There have been many developments in the "Skripal saga" since I last posted.
I'm deliberately calling it the "Skripal saga", because the more information comes to light, the more surreal the entire scenario becomes, and the more does the turn of events turn towards the absurd, satirical, if not outright mythical.
At the time, I was convinced that Putin is indeed behind the poisoning of the Russian ex-spy, but I did my best to point out that where the UK counter-measures weren't simply pointless and irrelevant, they were also completely beyond what might be considered reasonable.
Now, even in spite of the increasingly outrageous, russophobic propaganda storm emanating from the English-speaking media, I have, strangely, become less certain of Putin's involvement in the entire affair.
For starters, even UK's European allies have pointed out that UK Prime Minister Theresa May's course of action is veering dangerously close to the farcical. Additionally, UK opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, cautioned the PM against blatant incompetency, and said that the country should wait for definitive results, before stumbling into irreversible consequences.
Corbyn's is a voice of reason, and I believe that he is correct in suggesting that the UK government's reaction to the event only serves to undermine democracy, while not offering any meaningful solutions. (As I have pointed out in my initial post)
Former UK ambassador Craig Murray, who has first-hand access to intelligence sources, and whom I have quoted in my previous post, also came forward with information suggesting that the nerve agent that was used for the attack may have not been manufactured in Russia at all. This is further supported by the UK government's reluctance to follow correct protocol in investigating the nerve agent attack.
All this begs the question: Why ?
Why, oh why, do the UK government and the English news media put in so much effort into misleading its citizen? Craig Murray even goes so far as to describe the entire saga as "another Iraqi WMDs". Worryingly enough, he's not wrong. Already, the British tabloids are beating the drums of war.
At this point in time, I think it's very important for us to remember the zen virtue of "keeping one's cool".
For instance, if the UK media had "kept their cool", maybe they wouldn't have put on display their utter lack of professionalism in reporting uncritically objectively false information, and blatant disrespect for their reader's intelligence.
Acclaimed and celebrated independent journalist, John Pilger, even goes so far as to call the official narrative a "carefully constructed drama", or in other words: good old propaganda.
Maybe, if UK government officials had kept their cool, they wouldn't have triggered an embarrassing foreign relations fiasco that resulted in a complete breakdown in diplomacy between the UK and Russia, and the recalling of diplomats on both sides. Neither would they have exposed themselves as directly trying to undermine UK democracy, both with their persecution of dissent, deliberate lying to the public and accepting of foreign donations.
Equally important is it for us, the little people, to keep our own cool, and look past the veil of manufactured "official narratives". To help the readers in their pursuit of the truth, I shall include some links to articles that discuss what is happening "behind the scenes" of this staged propaganda scandal.
Strategic culture foundation, on facts about the poisoning investigation: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/03/17/uk-blames-russia-for-spy-poisoning-time-set-our-emotions-aside-look-facts.html
The Canary, on what the magician's hand is doing while audience watches the doves: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/03/16/five-bits-bad-news-theresa-may-hoped-bury-russia-panic/
(disclaimer: I do not own the linked content)