438
The contrast between Britain’s muscular response to what they believe was Russia attempting a political assassination in Britain itself and Trump and friends who continue to pretend Russia might not have interfered is pretty stark.
Indeed, Rex Tillerson has given Russia exactly what it wanted at State-he’s dismantled the agency root and branch-but apparently Tillerson has some integrity and spoke out in support of Theresa May’s allegation that Russia was behind the attempted poisoning he’s fired.
The Russians notice this too:
MI5 believes Russians tried to kill former spy https://t.co/iawI0QGS4Y
— Taras Kuzio🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇹 (@TarasKuzio) March 7, 2018
May is fighting back vs Putin rather than giving away the store like Trump and friends.
“Britain ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats believed involved in espionage-related activities, British prime minister announced Wednesday, in the first wave of measures against Moscow for a deadly chemical attack against a former double agent.”
“Theresa May, speaking to Parliament, also outlined a range of other steps, including a halt to high-level meetings with Russian officials and calling off a planned visit to Britain by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.”
“May repeated the conclusion of British investigators that Russia had either deployed or lost control of dangerous nerve agent used in the attack — targeting the former spy and his daughter — and called Russia’s defiant response has “demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events.”
“Instead they have treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance,” she told lawmakers while announcing the reprisal measures.
Note this is called an attempted assassination but if the attempted assassins were Muslims it would be called an act of terrorism.
FN: But then ‘terrorism’ has always been a political judgment-Trump’s DOJ has pointedly chosen not to regard white supremacist violence as terrorism. What decides what is terrorism is a function not just the heinousness of the act but who committed it.
Regarding the brazenness of Russia attempting a political assassination in Britain it fits a longer pattern. Who can forget the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko?
“Former spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed in November 2006, leading to a clouding of relations between London and Moscow.”
“The 43-year-old had been an officer with the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, but he fled to Britain where he became a fierce critic of the Kremlin. In his final years he also became a British citizen.”
“After he was killed by radioactive polonium-210, believed to have been administered in a cup of tea, it emerged the father-of-one was being paid by the British secret service MI6.”
From his deathbed Litivinenko called out Putin and the Russians as the responsible party.
UPDATE: This is just part of a larger move by Trump’s illegitimate Administration from alliance with our allies to alliance with the Putins, Kim John Uns, and Duterte’s of the world.
But perhaps the US-under Trump’s illegitimate regime-and the UK-post Theresa May-may become more chummy-if a freak show like Nigel Farage is the next PM.
It looks like Boris Johnson is the presumed frontrunner though he’s bad enough.
While Trump is-very-unpopular in Britain-there were mass protests for his recent visit-Johnson is already cozying up to our fake ‘President.’
As for Tillerson while his administration of State was in many ways disastrous-he oversaw its effective dismantling-yet some try to argue Putin hasn’t been paid richly for his investment!-Pompeo is even worse-a total lackey while Tillerson had a streak of independence. Pompeo is a particularly bad fit at State-it’s part of Trump’s pattern of appointing people to agencies who have been long time critics of the agencies.