Diplomacy and the mysterious case of the poisoned russians

[Broken_Erika]

They were just tourists!

How the Dutch foiled Russian 'cyber-attack' on OPCW
Four Russians, a car full of electronic equipment, and a foiled plot to hack the world's foremost chemical weapons watchdog.

The Dutch security services say Russia planned a cyber-attack on the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague earlier this year.

At a press conference on Thursday, Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said the plan was thwarted with the help of officials from the UK.

Russia has described the allegations as a "diabolical cocktail" and a "rich fantasy".
......
The OPCW has been investigating the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK.

Authorities believe Mr Skripal's door in the city of Salisbury was targeted with the nerve agent Novichok.

The organisation was also examining an alleged chemical attack by Syria's Russian-backed military in Douma.

The OPCW is the world's top chemical weapons watchdog, and in June granted itself new powers to assign blame for attacks despite protests by Russia.

At the time, Russia said the organisation was going beyond its mandate and Industry Minister Georgy Kalamonov said it was like a "sinking ship".
...
After arriving in the country, the team of Russians hired a grey Citroen C3 car and were seen scouting the area around the OPCW building.

Alexei Minin's recovered camera shows a number of reconnaissance photographs of the area which were taken on 11 April.

All the while the group were being closely monitored by the Dutch intelligence service.

They planned to carry out a closed access hack operation targeting the OPCW's wifi network, officials say.

In the rear of the car they had set up specialist equipment for doing this, and parked the vehicle in the car park of a nearby Marriot hotel.

The equipment included an antenna which was hidden under a waterproof jacket and aimed at the OPCW office. This was being used to intercept login details, Maj Gen Onno Eichelsheim from the Dutch MIVD intelligence service said.

The goal was to compromise and disrupt computers in the building, officials say.

They then planned to travel to Switzerland on 17 April, as shown by train tickets that were in their possession, but they were intercepted before they could leave.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45747472

 

[red_elk]

The GRU is completely unleashed, attacks and poisons everybody left and right.

‘Putin tried to kill me with RAT POISON’ says Russian model, 30, who fell ill with her husband in Salisbury restaurant on Sunday
A Russian model claimed she was the target of a Putin-order hit in Salisbury - and insisted the Kremlin wants her dead.

Anna Shapiro, 30, and her husband Alex King, 42, fell ill while dining in the city's Prezzo last Sunday.

She said she found her husband collapsed in the men's toilets of the restaurant 'foaming at the mouth'.

The 42-year-old is fighting for his life after security sources believe the pair may have been the target of a suspected rat poisoning attack.

The incident put Salisbury on lockdown for the second time in the space of months as security sources feared another possible chemical weapons attack.

The part-time model believes Putin is behind the attack, just as he has been accused of the attack on the Skripals in March.

https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/worl...-in-salisbury-restaurant-on-sunday/ar-BBNwXog

 

[Silurian]

but they have now failed again.....

from Wales Online

Now emergency services in Wales have confirmed the pair had to be rescued from the sea just days earlier.

King and Shapiro bought a boat in Holyhead, but it seems they had little idea of how to sail it.

They ended up being rescued in Caernarfon Bay by the Porthdinllaen RNLI.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/salisbury-poisoning-couple-rescued-wales-15215245

If there is any poison they are more likely to have done it themselves.

 

[Миханя]

I find it rather puzzling that Bellingcat journalists were able to find out this much, more than government's secret services?

There are also these independent Russian journalists who went to Boshirov's supposed hometown, but people there said they don't know him.

Meanwhile, out "president" Vladimir Putin said that Sergey Skripal is a "traitor" and "scum".

 

[Ajidica]

UPDATE

Apparently Skripal wasn't an ex-spy enjoying a retired life in a bucolic British town, but was still working with various security services (specifically Czech and Spanish) on the links between the Russian mafia and officials within the Russian government and security services.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-e...spy-poisoning-why-was-sergei-skripal-attacked

 

[innonimatu]

Another update:

Skripal's house is being dismantled, allegedly to clean any dangerous materials. Windows and roof are being removed. Now why would british authorities be extensively dismantling the house if they were allegedly poisoned through a doorknob, on a day when they left the house, and with a chemical that breaks away fast?

Might a more likely explanation to the whole thing be that the Skripals were involved in something shady and dealing with the very same chemical agents that ended up poisoning them? Just a coincidente that this guy was living right by the UK's chemical weapons lab, and allegedly disappeared from any tracking during that morning?

Point out suspicious or unwanted facts that contradict the barrage of official propaganda (or at least mainstream-media endorsed propaganda) is hard. But the truth eventually emerges, even if it takes years.

 

[Senethro]

You’re a very knowledgable fool. It’s unfortunate for you that the modern world is able to supply you with too much data, as you end up finding false pattern in it.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

You’ve jumped from conspiracy theory to consoueacy theory multiple times. I actually believed you once.

 

[innonimatu]

Funny how those who decry the government on the issue of brexit, calling it untrustworthy or incompetent, so easily fall in line with its claims in this matter. People will believe what they wish to believe...

And you know what: I avoided proposing any "conspiracy theory". I've pointed out that the official stories (in the plural, because they changed) make no sense. If that is a "conspiracy theory", it is the old and widespread one of thinking that the government and the state's services on its orders, is lying.
Now, many months after the events, I do propose one idea: the alleged victim of this was up to something that might offer a rational, logical explanation to all the stuff that so far has not made sense, but it is too embarrassing to admit. What that may be, I have no idea.

 

[Yeekim]

It would be incredible, if there was no information the government did NOT think necessary to withhold from the public.

That does not mean the gist of the story - a GRU assassination attempt - is wrong.

 

[innonimatu]

Specifically, why the story that they were poisoned with that thing on the door handle and now the dismantling of the house? It's one more thing that just does not make sense. Some day the full story will be known, when the original political issue is no more than a academic history thing. Were those two russians formally accused? I lost track as the story died in the media. Has there been any claim that they entered the house to poison something inside, in that short while they were in Salisbury? If not, were they mistakenly accused or there were other accused assassins?

 

[red_elk]

No news from Skripals, since last interview with Yulia when she declared that she intends to return back to Russia. They both disappeared.
Britain still blames Petrov and Boshirov, they allegedly poisoned the doorknob using perfume bottle. No evidence was shown that they even approached the house.

 

[innonimatu]

And still no news of the amazing Skripals. No news also about the impossible sealed flask of alleged nerve agent that popped up, the UK's establishment now admitted, much latter that the alleged two russian would-be assassins. Who have not been changed with anything yet anyway. The police "cannot explain". So they'll wait half a year more. Notice also from this propaganda piece how its is miraculously "pure" sample allegedly lifted from the doorknob cannot be verified to match the flask:

“The bin where the bottle was found was regularly emptied, so it seems inconceivable that it had been there since March,” the source said. “There is also some confusion about whether the bottle was sealed when it was found.

“That is the reason why the CPS could not consider murder charges against the two Russian agents. The police cannot be completely sure the bottle of novichok that poisoned Dawn Sturgess was used against the Skripals.”

In a statement, the Metropolitan police said: “We do not know where the two suspects disposed of the novichok they used to attack the front door of the Skripals’ address, where Dawn and Charlie got the bottle that poisoned them, or if it is the same bottle used in both poisonings, and this remains the case… we don’t know if it will ever be possible to confirm if they are from the same batch.”

It was tested and declared "pure" (pure what was never announced), but just cannot be compared against the contents of a whole flask? And I'm the conspiracy theorist?
The whole official story is completely unsupported by facts, in fact impossible in face of the facts that have been alleged.

Perhaps another bottle of poison will fall from the sky in the meanwhile and the inconvenient thing can be attributed to supernatural intervention? Must be, there was no other way for bottles of poison to show up around the UK's chemical weapons lab in a town teeming with intelligence officers. Surely no inquest could investigate options other than evil foreigners or supernatural intervention.

 

[red_elk]

- The perfume package was sealed and could not be used on Skripals doorknob. The bin where it was found, was regularly emptied and flask could not have been there for several month since March.
- The samples analyzed by OPCW were found to be almost pure and could not be on the doorknob for a few days, absorbing dust, rain and other contaminants.
- Two victims somehow were active for a few hours after poisoning by "military-grade nerve agent", then passed out simultaneously, despite having different age, gender and body mass. And the first person to discover them just happen to be the Chief Nurse of the British Army.

 

[Senethro]

Wake up sheeple

 

[r16]

people are like low in IQ , obviously the best Russian chemical weapons , due to the low caliber of people who made them , are mere school science fair projects when compared to the average Western stuff .

 

[plarq]

Poisons are cheap, the key here is to have the nerve to actually use it.

 

[r16]

and to repeat the favourite scenario , the defecting guy implies he wants to return , in that finest KGB tradition and two guys are sent and they provide the "smoking gun" , too .

.