Last Monday, Jan. 8, a car was found set alight on the British crown territory of Guernsey.
Skeletal remains since found in the driving seat are believed to be those of its owner, Mikus Alps, a Latvian who had fought with pro-Ukrainian volunteers against Russia’s incursion into south-eastern Ukraine.
A small island in the English channel, Guernsey is normally a quiet, peaceful place. But according to Mikus Alps’ volunteer friends, he had suffered escalating threats in recent months. In addition, according to Ukrainian press reports, Alps was providing cars to Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian-aligned rebels.
This establishes the motive for a Russian assassination: the Russian intelligence services work persistently to coerce individuals against opposing Putin’s interests in Ukraine. While most of this activity is carried through via threat, it also takes the form of assassinations in Ukraine.
The degree of damage here and the limited skeletal remains found suggest that the fire was extremely intense. This suggests the involvement of trained killers rather than simple thugs. More importantly, however, the skeletal remains were found in the driving seat. And that reeks of Russian intelligence’s particular fetish for what might be called their pageantry of death. Rather than simply eliminating a target, the Russians like to send aggressive messages as they do so.
Of course, the operative point is that Mr. Alps was delivering cars for the Ukrainian volunteers and that the skeleton was found in his driving seat. This suggests the killers intended to draw a very specific connection point between his activities with regards to Ukraine and his apparent death in Guernsey. Here, it is notable that the Guernsey government says a “Home Office” pathologist will examine the skeletal remains. In situations like this, “Home Office” should be regarded as a code word for Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]The Washington, D.C., city government is normally a conflagration of bumbling failure and misplaced priorities. Consider, for instance, the fact that they’re now on the verge of dedicating a monument to longtime mayor, crack cocaine aficionado and former federal inmate, Marion “The B**** Set Me Up” Barry.
However, every so often, the suzerains of the District of Columbia get something right. And unfortunately for the Russians, this one particular instance is going to leave strongman Vladimir Putin niet happy.
According to the Washington Times, the D.C. City Council is set to take the stretch of street right in front of the Russian Embassy in the nation’s capital and name it after an assassinated rival of the Russian president.
The portion of Wisconsin Avenue that contains Russia’s embassy will be renamed “Boris Nemtsov Place” after the felled Russian opposition figure, who was shot and killed while he walked with his girlfriend on a bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow back in 2015.
According to the London Guardian, five people have been convicted of the killing, including an ex-officer in the pro-Russian Sever battalion of security forces in embattled Chechnya. – READ MORE
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