Ukraine

[johnu]

I predict that the next Russian oligarch/executive will be reported to have died a patriotic death in Ukraine after volunteering to be an infantryman in the Russian army.

That prediction hasn't come true, yet. But with Putin calling up 300,000 new troops will it be that long to wait? In the meantime,

 

A Kremlin ally died falling down the stairs, report says — the latest in a series of unexplained deaths among prominent Russians

Local media said Anatoly Gerashchenko, 72, died falling down several flights of stairs.

It's the latest in a string of accidental or untimely deaths of top Russian figures.

At this point, it's not clear whether Gerashchenko fell down 2 or more flights of steps one flight at a time, or one flight of steps twice, or as many times as necessary for the fall to be fatal.

[pilowsky]

What have we learned from history?

The Daily Telegraph Fri 11 Nov 1938

 

Page 1

 

U.S.A. Recognises German Sudetenland

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, Thursday. — The first

 

United States department to give prac

 

tical recognition to the German annexa

 

tion of Sudetenland is the Treasury.

 

Tonight it issued an order to Customs

 

collectors, telling them to treat pro

 

ducts from the annexed territory as

 

German.

 

The effect of the instruction is that

 

Sudeten goods, must, pay higher

 

"black-list" tariffs,

 

in a simultaneous announcement, the

 

State Department said that the Treas

 

ury's action did not constitute diplo

 

matic recognition of the annexation.

 

 

[johnu]

Russian politician, 47 - a former gas industry executive - becomes the latest energy official to die since Ukraine was invaded

 

Another Putin associate has died, apparently from Covid. Officials have said it was likely a new strain of Covid, either the Novichuk strain which was first detected by the KGB, or the Polonium strain which was first detected by the Soviet nuclear agency. Officials have not ruled out the 9mm lead variation.

[pilowsky]

A link to the official Ukrainian news agency.

[Winstonm]

Russian politician, 47 - a former gas industry executive - becomes the latest energy official to die since Ukraine was invaded

 

Another Putin associate has died, apparently from Covid. Officials have said it was likely a new strain of Covid, either the Novichuk strain which was first detected by the KGB, or the Polonium strain which was first detected by the Soviet nuclear agency. Officials have not ruled out the 9mm lead variation.

 

Don’t forget the defenestration variant which has been traced to floors above 2 stories.

[johnu]

Yet another Putin ally/friend Cherkesov (and potential rival or supporter of a possible coup) has mysteriously died.

 

Putin's mentor in KGB dies a mysterious death; Know why he was 'punished' by Kremlin boss earlier

 

Unofficially the cause of death was a mysterious illness. Those in the know call it the Putin syndrome. No details are available so it is just conjecture that Cherkesov was feeling a little dizzy and accidentally fell and hit his head on a hammer held by one of Putin's secret police.

[johnu]

Yet another member of the Russia leadership group dies under unusual circumstances.

 

Russian colonel involved in mobilizing conscripts found dead in his office

 

Boyko, the deputy director of the Vladivostok Pacific Naval College, one of only two official military colleges under the Ministry of Defence, was reported to have shot himself by the Far Eastern Vedomosti. The pro-state paper wrote on its Telegram channel that the colonel “came to work and put a bullet in his temple” on Wednesday morning.

But reports from independent Russian media outlet Baza and the privately owned online outlet Pravda say Boyko was found with five gunshot wounds in his chest.

 

The Colonel must be one of the world's worst shots and toughest guys in the world if he had to shoot himself 5 times from less than an arm's length away before he died. Pravda is investigating reports that after shooting himself, the Colonel then dragged himself to the hospital where he fell down several flights of stairs, eventually tumbling into a passing billionaire oligarch's yacht where he then fell overboard and drowned.