Good on him, I hope he'll protect himself though. Russia has a habit of assassinating defectors.
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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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.
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.
He's small fries, so he should be fine. Russia has killed plenty of people out of their territory when they are important enough for Putin to bother.
Well done, and (hopefully) welcome to France!
Eh lesser evil and all that