Vivek Ramaswamy Indulges the Republican Base’s Paranoid Style

Vivek Ramaswamy is rising in part because he's simply telling the Republican Party's conspiracy-loving base what it wants to hear.

BY ARIF RAFIQ

AUGUST 24, 2023

Kathleen Sebelius, a former advisor to Ramaswamy's companies, has called him "sort of a Music Man." (Image Credit: Gage Skidmore)


At the first Republican presidential debates last night, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy claimed that climate change is a “hoax.”

“Climatism,” he’s often said, is one of America’s new secular, “cult-like” religions replacing the country’s Judeo-Christian foundation.

But just months ago, Ramaswamy told CBS News that climate change is “real” and acknowledged a rise in global surface temperatures “in part due to human activity.”

Ramaswamy has flip-flopped on a range of other issues. It’s an inconsistency that not only makes him just as much a politician as his rivals, but also reflects a broader pattern of shamelessly indulging the new Know-Nothings of the Republican Party.

Ramaswamy and the Paranoid Style

The Paranoid Style has consumed the Republican Party’s base. The right’s conspiracy theories have evolved from depictions of Barack Obama as a Communist-Islamist Manchurian candidate. It’s now taken on a full anti-establishment turn with claims that the January 6th insurrection was an FBI false flag operation.

A wealthy polemicist, Ramaswamy has little to lose by simply telling the Republican Party base what it wants to hear.

The most egregious example of Ramaswamy’s indulgence of far-right denialism is on the 9/11 attacks. When asked by The Blaze earlier this month whether the attacks of September 11 were an “inside job,” Ramaswamy could have easily said the clear and obvious truth that it wasn’t. Instead, he replied, “I don’t think the government has told us the truth,” and then pivoted to generic commentary on skepticism of what governments say.

First, Ramaswamy clarified that he was referring to a long-classified FBI report on official Saudi connections to the 9/11 hijackers. Then, in a recently published interview with The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson conducted in July, Ramaswamy veered even closer to 9/11 trutherism, insinuating the attacks were either an inside job or that the U.S. government at least had forewarning of them.

He said: “I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers. Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero.”

On a host of other issues, Ramaswamy has adopted a persona on the campaign trail at odds with his statements and actions before his presidential run.

Ramaswamy — a former pharmaceutical industry executive — has questioned the safety of COVID vaccines. But his physician wife told The Atlantic that the entire family is vaccinated. He also paid a Wikipedia editor to remove references in his bio to his relationship with Douglas Melton, who helped develop the mRNA vaccine.

Before his presidential run, Ramaswamy also described the January 6th insurrection as a “disgrace” perpetuated by an “angry mob of rioters.” Now he suggests there were “government agents” involved.

Vivek the ‘Music Man’

Ramaswamy’s malleability has led to questions over his authenticity. A DeSantis Super Pac sees it as a potential vulnerability, recommending in a pre-debate memo to “take a sledgehammer” to Ramaswamy and depict him as “Fake Vivek” or “Vivek the Fake.”

Ramaswamy acknowledges that he’s in many ways an anomaly. In his book, “Woke, Inc.,” Ramaswamy depicts himself as a “traitor” to his class — a “truth-teller” on climate, ESG, transgender issues, and affirmative action, which he hyperbolically calls a “cancer on our national soul.”

What’s clear is the Ohio native is a skilled debater who’ll do what it takes to convince or win the target audience.

Kathleen Sebelius, a former advisor to Ramaswamy’s companies and Obama administration health secretary, has called him “sort of a Music Man.”

The New Yorker provides a vivid account of how Ramaswamy feels the pulse of his audience and indulges anti-Zelensky, pro-lab leak, and other conspiratorial sentiment:

“[Ramaswamy] asked for audience members’ names and agreed with what they said, even when it pulled him nearer to conspiracy; in response, the crowd rose and applauded, and moved nearer to him, too.”

What Does Vivek Ramaswamy Believe?

Given his record of flip-flops, what can we say for sure about Vivek Ramaswamy?

I think it’s clear he’s a big believer in America and capitalism.

He also appears to have been a libertarian for some time. Ramaswamy has expressed affinity for Rand and Ron Paul. And his unchoreographed comments on cutting aid to Israel reflect a Paulian libertarian foreign policy.

Two, Ramaswamy takes his religion seriously. His childhood was marked by summer trips to India, including regular pilgrimages to holy Hindu sites. And unlike many other Indian-origin politicians on the right, he’s remained a Hindu and has openly discussed it on the trail.

(It should be noted that paid edits to Ramaswamy’s Wikipedia entry indicate an initial ambivalence in disclosing his belief in Hinduism right before declaring his presidential run. And while Ramaswamy has publicly expressed his Hindu beliefs in ways that make it seem like just another Abrahamic religion, that may simply just be the way that he — as someone who attended Catholic school in the Midwest — came to understand his own tradition.)

As former Vice President Mike Pence’s opening salvo against Ramaswamy made clear, scrutiny of the fast-talking Ohioan will increase. But what he actually believes may be a moot issue.

We’re in an era in which vibes matter more than ideas. And Ramaswamy is resonating with a new generation of extremely online conservatives: the Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk types. Ramaswamy was the most popular candidate in a panel of Republican voters in Iowa convened by CNN after the debate last night, especially among the younger participants.

While the race for the Republican nomination is Donald Trump’s to lose, Ramaswamy’s rise in the polls is clearly more than just a temporary fluke. He probably won’t win the race, but he could be the face of the conservative movement’s multiracial, anti-establishment future.


Arif Rafiq is the editor of Globely News. Rafiq has contributed commentary and analysis on global issues for publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New Republic, the New York Times, and POLITICO Magazine. He has appeared on numerous broadcast outlets, including Al Jazeera English, the BBC World Service, CNN International, and National Public Radio.

Here’s What the Prigozhin Death Means for Africa

Prigozhin’s death is unlikely to significantly affect the Wagner Groups’s African operations as demand for mercenary services remain high.

BY OLUMBA E. EZENWA AND IDRIS MOHAMMED

AUGUST 31, 2023
THE CONVERSATION

The Wagner Group’s involvement in West Africa furthers Russian interests by challenging French dominance.

The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin after his private jet crashed on August 23 has raised questions about the Wagner Group’s future. Many in the West suspect Kremlin involvement in his death and are asking what will become of the mercenary group without its charismatic leader.

The Wagner Group, often described as a private military company (PMC) is a state-linked actor with close ties to the Russian military. It has involved itself in the internal politics of numerous African countries, advancing Kremlin interests while providing the Russian leadership with “plausible deniability.”

The Wagner Group comprises former Russian soldiers, convicts, and foreign nationals paid to provide mercenary services. It first emerged in Crimea in 2014 and has since extended its services to many other countries including many in Africa.

The death of the Wagner Group’s charismatic leader, a former close ally of Putin, raises questions about these African operations. Based on credible news reports, these include activities in: Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mozambique, and Madagascar. The group reportedly has more than 5,000 operatives across its Africa operations.

A common denominator among these countries is the presence of insurgencies or civil wars, abundant natural resources, corrupt leadership, and unconstitutional governance, among other factors. Many of these states, such as Libya, Sudan, and Mozambique, have many of the characteristics of “failing” or “failed states..


Wagner Group in Africa

Designated by the US government as a “transnational criminal organization” the Wagner Group offers a range of services. These include conducting offensive combat operations, training, ensuring regime security, advising government leadership, and the management and extraction of natural resources.

Described by South Africa-based think tank In On Africa as “more than mere mercenaries,” the Wagner Group has also discreetly but effectively put stress on Afro-European relations while bolstering autocratic governments.

It has also promoted anti-neo-colonial figures, such as Kemi Séba (also known as Capo Chichi). Currently based in Moscow, Séba has gained celebrity status through his social media presence and TV talk shows which frequently target French foreign policy.

This has helped to popularise and boost anti-French sentiment among francophone countries in West Africa. France has arguably continued a neo-colonial approach to West Africa and refused to accept that the era of its “Francafrique” sphere of influence is over, which has exacerbated instabilities across the region. For instance, the persistence of French control of the CFA Franc, the common currency used among former French colonies, gave it control over their economies and political affairs.

The Wagner Group’s involvement in West Africa furthers Russian interests by challenging French dominance. The group has done this through the reportedly now-defunct Internet Research Agency, known as “Russia’s troll farm.” This organization orchestrated disinformation campaigns on social media to spread anti-colonial sentiments.

By doing this, it reinforced the already strong anti-French sentiments in the Sahel region to discredit France and position Russia as a better alternative. The Internet Research Agency was directly associated with the Wagner Group via Prigozhin as its founder and owner.

Beyond propping up failed and failing states, the Wagner Group has faced accusations of targeting civilians and committing severe human rights violations in Mali, and CAR.

The Circular Business of Conflict

In addition to its military activities, the Wagner Group is estimated to have garnered more than $20 billion (£15.9 billion) from its diverse business dealings, which range from gold mining in Sudan to diamond extraction in CAR, where it is also reported to be heavily invested in the forestry and timber business.

Since mercenaries tend to thrive in conflicts, they are likely to profit by prolonging the conflicts they become involved in. So the activities of a PMC such as Wagner can exacerbate conflicts by prolonging hostilities, as witnessed in Libya, Mozambique, and CAR.

For instance, small raids against villages and police units in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, where Wagner groups were deployed, escalated into a full-scale terrorist insurgency linked to the Islamic State’s Central African Province.

In Libya, meanwhile, Wagner Group units first appeared in 2018, according to a submission to the UK parliament, ostensibly to provide technical support for repairing and maintaining armored vehicles for the Libyan National Army. Since then, the scope of their operations has expanded with increased funding from Russia and the fighting continues.

The involvement of Wagner or other PMCs in these countries almost inevitably leads to the erosion of sovereignty as unstable governments become dependent on the mercenaries for their survival. This situation may cause local leaders to favor the interests of the PMCs, reinforcing their roles as puppet leaders, causing mass exploitation of resources, leading to environmental degradation, poverty, grievances, and intensified conflicts – all of which create further demand for mercenary services.

As long as certain African countries and their leadership remain plagued by corruption, extended terms in office, election manipulations, neo-colonial influences, and looting of the national treasury, coups will remain a persistent concern. Military coups are on the rise again particularly in West Africa, stimulating an increased demand for mercenary services. As such, Prigozhin’s death is unlikely to significantly affect the Wagner Groups’s African operations. The more pertinent question is what the new leadership will look like and whether it will be more directly state-controlled.

But the use of mercenary companies such as the Wagner Group to help unstable or illegitimate governments hold on to power will not bring sustainable peace. Instead, dialogue, transitional governments reflecting people’s desires, the rule of law, and genuine democracy are essential. Otherwise, Africans will keep demanding positive change by all means.

To maintain popular support in an era of instability, African leaders must be seen to act in their people’s best interests. They must heed popular demands to halt misrule and the misuse of African resources across the continent.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Olumba E. Ezenwa is a doctoral research fellow at the Conflict, Violence, & Terrorism Research Center, Royal Holloway University of London.

Idris Mohammed  is a conflict researcher in the department of mass communication at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.

Prigozhin Joins Long List of Those Who Defied Putin and Died

With Prigozhin's death, Putin’s message is clear: opposition will not be tolerated and will probably have fatal consequences.

BY STEFAN WOLFF

AUGUST 24, 2023

Prigozhin’s demise also draws a line under the apparent power struggle within the Russian military. (Image Credit: Russian Government)

Two months after challenging Vladimir Putin’s leadership in an apparent but abortive “mutiny,” Yevgeny Prigozhin — the former owner of the mercenary private military company Wagner Group — has joined a long list of prominent Russians to die in mysterious circumstances.

Prigozhin’s private jet apparently crashed on a routine flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg just after 3 p.m. local time. Confirmation of Prigozhin’s likely demise came in the form of announcements by Russia’s authorities and a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner group. Conveniently, there was also video footage of the plane falling out of the sky and burning on the ground.

With him on the aircraft was Dmitry Utkin, widely considered to be his second in command at the Wagner Group. Other passengers are reported to have included Valery Chekalov, the head of Wagner security, Yevgeny Makaryan, who has been described as Prigozhin’s bodyguard, and other Wagner Group personnel.

While it is unlikely that we will ever know for sure how, why, and on whose orders Prigozhin might have been killed, it is far less difficult to imagine that he finally paid the price for his march on Moscow at the head of a column of his Wagner Group troops at the end of June 2023. The deaths of other top Wagner personnel in the crash spell the likely end of the group in its current form.

At the time, Prigozhin went to great lengths to paint his mutiny as directed against the top brass in the Russian Ministry of Defense and not as a direct challenge to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Yet the brief episode exposed cracks in the regime. Unopposed by local and regional security forces, Prigozhin’s troops were able to take Rostov-on-Don and the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district and command center of the war in Ukraine. They also marched to within 125 miles of the Russian capital, again mostly unopposed.

Following a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin called off his rebellion, agreeing to relocate his men and himself to Belarus and Wagner’s overseas bases — mostly in Africa.

Despite some concerns over an increasing Wagner presence closer to Nato members Poland and Lithuania, little of the agreed relocation seems to have happened. Prigozhin himself appears to have enjoyed significant freedom of movement in Russia in the weeks after his abortive mutiny, including making an appearance on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit at the end of July.

Putin’s Purges

Though abrupt, his death is not unexpected. Under Putin, a former KGB operative himself, Russia has carried out several high-profile assassinations and assassination attempts, including in the UK and Germany, to go after alleged traitors and Putin critics.

Many opposition figures in Russia have either died mysteriously or been assassinated. The list includes figures such as Alexei Navalny (who survived the Novichok poisoning), former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Meanwhile, some regime critics may have thought themselves to be beyond his reach in the UK or other countries, have also been disposed of. These include oligarch and former friend turned critic, Boris Berezovsky, and former spies Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, who were both poisoned (although Skripal survived) have been targeted.

Putin’s message here has been clear for two decades: opposition will not be tolerated and will probably have fatal consequences.

Prigozhin’s likely assassination reaffirms this message spectacularly. But it is not the only step that Putin has taken to reassert control. On the day of Prigozhin’s death, one of his presumptive allies in the military establishment, Sergei Surovikin — a former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine — was apparently dismissed as head of the Russian aerospace forces. This followed weeks of speculation following his disappearance after the Prigozhin mutiny.

Other top military officials critical of Russia’s conduct of the war in Ukraine, including the commander of the Russia 58th Combined Arms Army, Ivan Popov, were dismissed. Other officials, considered close to Prigozhin, including the deputy head of military intelligence, Vladimir Alexeyev, are still unaccounted for.

Outside the military, alleged critics of Putin’s war in Ukraine have not been safe either. A series of mysterious deaths struck fear into Russian oligarchs in the months after the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022. Since then, criticism from the Russian business elite has been muted.

The apparent assassination of Prigozhin would therefore seem to be business as usual for Putin. It was foreshadowed in the Russian president’s speech on June 24, the morning after Prigozhin’s mutiny began, when he vowed to punish the “traitors,” as he described them.

Back to Business As Usual?

Prigozhin’s demise also draws a line under the apparent power struggle within the Russian military. As the chief architects of the war in Ukraine, the defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, and chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, are the most obvious beneficiaries of Prigozhin’s death and the wider purges of critics inside and outside the military.

Putin, and his inner circle, clearly have prevailed on this occasion. This is not surprising, given how little direct and public support Prigozhin received over the course of his mutiny. In this sense, Putin’s regime is still highly effective and has demonstrated its capacity to survive domestic challenges.

But the underlying problem — a disastrous military campaign in Ukraine — has not gone away with the death of Prigozhin. Putin may have silenced one of the most outspoken critics of the conduct of the war, and have others arrested or murdered, like prominent pro-war bloggers Igor Girkin and Vladen Tatarsky. But many who share Prigozhin’s misgivings without backing him publicly will have survived Putin’s clean-up operation.

Putin can be sure that they will now be extra careful not to stand too close to high windows or accept cups of tea from anyone connected with Russia’s security services. But this may not be the only lesson they have learned from Prigozhin’s demise — and that will likely worry the Kremlin and increase the paranoia of Putin and those around him.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A Plane Crash and Prigozhin’s Lin Biao Moment

The downing of a plane that may have killed the leader of the Wagner Group parallels an incident in Mao’s China.

By James Gethyn Evans
August 24, 2023

Lin Biao, pictured sometime in the 1930s.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/PLA Pictorial

Öndörkhaan is a sleepy town in Mongolia of around 20,000 people on the windswept plains of the Asian steppe that derives its livelihood mostly from coal mining. At first glance, it seems like an unlikely stage for a drama-filled episode of international intrigue.

Yet in 1971, Öndörkhaan, recently renamed Chinggis City in honor of Mongolia’s legendary ruler Genghis Khan, who was born nearby, became a flashpoint for global intrigue that highlighted the power for revenge within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A plane carrying Lin Biao, the vice premier of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman Mao Zedong’s appointed successor, died in a fiery plane crash near the city, which killed all on board.

Rumors abound as to the reason for the crash. A plane crash is, after all, a plot point featured only in the most dramatic of soap operas and conspiracy theories. The official line from the CCP was that Lin had tried to rally his closest supporters in an attempted assassination against Mao, nicknamed “Project 571.” When this failed, Lin tried to flee Beijing to defect to Moscow, but the pilot failed to carry enough fuel and the plane subsequently nosedived into the Mongolian grasslands.

Unofficial narratives circulated that the plane was shot down by Chinese fighter jets at the order of Premier Zhou Enlai, or even that Lin had been gunned down in his car in Beijing and that his son, Lin Liguo, had attempted to flee in the plane.

Who Was Lin Biao?

Before his mysterious death, Lin Biao helped make Mao into an icon of world revolution and a revered figure for China’s Red Guards and anti-imperialist activists across the globe. By 1969, Lin had risen to the top of the CCP and was largely responsible for masterminding China’s Cultural Revolution. It was Lin who compiled and published Mao’s speeches and writings into the “Little Red Book” brandished by so many during the 1960s and 1970s.

Crucially, Lin’s senior position as a general in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who had led the CCP to numerous victories in the civil war meant that he had the backing of the military. He used that as leverage to push for a change to China’s constitution that named him as Mao’s successor. Lin Biao’s name regularly appears alongside Mao’s in propaganda from the period as a display of his seniority within the party.

Yet Lin’s hold over the military and his push for greater military influence over the party would spell his downfall. While there are numerous threats to the continued rule of any autocratic leader, the greatest threat usually comes from being backstabbed by other elites within the palace. Lin’s alternative power base among the PLA was a direct challenge to Mao’s monopoly on power, not to mention an impediment to his attempts at rapprochement with the United States. This was a threat that Mao could not tolerate. Lin had to go, but in a way that would not provoke a military uprising. A plane crash and a story of defection, combined with a subsequent rounding up of his PLA supporters, proved all too convenient.

In a two-year period, the CCP propaganda machine went from extolling Lin as one of the most senior leaders of the country to excoriating him as a traitor to the revolution, as the party had done previously with other figures deemed no longer aligned with the party’s interests. In doing so, the CCP was able to halt the Cultural Revolution and embrace its former enemy, the United States, in an about-face from its propaganda messaging of the previous 20 years.

Plane Crashes Are a Dramatic Way to Dispose of Rivals, but They Come at a Cost

Autocratic leaders have many levers at their disposal by which to eliminate rivals. A plane crash is a sensationalist option, but that is precisely the point. It is a move that can be chalked up to mechanical failure or other reasons without much evidence of precisely what happened. It is also a way to grab attention with a bang that redirects public attention away from established narratives. For Mao, the plane crash was a way to both depose Lin Biao and to shift the public view of Lin from one of revered leader to that of a traitor.

There is still much that we don’t know about the downing of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane. Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the flight, but this does not guarantee that he was on board. Assuming that he was, it is highly unlikely that the crash was an accident, with reports that the aircraft was shot down by Russian anti-aircraft missiles. If Prigozhin was on board the doomed plane, its downing serves a similar goal as Lin’s plane crash: Prigozhin has been disposed of under murky and hard-to-verify circumstances and public attention can be redirected away from earlier narratives of Prigozhin as a powerful challenge to Putin’s rule toward one of Prigozhin as a failed traitor.

Either way, a plane crash is a loud and clear message from Putin to other potential coup plotters: proceed at your own risk.

Certain Russia watchers have speculated that Prigozhin listed his name on the manifest as a cover for his disappearance or the death of a body double in his place. In this case, a plane crash is a convenient way for him to retire or disappear in a manner that allows everyone to save face. Putin cannot allow Prigozhin to walk away consequence-free from his direct challenge to the Kremlin’s power, but he may also be unable to remove Prigozhin entirely. Having the public think that Prigozhin is dead could be a win-win for Russia’s elite, with the other passengers on board as collateral.

In the coming weeks we should expect to see several potential developments. Prigozhin will likely be declared dead – regardless of whether he is or not – as this is the most convenient narrative for the Kremlin. The reasons for the crash will be given as onboard failure, Russian anti-aircraft, or Ukrainian or NATO anti-aircraft fire, depending on how much the Kremlin wants other potential rivals to know their fate if they attempt a similar move to Wagner’s march on Moscow.

And depending on the official explanation, there will either be a narrative that this was a sad accident, a provocation by the Ukrainians, or that Prigozhin was attempting to betray Russia. Whichever narrative the Kremlin chooses, international news will now be focused on the mystery behind Prigozhin’s apparent death rather than Russia’s continuing problems in Ukraine, a win for Moscow’s propaganda machine.

Either way, a plane crash is a dramatic move that requires the trust of those in the know to keep quiet and the guarantee that Prigozhin’s supporters will not rise up in protest. As with many autocratic regimes, there is simply a lot that we don’t know about their secretive inner workings. Looking back to China’s history, however, gives us some clues as to what this move may mean for Putin and Russia’s future.

https://thediplomat.com/

 

Top Russian rocket scientist dies from 'mushroom poisoning' in latest suspicious demise in Putin's state

31 August 2023, 

Top Russian rocket scientist dies just weeks after Putin’s failed moon landing. Picture: Alamy/Getty

By Chay Quinn

@chayquinn

A Russian rocket scientist has died after mysteriously being poisoned - with Russian state media saying that he ate edible mushrooms.

Professor Vitaly Melnikov, 77, had headed the Department of Rocket and Space Systems at RSC Energia before becoming suddenly seriously ill days before he died.

A Moscow newspaper claimed that inedible mushrooms were the reason for his sudden downturn in health.

Russian doctors were unable to save Melkinov from the "severe poisoning" that he suffered - as he battled against his fate for more than two weeks after he fell ill.

Military leaders, scientists and vocal critics have all seen weird demises after the outbreak of the Ukraine war 18-months ago. Picture: Getty

Russian state media attributed the poisoning to inedible mushrooms. Picture: Alamy

Melkinov had worked with the Russian state space agency Roscosmos - including times when he cooperated with foreign counterparts including at NASA.

Melkinov is the latest in a series of unusual deaths in Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

From a sausage tycoon found dead in a hotel, to a toad-venom shaman hangover cure gone wrong, a series of individuals who have met a bizarre demise.

Fears of assassination have increased since the Wagner group’s attempted mutiny last month with the private military company’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in an apparent assassination attempt weeks after the aborted coup.

The Vice-President of a Russian bank, Kristina Baikova, fell to her death from a window in her Moscow apartment earlier this week. Loko Bank is a commercial bank headquartered in Moscow with “reputable foreign investors” in its share capital.

Here is a list of other high-profile Russians who have died in suspicious circumstances since the war began.

Kristina Baikova – 23rd June 2023

The Vice-President of a Russian bank, Kristina Baikova, fell to her death from a window in her 11th-floor-apartment in Moscow. The 28-year-old fell on the same day the Wagner PMC began their mutiny and approach on Moscow. Baikova worked for Loko Bank, a commercial bank headquartered in Moscow with “reputable foreign investors” in its share capital.

Grigory Klinishov – 17th June 2023

The scientist who created Russia's thermonuclear bombs was found dead in his Moscow apartment, with official reports reading he committed suicide. Grigory Klinishov’s body was accompanied by a suicide note. The former Soviet-Russian physicist was one of the creators of the Soviet hydrogen bomb RDS-37. The Russian Investigative Committee said that while “neck injuries characteristic of hanging” were found on the body, a probe is underway to decide whether a criminal case should be initiated into the nonagenarian’s death.

Artyom Bartenev – 8th June 2023

A judge appointed by President Vladimir Putin was found dead after falling twelve stories from his apartment window. The body of 42-year-old Artyom Bartenev was found outside his apartment building in the city of Kazan on the morning of 8th June. He was meant to judge a trial that morning. Bartenev was a federal judge who presided over administrative and civil cases.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group that led a mutiny against Russia's army in June, was on the list of passengers of a plane that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region. Picture: Getty

Pyotr Kucherenko – 20 May 2023

A senior Russian official died after falling ill on a flight from Cuba to Russia. Pyotr Kucherenko, the State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, was travelling back with his delegation from the Latin American country as part of a Government trip. His plane made an emergency landing in the Russian town of Mineralnye Vody, near the Georgian border, where doctors tried to save him.

The politician had previously publicly criticised the Russian occupation of Ukraine, calling the war a “fascist invasion” and mourned the “degree of brutalisation of our state.

Nikolay Bortsov – 23rd April 2023

77-year-old multi-millionaire Nikolay Bortsov was found dead in his home in the Lipetsk region of Russia, but no cause was given. His fortune was mostly amassed through the sale of his soft drinks company to PepsiCo in 2008.

Bortsov, also a former politician, was included on the UK EU, US, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Ukraine and New Zealand list of sanctions, due to his voiced support for the war in Ukraine.

Igor Shkurko – 4th April 2023

A leading Russian energy boss was found dead in his cell in a Siberian detention centre after being accused of taking a £5,000 bribe. Igor Shkurko was the deputy general director of the Russian energy company Yakutskenergo. The 49-year-old had the day before he was found dead, submitted an appeal against the allegation.

Many of the deaths have been attributed to be assassinations carried out on Vladimir Putin's behalf. Picture: Getty

Viatcheslav Rovneiko – 22nd February 2023

An oil magnate and believed to be cold-war spy Viatcheslav Rovneiko was found unconscious in his house on 22nd February and could not be resuscitated. The 59-year-old former spy was reportedly close to Vladimir Putin’s foreign intelligence chief. His home was inside an elite gated community; no other details have been released about his death, though according to reports, no “signs of a violent death” were found on his body.

Marina Yankina – 16th February 2023

Marina Yankin, the head of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defence for the Western Military District was found dead after having fallen out of the window of a 16-storey tower block in St Petersburg earlier this year. The 58-year-old Putin-ally held a key role in funding the war in Ukraine.

Vladimir Makarov – 13th February 2023

A senior Russian general died just a few days prior to Yankina. The 77-year-old, Vladimir Makarov was found dead in the Russian village of Golikovo one week after being axed from his role by the Russian president.

Unconfirmed reports cite that the general had fallen into a deep depression following his dismissal.

Dmitry Pawochka – 26th January 2023

The former manager of multiple large Russian companies, including the space corporation ‘Roscosmos’, was burned alive in a fire at his home in Moscow. 49-year-old Dmitry Pawochka was in his apartment on the 16th floor of an elite skyscraper, and the fire was allegedly started by a cigarette that was still lit when he went to sleep.

Many of the deaths could be recriminations for criticism of the Russian regime - including the failed Wagner coup last month. Picture: Getty

Magomed Abdulaev – 5th January 2023

Former lawyer and politician, Magomed Abdulaev, was killed when he was hit by a car when crossing the street earlier this year. The 61-year-old was the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Dagestan, and was killed in its capital of Makhachkala. Abdulaev was taken to hospital after being hit, but due to the severity of his injuries, was unable to be saved.

Alexey Maslov – 25th December 2022

A former commander-in-chief of Russia’s ground forces, Alexey Maslov, passed away on Christmas Day last year in a Moscow military hospital. The Russian Army general served as commander between 2004-2008 and was at one time Russia’s representative to NATO before retiring from active service in 2011. The 69-year-old was reportedly close to Putin and was a firm supporter of the war in Ukraine.

Alexander Buzakov – 24th December 2022

A Russian shipyard chief died suddenly on Christmas Eve, and no cause was given. Based in St Petersburg, the shipyard in question specialises in building non-nuclear submarines. Admiralty Shipyards is one of the country’s oldest and produces military warships such as nuclear and diesel-powered submarines and large auxiliaries.

Buzakov died the day after attending the float out ceremony for a new diesel-electric attack submarine.

Pavel Antov – 24th December 2022

Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov died after falling out of a window at the Hotel Sai International in Rayagada, India. The 65-year-old was celebrating his birthday at the property.

Known for being a major manufacturer of sausage products in Russia, Antov was also a former deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Vladimir Oblast. His death has been regarded as suspicious due to previous criticism of the war in Ukraine via WhatsApp in June. By July, Antov had retracted his statement and posted a message on social media detailing that he supported the president and was a “patriot” of his country.

Vladimir Bidenov – 22nd December 2022

Travelling alongside Antov to the Rayagada Hotel Sai International was Vladimir Bidenov. The 61-year-old travel companion died two days prior to Antov of a heart attack and his body was found surrounded by wine bottles. Bidenov and Antov were travelling with two other companions, who stayed on to answer police questions following the deaths.

Dmitry Zelenov – 9th December 2022

Russian billionaire and real estate tycoon Dmitry Zelenov died after falling down the stairs while holidaying in the French Riviera. The 50-year-old became suddenly unwell while dining with friends, and suffered critical head injuries after falling down the stairs. He passed away at a hospital in Nice.

Grigory Kochenov – 7th December 2022

A prominent graphic designer fell to his death from his balcony in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in Western Russia. The 41-year-old creative director was in his apartment when police arrived at his apartment to conduct a search. According to the local news outlet NiMash, Kochenov opened the door for the police, signed the search warrant presented to him, walked onto his apartment balcony and fell off.

Vyacheslav Taran – 25th November 2022

A Russian crypto-tycoon died in a helicopter crash after taking off from Switzerland to fly to his home in Monaco. Both Vyacheslav Taran, 53, and his 35-year-old helicopter pilot were killed in the crash. The pair were reportedly flying in good, clear weather. The cause of the crash is not known.

Nikolay Petrunin – 12 October 2022

Russian politician and deputy of the 7th and 8th State Dumas, Nikolay Petrunin, died from complications of Covid-19. The 46-year-old was a close Putin ally and Kremlin insider and was dubbed as the 'gas wunderkind' of Russia.

Anatoly Gerashchenko – 21 September 2022

The former Head of the Moscow Aviation Institute died last September after reportedly falling down the stairs inside the institute. Anatoly Gerashchenko, 72, spent 45 years of his life working at the institute.

Vladimir Sungorkin – 14 September 2022

Editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, and a key ally of Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Sungorkin, 68, died after suffering a stroke and suffocating whilst on his way to lunch last September.

Ivan Pechorin – 10th September 2022

The Director of Aviation of the Russian Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV), Ivan Pechorin, died after falling out of a motorboat in the sea of Japan last September. The 39-year-old Russian businessman’s body washed up on shore two days later.

Ravil Maganov – 1st September 2022

The 67-year-old Chair of Lukoil, a Russian multinational energy corporation, died after falling from the 6th floor of a Moscow hospital. Lukoil’s board of directors, headed by the chair, Ravil Maganov, had earlier that year issued a statement calling for a quick end to the war in Ukraine. Maganov was not the only unexplained death within the Lukoil company following this statement.

Dan Rapoport – 14th August 2022

An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, Latvian-American financial executive Daniil Rapoport died after falling out of his high-rise apartment in Washington DC last year. The 52-year-old businessman had relocated to America from Ukraine, where he had lived with his second-wife until the outbreak of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Yuri Voronov – 4th July 2022

The 61-year-old CEO of Astra Shipping, a transport company, died last summer from a gunshot wound to the head. Yuri Voronov was found floating in his pool with a pistol gun found nearby. Astra Shipping is a subcontractor for the Russian multinational energy corporation, Gazprom, the world’s largest publicly traded natural gas company, which has seen other businessmen associated with it mysteriously die.

Alexander Subbotin – 8 May 2022

Russian billionaire and LUKOIL board member, Alexander Subbotin, died after reportedly consulting ‘shamans’ for a hangover cure. The shamans treated him with toad venom through an incision made on his skin. He was later found dead.

His death came two months after the LUKOIL board made a statement criticising the war in Ukraine and calling for a quick end to the conflict.

Andrei Krukovsky – 1 May 2022

The general director of a ski resort owned by Gazprom fell off a cliff to his death last May. The 37-year-old Andrei Krukovsky reportedly fell off the cliff while hiking.

Sergey Protosenya – 19th April 2022

Russian gas tycoon Sergey Protosenya was found hanged from a handrail in a luxury Spanish rental home last April. The 55-year-old former Deputy Chairman of Novatek’s wife and daughter were also found dead in their beds, having been stabbed and found with blunt axe wounds.

Vladislav Avayev – 18th April 2022

The Vice-President of Gazprombank, Vladislav Avayev was found dead alongside his wife and daughter in his Moscow flat, just one day prior to Protosenya. According to reports from the Kremlin’s media, Avayev, 51, shot his family before killing himself, though other outlets have argued the murder-suicide could have been staged.

Vasily Melnikov – 23rd March 2022

Last March the owner of the medical equipment supplier company MedStom was found dead in his home in Nizhny Novgorod, Western Russia. Vasily Melnikov, 43, along with his wife and two sons were all stabbed to death.

Mikhail Watford – 28th February 2022

Ukrainian-born oligarch Mikhail Watford was found dead in the garage of his home in Surrey in February 2022. The 66-year-old businessman had relocated to the UK in the early 2000s, and anglicised his surname, Tolstosheya, to Watford after moving.

Alexander Tyulakov – 25th February 2022

The Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center of Gazprom was the first high-profile Russian businessman death following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The 61-year-old Alexander Tyulakov was found dead in his garage in St Petersburg the morning after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Another Gazprom employee, 60-year-old Leonid Shulman - the Director of Transport - was found “in a pool of his own blood” in the bathroom of his Leningrad home on 30th January, just weeks before the invasion began.

Gabon: Coup ousting President Ali Bongo wasn't a suprise

Isaac Kaledzi

DW
August 31, 2023

Ali Bongo Ondimba was set to extend his presidential tenure into a third term when soldiers seized power in a coup. Analysts weren't surprised, as criticism of the Bongo family had been growing for years.

After 56 years at the helm of political affairs in Gabon, the end of the Bongo dynasty was very much expected. That was confirmed when soldiers seized power on Wednesday, some African analysts told DW.

The Bongo family first held the reins of power when Ali Bongo's father, Omar, became president in 1967. Ali took control in 2009 after the death of Omar, who had ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for 41 years.

"The Gabonese population is hungry for change! That's why most people, even if it's a military coup, are relieved that 60 years of family regime and dynasty may finally come to an end," Nathalie Mezo, a women's rights activist from Gabon, told DW.

Bongo was set to tighten his grip on power beyond 14 years with a third term, after he was declared winner of last Saturday's presidential election.

The electoral commission had announced Bongo's win with 64.27% of the vote — defeating his main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, who secured 30.77% of the vote. But the coup leaders canceled the results.

Army stages coup in Gabon  02:33

Bongo's previous election victories in 2009 and 2016 had sparked violent protests. Jocksy Ondo Louemba, a Gabonese journalist living in exile, said the army did not want to use a heavy-handed approach to clamp down on protests like it had after previous elections.

'Election itself was rigged'

There were hints that simmering discontent could spiral into violence after a last-minute change to the election rules required voters to select their presidential and parliamentary candidates from the same political party.

"This election was unfair and absurd because voters were forced to elect their president and their deputy [MPs] with the same ballot paper from the same party. If someone voted for a deputy [MP] from the PDG, the party of Ali Bongo, he was forced to vote for Bongo [in the presidential election] and vice versa," Louemba told DW. "Even the election itself was rigged. It was a farce."

After Wednesday's coup, crowds of people poured into the streets and sang the national anthem to celebrate the end of the Bongo dynasty.

Mezo said the putsch was predictable and prepared long in advance.

"If we citizens already know that the result will definitely be in favor of the outgoing president, then the army knows all the more!" she said.

A recent Afrobarometer survey showed that 66% of Gabonese people surveyed backed military coups as a way of rectifying a situation where elected leaders are deemed to be abusing power.

Gabon: Who is the Bongo family?   01:18

Leonard Mbulle-Nziege, an African political economist and risk analyst, said many people have always wanted to see the end of the Bongo dynasty.

"Gabon is what you would call an electoral authoritarian regime, whereby even though multiparty elections are carried out on a regular basis, the institutions of democracy, the rule of law have all been subverted by the rule of the Bongo family," he told DW.

For Mbulle-Nziege, last weekend's electoral process was when the "stranglehold over all of these facets of society over time came to a headway."

What triggered the coup?

Oil accounts for 60% of Gabon's revenues, making it one of the richest countries in Africa — but the World Bank said most of the population still lives below the poverty line of $5.50 (€5.07) per day.

Mbulle-Nziege said Bongo failed to tackle the key economic challenges confronting his people. They accused the president of getting rich on Gabon's resource wealth while many of its people struggled to scrape by.

"Since taking power, he has been faced with domestic discontent," he said. "There has also been less respect to the economic downturn that the country faced. They had two oil shocks and then there's also been a lot of poverty. The country is an upper middle-income country, but then there's a 33% poverty rate and there's a 20% unemployment rate."

According to Mbulle-Nziege, the Gabonese public has become angry that, despite all of the country's resource wealth, "these benefits haven't accrued to the majority of the population."

Crowds poured into the streets and sang the national anthem to celebrate the coup against the Bongo dynasty

 Desirey Minkoh/Afrikimages/IMAGO

The Bongos have long been accused of corruption; in 2021, Ali Bongo was found to have connections to secretive offshore entities in international tax havens, as revealed in the Pandora Papers investigation.

"[The soldiers] are feeding off the grievances of the population which are unhappy with the governance, which are unhappy with the corruption, which are unhappy with the fact that the perceived benefits of democracy are not accruing to the rest of society," said Mbulle-Nziege.

Why did the army turn against Ali Bongo?

Wednesday's coup was the first time the army had firmly turned against the Bongo family since they took office in 1967, although it was the second uprising that Ali Bongo faced during his presidency.

The first was in 2019, after Bongo suffered a stroke that sidelined him for 10 months while he was recovering in Morocco.

Bongo had turned away from his father's style of leadership which was largely clientelism, or exchanging special privileges or benefits for political support, journalist Louemba pointed out.

"[Ali Bongo] was very brittle, he was against dialogue. He thought he could achieve anything by force and police. But, you know, Napoleon said: you can do anything with bayonets, except to sit on them," Louemba told DW.

He compared the situation today to the one before the 1964 coup when the then president, Leon Mba, wanted to introduce the Unity Party. When civilian political voices were actively gagged, the army intervened.

"For such a coup to take place at all, a certain cohesion was necessary. The majority of the troops had to share the same opinion, otherwise it would not have been possible, otherwise it would have failed like the coup attempt of Lieutenant Kelly Ondo [Onbiang] in January 2019," Louemba said.

Earlier this week, Ali Bongo appeared in a video posted on social media saying: "I'm sending a message to all friends that we have all over the world to tell them to make noise for [...] the people here who arrested me and my family."

Samuel Ngoua Ngou, who used to be Ali Bongo's deputy head of cabinet, said people — including the military — were simply fed up.

"I'm 624 kilometers from Libreville. But when I see the reactions around me, people are pretty happy — because they're finally free!"

Edited by: Keith Walker