Fallout: Assassination of Former Russian Spy in UK

She said Russia has until today to come up with a valid explanation so we’ll see what happens.

 

If the UK invokes Article 5, will Trump comply? With any other president, I would be confident in the answer. I think it is an open question with Trump. And, not just because we're talking about Russia here. Even if it was some other enemy country, I'm not sure that Trump would be willing to go to bat for our allies. Of course, I also don't expect that the conflict would even escalate this far if we had some other president.

 

The White House's reaction to things like this is the biggest giveaway that there was (or still is) something going on between the Trump administration and Russia. They ALWAYS go completely out of their way to not levy any criticism towards Putin and Russia and it's so bizarre. Of course, the Trump defenders try to play it off as diplomacy but that's complete BS considering that the president is a bomb thrower who will go after anyone from Paul Ryan to China.

It's such a stupid strategy too. I mean, if there actually was some sort of collusion or secret communication between Putin and Russia, the best way for the Trump admin to fight back against those accusations would be to take at least a somewhat hostile attitude towards Russia on the surface, but nope not these idiots. Basically, it can only mean that Trump is Putin's b**** to such an extreme degree that he's not even allowed to criticize him for fear of retribution because the Russians have something very damning on him.

 

British PM already said they won’t invoke article 5.

 

They don't know the future any better than we do.

 

True, but since she’s the PM of the country requesting to invoke it I think she’d have a pretty good idea.

 

Or, perhaps, Putin is also playing to Trump's greed and, along with the stick (of likely financial crimes), there is a carrot of enough wealth to make Trump legitimately the billionaire Trump has wanted to be or even the dictator Trump wishes he was? How happy would Trump be to become Putin's American Mini-Me?

Anyway, Trump's behavior has to send chills down the spines of our allies. Putin has Trump in his pocket. And Putin is flexing to that extent on Russian television and various interviews. It is just embarrassing for our nation.

 

The point of article 5 is to put the fear of god in our enemies so that they won't even think of messing with any of us. When people doubt your zeal in honoring article 5, the deterrent effect is weakened and the likelihood of actually having to use it goes up. If Putin sees what I see -- Trump publicly hedging on our commitment to common defense, Trump avoiding confirmation of hostile acts alleged by our ally -- he could reasonably see advantage in testing the limits of what he can do. It might not be an inflection point today, but it is also no longer a mere abstract concept either.

 

the right still throws "socialist" and "communist" as insults to the left not realizing or ignoring who aligns or wants to align so badly with Glorious Putin.

 

I agree with you and understand the point of article 5. Theresa May has already said they will not be invoking article 5 though. That may change but that’s the stance they’re taking currently. Putin has been testing trump since he’s been in office and probably long before that for all we know. Trump is coward.

 

May won’t invoke article 5 now because they are petrified of Trumps predictable non response if invoked.

I did take from her response though that May will be still be taking this up with NATO and looking for a unified response. I’m guessing deep sanctions and heavy condemnation.

This didn’t happen in some third world country or even Russia. This could have easily been done in NY or Boston and you damn well bet that Putin will be emboldened to further carry out more attacks without a big response here from the US.

I guess the question really is up to the Trump fans here. Are you willing to let your dear leader get away with contributing to be a Putin puppet or will you demand he actually look out for American interests and protect NATO from a dictator looking to overtake Europe.

 

I don't believe fallout was used to kill this spy.

 

on Monday, while the Trump WH was reluctant to point out Russia, shortly after the news about the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy with a military-grade nerve agent in the U.K., the then-Secretary of State Tillerson called it “a really egregious act” that appears to have “clearly” come from Russia.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/tillerson-says-u-k-spy-poisoning-clearly-came-russia-n856056​

In a statement released by the State Department on Monday evening, Tillerson called Russia "an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens."

while traveling aboard a U.S. airplane during a trip to Africa., Tillerson said

“It's almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state, would do something like that,”
“A nonstate actor, I could understand. A state actor — I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action,”

Asked if the poisoning will trigger a mutual defense response with the close NATO ally, Tillerson said that “it certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it at that.”

On Tues AM, Trump tweeted that he has fired Tillerson

moral of the story,

you can call Trump a "F**king Moron", as Tillerson had done mid-2017, you could still get away w it.
But when you call out Russia, you've crossed the line​

 

Strong statement. Putin personally responsible for the nerve attack.

Trump still scared of speaking up? Makes you really wonder why... stand with Putin or stand with "your" allies?