Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

crickets

(25,993 posts)
Thu Aug 20, 2020, 01:28 PM Aug 2020

Why would anyone attempt to assassinate Navalny? Why now? More from Seth Abramson.

Apologies for length - skip to bold for the gist:

Background:
Alexei Navalny - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
Oleg Deripaska - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Deripaska, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Deripaska#Navalny_video

Why would Putin (or anyone) possibly attempt to assassinate Navalny? Plenty of political reasons. Why now? The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report that might have something to do with it.

More background on the Navalny tape:

Alexey Navalny is denied access to Oleg Deripaska's ‘yacht tape’ lawsuit
https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/06/18/alexey-navalny-is-denied-access-to-oleg-deripaska-s-yacht-tape-lawsuit

On February 8, 2018, Navalny published a video on YouTube where he accuses Deripaska of meeting with former Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko aboard Deripaska's yacht in August 2016, possibly to discuss Moscow’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. The video draws on photos and videos shared online by Anastasia Vashukevich.

On February 9, Deripaska filed a lawsuit in Ust-Labinsk (where his businesses happen to pay half their national tax debt). Instead of targeting Navalny, however, Deripaska’s lawsuit is against Vashukevich and her apparent spiritual and PR advisor: a man named Alexander Kirillov. Deripaska says they shared his image online without his permission. Deripaska won an injunction that led Russia’s federal censor to ban the sharing of these photos and videos, though Navalny’s video is still accessible on YouTube, where it currently has more than 7.4 million views. Several media outlets and Instagram, however, did agree to remove the content named in Deripaska’s lawsuit.


Link to the video is in the above article. Vid is in Russian; there is a translation app available, but I have not installed it.

Seth Abramson had many thoughts about it on the day the tape dropped.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/961787445971963904.html

9:22 PM · Feb 8, 2018

(THREAD) BREAKING: The just-released "Navalny Tape" gets us *much* closer to seeing the whole of the Trump-Russia coordination narrative. In this thread I explain how a dozen Trump aides fit into the narrative—with Manafort and Papadopoulos as the stars. Hope you'll pass this on.

1/ The Trump-Russia coordination narrative becomes much less confusing—particularly after today (more on that in a moment)—if you just (a) know all the key players in the narrative, and (b) understand the relatively limited role that nearly all of them except four or five played.

2/ Here are the names to know: Trump, Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Gates, Sessions, Page, Papadopoulos, Clovis, Lewandowski, Hicks, Flynn, Prince, Cohen, Sater, Phares, Gordon, and Bannon. That's 18 names—but most played a relatively small role in the narrative. I'll show you.

[snip LOTS]

15/ At this point we're down to Trump, Don Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Sessions, Page, Papadopoulos, Flynn, Prince, Cohen—10 men. Keep in mind that while a successful criminal conspiracy may be a scheme many are aware of, the number of people carrying out the operation must be small.

16/ Jeff Sessions wasn't as useful as a key operator because of his high profile—but what he *could* do was use his position as a Senator and head of Trump's NatSec team to surreptitiously negotiate sanctions with the Russians on three occasions and then lie about it to Congress.

17/ Here's where we *begin* to approach today's news: the Navalny Tape, fundamentally a story about Manafort and Papadopoulos—one already indicted, one already convicted. During the campaign, Manafort made clear only a "low-level" Trump aide could make direct contact with Russia.

18/ That's why Sessions only met with Russia's ambassador—he had the right cover for such a meet, as a Senator, but wasn't low-profile enough to be in on meetings beyond that. Still, as the Trump-Russia conspiracy was a sanctions-for-aid deal, he *could* work the sanctions angle.

19/ To recap where we're at: the Trump-Russia coordination conspiracy was a straight-up sanctions relief-for-specified/unspecified Russian assistance deal. Russia was able to make contact with Sessions as needed to see where Trump was at—at various points—on the sanctions piece.


[snip LOTS MORE]

97/ Manafort knew Russia's assistance of Trump's campaign would only continue if the Kremlin was certain Trump wasn't wavering in his drop-all-sanctions Russia policy (and indeed, we learned in January 2017 that he remained true to Putin—that *was* his policy on entering office).

98/ Today we got audio and video of Deripaska secretly reporting to the Kremlin on Trump's activities. He claims Manafort never briefed him—we know he's a liar, however, as this video proves in general terms (he said he had nothing to do with any of this).

99/ The early-August video was taken a month after Manafort offered Deripaska briefings—enough time for one to occur. A week later, Trump got his first intel briefing confirming Russian crimes against America.

Three weeks after, he had Sessions negotiate sanctions with Kislyak.


100/ By September's end, Manafort and Page were gone, and Papadopoulos was on ice—brought back in the last week of the campaign just to keep him close and (per Papadopoulos) offer him a job, likely to ensure he wouldn't snitch. It was OK letting them go—the deal was already done.

CONCLUSION/ Manafort, Papadopoulos, Page—perfect patsies, and the key figures in the pre-election Trump-Russia coordination conspiracy. All charged or cooperating.

[snip]

PS5/ Trump isn't worried—per friends—Manafort will flip, so he never attacks him. Papadopoulos *already* flipped, so there's no purpose in Trump attacking him (except to lie and say he never spoke to him).Page is still in the wind—which is why Nunes targeted Page's FISA warrant.



Again, apologies for length. The original is much longer, but well worth the read.


TLDR: SSCI report may have prompted someone, perhaps Putin, to attend to a loose end.

4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why would anyone attempt to assassinate Navalny? Why now? More from Seth Abramson. (Original Post) crickets Aug 2020 OP
Because that's what killers (aka murderers) do in their spare time. world wide wally Aug 2020 #1
Seth Abramson rusty fender Aug 2020 #2
Oops! Thank you. nt crickets Aug 2020 #3
Most chilling line: Squinch Aug 2020 #4

Squinch

(51,090 posts)
4. Most chilling line:
Fri Aug 21, 2020, 09:12 AM
Aug 2020
"Within a week, the Kremlin clarified: no, we just want sanctions relief, and we'll take care of the rest."


Amazing thread. I saved it to read now when I had time. I wish your post got more notice.
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Why would anyone attempt ...