Vladimir Kara-Murza, who nobody has ever heard of, has fallen into a coma in Russia. And who done it - well who do you think?
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Literally a few hours ago, nobody had ever heard of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
I have asked around in Moscow, with Russians who follow politics. The same answer: "No, I just heard of him." This guy is even less known than Boris Nemtsov, whose name at the time of his death was familiar to only about half of Russians and had about 1% popular support.
Nevertheless, the New York Times, a once successful newspaper turned failing journal of fiction, is out in front pushing the story that this virtually anonymous "opposition leader" is yet another victim of the "killer Putin."
A leader of the Russian opposition who has been a vocal critic of what he calls a Kremlin policy of assassinating political enemies has fallen into a life-threatening coma caused by an unknown poison, his wife said on Monday.
The diagnosis of what ailed Vladimir Kara-Murza came at a delicate political moment for the United States and Russia, as President Trump had just brushed aside criticism of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin as a “killer.”
[...]
In Moscow, Mr. Kara-Murza, 35, has been in a coma and at the center of a politically hued medical mystery since Thursday as doctors puzzled over his symptoms while keeping him alive on artificial respiration.
Again, this man is absolutely not a "leader of the opposition" in Russia. Apparently he had been traveling around Russia showing a film about Boris Nemtsov. So that must have put him at the top of Putin's hit list, I guess.
The Times continues:
Mr. Kara-Murza suffered similar symptoms in 2015 and later said he had been poisoned. Then, a French laboratory found elevated levels of heavy metals in his blood but was unable to pinpoint any specific poison.
Doctors determined the cause this time as “acute intoxication by an unidentified substance,” Mr. Kara-Murza’s wife, Yevgeniya Kara-Murza, said in an interview. His condition was stable but critical, she added.
“The onset was just as sudden as last time,” Ms. Kara-Murza said. “He is all surrounded by machines and covered in tubes.” Other than poisoning, she said, “We don’t see any other explanation.”
Ms. Kara-Murza said samples of her husband’s blood, hair and fingernails had been sent to laboratories in France and Israel in an effort to identify the mystery toxin.
Good, have the samples tested in France and Israel. I'm sure they'll come back with an untainted, scientific analysis. How about getting them tested in China? No, I'm not kidding - it's a technologically advanced country, I'm sure they have a lab that can do it properly. And a lot cheaper too. But I guess the Chinese wouldn't guarantee the result they're looking for.
I'm not a doctor, but there are plenty of medical causes for a person entering a coma. Maybe Mr. Kara-Murza is an undiagnosed diabetic. And how can they diagnose "acute intoxication" if they can't even identify the alleged substance? The Times doesn't specify what "heavy metals" were supposedly found, but there are many ways arsenic or lead exposure, for example, could wind up poisoning someone accidentally. Even if intentional, there is just no evidence at all linking Kara-Murza's condition with the Russian government, or with Vladimir Putin personally.
The NYT has developed a rather novel technique for solving crimes. If anybody falls ill or dies in the whole country of Russia - or even the world if they once said a bad thing about Putin - then Putin is immediately tagged for the murder. The Russian police should be trained in this technique immediately. It could save them millions a year in time-wasting criminal investigations.
Just yesterday President Trump lambasted the New York Times for "writing total fiction":
The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)February 6, 2017
The Times doesn't just invent total fiction to smear the president of the United States, a man they and the interests they represent revile for his democratic coup overturning their globalist power structure - they also lie profusely about the president of Russia, and the county itself. And they do it for essentially the same reasons.
The New York Times ought to receive a Pulitzer Prize for fiction based on a body of work representing years of outrageous and ingenious slander and fables about Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Syria, Iraq, Serbia, and many other topics. They can display it next to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.
The New York Times is "fake news" in its purest form. Of course, they are not the only ones. Virtually the whole western mainstream media is worthless propaganda.
They have no shame. But with the rise of alternative online media and now, alternative political leaders, they have increasingly less influence. All that remains is to watch them rage with ever more ludicrous lies as they witness their power over audiences disintegrate.
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