They don't seem to be as concerned about sanctions as this author was led to believe, unless you buy the narrative that it wasn't Russia behind the nerve gas UK attacks. Sorry to harp on this again, but I'd still love to get a better sense of what our intelligence agencies are doing to undermine the Russians' faith in Putin. I know that Russia has previously accused the U.S. of sowing social discord. I wonder how much of the black ops stuff I'd find morally questionable. For funzies: do you think Putin thought he was about to experience an assassination attempt here? (the anthem started playing early: full video) Hard to tell. He's trained af... " :|... :o, :|. " <--- The Two Faces of Vladimir Putin, am_Unition, March 2018But given the state of the Russian economy, Russia cannot afford to isolate itself from the countries in the West that could, if placated, ease sanctions against Russia.
I don't think Mr. Black n' White Stripes had any idea how badly he may have startled the KGB's goldenest golden boy, he was just showing off his patriotism. But the guy on the corner seat that is tapped on the shoulder by Putin shortly thereafter looked like he was ready to cry whilst shitting his pants.
Can't watch the video because I can't handle cringe. Could you describe what happened? EDIT: just in case this doesn't translate into textspace: I'm being serious, about both not being able to handle cringe and asking to describe what happened.
Vlad's walking down the aisle when the Russian national anthem starts playing prematurely, and a young man about 1.5 meters away jumps to his feet within about one second of hearing the first horns. Vlad pivots immediately, either spotting the guy in his peripherals or hearing the anthem (hard to tell), and after seeing the guy remain stationary in his place, gives him a nervous head nod and reaches out to touch another dude closer to him on the shoulder, as the poor chap was late to rise. The second guy is fucking sorry. He attempts to makes eye contact with Putin several times over the next several seconds, without any idea what to do with his hands, which nervously clutch his shirt. Meanwhile, Vlad is stuck standing in place doing the awkward mouth thing (:o -> :|, repeat x3), having presumably just had a small heart attack due to the first guy's overly patriotic jump to his feet. The camera pans away after that.
https://qz.com/1224822/a-linkedin-bio-reportedly-connects-sergei-skripal-donald-trump-and-christopher-steele/ If I'm Russia, I give no fucks about British sanctions, particularly as they've already been doing their worst since 2014 when I invaded Ukraine. They are not on this list. Meanwhile, the UK is no longer the 5th largest economy. Litovenko is 12 years dead. nothing fucking happened. If I were Putin I'd operate with impunity in the UK, too, especially since they've maintained they fucking matter for decades after they were assed out of relevance. Geopolitically speaking the UK is a fuckin' province of the United States. Demographically speaking they're California, Oregon and Washington. Theresa May can be as angry as she wants about that but the last time the UK did anything without American approval it was over the fuckin' Falklands.