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AIBU?

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Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM

33 replies

MyJustCat · 16/06/2026 00:25

It doesn't seem to have been discussed on here but after a year long news blackout in court today a couple of young Ukrainian 'male models' were convinced by a Russian special intelligence handler to set fire to Starmer's former residences

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2l352z2do

Does anyone believe this?

A composite image with a picture of Sir Keir Starmer on the left and on the right, a still from a video showing a car on fire, which was one of the arson attacks on property linked to him. Behind the image of Sir Keir is a Russian flag.

Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM, BBC reveals

Evidence shows Russians directing the plot and stoking tensions with fake far-right and Muslim groups.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2l352z2do

OP posts:
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Gladystheimpaler · 16/06/2026 10:48

OP can you give your reasons why you don't believe it?

I know you said it's strange they targeted the PMs previous homes/car rather than no 10, is that your main reason for doubting it? Can you think of any reasons why they might target several low security items rather than the highly protected no10?

PerkingFaintly · 16/06/2026 11:23

Putin trying to intimidate with activities in UK, former MI6 chief says
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjx5qw75v8o

[Sir Richard Moore] claimed Putin was under pressure over the war in Ukraine which meant he was "quite keen to expand the battlefield a bit" by using sabotage, cyber attacks and arson in the hope it would be "disruptive, distracting and intimidating to those of us who are supporting Ukraine".
[...]
Sir Richard, who left MI6 last year, said the UK should address the concern by "doubling down" on its support of Ukraine, improving cyber security and investing in "good intelligence" to disrupt Russia's activity.

"There is a criminal justice element" to tackling the threat, he added, saying "thugs" who were recruited online must "go down for a very long stretch" if found to have acted as proxies for hostile states.

PerkingFaintly · 16/06/2026 14:21

Thanks for the link to another thread mentioning the BBC & FT investigation, @PomplaMouse . I wouldn't have known from the thread title.

It is astonishing that MN is not alight with threads about a Russian entity violently attacking the family of a serving UK prime minister.

Even this thread has only 27 replies.

Where are all the ragey 1000-post threads?

It's like the shouty posters filling the threads about Belfast or Henry Nowak or anything to do with foreigners in the UK are absolutely not interested in this foreign attack on our democratically elected head of government.Hmm

ScholesPanda · 16/06/2026 14:37

Why wouldn't I believe it?

It's well known that Russia tries to destabilise other countries.

DeedlessIndeed · 16/06/2026 14:42

All of the most extreme tweets of both the left and the right (e.g. certain extreme Black Lives Matters takes, some Bernie Sanders support and then some of the original far right support around Trump etc) in 2014-2016 have all been proven to come from the Russia Bot Farm in St Petersberg.

Disinformation is their best weapon against the west - and look how wonderfully it is working.

So a few petrol bombs or whatever, ofcourse I can believe it!

TooBigForMyBoots · 16/06/2026 15:56

Yes I believe it. Why wouldn't I? Are you saying its fake news @MyJustCat?Confused

PerkingFaintly · 16/06/2026 16:36

Nice pic of Evgeny Lyukshin in that image, @TopPocketFind – the man in the middle, standing slightly behind someone.

According to the BBC article linked in the OP, the guy in front of Lyushkin is Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and the picture was taken at a Diplomats' Day event in Moscow in February, where Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave a speech. It was posted by Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lyushkin is 23, and his father was a counsellor at the Russian embassy in Denmark.

From same article:
This means Lyukshin's father was in Europe, potentially with access to and knowledge of sensitive documents. This accords with the Telegram post by EL which stated he had access to Nato and CIA documents because his father had been in Europe.

Lyukshin has been training at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), a diplomatic academy controlled by the foreign ministry, where Rybar has a "media school".

In a Telegram group of MGIMO students, which Lyukshin was the administrator of, the BBC has found discussion about "conducting pro-Russian propaganda" as part of the course.

Among the public Telegram groups shared between students was Lyukshin's own "The Lost Britain" group, where he had posted in English calling for taxpayer money to be "diverted" to the NHS instead of being spent on "support for Ukraine".

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