I’m no JHJ conspiracy nut, and in all likelihood it was the Russians, but these two feel like patsies. They can get into to the UK, either with the nerve agent or they collect it somewhere, manage to poison the Skrippals, then suddenly decide to go on a sightseeing tour together and get their faces all over CCTV? Goes from highly professional to amateur hour very quickly.

but more importantly, the faux outrage of the government, public and other foreign governments is laughable when you think about it as I’m sure our security services have offed lots of foreigners on their own soil, and let’s not even talk about the CIA etc!

They can get into to the UK, either with the nerve agent or they collect it somewhere, manage to poison the Skrippals, then suddenly decide to go on a sightseeing tour together and get their faces all over CCTV? Goes from highly professional to amateur hour very quickly.

Was it not reported they have spent this long and a huge amount of man hours piecing the cctv together? Snippets to find their tracks not just a sightseeing tour.

a sightseeing tour together and get their faces all over CCTV?

Next time you walk down any street (Fisherton Street, for example) just try amd count the number of CCTV cameras you see. Try the same in an airport or mainline railway station. Then think about those that you can’t see. Inside a shop, in a taxi, etc.

I suspect that one different aspect here is the potential risk to the public beyond the original targets. A British citizen (Dawn Sturgess) has died as a result of what happened.

Was it not reported they have spent this long and a huge amount of man hours piecing the cctv together? Snippets to find their tracks not just a sightseeing tour.

Fascinating background on the special police unit who do facial recognition, and it isn’t AI, or hackable…

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/salisbury-novichok-poisoning-russia-suspects

Quick update in what the hell is going on in Salisbury…

The main car park is very busy.

Plenty of tourists enjoying it all.

The Thai stall in the market had a very long queue for an early lunch. Rightly so.

Cotswold have a pretty decent sale on. Look for the original wattle and daub as you go up to the footwear department.

The umbrellas outside Waterstones still look brilliant.

A very happy chap was picking up his new Brompton from Stonehenge Cycles. Workshop as busy as ever.

In short, life’s going on, and going on very well!

Seen the video yet? Bonkers!

“We go to make visit to cathedral, which has very famous spire which is 123 metres tall. And an old clock”

Source – Wikipedia.ru

It’s all so plausible. Who hasn’t flown into a foreign country for a couple of nights to visit a minor city on two separate days, taking special care to take in some of the finest suburban housing estates that the place has to offer?

(taking your mate who, by a weird coincidence, has a consecutively numbered passport!)

we are being trolled

not funny for the victims

proper trolled.

along the lines of “my dog ate my homework” and “yes nurse, I just fell over and impaled myself on this 12″ frozen sausage”.

Very true, kimbers. If it wasn’t for what actually happened, this would be hilarious!

The statement by the #skripal suspects is glorious. The city was so 'covered in snow' that they couldn't walk 0.7 miles to Salisbury Cathedral, but they could walk over a mile to Christie Miller road, in completely the opposite direction. Poor lambs, they clearly got really lost! pic.twitter.com/Qd7XzGAiC9

— Guy Walters (@guywalters) September 13, 2018

Should have been the plot for Day of the Jackal.

Day of the Jackass.

If they’d watched this GRU training video, they would have been more appropriately dressed for cold weather.

“We go to make visit to cathedral, which has very famous spire which is 123 metres tall. And an old clock”

I just heard this on the radio.  Paraphrasing from memory, they said it was all a “fantastical coincidence” and that they’d gone to Salisbury because friends had said it was a must-see holiday destination.

I just heard this on the radio.

Yup. Couple of days holiday and so what better to do than fly to the UK and stay in London whilst popping down to Salisbury to see the cathedral.

Considering the number of suspicious deaths of Russian dissidents recently which havent had an obvious trail to follow I suspect these two wont be getting a performance bonus this year.

God bless @BBCSimonMcCoy. Just spray-spat tea. pic.twitter.com/TfwoQWdEi5

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) September 13, 2018

Just saw the interview. What a farce. Why did the Russians wheel these guys out? It has done Putin no favours. I think a poisoning might be coming back to haunt them soon.

It appears that there are plenty of people in Russia who are less than convinced by this whole TV interview, from what a reporter was saying on the 10 o’clock BBC news. I’ve seen five year olds tell more convincing fibs than those two!

isn’t that the point though……. by coming up with a shit story, they’re basically saying ‘yep, it was us’ without actually admitting it, knowing that it is putting the fear up any other dissidents and at the same time boiling ‘our’ piss that there’s sod all we can do about it.

They’re probably drinking vodka and giggling with Vlad as we speak.

My instinct was that Putin may surprise us and cut them loose to UK authorities, but then what might they say? They are innocent until proven guilty, however they certainly should have their story brought to scrutiny in a UK court.

At the time lots of conspiracy stuff was floating around, however this does appear to be a success story for the process of police investigative procedures, unless I have missed the odd hand shake somewhere between Wiltshire police and Jimmy Saville or a Saudi Sheik.

It has done Putin no favours. I think a poisoning might be coming back to haunt them soon.

Putin has got himself far enough up the ladder, stamping on so many on the way up he is into the great dictator phase where he can’t let it slip whilst being still at the height of his powers. At the moment he can get away with this, the 2 guys will have a nice retirement one way or another, perhaps they will go tandem skydiving next in Siberia.

However once his power starts to slip….

Why aren’t we aggressively shadowing these obsolete planes with our top of the range eurofighter and making the point?

As in, the eurofighters that go out to intercept pretty much all the Russian aircraft that come this way, or over the Baltic? How much more aggressively do you want them to make their point- just some small missiles to start with? Maybe only blow off the ends of the wings?

On the broader question, quite a few countries levelled heavy sanctions against Russia in response to what we said. Russia basically doesn’t have a soft power network- hard power is pretty much what they have to play with. The uk still has a lot of influence around the world to work up through before it needs to start annexing larts of its neighbours.

isn’t that the point though……. by coming up with a shit story, they’re basically saying ‘yep, it was us’ without actually admitting it, knowing that it is putting the fear up any other dissidents and at the same time boiling ‘our’ piss that there’s sod all we can do about it.

I would disagree with this. I think Putin and his supporters want to be taken seriously on a global level. He needs to be seen as strong but also credible to other world leaders. I don’t think he will be as happy with that charade as you make out.

Stolen from Reddit:

<div class=”ghzo1t-0 cmHgru”>
<h2 class=”pd8yw6-0 cmzwWe”>Visiting UK – travel advice needed</h2>
<div class=”_1wrPey753PxLyLbB0NCEZP”></div>
<div class=”_1hLrLjnE1G_RBCNcN9MVQf”></div>
</div>
<div class=”ghzo1t-4 liUicR s1hmcfrd-0 ckueCN”>
<p class=”yklcuq-10 hpxQMr”>Hi guys, me and a friend are interested in visiting England for a couple of days in early March. We are mainly interested in visiting Salisbury, famous for its 123m spire. Our plan is to fly into LHR on the 2nd, visit Salisbury for half a day on the 3rd, and then another half a day on the 4th before flying back to our home (Russia). We have booked a hotel in London for the 3 nights. We’ll maybe pop round to stone henge but if its muddy at all we won’t bother. We’ve come half way around the world but are far more interested in the world famous 123m spire.</p>

</div>

I’m sure there are those who STILL believe this was a UK plot to make Putin look bad.

isn’t that the point though……. by coming up with a shit story, they’re basically saying ‘yep, it was us’ without actually admitting it, knowing that it is putting the fear up any other dissidents and at the same time boiling ‘our’ piss that there’s sod all we can do about it.

This is my POV.

violating our airspace with his obsolete Cold War jets.

I think you’ll find it’s because when they come down the North Sea they’re very very careful to stay just inside International airspace, that’s why.

Yup, They’re trolling everyone.

a) The people who believe it was Russia, by basically saying we’ve not even bothered to make up a plausible story, what’cha’gonna’do? AND

b) the ones who were sure that the “two russians” were an MI5 plot*, by saying here they are, yes they exist. How’s that conspiracy worldview looking for you now?

c) also Corbyn. It looks like the evidence that wasn’t enough for him is getting more solid. Has he made any comment yet?

*to hide the fact that it was Aliens carrying out a false flag operation on behalf of mossad, to distract attention from the other aliens (who escaped through the broken fourth wall in a Deadpool movie).

I suspect they first came up with the idea for this trip when they both manned a surface to air missile battery in the Ukraine?

If Russia can get away with blowing up an airliner over Europe, a little poisoning shouldn’t be that much of an issue.

I do believe that they are in fear for their lives…. I don’t think Putin is fond of failure especially when it brings a load of shit with it.

Russian bots are going crazy on newspaper comment sites. Don’t they have more important things to do, like sowing discord ahead of the US midterms?

As in, the eurofighters that go out to intercept pretty much all the Russian aircraft that come this way, or over the Baltic? How much more aggressively do you want them to make their point- just some small missiles to start with? Maybe only blow off the ends of the wings?

You’re missing the point. It’s not about actual capability it’s about daring to make a statement.

Can’t be that difficult to stick a Go Pro in the cockpit and show the aircraft involved, then after a few seconds put a side-by-side graphic up of the relevant relative performance figures of the two aircraft. Upload to Youtube and job’s a good’un.

Maybe get the RAF lad to do a token victory roll, when they’re well clear of the other aircraft, obvs.

Can’t be that difficult to stick a Go Pro in the cockpit and show the aircraft involved, then after a few seconds put a side-by-side graphic up of the relevant relative performance figures of the two aircraft. Upload to Youtube and job’s a good’un.

A good what? It shows the Russians wander in, we escort them out and repeat. Putin gets to look strong at home where he controls the narrative as he taunts the west. We look like we are getting annoyed.

Well, we’re into perception management now, aren’t we?

I would say my ‘plan’ above would be interpreted as:

“They wander in (although don’t actually dare violate the airspace proper) in their sooty trailed lumps of 1970s pig iron and we pop up a 21st Century aircraft. They then get out of Dodge as quick as they can”.

We are perceived as being provoked but calmly just re-iterating that should something actually ‘go down’ we are more than capable, but for now they aren’t worth the bother. Think of it like a rattlesnake’s rattle.

Depends on your perspective, but painting them as a mild irritant that could be swatted should we want to would be a good idea IMO.

We could just send over a few of our long range bom….

oh ****.

As has been pointed out, they are flying in international airspace. The best response would be to ignore them but it gives our pilots something to do and makes good sabre-rattling headlines for those that don’t understand international law.

Craig Murray – Loonbag

The best response would be to ignore them but it gives our pilots something to do and makes good sabre-rattling headlines for those that don’t understand international law.

I’m not aware that there are any sabre-rattling headlines, though. I could be mistaken – I don’t read or even look at most of the comics that would fanfare such a headline.

It’s not about sabre-rattling for me, though, it is more like outing an internet troll who portrays themselves in an impressive sounding way, but it actually a 40 year old who still lives with his parents and whose actual martial arts expertise is a shabby Bruce Lee poster on his bedroom wall rather than the ex Navy Seal stuff that he has posted online.

The TU-95 Bears that Russia ‘probes’ our airspace with may be old (like the B52) but they are still caperble of carrying 16 AS-15 cruise missiles each with a 200kton warhead.  They can also carry the KH-15 missiles including the stealth variant.  There’s also rumours that they can carry hypersonic cruise missiles.  All of which can hit the UK from well outside our airspace.

They may be a 1950’s throwback but I wouldn’t laugh at them just yet……

The bigger concern is the Russian planes tend not to have their transponders on meaning they are more a risk to commercial aviation that actual airspace sovereignty, out in the North sea this would not be a big issue but it tend to be more a problem in the Baltic which is a little more condensed in regard to short hop passenger jets.

It should be noted that Nato, read US, spy planes do the same thing.