Re: Red Scare
Low mortality rate? Just puts the victim through huge physiological trauma and into a coma for days.
So that's alright then.
Nope, not at all, but such is politics. But based on the evidence, Novichok doesn't seem very effective. It's also not alright because given the publicity, far more people are aware of those agents. Especially as an intent behind them was to allow their creation from easily available precursors.. Which means other people could be making, or trying to make them. And then Germany seems to be witholding evidence, yet demanding Russia conduct a full investigation.
And then there's the reporting, and a very swift claim of deliberate poisoning. And of course blaming Putin, who despite being an evil genius, doesn't seem able to organise a simple assassination. And then there's the way Navalny's described as an opposition leader, which is slightly true, yet he and his party hold no political power in national or regional government. And of course he's made other enemies. He was pro-Crimea annexation, he's been pro-Belarus democracy protests, and he's claimed to have been involved in some dubious deals. And most recently he was ordered to pay 'Putin's Chef' 88m rubles. Prigozhin apparently wanted to enforce and bankrupt Navalny, which will be harder to do if Navalny's dead, or having a rather strong claim to asylum in Germany.
So all rather strange, as well as being a bit off-topic. It's right to demand a full, thorough and plausible investigation, but it seems like the conclusions have already been reached.
But that's also back to the topic in hand, ie the wielding of sanctions and their effects. Which so far seem to have been to create stronger ties between Russia, China and other targets at the expense of the EU, and other nations. Or the US itself given the number of US companies that use SMIC, and won't be able to if they're sanctioned.. Which is probably the intent, ie forcing those companies to bring more manufacturing back to the US.