Were The Pair Suspected Of The Novichok Attack Really Members Of The Gru, Russia's Military Intelligence Network?

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6158405/Putin-says-Russia-identified-two-novichok-hitmen.html

Are they not the clearest CCTV pictures you have ever seen?

[ichkeria]

Russia’s ministry of lies and disinformation working flat out it would seem.

[ludwig]

It's most likely just a couple of Russian men that fancied a weekend in Salisbury, and happened to be hanging around the road where the Skripals lived a few hours before they were poisoned.

All perfectly innocent I'm sure.

[youngmafbog]

We will never know the truth.

However whoever did it they were rank amateurs and failed in their job. If they were GRU then I should imagine it's the gulag for them.

There are many suspicious things in this AOG, the crytal clear images are just one. Also think about timing, always seems to appear when Frau May needs to take the heat off herself.

[ludwig]

Please don't buy into the conspiracy theory *** youngmaf.

The only mystery about this is why the Russians don't just shoot people, instead of using weird nerve agents. The likely answer to that is that they want it to be obvious it's them doing it to send a clear message to governments and other potential spies.

[youngmafbog]

Well that too is a conspiracy theory Ludwig.

Like I say, we will never know.

[ludwig]

Well, they made a right pig's ear of the job anyway, so maybe they'll be rewarded with a squirt of their own 'perfume' at some point.

[anotheoldgit]

Why would Putin announce that they have been recognised and wish them to face world wide questioning?
One would think that if we have got the right persons, he would ignore things hoping that they will go away.

[ToraToraTora]

they are file pictures of known agents.

[fender62]

a lot of high profile russians have been bumped off since putin got in.
suspicious... absolutely, and not very democratic..but perhaps it's the russian way of doing things.

[ludwig]

// Why would Putin announce that they have been recognised and wish them to face world wide questioning? //

Why would he care? He knows nothing can be done about it. They'll just be paraded out to say that they're innocent, like the bloke that killed Litvinenko is every now and then. There's zero chance of them ever being extradited.

[ludwig]

// perhaps it's the russian way of doing things. //

It's the Putin way of doing things.

[fender62]

It's the Putin way of doing things.

then he will die in office and never give up power, why have a vote
in the first place, democracy window dressing.

[Ken4155]

"Please don't buy into the conspiracy theory *** youngmaf."

Instead, just believe the governments take on the situation. After all, MPs have never been known to lie :-/

Claim and counter-claim. So what's new?

[Peter Pedant]

// Well that too is a conspiracy theory Ludwig. //

well I am surprised that two of the most right wing ABers turn out to be MI5 conspiracty theorists. well well well. Like me saying "I am not a pinko liberal wet, I actually voted for Thatcher"
Hey boys - you always knew that the Duke of Edinburgh and MI5 killed Princess Di as a warm up, innit ?

I noticed that Putin had a faint glimmer of a smile when he was denying it a week or so ago and this time the smiles were broader and noticed by the hacks....

There are ( YMF knows this sort of thing ) 5 cameras in Red Sq and I dont think they or Putin had a glimmer that everyone in England has a CCTV running. ( in my close of 14, one neighbour has six, I have two and another two) - and the police collected 11000 h CCTV from Salisbury residents

Have you been to Wilton ? there is nothing there but a road 6 miles long. Wilton House has a double-cube room if you finally get there without dying ( joke intended)

Also I think the police have kept back viddie
in case the men say - "vee fur there for phon, you know?"
I know Salisbury there is no phon along the Wilton Road .....

[ludwig]

// Instead, just believe the governments take on the situation //

Not necessarily, just use a bit of common sense perhaps.

[ichkeria]

The only question in this is whether it was the GRU acting independently or under authority from the Kremlin. If the former that would suggest the they have their own supply of nerve agent, which I’d rather a concern. It would also suggest that the Kremlin might have wanted to ‘disappear’ them rather quickly. But the opposite appears to be the case.
So my moneys on the Kremlin

[ichkeria]

We don’t get any of this ‘can you trust our government’ nonsense when any other sort of terrorist attack occurs.
Makes you think ...

[Ken4155]

Common sense tells me that Putin is an intelligent man and very, very cunning.
Common sense tells me that Putin would not tolerate a 2nd rate Intelligence service.
Common sense tells me that his Intelligence service would be fully aware of this country's CCTV fixation.
Common sense tells me that whoever attempted the assassination of the Skripals, would have avoided as many of the CCTV cameras as possible, not ensure that almost every camera in town caught their image. Window shopping?
Ludwig, I'm not, for one moment saying the Russians are not behind this. I just don't believe the evidence we have been fed points to state involvement. Surely the Russians are more subtle than that.

[Peter Pedant]

// Common sense tells me that Putin is an intelligent man and very, very cunning. //

yeah he has tried that -

"if it were us - fee would av keelt heem." - as if every KGB kill is so silent and deadly that no one ever knows about them
( zay just die - poof! ent - or as zat 3T says - end of!)

and Litvinov kinda disproves that.

[Ken4155]

So Putin demands that lessons be learned from the Litvinov incident.............................or else!! The only people who keep making the same mistake over and over are idiots.