James Le Mesurier (pictured), the founder and instructor of the internationally renowned Syrian rescue group, the White Helmets, was killed last night in Istanbul. The official story is that Le Mesurier «fell from a balcony,» but those who know his apartment and Le Mesurier himself unanimously claim that it was impossible for him to fall from it without external «help,» and that he had no motive to do so intentionally. In general, everyone understands that Le Mesurier was murdered.
The situation is obvious — everyone knows who he is and who his enemies are. But, as always in such cases, the propagandists of the latter launch confusing rumors and versions that are taken up by commentators prone to unhealthy conspiracy theories. They say that the deceased had many enemies and that it is unclear who could have killed him.
Well, as we know from the apologists of the latter, when Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, Nemtsov, Orhan Dzhemal and his colleagues were killed, or when Skripal was targeted, it was «inconvenient» for the Kremlin. As his boss said when Politkovskaya was killed, «her influence on political life in Russia was minimal» and her murder «did more damage to Russia than the publications». Moreover, he even warned about the possibility of assassinating one of the main leaders of the Russian opposition a year before it happened, saying that those abroad «looking for some sacred victim among prominent people will kill someone themselves and then blame the government.
But let’s ask ourselves: who was able to take advantage of all these and many other unlisted «holy victims»? And how badly did those they tried to blame suffer as a result? Having received an obvious answer to all these questions, we will understand that there is no need to complicate what is simple. Enemies are usually killed by their enemies, not to expose or discredit them. And they often do it not for rational reasons, but out of simple hatred. And they do it, even on the territory of foreign states, precisely because they think they can afford it. They think so because in general, in most cases, such murders go unpunished for them.
So who was Le Mesurier’s enemy, who hated not only the White Helmets as a whole, but also him personally? It was none other than the chief spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, who last Friday, while making further attacks on the White Helmets, called Le Mesurier, the organization’s creator, a former employee of the British secret service MI-6, which he was not.
In this case, however, it is hardly appropriate to categorically accuse the Kremlin of organizing this murder. Those who have repeatedly carried out political assassinations against their opponents in the same Turkey could have done it. Recall that two years ago, Syrian dissidents Oruba Barakat and Halla Barakat, mother and daughter, were killed in Istanbul. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the Assad regime’s intelligence services of being behind the terrorist attack in Istanbul that killed 10 people. And given the hatred that continues to emanate from the leadership of Turkey towards Bashar al-Assad, it is not surprising that there is another demonstrative killing in the territory under the control of the latter.
However, the question of who exactly organized and carried out this murder is purely technical. The political question is who was Le Mesurier’s enemy, who wanted him dead, and who is now spreading disinformation to evade responsibility. And it is clearly not just Assad and his regime.