The alleged poisoner Skrypaley was a lieutenant colonel of the GRU. So say the staff of The Insider and Bellingcat. And now everyone is discussing the professionalism of Russian intelligence..
Journalists found out that Anatoly Chepiga, who managed to confess to Margarita Simonyan under the name "? Ruslan Boshirov" ?, was born in the Amur region of Russia. He graduated from college in the Far East, served in the 14th brigade of the GRU special forces.. Three times he was on a business trip in Chechnya and was awarded the title of Hero of Russia - presumably for the war in Ukraine.
All this managed to find out from open sources.. Photos on the school website. List of Gold Star Award Graduates. Extracts from the system "Russian passport". In conclusion, Chepigu was identified by his fellow villagers, whom the Kommersant journalist reached..
It turned out that their passports, official legends and places of issuance of documents prepared so that they do not give answers, but on the contrary - cause questions. It turns out that the main Russian intelligence agency is unable to cover up its operatives from ordinary journalistic curiosity.. Against this background, the usual demonization of the Russian special services begins to look like an excessive compliment..
And now social networks are again competing in conspiracy. Looking for a source of plums. Special services war. Multi-pass. Although it is possible that we are again dealing with simple incompetence.
Moreover, the example is not unique.
About a year ago, Russian media published a detailed interview of former employee of the Rossiya television channel Dmitry Skorobutov. In which he quite substantively talked about the domestic kitchen of the main Russian propaganda mouthpiece.
Chief editor of "Vesti" complained about his salary of $ 900. He said that his subordinate editors receive five hundred dollars each. That their salaries are comparable to the duty of an escalator.
Ex-promoter lamented negative personnel selection. What professionals threw out for someone's "daughters". "Intrigue, nepotism, humiliation, alcoholism" - this is a direct quote from his interview. When he tried to object to the leadership, he was told that the channel needed “people-functions, not creative units”.
And this is perhaps the most revealing.
Because the bloated budgets of the Russian defense industry, special services and propaganda are reality. Exactly to the same extent that reality is corruption in Russia. The one that charges all these amounts with many zeros to the side.
The output is a situation where the earnings of the "involved" are in the hundreds of thousands, and the "non-involved" - a few hundred dollars.. We always think that Russian propaganda is being made by good brains for big money.. But in the end it turns out that all this is prepared by day-laborers who occupy from colleagues until salary.
And what makes us think that these are problems of one particular department? In fact, the thing is that such a relationship is a story about the system as a whole.. And its rules, in turn, can work everywhere.
And therefore - yes. Russian Federation skillfully creates an image for itself.. Scaring numbers and reputation. But as soon as someone begins to lift the veil - it turns out that the same naked king is walking along the street.
Well, let.
Reprinted with permission from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Also join the TSN group.. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.