Mafia State (01/01/15)
The RT segment I caught was a news programme which featured the Mafia-style execution of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician in Russia and a fierce critic of President Putin.
Now the news anchor presented described the killing as a provocation against Russia to incite unrest which is code language, of course, for 'let's all rally around the Russian Government'.
Four possible motives for the killing were reported as:
- A political assassination
- The work of Islamic extremists
- The work of Ukrainian extremists (Nemtsov opposed Russia's intervention in Ukraine)
- The result of some business or personal dispute
Now a pattern of behaviour is very powerful source of evidence and it can be used to convict criminals when no independent witnesses exist.
For example, if a series of unrelated individuals accuse the same person of abuse or sex attacks, their evidence can be taken as corroborating each other accusations so long as their stories are credible to begin with.
In the case of President Putin this is undoubtedly true when you look at the long line of people who have died in violent and/or mysterious circumstances, no more so that Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with radioactive Polonium.
Now if you ask me the Russian state's fingerprints are, literally, all over Litvinenko's murder yet Russia Today has nothing to say except to wheel out embarrassing 'experts' and commentators who are no more than cheerleaders for President Putin.