(CNN) Head of Russian oil giant Lukoil dies after falling from hospital window, reports state media.
In Exploiting Cracks in the Kremlin; Putin, the New Stalin?, I wrote,
- Pumping oil/gas like crazy, a social safety net for the bulk of the population is maintained, if in a somewhat tattered state.
- Oligarchic wealth begins to dissipate. Members of this class react with anger.
- The oligarchic side of the Kremlin conflicts with a new power center, with new ideologues, extending into the military.
- The new ideologues re-legitimize Stalin.
- Borrowing from Stalin, the new power center applies harsh methods against the oligarchs.
There is an opinion that the oligarchs are merely purse holders with no power. The rate at which they are dying is adequate contradiction; the powerless are not killed with such enthusiasm. It’s more like scissors-paper-rock:
- Oligarchs, through whose hands pass vast sums, fund the insurgency with diversions. See (CNN) Russian security service accuses Ukraine of Darya Dugina’s murder; Dawn of the Russian Insurgency?
- The insurgency attempts assassinations of ultra-nationalists..
- The ultra-nationalists assassinate oligarchs.
In this game, is ordering of power possible? Did Ravil Maganov fund the Dugin hit? The IC may know, but the rest of us will have to wait for the re-reformation of Russia. Providing a view of how things work in Russia, here is a fiction in the style of Agatha Christie, The Unfortunate Defenestration of Ravil Maganov:
- Central Clinical Hospital is for elites.
- It is heavily guarded by the Federal Protective Service.
- Unlike the Siberian hospital which actually tried to investigate the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the staff are under the thumb of FSO, do what they are told, and speak not of what they see.
- The official time of the unfortunate defenestration is given as 7 a.m., a sloppy invention that coincides with the nursing shift change. See The Number “7”.
- As the night shift leaves, the morning shift is held back, emptying the corridor.
- Dressed in whites, the FSO employees entrusted with the “special task” enter Maganov’s room. To ensure there will be no struggle, they administer a fatal injection.
- Maganov is dead before he hits the ground.
- In due course, the morning shift discovers Maganov has made his exit. They dare not question.
Who knows? There might be some correspondence to the truth. Exercise your little gray cells on this matter with appropriate order and method. Then call for Hercule Poirot.