> This would not have been a subplot in a Le Carre novel. Not sure I understand what you're trying to say. Are you claiming your (b) is more likely than your (

> This would not have been a subplot in a Le Carre novel. Not sure I understand what you're trying to say. Are you claiming your (b) is more likely than your (a)? And it is so because of something to do with the Nord Stream pipeline? That's quite some conspiracy theory. I don't find this likely. Why? I watched the youtube clip where Navalny dupes one of the members of the team assigned to assassinate him. And what struck me is how charismatic Navalny is. He is a formidable political opponent to Putin. I can certainly see Putin preferring to live in a Navalny-less world. Aside from his charisma, is it possible that everything Navalny puts on Youtube is fabrication? How difficult can it be to get a prop to answer a phone call and read some lines emailed to him ahead of time? It probably wouldn't be, but you'd see people pointing at various inconsistencies. I just found an older youtube documentary created by Navalny about Medvedev [1]. Could it also be a fabrication? I seriously doubt that: New York Times covered this, as well as other prestigious publications, and they don't suspect any shenanigans. [1] https://www.youtube.com/embed/qrwlk7_GF9g?hl=en&cc_lang_pref=en&cc_load_policy=1 https://www.youtube.com/embed/qrwlk7_GF9g?hl=en&cc_lang_pref...