{"id":209498,"date":"2020-06-28T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=209498"},"modified":"2020-07-02T07:07:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T07:07:03","slug":"russia-offered-bounty-to-kill-uk-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=209498","title":{"rendered":"Russia offered bounty to kill UK soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 June 28, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/h5>\n
You really have to wonder if Russia is as bad as the western media would have us believe. First we were led to believe that they attempted to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018. Now it is being reported<\/span><\/a> that they offered the Taliban cash rewards for every U.S. or UK soldier they kill in Afghanistan.<\/h5>\n
The Russian intelligence unit responsible for the attempted poisoning of the Skripals is behind the plan to pay the Taliban for killing UK and U.S. soldiers. Or so the NYT claims.<\/h5>\n
However, in view of the many unanswered questions about the Skripals poisoning it\u2019s worth asking if this isn\u2019t part of a wider disinformation campaign? After all, we haven’t seen or heard from Sergei Skripal or his daughter Yulia in months. For all we know they could be dead or be held in solitary confinement.<\/h5>\n
It’s also notable that Sergei Skripal had asked if he could return to Russia<\/span><\/a>. Putin may have declined to avoid being double-crossed by a confirmed traitor.<\/h5>\n
Had Skripal been allowed to return it would have been very embarrassing for Britain too. Not only would it have been a PR disaster for the west, but it would also have jeopardised many undercover UK and U.S. intelligence assets in Russia.<\/h5>\n
British intelligence simply would not have allowed it. So as to avoid the possibility that Skripal might return to Russia of his own free will why not poison him with military grade Novichok? This could have been easily concocted at Britain’s chemical-biological weapons facility at Porton Down, which was conveniently close to the Skripals in Salisbury<\/span><\/a>.<\/h5>\n
With the fake Novichok Russia would have been prime suspect. Then British intelligence would have killed to birds with one stone. The threat of Skripal returning to Russia would be neutralised, while adding more fuel the disinformation campaign against Russia.<\/h5>\n
In the light of the Skripal\u2019s poisoning one has to wonder if the following hasn’t also been similarly contrived? It even manages to get in a dig at Trump as it frames Russia for paying for Taliban attacks.<\/h5>\n
According to the NYT, Trump was briefed on the alleged bounty but did nothing as he wanted to avoid antagonising Putin.<\/h5>\n
The White House has denied Trump was briefed on the matter. The current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has also denied that the president was briefed on the intelligence in question.<\/h5>\n
Meanwhile Russia has denied the claims<\/a><\/span>, noting that the report \u201cclearly demonstrates low intellectual abilities of US intelligence propagandists who have to invent such nonsense instead of devising something more credible.\u201d<\/em> The Taliban have likewise denied<\/span><\/a> receiving any bounties from Russia for killing U.S. troops.<\/h5>\n

Russia offered bounty to kill UK soldiers<\/h1>\n

Jamie Doward \u2013 The Guardian June 28, 2020<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The two Russian agents caught on CCTV at Salisbury train station shortly after 4pm on March 3, the day before Mr Skripal was poisoned. Scotland Yard claim they visited the town to carry out a reconnaissance mission. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The Russian intelligence unit behind the attempted murder in Salisbury of the former double agent Sergei Skripal<\/strong><\/span><\/a> secretly offered to pay Taliban-linked fighters to kill British and American soldiers in Afghanistan, according to US reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

The revelation piles pressure on the UK to take robust action against the Kremlin amid continuing anger over the government\u2019s delay in publishing a key report on Russian attempts to destabilise the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bombshell report in the <\/strong><\/span><\/a>New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span> says there has been a major escalation by Moscow to undermine the White House and its coalition allies, including the UK, as President Trump seeks a peace deal with the Taliban.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the paper, Trump was briefed on the activity months ago, but no discernible action has been taken. The UK received the intelligence last week. The 29155 unit of the GRU, an arm of Russia\u2019s military intelligence agency, was responsible for executing the plan, according to the paper. In recent years, it has been linked to assassination attempts aimed at destabilising the West.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unit 29155 has been linked to an attempted coup in Montenegro, the poisoning of a Bulgarian arms manufacturer and subversion in Moldova.<\/span><\/p>\n

British prosecutors have charged two of its agents with the attempted murders of Skripal, the former GRU officer who defected to the UK, and his daughter, in Salisbury in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRussian attempts to undermine Nato efforts in Afghanistan<\/strong><\/span><\/a> are not new,\u201d said Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen incidents in the past but these accusations of encouraging the targeting of British and US forces are a step change and echo the warlike actions of the GRU in Salisbury. We need to recognise that we are in a contest that others are fighting even if we are not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia has denied the allegations, accusing the New York Times<\/em> of fake news and claiming that the story has placed the lives of its embassy employees at risk. The Taliban<\/strong><\/span><\/a> has also denied the story. But Dr Yuri Felshtinsky, a Russian intelligence expert who wrote the book Blowing Up Russia<\/em> with the murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko, said the GRU\u2019s approach was a logical one: \u201cIt\u2019s just a continuation of military operations using different tools. And money is a very good tool to be used \u2013 if you pay somebody to kill Americans it\u2019s actually much easier and cheaper than to do it using the GRU.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sir Andrew Wood, Britain\u2019s ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2000, said the allegations were \u201cperfectly plausible\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the sort of thing made up for propaganda purposes. Of course, the Russians would deny it if Vladimir Putin<\/strong><\/span><\/a> had been photographed shooting someone in the head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump hopes that a peace deal with the Taliban will end the Afghanistan war and give a major fillip to his re-election campaign. But the president\u2019s refusal to confront Putin has prompted concern in diplomatic circles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is helping Putin as much as he is able to help him and not releasing information about Americans being killed by Taliban with financial support from the Russian state goes with this general policy,\u201d Felshtinsky said.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a suspicion that Boris Johnson<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and his predecessor, Theresa May, have been reluctant to publish an Intelligence and Security Committee report on Russia, finished last October, for fear of upsetting Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his confidential submission to the committee, the former spy Christopher Steele has reportedly suggested<\/a> that the Kremlin has a \u201clikely hold\u201d over Trump, a claim that has been fiercely disputed but which would sour the government\u2019s relations with the White House once published. \u201cThese worrying reports should be the catalyst for the prime minister to finally release the ISC report No. 10 have been stalling for more than six months,\u201d said shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy.\u201cUnder this government, Britain is retreating from the world stage and the fear among our allies is that Boris Johnson is afraid to stand up to Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lib Dem spokesman Alistair Carmichael echoed the call for the ISC report to be published: \u201cThese reports throw up serious questions about Trump\u2019s soft-touch when it comes to Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Secretary must also make clear whether the UK had any knowledge of these reports and what conversations he has had with his US counterpart about sanctions towards Russia given these shocking revelations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did Russia REALLY offer to pay the Taliban for every UK and U.S. soldier they killed? Or is this yet more disinformation to portray Russia as a threat to the West?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,91,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Afghanistan","category-russia","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209498"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209552,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209498\/revisions\/209552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}