Pyotr Verzilov, member of Voina and recently divorced husband of Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was (most likely) poisoned in a “non life threatening” manner and transported from Russia to Berlin, giving the Russian-Canadian artist a striking public parallel in the press with the notable poisonings of dissident figures like Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Kara Murza, and Sergei Skripal. No doubt this will have a lot of media trying to interview him, give him attention, etc.
However, I still advise caution about Verzilov who is noted by members of his former art group Voina as a “dexterous deceiver” “occupied with self-promotion”; and is accused of ratting out several members of the group to police, as well as subverting other anarchist-dissident movements. This could easily be a ploy for sympathy or relevance; as much as it could be some kind of Russian intelligence ruse; or even the work of an honest Russian nationalist who doesn’t get that Verzilov is possibly ‘one of their boys’.
Continue reading “Pyotr Verzilov ‘Poisoning’: Can You Trust This Guy?”
