"'Laundresses, secretaries, cooks — to a whole new group of people. The assessment from the intelligence community is that he's scared,' Copetas said. Copetas says that the preferred method of assassination in Russia is poison..."
Here's a WaPo article from 2020, "Why poison is the weapon of choice in Putin’s Russia":
Poisoning may seem like an archaic way to kill, especially when other Kremlin critics have been gunned down. But the confusion and intrigue the method fosters may be the reason it remains in use.
“If you’re a regime that is willing to kill enemies at home and abroad, you have to decide on your priorities: ease, subtlety or theatricality,” said Mark Galeotti, director of the London-based firm Mayak Intelligence. “For the second and third, poison is often a good bet."
It's sneaky. Isn't it traditionally the murder method used by women? I see the mention of "laundresses, secretaries, cooks." He's afraid of the women — rightly! No need to call this paranoia. I don't know why the 1,000 new people would be kinder than the old 1,000.
You know I was just reading "The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, which contains this beautifully written passage describing a poisoning:
In the evening, Boris Timofeich ate a bit of kasha with mushrooms and got heartburn; then suddenly there was pain in the pit of his stomach; he was seized with terrible vomiting, and towards morning he died, just as the rats died in his storehouses, Katerina Lvovna having always prepared a special food for them with her own hands, using a dangerous white powder entrusted to her keeping....
"[T]hey buried [him] without second thoughts, according to the Christian rule. Amazingly enough, no one thought anything of it: Boris Timofeich had died, died from eating mushrooms, as many had died from eating them....."
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It's sexist that poison gas is outlawed but phallic rockets are A-OK.
Katerina Lvovna - Catherine of Lvov. Lvov, formerly part of Poland, then of Russia, then of Poland again, now of Ukraine. Maybe if Putin's war gets all the way to Lvov, he'll suffer from a pain in the pit of his stomach and die towards morning, just as the soldiers died in his military.
I don't know why the 1,000 new people would be kinder than the old 1,000.
It disrupts plans, eliminates conspiracies. Whoever was preparing it is gone, whoever will prepare it needs to start from scratch.
Whom the gods yada yada yada
Me: "OMG this is like really serious! Putin is super scared and Russia is about to collapse internally! How did it ever get this bad!?!"
checks notes: Daily Beast
Me: "It's ok everyone. It's nothing."
My information is different.
I myself have been told that Putin's personal staff is only 999 people and does not include a food taster.
Contributing editors were also told about the Steele Dossier.
Just thinking of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, I'm going to assume nobody lets Putin open his own doors. He'd look a little silly gloving up every time he touched a door handle.
I take this stuff with a huge grain of salt these days. An age of instant information and yet I'm hearing a lot of "Huns raping nuns"-style reporting from people who don't exactly have a solid reputation for credibility.
The Daily Beast. I would verify them if they said the sky is blue.
Polonium means you never have to say you are sorry. Put on the door knob is enough. Fentanyl is also absorbed through the skin.
One of the most strikingly well-played scenes in television was when Mags Bennett [the amazing Margo Martindale] on Justified administered her special apple pie hooch to poor old Walt, and then talked him through the stages of his death.
- Krumhorn
C'mon man, Biden is rough and tough and hard to diaper!
The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was turned into an opera by Shostakovich in 1934. Then in 1936 it was denounced by Stalin, and was banned in the Soviet Union until 1961, in a revised version.
I've been wondering when we'd see an attempt on Putin's life. He could very well end up as Saddam, living in hiding. Removing, or killing those closest to him. Until the Generals, or some Major somewhere groups 3-4 special force level soldiers to get inside and get to him. It's a quick slide down, once your own country turns on you.
But, Putin does use plutonium as his poison of choice. So those who are enemies of Putin running around outside of Russia, like Mr. Zelenskyy, should be wary of going out to a cafe in Kyiv, or a bar in London after the war has ended. Be wary of being handed a glass from any stranger for a few years, or until Putin is dead.
No need to call this paranoia.
I would not be surprised to find out that this isn't the first time he's done this. Putin was KGB counter-intelligence and still carries the mindset that there are no coincidences and everyone has a puppet master pulling their strings. Ruling out extreme paranoia would be a mistake.
Here's a personal story that's partially on-point (at least as far as mushrooms are concerned). Years ago, I lived in an area without a lot of good nearby restaurants, so I was happy to learn that one had opened to positive reviews just a few blocks away. I took my then-girlfriend there one evening, and ordered a nightly special entree of pasta with mushrooms. From the first bite, it was clear to me that the mushrooms were "off" somehow. I took another small bite, just to be sure, and it was just as terrible. (Since these were mushrooms -- unlike any other ingredient -- I had a fleeting thought that they might actually be poisonous, but I realized that was highly unlikely.) I called the waiter over and told him that my entree was bad, something I had never done in a restaurant before. And what happened next really surprised me -- he went into the kitchen and brought out the chef. Who picked up my plate, tasted the food, and informed me it was fine. This was... unusual, right? The waiter grudgingly agreed to let me order something else, which ended up costing nearly twice as much (and no, they didn't comp my meal). Naturally, I never went back to that restaurant again. Two months later, I saw that they had gone out of business, and had been replaced by a sushi bar. I decided not to push my luck, and never ate there, either.
Fiona Hill was interviewed about her recent memoir. She once sat next to Putin at a dinner. He did not touch his food or drink. So sounds like sop for a while.
RICIN --- no immediate reaction, so tasters don't help. 2 milligrams in food or water can kill an adult within three days.
One has to wonder why a Daily Beast writer hears about such a large-scale event and no one else does.
More bullshit odors eminating out of the fog.
Why would anyone in Putin's circle talk to the Daily Beast? And why would we believe anything craig copetas says?
That aside, I would be very careful if I was Putin or any other leader targeted by the USA/Western Powers. Does anyone doubt the CIA would try to assassinate him? Or British intelligence? Or Ukrainian operatives?
I'm sure that's why we rarely know where zelensky is. Is he really in Kiev? Or the Ukraine? I doubt it.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My son just got food poisoning over the weekend.
Too soon… lol
I have this bridge I'm thinking about selling. . .
'Laundresses, secretaries, cooks — to a whole new group of people. The assessment from the intelligence community is that he's scared,' Copetas said.
You've got to guard against wardrobe malfunctions.
One nip slip and it could be all over for him.
I would also cut back on the number of personal assistants. Each one is a risk, and I bet he could do with fewer.
I know if I had 1,000 personal assistants almost all my energy would go towards figuring out things for them to do. It would leave precious little time for other tasks like, say, weighing the advisability of invading Ukraine.
Is he also spending all his time watching the Gorilla Channel?
If the Daily Beast said the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, I might believe them.
Anything else? Maybe not.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
My mom put mushrooms in her kasha varnishkes. It was delicious, but the kasha kind of stinks up the place when you cook it.
Putin most likely didn't interview each new staff member personally. Eventually, the dependence on others might take its toll. Just like Charlie and his stalker Rose.
The relevant exchange didn't make the cut so I'll paraphrase from memory.
Charlie: Rose! How do you keep getting in here? I changed the locks three times.
Rose: Aah, but you didn't change the locksmith.
No indication he may have had people tasting his food, perhaps intermittently, all along. Nor any report of how often he replaces members of his personal staff.
Oh, the privileged life of a Russian oligarch.
I don't know why the 1,000 new people would be kinder than the old 1,000.
I assume the reasoning is that by rotating staff in key positions, you prevent staffers from staying in a position long enough to set up a scam or plan a robbery or find a window of opportunity for assassination.
So it's not that the new 1,000 are going to be kinder. It's that they're new. Circles of trust and corruption will have to be reestablished. Like-minded contacts will have to be found and vetted. Etc. By the time the putative assassins in the new 1,000 are ready to move, Putin will be ready to replace them and set the coup back to square one.
"It's sneaky. Isn't it traditionally the murder method used by women?
"I'd poison you. I'd poison your cupcakes that you pretend not to eat everyday and just put like enough in to just slowly weaken you. I'd enjoy our last few months together. Cause you'd be so weak and sweet and I could take care of you... but while killing you."
"says he's been told that..."
What a construct. It's meaningless unless you know who told him that. Even if you do know, I don't put much stock in it.
Here's a WaPo article from 2020, "Why poison is the weapon of choice in Putin’s Russia"
But it’s slow and messy and results aren’t guaranteed. I’m guessing pretty soon Putin’s former KGB buddies will send him off in accord with their tradition: one to the back of the head in the basement of the Lubyanka.
Craig says he's been told? Sounds legit.
Shortly before the fall of Saddam Hussein, there was a story about how he rarely spent two nights in a row in the same place, he was afraid of everyone, etc. American violence certainly speeded his passage, and to some extent that of Gaddafi. They both ended up alone, subsisting in a hole. Supports Machiavelli's view that if you want your "regime" to last, you need something like a religion.
1,000 people?
I had trouble managing 6 to 12.
A chemical bath, a vacuum to remove the remains, a double-edged scalpel to decapitate and dismember a "burden". Perhaps a Saddam (sic) and abortion session in darkness, in the light. Murder most foul, but socially forward, even normalized as humane, taught to our Posterity from a progressive age. One step forward, two steps backward.
Thats crazy. Ive been told Joe Biden is a raging Pedo.
Someone told me.
He was totally serial
My boy friend's sister's best friend's brother said...
Replacing 1000 people, presumably with 1000 other people with necessary skills and very high security clearances. Possible, but I am honestly doubtful.
I'm sorry but this sounds exactly like Trump's pee tape: dramatic stories everyone wishes were true.
Inside Edition??
I am just going to call bullshit on this story.
A story of doubtful validity. I’m sure Chicken Kiev has been removed from the menu, as has any bread made from Ukrainian wheat.
A story of doubtful validity. I’m sure Chicken Kiev has been removed from the menu, as has any bread made from Ukrainian wheat.
On the West-side of Chgo we referred to this as" "He say that they said that he may be the guy"
Daddy, what is click bait?
Craig says he's been told? Sounds legit.
Craig don’t know but he’s been told,
Putin’s food tasters are mighty bold.
Eat that.
No thanks.
Eat that.
No thanks.
Eat that or go to … Ukraine!
Nancy Astor: Winston, if I were your wife, I'd put poison in your coffee
Churchill: And if I were your husband, I'd drink it.
Also from that Inside Edition piece, they're diagnosing Putin with 'roid rage.
He must be self-preserving pretty well. When his kleptocrats got cut off from their money, I figured he had less than a week
“ The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was turned into an opera by Shostakovich in 1934. ”
Thanks. Listening in Spotify now.
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was also the basis of the 2016 British film Lady Macbeth, which added -- what else? -- a racial angle.
It's hard to tell nowadays whether anything in the media is true or false. I believe the part about the food taster. Whether Putin fired all the staff, who can say?
Ann,
The revision is Katerina Ismailova. The original was attacked by Stalin personally in an article generally translated as "Muddle Instead of Music." (No, Stalin's article wasn't signed; that's how we know, perversely, that Stalin almost certainly wrote it himself.)
Apparently much of Stalin's beef was about the lascivious sounds made by trombones in the sex scene after Katerina and her lover have poisoned her husband. "Pornophony," it was called. But he had also just decided to crack down on Shostakovich: A week after "Muddle," there was another unsigned review of a now-forgotten ballet, an impeccably Socialist-Realist piece called Song of the Forests. "This could all end very badly," one of the editorials warned.
Stalin in 1936-7 was terrifying and utterly unpredictable. He would kill more or less anyone who caught his eye, which is why everyone walked with their eyes resolutely cast down.
If you can find it, do read Richard Taruskin's essay on Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. It ran originally in the New Republic, and now is in (I think) On Russian Music [EDIT: I checked and it isn't there, though the gist is summarized in another article on Shostakovich.]
Inside Edition?
Do they cover Hailey Baldwin's shot clot?
The West punishing the Russian people enough to get them to overthrow the government. Are they committing Treason?
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