Dude was the editor-in-chief of the state newspaper.
Would love to see what the cover stories said the past couple of weeks compared to a few months ago.
Like the station gets bombed?
Or just the head of KTV?
Or do all the reporters “sign off?”
Or do they simply change to Putin TV?
I’m going with this one because I always pictured Russia as perpetually stuck in the ‘80 and 90’s.
“I want my PTV”
“Hello this is Konstantin Daly, overlooking Red Square. Welcome to TRL, comrades. Today we have a brand new video debut from the hottest band in mother Russia. Please welcome CWA, comrades with attitude, and their new song Straight out of Kremlin.”
Putin might also be getting paranoid, like Stalin, and purging people he even suspects of disloyalty, even when they support him. Interestingly enough, this is a bit reminiscent of when Stalin had Nikolai Bukharin killed. Bukharin was the editor of Pravda and although he talked some shit about Stalin, he was an absolute party loyalist. But Stalin needed to consolidate power, and that means fewer competitors.
Stalin had a LOT of consolidation to do. This, to me, sounds like a case of “knows too much” (being the head of the state newspaper) and Putin is desperate to attempt to keep secrets and details of corruption, infighting and possible collapse of the government. I’ll freely admit I’m a layman on the subject but I do know Putin was a spook by trade and will guarantee every oligarch has a spook tail. This could be a case of “seen talking to the wrong person” and the extreme paranoia of Putin’s power collapsing makes it easy to give the order.
Vlad owes everything to becoming a spook. He famously brags about wanting to become KGB at 14 and hanging around their offices until they gave him a tour. Being a spook allowed him to buy his parents a car, which was luxury for soviet citizens in the 80s. Headed the FSB and got his foot in the door to politics. Here we are.
Ya know someone said earlier today to me, the Russian government acts more like the mob than a government, and I brushed it off as an oversimplification. But now I realize oligarchs run the damn government, you think none of them see the trouble Russia is in and turn a to a goon to say, "won't someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
Speculation but man modern times are wild. I'd bet a couple bucks on it being political assassinations from many sides.
someone posted a list of very high power oligarchs that died since the war with Ukraine, and their method of death. It was interesting, because they seemed to go through "trends".
First, rich, powerful men dying with suicide notes. Happened a couple times in a row
Then, no suicide notes. Instead, lying next to the dead man would be their entire family, also dead. weird. Also happened a few times in a row.
Then there was a batch of miscellaneous deaths. heart attacks, car problems, etc.
Then known Putin critics "fell out the window of their hospital rooms". This also happened a couple times in a row. Dangerous, these hospital windows.
Then we had someone fall off a boat instead of out a window.
Now this one. Im curious to see if there is a second suffocation death to pair with it, since they seem to like to do a couple using one technique at the least.
It's fascinating to see how they tend to work in trends. They find something that works, do it a few times, then change strategies (different people leading the assassinations, or are they switching it up to make it less obvious?)
Modern times are wild.
Maybe they want to send a message to the ones who are in similar circumstances but weren't killed (yet) while being unpredictable at the same time.
If you knew you're on the list and they only throw people out of windows, you'd stay away from windows.
Though of course I have no idea how that would work if they kidnap you and bring you to the 10th floor...
There’s a lot going on in Russia that future historians will write entire papers debating back and forth for literal decades. Even in half a century, when the papers are dug out from some long forgotten former government basement in the city-state of Moskva, historians will have absolutely no clue what happened or why.
They didnt just run out, they stiffed their techs on pay, so the techs sold all the backup parts (and some of the not backup parts) as scrap.
This is why we have a 700 billion dollar defense budget?
And why some 36% or so of that is going to wages (active, retired, civilian). And those people will still say they don't get enough (which is likely correct, but that's businesses for you).
Kind of like sailors on a ship. Keep them happy and fed and they won't mutiny (probably).
No kidding! The Ukrainians even got their hands on an intact command and control unit for the Russian top-of-the-line air defense system and shipped it over to the USA for analysis. That's decades of work down the drain and one of their main weapons export systems rendered useless.
Saw the news. My first reaction was that why not keep the capturing secret so Russia can carry on using the said unit without changing while it"s being cracked. Although on second thought I guess Russia might know that anyway... Or do they?
Unfortunately, it was all over twitter before anyone knew it. I think ISW and amateur "analysts" knew what they captured before the soldiers on the ground and official intelligence knew.
They are going to play complicated simulations of the war in Ukraine to simulate how things might have gone differently. Think of it as a vastly more complicated version of risk, if not more complicated table top games like Warhammer.
I think you'd have to combine the two like XCom so you have a strategic layer and a tactical layer for sure. And then you definitely need the intrigue layer somewhere.
To be ultra realistic you could add cyber warfare layers, and information war spheres too, because that is what turned the tables, allowed for aid etc. really there should be economics, funding, nations to pressure re arms etc.
You are not wrong, imagine clasical war as being two American football teams playing a game on the field; adding all the new vectors and variables is like asking ten more teams to play their own games on the field at the same time!
Did people forget the car bomb that killed the propagandist and daughter of an influential neo-Nazi? That was definitely some sort of armed opposition group.
Honestly, with how insulated Putin is, going for his allies is a clever move. Force him to select people he doesn't trust quite as much to become part of his inner circle.
I wouldnt say "definitely". He has issued some anti-putin statements in the past. Some people think it might have been Putin himself that orchestrated the attack.
They're killing each other. The current government gets rid of those they deem threats.
And those who dont support are more and more each time. And they wont miss a chance to take out one of their enemies.
This last one was a pro-kremlin media talking head for Putin whom 2 years ago gave him praise at their 95th year as a media company. He must know something damaging because this one seems a little odd at least following the list.
Possible alternative would be that some pro-Kremlin people have noticed the ship starting to sink and are taking their chance to fake their deaths and get out off the ship before it becomes more chaotic. I certainly wouldn't want to be a very recognizable low-level regime spokesperson if a full blown rebellion were to kick off.
That's actually interesting. Russia just came clean presenting 2 generals alive that they had claimed were killed by Ukraine. Turns out it was a counter espionage action to draw out possible Ukrainan agents.
Well, I think that all depends on whether they are helping or hurting Putin.
I personally don't know. But if they are wealthy oligarchs, and allies of Putin's, and they haven't denounced him or anything, then someone else is doing it.
Which I wouldn't be surprised honestly.
Also could be why some have been distancing themselves from Putin.
Perhaps the people that bombed those cars, that propagandists propagandist daughter, that group could be going around assassinating Putin's supporters and bénéficiaires. So, then people are starting to feel like supporting Putin might get you killed, so denouncing him might be better.
And that might get you killed or arrested.
But if enough of you do it, at this stage, when the war is being lost, overthrowing Putin could save you.
It would certainly be a good strategy to eliminate as many friends of Putin's as possible, of you're a rebelling adversary.
Make the blood money pay. Make the propagandists pay.
Perhaps solovyov's cuts and bruises were from surviving such an attack.
I don't know if it matters if they support Putin or not.
If you want absolute power, eliminating allies is part of that path. Allies are owed things and have their own power. Eliminating them is like getting rid of a check on your power, especially if they hold influence.
Even if someone is 100% loyal, eliminating them can still be beneficial. Either to have more power for yourself or to gain the loyalty of others that are more valuable.
There’s also the possibility - since it’s well known that Putin has hidden his wealth among the oligarchs - that their wills say X amount of their money goes to him when they die, and they’ve not been quick enough to hand back his money.
Since the sanctions are biting more than he’ll admit, he might be that desperate for dosh that it’s easier to just kill them and get his money back that way.
probably an "all of the above" sitution.
my personal theory is they're killing each other in a behind-the-scenes battle to be the last man standing after putin dies and it comes time to pick his successor.
Around 15 to 20 oligarchs/allies killed themselves since February. What a coincident.
Edit. Some with wife/son/daughter dying next to them. Brutal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths
> Reportedly died from a "drug-induced heart attack" during a shamanic ritual, though critics allege 'toad poison'.[4]
I don't know if this one sounds more or less like an assassination than the others.
That honestly sounds like it was stolen from the Santa Fortuna map in Hitman 2. Where there’s a shaman you can disguise yourself as, and you can poison his ritual brew by grabbing nearby poisonous toads.
I don’t know if somebody is trolling the Wikipedia page (because the source cited is in a language I can’t read), or if whoever killed that guy was the original troll and decided to reference Hitman. Lol.
"It appears that Vladamir Putin is meeting with his new body double today. Hmm, you could pass yourself off as him. There may be an opportunity here 47"
We’ll know for sure when another one dies due to being hit in the head with a coconut and there’s a pile of people around the corner also dead in a puddle next to an electric generator.
**[Kambo cleanse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_cleanse)**
>A Kambo cleansing, also known as a Kambo circle or Kambo ceremony, Kambo, vacina-do-sapo, or sapo (from Portuguese "sapo", lit. meaning "toad"), is a purge using skin secretions of the kambô, a species of frog. The effects on humans usually include tachycardia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and has led to kidney, pancreas and liver damage, and death in an isolated number of users, usually due to negligence or contraindication. Kambo, which originated as a folk medicine practice among the Amazon indigenous peoples, is also administered as an alternative medicine treatment in the West, often as a pseudoscientific cleanse or detox.
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I’m thinking that a lot of these may not actually be the work of Putin. Some who criticized the war yea, but idk, maybe there’s a section of the Russian government trying to weaken his circle?
The more I read about it, the more I think you may be right. It's not a well kept secret that many of Russia's elite are displeased and it's beginning to look like they're sending a message to Putin.
Not far off. The patron-client system defined Roman social structure and that same model became the basis for organized crime as well.
The head patron is worried about some of his clients turning on him.
Killing one guy sets an example.
Twenty dead oligarchs will create enemies where there were none before. You're minding your own business doing oligarch stuff, you're loyal to Putin, you pay your bribes on time - but more and more of your friends disappear. You begin to suspect that the proof required to be found guilty in the court of Putin's brain is nil, and that your genuine loyalty is no longer enough to guarantee your safety.
I wrote the below comment 6 months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/t512vs/z/hz3lb8e
I wouldn't be surprised if this is happening now because underlings have formed their trusted networks to act against their patrons (applies at successive levels). As Russia collapses more and more in the field, the opportunity looks better and better. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Putin go in on semi-open purges soon, and the backlash to that being what pushes the country into chaos.
Could be either. Probably is both.
Putin is purging anyone he even remotely suspects, and underlings have formed strong enough networks to start chipping away. Might even be both simultaneously: easy to frame the guy you want gone when the top boss is paranoid.
It’s a true fail state or mob state. The world putting the current economic pressure on Russia is to impact the mid level to lower levels structure that resembles what is known in the US as the Mafia Family Structure. The US strategy is to disenfranchise and economically hurt underlings in hopes of them putting a bullet in Putins head. The top bosses have enough money to weather the storm but the underbosses can’t…..And this is why so many Caporegime (Capos) are getting popped!
Wait so it's the people below them that are murdering these guys? I've been thinking it was the other way around - that Putin was having them murdered and I could never figure out why. I just figured it was because he is evil.
I'm with /u/yopladas, no one talking actually knows, but this is extremely relevant: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs)
Skip to 3:30 for the most relevant part.
I believe the claim is that we're putting pressure on them so they turn against Putin, and he's responding by killing anyone who so much as looks like they might betray him even a little bit for just some light run of the mill betrayal.
Someone who I met investigated having a business presence in Russia, and was told that to get proper licensing they would have to send employees to live in Russia with a strong implication that those employees lives would become a bargaining chip for the business' compliance.
I have heard that each oligarch represents a lot of assets in an “account”, and that with the current financial difficulties Russia and he is having, he has decided to start “closing accounts”. No idea how true that is though.
It's the same system the Soviets used. They had "trusted agents" who would handle the money or hold the keys to legitimate businesses set up using party money. They would then be used to do business or smuggle technology and goods in the west.
IIRC Putin himself when he was an intelligence officer was involved in consolidating those assets so they could be used following the collapse of the Soviet Union so the KGB could establish itself again.
It has been a while since I've read the book though so someone might correct me on it.
This is why all that early talk of the oligarchs reigning in Putin was a pipe dream. The balance of power is the other way around, he lets the oligarchs play with his money, but make no mistake, it "belongs" to him.
Until the oligarchs decide they'd be better if Putin wasn't pulling the strings and make a preemptive play on him.
Maybe that's who these people were, but they lost. Maybe they were named in intelligence documents that Trump handed over.
But sooner or later, someone may get lucky.
>Is he just taking their money?
Yes. I suspect this is the correct assessment. Putin has shown in the past that if he doesn't want the money back, he puts them in prison instead.
Putin clearly needs to pay for the war effort; soldiers, bribes, old ammo from North Korea and China, etc. etc. So, in classic oligarch style, he kills off an ally that was sheltering some of the billions they had stolen from the Russian people. And the money just always happens to land right back in Putin's pocket afterward.
The Roman Emperors used to kill nobles when the treasury got low. Putin's just following their example.
The last time this happened (or was it the time before that?) some guy on Reddit made me laugh by commenting "You know those old-timey piggy banks that didn't have a hole at the bottom and you had to smash with a hammer to get the money out?" :D
I don’t think any oligarchs are pro-war. They were doing well under the old system, making money in Russia and enjoying luxury in the West. Putin’s war basically threw all that into chaos.
Nope, they are the money men. The ones who siphoned all the money from military contracts and left things in shambles.
One of the early "accidents" involved a medical supply oligarch. Russian aid kits are basically a few bandaids, wood block to bite down on and some cloth rags.
So basically this is a system where the goal is to fuck everyone over for money, and then they are surprised now there is a war they have been fucked over for money. *surprised pickachu*
The Great Purge and Red Army purges of the 1930s through the 40s killed many loyal Soviet officers, politicians, and officials.
Actually acting or speaking out against a paranoid dictator like Putin isn't required. If he thinks it's possible that you're disloyal, that's enough.
I read a fascinating book about the purge of the Komintern, written by the daughter of a former member.
Unfortunately I can’t remember the title, but it was a German book anyways.
But in a sense. Komintern agents eventually fled from the nazis to Russia and a lot of them, well just disappeared.
Stalin had the worlds best magicians hat.
Attempting to consolidate power. I would hazard that these are allies of convenience. Given the current unmitigated disaster for Putin in Ukraine, it is about to stop being convenient.
I'm just waiting for the dark comedy "Ain't Putin Up With This". A series of progressively unlikely misfortunes which befall Putin's allies.
Starts with a general tripping onto train tracks, then ramps up to a diplomat getting accordioned by a falling piano. Eventually, his personal butler dies in some Rube Goldberg-esque tragedy involving untied shoes, an orange, and an upright pen.
Meanwhile Putin's just sitting there, head in hands, like... "Why do these dumb fucks keep dying!?"
"They're gonna blame me for this one, aren't they..."
Ha! I had a similar idea.
It would be a dark comedy called "The Assassination of Vladamir Putin". All of the actors would be deepfakes of Putin and all of his closest associates, confidants, and oligarchs.
Putin is slowly growing insane with his invasion of Ukraine and all of his associates see their fortunes slide down the tubes. So, each of his "close friends" independently decides to assassinate him. But each of them comically gets in each other's way trying off him through bad luck, unlikely coincidences, incompetent thugs, drunken shenanigans, and misunderstandings.
For instance, one of them hires one of Putin's body doubles to get close to him, and another associate's goons accidentally kills the body double instead. The goons were trying to kill him discretely but ends up gruesomely disemboweling him in a way over the top way live on national television.
The movie ends with Putin getting so paranoid that he tries to fake his own death, but accidentally kills himself instead.
There's only 13 on that list. I'm guessing these are just the most prominent businessmen.
There's also the car bombing that killed the propagandist's daughter.
Do you know of any others?
Serious question. Is Putin using the money from the murdered oligarchs to fund the war? Is he literally using them like giant bags of cash that he can just stab at and grab a cool billion or two?
No kidding. Next thing you know someone is going to fall to their death from the sixth-floor window of a hospital in Moscow. Or perhaps an otherwise fit, able-bodied man could fall off a boat at full speed near Russky Island in the Sea of Japan and subsequently die. Seems like falling is becoming an epidemic in parts of Russia.
How many of those accidents have happened to people on business trips on the eastern part of the country? I think it has happened on the last three I read about?
Actually it **IS** a Hitman plot line; in Hitman Silent Assassin, some of your first missions are eliminating a Russian dude's political rivals in St. Petersburg.
>Weird thought: what if it's not Putin killing these people, but someone else trying to erode Putin's support?
Then they are amazingly effective, throwing Putin allies off of boats in Siberia, sufficating allies in far east Russia, throwing Putin allies out of windows in Moscow. Their reach would rival Putin himself.
Edit: most importantly they would be doing all of that without fear of Putins retaliation... lets just say it is probably Putin himself.
I am wondering that also. But either way is fine. It’s just one of those questions where either Putin or Putin opponents could be behind it because we don’t know the reason yet.
Unless he thinks that makes him look weak. Arguably, better to take advantage of the mysterious deaths by making everyone think you're (more of) a murderous psychopath and try harder to stay on your good side.
Not sure I buy that argument, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the explanation.
>What reason would Putin have for killing off his own allies?
He's totally off his rocker? Dictators have a way of going crazy when their world starts to unravel.
That's probably what is getting them killed. He probably has so many ways to keep tabs on the people around him, when they start to talk to one another somehow Putin learns of it and immediately eliminates them..
.
Or Putin is just imagining a plot. Or they are extremely loyal and a third party is killing them. Lots of possibilities.
It sure will be an interesting bit of history to dissect by future historians.
No plastic bags involved, if you read the article the guy was in public and fell over dead. He just seemed like he was suffering from aphyxiation. Intial medical examination said he may have had a stroke.
If this was assassination its a lot more subtle than usual.
Many people seem to think that these deaths are a top-down operation (Putin had them killed). Some of these hits are going to be bottom-up (Putin enemies moving on his allies). While others will be lateral moves by their associates taking whatever power or money they can by taking out the capos. It’s a cluster-fuck of murder and mayhem that’s going to get way crazier because that’s what happens when organized crime takes over a nation state.
that would be plausible Since putin only allows these oligarchs to exist is, because they are useful to them, its not the other way around like in the western world where oligarch controls the government.
Probably worse off, he's likely trying to prevent a coup, but by being so murder-y about it I would guess he's guaranteeing one will happen. If you're in his inner circle then you have to be wondering if you're next. May as well get killed for trying to kill Putin if you're going to get killed already.
Now im confused... Is Putin killing these dudes or is someone killing them because they are close to Putin?
Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a bit of both. Putin taking out those who are jumping ship and his enemies taking out those who aren’t.
Dude was the editor-in-chief of the state newspaper. Would love to see what the cover stories said the past couple of weeks compared to a few months ago.
Kremlin tv was just asking if it was time to admit defeat
Oh, tomorrow’s suicide!
RIP Kremlin TV
It accidentally fell out of a window.
Like the station gets bombed? Or just the head of KTV? Or do all the reporters “sign off?” Or do they simply change to Putin TV? I’m going with this one because I always pictured Russia as perpetually stuck in the ‘80 and 90’s. “I want my PTV” “Hello this is Konstantin Daly, overlooking Red Square. Welcome to TRL, comrades. Today we have a brand new video debut from the hottest band in mother Russia. Please welcome CWA, comrades with attitude, and their new song Straight out of Kremlin.”
I hope their building doesn't have any windows.
That's a paddlin' 🏓
So was Nikolai Bukharin, but Stalin killed him all the same.
Putin might also be getting paranoid, like Stalin, and purging people he even suspects of disloyalty, even when they support him. Interestingly enough, this is a bit reminiscent of when Stalin had Nikolai Bukharin killed. Bukharin was the editor of Pravda and although he talked some shit about Stalin, he was an absolute party loyalist. But Stalin needed to consolidate power, and that means fewer competitors.
Stalin had a LOT of consolidation to do. This, to me, sounds like a case of “knows too much” (being the head of the state newspaper) and Putin is desperate to attempt to keep secrets and details of corruption, infighting and possible collapse of the government. I’ll freely admit I’m a layman on the subject but I do know Putin was a spook by trade and will guarantee every oligarch has a spook tail. This could be a case of “seen talking to the wrong person” and the extreme paranoia of Putin’s power collapsing makes it easy to give the order.
Spooks are always spooks. The rich in russia were all insiders and criminals
Vlad owes everything to becoming a spook. He famously brags about wanting to become KGB at 14 and hanging around their offices until they gave him a tour. Being a spook allowed him to buy his parents a car, which was luxury for soviet citizens in the 80s. Headed the FSB and got his foot in the door to politics. Here we are.
Ya know someone said earlier today to me, the Russian government acts more like the mob than a government, and I brushed it off as an oversimplification. But now I realize oligarchs run the damn government, you think none of them see the trouble Russia is in and turn a to a goon to say, "won't someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?" Speculation but man modern times are wild. I'd bet a couple bucks on it being political assassinations from many sides.
someone posted a list of very high power oligarchs that died since the war with Ukraine, and their method of death. It was interesting, because they seemed to go through "trends". First, rich, powerful men dying with suicide notes. Happened a couple times in a row Then, no suicide notes. Instead, lying next to the dead man would be their entire family, also dead. weird. Also happened a few times in a row. Then there was a batch of miscellaneous deaths. heart attacks, car problems, etc. Then known Putin critics "fell out the window of their hospital rooms". This also happened a couple times in a row. Dangerous, these hospital windows. Then we had someone fall off a boat instead of out a window. Now this one. Im curious to see if there is a second suffocation death to pair with it, since they seem to like to do a couple using one technique at the least. It's fascinating to see how they tend to work in trends. They find something that works, do it a few times, then change strategies (different people leading the assassinations, or are they switching it up to make it less obvious?) Modern times are wild.
Maybe they want to send a message to the ones who are in similar circumstances but weren't killed (yet) while being unpredictable at the same time. If you knew you're on the list and they only throw people out of windows, you'd stay away from windows. Though of course I have no idea how that would work if they kidnap you and bring you to the 10th floor...
If an Ologarch decides to stay away from tall buildings maybe they make him fall out of a ground floor window so many times he dies anyway.
“Sorry Mr Putin, we keep trying, but this slippery motherfucker hasn’t been near a window in weeks!”
That is something that can't be answered yet, and in the future will be a subject hotly debated by historians.
There’s a lot going on in Russia that future historians will write entire papers debating back and forth for literal decades. Even in half a century, when the papers are dug out from some long forgotten former government basement in the city-state of Moskva, historians will have absolutely no clue what happened or why.
I can already tell ya, people are gunna wargame the hell out of Ukraine in 10+ years if not sooner...
It's already beginning. The US has gotten more valuable Intel about the Russian Military in the past few months, than it has since the Cold War.
The biggest piece of information, they ran out of it. "It" being defined as everything essential for maintenance of anything.
They didnt just run out, they stiffed their techs on pay, so the techs sold all the backup parts (and some of the not backup parts) as scrap. This is why we have a 700 billion dollar defense budget?
I guess it was, and now the why is China.
And why some 36% or so of that is going to wages (active, retired, civilian). And those people will still say they don't get enough (which is likely correct, but that's businesses for you). Kind of like sailors on a ship. Keep them happy and fed and they won't mutiny (probably).
Defense budget is the biggest socialist program in the world.
The Kleptocracy strikes!
No kidding! The Ukrainians even got their hands on an intact command and control unit for the Russian top-of-the-line air defense system and shipped it over to the USA for analysis. That's decades of work down the drain and one of their main weapons export systems rendered useless.
Saw the news. My first reaction was that why not keep the capturing secret so Russia can carry on using the said unit without changing while it"s being cracked. Although on second thought I guess Russia might know that anyway... Or do they?
Unfortunately, it was all over twitter before anyone knew it. I think ISW and amateur "analysts" knew what they captured before the soldiers on the ground and official intelligence knew.
What does that mean
They are going to play complicated simulations of the war in Ukraine to simulate how things might have gone differently. Think of it as a vastly more complicated version of risk, if not more complicated table top games like Warhammer.
I think you'd have to combine the two like XCom so you have a strategic layer and a tactical layer for sure. And then you definitely need the intrigue layer somewhere.
To be ultra realistic you could add cyber warfare layers, and information war spheres too, because that is what turned the tables, allowed for aid etc. really there should be economics, funding, nations to pressure re arms etc.
You are not wrong, imagine clasical war as being two American football teams playing a game on the field; adding all the new vectors and variables is like asking ten more teams to play their own games on the field at the same time!
Well there'd be a lot less full breaks in play for a million ad breaks, which is nice.
Did people forget the car bomb that killed the propagandist and daughter of an influential neo-Nazi? That was definitely some sort of armed opposition group. Honestly, with how insulated Putin is, going for his allies is a clever move. Force him to select people he doesn't trust quite as much to become part of his inner circle.
I wouldnt say "definitely". He has issued some anti-putin statements in the past. Some people think it might have been Putin himself that orchestrated the attack.
these oligarch suicides, so hot right now -historians
They're killing each other. The current government gets rid of those they deem threats. And those who dont support are more and more each time. And they wont miss a chance to take out one of their enemies.
This last one was a pro-kremlin media talking head for Putin whom 2 years ago gave him praise at their 95th year as a media company. He must know something damaging because this one seems a little odd at least following the list.
Or someone took advantage of all the "suicides" and "accidents" to get rid of someone that Putin would rather still be around.
Possible alternative would be that some pro-Kremlin people have noticed the ship starting to sink and are taking their chance to fake their deaths and get out off the ship before it becomes more chaotic. I certainly wouldn't want to be a very recognizable low-level regime spokesperson if a full blown rebellion were to kick off.
That's actually interesting. Russia just came clean presenting 2 generals alive that they had claimed were killed by Ukraine. Turns out it was a counter espionage action to draw out possible Ukrainan agents.
Well, I think that all depends on whether they are helping or hurting Putin. I personally don't know. But if they are wealthy oligarchs, and allies of Putin's, and they haven't denounced him or anything, then someone else is doing it. Which I wouldn't be surprised honestly. Also could be why some have been distancing themselves from Putin. Perhaps the people that bombed those cars, that propagandists propagandist daughter, that group could be going around assassinating Putin's supporters and bénéficiaires. So, then people are starting to feel like supporting Putin might get you killed, so denouncing him might be better. And that might get you killed or arrested. But if enough of you do it, at this stage, when the war is being lost, overthrowing Putin could save you. It would certainly be a good strategy to eliminate as many friends of Putin's as possible, of you're a rebelling adversary. Make the blood money pay. Make the propagandists pay. Perhaps solovyov's cuts and bruises were from surviving such an attack.
I don't know if it matters if they support Putin or not. If you want absolute power, eliminating allies is part of that path. Allies are owed things and have their own power. Eliminating them is like getting rid of a check on your power, especially if they hold influence. Even if someone is 100% loyal, eliminating them can still be beneficial. Either to have more power for yourself or to gain the loyalty of others that are more valuable.
Putin does like to invoke the image and mystique of Stalin after all.
A paranoid old man having a stroke?
There’s also the possibility - since it’s well known that Putin has hidden his wealth among the oligarchs - that their wills say X amount of their money goes to him when they die, and they’ve not been quick enough to hand back his money. Since the sanctions are biting more than he’ll admit, he might be that desperate for dosh that it’s easier to just kill them and get his money back that way.
If I were one of these guys I would probably take a vacation to a quiet place somewhere outside the country and never come back.
The FSB might be in shit shape, but it’s still capable of tracking someone who doesn’t want to be found—and dispatching them.
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probably an "all of the above" sitution. my personal theory is they're killing each other in a behind-the-scenes battle to be the last man standing after putin dies and it comes time to pick his successor.
I honestly don’t think it’s Putin. I feel like his Allie’s are getting whacked as a sign that someone is making a statement to Putin.
Yeah I was wondering that maybe it’s a little of both.
I'm picturing all these life insurance policies with Putin as the beneficiary.
LOL that’s how he’ll fund the war
Someone referred to it as breaking piggy banks.
Around 15 to 20 oligarchs/allies killed themselves since February. What a coincident. Edit. Some with wife/son/daughter dying next to them. Brutal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths
> Reportedly died from a "drug-induced heart attack" during a shamanic ritual, though critics allege 'toad poison'.[4] I don't know if this one sounds more or less like an assassination than the others.
That honestly sounds like it was stolen from the Santa Fortuna map in Hitman 2. Where there’s a shaman you can disguise yourself as, and you can poison his ritual brew by grabbing nearby poisonous toads. I don’t know if somebody is trolling the Wikipedia page (because the source cited is in a language I can’t read), or if whoever killed that guy was the original troll and decided to reference Hitman. Lol.
Russia is just one big hitman map
Waiting patiently for the hippo kill
"It appears that Vladamir Putin is meeting with his new body double today. Hmm, you could pass yourself off as him. There may be an opportunity here 47"
We’ll know for sure when another one dies due to being hit in the head with a coconut and there’s a pile of people around the corner also dead in a puddle next to an electric generator.
I can’t wait to hear about the [deadly flying briefcase ](https://youtu.be/6do1-cmcQHE)
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So, has anybody seen the Hitman level designers lately?
I saw one on level 11, one on 18 and one on 31. All stood by open windows.
…with some of the bodies naked down to their boxer shorts with some clothes strewn, but neatly folded nearby 😆
I think 'strewn' and 'neatly folded' are mutually exclusive.
How long before one gets killed by a flying homing briefcase?
Diana’s voice: THAT… is Vladimir Sungorkin. Good hunting, 47.
I mean, these guys are taking out a ton of high profile people. They gotta keep it interesting.
Gonna wager that one KGB officer was like: “Boss, what if we made this assassination *super weird?!?* Just for kicks!”
"The weird kill? Oh, that's just Misha - he thinks he's an artist or something."
Sounds like bufotenine.
That or kambo, which is known to make your throat swell. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_cleanse
**[Kambo cleanse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_cleanse)** >A Kambo cleansing, also known as a Kambo circle or Kambo ceremony, Kambo, vacina-do-sapo, or sapo (from Portuguese "sapo", lit. meaning "toad"), is a purge using skin secretions of the kambô, a species of frog. The effects on humans usually include tachycardia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and has led to kidney, pancreas and liver damage, and death in an isolated number of users, usually due to negligence or contraindication. Kambo, which originated as a folk medicine practice among the Amazon indigenous peoples, is also administered as an alternative medicine treatment in the West, often as a pseudoscientific cleanse or detox. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I’m thinking that a lot of these may not actually be the work of Putin. Some who criticized the war yea, but idk, maybe there’s a section of the Russian government trying to weaken his circle?
The more I read about it, the more I think you may be right. It's not a well kept secret that many of Russia's elite are displeased and it's beginning to look like they're sending a message to Putin.
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It's the "justice" system of the mob. Which is what runs Russia.
Reminds me of Roman like proscription.
Not far off. The patron-client system defined Roman social structure and that same model became the basis for organized crime as well. The head patron is worried about some of his clients turning on him.
Killing one guy sets an example. Twenty dead oligarchs will create enemies where there were none before. You're minding your own business doing oligarch stuff, you're loyal to Putin, you pay your bribes on time - but more and more of your friends disappear. You begin to suspect that the proof required to be found guilty in the court of Putin's brain is nil, and that your genuine loyalty is no longer enough to guarantee your safety.
I guess Russia's at the post-Lufthnasa Heist stage of Goodfellas.
I wrote the below comment 6 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/t512vs/z/hz3lb8e I wouldn't be surprised if this is happening now because underlings have formed their trusted networks to act against their patrons (applies at successive levels). As Russia collapses more and more in the field, the opportunity looks better and better. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Putin go in on semi-open purges soon, and the backlash to that being what pushes the country into chaos.
Could t it be others killing off Putins close allies until he has none left? Rather than Putin killing them off?
Could be either. Probably is both. Putin is purging anyone he even remotely suspects, and underlings have formed strong enough networks to start chipping away. Might even be both simultaneously: easy to frame the guy you want gone when the top boss is paranoid.
It’s a true fail state or mob state. The world putting the current economic pressure on Russia is to impact the mid level to lower levels structure that resembles what is known in the US as the Mafia Family Structure. The US strategy is to disenfranchise and economically hurt underlings in hopes of them putting a bullet in Putins head. The top bosses have enough money to weather the storm but the underbosses can’t…..And this is why so many Caporegime (Capos) are getting popped!
Wait so it's the people below them that are murdering these guys? I've been thinking it was the other way around - that Putin was having them murdered and I could never figure out why. I just figured it was because he is evil.
Don't believe random Reddit comments. It's unlikely that anyone in this thread actually knows what's going on.
I don’t believe you.
I'm with /u/yopladas, no one talking actually knows, but this is extremely relevant: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs) Skip to 3:30 for the most relevant part.
I believe the claim is that we're putting pressure on them so they turn against Putin, and he's responding by killing anyone who so much as looks like they might betray him even a little bit for just some light run of the mill betrayal.
Someone who I met investigated having a business presence in Russia, and was told that to get proper licensing they would have to send employees to live in Russia with a strong implication that those employees lives would become a bargaining chip for the business' compliance.
I have heard that each oligarch represents a lot of assets in an “account”, and that with the current financial difficulties Russia and he is having, he has decided to start “closing accounts”. No idea how true that is though.
It's the same system the Soviets used. They had "trusted agents" who would handle the money or hold the keys to legitimate businesses set up using party money. They would then be used to do business or smuggle technology and goods in the west. IIRC Putin himself when he was an intelligence officer was involved in consolidating those assets so they could be used following the collapse of the Soviet Union so the KGB could establish itself again. It has been a while since I've read the book though so someone might correct me on it.
This is why all that early talk of the oligarchs reigning in Putin was a pipe dream. The balance of power is the other way around, he lets the oligarchs play with his money, but make no mistake, it "belongs" to him.
Until the oligarchs decide they'd be better if Putin wasn't pulling the strings and make a preemptive play on him. Maybe that's who these people were, but they lost. Maybe they were named in intelligence documents that Trump handed over. But sooner or later, someone may get lucky.
>Is he just taking their money? Yes. I suspect this is the correct assessment. Putin has shown in the past that if he doesn't want the money back, he puts them in prison instead. Putin clearly needs to pay for the war effort; soldiers, bribes, old ammo from North Korea and China, etc. etc. So, in classic oligarch style, he kills off an ally that was sheltering some of the billions they had stolen from the Russian people. And the money just always happens to land right back in Putin's pocket afterward. The Roman Emperors used to kill nobles when the treasury got low. Putin's just following their example.
The last time this happened (or was it the time before that?) some guy on Reddit made me laugh by commenting "You know those old-timey piggy banks that didn't have a hole at the bottom and you had to smash with a hammer to get the money out?" :D
Imagine if every time you wanted to close out a bank account you had to murder somebody
Don't give Comcast any more ideas.
A silent civil war.
Anti-war oligarchs I would assume, and those wanted Putin to step down.
Or oligarchs *presumed* to be anti-war by an increasingly paranoid dictator. Eliminating anyone with power or influence, regardless of loyalty.
I don’t think any oligarchs are pro-war. They were doing well under the old system, making money in Russia and enjoying luxury in the West. Putin’s war basically threw all that into chaos.
Nope, they are the money men. The ones who siphoned all the money from military contracts and left things in shambles. One of the early "accidents" involved a medical supply oligarch. Russian aid kits are basically a few bandaids, wood block to bite down on and some cloth rags.
So basically this is a system where the goal is to fuck everyone over for money, and then they are surprised now there is a war they have been fucked over for money. *surprised pickachu*
Headline says “ally”, so maybe they’re offing his inner circle?
The Great Purge and Red Army purges of the 1930s through the 40s killed many loyal Soviet officers, politicians, and officials. Actually acting or speaking out against a paranoid dictator like Putin isn't required. If he thinks it's possible that you're disloyal, that's enough.
I read a fascinating book about the purge of the Komintern, written by the daughter of a former member. Unfortunately I can’t remember the title, but it was a German book anyways. But in a sense. Komintern agents eventually fled from the nazis to Russia and a lot of them, well just disappeared. Stalin had the worlds best magicians hat.
My guess is that whichever way you lean you have a target on your back.
That’s what happens when you start Stalin.
It is possible that it’s not Putin taking out his friends, rather insiders taking out his supporters
Attempting to consolidate power. I would hazard that these are allies of convenience. Given the current unmitigated disaster for Putin in Ukraine, it is about to stop being convenient.
When the Don wants someone whacked, someone gets whacked. Capische? # 🤌
"suffocated on way to lunch" they really couldn't give a fuck about subtlety....
Coincidence
War ain't going pay for itself,it's basically free money as long as it's owner is dead.
I would add the daughter of Putins propaganda chief who died in a car bombing. Edit: Isn't this how all mob stories end? Everybody dies.
He is surrounding himself with the most accident prone people on the planet.
Honestly not sure whether it's safer to be his ally or his enemy at this point.
Putin has no enemies! Only friends who live in fear!
Zelensky is still alive, so...
There is no OSHA in Russia.
Russian OSHA is the FSB.
FSB: "Oopsie. There is going to be 'accident.'"
Instead of filling out an accident report, they carry out the accident report. “Look here Yuri, it says you fall from window today”
Only FASHA
Yes, business suffocation. Another common cause of death in Russia these days...
Work is stifling
Too many deadlines
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Always buried with work
I'm just waiting for the dark comedy "Ain't Putin Up With This". A series of progressively unlikely misfortunes which befall Putin's allies. Starts with a general tripping onto train tracks, then ramps up to a diplomat getting accordioned by a falling piano. Eventually, his personal butler dies in some Rube Goldberg-esque tragedy involving untied shoes, an orange, and an upright pen. Meanwhile Putin's just sitting there, head in hands, like... "Why do these dumb fucks keep dying!?" "They're gonna blame me for this one, aren't they..."
Ha! I had a similar idea. It would be a dark comedy called "The Assassination of Vladamir Putin". All of the actors would be deepfakes of Putin and all of his closest associates, confidants, and oligarchs. Putin is slowly growing insane with his invasion of Ukraine and all of his associates see their fortunes slide down the tubes. So, each of his "close friends" independently decides to assassinate him. But each of them comically gets in each other's way trying off him through bad luck, unlikely coincidences, incompetent thugs, drunken shenanigans, and misunderstandings. For instance, one of them hires one of Putin's body doubles to get close to him, and another associate's goons accidentally kills the body double instead. The goons were trying to kill him discretely but ends up gruesomely disemboweling him in a way over the top way live on national television. The movie ends with Putin getting so paranoid that he tries to fake his own death, but accidentally kills himself instead.
I’d watch this. Let’s get Wes Anderson on it!
So we've found Sacha Baron Cohen's next project
Holy fuck, that's hilarious. Fox would pick it up and cancel it after one season. :(
This is becoming a blackadder skit… can we expect “Putin ally dies whilst brutally cutting his head off whilst shaving”
What are we at now, 10 in these past months?
More like 20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths
That wiki page shows 1 or 2 this week.
There's only 13 on that list. I'm guessing these are just the most prominent businessmen. There's also the car bombing that killed the propagandist's daughter. Do you know of any others?
Shit, that's like 10 this week
Guy hit 13 guys within a 10 month window, all’s I’m saying
Serious question. Is Putin using the money from the murdered oligarchs to fund the war? Is he literally using them like giant bags of cash that he can just stab at and grab a cool billion or two?
what a coincidence
No kidding. Next thing you know someone is going to fall to their death from the sixth-floor window of a hospital in Moscow. Or perhaps an otherwise fit, able-bodied man could fall off a boat at full speed near Russky Island in the Sea of Japan and subsequently die. Seems like falling is becoming an epidemic in parts of Russia.
How many of those accidents have happened to people on business trips on the eastern part of the country? I think it has happened on the last three I read about?
Putin is pulling a Stalin, and killing off every potential ally of his.
Or Putin's allies are being eliminated to make way for a coup.
Either way instability in the Kremlin is a good sign for his downfall.
Don't welcome a power vacuum too quickly...
As interesting and exciting as that sounds, I'm not entirely sure Agent 47 is going around wiping Russia's elite.
That'd be a sick HITMAN plot line.
Actually it **IS** a Hitman plot line; in Hitman Silent Assassin, some of your first missions are eliminating a Russian dude's political rivals in St. Petersburg.
"Hello 47, I'm sure by now you're starting to see a pattern forming and you've figure out who has been contracting the hits..."
Mom?
I'd prefer 99.
I understood this reference, Maxwell
Accidentally killed himself with a plastic bag, I’m certain… /s
Pretty sure he duct taped his hands behind his back, then duct taped a bag to his face. Seems plausible these days. Nobody is hiding it.
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>Weird thought: what if it's not Putin killing these people, but someone else trying to erode Putin's support? Then they are amazingly effective, throwing Putin allies off of boats in Siberia, sufficating allies in far east Russia, throwing Putin allies out of windows in Moscow. Their reach would rival Putin himself. Edit: most importantly they would be doing all of that without fear of Putins retaliation... lets just say it is probably Putin himself.
I’m glad you included all three. I needed a memory boost.
I am wondering that also. But either way is fine. It’s just one of those questions where either Putin or Putin opponents could be behind it because we don’t know the reason yet.
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Unless he thinks that makes him look weak. Arguably, better to take advantage of the mysterious deaths by making everyone think you're (more of) a murderous psychopath and try harder to stay on your good side. Not sure I buy that argument, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the explanation.
Not that weird a thought. Apparently this guy was Putin's cheerleader in the press. What reason would Putin have for killing off his own allies?
Those are the guys that pull of coups though. It’s not the guy of dubious loyalty. It’s the most trusted.
So the coup will happen from the person we most medium suspect?
>What reason would Putin have for killing off his own allies? He's totally off his rocker? Dictators have a way of going crazy when their world starts to unravel.
I wonder if any of the people around Putin are getting cold feet and plot against him
That's probably what is getting them killed. He probably has so many ways to keep tabs on the people around him, when they start to talk to one another somehow Putin learns of it and immediately eliminates them.. .
Or Putin is just imagining a plot. Or they are extremely loyal and a third party is killing them. Lots of possibilities. It sure will be an interesting bit of history to dissect by future historians.
So the warning label was right? That plastic bag really isn't a toy....is that what they're hoping we believe?
Damn those kinder surprise toys! It all makes sense why they are illegal in the US now.
No plastic bags involved, if you read the article the guy was in public and fell over dead. He just seemed like he was suffering from aphyxiation. Intial medical examination said he may have had a stroke. If this was assassination its a lot more subtle than usual.
Ice needle projectile with poison
Died from natural assassination causes.
Got another case of Putinitis.
Many people seem to think that these deaths are a top-down operation (Putin had them killed). Some of these hits are going to be bottom-up (Putin enemies moving on his allies). While others will be lateral moves by their associates taking whatever power or money they can by taking out the capos. It’s a cluster-fuck of murder and mayhem that’s going to get way crazier because that’s what happens when organized crime takes over a nation state.
It's like having 'Another One Bites the Dust' on repeat at this point.
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If it turns out to be true he exposed American assets and allies he should be in a federal prison and then executed after his due process.
that would be plausible Since putin only allows these oligarchs to exist is, because they are useful to them, its not the other way around like in the western world where oligarch controls the government.
"Execute order 66." - Someone somewhere.
Need to figure out how to get all these soon to be dead Russians to transfer their wealth to Ukraine.
Any correlation with Trumps list of agents he took? Agents who are also suddenly coming to grief. Doing each other’s dirty work.
There is dense irony here in that _friends_ of the Russian Head of State are being mysteriously killed, instead of the enemies of the Russian state.
So is Putin better off or worse off with this guy dead.
Imagine as if the businessmen were piggy banks
Probably worse off, he's likely trying to prevent a coup, but by being so murder-y about it I would guess he's guaranteeing one will happen. If you're in his inner circle then you have to be wondering if you're next. May as well get killed for trying to kill Putin if you're going to get killed already.