May's ultimatum to Russia

[thirdcrank]

In other news, the Prime Minister has given Russia till 2359 to explain the use of "military grade" nerve agent in Salisbury.

I saw an item on the news the other evening where it reported on public reaction in Russia to the nerve agent story when Bojo had had his say. One of the Russian tv programmes had shown the pics of Her Britannic Majesty's Principle Buffoon, sorry Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, suspended from a wire waving a couple of Union Flags. The public view there of the principle target of the attack was that as a double agent he should expect whatever happened to him and if he preferred the danger of living in the UK to the safety of Russia, it showed how misguided he was.

Bojo.jpg (10.03 KiB) Viewed 645 times

Has anybody any predictions about what sanctions, if any, the PM will impose?

Has anybody any predictions about whether the Russian President will be in the least bothered?

[Spinners]

Pull England out of the World Cup.

(Not because of the nerve agent incident, just because they're rubbish )

[Cyril Haearn]

Did she mean the year 2359 or 23:59 hours this evening?

[NUKe]

In other news, the Prime Minister has given Russia till 2359 to explain the use of "military grade" nerve agent in Salisbury.

Is that the year they are expected to respond.
I don't think it is yet prooved that the Russian Goverment is involved. Perhaps we should wait.

[KTHSullivan]

Hope the UK sanctions are not too draconian; otherwise bang goes my proposed Russian doll import business

[Mike Sales]

The Conservative party is in the pocket of foreign powers that represent a threat to the national security of Britain. It is a grotesquely under-reported national scandal, lost amid a hysterical Tory campaign to delegitimise the Labour party with false allegations of treason. If Labour had received £820,000 from Russian-linked oligarchs and companies in the past 20 months – and indeed £3m since 2010 – the media outrage would be deafening. But this is the Tory party, so there are no cries of treachery, of being in league with a hostile foreign power, of threatening the nation’s security.

It was 2014, and Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of Russia’s former deputy finance minister, paid the princely sum of £160,000 to play tennis with David Cameron and Boris Johnson. In total, since 2012 – when the Electoral Commission initially declared her an “impermissible donor”, before subsequently allowing her to donate – she has handed the Tories £514,000.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/tory-links-russia-saudi-links-corbyn-spy-extremism

[thirdcrank]

Every cloud has a silvery lining, and from the POV of the spinners at No 10, a timely distraction from the Brexit fiasco and a chance to call for national unity and support for our strong and stable leader.

Whatever happened to summit meetings, when world leaders met for a chat?

I can imagine the Russian leader being late and one of his aides explaining "He's just remembered he forgot to turn off the gas before leaving. ....."

[Tangled Metal]

Hope the UK sanctions are not too draconian; otherwise bang goes my proposed Russian doll import business

Don't like Russian dolls, they're too into themselves.

IGMC
(That came from someone else on another forum but i thought it a little Ken Doddian, which was appropriate since I read it on the day after his death was reported).

[KTHSullivan]

But they are multi-dimensional! RIP Steven Hawking.

[pete75]

Not an expert on animal behaviour so wondering if this is the first time a clucking hen has threatened a bear.

[Tangled Metal]

She's not a hen but a Maybot. Think of the most corny Godzilla stories. Russian bear the size of a tower block fighting a Maybot through the streets of London. Watching landmarks getting flattened in the titanic struggle.

They should make a movie about it.

[661-Pete]

Don't like Russian dolls, they're too into themselves.

Remember the Russian dolls (strictly speaking, 'Matryoshka Dolls') depicted in the opening credits of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the TV series with Alec Guinness, I mean, not the movie)? The last one had no face. Very apposite...

[[XAP]Bob]

Don't like Russian dolls, they're too into themselves.

Remember the Russian dolls (strictly speaking, 'Matryoshka Dolls') depicted in the opening credits of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the TV series with Alec Guinness, I mean, not the movie)? The last one had no face. Very apposite...

Are you suggesting that May is the smallest level of Russian?

[KTHSullivan]

We could of course say nothing and glibly accept that a foreign power can run amuck at will in the UK. Or we could complain. Do we now consider that the murder of whistle blowers and or dissidents to be de rigour? The UK is a democracy, its not perfect by any means but we do have certain rights set in law. Whereas Russia unfortunately is run by an "elected government" that has effectively no opposition, where the opinion of the state is reinforced by thugs and now apparently murderers. We may well be "clucking" when compared to the might of the Russian state, but to do or say nothing would however be somewhat abhorrent.

[thirdcrank]

Where's the origin of our present impotence? After all, we defeated communism some time ago. As others have implied, perhaps we - and our politicians - were a little quick to embrace the uncontrolled version of capitalism which has filled the resulting vacuum.