The Sudden Deaths Of Russians Putin Dislikes Or Distrusts

Every few days it seems another notable Russian dies mysteriously. Some of them appear to be political executions, particularly the Putin critics who are poisoned with plutonium in London. But recently, since the election especially, Russian diplomats have also begun dying suddenly along with the now familiar death toll of Putin's critics. The Russian UN ambassador died this week in New York. Cause unknown, thus far. Then yesterday a Russian diplomat died in Athens, in his apartment, doors locked, no sign of violence, which would ordinarily be recorded as death by natural causes except for the surprising rate of Russian deaths lately and the innovative methods used to perform some of the executions we know about.

Did Putin’s anointing of the new American president open a door for him to learn which Russian officials are friendly with the Americans? Has he gotten a peek at the CIA’s list of assets? Is Putin systematically offing America’s intelligence sources in Russia and elsewhere?

Another troubling aspect of this is the frequency with which Russian journalists and Putin’s critics die suddenly or violently or suspiciously. Putin’s BFF who is now our president approves of Putin’s methods and admires his “control” over his country, which presumably includes Putin’s penchant for having critics and journalists murdered. Trump has begun purging media outlets from their normal access to White House press briefings if they have published news Trump dislikes (inconvenient truths). He has not begun killing them, nor is it likely he will, but Trump’s followers (I wish they would wear brown shirts so we could identify them) have been threatening journalists and experts who appear on television and say things that offend or embarrass Trump, often with colorful abusive racist and sexist language indicating their plans to decapitate them after raping them, which is something not even Putin does.

In any case sudden death is a trend among Russians Putin dislikes or ones he may have secretly decided to distrust, and Putin is our president’s role model.

From the Palmer Report, a list of the seven Russian officials to die since the Trump/Russia intrigue began.

From the BBC, the latest sudden death in Athens.

From TheWeek, the sudden death of the Russian UN Ambassador.

From The Independent, the story about the Putin critic who shot to death on his birthday. No witnesses.

The BBC has the story about the Putin critic who survived one poison attack and now has been poisoned again.

From Politifact, analysis and fact-checking: Does Putin Murder His Critics?

From NPR: the Curious Deaths of Kremlin Critics.

From CNN, the 2015 murder of Boris Nemtsov

We might ask, were these people marked as Enemies of the People before they died?