No matter how much Russian exiles love their tea, they must think twice with 67-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin heading the Russian Federation. When Russian opposition leader 55-uear-old Alexi Navalny was poisoned Sept. 3 at the Tomsk airport, becoming deathly ill on his flight to Moscow, forcing his plane to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was promptly flown in a coma to Berlin for emergency medical treatment. While Kremlin spokeswoman 44-year-old Maria Zakharov denied any Kremlin involvement, German medical oficials confirmed Navalny’s toxicology report indicating the poison was Soviet-era Novichok, one of the deadliest, fastest-acting poisons known to man. Easily dissolvable in hot tea, Novichot was the poison used March 4, 2018 by Russian double-agents in Salisbury, U.K. to kill 69-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 36-tear-old daughter Yulia.
Lucky for the Skripals, both survived the poisoning attack by no doubt FSB double agents living in the U.K. Scotland Yard did an exhaustive analysis of the poison, identifying Novichok, something most likely used by the FSB/KGB for hits using poisons typically disguised in Russian-type tea. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un took it one step further poisoning his half 47-year-old -brother Kim Jong-nam Feb. 13, 2017 in the Kuala Lumpur Airport in Singapore, Malaysia. Kim learned well from the KGB what to do with dissidents who betray the fatherland or run afoul in Putin in Kim. Germany’s 53-year-old Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he expected an explanation from Putin or would ask European Union for sanctions against Russia. Maas warned that Germany could reconsider its involvement in the Nord-Stream pipeline, busy being completed beneath the Baltic Sea.
Threats against Putin haven’t worked well in the past for the EU, terrified that he could pull another annexation of a NATO state somewhere in the EU territory. When Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014, NATO and the EU did nothing, not wanting to confront the Russian Army. Why Maas thinks it’s any different today that it was back in 2014 is anyone’s guess. Putin shows no sign of admitting anything when comes to Navalny. Fortunately for Russia’s only real opposition leader, German medical officials said he came out of a medically-induced coma. Whether or not he’s brain damaged from the poison or has other health complications is anyone’s guess. What’s known Sept. 7 is that Navalny was brought out of his coma and seems responding to visual and auditory cues. “It remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” Berlin’s Charité Hospital reported.
Germany buys up to 80% of its natural gas from Russia, unlikely to take any draconic action against the Russian Federation for Putin’s targeted assassination attempt. When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the hit on 60-year-old Washington Post jounalist Jamal Kashoggi Oct. 2, 2018, the United States, European Union and United Nations stomped their feet, but did nothing. When it comes to Russia, it’s even more difficult for the U.S., EU or U.N. to respond, especially with Poland, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia fearful of a Russian invasion. What Putin did in Salisbuy poisoning the Scripals and now Navalny in Tomsk shows an undeniable pattern, no matter what the Kremlin says. Navalny was especially crtiical of Putin’s revision to the Russian Constitution, allowing him to serve indefinitely as Russia’s president, a kind of new Tsar.
German’s military lab in Berlin confirmed that Navalny succumbed to Soviet-era Novichok poisoning, not generally available except to Russia’s FSB Security Service that superceded the KGB. “There’s no doubt whatsoever,” that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, former Russia CIA bureau chief Steven Hill told NPR. With all of Russia’s denials, it’s bewildering disinformation for journalists, so buffaloed by their own propaganda in the United States, they can’t tell any longer when the Russian government’s making up stories. Russian Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Zakharov knows how to blow smoke or she wouldn’t have her Kremlin job. Expressing “deep concern” over Navalny’s poisoning, U.K.’s First Secretary of State Dominic Raab said on Twitter. After the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury, Raab and other U.K. officials expressed exasperation with Putin.
Whether admitted to or not, Putin’s Russia is a pariah state, taking liberty to violate international norms when it suits their whims. Since Putin invaded Crimea, showing no sign of returning the once Ukrainian peninsula, the U.S., EU and U.N. have been reluctant to take action. Ever since Putin invaded Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia Aug. 7. 2008, the U.S. has stayed clear of confrontation with Russia. When Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014, Western powers were so jaded that they did nothing to deter Russia from more rogue behavior. “It is completely unacceptable that a banned chemical weapon has been used and Russia must hold a full, transparent investigation,” Raab said, knowing nothing will get done. “Attempts to somehow associate Russia with what happened are unacceptable to us, that are absurd,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC.
