cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42409797
According to the Telegram channel Baza, the man had worked as a systems engineer at an IT company affiliated with Russia’s Skolkovo Innovation Center. He resigned in June, sending his goodbye email to 513 coworkers.
In the message, he stated that he had opposed the Russian government since 2016 and condemned the war in Ukraine. He explained his decision to move to France as a protest against the war, writing that he preferred his taxes go to NATO rather than support Russia’s invasion. He also wished for the death of a coworker who had signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry.
Company employees reported the email to the police. Authorities later stated that a legal review found the message contained “incitement to hatred and hostility.”
According to Baza, the man was fined in absentia. His social media reportedly indicates that he is already in France.
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Good on him, I hope he’ll protect himself though. Russia has a habit of assassinating defectors.
Unless he was secretly employed by one of the Russian intelligence agencies, or in another way involved with state secrets, I doubt they’ll go through the hassle of assassinating him abroad.
They might not send an elite GRU hit squad after him, but paying some local lowlifes to make it look like an accident is well within the budget.
There’s still a big diplomatic risk involved each time a country kills a person in another country. You can never know what straw is the last one needed for 50 F-35s to fly over Belgorod.
They also assassinated the helicopter pilot that defected. They go after anyone that would threaten their narrative.
That’s a very different kind of case, though. Keeping your military from defecting is super difficult when their war is one of genocide.
This is the least mad of all Russian assassinations I know. (Still mad, though!)
I think Putin sees any disagreement to his narrative as a personal slight. And Putin loves to kill those who slighted him.
What an absolute gigachad. And believe me, I know what I’m talking about.
Username checks out
Hope he is careful around open windows in high places and doesn’t take his eyes of his tea.
The Russian government, at least as it exists in 2025, isn’t going to run around killing every random person who publicly criticizes the government. In terms of political repression, it’s gotten worse, but it’s still not that bad.
Willing to assassinate people on grounds that that most other governments would not? Yes. But that’s not “the government sucks, I’m leaving -> execution” territory.
Unless you do such an epic job of shitposting that it makes the news and becomes a public embarrassment to the kind of thinskinned losers that have ruled Russia since… Genghis, pretty much.
He is in France, so he should be fine. Only the biggest opposition leaders are killed while in the West.
They killed the helicopter pilot defector in Spain.
Well done, and (hopefully) welcome to France!
Eh lesser evil and all that
