Russian Solutions To Dissent and Opposition

"I think the circumstances of his death are extremely suspicious. Whenever someone who is in a negative view of the Putin regime dies suspiciously, one should rule out foul play, not rule it in."

"He [Dan Rapoport’s fall from a luxury apartment building on the night of Aug. 14] was a well-known critic of Putin in the West and had been an effective critic."

"He was also an open supporter of [jailed opposition leader] Alexei Navalny. And he had all these connections in the elite of Washington, D.C."

"The immediate response of the Washington, D.C. police, I think, is a premature and unhelpful conclusion."

Anti-Putin critic Bill Browder

 

"[We call for the] soonest termination of the armed conflict. [And extend our] sincere empathy for all victims."

"We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy."

Ravil Maganov, chairman, Lukoil, March

Ravil Maganov (right) with Vladimir Putin. A Russian news site suggested Maganov slipped from a balcony when smoking. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

 Slipped from a balcony while he was smoking. An inadvertent mis-step. Not a suicide, of course not a suicide. He was not a suicidal man, his colleagues, friends and family attest. But that's the thing about nicotine, it's a deadly substance. If it doesn't kill you with lung cancer, it'll sneakily cause you to miss a step and slither over a balcony -- however awkward that may be -- to your death. Those who snidely suggest Mr. Maganov's abandoned friendship with Mr. Putin and support for his regime was behind his death; what can we say?

On the other hand, a friendship and support that becomes a critic of a disastrous, bloody invasion of another country, now that could be a problem. Russia is special and it has become even more special under Vladimir Putin. Assassinations have always been a dime a dozen in high government circles almost everywhere, but particularly in Russia where it's a blood sport. And there are so many resourceful final solutions to choose from!

In this particular instance, defenestration, an oft-used method, tried and true. But then, there's also poisoning and it has proven to be quite successful, though not always. But then, those who manage to survive their poisoning ordeal can be punished for that kind of effrontery added to their insuperable criticism of Mr. Putin, by long and extended prison sentences. Stabbing works well, but not quite as efficiently as sharp-shooters. They are all, however options seeking the right time and place -- and suitable targets. 

But goodness, these events are popping off one after another, fast and furious. Perhaps that is the result of a furious Mr. Putin demanding of his henchmen that they dispatch themselves, fast and successfully. The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow this week was a very busy place. It's where world-celebrated former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev breathed his last. And just incidentally where Mr. Maganov chose to slip on a balcony to fall to this death. A six-storey fall is always lethal  unless you're a rubber ducky.

Latbian-born American businessman, Dan Rapoport, a critic of Mr. Putin, only two weeks previously happened to fall from the window of his Washington, D.C. luxury apartment after he left Kyiv following the Russian invasion. Reports out of Russia that he died a suicide have been denied by his wife, awaiting a visa to join him in the U.S. fron Denmark.

And then there's Yegor Prosvirnin who founded the Sputnik and Pogrom news website who had the misfortune to fall from the fifth storey of a residential building in Moscow in 2021. The very day that neighbours heard "screaming and swearing" from his room. Another critic of Vladimir Putin, who predicted a collapse of the Russian Federation as a result of civil war.

Novatek natural gas firm former board director Sergei Protosenya hanged himself in a Spanish villa in Costa Brava where his wife and daughter were discovered hacked to death. A theory is being pursued by investigators that the man slaughtered his wife and daugher with an axe and knife then committed suicide, though no fingerprints were found on the murder weapons and no blood was found on him.

61-year-old Alexander Tyulyakov, former Gazprom deputy, found hanged near St.Petersburg in a cabin, a suicide note beside him. Head of Gazprom's transport service Leonid Shulman died of a suicide in January, in the bathroom of a cabin in the Leningrad area. A note left behind complaining his leg was broken. The knife he used to kill himself with multiple stab wounds lay in a bathtub but out of his reach.

People march in memory of Russian opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on March 1, 2015 in central Moscow.  Epsilon / Getty Images file