Putin’s enemy assassination attempt: the regime had to kill him and point it out

What happened according to plan, and what went wrong, in the poisonous attack on Alexei Navalny, is hard to say. Because obviously someone wanted him dead. But it is equally obvious that he, so far at least, has survived through thick and thin. And that when he was finally sent seriously injured to Germany, it was to find the signature of the murder. And understood. Although the signature of the assassination would hardly have been discovered if Navalny had died in Russia, as was the plan initially. Because something went according to plan, and something went wrong, in the poison attack on Alexei Navalny.

Almost gone Two weeks ago Alexei Navalny was poisoned, apparently drinking a cup of tea at the Omsk airport in Siberia, while waiting for the plane to Moscow. On the plane to Moscow, Navalny became seriously ill, so the plane turned around and Navalny was admitted to a hospital in Omsk. There he received life-saving treatment, without doctors saying they could find traces of poisoning, before being sent to Germany after much deliberation.

THE PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: Vladimir Putin, here photographed reproduced on a screen when he spoke to the nation in February this year. Photo: REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov / NTB scanpix
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Wednesday was It is clear that German doctors found traces of novitsjok in Navalny. It is the same drug that was used in the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and her daughter Julia, in Salisbury (UK) two years ago. The assassination attempt was carried out by two agents who were colonels in the Russian military intelligence GRU, which competes with the FSB, where Vladimir Putin was head before assuming the presidency. The two compete to be the spearhead, or sword and shield, in the patriotic battle that Putin’s Russia fights against its enemies at home and abroad.

Novitsjok is not a poison you buy at the store. It is a neurotoxin that has been developed over many years as part of the chemical weapons of the Soviet Union and Russia. It is under the control of the Russian state and, in principle, can only be obtained through the highest and secret channels of Russia’s secret services.

When the Russian media attempts to cover up the poisoning by suggesting that it may be due to a strong sports drink, among other things, this is a pattern we know of from other killings and the downing of an airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014. The cover-up attempts help confirm , and do not deny, the connection with Russian intelligence. Despite the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry says that the German and Western accusations against Russia in this case are just a planned and expected anti-Russian information campaign.

But why now? Alexei Navalny has been a pain in the ass of the Russian establishment for almost ten years. He was the one who took the political life of Putin’s most loyal aide, former prime minister and president Dmitry Medvedev, by revealing videos of his many luxury properties, which could not be financed by state wages. And it was he who got almost 30 percent of the vote in Moscow’s mayoral elections in 2013, even though he was only known through social media, and was practically never given a place in the major TV channels. So why now?

These are hard times for Vladimir Putin. In Belarus, which Russia considers its dominance, hundreds of thousands have demonstrated against the dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Although Lukashenko is unlikely to be ousted this time, he has lost all legitimacy after the August electoral fraud. And maybe the unrest there can spread to Russia? A fundamental reason why the popular uprising in Belarus has not been successful is that it has no leadership. In Russia, Navalny is this leader. And in Vladivostok, on the Black Sea coast, there have been large demonstrations since July due to the arrest of a popular local governor. So it is moving, both here and there, in Putin’s world. And in the United States, there are elections in two months, and maybe Joe Biden is president?

What is in that case a nightmare for the Kremlin. In Donald Trump’s extremely chaotic White House, there has been a constant dimension, Trump’s soft spot for Vladimir Putin. Was it timely to get rid of Navalny before a possible change of power in the White House?

There are many questions about the Navalny assassination attempt. But an answer in this case is written in neon lights in the sky. The sword and shield of Russia.