Putin has been implicated in a number of assassinations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Anna_Politkovskaya

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 1 2013 18:34 utc | 4

I guess that is French speaking Hezbollah’s revenge for the Assad got killed rumour … :-))
April fool’s day is a good date to print it and still keep some dignity.
This here is Doha news – from 2011

Rumors surfaced yesterday afternoon that the motorcade of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, had been attacked by a suicide bomber en route to his palace, leaving him wounded and eight aides dead.
Needless to say, the assertions have proven anything but credible.
The only news outlet that appears to have reported the alleged incident is Algerian newspaper Echorouk (stating that there is a news blackout). The article cites Egypt’s Alnahar, but a search of that site yields nothing.
Claims of an assassination attempt were however, circulated widely on Twitter & Facebook.
Dismissing the unsubstantiated tweets, Foreign Policy managing editor and prolific tweeter Blake Hounshell, who resides in Doha, labeled the rumor “black propaganda”:
As far as I can tell the rumor of an assassination attempt on the emir of Qatar is Syrian black propaganda. Treat as false.
Everything is normal here in Doha.
Tip: Any “scoop” you see in an obscure Middle East media outlet was probably fabricated or planted by a security service.
Most Arab papers don’t have correspondents around the region. So if, say, an obscure Algerian paper claims a scoop in Qatar it’s likely BS.
Qatar’s emir made an appearance on Al Jazeera a few hours later for an interview denying any such attack.
Read more: http://dohanews.co/post/9824610174/new-propaganda-campaign-claims-emir-motorcade-attack#disqus_thread#ixzz2PEqIZpwi

Posted by: somebody | Apr 1 2013 18:40 utc | 6

Bandar Bush was my favorite spoilt brat/irresponsible larrikin. He had a very sharp wit, and a tongue to match. When I heard he’d been killed by Syrian intelligence I shed a few crocodile tears and held a wake just to mark his presumed passing. Until I see a photo of him with a current copy of the NYT, he’ll remain a member of the duly departed.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 1 2013 20:18 utc | 8

The truth is the game the Qataris are playing is well beyond their caliber. Lavrov displayed this a year or so back I believe by dismissively ignoring one of the Al-Thanis in charge of the foreign policy. Neither Saudis nor the Turks are in a position to impose their political will in the region without the help of their protectors. Israel has been forbiden to get involved openly. Europe, encouraged to intervene, is in a shamble financially and economically. Time is not working in the favor of the Western backed forces in Syria. And the US, unable to put boots in the ground for a foreseable future, knows that a direct Nato (+Israel+Arab Monarch) involvement will shatter the p5+1 unity facade against nuclear Iran- and with it the sanction parody. Events are polarizing again, things are getting pretty tight. Time for clutch decision is fast approaching and the ball is in the camp of the ones that need the most to temporize and delay.

Posted by: ATH | Apr 1 2013 20:43 utc | 10

Agree with most that this story is false.
Of course the best rumours have some element of truth in it. Putin does have a talent for making his enemies mysteriously die (whether by Polonium 210 in London, or gunshots in Moscow). It’s also clear that Qatars Emir is both ambitious and in the American camp. But assassinating both a foreign head of state and a senior Saudi prince is altogether different from killing a journalist and a defected Intelligence Agent in London.
Plus assassinating both men could cause more problems for Russia than solutions. For one, if the Emir and Prince Bandar both were assassinated all eyes would look to Iran as the likely suspect (something Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US) would encourage. It would give them a casus belli to invade.
Would be a bold move though.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Apr 1 2013 23:24 utc | 12

You only need a barely decent French like mine to notice the absence of any named sources for all these tall claims. I may be going a bit too far, but there’s so much fantasy in it, I think even the NYT and WP would think twice about printing such crap (but Murdock’s The Times wouldn’t hesitate, though few read it anymore).
The commments are hilarous, though. All of them trash the Qatari tyrant, his top diplomat and the Saudi smooth operator, calling them fat pigs (gross porcs), and *wish* the allegations were true and the world were rid of these people, as it would become a more peaceful place. One even calls the Russians “frères” (brothers) for coming up with such a great idea.

Posted by: ahab | Apr 2 2013 1:19 utc | 14

To make something true, make a rumor, turn the rumor into reality, and mud sticks, an age old agenda based ideology. ‘News told, rumors heard, truth implied, facts buried. Geopolitics – everyone knows you can’t disprove a rumor, so a weapon of choice. To quote “Don’t forget this, too: Rumors aren’t interested in the unsensational story; rumors don’t care what’s true.”
― John Irving, In One Person.

Posted by: Kev | Apr 2 2013 2:32 utc | 16

Yeah, right. The Russian special services can’t do such an assault, therefore they ask – of all potential partners imaginable (which the chechens aren’t) – the chechen mafia.
Says some libanese press guy in the french version of a gazette that also offers news in english (but not this one, for whatever reason), referring to some saudi news who, so they say, have it from the americans. Wow, me impressed.
Bullshit³.
*If* Putin wanted some of usraels rats dead, they would be dead. And the americans would not have anything in their hands.
And why should the Russians do that? The importance of all those usrael satellites in the gulf region equates roughly to that of some bear farting on Kamtschatka.
Right now, the americans have 2 (!) chances to comitt suicide by starting a war; they are free to choose between Northern Korea and Syria. Yet, for some strange reason, they decided to make lots of noise but doing nothing.

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Apr 2 2013 4:31 utc | 18

Venezuelan Government Announces Transition to US Style Democracy
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8434

Posted by: brian | Apr 2 2013 7:41 utc | 20

See atleast a few people here have been drinking the kool-aid of anti-Putin propaganda.
Politkovskaya was one of the whole series ‘liberast’ activist/reporters, where basically anything bad that happens in Russia is because ‘Putin is evil’. There are still hundreds of them regular published in Russia including in major business publications (mostly owned by the oligarchs) without any problems, & there is nothing to seperate Politkovskaya from the pack in this matter. The only difference is that unlike the majority she actually did some reporting & stumbled into a local criminal network involving some local corrupt officials & was killed.
An opponent of Putin? Why the hell would Putin even know she existed before this let alone would worry about some completely irrelevant activist/reporter preaching to the tiny circle of true believers…
(& for those who think she was kind of actual reporter/saint should actually try reading some of her ‘work’. Completely arrogant with an utter contempt for ordinary Russians – I’d give her some minor points for doing the occasional piece of actual reporting, but her ‘conclusions’ were a farce & she was a typical liberast in every other respect.)
The Litvinenko accusations are a complete farce, as is pretty well everything written about Putin in the Western MSM.
For anyone interested I’d recommend William Dunkerley’s ‘The Phony Litvinenko Murder’ [ http://www.amazon.com/The-Phony-Litvinenko-Murder-Finally/dp/0615559018 ], or check out his articles on the subject at: http://www.opednews.com/author/author30520.html
Edward jay Epstein also does a good piece of investigative journalism on the subject at:
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/specter-that-haunts-the-death-of-litvinenko/73212/

Posted by: KenM | Apr 2 2013 16:08 utc | 22

Thanks Ken M (#22) – you beat me to it.
I’ve always said that why would the FSB murder him with Polonium, a highly radioactive substance which left a trail from Moscow to London when 99 cent rat poison or some other substance could’ve done the job? Apparently all it takes is to scream “Putin did it” and this alone “implicates” him. Politkovskaya was supposedly murdered on Putin’s birthday. Seriously. Would anything scream “I did it” more than something like this? MEANING he likely had nothing to do with it, but someone wanted you to think he did. If he were that stupid, he wouldn’t have lasted as long as he has as the Russian head of state. Is eriously doubt putin knew or cared who Anna Politkovskaya was at the time.
My favorite “Putin did it” conspiracy bunkum is the one that claims he was behind the apartment bombings in Moscow in 1999. There is absolutely no doubt that Putin and the FSB were not involved in the bombings in and that the bombings were the work of jihadi groups based in the northern Caucasus. Several of the people involved were caught and tried and are now in prison. None of the verdicts of the trials were overturned by the European Court of Human Rights (who would love ANY opportunity to bring Putin down) as they certainly would have been if they were unfair. In fact there is very little mystery about the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings. We know who did them and why. We even know the names of those involved, but nonetheless, the conspiracy theories keep ticking along like the energizer bunny.
If any of these yarns spun on Putin had any truth (my favorite being his seemingly ever-growing 40 billion dollar fortune, which Forbes investigated and came away with just a few million – which is pretty normal for someone who’s been in power for 13 years), we’d probably hear a lot more about them from the European & American governements who’d salivate at any opportunity to bring him down.

Posted by: RC | Apr 2 2013 18:24 utc | 24

14) :-)) yeah, ideology is so “out” nowadays,
never mind Russian imperialist tsarist traditionist orthodox catholic ex communist
my side!

Posted by: somebody | Apr 2 2013 19:29 utc | 26