In the news

Fuck. I wonder if the election had anything to do with it.

Zombie politician. Zombie knife.

Well im sure I wouldn't have been so brave. But it makes the Catalan separatist president Carles Puigdemont look laughable for running off to Belgium to avoid being arrested and imprisioned in Spain.

He's actually holding a miniature Swiss army knife

Navalny presumed dead - what's next for Russia. Weakens Putin or makes him stronger?

Why would it weaken him or have any relevant effect?

It’s not been in Putin’s interest to get rid of him until now. My guess is that Putin is feeling more exposed, or expects the domestic situation to deteriorate, and wants rid of opposition figureheads. If that’s the case then expect other potential rivals to disappear too.

So how many of his critics can he kill till something is done.

He knows nothing much will happen in response - see all the other opposition who have fallen out of windows - and he's about to get a new 'ally' in Trump so will be handed an almost free reign to do what he wants.

Or he's feeling irreproachable right now with the focus on the war.

why can't we give a nice thing a name which celebrates something positive about LGBTQ people. Call a line after an inspirational LGBTQ person or something. Although I realise the names don't work like that. I dunno.

Even Rainbow Line would be better than <thing associated with death and terror> Line. May as well have the Covid Line too if we're going down that road.

I read somewhere that it's never good to make a martyr of an opposition figure, however weak it is

It's hard to tell from the outside how significant he is in russia? Does anybody even pay attention there? Ten of thousands of their sons have died in the special operation and
nobody cares.
Does a dying Julian Assange weaken Johnson or Sunak?

Incredibly brave, agree. But I also couldn't understand why he did that at the time (coming from someone who isn't incredibly brave).

He had just miraculously survived an assassination attempt and was out of Russia. Why go back where Putin has complete control and could easily kill him (as just attempted), arrest him
or disappear him.

Maybe martyring himself (which was always the end result when he flew back) will work in the end, but the coward in me thinks he could have done so much more free and with a voice.

The Russian presidential election is on March 15th. Killing Navalny is one of several pre-election moves. A week ago Boris Nadezhdin was barred from running https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/08/russian-anti-war-candidate-boris-nadezhdin-says-he-is-barred-from-election Recently there was a protest by wives of soldiers sent to Ukraine. https://archive.ph/SBBYU Putin doesn't want any more of that sort of thing to muddy his victory.

Fuck me chris hoy cancer !

Oh no, such a nice guy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/68321710

Bastard journalists forcing his hand.

Yes. Despicable.

Wife and kids too. The strength of his belief is immense.

Taylor Swift made $370m from her tour, Trump's just been ordered to pay $365m in his property court case. Lol.

Trump has just posted on Truth Social that he's not as fat as we think he is https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/111942989327699345

Considering his nationalist, anti-migrant, xenophobic and general far right past, one would hope the strength of his belief is anything but immense

.