“...and mad as FUCK.” (I love him and Russian dissidents are so incredibly brave, not that leaving for the UK means you’re safe.) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/europe/navalny-russia-poison-coma.html

When I was watching all those Putin documentaries there is an amazing scene where the Brits are interviewing the goons who tried to kill the Skripals (and did kill that poor woman who found the bottle) and were like “why did you guys come here?”

And these central casting FSB goons say “we heard it was a great city” and the NOTE OF DISBELIEF in the interviewer’s voice when he says: “Salisbury?” is incredible. “What did you come to Salisbury to see?” and the goons look at each other and then one of them says “cathedral.”

(It’s a very nice cathedral, all respect to Salisbury, but not a lot of young Russian guys are like “hey, platonic friend/work associate, let’s fly to Salisbury, see this bitchin cathedral, and then fly immediately back to Russia.”)

and they could have been prepped better but THE POINT IS THAT HE DOESN’T HAVE TO, HE WANTS YOU TO KNOW HE DOESN’T CARE THAT IT’S OBVIOUS

but imagine LEAVING Russia to see SPIRES, that’s some coals to Newcastle sight seeing, you murdering monsters

Then when they followed the radiation trail of the bastards who killed Litvinenko, one of these C- Ilya Kuryakin wannabes tried to POUR THE REST OF THE POLONIUM DOWN THEIR HOTEL TOILET. You didn’t have a plan for DISPOSING OF THE POLONIUM?

The radiation detector in that hotel room lit up like the jizz detector in a motel room from an expose.

Anyway, def watch Channel 4’s “Putin: A Russian Spy Story”, on YouTube, 3 one hour episodes. Some amazing interviews w people who have been non-lethally poisoned several times and have dated photos of them looking wretched in different hotel rooms. “But the work is what matters.”

They are all goddamn saints. Like, I’m not getting super worked up about the oligarchs who didn’t play nice when Putin wanted to take over their hedge funds, but all these incredible reporters & opposition leaders are some of the bravest and most patriotic people in the universe.

My dad, your fav tankie, clearly KIND OF likes Putin but won’t come out and say it. He just hates America so much that he’s vibing the situation and also said “the people would elect him even if he didn’t rig the elections” and I was like “okay, prob true, but DAD.”

I gave him several books and was like “the FSB absolutely blew up those Moscow apartment buildings to stoke fears about terrorism and pave the way for Putin’s rise” and he was like “it’s very hard to govern a country like Russia” and then I gave up.

I started to learn Russian and am still at, like, «нам нужно купить суши» but I’m sure one day I’ll figure out how to say «ты видел Икар» to randos at the Russian Vodka Room in between rounds of incredibly loud Billy Joel karaoke.

You gotta watch “Icarus.”

My dad reliably votes Green or NDP and his whole Russia thing is such a lifelong mystery to me. He went! During the Cold War! For two weeks! Alone!

Recently I asked my mom “Dad has not held a job since 1981, did you scrimp and save so DAD could go to *not* his Fatherland for two weeks?”

“Correct.”

“Did YOU ever take a vacation?”

“Your aunt and I used to rent a dilapidated cottage and smoke weed in it one weekend a year.”

My uncle on my dad’s side is a very high-ranking member of the Canadian military and tried to get into CSIS when he was in his earlier years and they wouldn’t let him in because my dad was so clearly a Russian plant.

Anyway I can obviously never go to Russia now, but if you are a reporter or a dissident, drink only bottled water from the back of the store’s fridge and eat only pudding cups.