foxdemon wrote:So if one isn’t popular in Russia, expected to be killed?
No, however if one isn't popular = makes no threat, it has significantly less sense to organize an assassination.
Compare to the destiny of Alexander Lebed. Yeltsin's spindoctors pushed him to the president elections of 1996 as a spoiler candidate who impersonated power, military force, "simple and hard measures", "let's make Russia great again" etc. After the elections despite expectations wasn't forgotten, became a significant political person, governor of Krasnoyarsk and planned to move further, his image was very appealing to the electors. Died in a helicopter crash, nobody knows why. Evil tongues say about explosives at the helicopter's propeller.
And Nemtsov... They say he was killed for revealing the horrific truth about Russian military in Ukraine. Today the candidates that say something positive about Ukraine get their percent of honor. In 2015 at the euphoria of the Russian spring and the returning of Crimea whatever he could publish would produce this reaction:
1) Putin is very good, there is written he put Russian military in Ukraine, it's everything we only could dream of;
2) Nemtsov writes Putin is very bad. If Nemtsov writes people must wash hands it means there's acid in pipes. So Putin is very good.
Instead of publishing his pathetic book (that was published by his supporters for whom it became the matter of honor anyway) he got a bullet and produced the political scandal significantly worsening Russia's position. As dead he became much more useful for the destroying of Russian Federation than he was when being alive.
Please note that my position to Nemtsov is very positive (even despite his pro-Ukrainian views). He was a prodigy, a man who in his sixteen proposed an improvement for space satellite antennae, a smart and talented man with pleasant appearance (in comparison to majority of the modern Russian elite who are physical freaks including modern Putin) and some charisma. He just was unlucky that he was a) a liberal, b) in 1990s c) at power. To the age of Putin people hated them all to vomit, to 'gnashing of teeth'. And mostly correctly. For example, the close political friend of Boris Nemtsov, the man who continued his work after his murder was Mikhail Kasyanov, the first Putin's premier-minister also known as Two percents. The nickname is the price he was asking for solving problems as the PM. It's not even the most ugliest example. Nemtsov associated himself with these people and buried his potential totally.
JohnRawls wrote:Pretty impressive for someone who is not Russian or probably has no contact with Russian people to understand all this.
I didn't quite understand this part. Do you mean me? I am a Russian myself.
Ok, now about the list. I said about Poltikovskaya and Nemtsov enough I think. Now to the next ones in the list.
Natalya Estemirova. Don't know the details. For me it's enough that she wrote on the same topics with Politkovskaya. The Ramzan's razor - if someone speaks about Chechnya there is no need to search another reasons of this person's death. Chechnya means death.
The same about Stanislav Markelov. Well, actually I think I must stop at this topic about Chechnya and say more.
At 80s first entrepreneurs and businessmen appeared in the Soviet Union (and Russia after that) after 60 years of socialism. With them first mafia appeared. Former proletarians learned the word 'racket' and started to make "commerses" share their money in voluntary-forced way, sometimes using electric irons and cup boilers (also known as rectal cryptoanalyzers). After conquering their cities they moved to the big cake of Moscow. Moscow was big but numbers of gangsters are bigger so they had contradictions. Contradictions were solved at skhodkas (a 'council' of criminals high in the chain of command under the patronage of some influent criminal) or at strelkas (arrows). The typical arrow looked like this: two groups of cars drive to each other, stop, people leave the cars and one of each group start to discuss problems. Sometimes they find the compromise, sometimes it ends with a shooting.
The transition from Russian empire to Soviet Union produced "thieves" - a caste of professional criminals who not necessarily were thieves, just professional criminals. They produced the specific codex of appropriate and inappropriate actions. For example, a true thief shouldn't work at all, no matter where (because in the Soviet Union you can only be the employee of the state, the same state that controls police, you have a job => you work for police). Also a true thief can't have a wife and can't be a homosexual (passive). If you are or people think you are you automatically go to the caste of 'cocks', appropriate victims of rape. If you call someone a cock or say another phrase that can be interpreted like that this man has a right to kill you. And he should to do so, if he does nothing it will mean that he agrees. On the other side if someone calls you a homosexual and you demonstrate your readiness to defend your honor in the case you cannot do it because your opponent is stronger the same codex obliges others to help you.
And it can be very anti humane but it's a thing that produces some order and doesn't let sociopaths in prisons to kill each other and regulates violence at streets. The criminals who don't bind to this codex are called bespredelshiks (something like no-limit-men). They are pariahs of the criminal society and deeply hated: the only way for known nolimits to survive at prisons is to contact the prison administration that can use lawless criminals for its purposes (beat, rape, kill a man who gave no reasons to) in separated wings of a facility.
Now the pathetic criminals who moved to arrows with knives and bats and their more evolved colleagues with firearms had quite a shock when Chechen mafia appeared in Moscow. Chechens were extreme nolimits and had a bad habit of starting to shoot not at the end of an arrow but at its beginning and sometimes even before it. Simply to kill everyone without any discussions no matter where no matter what, families and relatives included. Using also explosives, RPGs, landmines, sometimes even tanks rented from some corrupt military chief (I think I can remember a couple of cases). Yeah, just like in GTA except it was in reality. The full psychopaths, beasts so much respectable murderers who ordered or directly killed dozens of men were getting pale skin and shaking hands.
It's the reputation of Chechens. The caste of murderers for the sake of murder, no reason and honor. Since then nothing has changed. Besides Politkovskaya I will give a couple of examples Washington Post will never write about.
Yuri Budanov, the colonel of Russian army, participated in the Chechen war at the real warfare (proved by the order of courage and three contusions). In 2000 was accused of the next: during the Chechen war drunk Budanov have seen the 18 year old Chechen beauty Elsa Kungaeva. The colonel fell in love and ordered his subordinates to get her. Using the regiment's BMP soldiers took the girl, wrapped her in a carpet and delivered to the colonel who raped and killed her (
The only known photo of the Chechen beauty). At the trial Budanov was cynically proving she was a sniper that is totally impossible. By the consultation of doctors he was found irresponsible and impotent (because of contusions), then found responsible because doctors were found irresponsible, then got ten years of prison. In 2004 wrote a petition of clemency. Ramzan Kadyrov publically said that if this will be approved "we will find another way for justice". Freed in 2010, 1.5 years later shot in Moscow by a professional killer. The killer was later found and recognized as Magomed Suleymanov recognized as Yusup Temirkhanov, sentenced to 15 years. During the trial the talented Chechen lawyer Murad Musayev (google his biography and face, there is a lot of things, including Politkovskaya's murder) bought one jury and threatened another two to push for the acquittal, found guilty and freed immediately because of the lapse of time.
Sergey Arakcheev and Evgeny Khudyakov, sappers that were demining Chechnya after the war. In 2003 both drunk drived around, found three Chechen workers, ordered to lay faces down and shot them in heads. Why? Because drunk Russian beasts. There was a trial, the jury found both innocent. The verdict was revoked (it was wrong jury), the second trial happened. By the decision of the jury both are innocent. Ramzan Kadyrov publically declared that "the reason for this justice was done not at the territory of the Chechen republic, there were no Chechens among the jury, the jury didn't quite understand the will of my people". The second verdict was revoked. During the second trial laws were changed because the president of Chechnya Alu Alkhanov asked to process trials about crimes in Chechnya without jury, because jury produces wrong sentences and can't quite understand the will of people of Chechnya. During the third trial...
Damn, I don't even want to write about all interesting details of the third trial. It's just too much. The justice was restored and the judge understood the will corectly, Khudyakov got 17 years and escaped, catched in 2017 and delivered to the prison. Arakcheev got 15 years and declared that will fight for the justice until the end, appeared at the court and was imprisoned. Was freed at 2017, sources said he is in a safe place. Then it was declared Arakcheev is in a safe place and moved to Syria immediately after the release. Everything is good with him. The attempts of his friends to contact him failed, it's not known if he's alive and just if he really left the prison.
That.
And now they write about Stanislav Markelov who defended Chechen civilians suffering of bloody Russian military and got a bullet personally from Putin. I think it's simpler and he was killed by Chechen civilians, it happens when Chechen civilians are around you that you sometimes die as the result. Read the details of death of Yury Budanov (specifically how the killer acted) and compare to the death of Markelov.
I wanted to write about deaths of Litvinenko and Berezovsky but too tired right now. I'll just say that a few days ago the father of Litvinenko appeared at the first channel where he hugged the murderer of Litvinenko Andrey Lugovoy, said that (by his opinion) Litvinenko was poisoned by his close friend Alex Goldfarb who works for CIA and complained the British rules don't give him access to the documents about death of his son because everything is classified for 100 years. I haven' found bruises at him but rectal cryptoanalyzers leave no traces so everything is possible.