Russian pilot who defected found dead in Spain, says Ukraine security agency
A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine last year in a secret operation has been found dead in Spain, according to the main military intelligence agency in Kyiv.
Reports in Russian and Spanish media on Monday said Maksim Kuzminov was found dead after allegedly moving to the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast, in an area popular with holidaymakers. His body was discovered last Tuesday, it was said, on the car park ramp underneath an apartment block.
The reports claimed he had been murdered by unknown gunmen who fired 12 shots. A burnt-out car was discovered nearby in the Costa Blanca town of El Campello. Spanish police had initially thought the shooting was gang-related before reportedly learning of the victim’s extraordinary backstory and his former role in Russia’s war and invasion.
I think the guilty party could only be more obvious if he'd fallen out of a window...
Yeah, that's the point of making an example of someone. Russia is a mafia mascarading as a country.
Russia continues to kill in European soil with 0 consequences.
Well Europe is massively supporting and supplying Ukraine with weapons. De facto Russia is in a proxy war with the US/Nato/EU.
That’s really scary to think they tracked him down like that. Like it’s one guy, let it go.
It's way more than one guy, it's an example.
You aren't dealing with a government (although they also let nothing like this go), it's organized crime on a grand scale.
Well, a government is nothing more than a public branch of mafia.
No. A mafia makes you pay "protection" from the things they'll do to you if you don't pay. A government makes pay taxes for a very real threat of what other nations and people within your nation will do without that security they provide. They also build roads and bridges and fire departments, water towers and plumbing, and other things necessary for a civilized world.
During the the wild 90's, shortly after the revolution, in a small eastern european country, most gangs actually provided the protection. Not only from themselves, but from anybody who'd dare to make trouble in your establishment.
But the competition was getting tough. One can only bomb so many cars and disappear so many people until the public starts to demand a change.
Not all the gangs were led by incompetent idiots though. Some had a vision. They got themselves allies in the highest places, to ensure the monopoly they craved. Instead of "protecting" small pubs, they started to think bigger, and became public contractors, working for the government.
It all started more than 20 years ago, but the same people, same companies are still there, still making profit to this day. Not building roads, but protecting the state owned buildings and government employees.
The core business is the same, they just became... civilized.
In turn of the century Sicily at least the mafia did all of that. They were the de facto government and provided services. It was much less like it was in the new world where organized crime developed under a functioning democratic government and operated in secret and much more like an informal feudal state persisting past the unification of Italy that really did have (and require) popular support.
The people down voting you should try not paying taxes for a while and we'll see how that goes for them.
Sadly true and most people aren't wired to see it. The difference, in my mind, is the degree to which this is politely hidden. I do pay tax willing and recognize the value of government versus anarchy but this is true on a fundamental level.
At least he died on the correct side of history.
And pisspants everywhere will sit by and let Putin get away with yet another murder.
And who will take out Putin? I don’t think it’s that easy to get to him. Especially without starting a broader war.
You don't have to take anyone out. Completely cut them off from the rest of the world. Nothing in, nothing out. No financial transactions. Seize all Russian owned assets outside of Russia.
Squeeze the body hard enough and the head will pop.
That's working so well with the DPRK, though.
And Russia has a lot more resources and infrastructure to dig in with.
The moment that the oligarchs and their precious babies can't winter in Cancun because their passports are worthless is the moment things start to change. Rapidly.
There is no such structure in the DPRK. It's an enforced religious cult masquerading as a country.
Yeah, we’ve seen how well that worked out for us.. we’re still buying up their oil, but this time through middle men. If you really want to cut Russia off then you should first have a talk with our capitalist overlords.
It has literally been tried. You don't control the world. China, North Korea, Iran and India get to do what they want. They have their own interests too look out for and could care less about a European country being invaded by another European country.
Ah yes, that well-known financial bastion of... North Korea... where all oligarchs go to hide their money.
I don't think you know how financial transactions work.
I like to play a game with comments like yours. I call it "Bad Faith or Stupid". OP also mentioned China, right? So did you ONLY pick the weakest example on his list to build a strawman in bad faith, or..
I mean they have like three allies at this point, and two of them can't even keep the electric on for 24 hours
It’s the 5000 other Allies that are the problem.
Even at an 80% failure rate that is still 1000 nukes
Haven’t you heard? Cunts on Lemmy assure us that none of russia’s nukes work.
I have been asking myself: what if he had say the German chancellor killed? What are we gonna do about it? Do we invade Russia because of that? I don't think so. Alright, so what then? Send some assassins his way? Nope, not gonna happen. Probably more safety protocols for high ranking politicians and that's it. I honestly think Putin could just get away with it.
Yes, you do invade Rusia then because that's what NATO was always there to do. Deter and once pushed, bring the might down onto anyone who wronged one of the members.
It seems no one will call Putin's bluff. Every time Medvedev calls out specific countries that Russia will nuke if a line is crossed, the civilized world has a moral obligation to cross that line and call the bluff. We must call their bluff. Failing to call their bluff is capitulation and surrender.
He looks so young. War is terrible
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine last year in a secret operation has been found dead in Spain, according to the main military intelligence agency in Kyiv.
Reports in Russian and Spanish media on Monday said Maksim Kuzminov was found dead after allegedly moving to the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast, in an area popular with holidaymakers.
Spanish police had initially thought the shooting was gang-related before reportedly learning of the victim’s extraordinary backstory and his former role in Russia’s war and invasion.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency, said his officers had persuaded Kuzminov to defect during an elaborate six-month operation.
Some Russian commentators close to the Russia’s defence ministry claimed reports about Kuzminov’s killing were planted by Ukraine’s intelligence services to fake the pilot’s death.
In 2006, two killers working for Moscow’s federal security service, the FSB, poisoned the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko with a radioactive cup of tea.
The original article contains 659 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Well, at least we know the West doesn't just not give a fuck if witnesses and whistleblowers die, they don't give a fuck if someone who straight up gave them an attack helicopter dies either.
What do you want them to do, build a time machine and go back to save him?