Okaaay: “A suspect in the murder of the opposition politician Boris Y. Nemtsov blew himself up as the police closed in on him overnight, Russian news reports said on Sunday…” The New York Times went on to note that the Russians seem rather wedded to the idea that this is all due to Chechens; precisely why they’d want Nemtsov dead (given that the man was involved in trying to end the first Russo-Chechen War) is unkno… oh, why am I pretending? We all know that the Putin regime put the hit out on Nemtsov, and is now blaming the Chechens because they’re extremely convenient boogeymen for Russian audiences. People outside Russia will have a different opinion; but what does Putin care about that?
Welcome back to history, folks. Turns out the reports of its demise were, as they say, premature. in fact, it never really died at all.
Via Hot Air Headlines.
Moe Lane
…Riiight…
What’s next? Are you telling me it wasn’t a lone gunman in Dallas? /sarc
All sarcasm aside, I think the Chechens are being blamed because Putin realized nobody was buying the idea that the Ukrainians had anything to do with it.
At least Chechens makes sense on a world-wide stage concerning Islamism. The Boston Marathon bombers were Chechen.
The factions and sub-factions are incomprehensible at the Kremlin, just like in any capitol. A deputy or some department head could have benefited from this hit for any number of reasons, not least of which it would make Putin look bad. Speaking as a someone who has lived in Russia, Nemtsov was small potatoes (he’s more popular outside of Russia than inside, as the western press has tried to make him out as some political giant rather than on the level of Code Pink).