Sorry, this is a more direct link: stopwar.org.uk/news/how-demonizing-russia-and-putin-paves-the-way-for-full-scale-international-war

Or, how the west is demonizing Putin.

TinyURL ftw

Yup. Bring this point up and you're a traitor

I read it on the Guardian originally though.

"TinyURL ftw" - bo_sox48

Don't be silly. We're the good guys!!! (wink wink)

I'm glad the stop the war coalition chaps have found a reason to keep their club going. It was heartbreaking to see them campaigning on street corners to stop the war in Iraq, years after the war had finished. Friendly types... Like a socialist WI...

@Hannibal, as an Irish citizen, i am not a traitor. Ireland is neutral and i believe we shouls find a peaceful solution.

But regardless, are you saying the author should be shot for expressing this opinion?

You misunderstood me. I mean to say that if you express the opinion that's in the article, people start accusing you of being a Putin sympathizer.

As someone who has regularly expressed a view of the Ukraine situation that is strongly sympathetic to the east and has little respect for the Western coalition that usurped the legitimate government, I can assure you I have not experienced being dismissed as a Putin sympathizer. Well, no more than I'm dismissed by people usually :p.

That, like virtually every thing in that article, is bogus.

"The Russian president has, of course, been blamed for the killing, though that makes little sense."

So Orathaic, Octavious, and british contrarian types in general

An opposition leader was killed in moscow

It turns out the car the assasin escaped in was contracted to the ministry of finance

They just arrested two terrorists from the North Caucuses and accused them

If this was US, Britain, Israel, what would you say about this situation. Be honest.

Lets do it this way

Netanyahu and anti war critic is gunned down in Tel Aviv

Getaway car is contracted to ministry of finance

Two West Bank members of Islamic Jihad are arrested for the murder.

If such a thing as assassin accountants exist then I seriously doubt they would use their company car to carry out the job. If this was in the UK, and someone had just gunned down Nigel Farage whilst driving a Highways Agency vehicle, the first thing I'd do was stop drinking whatever I happened to be drinking.

After that Id speculate about the possible suspects whilst the police investigation is carried out.

I'm not sure what your point is, to be honest.

My point is quite obvious, you are a hypocrite and if this story had played out in a Western/US allied country you would have shit all over it WITHOUT waiting for any investigation

Honestly, anything is possible, these Northern Caucuses guys could be pissed at something Nemtsov did while he was in office, it could be an attempt to bag any major russian figure, they could be hitmen etc.

But it sure as fuck looks suspicious that one of Putin's greatest adversaries is killed with involvement by a government vehicle and low and behold, the perpetrators are other opponents of Putin that Russians uniformly hate.

Sorry if the West is skeptical.

I have no idea what you're talking about. What do you think my view on the assassination actually is? I don't recall ever speaking of it before you mentioned it just now.

misread your second, post, point still stands, just not about you per se.

So in summary you compared what you assumed my view on the assassination was (which happened to be wrong) with what you assumed my view on a similar event in the West would be (which also happened to be wrong), and used the differences between those assumptions to accuse me of being a hypocrite?

Talking with you is an experience, Santa. I struggle to keep up with your thought process at times, but it is always entertaining :p.

Repeating verbatim

"misread your second, post, point still stands, just not about you per se."

I didn't assume, I misread. What did you misread?

I didn't misread anything. I simply don't believe it is possible to misread a post that doesn't mention the murder at any stage and is focused entirely on Ukraine as "I shit all over this assassination bs!".

Still, judging by your past posts you have a great deal more practise at misreading than I do. From this day forth I shall endeavour to misread all your posts as "Octavious is great!" until I catch up.

"Talking with you is an experience, Santa."

Something like that

Well it sure was possible to misread my posts this summer apparently. You know, when the board took my denial that Israelis were heartless murderers as full fledged support for the Gaza campaign. So yes I sympathize that I momentarily attacked you for something you didn't say or mean. Feel free to pour it on.

Thank you Santa, that's really nice of you to say :)

Putin could well have ordered the killing of an opposition leader, but given the reaction is it likely? Does this question simply come down to 'do you believe Putin is capable of ordering a murder?' In that case the answer tells you more about your attitudes than it does inform about Putin.

Is this a fair position to take?

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21643189-ukraine-suffers-it-time-recognise-gravity-russian-threatand-counter

To orathaic on killings in regard to Russian politics:
http://qz.com/357987/putin-himself-can-prevent-assassinations-by-genuinely-forbidding-them/

@ ora

I'm not sure where you're going with this. I am totally confident that Putin could order a man's death if he believed it served the national interest. Many thousands have died in Russia's wars under Putin's leadership already, which whilst not the same thing does demand a belief that deaths can be a price worth paying to achieve your goals. I would say all world leaders are like this to some extent, with the chief differences being the levels of justification needed for them to agree to it.

Is it likely Putin was behind it? Probably not. He is one on many possible suspects, and not the most likely of them. We do not sufficiently know the possible motivations behind the attack (Russian political leaders traditionally upset an awful lot of people as they rise to the top), nor do we know all the main players. We can but guess.

It could have simply been a frustrated tax official who saw Boris Nemtsov use a loophole to avoid paying taxes one too many times ;).

It's so cute when the children, most of them with the greasy hands outstretched, or soon-to-be-outstretched for their government benefits, start bitching that governments are behaving to control their interests and power.

It's also cute when people turn a blind eye to aggression with a wink and a yawn. Not in my backyard, right? Fuck 'em....I guess it's easy to ignore such things when you are woefully ignorant of history. After all, nobody would ever take the weakness of of others (as demonstrated by their unwillingness to act) as a sign that it's OK to continue and....once the mission is accomplished...to just go ahead and keep on keepin' on.

I hope Putin reconstitutes the entire Soviet Empire with brutal force and aggression...just because he fucking can, and nobody will have the balls to say stop....

Well krellin, for what it's worth I share your dreams. Heck, I even hope after reconstituting USSR they'll just keep on going, because no-one has the balls to say stop, until they reach your beautiful home in (I assume USA?) and a bunch of soldiers rape you and then found a proxy state in which you will have to struggle to buy TP, let alone any food. That's called the "1945 Berlin experience". Why should Europe get all the fun, that way you'd a least stop being such a bigoted virgin...

As for no balls, I assume you refer to lack of courage from the Western governments. While I share your disappointment in them you have to realize that lack of their testicles is caused by the lack of balls of the citizens. They just think about getting reelected, and in 21st century going to war is unfortunately not hip anymore. It's because groups like stopwar and lack of their counterparts in Russia they are going to win this new, not-so-cold war.

In summary:
The people who can say stop don't lack balls, they are just opportunistic fucks who don't care enough to risk their position. The Western societies have no balls.

It's really awkward when you skim over a post and someone mentions toilet paper as "TP" and you think they're talking to you with your initials...

I imagine the struggle is real, man