Here is what I don’t get. Russia kills a former spy/double agent. They use “a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.” Novichok agent (Prime Minister Theresa May). Why would they do this? I don’t mean why would they want to punish a former spy, I get that. Why do it in a way that makes it obvious it was them? This is not the first time, they have done it 16 times before in Britain alone since 2003.

1. Russia kills a spy with a nerve agent in a way that can be linked back to them.
2. England, USA, France and other responding by expelling diplomats.
   1. Russia must have known there would be a response if not what it would be.
3. Russia responds (tit for tat for tit) by expelling “60 US diplomats and close the US Consulate in St. Petersburg” and says it “will respond in kind to all countries that expelled Russian diplomats, Lavrov said, according to Russia’s state-run news agency TASS”
   1. They started it all how does this make sense?
      1. Maybe a reason for the assassination was;
         1. Kill a former spy sending a message to others.
         2. Expel diplomats they think are spies but don’t what to show their hand?
         3. Do they want to raise tensions with the “west” if so why?
         4. Maybe we show who we think are spies in the USA by which diplomats we expel, but then I would not expel spies I know about. I would expel the spies I don’t.
4. It’s either a complicated chess move or Russia does not care, which I can only assume they care about lots of diplomats being expelled from lots of countries so whats the chess move.

Has anyone read anything about this? I care way less about Trumps (personal) response then I do about why Russia did this and what the end game is. Our media is failing us. One podcast that usually has some good stuff about national security from some real wonks is the Rational Security podcast but I have not seen them address this either.

There are a couple other options;

• Britain or an ally did it to frame Russia so they had a reason to expel diplomats they knew were spies.
• Some other country or group did it but I have little idea why or if that is really possible considering the nerve agent used.