9 ms·

> Putin personally told me of his plan to acquire the Chelsea Football Club in order to increase his influence and raise Russia’s profile, not only with the eli

by eps 5y ago

> Putin personally told me of his plan to acquire the Chelsea Football Club in order to increase his influence and raise Russia’s profile, not only with the elite but with ordinary British people. This does not correlate at all with the polonium and Novichok cases.

gerdesj 5y ago
Anyone arriving at an airport in the UK with a Russian accent will be asked the height of Salisbury cathedral. An answer correct to 0.5m will lead to instant arrest. I live quite close to Salisbury and have no idea apart from "bloody tall", how high the spire thrusts skywards. Apart from anything else we'd generally measure it in feet. I'd better spell it out: One of the gentlemen accused of poisoning a Russian ex-pat in Salisbury (Hants. UK) claimed that he was a tourist and came to see the cathedral in Salisbury. He quoted the height of it to quite a degree of accuracy as proof of his touristic intentions. He really did not smear novichok on Mr Skripal's door.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
  While I agree that the "tourist" excuse was likely bullshit, I suspect someone that recently visited a tourist site would know more about it than someone who lived near it all their life. They just learned about it, how often do you think about it? And if they had been visiting the spire, which they probably weren't, it's likely they would have gotten information about it in their native language which would use meters.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    The question would have been asked in immigrations upon their arrival, so it would be before visiting the tourist site.
    - boomboomsubban 5y ago
      So any assassin targeting somebody in any other location would be fine, it has nothing to do with the famous case as those people were interviewed after the trip, and now I would be suspect because I read this thread and know it's 123 meters. As an American I'm sure I'd be fine, but it's just a silly entry question.
- pfisherman 5y ago
  Salisbury cathedral houses the Magna Carta, and that is why tourists go there. Literally nobody cares about the height of its spire. The “tallest church” explanation is kind of like of someone saying they buy playboy magazine for the articles. It’s transparently false to the point of absurdity.
- ogogmad 5y ago
  > He quoted the height of it to quite a degree of accuracy as proof of his touristic intentions Doesn't really prove anything. Could just be a really strange individual who memorises statistics. To 3 significant figures doe.
  - mikeyouse 5y ago
    Bellingcat identified their real names and the fact that they worked for the GRU... it's not remotely in question whether they were there assassinate Skripal. One of the benefits of a hopelessly corrupt Russian state is that just about every government database is available for sale. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skripal-suspect-boshirov-identified-gru-colonel-anatoliy-chepiga/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skr...
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      It's possible they were just chemistry hobbyists & afficionados of obscure nerve toxins, and the rest was just an unfortunate accident.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Lol this is typically something locals don't know yeah. I've also been reluctant to even visit tourist hotspots in the places I've lived. Never felt like waiting an hour in a queue with busloads of Chinese snapping photos and listening to a tour guide with a flag to make sure her herd doesn't lose their way :P Friends visiting me in Amsterdam would be appealed I never saw the Anne Frank House. It's just not really a fun thing to do in your own town. And to be fair most tourist attractions are hugely overrated.
  - pm90 5y ago
    The touristy areas of the world are de facto international property now. Because of rising income across the globe anyone that wants to can “travel”; all that jump in traffic the touristy areas were just not designed to handle.
    - zhte415 5y ago
      IMHO the decline started with the jetliner. Before then, who travelled by cruise ship and who by steerage was clearly delineated and a natural cap on overwhelming numbers of tourists.
- pklausler 5y ago
  It's 123m and that's an easy number to remember. (404ft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_church_buildings_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_church_buildin...
  - gerdesj 5y ago
    There's a rounding error there. I recall the interview and I'm pretty sure the height was quoted to 1 decimal place which is pretty mad.
    - bidirectional 5y ago
      I doubt that very much, could you provide a reference? I also remembered the height of 123m from the original poisoning reports, because it is rather a memorable number.
      - jkadlec 5y ago
        They said 123m in the interview, at least in the translation. But the point of the released interview was not to refute that they worked for the GRU. It was obvious to everybody. The point of that interview was to spite the West, by making it even more obvious that they were not tourists. Russia does this a lot, they don't even pretend that the stuff they put out is true. It's basically adding insult to injury.
- chayleaf 5y ago
  I'm Russian, travelled to UK once, didn't get asked that. Sorry if that was a joke and I ruined it...
  - gerdesj 5y ago
    A joke that bad can't be ruined any further.
unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Why not? Putin has a profile with ordinary Russian people, too -- and yet he has someone murdered, defenestrated, poisoned, discredited, ruined, or jailed without reason literally every single day. Why would he think he should act differently abroad? Remember: he's a psychopath. -- Edit: a flagged comment replying to this called this hysterical hyperbole because I used the words "literally" and "psychopath". In the latter case I understand this to be the assessment of more or less every foreign intelligence service on earth. The flagged comment suggested "sociopath" is better; I do not see evidence of Putin's ability to feel remorse or of his conscience generally. Also, psychopaths are not unusual; up to 3% of the human population could be psychopaths, and the point was not to stress his personal violence, but his remorseless consistency. In the former case: OK, let's go with "very nearly literally" -- there may be some days where Putin's regime, if not Putin quite directly, does not have someone at least jailed, threatened or ruined for opposing him, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say there are very few days like this. He runs a regime that threatens every single citizen who opposes him, and he could stop it if he chose. He chooses not to.
- throwaway111023 5y ago
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    What is it that is stupid about this? It is true. Putin's enemies and opponents are murdered, jailed, pushed out of windows, poisoned, ruined, threatened by Putin-adjacent gangsters more or less constantly on domestic soil, are they not? And yet he enjoys a strong profile among Russian citizens. So you have to ask -- why would a man who has got away with this domestically, not think he can get away with it internationally, when he has his Farages and Trumps and Gabbards and Salvinis raising his profile everywhere? Or are you saying that it's hysterical and stupid to call the man what he is? He's a psychopath. It's in absolutely everything he does. (Psychopaths, FWIW, are not particularly unusual: maybe 3% of the human population is a psychopath)
    - 5y ago
pydry 5y ago
The rest sounded plausible but this bit doesn't. I think it's just Abramovich's hobby. He's clearly really into it and I don't think Putin gives a damn.
eps 5y ago
Woke up to my original comment ^ being in gray... what the heck. It's just an observation of something that doesn't add up. If one makes an explicit effort to get into Britons' good graces, why would then they do something as exceptionally damaging as those two assasinations? This makes no sense, and the article doesn't address it.

by eps 5y ago

gerdesj 5y ago

Anyone arriving at an airport in the UK with a Russian accent will be asked the height of Salisbury cathedral. An answer correct to 0.5m will lead to instant arrest. I live quite close to Salisbury and have no idea apart from "bloody tall", how high the spire thrusts skywards. Apart from anything else we'd generally measure it in feet. I'd better spell it out: One of the gentlemen accused of poisoning a Russian ex-pat in Salisbury (Hants. UK) claimed that he was a tourist and came to see the cathedral in Salisbury. He quoted the height of it to quite a degree of accuracy as proof of his touristic intentions. He really did not smear novichok on Mr Skripal's door.

boomboomsubban 5y ago
While I agree that the "tourist" excuse was likely bullshit, I suspect someone that recently visited a tourist site would know more about it than someone who lived near it all their life. They just learned about it, how often do you think about it? And if they had been visiting the spire, which they probably weren't, it's likely they would have gotten information about it in their native language which would use meters.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  The question would have been asked in immigrations upon their arrival, so it would be before visiting the tourist site.
  - boomboomsubban 5y ago
    So any assassin targeting somebody in any other location would be fine, it has nothing to do with the famous case as those people were interviewed after the trip, and now I would be suspect because I read this thread and know it's 123 meters. As an American I'm sure I'd be fine, but it's just a silly entry question.
pfisherman 5y ago
Salisbury cathedral houses the Magna Carta, and that is why tourists go there. Literally nobody cares about the height of its spire. The “tallest church” explanation is kind of like of someone saying they buy playboy magazine for the articles. It’s transparently false to the point of absurdity.
ogogmad 5y ago
> He quoted the height of it to quite a degree of accuracy as proof of his touristic intentions Doesn't really prove anything. Could just be a really strange individual who memorises statistics. To 3 significant figures doe.
- mikeyouse 5y ago
  Bellingcat identified their real names and the fact that they worked for the GRU... it's not remotely in question whether they were there assassinate Skripal. One of the benefits of a hopelessly corrupt Russian state is that just about every government database is available for sale. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skripal-suspect-boshirov-identified-gru-colonel-anatoliy-chepiga/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skr...
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    It's possible they were just chemistry hobbyists & afficionados of obscure nerve toxins, and the rest was just an unfortunate accident.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
Lol this is typically something locals don't know yeah. I've also been reluctant to even visit tourist hotspots in the places I've lived. Never felt like waiting an hour in a queue with busloads of Chinese snapping photos and listening to a tour guide with a flag to make sure her herd doesn't lose their way :P Friends visiting me in Amsterdam would be appealed I never saw the Anne Frank House. It's just not really a fun thing to do in your own town. And to be fair most tourist attractions are hugely overrated.
- pm90 5y ago
  The touristy areas of the world are de facto international property now. Because of rising income across the globe anyone that wants to can “travel”; all that jump in traffic the touristy areas were just not designed to handle.
  - zhte415 5y ago
    IMHO the decline started with the jetliner. Before then, who travelled by cruise ship and who by steerage was clearly delineated and a natural cap on overwhelming numbers of tourists.
pklausler 5y ago
It's 123m and that's an easy number to remember. (404ft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_church_buildings_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_church_buildin...
- gerdesj 5y ago
  There's a rounding error there. I recall the interview and I'm pretty sure the height was quoted to 1 decimal place which is pretty mad.
  - bidirectional 5y ago
    I doubt that very much, could you provide a reference? I also remembered the height of 123m from the original poisoning reports, because it is rather a memorable number.
    - jkadlec 5y ago
      They said 123m in the interview, at least in the translation. But the point of the released interview was not to refute that they worked for the GRU. It was obvious to everybody. The point of that interview was to spite the West, by making it even more obvious that they were not tourists. Russia does this a lot, they don't even pretend that the stuff they put out is true. It's basically adding insult to injury.
chayleaf 5y ago
I'm Russian, travelled to UK once, didn't get asked that. Sorry if that was a joke and I ruined it...
- gerdesj 5y ago
  A joke that bad can't be ruined any further.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago

Why not? Putin has a profile with ordinary Russian people, too -- and yet he has someone murdered, defenestrated, poisoned, discredited, ruined, or jailed without reason literally every single day. Why would he think he should act differently abroad? Remember: he's a psychopath. -- Edit: a flagged comment replying to this called this hysterical hyperbole because I used the words "literally" and "psychopath". In the latter case I understand this to be the assessment of more or less every foreign intelligence service on earth. The flagged comment suggested "sociopath" is better; I do not see evidence of Putin's ability to feel remorse or of his conscience generally. Also, psychopaths are not unusual; up to 3% of the human population could be psychopaths, and the point was not to stress his personal violence, but his remorseless consistency. In the former case: OK, let's go with "very nearly literally" -- there may be some days where Putin's regime, if not Putin quite directly, does not have someone at least jailed, threatened or ruined for opposing him, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say there are very few days like this. He runs a regime that threatens every single citizen who opposes him, and he could stop it if he chose. He chooses not to.

throwaway111023 5y ago
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  What is it that is stupid about this? It is true. Putin's enemies and opponents are murdered, jailed, pushed out of windows, poisoned, ruined, threatened by Putin-adjacent gangsters more or less constantly on domestic soil, are they not? And yet he enjoys a strong profile among Russian citizens. So you have to ask -- why would a man who has got away with this domestically, not think he can get away with it internationally, when he has his Farages and Trumps and Gabbards and Salvinis raising his profile everywhere? Or are you saying that it's hysterical and stupid to call the man what he is? He's a psychopath. It's in absolutely everything he does. (Psychopaths, FWIW, are not particularly unusual: maybe 3% of the human population is a psychopath)
  - 5y ago

pydry 5y ago

The rest sounded plausible but this bit doesn't. I think it's just Abramovich's hobby. He's clearly really into it and I don't think Putin gives a damn.

eps 5y ago

Woke up to my original comment ^ being in gray... what the heck. It's just an observation of something that doesn't add up. If one makes an explicit effort to get into Britons' good graces, why would then they do something as exceptionally damaging as those two assasinations? This makes no sense, and the article doesn't address it.