Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/13/butina-flipped.html
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before likely being deported back to Russia
Well, retirement plans are one less thing she has to worry about, I suppose.
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I have to wonder if four years of Trump will have been worth it for the Russians once this is over.
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Jr must be getting nervous…
"When José Grinda, a Spanish prosecutor who spearheads investigations into organized crime, was asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s interactions with Trump Jr. or other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”
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If you’re playing the zero sum game, it doesn’t matter how bad it was for you, only that it was worse for the other guy
(so, yeah, IMO for the russians who backed trump, they probably still feel like it’s worth it)
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You know if this ends up taking down the NRA (at least the fearmongering dogwhistling racist shitstain industry lobby part of it) that would be nice.
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That’s what I came here to say.
If I were her, I wouldn’t go for any deal which involved going back to Russia to suffer a mysterious accident.
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Is it Halloween? Because there sure are allot of witches flying around.
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“Prosecutors say Butina acted under the direction of Russian bank official Alexander Torshin (who has disappeared)”
Have they checked Individual 1 Tower?
You have to wonder if they offered her asylum and a new identity. Maybe somewhere in Switzerland - or Taos.
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There are OTHER parts??
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There is that whole safety and education part… that umm sorta still exists.
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Poor little Kroshka, she must have been so sad to take her own life like that. Throwing herself off the roof of this apartment building onto a pile of polonium after shooting herself in the back of the head…she must have been very depressed.
They’ve undermined fundamental confidence in the US electoral system and government, they’ve opened serious cracks in generational alliances that were set up to contain them, and they’ve brought back the question of whether liberal democracy is a viable form of government on the world stage. They’ve gotten pretty good bang for their buck.
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Some Russian should write a novel.
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In Russian literature that’s what passes for a “comedy.”
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“Suicide, I’m afraid.”
“She was shot five times in the chest and once in the head!”
“Yes, worst case of suicide I ever saw.”
“Someone set the body on fire!”
“Spontaneous post-mortem combustion. Happens more often than you’d think.”
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FTFY
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Totally worth it for Putin. It’s a bonus on top of the initial goal of undermining confidence in liberal democracy and promoting disunity in the West.
When his spies like Butina get caught and spill the beans* it’s just another opportunity for him to provide an object example of what happens to those who betray his regime to the West, if he so pleases.
[* this is the difference between Butina and Chapman; the latter didn’t co-operate and was rewarded, while the former is screwed if she doesn’t get witness protection in the West]
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Boring…
I think that her story is so boring.
Some stories really get me going, I see them as movies in my head. I get, I dunno’, goosebumps(?)
This… she was just good enough to get some sweaty old assholes who court the amosexual vote to want to have sex with her.
Maybe what is interesting about her story is that it is so boring.
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That’s fair. I mean, this is a story we’ve all seen play out a hundred times: a Russian agent befriends a conservative activist and infiltrates the most the pro-American of organizations by being just good looking enough to raise some belted khakis and connected enough to throw around some money. Fast forward, she has some direct contacts with the inner circle of the incoming President of the United States, who is also being investigated for collusion with Russian agents. Her handler subsequently goes missing, and the story has the potential to tie a bunch of threads together and implicate the President’s immediate family in serious crimes.
Yawn…next!
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