Posted on 03/02/2007 5:25:46 PM PST by jmc1969
Edited on 03/02/2007 6:14:16 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What eyes? Mine immediately burned to nothing!
And where did she get that necklace - Woolworth's?
Drudge is part of the MSM now. He gets 14 million hits a day and cannot be stopped.
I thought I explained that already.
If a person speaks out very publicly, saying "Putin's guys did it", and you want the public to believe that, because you or your guys actually did it with the objective of making people believe Putin was responsible, what better way to reinforce the widespread conviction that "Putin's guys did it" than by promptly offing the guy who said publicly "Putin's guys did it"? Remember, Litvinenko had also very publicly said Putin's guys were trying to kill him -- next thing you know, he's dead.
I have more than a little trouble believing that Putin and his operatives are stupid enough to repeatedly make themselves look like vicious political assassins by offing prominent people very shortly after they've spoken out publicly to accuse Putin & Co. of being vicious political assassins. I think there's a better than even chance that Putin's guys did NOT do either killing, and that the responsible parties' chief objective is to destabilize Putin's regime for their own gain, by making the world believe he's a ruthless power-gripper who has a worldwide network of operatives who can get away with offing high profile people who credibly speak out against him.
The total effect of these incidents and the public perception of them is to WEAKEN Putin's power in the international political community. I have to wonder why Putin and his guys would want to do that. And I don't really believe that they're such a bunch of bumblers that they are accomplishing that result unintentionally, especially since there is now a pattern of repeating the same power-weakening procedure in an almost identical manner to the previous round.
Maybe. But I'm having trouble with the concept that Putin and his operatives are that stupid.
There is of course, a third possibility, and that is that Putin & Co. ARE responsible, and are deliberately going about this in a way that, if the pattern continues, will convince the world that some powerful and vicious anti-Putin operatives are trying to frame him.
And a fourth: that parties who Putin believes are loyal to him, but actually are not, are doing this to convince Putin himself that he has very powerful enemies who are successfully framing him to undermine his power. This would make Putin more susceptible to being manipulated by underlings with ulterior motives, into doing things that he previously declined their advice to do. "See, we told you so."
I insist on my simple theory that Putin is stupid and/or crazy.
Do not gas-wars with Russia's neighbours, especially Ukraine after the Orange revolution, bring Putin only ill fame and therefore weaken his influence?
Did the demolition of YUKOS do any good to Putin's international reputation or, more important, to Russia's economy's reputation, with the collapse of the stock market and the capital outflow?
Do the latest reforms in the russian government, slowly eating away the remains of democracy, help his international image?
He either doesn't realize or doesn't care.
Did Stalin or Hitler care much about how they looked to the rest of the world?
Of course this is because they both were perfectly sure they'd eventually seize the world anyway so why care about image. But who can guarantee Putin is not that sick? It seem to me he's quite unpredictable.
All the folks dying
are either reporters or
"experts" who use their
"professional" roles
to play political games.
I'm kind of happy
both kinds of people
are finding out politics
has consequences.
Most people in this thread are assuming this man died. According to the article he is in the hospital.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.