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Ukraine Army Takes Bloomberg Reporter Hostage: Fascinating Report Ensues
Thanks to a 5-word text message to his father, a Bloomberg reporter was taken hostage by Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint near Donetsk. What ensued is both frightening and fascinating...
Authored by Stepan Kravchenko in Ivanovskoe, Russia (skravchenko@bloomberg.net),
In eastern Ukraine, one text message can turn you into an enemy. In my case, it was sent to my father. “Talked to Borodai at night,” it said about an interview I had with a rebel leader.
“So, you are Borodai’s little friend,” concluded the camouflaged man reading my Nokia. His comrade pointed a Kalashnikov at my stomach. “We’ve got a Russian warrior here saying he is a journalist,” he called to someone in Russian.
It was July 25, 3 p.m. I was heading home to Russia from Donetsk when a routine inspection at a Ukrainian army checkpoint near Starobesheve village went bad. They saw my Russian passport and press card, and told me to get out and hand over my belongings. I tried to hide my BlackBerry. Then they found videos of separatists’ press conferences on my iPad. My guilt, whatever it was, was proven.
I managed to whisper a Moscow contact to my driver before being blindfolded and walked five steps to a waiting Hyundai SUV I’d seen approaching with masked men inside.
“You’d better shut up and think about keeping your pants dry,” one of the masked men -- I counted three voices -- said as we were driving to an unknown location something like 40 minutes away, off a bumpy rural road.
It reminded me, a 31-year-old Muscovite, of the many experiences I had with Russian police as a teenager. I was waiting for good cop-bad cop questioning, moderate use of force and a meticulous scan of my memories from rebel-controlled Donetsk.
I thought I’d still make my flight at 9:15 p.m. As I got to learn my captors better, I began to think I might be held for days, if only because chaos on the ground would keep me from being found.
Oligarch’s Officers
The three captors -- Pavel, Ruslan and Dmitry, as I learned later -- were military intelligence officers from the Dnepr battalion, sponsored by Dnipropetrovsk governor and billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. In this war, oligarchs train, equip and fund detachments, which are then under the control of the Ukranian army.
Dubbed “Kolomoisky castigators” and “fascists” by Russian media, my captors turned out to be the same kind of people I met when talking to separatists: bored Russian-speakers, the blood and muscle of a conflict where random hatred reigns on both sides.
“So, what do the rebels say?” was the first question after I was taken out of the car.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, what do they say, in general?” a gunman elaborated.
Punched Twice
I was still blindfolded, sitting on the grass in a place that sounded like a military camp. Soldiers were gathering around, joking and cursing at me. “You, Russians, are all pigs,” one said. “I’d love to shoot you down.”
This made me recall a salty Russian joke about World War II. I chuckled. He punched me twice in the head. It didn’t hurt much. I thought that was a good sign.
The questioning didn’t go as I expected. My captors were not asking about rebel positions, separatist leadership security or anything that military intelligence ought to be interested in.
They desperately expressed their own views, shutting me up when I argued. They asked me questions I couldn’t answer. How many Russians support the rebels? Why do they kill children? Why did the people on the Malaysian Airlines flight have to die? What does Vladimir Putin want? Do we really look like fascists?
It lasted for an hour or more. I was happy when they settled me back in the car. The driver explained that we were heading out to destroy a separatist truck-mounted Grad rocket launcher in a village nearby.
Grain Harvester
“You will now see how the Ukrainian army fights,” he said, and hit the throttle. The car bumped into a barrier, losing a fender guard, as I heard from their talks.
They stopped at another roadblock to get more weapons. We moved further in silence on a bumpy road. I started to fall asleep, wondering what message I would send to Polina and my son if I managed to get the phone back. A cursing voice woke me up.
The “Grad” turned out to be a grain harvester. The gunmen appeared to be relieved. They took my blindfold off and I saw a field of rye.
“Look how beautiful it is,” said Ruslan, a tall red-haired man in his 30s sitting next to me. He turned out to have a habit of pointing out picturesque landscapes. The three of them wore new combat vests and tactical sunglasses.
Small-Business Men
“You should be happy we got you and not the guys from the 39th unit,” Dmitry, the driver and the commander of the group, told me. “They are always drunk, so they would probably beat you to death first and then think.”
Dmitry, Ruslan and Pavel were small-business men before the conflict, they told me. Their companies had monthly sales of around 300,000 Hryvnia ($25,000) each. They used to travel together to Oktoberfest in Germany and organized weekend parties in country vacation houses. Dmitry turned out to be an expert in wind generators and dissuaded me from buying one for my dacha.
The three of them hated everything other than nature. They hated the Euromaidan protests for igniting the unrest, hated Americans and Europeans for supporting it, hated ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and, of course, hated Putin, journalists and Russians.
“Russians and Ukrainians are not brothers anymore ’til Putin dies,” Pavel, who looked older than his friends, said, as he played a disc of Russian rock pioneer Viktor Tsoi in the Hyundai.
They asked me if I had Ukrainian roots. I had to disappoint them.
Rye Fields
We were heading to Mariupol, a city to the south of Donetsk, where authorities moved when the rebels occupied the capital. Pavel was advising me how to behave during questioning by their “much tougher” colleagues at the base, Dmitry was having a phone conversation about rebels’ salaries and Ruslan was staring at another field.
“Did you know there are giant rye fields between Ukraine and Russia, fields that go across the border, where nothing indicates what country they belong to?” he asked pensively.
“I know a village where a house is on our side and its toilet is on the Russian side,” Pavel said.
It was growing dark when they blindfolded me again.
The base was at the airport, as I understood from their talks. “Password? Four. Password? Six,” they said at the entrance, stopped the car and left me alone. Other men took me out of the car and ordered me to put my hands on the wall.
‘Truth Room’
The pointless questioning repeated. “Do you know who Putin is?” a voice asked. “The president of Russia,” I said. “Incorrect. He is khuilo. Let me teach you a song,” he said about a soccer chant popular in Ukraine in which Putin is called that term, which translates to an unprintable reference to male anatomy.
“Bloomberg News? Are you sure? Maybe Life News,” another voice asked, referring to a Russian media outlet controlled by Putin allies. They told me they don’t care that I work for an international media and not for a Russian one.
“We got a truth room for s--- like you,” somebody said. Then they all left, leaving a guard who kicked me in the leg when I made attempts to kill mosquitos.
I had no way of knowing at the time, but my driver had managed to get through the message to my father to call Bloomberg’s Moscow bureau, setting off frantic activity from there to New York.
My colleagues in Kiev reached out to every contact they had, calling the army, the defense ministry, the security services, the president’s office. They scurried to find copies of my passports and assemble a portfolio of my recent work to prove who I was. Eventually, they found the right person.
Right Connection
In an hour, a new man approached. They called him colonel. He had a soft voice and a small palm. “I am an ethnic Russian,” was the introduction. “Looks like you were telling the truth and I have only one question left before you go. What do you think about all of this happening here?”
I answered with a bad Russian word. He agreed.
My three captors returned and drove me out from the base. “He said we should ask you to excuse us,” Ruslan said, taking my blindfold off.
“Here, take these. It’s Ukrainian-made s--- anyway,” Pavel said as he gave me his sunglasses. Ruslan showed pictures of corpses that he said belonged to Chechen mercenaries he’d killed in Ukraine. Dmitry said I can always join their raids when I come back.
Hanging Out
My captors took me to Novoazovsk, a border checkpoint I was planning to pass seven hours earlier. Ruslan took a call from his father.
“All fine, Dad.”
“No, doing nothing. Just met some friends and we plan to hang out a bit.”
They ordered the border guards to let me go through. They left their e-mail addresses, should I wish to keep in touch.
At the Russian side, the Federal Security Service questioned me for an hour. I told my story in brief and a young officer asked if they could inspect my belongings. He was surprised when I refused.
I left the checkpoint and saw a field of rye. It was too dark to see if it stretched across the border.
* * *
Sounds like we need John Kerry in there to sort all this out... and explain how they can all be friends.
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“Can we all get along… stopping making it horrible for the older people and the kids? Can we get along?”
Rodney King, 1992
Couldn't they just take MICHAEL BLOOMBERG hostage instead and do us all a favor?
Naw, he avoids places were peasants can arm themselves and defend themselves.
"They hated the Euromaidan protests for igniting the unrest, hated Americans and Europeans for supporting it, hated ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and, of course, hated Putin, journalists and Russians"
Not surprised. People just want to live, it's the fucking sociopath politicians who want chaos and death.
"I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa"
-Imagine Dragons
This reminds me of what it will be like when the war reaches American soil: former friends and neighbors separated by an invisible political barrier erected by psychopaths who have never even seen the country they control.
I am Chumbawamba.
Fair point, but thinking of my recent experience at U.S. Customs, I wonder: if someday I find myself crossing an American checkpoint, will I be offered email addresses and a pair of sunglasses?
These guys just seem like a bunch of good natured dudes who were tossed some uniforms and rifles and told to go make themselves useful. They're not soldiers really, at least not the Hollywood robot stereotype. Bring a case of beer, invite some nice girls over, and let's call the whole thing off.
Try telling CBP in the US to politely fuck off if they ask to inspect your bags when crossing the border... you're likely to spend at least several hours in a DHS truth room.
Hollywood robot stereotype soldiers are the same, but mentally and physically trained with enough anticipation.
Exactly!!!!!
Sad story, what crap. Madaleine Albright said Putin's a pig and the death's are "worth it". Zionist's will kill us all I think.
it's funny to hear loonies on ZH ranting about "zionists", so that they can blame those other people, instead of taking responsibility for what their own country is doing.
it's always nice to be able to say the situation is someone else's fault, isn't it?
This is an article about the Ukraine, not the US.
Yes but would there have ever been this article about Ukraine if not for the US?
and why do you think there is currently a civil war in ukraine?
might it possibly have something to do with the fact that the US GOVERNMENT spent $5 billion of their taxpayer money to overthrow the ukraine government and put US lackeys in their place?
NidStyles This is an article about the Ukraine, not the US.
----
Racism has no borders or limits.
Most of what 'their' country is doing is down to the insane and corrupt influence of the Zionost lobby.
I have nothing, particularly, against the Jewish religion. I have equal disdain for all organized religions.
+1 for having equal disdain for all organized religions.
don't forget to have disdain for all nations, too.
stay true to those around you, keep it local, and stick with those who reveal themselves to be honest and responsible.
Madaleine also endorses herbascum in public. I think that's even lower. The sad part is that such people have been and still are in positions to drag and push millions of people into stupid wars and keep smiling foolishly all the way.
TahoeBilly2012 Sad story, what crap. Madaleine Albright said Putin's a pig and the death's are "worth it". Zionist's will kill us all I think.
---
Me thinks government and racists like you will kills us all.
The fact he thinks Kerry can be of help is Sooooo indicative of the quality of his thoughtfulness . . . or lack thereof.
Read a little more carefully. The Kerry line is a bit of Tyler's sarcasm.
Can't see shit on small-ass smartphone screens . . . LOL.
That was a sarcastic line from Tyler to cap off the post, indicated by the * * * after the end of the Bloomberg reporter's story ;-)
just tyler riding his new unicynical.
...seatless, over broken terrain.
Plotline of the upcoming "The Hangover 4".
Seven hours with some bored, confused partisans?
What an ignorant Pussy. You have to love how these aspiring "war correspondents" think they are bullet proof.
If you want to see how this should be done check out Robert Pelton Young's books starting with The World's Most Dangerous Places. That guy has a set of cajones.
lol..."He is khuilo."
Yes, he is.
/////
Wut?
He is KGB isn't he? The CIA is your target but the KGB gets a complete pass, is that it? Apartment buildings in Moscow detonated into rubble but you'd rather talk about WT7...right?
/////
Only four?
I know we have more Putin Pecker eaters than that.
//////
Better...but thats not what I'm looking for, who will stand and defend the KGB & Putin?
I'm right here...
/////
Come on, think Mabetex and the prosecutor Yury Skuratov he helped can, come on babies.
/////
You don't like your oligarchs being held to higher standards...is that it? Come on, I'm really in the mood to kick some "Russian empirial ass" and I need a little help (with the point of my bile)...won't you help?
I know there is at least five of you, which is just about the right odds for one.
/////
Now six, fucking pussies...lol.
////
What does it take to draw a Putin Pecker eater out to fight on ZH these days? Should we take off our shirts & play chess while riding bareback?
Try tomorrow. There's a Putin-dick-sucking train departing in ZH-land every day.
Putin doesn't give a shit about separatists or anyone else. What kind of support did the separatists in Grozny get, besides the kinetic-from-30,000ft kind?
Yeah, I guess all the cocksacks for hire are busy fighting Russia's wars elsewhere tonight while Putin laughs.
And here I thought the ME was a tragic comedy, it has nothing on these idiots.
Meanwhile nmewnn's BFFs in the CIA keep slangin dope... same as it ever was.
If I were CIA I would have already killed you with anal intercourse lest you fuck up my long range plans...lol.
What a dumbass, I really do love you conspiratorial freaks (just not that way) with your juvenile half assed insults of people that don't fit into "your box".
Theres five seconds I'll never get back.
/////
Oh yeah, up to twelve now...and none of you Putin Peckerwoods have even attempted to refute a single thing I said.
Isn't "democracy" grand...ROTFLMAO!!!
How do you refute a roflmao?
Why would you?
I don't know enough about Putin to condemn or praise him but I've seen the way the meap leans in Europe....and I don't think --WWIII-- is on his agenda (despite the increasing bleats out of dc, propagated thru the msm, of the newly depraved "Vlad" the Impaler)
I have to confess that I don't believe ONE fucking thing that comes out of DC or Amerikan state media anymore.
There. I said it.
9/11 DID change everything after all....
So has Putin suddenly gone rogue? Become a new hitler with "rape rooms" and yellowcake in the form of a mushroom cloud?
What IS your point? (If you have one)
I missed it while you were laughing your ass off
You didn't refute a word I said either Bananamerican, why is that?
You didn't deny that he is KGB because you can't. You didn't deny the corruption and the theft he is a part of now, because you can't. You didn't deny his connection to Stasi or oligarchy or Catherines/Peters lost empire.
You need to consider there is very little difference between what you see in DC and what you see in Russia.
Or you can live your life with blinders on, I prefer not to.
All supposed 'leaders' are psychopathic madmen.
I really don't like being a piece in a game I want no part of.
GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM.
Humanity needs to wake the fuck up, and FAST.
That was kinda funny but very random.
It might appear so to someone coming in later but I got what I wanted. Anyone familar with my writing style knows ///// is a page break from what I said previously and is usually a taunt ;-)
I wanted to observe the madness of crowds and "democracy herding" in action. I also wanted to know how many Putin lovers there are here. I wanted to know if they (Putins Punks) would fight for his honor (such as it is) the honor he gained by being part of the KGB, also stationed with the Stasi, in East Germany, his honor of being elevated to his "peoples position" by an equally power-mad and corrupt Yeltsin, who allowed "state property" (it was communism was it not?) to be stolen from under the peoples noses and essentially given to the oligarchs and the dubious connection to Moscow apartment bombings and invasion.
And the majority of the masses cheered the theft & war!!!...lol.
I got exactly what I wanted, while proving my point that only the minority can see.
Sorry, I just don't believe a single fucking word of it.
The "news" is virtually all made-up. Check the green screen used at Sandy Hook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbGfYMBh5Fo
Watch at about 2:15, slow it down and look carefully. You can see the woman's leg go throught the flower box.
The same fucking people who brough you AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles hitting the twin towers, video overlayed with nice little pictures of jets, the same fucking people who brought you green screen action at Sandy Hook, brought you Gene Rosen, Robbie Parker and WTC7, bring us this Nice Little Story about Ukraine.
Fuck Fascist Bloomberg and his fantasy storytelling helpers.
Sandy Hook? Some commenters here, like nmewn haven't still wrapped their heads around 9/11.
It seems like every time the evidence points to Israel, the discount-rate for cognitive dissonance turns infinite.
Are you saying the Jooos bombed those buildings in Moscow and Putin launched a war against the Chechens in retaliation?
Brilliant, he's that easily duped...quite the chess player.
At least I bagged a black bishop ;-)
Give NMEWN a break: he has to spend half of his time on his knees, thanking the UN for creating Apartheid Israel out of whole cloth.
He doesn't have much time to read anything other than John Kerry's press briefings.
I saw a video on youtube and apparently Adam Lanza's father does not really exist along with his mother and Adam may have never existed.
I saw a video on youtube that upset me so much it made me grab my paintbrushes & placards and go demonstrate in person!
(Along with my RPG...lol)
Still don't understand why some Ukrainians think they will be better off allied with the E.U. and the U.S.A.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" and "out of the frying pan into the fire" come to mind.
Still don't understand why some Ukrainians think they will be better off allied with the E.U. and the U.S.A.
>same way 80% of US think they have a democracy - stupidity and propaganda
It's because the phones are on Five (a) Year Plans.
hopefully not iPhones; programmed obsolescence.
The Ukrainians don't want to have to ally with anyone: They want to be left alone.
*sigh* I remember the grain fields between Kiev and Donetsk.
That's the way I read it as well. They're pissed at everyone escalating this. Fucking bankers.
Wasn't overthrowing their elected President a way of inviting meddlers and intervention from outside?
I wish the people of Ukraine the best; they are in a bad position in terms of geography and oligarch defined borders.
These guys are mercenaries owned and paid by the z-oligarchs. Just like the USA, Congress, the courts and the military and intel.
"...grass is always greener on the other side..." The west still does look better than the east. Who would want to go with Russia considering their communist episode. As we know, this will change. Russia might be the place to be in twenty years.
Proof that propaganda works, that's all.
If you let someone else decide whether you are successful in life, or not, you've already lost.
It would appear that thinking is too difficult for most.
The need to start kidnapping CNBC reporters. Kidnap and keep them. Turn Becky Quick into a domestic house slave. Bitchez.
Stupid idiots working for the zio oligarchs.
After reading this I read thinking the stupid idiots worked for Bloomberg News...
propaganda bullshit
let's see. a jew's press reporter got dazed by another jew's regime?
Australian media spinning this as an anti-Russian pieace.
Western press in full hate-Russia mode.
I don't believe one word of it. Fictional writer going for a #1 NYT best seller list.
Interesting. Sounds like a "social media" war over there. Tweet #kidnappedAJournalist. Check your stocks. Text mom and dad. Then go check on a missle battery those other Russians set up.
Hard to imagine it will ever really heat up, with everyone tied together all the time.
Let's hope.
They've (the oligarchs) been dicking around with that area forever.
The top down bribery & corruption is beyond any precept of law and right now Vladimir "Khuilo" Putin has the biggest dick simply must suck, just to say they did.
What a place ;-)
Get that man a book deal!
I believe nothing.
There will be war.
Believe non of what you read and half of what you see.
The big trick is figuring out which half.
I'm confused. Neither side is bayonetting babies?!?!?!
So as an American, who am I supposed to hate?
They kill babies at much longer range these days.
Less disturbing that way, for those doing it. Makes it easier, too.
As a human being, American or otherwise, it's not hard to figure out who to hate, you just have to look around with open eyes.
Anybody who is not American?
This all sounds like a description of some teenage summer vocation. So tired of these lies and cheap attempts at appearing impartial. The latest propaganda spins are all getting more and more Hollywood -ish and I have no reason to believe a single word of it. Zionists are desperate and running out of steam.
Exactly DNA but I don't get your reference to zionists. What have they got to do with this conflict? Putin is no Zionist and neither are the Ukrainians. I thought the conflict was about keeping Ukraine out of the EU and NATO. The Russians don't want NATO missiles on their front door. It is a dispute between the politicians not the people.
let's try and keep up there, sport.
it's all about the zionists here on zh.
whenever someone is doing something bad, it's the zionists who did it.
ukraine govt overthrown? zionists did it.
civil war against ethnic russians? zionists.
shooting down malaysia air? yup, definitely zionists.
always be alert. if you're not, the zionists will getcha!
Ummmm, stacking, based on your idiotic comment I would guess you don't read any other blogs or comments on other sites. I have noticed a drastic increase in anti-semetic attitudes on all the news sites I visit, with the exception of Israeli sites. On Isreali sites the number of comments dissenting with their government's policies has decreased. This should come as no surprise. For whatever reason, the majority of CEOs and Chairmen of financial institutions seem to be of Jewish descent. It also seems that most FED chairmen and Sec.s of the Treasury are Jewish. So, when the financial stuff goes all wrong, these guys get blamed. And justifiably so. And then when none of the criminals get punished, and in fact are rewarded, it tends to piss off the peasants. What I find most amazing is that these rich and powerful Jewish guys just don't seem to understand the peasants anger. Add to that festering anger the recent revelations of all the corrupt, and illegal, dirty dealings and manipulations occurring at virtually every TBTF bank in the world and you have a pretty nice repeat of the French Revolution scenario coming to the fore. I don't know if rampant theft and financial blood sucking is a Jewish thing or just a human thing. What I do know, or suspect rather, is that if things keep going in the current direction things are going to get very ugly and anyone who thinks they can come out of it smelling like a rose........is seriously mistaken.
"It also seems that most FED chairmen and Sec.s of the Treasury are Jewish."
ok, dummy, if you're going to comment, educate yourself as to history. there is nothing particularaly jewish about banking/finance, however, jews got pushed into it by the pope and the king of england, through 1) laws against christians lending money, and 2) laws against jews owning land. BANKERS and their activites are the problem, but the historical blame for jews being in banking lies squarely on the shoulders of the christians who pushed them into it.
as far as my reading other sites, believe it or not, i spend most of my time running a business, and with what little free time i have i check out zh and a few other sites; the other sites don't put up with idiots who engage in jew-bashing (i prefer the term jew-bashing to "anti-semitism" as it's more direct, and, who are the "semites" anyhow?)
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a wannabe seeking a book deal.
Wy are you there?
Stay the fuk away from a war zone.....
Malaysia learned the hard way....
Just dont go there, it is not your fight..............
Get the fuk out of there and let them settle it.
Goofy fukers anyway..........
Is this a made-up story? Maybe. Maybe some part is made up, but it feels about right to me.
Pavel, Ruslin and Dmitri aren't the kind of monsters we might expect of fascists. They might not even be fascists yet. Hannah Arendt, writing about Adolf Eichman, coined the phrase "the banality of evil", and these three certainly fit, but all is not fascist that's banal.
Our three captors seem to be carrying around enough hate and anger to be willing to kill, and with time they'll learn to focus it on the hate object of the day, starting with Russians. (Other Russians, not themselves of course!) They seem to have nothing they believe in or care about enough to die for, except to prove something about themselves. Backed by enough weaponry to feel invincible they'll act tough and brave, but when faced on equal terms with battle-hardened soldiers who care enough about their cause - and each other - to die for them, they'll turn and run.
Sometimes terrified, humiliated and shamed by much less heavily armed partisans, they'll feel powerful and invincible taking their revenge on unarmed "enemy civilians". Endlessly abused and denegrated by their commanders and foreign "advisors", they'll strut with pride in their skill at killing and the thrill of seeing the fear of their victims. Thus they will, if they live long enough, grow into their fascist roles and become the murderous but ultimately cowardly bullies you'd expect.
Veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korea may recognize their type: "allied troops" who were great at torturing and killing prisoners and unarmed civilians, but turned and ran in disorder all the way to Pusan in 1950, panicked at Pleiku and ran all the way back to Saigon in '75, and dropped their guns and their pants and ran for their lives before ISIS last month at Mosul.
The catalyst for war has not been diminished as many people have hoped it would once the world matured. National pride, political agendas, religious and ethnic hatreds are some of the biggest roadblocks to world peace. Often we seem to forget as we look back to World War II and past a dozen "lesser Conflicts" peace has been the exception rather then the rule for hundreds and thousands of years.
The true reality is that across the world few mothers want to see their children killed and most farmers want to be left along to raise their crops and earn a living. More on the subject of war as a solution to conflict in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/war-and-what-is-it-good-for.html
"National pride, political agendas, religious and ethnic hatreds are some of the biggest roadblocks to world peace."
no, those are just excuses, just symptoms.
the real reason, is that people can't keep it in their pants, they just have to keep going and making more babies, when that's not what the world needs.
agent smith was right, humanity is a virus.
Interesting... As a Russian, you meet with rebel leaders, mention one their leader/s in a text, attend press conferences and tape them, KEEP the Evidence on your person and in plain sight, and expect to be left alone?! Try that in Iraq or Afghanistan… The only reasons they let you go is 1) they are reasonably civilized and understand you are a journalist because 2) they realized you are too stupid to be a spy. Good luck with your Wolf Blitzer moment. Your book will be tripe…
Interesting... As a Russian, you meet with rebel leaders, mention one their leader/s in a text, attend press conferences and tape them, KEEP the Evidence on your person and in plain sight, and expect to be left alone?! Try that in Iraq or Afghanistan… The only reasons they let you go is 1) they are reasonably civilized and understand you are a journalist because 2) they realized you are too stupid to be a spy. Good luck with your Wolf Blitzer moment. Your book will be tripe…
“We’ve got a Russian warrior here saying he is a journalist,”
and
"“So, what do the rebels say?” was the first question after I was taken out of the car.
Sounds like any other local law enforcement investigation.
Now, Deputy Fife asked you a question, maggot, answer him!