Last Monday, Jan. 8, a car was found set alight on the British crown territory of Guernsey.
Skeletal remains since found in the driving seat are believed to be those of its owner, Mikus Alps, a Latvian who had fought with pro-Ukrainian volunteers against Russia’s incursion into south-eastern Ukraine.
A small island in the English channel, Guernsey is normally a quiet, peaceful place. But according to Mikus Alps’ volunteer friends, he had suffered escalating threats in recent months. In addition, according to Ukrainian press reports, Alps was providing cars to Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian-aligned rebels.
This establishes the motive for a Russian assassination: the Russian intelligence services work persistently to coerce individuals against opposing Putin’s interests in Ukraine. While most of this activity is carried through via threat, it also takes the form of assassinations in Ukraine.
But it is the attack itself which offers the strongest evidence of Russian culpability.
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As I’ve noted, the British government recently pledged to crack down on Russian intelligence operations in the U.K. This represents a significant challenge to the relative ease with which Russian intelligence officers, agents, and interests have pursued their ambitions in Britain in recent years. This killing might be a Russian message to London: “We are undeterred.”
If so, this is also a warning for us: as the U.S. now provides military arms to Ukraine, we must be aware that unless deterred, Russia will escalate against our interests.
- Discussion
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Are Putin's assassins at (wet)work in the UK again? @TomRtweets is on the case…. #FSB https://t.co/qgJf4dOh8y
— John Schindler (@20committee) January 15, 2018
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