Puppet Masters
When the story was first breaking on Sunday, the excitement in the Sun's newsroom must have been palpable. Another reported poisoning in a knock-off Italian eatery in Salisbury, and a Russian was involved as well. Almost too good to be true, this was the Skripal poisoning all over again.
Anna Shapiro, a 30-year-old Russian model (although a part-time model, which one assumes is a bit like a part-time actor) and event organizer, described to The Sun how she found her husband Alex King fighting for his life in the toilet at restaurant Prezzo and "foaming at the mouth."
Police closed the restaurant and the streets surrounding it, and investigators in HAZMAT suits went in to check it out. Understandably, the local force was a bit jumpy, but later confirmed "we were able to rule out the presence of Novichok quickly [and]... at this stage, it is unclear as to whether or not a crime has been committed," adding also that "we would remind everyone that speculation is not helpful."
However, Rupert Murdoch's tabloid didn't get where it was today by avoiding speculation and it soon started filling in the gaps three days later, because this was a story that has the kind of details which more than compensate for a general lack of confirmed facts and credibility; the alleged victim is blonde, has THE looks, and is willing to go on the record with a claim that Putin wants to kill her.
Novichok has been ruled out by police, but The Sun has security sources which say they suspect "rat poison" was used in the "attack." The OPCW has yet to comment at this time.
So why would Putin send 'henchmen' after Shapiro?
She believes it may be because she renounced Russian citizenship against her parents' wishes. Or because her father is a general in the military and also plays in a military orchestra. Or simply because she opposes Putin in general. Maybe he's seen her Instagram account; who knows?!
She claims to have received death threats, but according to her story, it appears those behind these alleged threats were just waiting for her to arrive in Salisbury before they struck (do all Russians end up in Salisbury?). Is this all plausible enough for a national newspaper to splash on its front page?
Shapiro claims she is in fear for her life, but managed to keep her concern under control for the photo-shoot she did with The Sun in a short skirt. She appears to have shunned the Yulia Skripal approach of disappearing from public view after the incident, instead putting herself very much on display.
The police have offered no suggestion that a crime took place, the restaurant Prezzo says this is an isolated incident and all its staff are well. The Sun ran it on the front page anyway.
Comment: This anti-Russian nonsense has gone from crazy-hysterical to LOL-hysterical. It's only a matter of time before British grannies start going to the Sun with accusations that Putin hacked their AOL accounts or kidnapped their puppies.
Update: RT reports the Sun has deleted the story
In one of the least surprising developments in an ongoing story, the Sun newspaper has been forced to remove a report from its website in which a Russian model claims Vladimir Putin is trying to kill her.
The article has since been removed "for legal reasons," and, some are speculating, probably for some 'truth' reasons as well.
Russian-born Anna Shapiro and her British husband Alex King were at the center of another poisoning scare in Salisbury last Sunday in an incident that appeared at first to echo the attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the very same city.
The details were compelling, a reported poisoning in another Italian eatery chain in Salisbury (this time Prezzo), a Russian was involved, and the police closed off streets and deployed specialists in hazmat suits.
The story also carried a hint of too-good-to-be-true, but The Sun was so seduced by Shapiro's claim that Putin was after her, it ran a front page splash. The fact she was willing to claim "Putin wants me dead" while at the same time doing a sexy photo shoot probably helped.
There was no sign of nerve agents being used, but The Sun claimed to have 'security sources' which told them rat poison may have been used against the couple, while claiming King was fighting for his life. Soon after the hospital confirmed that actually both had been discharged.
However, other details began to emerge after the Sun splashed. The police, who have not suggested any crime actually took place, admitted one of their lines of inquiry into what happened in Salisbury's Prezzo is now whether it may have been a hoax.
Then the BBC reported that King, who was reportedly found foaming at the mouth in the restaurant's toilet, is a "convicted criminal who once hoaxed Prince Charles" and had previously been convicted of "distributing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children."
Then the Daily Mirror reported that King is an alleged drug dealer, and Shapiro is a high-class escort who told friends she was a "honeytrap spy" used by Israel's Mossad to seduce men.
Essentially what appeared to be an extremely questionable story from the very start seems to be disintegrating, so why would a national newspaper decide to run this story at all without doing a basic background checks?
The obvious conclusion is simply that it's too easy to make any accusation you like about Russia because readers are willing to believe anything in the current political climate.
The Sun said in a statement: "Like any newspaper, we were keen to talk to those at the centre of the incident and give them the opportunity to share with the public their version of events."
But were they keen to check whether any of it was accurate?
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