Originally published at: Yet another Russian official falls out yet another window | Boing Boing
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Such bad luck. No doubt karma for not giving the siloviki their fair share of the skim.
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Also from Russia…
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The most desirable offices in Russia are on the ground floor.
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Back in the day Russia would take you to the gulag - now they just take you to the roof.
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There’s still the danger of being killed by repeatedly falling out of a window.
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I don’t think replacing the glass with transparent armor would help. The person would just keep having accidents until something gave.
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You’d think Russian officials and Oligarchs would develop a fondness for one story buildings.
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Well, I was going to go out on a limb and speculate that perhaps she had been diverting some of it to her personal accounts, but your version may be more accurate.
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Both.
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The Klept.
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Somebody’s gotta take the fall.
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We may have reached the stage where merely being plausible to lead a coup is enough to get you deaded.
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If she wasn’t skimming, there would be nothing to (fail to) kick up.
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There isn’t anyone in Russia plausible to lead a coup. Nobody who is in a position to try has an independent power base that would support them against Putin.
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Maybe that guy who owns that international criminal organisation the Wagner Group of mercenaries
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Prigozhin would like to be head of the army or even defence minister and perhaps position himself to have a shot at becoming president after the Putin era is over, but he’s just a bloke who does jobs for the Kremlin and has got a bit too big for his boots. He set up Wagner because Putin needed an off the books mercenary outfit for deniable operations and Prigozhin (whose catering companies had military contracts) was reliable enough to be given the job.
ETA: Private military companies are illegal in Russia. If Putin decides that Wagner needs to be shut down he can have Prigozhin arrested and then offer the soldiers a choice between prosecution and joining the regular army.
According to a journalistic investigation by the Russian website The Bell, the idea of creating a deniable, “off-balance” private army – and entrusting its logistical operational aspect to Yevgeny Prigozhin – came from high-ranking officers from Russia’s Defense Ministry, after being impressed with a 2010 presentation by Eben Barlow, the founder of the South-Africa-based PMC “Executive Outcomes”. Three different sources are quoted as saying that initially Prigozhin objected to such a high-risk role, but that given his pre-existing service relationship with the Defense Ministry – which provided the cover operation with both an alibi and an existing support infrastructure – he did not have the option to refuse it.
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You may think that, and I may think that, but you don’t stay in power over a country that is going to shit as fast as Russia is without being pretty paranoid about ANY potential rival.
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Putin’s paranoia about potential rivals is precisely why there aren’t any. Everyone in a position of power is there because they enjoy Putin’s favour and for no other reason. There aren’t any factions or interests that Putin has to appease or which could turn on him if he doesn’t deliver for them.
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