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I mean yeah I agree, but are you guys seriously not even a little skeptical of his story? That the SBU which has been known to disappear and torture people just picked this dude up, took his shit, and then let him continue just saying this stuff online? I find the whole story very suspicious, at the very least they would make him stop his online activity in relations to the war. Comes across as some publicity stunt to me. A lot were saying the same in Richard’s chat.
I’m always skeptical of any story until i see proof, but in this case you have to remember he is an American citizen with a not insignificant online presence, and a big fuss was raised as soon as he disappeared. Also he’s not exactly of the lower classes, his background is definitely one of privilege, i assume his family have some connections. It would be very bad for the image that the west are trying to construct of Ukraine if he were to be permanently disappeared, it would be hard to keep a lid on it and even harder to spin in a way that isn’t damaging to the propaganda project. All in all it sounds plausible.
Plus he is not out of danger yet, they have allegedly prevented him from leaving, and he claims has gotten a gag order to not talk about his detention, however if Kharkov gets close to falling to the Russians they may change their mind and shut him up permanently to prevent him from talking about his week in custody, and blame it on the encroaching Russians.
It seems so weird for him to put out a tweet saying “if you don’t hear from me for 12 hrs I was picked up by the SBU” and then that exact thing happens like 3 weeks later. In my mind it’s like if he was high enough profile to pick up they wouldn’t let him keep speaking online. Especially if he wasn’t from Ukraine and just went to cover the conflict, theyd just make him go back to the US if he didn’t shut up. He’s picked up by a notoriously murderous intelligence agency for what he’s saying online and then as soon as he’s back and doesn’t even slightly tame down his rhetoric? I mean I’m an anxious person generally but if it was me my ass would be out of there. Just seems like common sense to either stfu or get out in that situation.
Yeah, i can see your point. I have had some of these thoughts myself. But ultimately we can’t know at the moment, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to him going forward.
I mean yeah I agree, but are you guys seriously not even a little skeptical of his story? That the SBU which has been known to disappear and torture people just picked this dude up, took his shit, and then let him continue just saying this stuff online? I find the whole story very suspicious, at the very least they would make him stop his online activity in relations to the war. Comes across as some publicity stunt to me. A lot were saying the same in Richard’s chat.
I’m always skeptical of any story until i see proof, but in this case you have to remember he is an American citizen with a not insignificant online presence, and a big fuss was raised as soon as he disappeared. Also he’s not exactly of the lower classes, his background is definitely one of privilege, i assume his family have some connections. It would be very bad for the image that the west are trying to construct of Ukraine if he were to be permanently disappeared, it would be hard to keep a lid on it and even harder to spin in a way that isn’t damaging to the propaganda project. All in all it sounds plausible.
Plus he is not out of danger yet, they have allegedly prevented him from leaving, and he claims has gotten a gag order to not talk about his detention, however if Kharkov gets close to falling to the Russians they may change their mind and shut him up permanently to prevent him from talking about his week in custody, and blame it on the encroaching Russians.
It seems so weird for him to put out a tweet saying “if you don’t hear from me for 12 hrs I was picked up by the SBU” and then that exact thing happens like 3 weeks later. In my mind it’s like if he was high enough profile to pick up they wouldn’t let him keep speaking online. Especially if he wasn’t from Ukraine and just went to cover the conflict, theyd just make him go back to the US if he didn’t shut up. He’s picked up by a notoriously murderous intelligence agency for what he’s saying online and then as soon as he’s back and doesn’t even slightly tame down his rhetoric? I mean I’m an anxious person generally but if it was me my ass would be out of there. Just seems like common sense to either stfu or get out in that situation.
Yeah, i can see your point. I have had some of these thoughts myself. But ultimately we can’t know at the moment, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to him going forward.