Talk politics.

The new Mick Herron dropped on the 4th Feb; Slough House.

(I give it a hearty recommend BTW.)

But rather than spoilers I wanted to talk about how reality bleeds into a lot of current spy novels. And also how it seems that the international Intelligence community has finally tired of Uncle Vlad's way of doing things. I mean it's obvious that our spooks talk to novelists working on spook stories; and writers like Herron are included in one of the outer loops of the intel community - moving closer depending on their "soundness", no doubt.

Anyway, over the years I may have alluded to all the rumours about Uncle Vlad's time as a Berlin operative; that he was well-known in certain communities, and even had a future in them had he so chosen. (When it comes to spooks, quis custodiet ipsos custodes normally means spook-watchers like me.)

So, on page 40 of Slough House, Herron has this:

'"Rah-rah-rah Putin, homicidal Russian queen." Gay porn lost a superstar when he went into despotism, right? Could have been the new Joe Dallesandro.'

And later on the same page He calls Uncle Vlad "The Kremlin's Gay Hussar."

Methinks the pics will go viral soon. That seems to be the way these things work.

But even if the pics come out will it actually damage Auntie Uncle Vlad?

When this crossed my desk I felt I had to comment:

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/10/murdered-chechen-separatist-zelimkhan-khangoshvili-had-killed-on-russian-soil-says-putin

And I wondered how the German press portray the politicians of any stripe who are or were, er, um, apologists for Uncle Vlad’s extra-judicial actions?

So if something like this happened in your nation; and folk died because of some odd external, Russian-linked action, how would you feel about the folk who deflected, temporised, defended, or apologised for such things? I mean to say, let due process take its course and then take action. “Beyond reasonable doubt” used to be the benchmark.

Then I wondered; can we blame the Ukraine yet?

Now it may well be that Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was a nasty, evil man, with murderous sins staining his soul. So Uncle Vlad goes for the low-hanging fruit that everyone wants rid of; but establishing and re-enforcing a precedent that it is ok to send assassins into any territory to kill your enemies.

So my questions to the panel are as follows:

Is it likely that someone other than the Russians offed Khangoshvili?
If it was a Russian action, was the extra-judicial killing justified or was it murder?
And if it was murder, what action by Germany seems appropriate and proportionate?

Some time ago I opined that Trump's finances were so opaque that we couldn't really judge him on the finance issue.

I also suggested that there may be a set of metrics with which we could assess Trump's policies in the light of possible collaboration with "external policy makers".

Now the metrics involved alienating the US's traditional allies, and courting the regimes who were the US's traditional opponents.

(As as disclaimer: I think that a NK deal would be a good thing if it happens, whoever manages to make it happen.)

However, trade wars with the G7, requesting the readmission of Russia to the G7 nations, and subsequent rapprochements with Russia et al, do look to be lining up Trump on the side of Uncle Vlad, alongside others like Arron Banks and Nigel Farage in the UK, and a few other Europeans.

The single greatest intelligence operation of all time has left odd bedfellows of the fellow-travellers. Boris, and Rees-Mogg etc are all aligning themselves with Trump and Uncle Vlad, despite knowing the intel available. As for folk like Assange, well....

So given the fact that Uncle Vlad has gotten away with it all, what can we expect from the next branch of geopolitical manoeuvrings?

I'd suggest a complete re-integration of Russia into the world community at the behest of someone other than the US, but with the US's backing.
We can forget about Crimea and the Ukraine, we can forget about nerve agents, and we can forget about all sorts of other activities which have subverted various western polities; because none of that will matter if Russia and the US work in tandem in time to Uncle Vlad's marching music.

But what is becoming obvious is that our intelligence services are not fit for purpose in the modern world. If I can work this stuff out, so can they. Instead they are so preoccupied with Muslim terrorism that they are prepared for our polities to be subverted in other ways by non-Muslims with other agendas.

As for me, common sense indicates I should learn to suck up to Uncle Vlad, his minions, and his agenda. Everyone else has, and I suppose it makes sense.