Did Putin Order the Murder of a Russian Media Czar in Washington, D.C.?

Although Donald Trump couldn’t be bothered to bring it up on the phone with Putin like a man, the attempted murder of a man in England was the reason Trump’s administration recently expelled 60 Russian diplomats. Now BuzzFeed has a story alleging that the FBI has evidence that Putin murdered the founder of RT in Washington D.C.

The FBI possesses a secret report asserting that Vladimir Putin’s former media czar was beaten to death by hired thugs in Washington, DC — directly contradicting the US government’s official finding that Mikhail Lesin died by accident.

The report, according to four sources who have read all or parts of it, was written by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who also wrote the famous dossier alleging that Russia had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Donald Trump. The bureau received his report while it was helping the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Russian media baron’s death, the sources said.

Lesin was about to meet with Justice Department officials to discuss “the inner workings of RT.” DoJ, in its wisdom, concluded that he had had a series of drunken falls resulting in multiple blows to his head. Whoops! Whoops! Whoops! Whoops! Whoops!

Let’s get it out of the way. It’s BuzzFeed. Worse, it’s . . . Jason “Karl Rove will be indicted” Leopold. And the key report comes from Christopher Steele. I would not put a ton of credibility in the story.

However, if their reporting is accurate — and even a blind and crazy squirrel might find a nut from time to time — Steele is not the only source for the allegation:

The Steele report is not the FBI’s only source for this account of Lesin’s death . . . . Three other individuals, including a business associate of Lesin and two intelligence officials, told BuzzFeed News that they had independently given the FBI similar information: that Lesin had been bludgeoned to death by thugs operating on orders from the same oligarch Steele named.

The death is attributed to an oligarch and his hired Russian security agents, but Putin approves all such actions. If you are a Russian and you have someone killed in Washington D.C. by Russian security agents and Vladimir Putin doesn’t know, you will be killed next.

It’s early yet to say much about this. It could fizzle out and be nothing, or it could be a major international incident, or something in between. In the Age of Trump, even a murder ordered by Putin on U.S. soil would probably get a shrug from most Trump supporters, and we don’t even have proof of that.

Still, it caught my attention on a lazy Tuesday morning. It at least raises the question: if indeed Putin were to have someone murdered on U.S. soil — as opposed to British soil — what would we do?

What should we do?

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