“Putin Don’t Control Nothing” – Marina Litvinenko

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Alexander Litvinenko was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and prior to that the KGB.

He left the service and the country in 1998/99 and on 1st November 2006 was allegedly poisoned in London England. again supposedly on the orders of Russian President Vladmir Putin. There is much evidence apparently to support this claim though the Russian President strongly denies any involvement in the poisoning which resulted in Litvinenko’s death. Whoever carried out this deed used Polonium-210 which causes, among other toxins, acute radiation poison syndrome.

After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which we do not need to explain by now, which by many accounts has been one big military blunder he called on the private mercenary armed force, the Wagner Group, headed by a former Hot Dogg seller, Yevgeny Prigozhin. This group of former convicts and cut throats perhaps not too different in ideology (that is those who can spell it) from the Ukrainian Azov Nazi regiment.

It appears Prigozhin has got brassed off with the way Putin has conducted the war in Ukraine and on 23/24 June undertook a military coup thought to be against the Russian leader, though Prigozhin has denied this was the intention. The coup lasted just over a day and, according to Western reports, a deal has been struck between the organisation and Moscow allowing their leader to leave Russia and live in exile in Belarus without charge. No charges to be brought against the rest of the Wagner fighters either. This sounds very strange given the fact Putin had vowed revenge on these “traitors” which he has not taken. A large group of fighters attempt a coup, drive into Russia itself heading towards Moscow and nobody stopped them? Very odd indeed. It must be stated the Wagner Group were not protesting against the war just the way it has been handled and managed, not brutal enough for them perhaps!

Have these events weakened Putin’s position? Yes, probably. But perhaps a more prudent question could be; how much power did he have in the first place? Was Prigozhin trying to replace the President with himself as head of the Russian state because he considers Putin too weak? That is a possibility and it leaves Russia in some kind of meltdown if a grip is not caught and quick. Perhaps a withdrawal from Ukraine could be an answer?

On the other hand, what are Zelensky’s long term plans and aims for the Ukraine? I never did trust that man and still do not. He claims to be of Jewish extraction yet he has overtly Nazis in his armed forces - that should tell all anti-fascists (as opposed to non-fascists) something! However, this is another debate for another day. The main concern here must now be the unstable state of Russia. What is worthy of note are the similarities between the Ukrainian Nazi Azov regiment and the Russian Wagner Group!

On Sunday 25th June Laura Kuenssberg, presenter of the BBCs Sunday Morning Politics, had as one of her guests Marina Litvinenko, widow of the poisoned former Russian security officer, on the show. She, perhaps with good reason, hates Vladmir Putin, and suggested “Putin must be got rid of”. The West must act because Putin “is not in control of nothing,” no doubt meaning he is not in control of anything making him as unstable politically as he may be mentally!

Leaving the cynicism aside and let’s assume Marina made this remark not because of any axe to grind with Putin but out of genuine concern about who is in charge of Russia, her homeland. If Putin is “not in control of nothing” (sic) how then could this powerless man have planned her husband’s poisoning and death? That is, of course, if the Russian state was responsible? The evidence suggests they were and even the European Court of Human Rights claimed the evidence was overwhelming against the Russian state. It was not like the Salisbury Poisonings of 2018 of a former Russian agent, turned double agent for MI6, Sergi Skripal and his daughter as there were/are more than one suspect for these poisonings. Even leaving this to one side, there are massive potential problems if her claims are correct. Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal of any single country, including the USA, on earth. If Putin is not in charge, then who is? If what Marina Litvinenko said and repeated many times is correct in her analysis of Putin being “not in control of nothing” who is in control of this nuclear arsenal? What would Prigozhin be like with his finger on the nuclear button? This man is obviously a nutter but a headcase with a private army of ex-convicts, even convicts released from Russian gaols on the condition they joined Wagner or the regular Russian army! It sounds akin to allowing the madmen who ran the Waffen SS and Adolf Hitler having access to such weapons! Maybe they could do a deal with Azov and set up a unified Nazi state under their control? Of course, this is all stabbing in the dark but what Marina said is not.

If western reports are to be believed, and they are not the most reliable or objective, then most of the high command of the Russian Defence Ministry, military and civilian, are to be dismissed as part of the deal done with Wagner. Who will be doing the sackings, if this is the case? If Putin is “not in control of nothing” then, once again who the hell is? Of course, Marina Litvinenko may well have been talking in wishful thinking terms but we cannot be sure of that.

The situation in Russia and Ukraine is arguably more volatile than before Putin’s invasion. A nuclear arsenal of this size cannot be just written off and again I am only going on Marina Litvinenko’s oration on Sunday Morning Politics and as I have said she might have been speaking out of personal hatred for Putin. Perhaps she was trying, or hoping for the west to invade Russia, arrest Putin and avenge her husband’s poisoning. But if these are not her motives for speaking out like this then we have a potential world ending calamity on the horizon!!

Perhaps the 26-county administration should start thinking with their brains and not their hearts. While they are continually condemning Russia, having made their point on several occasions, do they know who they are talking about? Hitherto they have condemned Putin rightly or wrongly without any criticism of Zelensky, the Ukrainian President at all. They have never mentioned the Nazi presence in the Ukrainian armed forces and have aimed all their attacks at Putin. What if, as Marina Litvinenko is saying, Putin is not the all-powerful man the West have believed him to be? If, and only if this is the case then the 26-county administration and other governments should perhaps take a step back until they know who is running things in Russia and, therefore, who they are dealing with!

🖼 Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.