The Assassination of Lt. Gen. Kirillov, Bioweapons and Revenge

In which Phillip Cross raises its mysterious head, again

[© Dmitry Yagodkin/TASS]

Published: 2024-12-22

Updated 2024-12-23: Fortuitiuously Ron Unz has published his article on the assassination reaching the same conclusion presented. A reference has been added.

---

The Assassination

The assassination of Russian Lt. General Igor Kirillov on 2024-12-17 is yet another dangerous escalation between the nuclear powers of the US and Russian Federation during the US/NATO war against Russian speaking people in Ukraine and Russia. That Ukraine's "internal" intelligence service, the SBU, was responsible for the assassination follows the accusation of their responsibility by Ukraine's military, a lack of denial by the SBU and a confession in custody in Russia of an Uzbek, Akhmad Kurbanov. Kurbanov said that he was offered 100,000 USD and a false passport from an EU nation as payment. The use of a poor patsy whose mind had been bent by various propaganda follows earlier cases also coordinated by the SBU, like the Crocus Hall massacre, or the assassination of Daria Dugina.

The assassination of Kirillov via explosive involved recent technology and old "tradecraft". The bomb was placed in an electric scooter outside Kirillov's apartment and contained a remote detonation mechanism, otherwise known as a cheap mobile phone with a battery life long enough to span the of planting the scooter and the detonation. A ride sharing car was hired and parked in line of sight of the apartment building exit with a web cam focused on it. The operation was concluded by a remote operative as Kirillov left the building with his aide. Both were murdered by the explosion.

CIA and MI-6 (CI-6) have worked with elements of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in Ukraine since WWII during which Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator, murdered tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Poles of differing religious beliefs. The New York Times has reported that soon after the US sponsored, 'Toria Nuland managed, 2014 coup in Ukraine via the Maidan protests (another color revolution), the CIA had established 12 "bases" in Ukraine. From this one learns that the US installed regime in Ukraine has been dominated by the CIA and US State Department, aided by MI-6. Their collaboration with their "friends in Kiev" was openly admitted at the premiere public meeting of the heads of the CIA and MI-6 chatting on a couch at a Financial Times event in September 2024. The event confirmed a 4-way collaboration: the well known, between the CIA and MI-6 (CI-6), and their collaborations with the GUR/SBU and the Financial Times.

The Agency

When one's foreign military/intelligence/covert action organization is dominated by another, one must receive tacit approval for external operations which may have political consequences. Murdering a Russian General is a stellar example requiring approval. CI-6 knew about this operation. The SBU received approval. This was a CI-6 operation, conceived somewhere in the collective overlap and delegated to the SBU. It was a public murder of a foreign nuclear power's military flag officer by a military intelligence collective.

This is a dangerous genie to let out of the bottle. It unleashes retribution in kind. This explains the Ukrainian Military's accusation of their SBU's guilt. CI-6 via the SBU placed targets on the flag officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This destabilizes cooperation between Ukraine's military and its intelligence organisations at a time when Ukraine has lost the war NATO provoked and is losing territory at a rapid clip.

In response to the CI-6/SBU murder of Kirillov, the Quincy Institute's publishing arm, Responsible Statecraft, published an article by Wesleyan University Professor Peter Rutland offering policy advice. Rutland's article is clear:

The tactic of targeted killing of Russian officials is unlawful and unwise. The U.S. should pressure Ukraine to stop doing it.

The article provides a brief legal and historical background to assassination. Rutland acknowledges the primary nation behind targeted assassinations, Israel. Sprinkled through his article is the usual Russian bias, including the tired "full-scale" for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and pejorative language when referring to Russia assassinations and none thereof when referring to his nation's. The Quincy Institute (QI) is funded by George Soros/Charles Koch/Ford Foundation/Carnegie Corporation(NY)/Rockerfeller Brothers Fund/Schumann Center, so the introduction of skewed emotive language by an academic published at Responsible Statecraft is understandable.

Given that Russia has more than tripled the size of the forces it has deployed to the conflict since the start of the SMO, "full-scale" is not a descriptive term, but a narrative one. Prof. Paul Robinson quantified the change in size of Russia’s military engagement during the conflict:

Russia began the war in February 2024 with an invasion force of at most 200,000 soldiers. By early 2023, the size of the Russian army in Ukraine had increased to around 360,000 men, and by early 2024 to about 470,00 [12]. According to Vladimir Putin, in June 2024 the number of Russian troops in the zone of military operations was just under 700,000 [13]. Despite claims of massive losses, the Russian army in Ukraine has grown considerably in size.

The other narrative term, "unprovoked", is not used in Rutland’s article because QI does not subscribe to that half of the dual branding of the proxy-war which is now acknowledged as directly involving NATO due to the attacks on "old" Russia using NATO weaponry and encrypted US targeting data.

Target Selection

Lt. Gen. Kirillov was Russia's leader of its military organisation responsible for defence against weapons of mass destruction. These weapons are known as 'NBC' for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons in Russian circles.

Kirillov had publicly warned of a US biological weapons program being run in Ukraine. Discussion of this topic occurred early in the conflict. Several biological research facilities in Ukraine were identified by Russian forces. They were filmed by both Russian and independent journalists confirming their purpose (bio-research) and that they were rapidly, partially destroyed by persons before the front advanced beyond them.

Ron Unz discarded the manufactured motive for Kirillov’s assassination being that Russia has used tear gas during the war. His conclusion was:

Just a couple of weeks after the Russians invaded Ukraine, they claimed to have found a network of dozens of biolabs mostly close to the Russian border, funded by our Pentagon and working with deadly anthrax and plague. Such development of offensive biological weapons was blatantly illegal under the treaties signed by most of the countries in the world, including America.

US biological weapons programs have a long history clouded in secrecy. Those resurfaced during discussion of the outbreak of the SARS2 virus in Wuhan, China, and Qom, Iran. Discussion of any outbreaks of biological weapons, or use of them by the US is suppressed and quickly labeled a "conspiracy theory" to further dissuade discussion of US involvement in the dangerous activity.

Bioweapons

To conspire is "to act in harmony toward a common end" though in the sense above implies that the actions are illegal and/or that the end is immoral. This, of course, happens all the time. The official explanation for the attacks on 9/11 is a conspiracy of a collection of persons hijacking aeroplanes. One of the favorite charge types for the US Dept. of Justice is "conspiracy to commit X". Just after the 9/11 crimes, an Anthrax attack against US persons, including Congressional representatives, occurred in which the strain of Anthrax used was identified to come from a US bio-weapons research facility.

An agreement to deploy biological weapons would be a conspiracy because it is an agreement (i.e required approval or consultation and thus more than one person is involved) and is immoral, if not illegal. As such, labeling such discussions as "conspiracy theories" is accurate, but this is not the intention of the application of the label. The history of the modern pejorative use of "conspiracy theory" to derail discussions of collaborative illegality began after the assassination of the 35th president of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy. The acceptable replacement for “conspiring” is “colluding” to allow both to exist but only one to retain its repurposed meaning.

Phillip Cross

In 2018 Craig Murray published "The Philip Cross Affair" and revealed a collaborative Wikipedia account used to edit pages away from territory which is outside of accepted propaganda narratives in Western media.

Interestingly, Cross turned up at the Wikipedia page labeling the public discussion of US bio-weapons research facilities in Ukraine, to which Lt. Gen. Kirillov contributed, as a "conspiracy theory".

If one is interested in these accounts used to massage Wikipedia entries and control acceptable narrative, the data is all there to be found by examining the editing history of Wikipedia pages [click on View History for any page].

The curated page to rubbish discussion of US bioresearch programs in Ukraine includes this pearler:

[The conspiracy theorists] always focus on a large conspiracy going on from the elite against the people. People are suffering in Ukraine. And they wouldn't deny that. But they would say, 'Yeah, but that's part of the larger, inhumane conspiracy that's going on.'

It is completely unreasonable to propose that “the elites” are trying to kill lots of people, states the control page, while there is a war going on in Ukraine which has maimed or killed over 2 million. This war was not only provoked but has been maintained by the US and its “elites” at every opportunity.

Russia Responds

Returning to the probable basis for the Ukrainian military's accusation that the SBU (and thus CI-6) was behind the assassination of Lt. Gen Kirillov, Russia has exacted its revenge for the murder. The Ukrainian military were correct, retribution would come.

Dima reported (see sources) that the attack on Kiev which occurred on 2024-12-20 (3 days after the assassination) targeted:

• the Headquarters of 'Special Forces', an SBU command center

• a patriot air defence system

• a multi-launch rocket and cruise missile system design bureau.

• a large arsenal of missile weaponry

He also reported that Russian sources said that three Generals were killed in the attack. TASS confirmed the attack on SBU 'special forces' and also mentioned a CIA facility at a "Holiday Inn". Dima did not link the attack to Lt. Gen. Kirillov, but the choice of targets indicates that it was a direct response to the assassination.

The missile attacks were launched from the closest possible Russian territory in the Bryansk region, likely to minimize flight time and thus reduce the chance of any personnel leaving the target areas.

Ukraine's response to the response has been another attack on civilians and energy infrastructure in Russia confirming Ukraine’s military weakness.

The Duran reported on 2024-12-15 that discussions between President-elect Trump, his appointed liaison Gen. Kellogg and Elon Musk via Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and the Kremlin have begun. Included in these exchanges was a proposal from Orbán for a ceasefire during Christmas. Expired President Zelensky angrily shot down the offer of a peace over Christmas.

The assassination of Lt. Gen. Kirillov was run two days after The Duran's report on these discussions. The outgoing Biden administration which provoked the war is doing everything possible to maintain it. The assassination is just another provocation serving that same agenda.

As Ted Snider documented, the Ukrainian people may well develop a hatred for the US because it fomented and has maintained the war at every possible opportunity.

or support this work via Buy Me A Coffee or Patreon.

Sources

One Day, Ukrainians Might Hate America, Ted Snider, Antiwar, 2024-12-08

Assassinating a Top Russian General, Ron Unz, The Unz Review, 2024-12-23

A modest proposal: Stop the assassinations. All of them., Peter Rutland, Responsible Statecraft, 2024-12-19

Uzbek citizen accused of killing Russian general previously resided in Kazan, TASS, 2024-12-18

CIA station in Kiev targeted in recent Russian attack, military expert reveals, TASS, 2024-12-21

A Weakened Ukraine (and NATO) Opts for Terrorism, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, 2024-12-21

Alleged Killer of General Kirillov Arrested, But Holes Remain in the Story, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, 2024-12-18

Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory, Wikipedia

The Philip Cross Affair, Craig Murray, Criag Murray, 2018-05-18

Phillip Cross: The Mystery Wikipedia Editor Targeting Anti-War Sites, Media Lens, MintPressNews, 2018-10-17

American Pravda: The Covid Epidemic as Lab-Leak or Biowarfare?, Ron Unz, The Unz Review, 2021-07-12

American Pravda: The Forgotten Anthrax Attacks, Ron Unz, The Unz Review, 2023-10-17

Russia - Agree To Be Provoked Or Fall For Lucy's Football?, b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-12-17

Ending the War in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations, Paul Robinson, Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia (republished from Landmarks), 2024-12-23

Ukrainian Intelligence Kills Senior Russian General in Moscow Bombing, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-12-17

Igor Kirillov, Wikipedia

IN BRIEF: What is known about drone attack on residential buildings in Kazan, TASS, 2024-12-21

Drone attack triggers fire at fuel infrastructure facility in Russia's Oryol Region, TASS, 2024-12-21

CI-6 Take Center Stage as NATO Bows Out, YesXorNo, 2024-09-10

Crocus Hall: Ukraine's GUR/SBU Are Allowed to Execute an Incompetent Operation and Russian Civilians, at once, YesXorNo, 2024-03-26

📽️ Orban, project Ukraine and a return to diplomacy, Mercouris and Christoforou, The Duran, 2024-12-15

Scott Ritter & Larry C. Johnson: Ukraine's Attacks on Russia - Yemen's Hypersonic Attack on Israel, Dialogue Works, Dialogue Works, 2024-12-22

Cold War II❄️ Missile Strike On The Center Of Kiev🎯 Zelensky Is Furious😡 Military Summary 2024.12.20, Military Summary, Military Summary, 2024-12-20

---

Copyleft: CC0