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I've never been there, but I watched a video of a chap walking around some ruins in Old Sarum and it looked interesting.

Is it actually a hole with historic parts?

I believe so. A more upmarket Cromer.

BTW: I bring a baseball cap if going to warm climes, a beanie and baseball cap if going to cold ones.
 
From the suspects' statement:

We arrived in Salisbury on March 3 and tried to walk through the town, but we lasted for only half an hour because it was covered in snow.

"Of course, we went there to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, but we couldn't do it because there was muddy slush everywhere. The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back (to London)."

Source:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/13/europe/russia-uk-skripal-poisoning-suspects-intl/index.html

Russians: famously unable to cope with snow and... erm.. slush.

Really bad slush. Loads of it, there was. All... slushy.
If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable. I have wondered whether Putin's mob are so used to their utterings being believed by their countrymen, that they expect the same from the UK.
 
Incidentally, from historic weather reports it was snowing in Moscow that evening (and the following day).

Yet they turned back in Salisbury owing to epic slush.

Right.
 
I can just imagine the first take:

Mr Petrov (wearing a Beatle wig),
"Yes, thoroughly enjoy trip to world famous Salisbury cathedral. Many, many people wearing bowler hats and traditional English Bobby internal security men on bicycles. And nannies flying with umbrella. Carnaby Street yes!"
 
Those are CCTV pictures? colour, clear, high-definition, easy to recognise the people in them? That's unbelievable.. whatever happened to the standard boggy, blurry, fuzzed, shot-through-a-fog, black and white captured on ancient videotapes that have been re-recorded over so many times they're practically worn through? This has got to be the most unbeleivable part of the sotry yet!
 
Today's article in The Guardian, by a remarkably forthright (and brave!) Russian journalist, is well worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-putin-salisbury-poisoning-suspects-interview

This article is one of the best things I've read on the incident so far. Do read it.

But as someone who lives in Russia I do wish to challenge some misconceptions about the supposedly unbelievable nature of the two men's stories:

*Muscovites dislike slush and are not used to it. In Moscow the snow and slush from streets is very quicly cleared up by teams of people who are employed specifically to do just that. The pavements are clear of snow throughout winter and I can easily imagine a Muscovite visiting Britain and being somewhat sqeamish on seeing slush on the streets.

* Wanting to visit Salisbury Cathedral and knowing its dimensions and so on is also quite credible. British culture his held up with a degree of reverential awe by Russians and many Russians are taught this kind of stuff at school and I find that they often know facts about British historical culture that I myself don't know.

* Owning lots of hats is not at all strange in Russia. It's real hat territory. Most people own quite a few and would take a few with them on holiday.

* Two men going on holiday together would not be seen as at all strange in Russian culture.

Other than that I'm just confused by it all - but tend towards the rogue-agents-acting-alone-theory.
 
They must've known they were likely to be identified eventually. It could limit their international travel opportunities in the future but they probably earned a few million out of it.

Of course they could just've been tourists on a weekend away..

Well fancy that - just tourists there to see the sights, which they didn't actually get to see on two consecutive days, due to knee deep slush & then rain. That's certainly cleared things up for me.
 
These random Russians apparently have the personal phone number of the CEO of Russia Today (RT).

twitter.com/M_Simonyan/status/1040271347203682304

Translated:
@ M_Simonyan 2h 2 hours ago
Telegram-channel Karaulny: " They asked @Margaritasimonyan ??????from the editorial office of @ Karaulny how Petrov and Boshirov found her phone - they are the same people without Nutcall." Did they tell the number of the office? And how did they find out about her interview proposal? "

...
@ M_Simonyan 2h 2 hours ago
"Margarita answered that Petrov and Boshirov had been informed about the invitation to the interview from Telegram Yes, Petrov and Boshirov personally read the Telegram, and right now, perhaps, too, in particular, its channel, and, probably, ours."

...
@ M_Simonyan 2h 2 hours ago
"According to Margarita, they quoted this post to her - this moment is in the video interview in the interview, when Petrov says" I do not know if it's possible to air that you wrote 'sons of biatches', and we read it. "

...
@ M_Simonyan 2h 2 hours ago
"As for the phone number, @margaritasimonyan has repeated -" my phone really knows everything ", because it has not changed for 15 years." I'm always called by different people and they ask for my telephone number, for example. "

...
@ M_Simonyan 2h 2 hours ago
"We certainly know the number of Margarita, and not knowing - within 15 minutes we can find the first friend of the journalist through 1-3 handshakes or a call to the RT.
 
*Muscovites dislike slush and are not used to it. In Moscow the snow and slush from streets is very quicly cleared up by teams of people who are employed specifically to do just that. The pavements are clear of snow throughout winter and I can easily imagine a Muscovite visiting Britain and being somewhat sqeamish on seeing slush on the streets.

* Wanting to visit Salisbury Cathedral and knowing its dimensions and so on is also quite credible. British culture his held up with a degree of reverential awe by Russians and many Russians are taught this kind of stuff at school and I find that they often know facts about British historical culture that I myself don't know.

* Owning lots of hats is not at all strange in Russia. It's real hat territory. Most people own quite a few and would take a few with them on holiday.

Grateful for your having substantially debunked (or at least caused me to question) all three of my suppositions (all three!).

Each was of precisely the kind of assumption that seems so natural within the bubble that you are led to unthinkingly universalise. Russians are not British.

Your post is a perfect demonstration of the strength of this message board.
 
So much doesn't add up.

If the Russian intelligence services wanted Sergei Skripal dead, he would be dead. It is not hard to kill someone. And if someone is wanted dead than there would be a Plan B and Plan C to achieve it.

If the Russian Intelligence were using operatives that they didn't want seen, then they wouldn't be seen. Their flights, hotels, train journeys would not be so blatantly obvious. Their room booking would not be so blatantly obvious.

This is clearly not the work of a covert, deadly and ruthless Intelligence Service. So what is it?
 
So much doesn't add up.

If the Russian intelligence services wanted Sergei Skripal dead, he would be dead. It is not hard to kill someone. And if someone is wanted dead than there would be a Plan B and Plan C to achieve it.

If the Russian Intelligence were using operatives that they didn't want seen, then they wouldn't be seen. Their flights, hotels, train journeys would not be so blatantly obvious. Their room booking would not be so blatantly obvious.

This is clearly not the work of a covert, deadly and ruthless Intelligence Service. So what is it?

The Guardian article I linked to above, summarised it thus:

"Now, there are two plausible explanations for how the poisoning story went down, and neither paints a particularly optimistic picture. If it’s indeed Vladimir Putin’s deep hatred of turncoats that prompted him to authorise the Skripal hit, as the New York Times alleges, then he critically lacks any strategic foresight and has let personal animus take precedence over Russia’s immediate and long-term interests. If he truly didn’t anticipate all the sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and a newly galvanised global opposition to Russia — or he just didn’t care — then engaging with him in any sensible way might be simply impossible. We already know that the man gets high on his own fake news supply and is an ardent believer in some pretty kooky conspiracy theories.

If Putin didn’t authorise the operation, this makes the matters even worse, both for Russia and for the world. Because that would mean that Putin doesn’t control his own security apparatus, whose members go rogue on ever more reckless vengeance missions at home and abroad. "

The 2nd option is beginning to look increasingly likely.
 
The 2nd option is beginning to look increasingly likely.

My point still stands though. If they anyone was going to that much effort to want him dead, he'd be dead. And it's unlikely they would have left anywhere near the traces they left.


I work with a number of Russians. All staunchly anti-Putin. Everyone of them said to me independently, that it was mafia that did it. Crap mafia? I dunno...there's easier ways to kill someone. More effective, less long-winded.


I dunno...a total mystery. For me I suspect it always will be.
 
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You've got to admire their balls.

When you're in a hole, dig like you've never dug before!
 
How can the times be exact "to the second" on two people walking past the same cctv camera ?
NINTCHDBPICT000431230426-e1536144331657.jpg
NINTCHDBPICT000431230476-e1536144398244.jpg
NINTCHDBPICT000431230426-e1536144331657.jpg
NINTCHDBPICT000431230476-e1536144398244.jpg
 
BTW: I bring a baseball cap if going to warm climes, a beanie and baseball cap if going to cold ones.
I usually go with a beret when in France, a sombrero in Mexico (though you have to take it as hand luggage)
 
It is clearly different passageways there are many parallel at the airport. Perhaps a better question is how come to the 2 suspects had consecutive passport numbers?

both just happened to be passing almost identical passageways with unique cctv and the exact second ?
 
well I certainly dont want to end up in the trunk of a car !!! thats for sure...
 
"
At what time did the Skripals touch their doorknob? Boshirov and Petrov arrived in Salisbury at 11.48 and could not have painted the doorknob before noon. The Skripals had left their house at 09.15, with their mobile phones switched off so they could not be geo-located. Their car was caught on CCTV on three cameras heading out of Salisbury to the North East. At 13.15 it was again caught on camera heading back in to the town centre from the North West.
How had the Skripals managed to get back to their home, and touch the door handle, in the hour between noon and 1pm, without being caught on any of the CCTV cameras that caught them going out and caught the Russian visitors so extensively? After this remarkably invisible journey, what time did they touch the door handle?"

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/category/uncategorized/
 
both just happened to be passing almost identical passageways with unique cctv and the exact second ?


Yes look at the airport map, 2 adults walking down same length passageways at the same time are going to pass cameras at the same time.

Unless you want to believe that the photos are fraudulent, that these men were never in the UK.

Maybe you would like to peruse this link:

https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-f...tack-russian-agents-side-by-side-gates.t9963/

and consider this ...

"At arrivals at Gatwick Airport you leave the plane before heading to passport control and then move to collect your bags at the carousels.

You then go through the section of the airport where you have to declare items.

After walking through this and prior coming into the main part of the airport to get your taxi, pick up your car or get a train, you are faced with a number of thin gate corridors."

Frequent flyers will know you can't go through the gates together and rather than queuing up in single file you split up and go through different segments.

This is what Petrov and Boshirov do and why the time is exactly the same."

--

It was mainly the Russia press and Russian embassy in the Uk that made a big fuss about this.

Are you be any chance Russian?
 
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