighted the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy.
The very scary reality behind the silly rumors of Putin’s death
Updated by Amanda Taub on March 12, 2015, 6:40 p.m. ET @amandataub
TWEET (75) SHARE Reuters that "it looks like he has fallen ill." Reuters later reported that Putin had also rescheduled a meeting with officials from Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, which was set to take place on March 11, but has now been postponed to March 18.
Putin has not been seen in public since March 5. Although the Kremlin has released footage of meetings that supposedly took place on March 10 and 11, there is significant online speculation that those were actually taped the previous week. Analysts and online enthusiasts have eagerly scrutinized the footage, noting that Putin had apparently worn the same outfit to meetings on multiple days, and examined photographs to determine whether a desk calendar in the background shows the same or different dates.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitri Peskov immediately denied that the president was ill, insisting: "He has meetings all the time. He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don't know which ones we will make public."
Rumors of Putin's demise have been greatly exaggerated
But Peskov's denial has not been enough to stop the rumors. Theories, both light-hearted and serious, swirled online and in different media outlets: Putin has had a stroke! Putin is recovering from plastic surgery! Putin is battling with his intelligence agency over the murder of Boris Nemtsov!
The idea that Putin would schedule plastic surgery for a week when he was supposed to have multiple public meetings seems highly implausible. And while it's possible that he's ill, it's equally likely that Putin is fine, and has withdrawn from public view for reasons of his own. The Brookings Institution's Hannah Thoburn told me that there was just no way to know the real reason for his absence from public life. "For all we know he probably has the flu, or just wanted to hang out with his daughters or something. You never know what it is."
PUTIN'S SPOKESMAN HAS DENIED THAT THE PRESIDENT IS ILL
Rumors that Putin is ill or injured arise with some regularity. "These sort of rumors happen all the time," Thoburn told me. "Is Putin sick? Is he this, is he that? Did he have plastic surgery?"
In 2012, Putin cancelled and postponed foreign trips for more than a month. Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko said Putin had suffered a spinal injury during a judo bout, and there were rumors that he was seriously injured. But Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev denied that Putin had hurt his back, and eventually the president reappeared.
The truth behind the rumors: they reveal a frightening weakness in the Russian state
The rumors may not be true, but that does not mean they are irrelevant. They speak to Russians' nervousness about what would happen if Putin really were to become incapacitated. Because power is so centralized around him, there is no fallback plan for what would happen if he really were to suddenly become unable to rule. A system of government that rests on the health of a single man is very fragile, and that fragility — that weakness — is frightening.
University of Pittsburgh research fellow Sean Guillory explained via email that the rumors "say a lot" in that "they excite both the desire and fears of many people, likely at the same time." Some Russians may want Putin gone — but fear that "if he is, what comes next?"
Thoburn agreed. The rumors, she said, "get to the problem with having only one central figure" in the Russian government. She noted that if the US president or the German chancellor were to suddenly take ill or have a stroke, there would be other means of succession and other instruments of government to fill that void while a replacement was found. But in Russia right now, "you don't have that." That does expose a certain fragility in the system that scares Russians a little bit."
That's very serious. "If both the system and the integrity of the nation state are so centered on one person, whether it's a Tzar or whether it's Putin or some other leader," Thoburn said, "it becomes very dangerous." And if the system is so centralized but there is no system set up for succession, "the system itself is not viable in the long term."
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Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev would take over if Putin was to die suddenly. But who would really take power? (Getty Images/Sasha Modovets)
How did Russian politics become so centered around one man?
Since coming to power in 2000, Putin and his supporters in the Kremlin have deliberately silenced political opposition. The president, Russia scholar Mark Galeotti explained to me in an interview several months ago, is "very jealous of power." That has prevented him from anointing a successor among his allies, because he is unwilling to give that kind of authority to someone else. Indeed, Galeotti said, "There’s nothing that’s more of a career killer than being discussed as a potential successor to Putin." And although opposition figures have periodically surfaced, they have for the most part been prominent individuals who'd found success in other arenas, such as oligarch-turned-activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky or chess-champion-turned-activist Garry Kasparov. They were essentially one-man operations — dissidents, rather than true political opposition.
Is succession Russia's most frightening political weakness?
Guillory explained that succession is a longstanding weakness of the Russian system. Going back to the times of the Tsars, and throughout the Soviet era, Russia has had "a historical problem with succession, especially when the successor isn't pre-anointed by the leader." As a result, power transfers lead to political instability, and sometimes even violence. The current rumors around Putin's whereabouts, Guillory suggested, "are tapping into this fact that is known and feared by many in Russia."
And in Russia today, there is no clear succession plan in place. Technically, of course, there is: Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev would take over if Putin were to suddenly die or become incapacitated. But the real question isn't who would assume Putin's office, but who would assume his role: who would really take power after he is gone. That question remains unanswered.
That is a significant source of potential instability for Russia, and it deserves to be taken seriously, even if the rumors themselves do not. It is easy to mistake Putin's personal control over the levers of power in Russia for a sign of strength — after all, it makes him look like an especially powerful leader. But for Russia, it is a weakness. And that means that for the rest of the world, and for Russians, it is a potential source of instability and danger.
Apres Putin, le deluge?
http://www.vox.com/2015/3/12/8205193/putin-death-rumors
dapped you for it, but we didn't try to annex them though. we go about it all wrong, just end up spending money and having nothing to show for it.Just like us right
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The European Union Wants an Army of Its Own
https://news.vice.com/article/the-european-union-wants-an-army-of-its-own?utm_source=vicenewsfb
https://news.vice.com/article/the-european-union-wants-an-army-of-its-own?utm_source=vicenewsfb
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Russian state TV reported Putin met with the Kyrgyz president — but the meeting isn't until Monday
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russ...shed-putin-in-the-future-2015-3#ixzz3UKwfduwT
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russ...shed-putin-in-the-future-2015-3#ixzz3UKwfduwT
WTF? did they finally get to this murdering fukk?
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
POLITICS
Putin's Absence Has Russians Worrying, and Wondering, Despite Assurance from Kremlin
By Olivia Becker
March 14, 2015 | 3:45 pm
The biggest question in Russia these days has nothing to do with Ukraine or the country's collapsing currency, but rather, where in the world is President Vladimir Putin?
The Russian leader has not appeared in public for more than a week, since he was last seen at a March 5th meeting with Italy's prime minister. He cancelled several high-profile events, including a trip to Kazakhstan and an important meeting with top officials from Russia's intelligence service, F.S.B.
Rumors of his whereabouts have been steadily circulating as his absence continues, with various degrees of alarm, amusement and outlandishness. According to some European tabloids, Putin has escaped to Switzerland for the birth of his illegitimate love child by rumored mistress Alina Kabayeva. Others link Putin's disappearance to internal political tensions surrounding the Kremlin after the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
Putin's former economic advisor Andrey Illarionov, wrote on his blog Thursday that Putin had been "disappeared" in an apparent coup. An anonymous employee at a Moscow hospital reported that Putin had been admitted after suffering a stroke.
Related: FIFA Questions 2018 Russian World Cup Due To Racism
The most plausible explanation is that Putin simply caught the flu that has been circulating throughout Moscow. An unnamed CIA source told Gawker today that this is in fact the case.
But Dmitry S. Peskov, Russia's presidential spokesman, denies that Putin is sick. When asked if Putin was healthy, Peskov told Reuters, "Yes. We've already said this a hundred times. This isn't funny any more."
Peskov told Russian media on Thursday that Putin simply has a busy schedule of meetings, not all of which are public, but that his health is "all right". Peskov added that Putin is so healthy that he is still "breaking hands" with his strong handshake.
Rumors of Putin's whereabouts have ignited a wave of mockery on Russian social media, subverting the myth that all Russians are loyal supporters frequently proffered by the Kremlin. On Friday, the hashtag #putinumer (Putin died) began trending on Twitter and was accompanied by images, theories, and jokes of where Putin currently is.
A Russian musical duo released a music video titled "Putin is Dead" which quickly racked up tens of thousands of views on Youtube. Photo-shopped images circulating online include one of Putin shirtless in a coffin and another of Prime Minister Dmitry Mededvedev taking a selfie with Putin on his death-bed.
A website putinumer.com was set up to compile some of the more outlandish theories that the media has been saying about Putin's whereabouts. When asked if Putin is dead, it offers answers such as, "Look out the window. Are people happy, leading dances, setting off fireworks? No? So he is not dead yet."
This would not be the first time a Russian president has mysteriously disappeared. Josef Stalin infamously was absent for the first 10 days of World War II, and Gorbachev was on vacation in 1991 when hardline opposition forces sent tanks into Moscow at the brink of the Soviet Union's collapse. Putin's disappearance comes at a similarly fragile time in Russia, where political tensions are high, the economy is effectively falling apart, and a war continues to rage on the border with Ukraine.
https://news.vice.com/article/putin...urance-from-kremlin?preview&cb=v1426362305961
Putin's Absence Has Russians Worrying, and Wondering, Despite Assurance from Kremlin
By Olivia Becker
March 14, 2015 | 3:45 pm
The biggest question in Russia these days has nothing to do with Ukraine or the country's collapsing currency, but rather, where in the world is President Vladimir Putin?
The Russian leader has not appeared in public for more than a week, since he was last seen at a March 5th meeting with Italy's prime minister. He cancelled several high-profile events, including a trip to Kazakhstan and an important meeting with top officials from Russia's intelligence service, F.S.B.
Rumors of his whereabouts have been steadily circulating as his absence continues, with various degrees of alarm, amusement and outlandishness. According to some European tabloids, Putin has escaped to Switzerland for the birth of his illegitimate love child by rumored mistress Alina Kabayeva. Others link Putin's disappearance to internal political tensions surrounding the Kremlin after the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
Putin's former economic advisor Andrey Illarionov, wrote on his blog Thursday that Putin had been "disappeared" in an apparent coup. An anonymous employee at a Moscow hospital reported that Putin had been admitted after suffering a stroke.
Related: FIFA Questions 2018 Russian World Cup Due To Racism
The most plausible explanation is that Putin simply caught the flu that has been circulating throughout Moscow. An unnamed CIA source told Gawker today that this is in fact the case.
But Dmitry S. Peskov, Russia's presidential spokesman, denies that Putin is sick. When asked if Putin was healthy, Peskov told Reuters, "Yes. We've already said this a hundred times. This isn't funny any more."
Peskov told Russian media on Thursday that Putin simply has a busy schedule of meetings, not all of which are public, but that his health is "all right". Peskov added that Putin is so healthy that he is still "breaking hands" with his strong handshake.
Rumors of Putin's whereabouts have ignited a wave of mockery on Russian social media, subverting the myth that all Russians are loyal supporters frequently proffered by the Kremlin. On Friday, the hashtag #putinumer (Putin died) began trending on Twitter and was accompanied by images, theories, and jokes of where Putin currently is.
A Russian musical duo released a music video titled "Putin is Dead" which quickly racked up tens of thousands of views on Youtube. Photo-shopped images circulating online include one of Putin shirtless in a coffin and another of Prime Minister Dmitry Mededvedev taking a selfie with Putin on his death-bed.
A website putinumer.com was set up to compile some of the more outlandish theories that the media has been saying about Putin's whereabouts. When asked if Putin is dead, it offers answers such as, "Look out the window. Are people happy, leading dances, setting off fireworks? No? So he is not dead yet."
This would not be the first time a Russian president has mysteriously disappeared. Josef Stalin infamously was absent for the first 10 days of World War II, and Gorbachev was on vacation in 1991 when hardline opposition forces sent tanks into Moscow at the brink of the Soviet Union's collapse. Putin's disappearance comes at a similarly fragile time in Russia, where political tensions are high, the economy is effectively falling apart, and a war continues to rage on the border with Ukraine.
https://news.vice.com/article/putin...urance-from-kremlin?preview&cb=v1426362305961
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Putin’s Not in Switzerland With His Love Child, Says Spokesman
By Joshua Keating
Alina Kabaeva.
Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin’s indefatigable spokesman Dmitry Peskov has had better weeks. Rumors are continuing to swirl over the president’s mysterious absence from public view, ranging from illness, to death, to coup d’etat, to another bad plastic surgery incident. (Skeptics have set up an amusing “Is Putin Dead?” answer-generator site, which gives responses like “Sorry, but he’s still alive” and “No, it stinks in Moscow but not because of this.”)
Today, things got the point where Peskov had to publicly deny a report, which originated in a Swiss tabloid, that Putin is in Switzerland to attend the birth of a “love child” born to his rumored girlfriend, Olympic rhythmic gymnast-turned-member of parliament Alina Kabaeva.
“The information on a baby born to Vladimir Putin is false,” said Peskov. “I am going to ask people who have money to organize a contest on the best media rumor.”
As the Moscow Times notes, the rumors about Putin and Kabaeva, one of the flag bearers at the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics, date back to when he was still married, but have continued since he divorced in 2013. Putin has never publicly acknowledged the relationship, though he has said he is in love with someone. In 2013, Peskov denied that the two had been secretly married.
The love child rumor is almost certainly bogus, but something strange is clearly happening in Moscow. Today brought what the Russian media called a “surprise” visit from North Korea’s foreign minister. (Foreign ministers, even North Korean ones, don’t usually just show up unannounced.) There was also this cryptic Instagram postfrom pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, pledging that he will always be loyal to Putin “whether he is in office or not.” Huh.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...s_love_child_says_spokesman.html?wpsrc=fol_fb
By Joshua Keating
Alina Kabaeva.
Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin’s indefatigable spokesman Dmitry Peskov has had better weeks. Rumors are continuing to swirl over the president’s mysterious absence from public view, ranging from illness, to death, to coup d’etat, to another bad plastic surgery incident. (Skeptics have set up an amusing “Is Putin Dead?” answer-generator site, which gives responses like “Sorry, but he’s still alive” and “No, it stinks in Moscow but not because of this.”)
Today, things got the point where Peskov had to publicly deny a report, which originated in a Swiss tabloid, that Putin is in Switzerland to attend the birth of a “love child” born to his rumored girlfriend, Olympic rhythmic gymnast-turned-member of parliament Alina Kabaeva.
“The information on a baby born to Vladimir Putin is false,” said Peskov. “I am going to ask people who have money to organize a contest on the best media rumor.”
As the Moscow Times notes, the rumors about Putin and Kabaeva, one of the flag bearers at the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics, date back to when he was still married, but have continued since he divorced in 2013. Putin has never publicly acknowledged the relationship, though he has said he is in love with someone. In 2013, Peskov denied that the two had been secretly married.
The love child rumor is almost certainly bogus, but something strange is clearly happening in Moscow. Today brought what the Russian media called a “surprise” visit from North Korea’s foreign minister. (Foreign ministers, even North Korean ones, don’t usually just show up unannounced.) There was also this cryptic Instagram postfrom pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, pledging that he will always be loyal to Putin “whether he is in office or not.” Huh.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...s_love_child_says_spokesman.html?wpsrc=fol_fb