One man tried to stop Vladimir Putin.
His name was Boris Nemtsov. He formed a new political party and planned to run against Putin.
In 2015, he was assassinated. New information reported by the BBC funds that he was followed by members of Russia’s security squad, who murdered him only days before he planned to lead a public protest against Putin.
Here is his Wikipedia entry:
Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov (Russian: Борис Ефимович Немцов, IPA: [bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof]; 9 October 1959 – 27 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy.[4] In the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, he was the first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (1991–97). Later he worked in the government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy (1997), Vice Premier of Russia and Security Council member from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, he founded the Young Russia movement. In 1998, he co-founded the coalition group Right Cause and in 1999, he co-formed Union of Right Forces, an electoral bloc and subsequently a political party. Nemtsov was also a member of the Congress of People’s Deputies (1990), Federation Council (1993–97) and State Duma (1999–2003).
From 2000 until his death, he was an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He criticized Putin’s government as an increasingly authoritarian, undemocratic regime, highlighting widespread embezzlement and profiteering ahead of the Sochi Olympics, and Russian political interference and military involvement in Ukraine.[5][6] After 2008, Nemtsov published in-depth reports detailing the corruption under Putin, which he connected directly with the President. As part of the same political struggle, Nemtsov was an active organizer of and participant in Dissenters’ Marches, Strategy-31 civil actions and rallies “For Fair Elections”.
Nemtsov was assassinated on 27 February 2015, beside his Ukrainian partner Anna Durytska, on a bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow,[7][8] with four shots fired from the back.[9] At the time of his assassination, he was in Moscow helping to organize a rally against the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the Russian financial crisis. At the same time, he was working on a report demonstrating that Russian troops were fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, which the Kremlin had been denying, and was unpopular externally but also in Russia.[10] In the weeks before his death, he expressed fear that Putin would have him killed.[11][12] In late June 2017, five Chechnya-born men were found guilty by a jury in a Moscow court for agreeing to kill Nemtsov in exchange for 15 million rubles (US$253,000); neither the identity nor whereabouts of the person who hired them is officially known.[13]
After Nemtsov’s murder, Serge Schmemann of The New York Times paid tribute to him in an article headlined “A Reformer Who Never Backed Down.” Schmemann wrote: “Tall, handsome, witty and irreverent, Mr. Nemtsov was one of the brilliant young men who burst onto the Russian stage at that exciting moment when Communist rule collapsed and a new era seemed imminent.”[14] Julia Ioffe, writing for The New York Times, described Nemtsov after his death as “a powerful, vigorous critic of Vladimir Putin”, who was “a deeply intelligent, witty, kind and ubiquitous man” who “seemed to genuinely be everyone’s friend”.[15]
Who would have wanted him dead?
Belling Cat just published this story on the tailing of Nemtsov by the FSB for years before his assassination.
https://t.co/2nMzkJYo2P
Coincidentally, or not, it seems that peace negotiators between Ukraine and Russia, including Roman Abramovich, may have been poisoned.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60904676
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/03/28/us-official-doubts-roman-abramovich-was-poisoned-report-claims/?sh=59f5bfbc26a1
Putin is a Medici?
He certainly lives like one, LOL. Perhaps he thinks of himself as one. But I think of him as a mob boss. There the parallels are quite clear.
Bob Shepherd
Absolutely the Don and the other oligarchs the Capos.
The Teflon Don, Cheeto “Little Fingers” Trumpbalone
Oops, that comment about Trump went to the long place.
And yes, Putin is the Krestniy Otets.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/heres-a-list-of-all-the-putin-critics-who-wound-up-murdered/2KEHMXWYNSKZDVTPK2UU5SYN4A/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia
Too bad it wasn’t Putin that was gunned down.
The Putin body count is large and growing enormously every day.
YIKES.. It’s 1984 in Russia.. Hope USA protects our freedom of speech and press.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-big-tech-is-strangling-your-freedom?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODcxMTQ4NywicG9zdF9pZCI6NTEyMTYzOTksIl8iOiJjWkZKSSIsImlhdCI6MTY0ODU2NjcyOSwiZXhwIjoxNjQ4NTcwMzI5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjYwMzQ3Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.YSxhCaraAq2CzVe-rTn84AljNr3BWTgV1bPsz6A2BRM&s=r
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meet-the-censored-chris-hedges?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODcxMTQ4NywiXyI6ImNaRkpJIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ4NTY3ODI3LCJleHAiOjE2NDg1NzE0MjcsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xMDQyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.ShxXOJpuF788suvub-zm63vq8nboNhNpZ6osJZ3hca4&s=r
We’ve crossed a lot of thresholds in the last several years and it’s going to be really ugly.
It’s 1984 in Russia
Hopefully, not here:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-big-tech-is-strangling-your-freedom?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODcxMTQ4NywicG9zdF9pZCI6NTEyMTYzOTksIl8iOiJjWkZKSSIsImlhdCI6MTY0ODU2NjcwNywiZXhwIjoxNjQ4NTcwMzA3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjYwMzQ3Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.fWlBpnmz3w6pF1J9BCizgWORjD6gWvjnN5KUQTHTtEg&s=r
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meet-the-censored-chris-hedges?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODcxMTQ4NywiXyI6ImNaRkpJIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ4NTY2NjcxLCJleHAiOjE2NDg1NzAyNzEsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xMDQyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.tXYf9fh7RM8pqSlRIUG6iBXeI1fygrVN0lWj8Fs5cC4&s=r
It’s 1984 in Russia, and Putin is murdering Ukrainian babies and grandmothers in violation of a long string of international laws, having committed the Crime of Aggression and innumerable Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes as enumerated in the Rome Statute, and he is doing this based on fabricated pretexts that extremists in the West pick up and amplify. Doing so at a time when this slaughter is occurring is shameful and disgusting. It’s complicity.
A Crime of Aggression, on falsified, cooked-up pretexts, leading to vast numbers of deaths and other casualties among civilians and hapless young soldiers. It was evil when Bush et al. did it in the Second Iraq War. It’s evil now. the bloody little Chekist Putin should be indicted by the ICC and, if he is deposed or sets foot out of Russia, remanded for trial as the war criminal that he is.
So, after the aggressor is defeated and the killing of children stopped, let’s have this conversation. In the meantime, having it is like worrying about the shine on the brightwork when there is a hole in the hull or, to use Mate Wierdl’s precise analogy, it’s like discussing the abusive childhood of the killer who has just burst into your home with a gun.
Alexei Anatolievich Navalny narrowly escaped a poisonous assassination attempt. Now he’s given a 9-year sentence under a fixed court trial. I’m pretty sure Putin would want to see him rot in the cell.
Meanwhile, Russian soldiers are raping women in Ukraine:
https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-woman-recounts-being-raped-031807573.html
“I shot your husband because he is a Nazi,” one of these soldiers told the woman before raping her, making the same insane argument that has been repeatedly posted on U.S. social media by Putin apologists. Zelenskyy is a Jew. His family members fought against Nazis. He was overwhelmingly, democratically elected president of Ukraine. Are there neo-Nazi fringe elements in Ukraine? Yes, as there are throughout the West, many of them supported by Putin’s network of agents and assets because they share Putin’s racist, imperialist, fascist ideology and because these serve as apples of discord to be thrown into democratic countries by Russian intelligence services–see, for example, Putin’s agent Maria Butina, darling of the U.S. NRA.
Repeating and amplifying such Russian propaganda is complicity in the war crimes currently being committed in Ukraine.
BTW, Russia deployed in Ukraine, in addition to its regular forces, a private paramilitary mercenary force called The Wagner Group (Gruppa Vagnera), named after Richard Wagner, the Nazi’s favorite composer, and also the favorite composer of the neo-Nazi Dimitryy Utkin, who founded it. The owner of The Wagoner group is a friend of Vladimir Putin’s. Ofc, to a sociopath like Putin, a “friend” is someone of immediate instrumental value.
cx: Nazis’
Bob Shepherd
The same semi private Army that attacked American forces in Syria with the aim of causing a fatality event that would give Trump an excuse to pull out of Syria. It did not go as planned when 350 or more were taken out in a turkey shoot. Of course Putin’s Orange haired puppet never said as word about it.
!!!!!
Here’s a quick history of Putin’s rise that’s worth reading:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/making-vladimir-putin-144553109.html
Plus, a 2015 book entitled Winter Is Coming by world chess champion Gerry Kasparov is another good read that addresses the failures, both intentional and accidental, of the West’s policies towards post-Soviet Russia.
So I only watched Julia Ioffe and I would agree that Putin did not think Trump had a chance, was shooting from the hip and looking to create chaos. Trump on the other hand was looking to stay relevant and secure his access to Russian money never expecting to win. On the other hand as she points out how did the Russians know who to micro target. We know that at some point things changed, certainly after the receptiveness to the Trump Tower meeting and the subsequent release of DNC emails .
“If it’s what he says I love it”
Six months into the investigation when the forum was held, Ioffe knew nothing about Manafort delivering targeted States, targeted groups polling data and campaign strategy to a RUSSIAN spy who in turn handed it to Russian Military Intelligence who were running the operation. . The Republican led!!! Senate Intelligence Committee made that clear.
Six months in we knew nothing about Stone telling Trump in late August about another dump ,the Podesta emails. So was Trump a Manchurian candidate no was, he compromised by working with the Russians after the Trump tower meeting absolutely. Was he compromised by negotiating the Moscow Trump Tower deal absolutely.Was he compromised by years of Russian dirty money beyond a doubt. As for the piss tape. As Steele points out, the FBI analysis was absurd, if you wanted a particular candidate to win whether you thought he could or not, would you release a fake story that was harmful to the cause? Again was Trump expected to win no. Would the Russians be popping Champaign they did. And the first thing that Americas first family of crime did after the Election is meet with the Russian Ambassador and then Russian Bankers.
Sadly this Politico article from weeks after he was appointed, told us very early on why Mueller was chosen . The only person in America who could not prove Goodell and the Ravens saw the Ray Rice tapes.
and it would appear Garland is a twin brother.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/07/mueller-nfl-probe-rice-goodell-239216
Agreed. And, of course, Putin had cultivated Trump for a very, very long time. Both are true. Trump was and is Putin’s dog, and American idiots are to blame for Trump.
And it makes ZERO practical difference that Putin didn’t have reason to think he would be successful in getting Trump elected president. Heck, TRUMP himself didn’t think he would win the thing. People present on the night of the 2016 election report that Trump was astonished and that Melania was horrified. Being smarter than her husband, she doubtless knew that the years of criminality by her husband, including money laundering for Putin’s criminal gang, would come to light. Donnie as Russian asset goes way, way back.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
Not nailing on specific, provable charges Trump and his criminal organization, including the other family members who run it, and not bringing them all to trial and imprisoning them are the greatest failures in the history of U.S. intelligence and of U.S. justice. It’s sickening. But to her (Ioffe’s) point, just today a major poll showed Trump, after all the revelations, after all his idiocy, after his long, long, long history of criminality, after his traitorous, failed coup attempt, beating Biden 47 to 41 in a 2024 presidential election. Putin accidentally pulled off the biggest intelligence coup in history, but our fellow Americans bear the greatest responsibility for this.
Very well said, Joel. I have this to add: The greatest tragedy of our time has been the willingness of an entire political party in the United States to fall in behind the traitorous, criminal Trump as long as having an idiot like him in charge enables them to deliver for their fat cat donors. All of them except the utter morons like Greene know what Trump is.
Btw, a heads up, Joel. Frontline is running its documentary on “The Plot to Steal the Election” this evening.
“The Plot to Overturn the Election.” This is available right now on Frontline’s website, for free.
Bob Shepherd
You leave me with little to add. I will add this: Putin’s assault on Ukraine was aimed more at breaking the Western alliance then it was toward gaining territory. That strategy backfired in the short term. Of course if Trump had been in office that would not have been necessary . And that is the underlying strategy, an authoritarian murderous thug has little to fear about the economic consequences of sanctions. Putin probably correctly believes that Gorbachev caused the fall of the Soviet Empire by opening the door to dissent.
Putin may feel he can tolerate the economic consequences more than elected leaders of the Democratic Nations that oppose him can tolerate the economic blow back.
As for the polls it is a hypothetical at this point. But one that will become a reality unless Democrats learn how to use language.
Where was the chest pounding response to Lindsay Graham about the
questioning of Ketanji Jackson. “Perhaps the good Senator from South Carolina is only okay with putting actual rapists on the court! ”
As for the Republican Party nothing like a reformed cultist to spill the beans. Stewart Stevens and Mike Lofgren detail the long history dating back to Goldwater ,of the “Lie”
I think, Joel, that Diane nailed in when she commented here that Putin did this because he thought he could get away with it, given that the West had barely reacted to his actions in Georgia and Crimea, that he hadn’t met strong resistance in Crimea, that the annexation of Crimea had given him a bump in popularity in Russia, and that Russia had spent billions upgrading its military. Yes, he wants very much to break the Western alliance and had been successful via his support of Trump in doing that to some extent (for example, he got a draw-down of U.S. troops in Germany), but I disagree about Ukraine not being itself a major prize. Prior to the invasion, Russia was connected to its new possession, Crimea, only via the sea and via a long bridge from Russia. Controlling southern Ukraine would give him a land bridge to Crimea, home to his Black Sea Fleet. It would give him control over the vast agricultural and mineralogical resources of Ukraine. It would remove a model of democracy on his doorstep in a country where many people have deep ties to Russia via family. It would enable undermining of the liberal and progressive Ukrainian Orthodox Church in favor of the fascist and imperialist and profoundly conservative Russian Orthodox Church. And it would cement his legacy as Tsar Vlad the Great, rebuilder of the Greater Russian Empire.
Putin probably correctly believes that Gorbachev caused the fall of the Soviet Empire by opening the door to dissent.
YES!
Nemtsov Documentary chronicles a remarkable political life.
The film contains rare archival footage, including from the Nemtsov family. “Nemtsov” is a portrait. It is not about death. It is about the life of a man who could have been president of Russia.
Writer and director: Vladimir V. Kara-Murza.
Thanks for this, Ms. Irwin!
Wonderful video! Thanks for posting it. If only he was the leader of Russia, not Mr. KGB!
Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. The magnitude of his crimes is enormous. He can never, never be welcomed back into the international community.
Ukraine School Teachers Are Challenging Putin.
Melitipol, Ukraine school kids have been on Virtual/Online classes due to DEADLY Putin’s War. But now the local Education Head has been kidnapped and RU troops are trying to force teachers & students to resume class using their imported/incomprehensible Russian curriculum. Teachers said absolutely No. Forget it! So soldiers kidnapped the Superintendent of Schools and the teachers refused to back down. NYT
An interesting question is how Putin will effect the world movement toward authoritarianism.
Will Putin’s big adventure discredit the places in Europe leaning that way?
How will India and China respond, both of whch are increasingly authoritarian in their nature?
What of Bolsonaro in Brazil?
I’m not a religious person, but I pray that Putin’s experience in Ukraine will be a wake-up call demonstrating that the old way of the strongman, in international relations, will be viewed as a relic, as unworkable, in the modern era, in which significant parts of the world can and will act in concert against aggression and in which modern asymmetric warfare has rendered obsolete the barbaric older use of imperialist war as politics by other means.
Besides Diane’s indefatigable commitment to humanism and truth, one of the primary reasons I visit this blog so frequently is the always-salient commentary of Bob Shepherd. Thanks to both of you. You’re truly inspirational.
That’s kind of you, Callisto. Thanks. I come because of the brilliance and learning and commitment of Diane Ravitch and because of the extraordinarily high quality of the discussions in Diane’s salon. There’s hardly a day in which I do not take inestimable learnings from the various commenters here, you included. A lot of smart and experienced folks show up here!