A Russian legislator has fallen from his window. Or maybe he had a heart attack. The Russians aren’t sure yet. Which, in and of itself, is a pretty remarkable admission. Falling from a window and a heart attack are two fates that don’t much look like the other. Unless we are to believe that the poor man was sitting on his window seal in Siberia in December and had a heart attack that propelled him from the window seal to the ground below. Siberia. December. Open window. Trying to wrap my head around that one.

It is all so confusing. I would think, and I know I am not a maniacal dictator who wants to dominate the world or at least the Ukraine, you would have your story straight before announcing the death and not leave it open to a multiple choice explanation. Using two very different possibilities here makes this report, from the get go, look a little suspicious, like you haven’t made up your mind about what you want to say so you throw out a bunch of possibilities and see which one is getting the most buy in as opposed to facts which you just state because they are true.

And really, falling out of windows, yet again. It happens too often to prominent Russians to be believable any more. Once or twice I might buy but when it happens on a fairly regular basis it only draws attention to its frequent use as a means of eliminating critics. Go to a window. Now imagine yourself accidentally falling out of it. It is pretty difficult. Not that Putin cares much what anyone thinks.

Herein lies the problem for Putin. When you are reduced to killing off your critics, you are in big trouble any way. Fear may work for awhile but everyone knows that you are afraid that people are scheming against you because you are going to the trouble of killing people. This also means you are so vulnerable that you think they might win. If the only thing keeping Putin in power is his ability to push Russians out of windows, he soon might find himself learning the dangers of open windows. In December. In Siberia.