NEWSWATCH: “Vladimir Putin timed Salisbury attack to get election boost, top U.S. intelligence official suggests” – The Daily Telegraph (UK)/Ben Riley-Smith

April 6, 2018 JRL Russia List Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

“… Putin timed the [assassination attempt on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK] to boost his support in the Russian election, one of America’s top intelligence officials has suggested. [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats … speaking at a briefing held by the Defence Writers Group, part of George Washington University …. [when a]sked about the poisoning … said it could have been ‘a continued power play by Putin just prior to his election … we know he was pushing very, very hard to get as high a number as he possibly could.’ Asked to clarify if … Putin … ‘deliberately’ timed the attack … Coats said: ‘… I have no proof of that but one could assess that.’ ‘… the first question that came to my mind and to many minds was ‘why would somebody just a week away or so from an election do something like that’? ‘… the second thought is ‘oh yeah, that’s something the Russians would do’. ‘… we knew … he was pushing for a high tally … and he has earned that support from the Russians by not being a nice guy but being the bad guy.'”