Russia

Hmmm. I know Craig Murray (former UK Ambassador) is a bit erratic in some respects. Despite his knowledge of diplomacy and the workings of the British government, he's fallen out big time with the establishment to the degree that he comes across as a bit of a left-wing conspiracy theorist on occasions, but it is interesting to read his take on this Salisbury attack:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/the-novichok-story-is-indeed-another-iraqi-wmd-scam/

This assumes, of course, that the facts included in this post about what is and isn't known about the 'Novichok' stuff is accurate. You'd think it would be relatively easy to ascertain if this is the case or not, providing the RSC journal and OPCW report are available somewhere. Murray has certainly had sources supply him with interesting information in the past which isn't surprising given his railing against the claims of the government/establishment/etc.

Certainly enough information to throw some doubt on the current narrative rather than rushing to immediate conclusions.

Whilst I have no access to any more proof than anyone else, I think it's very likely that this was a hit sanctioned by the Russian government.  On the question of why they would do it, I think there are a few plausible explanations.  It sends a message that they can and will target Russian dissenters overseas. They know that ultimately we won't do much to them, other than send home a few FSB agents who will soon be replaced by others.  A few countries will condemn them and then do nothing about it.  

Definitive proof will never be in the public domain, so there will always be doubts, and Russia's troll army will keep stoking the fires of misinformation.  What I do find interesting about this is that a lot of the far left and right commentators I've seen, seem to agree with the Russian narrative and support Putin, whereas almost everyone in the centre seems to be of the opinion that this is almost certainly or very likely to be a state sponsored hit.  

  

The odd thing with this is the fact that Skripal was imprisoned in Russia for treason and you'd have expected them to get rid of him over there if they wanted to. Makes you wonder if there is a faction of the Russian government which has decided to 'get rid' of a load of their ex-pats in revenge/as a warning to others, though this would go against the narrative that nothing happens within Russian without Putin's say so. Unless he did say so, of course!

Just heard an interesting interview on Radio 4 with one of the chaps who helped set up the OPCW and his complaint was that these claims were made public so soon. He noted that any country with a chemical weapons lab could have produced the stuff if they had the necessary formula/specifications etc, though it was most likely to have originated in Russia.

I've read elsewhere that the Russian scientist who has talked about this Novichek stuff actually released the formulae for some of them in some scientific papers so I suppose that might explain how the substance (which nobody in the West has theoretically seen before, don't forget) was identified as such. I still think that the speed of the accusation against Russia may well be politically motivated, however.

It's all getting a bit too close for home for my liking. The last Russian emigre/Putin critic/'convicted fraudster*' to die lived and died in a house 250 yards as the crow Novichek flies from where I'm sitting.

* if he was a fraudster he was not very successful at getting his ill-gotten gains out (house maybe worth £500k at current prices). Bearing in mind he was deputy director of Aeroflot.

A good response to a British reporter in Moscow when asked what he thought,

Don't sell state secrets and you will live longer,

Can't argue with that.

Agree Pete. Whilst I certainly don’t condone extra judicial killings, he was hardly a hero. He didn’t have the excuse that he was doing it because he had a fundamental ideological problem with the ruling regime (like he might have had in the USSR) since the US and Russia were both essentially of the same type of polity at the time he did his spying against his homeland.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

It's all getting a bit too close for home for my liking. The last Russian emigre/Putin critic/'convicted fraudster*' to die lived and died in a house 250 yards as the crow Novichek flies from where I'm sitting.

BBC reporting he apparently died of 'compression of the neck'. You've not been sleepwalking out the house and having disturbing dreams about Slade, have you?

Quoted from Maringer

BBC reporting he apparently died of 'compression of the neck'. You've not been sleepwalking out the house and having disturbing dreams about Slade, have you?

Wasn't me guv. I was 1500 miles away when he died. Well when he was found anyway.

Our foreign secretary has accepted £160, 000 in donations to play tennis with the wife of a former minister of Putins government, our defence secretary also has accepted £30,000 in donations to have dinner with the wife of an ex minister in Putins government.
The Tories see nothing wrong in this and will refuse to pay it back. What are they getting for this money? Surely not freedom to launder their dodgy money?
Can anyone on here possibly imagine what the Daily Mail or the BBC or for that matter any of the Main Stream Media would say if this was Jeremy Corbyn?

Quoted from codcheeky

Our foreign secretary has accepted £160, 000 in donations to play tennis with the wife of a former minister of Putins government, our defence secretary also has accepted £30,000 in donations to have dinner with the wife of an ex minister in Putins government.
The Tories see nothing wrong in this and will refuse to pay it back. What are they getting for this money? Surely not freedom to launder their dodgy money?
Can anyone on here possibly imagine what the Daily Mail or the BBC or for that matter any of the Main Stream Media would say if this was Jeremy Corbyn?

Aye, it's almost as though the whole Skripal incident has been concocted to isolate Corbyn and revive the split in Labour.