A Blast from the Past

[izmeina]

 I had every intention of slinking upstairs to do a proper post.

So much stuff happening in the last few weeks.

The Big Mac is in one room upstairs where I also keep my books about witchcraft, the occult and assorted conspiracy theories.

The other room is mainly filled with books about history and politics.
Two of them have grabbed my attention lately.
Bill Browder's "Red Notice" and another with Aleksandr  Litvinenko on the cover. The infamous hospital bed photo.

He had been the unwilling and unknowing guest at one of Vladimir Putin's tea parties.

I was also reminded of the 3rd series of the "Russia, if you're listening" podcast from about 2 years ago.

Looking at the shelling of Ukrainian cities with all the collapsed apartment buildings reminded me of something.

The bags in the basement in the town of Ryazan.

Sort of a Russian version of the Chinese tainted baby formula. A government that treats the lives of its OWN citizens as disposable will hardly care about the lives of foreigners.


https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/if-youre-listening/from-spymaster-to-president/11632254?s=09

Comments

[catness]

Ah, another intriguing podcast still without transcript...

Have you come across this heartwarming document, allegedly from an insider? English translation: https://pastebin.com/2agMRGmd If it's true (and it sounds true even if maybe not 100% authentic), they're in deep shit... ;)

Sppoks

[izmeina]

I can't remember your Twitter name.
This version is much easier to read.
I got as far as the first 10.

(So far I assume it's true. Governments on the nose are notorious for being leakier than a sieve. The ultimate passive aggressive resistance)


(I'm on the Tweet stone so no proper links since last time I tried it didn't work)

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1500301348780199937?t=lnsu72V_MNssDCrs6KauvQ&s=19

Of Evil and those not too weak to seek it

[izmeina]

This podcast about Putin does have a transcript

The Other President

Here is a little snippet about the apartment bombings that was also mentioned in the other podcast

" The fifth bomb in yet another city, Ryazan. And this is where the story about the Chechens seems to really fall apart and where the story gets truly strange.

September 22, 1999, 2 and 1/2 weeks after the first apartment bomb. A couple of residents in a building in Ryazan noticed something weird. One guy, a bus driver who lived in the building, saw a car, a white sedan, parked outside the building. Maura Reynolds was a foreign correspondent for The LA Times back then living in Moscow.

She talked to the guy, who told her the license plates on the car didn't look right. They had a local city code on them for Ryazan, the number 62. But, he told Maura, when he looked closer, he saw that the number--



Robyn Semien
It had been written on. It had been drawn on by hand. It didn't look like it was stamped into the metal license plate.

Maura Reynolds (journalist)
Like with a Sharpie or something?


Robyn Semien
Yeah, like a magic marker on a piece of paper taped over the license plate."


The first podcast was full of observations by the likes of Anna Politkovskaya and Aleksandr Litvinenko. I had not known that Putin was playing with tea pots way back in 2005 during the Beslan school siege.

Re: Of Evil and those not too weak to seek it

[catness]

Thanks for the linkie! Truly, reality is weirder than fiction. Such a shame, Putin really looked like a great leader, a beacon of hope, at least in the beginning... so the lies started already back then? Now the web of lies is as overwhelming as Shelob's lair. And he got caught in it himself too... apparently he was woefully disinformed by his staff about the situation in Ukraine, believing the invasion would be a cakewalk.