Putin revives a quaint Soviet custom.

[The Mad Hatter]

As seen here.

A Russian opposition activist has been sent to a psychiatric hospital by authorities a day before a planned demonstration.

Artem Basyrov's detention is the latest in a series of incidents suggesting a punitive Soviet-era practice is being revived under president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Basyrov, 20, was ordered to be held at a hospital in the central region of Mari El on November 23, a day before planned demonstrations, said Alexander Averin of the opposition National Bolshevik Party.

The party is part of the Other Russia coalition which organised the so-called Dissenters' Marches across the country this year.
...
His case is the latest example of journalists or opposition activists being involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals in Russia.

During the Soviet era, dissidents were frequently committed for protesting against Soviet policies.

Last week, Reporters Without Borders said Andrei Novikov, a reporter for a news service connected with Chechen separatist government, was released after nine months in a psychiatric hospital.

Earlier this year Larisa Arap, an Other Russia activist and journalist, spent six weeks in a psychiatric clinic.

[Tareeq]

If we accept that calling attention to oneself by inconveniencing Putin's regime is to behave suicidally and shows extreme disregard for the safety of others, perhaps psychiatric commitment is in order.

[Rip]

I like to think of them as relabeling units. Torture is changed treatment.
edit to add:
Perhaps that is what we should start calling the places like Gitmo?

[Max Peck]

Everything old is new again...

Russian critic Vladimir Kara-Murza suffers sudden organ failure

A prominent Russian opposition activist has been hospitalised with organ failure, two years after he almost died of suspected poisoning.

Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who works for pro-democracy group Open Russia, fell ill at about 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

Mr Kara-Murza's wife told the BBC she was on her way to hospital where her husband is in a medically-induced coma.

"He is already on life support and in a medicated coma. It's the same clinical picture [as last time]," Evgenia Kara-Murza told the BBC.

"The reason is unclear like last time. He's been active and healthy [recently]."

[Moliere]

He's 35. I'm surprised he didn't fall ill sooner.

[Max Peck]

'Poisoned' critic Vladimir Kara-Murza leaves Russia for treatment

An outspoken Kremlin critic who fell into a coma two years after a suspected poisoning has left Russia for treatment abroad.

Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who works for pro-democracy group Open Russia, became ill earlier this month.

He has now recovered enough to leave the country to seek further treatment, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on Facebook on Sunday.

The activist nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in 2015.

Mr Kara-Murza, a friend of opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in February 2015, fell into a coma for a week, with tests revealing he had ingested a poisonous substance.

It is unclear what prompted the latest collapse.

However, Mr Prokhorov said he was leaving Russia on Sunday "to go through rehabilitation treatment after his second acute poisoning".

He added: "The diagnosis in his hospital discharge report is still the same: 'toxic influence of an unknown substance'."

[Scoop20906]

Doesn't this happen in the USA every day to political opponents? Hey, we have killers in the US too.

[Max Peck]

Maybe the Russians can help Trump with his "whistleblower" problem.

A Russian whistleblower could have been poisoned with soup but vital evidence about his last meal was "flushed away", an inquest has been told.

Alexander Perepilichnyy collapsed outside his Weybridge home in 2012. Traces of a chemical linked to plant poison were found in his stomach.

Claims have been made he was killed for helping to uncover a major fraud.

The pre-inquest hearing at the Old Bailey heard an ingredient in his sorrel soup may have been switched.

The latest pre-inquest review heard Mr Perepilichnyy had eaten a popular Russian dish based on the sorrel herb but tests had not indentified the herb in his stomach contents.

Bob Moxone-Browne for Legal and General, which had issued a substantial life insurance policy to Mr Perepilichnyy shortly before his death, asked why no-one had asked his widow what he had had for lunch on the day he died.

He said: "The contents of Mr Perepilichnyy's stomach were flushed away very shortly after his death. There is a quantity of material that was subsequently retrieved from the stomach cavity."

The Russian was originally thought to have died of natural causes, but traces of a chemical that can be found in the poisonous plant Gelsemium elegans were later found in his stomach.

Mr Moxone-Brown told the hearing there was a "possibility somebody had substituted another vegetable matter for sorrel".

Hermitage Capital Management has claimed Mr Perepilichnyy may have been killed for helping it uncover a $230 million (£150 million) Russian money-laundering operation.

Henrietta Hill, for Hermitage, told the hearing: "There is an issue why Mr Perepilichnyy had so much life insurance. It has been suggested at one point he was advised to take out multiple policies by his bank manager."

Both Hermitage and Legal and General have argued Mr Perepilichnyy may have been murdered, possibly by agents of the Russian State.

There have been a number of pre-inquest reviews with one hearing being told Mr Perepilichny's death had parallels with the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

The full inquest into Mr Perepilichnyy's death is due to start on 5 June.

[gilraen]

Another Putin critic shot to death in broad daylight on a crowded street:

Denis Voronenkov, who fled Russia last October and has criticized President Vladimir Putin's government, was killed in Kiev Thursday, in an apparent assassination that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is reportedly calling "state terrorism."[...]

Poroshenko called Voronenkov a key witness in Ukraine's inquiry into former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia's military involvement in the country.

[malchior]

I read they got the assassin alive - that might be fun. However the hit man might have been hired via a cut-out so there is a (probably good) chance it is a blind alley.

[Paingod]

I read they got the assassin alive - that might be fun. However the hit man might have been hired via a cut-out so there is a (probably good) chance it is a blind alley.

Regardless, few people will talk when the result is knowing you and your family are likely to go next. I'd rather stay quiet and live in jail for 30 years.

[Kurth]

Trump's buddy is at it again.

Russian Lawyer Thrown From Window Was a Witness for the U.S. Government
A lawyer connected to murdered Putin foe Sergei Magnitsky has been thrown from a window in Moscow. He was a witness for the U.S.

snip

In an ongoing asset forfeiture and money-laundering case initiated by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the alleged vehicle by which these dirty assets were washed clean was a Cyprus-registered company called Prevezon Holdings Ltd. (The U.S. attorney behind the case was Preet Bharara, fired by the Trump administration after refusing to resign.)

The Daily Beast has published half a dozen stories about United States v. Prevezon, including its star-studded and ever-evolving cast of characters.
So, now we come to the case of Nikolai Gorokhov, a lawyer entangled in the Prevezon case as a verification witness for the Justice Department who can expertly identify and authenticate Russian financial documents.

Gorokhov had intimate knowledge of the literature connected with the Magnitsky affair because he has represented the murdered lawyer’s justice-seeking wife and mother for six years.
On Wednesday, he was due to testify in the Moscow City Appeals Court to argue against another court’s refusal to re-investigate the conspiracy that Magnitsky uncovered, based on new evidence. That evidence suggested a former investigative head of the Russian Interior Ministry was fabricating or revising old files related to the case, and doing so at the behest of the Klyuev Group.
But on Tuesday, the 53-year-old Gorokhov plummeted from the fourth floor of his apartment building in Moscow. He was trying to move a bathtub to an apartment at the top of the building, according to the Russian press.

Curiously, first on the scene to report this as an accident involving a renovation gone wrong was LifeNews, a Russian outlet closely connected to the Russian security services and famous for inventing false news stories about the war in Ukraine and the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

[Holman]

Russian Lawyer Thrown From Window Was a Witness for the U.S. Government

Do you think Paul Manafort or Carter Page sleeps easily these days?

[milo]

I hope not. Why should they be sleeping any better than the rest of us?

[gilraen]

Russian Lawyer Thrown From Window Was a Witness for the U.S. Government

Do you think Paul Manafort or Carter Page sleeps easily these days?

I don't know about Manafort but have you seen Carter Page interviews a couple of weeks ago? The man sounded like a hostage! YouTube link to the CNN interview - 25+ minutes of cringeworthiness.

[Paingod]

Russian Lawyer Thrown From Window Was a Witness for the U.S. Government

Do you think Paul Manafort or Carter Page sleeps easily these days?

I don't know about Manafort but have you seen Carter Page interviews a couple of weeks ago? The man sounded like a hostage! YouTube link to the CNN interview - 25+ minutes of cringeworthiness.

I made it about 2 minutes and closed it. The guy seemed to be completely uncertain of his own reality. "We didn't have a meeting" immediately followed by "Anything said at that meeting was confidential" followed by "It was a brief greeting, not a meeting" and then "I can't discuss anything said confidentially at a meeting" ...

[Max Peck]

Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny attacked with "brilliant green" dye

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been taken to hospital after an antiseptic green dye was splashed on his face in Moscow.

It is the second time he has been attacked with zelyonka ("brilliant green" in English) this year.

The dye is a common antiseptic in Russia and has been used in protests there and in Ukraine.

"It looks funny but it hurts like hell," Mr Navalny tweeted.

It is not clear who carried out the attack, which happened near the offices of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) that he founded.

According to one report (in Russian) he was diagnosed with a chemical burn to the eye.

It's all fun and games, until someone loses an eye.

[El Guapo]

Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny attacked with "brilliant green" dye

According to one report (in Russian) he was diagnosed with a chemical burn to the eye.

Man, that doctor really earned his pay today.

[Holman]

Navalny is a rare sort of hero. He's got to know that he's unlikely to survive the next crisis that allows Putin to put him away for good, one way or another. He's putting his life on the line to complete what Russians started in 1991.

[Moliere]

Prominent Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko shot, killed in Kiev

According to the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, where he had worked until 2011 as a war correspondent, Babchenko was shot in the back in the entrance of his Kiev home by an unknown assailant or assailants. His wife found him covered in blood and called an ambulance, but Babchenko died of his wounds on the way to the hospital, the newspaper reported.

"We call on Ukrainian authorities to thoroughly, effectively, and independently investigate the killing of Arkady Babchenko, and to find all those responsible for this brutal, silencing crime," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "Babchenko was well known for his critical journalism, and authorities must consider his murder as an attack on press freedom."

[Drazzil]

I wish Putin would bring back the USSR.

[malchior]

Putin is on the move.

[Chaz]

Putin's gotten Interpol to arrest Browder at least a half dozen times now. They've always released him within hours. The real question I have is why does Interpol keep letting Putin do this? I mean, it's become a pattern, it should be easy enough for them to say "if Russia asks us to arrest Browder again, we say no."

[malchior]

Interpol is a great avenue for harassment because it is pretty bureaucratic. There are likely a lot of avenues for Russia to get 'red notices' into the system over time. They've obviously figured out multiple ways to abuse the system so hopefully Interpol figures it out.

[Holman]

What's going on here?

BREAKING: Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was reported killed in Kiev, shows up at a news conference in Ukraine.

[Isgrimnur]

When news breaks, we fix it...

[Holman]

link

[Isgrimnur]

Yup, only in Ukraine.

[El Guapo]

link

uhhh....did it work?

[Isgrimnur]

Oh, and:

The journalist apparently did not tell his wife that the murder had been staged. "Special apologies to my wife," he said.

He's going to owe her one hell of a make-up gift.

[Remus West]

Oh, and:

The journalist apparently did not tell his wife that the murder had been staged. "Special apologies to my wife," he said.

He's going to owe her one hell of a make-up gift.

Or just sign the divorce papers she is probably having drawn up right now.

[malchior]

Looks like it worked. Partial translation follows:

Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko is alive, the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine detained the suspect in the preparation of his murder as a result of a special operation. According to the intelligence service, 40 thousand dollars were allocated for the organization of the assassination attempt. Press conference Babchenko broadcast channel 112.

Babchenko himself was not injured, the day before the attack was staged. At a press conference in the presence of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak, the journalist apologized for secret participation in the special operation, which he did not tell his friends or even his wife.

As an aside - that is some intelligence coup there. They got the hitman, the funds, and obviously had a lead on the planning effort. Also fuck Putin. Murderous thug. Good thing our President takes a hard line against him.

[Moliere]

The Russians cloned him and now his clone will suddenly not care about reporting articles against Russia.

[Paingod]

Probably don't want to goad Putin into turning the volume up to 11.

Next time it'll be $80,000 and two assassins.

[pr0ner]

I wish Putin would bring back the USSR.

[Unagi]

link

uhhh....did it work?

In this world of 'fake news' , I found this to be a pretty annoying little stunt. I hope it did, for their sake.


Apparently even his wife was unaware of the truth. (That's FUCKED)

[Isgrimnur]

I imagine that there would not have been a reveal until it was.

[Unagi]

I imagine that there would not have been a reveal until it was.

Right, but you also think that The Never Ending Story is a better example of a "Tragedy & Fantasy" film than Pan's Labyrinth is... So, seriously, your opinion has taken an enormous hit.


Lucky for you, you've got the altitude to survive the wind sheer.

[Isgrimnur]

I film I’ve seen is better than a film I haven’t seen, so...

[Holman]

In Eastern Europe, a political scheme involving security forces and state secrets and where people *don't* end up dead counts as beating the spread.