Licensed to Kill

For John, BLUF:  So, James Bond lives, but he is a Russian.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Putin Gang Stunned by Theresa May’s Resolve

This is an Opinion Piece by Mr John R. Schindler, in The Observer (UK), 14 March 2018.

Here is the lede plus two:

For the past dozen years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has employed his spies as assassins in the West, beginning with the murder of the defector Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in late 2006.  Kremlin killers have left a trail of bodies in several Western countries, but above all the United Kingdom.  Although Russian spies have made only modest efforts to cover their tracks in these crimes, the consequences for Moscow have been distinctly limited.  No Western country has been willing to stand up to Putin and his increasingly gangster regime—until now.

In response to the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian military intelligence colonel, who, along with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, received a near-lethal dose of a nerve agent on March 4 in Salisbury, England, the British government is finally showing resolve in confronting outrageous Russian crimes perpetrated on their soil.  As I explained a week ago, there is no serious doubt that the Kremlin stands behind the would-be hit on the Skripals:

Vladimir Putin has resumed wetwork in a fashion not witnessed in the Kremlin since the days of Joseph Stalin.  Putin’s assassinations abroad over the last 15 years have been more aggressive than anything done during the Russian president’s KGB career.  Moreover, his views on turncoats are well known:  “Traitors always end badly,” he famously explained.  In 2010, the year Skripal was swapped to Britain, Putin chillingly stated, “Traitors will kick the bucket.  Trust me.  These people betrayed their friends, their brothers-in-arms.  Whatever they got in exchange for it, those 30 pieces silver they were given, they will choke on them.”

It is obvious that Mr Putin wants what he wants.  One has the sense that he thinks that he is not going to let some woman, like British Prime Minister Theresa May, push him around.

This may not end well.

Regards  —  Cliff