The murder of a senior Russian general in Moscow this week was a barbaric act of terrorism. It was also a cowardly act by a despicable enemy.
The United States and its NATO partners are complicit in this and countless other acts of terrorism against Russia. But the murder of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was particularly flagrant and obscene, violating all rules of war. It demands a considered response, one that is different than before.
Lt. Gen. Kirillov was killed early on Tuesday morning as he walked out of his residential apartment block in Moscow along with a military aide, Major Ilya Polikarpov. The pair were defenseless, which raises huge questions about Russian military security protocols.
An explosive blast from a device secreted in a parked scooter near the doorway of the building appeared to kill both men instantly. Their bodies were later seen prone on the snow-covered sidewalk as crime investigators cordoned off the area. It was a grim scene, an icy indicator of how much at war the enemies of Russia are.
It is understood that Kirillov and his aide were monitored in real time by a camera hidden in a car at the scene by his assassins. The bomb was detonated remotely. It beggars belief that such a sophisticated ambush did not involve high-level NATO planners and equipment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during his Direct Line presser on Thursday, condemned the murder as an act of terrorism. The deceased general has been posthumously awarded the Hero of Russia medal.
Since 2017, Kirillov served as the Chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces. He was assigned to protect the Russian nation from weapons of mass destruction. Since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine to neutralize NATO-backed aggression, Kirillov’s team of investigators uncovered an alleged network of bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine run by the Pentagon.
The Russian allegations appeared to be based on intercepted classified U.S. documents that confirmed the operation of bioweapons labs. Kirillov’s presentations and detailed reports caused international alarm about sinister Pentagon involvement in producing biological weapons of mass destruction. According to the Russian investigations, the bioweapons programs were authorized by the Obama and Biden administrations. The programs also involved major U.S. pharmaceutical, engineering and financial companies in a clandestine operation.
For the United States, this controversial work by Kirillov and his team was a source of huge embarrassment, although the Western media brusquely dismissed it as “Kremlin disinformation.” It purportedly exposed Washington as being implicated in a systematic bioterrorism project facilitated by a NeoNazi regime that believes in the genocidal destruction of Russia – as its Third Reich forebears did.
The discovery of an alleged U.S. bioweapons industry in Ukraine made Lt. Gen. Kirillov a priority target. Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson opines that it was this background that resulted in his murder.
Other commentators have claimed that the assassination was aimed at killing the truth about the alleged U.S. bioweapons program.
However, eliminating this senior figure does not abrogate the research his investigative team has compiled. One can be sure that the documented information and physical evidence recovered from these former laboratories is an ongoing investigation that can be presented to an international tribunal. The Russian authorities should endeavor to bring the research to a world forum for independent experts to adjudicate.
As for the perpetrators of Kirillov’s murder, the Ukrainian military intelligence service (SBU) was reportedly the triggerman. An Uzbek national recruited by the SBU to carry out the attack has been arrested by Russian state security.
On Friday, Russian air strikes on Kiev destroyed an SBU control center. According to reports, several high-ranking Ukrainian officers were killed. That can be seen as a form of retaliation.
But the question of perpetrators goes much wider and deeper. The United States, Britain and other NATO powers bear responsibility for every act of terrorism committed by the Kiev regime over the past three years. This applies not only to the barbarous assassination of Lt. Gen. Kirillov and his aide but also to the countless attacks on Russian civilians in Donetsk, Kursk, Bryansk, Rostov, and elsewhere.
What is particularly offensive about Kirillov’s killing is the way the NATO powers set him up for murder and immediately gloated as his bloodied body lay in the street. The British media was conspicuous in their grotesque reveling at the death. See this commentary by SCF columnist Finian Cunningham.
A BBC reporting team at the scene of the murder sounded like a bunch of jackals drooling over fresh blood.
Earlier this year, the Americans and the British accused Kirillov of overseeing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. It was a baseless accusation with no evidence presented. Russia denied the use of chemical weapons and countered that it was the Ukrainian forces that were using them. Given the rapid successes of military advances against the NATO-backed regime, the deployment of chemicals by Russia makes no sense whatsoever.
A recent report by the United Nations watchdog, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, was inconclusive about an alleged incident even though the OPCW’s report was based on samples provided by the Ukrainians, which is hardly impartial.
In any case, using CWs was not Lt. Gen. Kirillov’s remit. His extensive work was dedicated to tracking down allegations of a Pentagon-run bioweapons program and countering that threat.
What the Americans and British were aiming at was to smear and set him up for assassination. In October, Britain announced it was imposing sanctions on the Russian commander. The wording of the British Foreign Office’s charges was shrill and bombastic and contained no evidence. It was a propaganda stunt to demonize.
The British condemnation led to the Ukrainian military intelligence fingering Kirillov as a war criminal. Just before the attack this week, the SBU issued what was a de facto death notice.
Russia has vowed to exact revenge for the murder. The strikes on the SBU center in Kiev can be viewed as justifiable. But are they reciprocal?
As long as the American and British masterminds of the terrorism against Russia remain pain-free, then the atrocities against Russian citizens will continue.
The NATO powers are complicit in systematic barbarity and aggression against Russia. Russia’s display last month of the invincible Oreshnik hypersonic missile and threats of retaliation have unfortunately fallen on deaf ears as the repeated deadly attacks with ATACMS, Storm Shadows and HIMARS on Russian soil this week show. Several civilians were killed in strikes with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets on medical college facilities in the town of Rylsk in Kursk.
This was in the same week that a respected general was cut down outside his home in Moscow. Then, the CIA and MI6 masterminds laughed about it through their various media outlets.
Should Russia stay its hand and resist the temptation for stronger retaliations in the hope that the next U.S. president, Donald Trump, might be more willing to resolve conflict?
Waiting for Trump to turn up is perhaps not a sound strategy. Will he even succeed anyway? Meanwhile, the terrorist masterminds get away with murder and will keep murdering – because they think they have impunity.
Der Friedensstifter 