Bashar al Assad, until recently the dictator of Syria, fell ill this
past Sunday. Tests proved that he was poisoned although the specific
poison was not identified. He is apparently recovering.

I'm not seeing this in my Google news feed but it was one of the stories mentioned in this summary of the news on an English-language news
channel from India:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTwbokpLZt4 [5 minutes]

We know that Putin has been only too willing to poison those he has no
use for in the past. (And, of course, defenestration - throwing people
out of high windows - is not unheard of either. Or shooting a plane out
of the sky in the case of Yevgeny Prigozhin.)

I'd hate to guess how much Al Assad would have to pay for life insurance
if he were to apply for a policy.

Of course, Putin COULD simply give Al Assad back to the new Syrian
government if he really wanted to be rid of him without getting the
blood directly on his own hands. I've seen speculation that he's
planning to do so if necessary in order to keep the two Russian bases
currently in Syria....

--
Rhino

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