Is Putin getting away with poisoning another political opponent?

Irrespective of Navalny’s health outcome, we can pretty well predict what will happen next: The Kremlin will cook up all kinds of alternative explanations for Navalny’s presumed poisoning. Almost certain will be charges that Navalny poisoned himself to get back at Putin, that the CIA slipped him the poison, or that it was those dastardly Ukrainians who did so. If necessary, Putin can raise the volume to blast the entire Russian Federation with the good news that their president (for life) is not to blame.

Perhaps the tried-and-true Putin playbook will not work this time; Russia already is sufficiently riled up — and Navalny is a sympathetic figure with a beautiful wife and daughters. Maybe Putin can no longer go to this well. But does he have other tricks up his sleeve? The smart money would bet that he does.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/513276-is-putin-getting-away-with-poisoning-another-political-opponent 

Something Strange Going On in the Kremlin

The news coming out of Russia could not be stranger. The confessed assassin of Boris Nemtsov is visited by a human rights activist and claims he was tortured into a confession. Intelligence services first claim that Kremlin surveillance cameras were down for maintenance at the time of the assassination. Next, we hear that the cameras picked up images of the assassins near the crime scene. The puppet leader of Chechnya praises  the confessed (but confession withdrawn) killer as a pious Muslim, but his mother says he has no interest in religion. Rumors or a “shooting list” are laughed off by Putin’s official spokesman. Putin himself has not been seen in public since March 8 and apparently will skip an important meeting in Kazakhstan – for reasons of illness? The head of the security services is making announcements about the progress of the case instead of the usual Investigation Committee.

Instead of a neat roll out of confessions, quick sentencing, and disappearance into prison we have denials, different versions of events, and apparent turf wars. The name of the actual organizer of the killing is circulating on social media.

Has the Nemtsov murder caused Kremlin politics to spin out of control? What is going on?

The Nemtsov Murder Investigation Has Now Officially a Farce

The message of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination now cannot be mistaken. The in-your-face murder in the shadow of the Kremlin obviously required high-level assistance. The trail of the murderers leading to Chechnya was shrugged off with a medal of honor for its puppet leader. The ultimate insult was the reported confession of the alleged nonreligious hit man that he killed Nemtsov on his own initiative because he insulted Islam. Facts do not matter. Kremlin propaganda will still blame the Nazi-Ukrainians manipulated by the CIA no matter what the record will show. The rigorous investigation promised by Vladimir Putin has become a farce.

go to Forbes,com