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The UK says that a Soviet-developed Novichok nerve agent was used against Sergei Skripal, his daughter, and bystanders, and has given Russia "until midnight tonight" to explain how it came to be used:
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Tuesday that Russia has "until midnight tonight" to explain how a lethal Novichok nerve agent that was developed in Russia came to be used on U.K. soil. Johnson said Britain is preparing to take "commensurate but robust" action.
Reiterating British Prime Minister Theresa May's statement that it was "highly likely" Russia was to blame for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, Johnson said, "the use of this nerve agent would represent the first use of nerve agents on the continent of Europe since the Second World War."
Meanwhile, police are probing the death of a Russian exile living in London:
Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian exile who was a close friend of a noted critic of President Vladimir Putin, has died from an "unexplained" cause in London, police say. The Metropolitan Police says that its counter-terrorism unit is handling the case "because of associations that the man is believed to have had."
Glushkov, 68, was a close friend of former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent critic of the Kremlin who was found dead in 2013. At the time, an inquiry found he had hanged himself — but Glushkov publicly disputed the idea that his friend and former business ally would have killed himself.
As British media began reporting Glushkov's death, the police issued a statement saying, "An investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 60s in Kingston borough."
Previously: Former Russian Spy Exposed to "Unknown Substance" in Salisbury, England
Use of Nerve Agent Confirmed in Skripal Assassination Attempt
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:27PM (9 children)
Change UK to US and it reads just as well!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:33PM (3 children)
Why doesn't Mrs. May just ask that nice Mr. Trump why Mr. Putin has started murdering his political opponents in the UK again?
I'm sure Mr. Trump could just ask the next time Mr. Putin phones Washington to give him his instructions for the week.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 14 2018, @12:02AM (2 children)
Trump is president and there is nothing you can do about it but whine. Of course you are never going to accomplish anything meaningful in your entire life anyway, so whining is probably the best you can hope for.
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday March 14 2018, @07:39AM
Rich Lowry in the New York Post called me "the most fabulous whiner in the world." I think he's probably right. I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. And I'm not happy if I'm not winning. And I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win! And I won for the country and I'm making the country great again!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:05PM
Well, there's always the fact that I can't do anything about it because I'm not American.
Republicans have a long history of voting total fuckwits as president though, which has worked out great hasn't it?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday March 15 2018, @01:41PM (4 children)
Where in the US are there security cameras on every corner, armed police officers literally *always* in sight, and loudspeakers constantly blaring instructions 24 hours a day? Because that was my experience last time I visited London, and I've never seen anything like it anywhere in the states. It very literally felt like walking into the stereotypical dystopian apocalypse film.
I mean the US has a similar level of constant surveillance, sure, but it's far less unnerving when it's not a constant visible intrusion on your daily life. The UK reads 1984 as a direct instruction manual; the US reads it as a warning...a warning about the crappy implementation Orwell came up with ;)
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:48PM (3 children)
So it's better to have them spy on you in secret than openly?
Reeeeeally!
I say it's quite buggerd any way you look at it.
You say "buggery", I say "your arse is fucked": either way, your arse is fucked.
1984 is alive and doing well in the US: you just can't see it as well.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday March 15 2018, @07:24PM (2 children)
Yes. It's better to live in a world where *they can't admit to doing that crap*.
Nobody gives a damn about surveillance cameras on every corner in London. If you point them out to people on the street, most people don't even realize they're there. When the surveillance is constantly in your face, you get used to it. If you don't know it's happening, you don't get acclimated, so when it finally gets revealed people actually still give enough of a shit to try to do something about it. Not always effectively, of course, but at least it's something. It's not good that it's happening in secret; but it's a good sign when the people doing it still feel like they need to hide it.
If black vans full of troops come and drag you out of your bed in the middle of the night, it can't possibly be good. But when those same vans are yanking people off of busy streets in broad daylight with impunity, that's a whole different kind of scary.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:13PM (1 child)
"If black vans full of troops come and drag you out of your bed in the middle of the night, it can't possibly be good. But when those same vans are yanking people off of busy streets in broad daylight with impunity, that's a whole different kind of scary."
Except it's a mixed idea:
Pulling people in off the street in both the UK and the US will raise alarms.
Pulling people in out of their beds in the UK and the US will raise alarms.
You think that the US gov can't track people like you if they want to? You got a cell phone? (I don't)
I'd be paranoid no matter what because that is the world you live in.
If you're not worried, you're not informed: which is most people in the UK AND US.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday March 15 2018, @09:13PM
How does "the US has a similar level of constant surveillance" make you think I believe the US is not capable of tracking people? Yes, both countries have similar surveillance, that's what I've been saying this entire time, but the way they engage in that surveillance says a lot about the mindset of the citizens being watched and the government watching them.
Yeah, that's you'd call a metaphor.
Consider the following PURELY HYPOTHETICAL scenario: Suppose the US government wants to make someone disappear. They *could* grab that person at work or off the street...but there would be witnesses, there would be pictures, and when the person couldn't be found there would be protests and lawsuits. So, instead they would do it in the middle of the night, driving an unmarked car and wearing black masks so nobody knows what happened and there's no evidence of their wrongdoing. Now, consider North Korea. You think the NK military is afraid to grab or even execute someone right on the street? You think they're worried about mass protests or legal action? Is that *better* just because they're doing it out in the open? My point is not that making people disappear in secret would be better; my point is that a government which isn't able to kill or disappear someone right out in the open is clearly better.
Of course, with surveillance the US wins this one...with actually killing people, the UK probably wins, as the cops over here have *no problem* shooting someone in the back with multiple cameras and witnesses...and they have no problem with that because they know they'll get away with it because they never get convicted. If they didn't expect to always get away with it, it probably wouldn't happen as much.