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Originally posted by Fang
I think you will find that Norwegian reserves will last a little longer than ten years. As for the BBC going on about Russia's use of energy as a 'Weapon', this only came about as a result of Russia's recent pricing dispute with Georgia, which resulted in a severe reduction of gas supplies to Europe.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
It's funny how the Russian population is willing to accept a self-made czarist like Putin versus the oligarchy structure of its past.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
I'd say that was a no-win decision for any Russian citizen.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
Be that as it may, while Putin has never been implicated in these alleged murder attempts, being the former head of the KGB (now FSB) you can't tell me any orders to liquidate someone doesn't at least get heard by him.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
Seriously, you think Putin was kept in the dark if the FSB wanted to eliminate a British citizen on the U.K. soil? Something that sensitive would have to be known....
Originally posted by behindthescenes
It's funny how the Russian population is willing to accept a self-made czarist like Putin versus the oligarchy structure of its past.
I'd say that was a no-win decision for any Russian citizen.
Now don't let the facts stop you in your pursuit to make Putin out as an evil evil dictator busy putting out hits on people all day long. Otherwise its easy to see the hypocrisy, in that US and UK are conducting questionable operations on a far larger scale, yet are busy blaming Putin for some alleged poisoning.
FSB is not run by the president under the new Russian constitution, GRU sort of is. In fact GRU and FSB are rival organizations to that extent. I can tell you for sure that the President has more important thing to do than sit around with countless intelligence documents about assassination plots againsts some two-bit reporters.
"Somebody has asked me directly, who is guilty of Anna's death? And I can directly answer you: It is Mr. Putin, president of the Russian Federation," he told a videotaped meeting discussing Politkovskaya's death at the Frontline media club in London in October.
Originally posted by Fang
Yep, like I said, it was a pricing dispute. Russia believes in market prices. I'm sure this had nothing to do with Russia's meddling in the internal affairs of The Ukraine and Georgia, or failed attempts to influence their elections or the occasional (failed) poisoning attempt. (Remind me again, what poison was used?). I'm sure you are right, It was all about getting a fair price for Russia's Gas.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
You perhaps want to revise that Putin assessment?
Sounds like Alexander Litvinenko, the former FSB colonel, had a clear idea on who ordered the murder of the Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya.
Originally posted by Fang
Dr Kelly? Missing journalists? My post was about the attempted murder of a British citizen In London. Perhaps you could deal with that and reassure us that Russian agencies, either official or unofficial weren't involved in this crime.
Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
I read somewhere, I cant remember where, that the guy who got poisoned has some sort of evidence to give or he already did give to the British MI5 that the second in charge of Al-Qaeda was a former KGB agent, whoever that is.
Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
This just made me think that that is why Putin tried to get rid of him. Imagine the scenario of MI5 proving that Putin ssponsors Al-Qaeda through this former KGB agent - there would be a massive outrage across the States, they would be asking for russian blood in the streets and would surely lead to another, possible more severe Cold War.
Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
Has anybody else heard about the former KGB agent in Al-Qaeda story ?
Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
"Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), formerly known as the KGB, gave terrorist training to Ayman-al-Zawahiri, the second most wanted member of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, Asian News International reported Sunday."
"The agent also claimed that Zawahiri was not the only link between the FSB and al-Qaeda."
www.mosnews.com...
Imagine the outrage if a financial or military connection was exposed between Putin and Bin-Laden?
Do you realize that not everything people say to the media is true? Firstable, how do we know that this ex-FSB or ex-KGB agent even had clearance to high-level intel about assassinations? Are we to believe what every ex-Intelligence officer in any country says, simply because they were once in an intelligence agency? If he was a field agent, and not a department head, he wouldn't have information about high-level operations that he didn't part-take in (if there even are operations to assassinate civilians).
I recall some shows in the US, where some ex-military or ex-FBI officials were blabbering about aliens and UFO's, and what not. How are we to know that these disgruntled ex-agents aren't simply telling fairy tales.
And again, this guy like so many other is where else- in UK. What does that tell us? It seems that all of Putin's major critics are in UK. Is there no other place to hide from the terrible FSB? They are in UK for a reason, like I said before. They probably worked for sources in UK, like so many Russian officials and oligarchs, and they will tell you anything you want to make Putin out as an evil dictator.
And overall, no matter who is assassinated and who just ate some bad sushi or had a heart attack, Western bashing of Putin is unfounded and hypocritical. UK was one of the countries robbing Russia in the 90's. Many tens of billions of dollars left the country illegally. Putin is cleaning house, and is completely correct in doing so- and the majority of the population is behind him in that. So if you criticize what he is doing, you critisize 2/3 of Russia's population- and if so then frankly it is not the business of outsiders to decide how Russia is to be run.
Why should Russia let the West choose its leaders and how its run? So the West has open doors to pilage Russia's resources? A large portion of corruption in Russia is due in no small part to the West. Britain and US bought out nearly half of Russia's energy resources directly and through oligarchs. They saw Russia as a third world country that can't control their encroachment, so they helped themselves with the help of some Russian opportunists. So if Putin is trying to correct this, it's only expected that UK puts up the biggest stink of all. And why shouldn't it- it's losing billions of dollars. USUK had 10 years to exploit developing capitalism of Russia, and enough is enough. If they want to accuse Putin of acting undemocratically, they should first look at their own degenrating democracies and Patriot Acts, and wars with immaginary Axis of Evil.
But politics is a dirty business, and hypocricy and facts are ground up in the propaganda- and what comes out is dubious speculative articles such as this- from what seems to be a respected news source CNN and BBC nonetheless. Free media just sold out me thinks.
PS: just a quick Q: if Russia and Ukraine feud over gas prices and suddenly EU gets only approx 2/3rds of the normal amount and the pipeline goes through ukraine, who are you realistically going to blame? only Russia? without further investigation ?
USUK refused because their budget only involved planting missile silos on Ukraine's soil.
To be more precise, USUK missile silos pointed at Russia's citizens.
Take a step back and you'll see that Russia cares about Ukraine's citizens and that the USUK is obviously the meddler.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
Okay, true. But those fruitcakes didn't eat thallium-covered sushi either.....
Originally posted by behindthescenes
Maybe not so much that the UK is a hotbed of Putin administration criticism, but because it's a safer country for asylum than, say, South America or Asia.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
We here in America are learning the hard way about giving a leader too much power....
Originally posted by behindthescenes
Western energy companies infused billions of critically needed capital into the Russian economy, which was in disarray from years of failed Soviet economic policies. We did not ruin your economy. And without Shell/BP/Exxon, etc....you'd never been able to successfully mine, process and distribute those energy reserves, teetering as you were on pure anarchic collapse. As I see it, Putin actually is building his energy empire on the billions invested by Western companies and countries. If you look at it through that eyeglass, who's the real crook then? The reason these companies don't speak up is because they don't want to be completely frozen out of their investment by a maniacal, power-hungry Putin.
Originally posted by behindthescenes
I'd give CNN and the BBC a lot more credit than that. But I suppose you see the Pravda daily as the height of journalistic integrity?
Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
I read somewhere, I cant remember where, that the guy who got poisoned has some sort of evidence to give or he already did give to the British MI5 that the second in charge of Al-Qaeda was a former KGB agent, whoever that is.
This just made me think that that is why Putin tried to get rid of him. Imagine the scenario of MI5 proving that Putin ssponsors Al-Qaeda through this former KGB agent - there would be a massive outrage across the States, they would be asking for russian blood in the streets and would surely lead to another, possible more severe Cold War.
Has anybody else heard about the former KGB agent in Al-Qaeda story ?
Hold on, I found something -
"Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), formerly known as the KGB, gave terrorist training to Ayman-al-Zawahiri, the second most wanted member of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, Asian News International reported Sunday."
"The agent also claimed that Zawahiri was not the only link between the FSB and al-Qaeda."
www.mosnews.com...
Imagine the outrage if a financial or military connection was exposed between Putin and Bin-Laden?