Dead Drop: March 22

APPARENTLY, THEY WERE OUT OF TOAD VENOM:  Vitaly Robertus, the vice president of the Russian oil company, Lukoil, was found hanged in his office last week.  According to The Daily Mail, he was the fifth high-ranking Lukoil executive to die since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine in 2022. The 53-year-old Robertus reportedly told friends he was being set-up for criminal prosecution for some unspecified charge. Co-workers are said to have found him hanging in the Lukoil loo but instead of calling an ambulance they summoned in house medics who said he was dead. Early in the “special military operation” many Lukoil execs were said to be not supportive of Putin’s continuing war efforts – but now (perhaps operating under new management) they will alter their stance. Among the previous Lukoil execs who met unexpected ends, one reportedly “fell” from the window of his hospital room while another is believed to have been poisoned with toad venom.  

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING:  Some people are coming to the conclusion that the Russian government is run by some troublesome folks – but others have missed the wake-up call. August Hanning, former head of the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, did an interview with the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper and said that his own country is “naïve” and should wake up to the fact that they are already in the middle of a conflict with Russia. “People are shying away from the truth. Russia is in a conflict with NATO, and Germany is of course part of that conflict,” Hanning said. He added: “Russia’s attack dramatically changed Europe’s security. Society is starting to wake up, but there are many people who haven’t woken up yet.” Along the same lines, former chief of Britain’s MI-6, Sir Richard Dearlove, told Politico recently “…we are at war — we’re engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I am trying to remind people of that.”