Russia says it will react “very negatively” if Ali Khamenei is killed

Watching the divide in republican circles on Iran has been a great way to see who is under Kremlin control. Most are who we already knew: Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul, etc.
- Yeah the entire US intelligence arm, really any public intelligence period, etc.
  I vehemently disagree with those folks you mentioned but gotta say, not wanting to get involved in another war in the Middle East built on outright lies doesn’t make them Kremlin controlled. It’s other things.
  
  I'm just saying that it's amusing the only anti-war Republicans in the administration and Congress are ones who've long looked, acted, and quacked like Kremlin assets:
  You've got Tulsi Gabbard literally echoing Kremlin propaganda verbatim on Western imperialism (yet not making a peep about Russia's invasion of Ukraine)
  You've got Tucker Carlson flying to Moscow, simping for Putin, trying to show how great Russia is in contrast to the USA.
  You've got Rand Paul flying to Moscow hand-delivering letters on behalf of Trump.
  There may be an intersection of my desire to not want to escalate for completely different reasons, and Kremlin operatives not wanting their ally and arms supplier to be crippled, but that is all.
- Yeah real red blooded Americans want world war III
  
  Real Americans yell TACO at trump until he bombs Iran.
- This is just "the anti Vietnam War protestors are secretly working for the soviets" for the modern era. There were just as many conspiracies that left liberals were secretly agents of Moscow in the 60s.
  
  I’m going to respond to a later comment of yours here for the sake of visibility.
  Tucker Carlson flew to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin last year. That trip was financed by Tenant Media - the same group that was revealed to have been financed by Russia for the sake of spreading Russian talking points. Justin Trudeau gave testimony under oath that Tucker was shilling for Russia.
  How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos
  Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot
  Tucker Carlson Funded by Russian Propaganda Machine, Justin Trudeau Testifies Under Oath
  It is more challenging, generally, to show that politicians are illegally taking money from foreign interests because the pathways by which money is publicly disclosed are more well-known. So the pathways through which money may be hidden can also be followed to disguise the source of income. Unless one gets caught.
  As did an aid of Rand Paul’s, who helped funnel Russian money into the RNC during the 2016 election, and whom was later pardoned by Trump, at Rand Paul’s urging.
  Former Rand Paul aide, pardoned by Trump, charged with funneling Russian money into 2016 election
  Ex-Rand Paul aide pardoned by Trump convicted of illegally funneling Russian cash to Trump campaign
  As far as Gabbard is concerned - no money trails, but even her own staff think she’s compromised.
  Tulsi Gabbard’s Own Ex-Staffers Expose Her as a Russian Stooge
  
  Some right wing influencers have already been shown to take Kremlin money
- Anti-war people being consistent in their anti-war stance somehow means they're Putin's puppets.
  
  Oh, so Tulsi Gabbard definitely 100% publicly denounced Russia's unprecedented act of aggression and imperial invasion of Ukraine, right...?
  ... Right... ?
  
  Sounds like something one of Putin's puppets would say.

What are they going to do? Record 3 hour video of p*tin narrating imaginary history?
- Nah, they'll just use AI to do that.

“Very negatively” as opposed to what? Mild negativity?
- Saber rattling, very menacingly.
  
  That's Russia and China in a nutshell. Trump does it too, but that's just because he's mimicking daddy Putin.
- A stern talking down to?

Russia's basically already on two fronts and just lost a huge proportion of its strategic bombers.
- Iran is their ally yet they’ve allowed Israel to strike Iran with out repercussions so they’re sending a lot of mixed messages

You have to think at this point the White House is just like two armed camps. The people that work for Putin and the people who work for Netanyahu. Few years ago I'd say they were sharing an uneasy truce, maybe even a burgeoning friendship, but now? God I hope they tear themselves apart.
- Don't forget the 3rd camp of military industrial complexists, just in it to make money bombing whoever wherever
  
  Pretty sure that's the Netanyahu camp.

trump really forgot the only reason he has a razor thin congressional majority, is Russia blackmailing Congress members into supporting him
Putin can make them all stop supporting trump just as easily.

Oh no are they going to lose another million soldiers about it and crash their economy even harder?

translation from Russian: they will keep bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine, but now it's going to be a "reaction" just because they were provoked

Killing Khamenei would be a bad move. That's how martyrs are made, and they are already dialed up to 11 in Iran, so there is no reason to pour even more oil in the fire.

Putin has already requested that Chuck Schumer write a strongly worded letter on his behalf.
- Schumer said he would do it, but forgot 40 minutes later.

I hate war.
But if daddy Vladdy is mad…
I still hate war.
- Personally I would be very pleased if both Putin and Khamenei were beaten to death by crooked sticks by an angry mob of pissed of civilians. That being said, I'm still not a fan of war.

Oh no. Anyways I still hope he gets the Gaddafi treatment and still don't want America to go to war with Iran.
- America just did go to war with Iran.
  
  Eh, they're still doing the announced tit for tat. Like after soleimani got schwacked, they lobbed missiles at a US airbase and that was the end of it. It's saving face by doing something in response, but also not actually escalating by not inflicting any significant damages.
  So, despite how ridiculous it looks calling for peace after an exchange of missiles, that's probably what will happen. The only confounding factor is Israel and that may be the catalyst to sparking more conflict.
  The fact that Trump is under the thumb of Israel, who want to obliterate Iran, and putin, who doesn't, is entertaining to say the least. It's a complete crap shoot how this ends up overall.

Khamenei is weak. Maybe he wasn’t in the beginning, but he has been for the past decade or so. Killing him is risky for US and Israel as that may potentially give Iran another stronger leader. Russia doesn’t want change either as Khamenei is known and manageable.

Meh. I don't see much steering room for their course. It isn't Russia by the way, it's Putin and his regime.
- As long as they control the government, military, police and other stuff putin and his regime are russia. If russians don't like that they can make their own Maidan.
  
  That abstraction layer is correct, I think.
  The thing with abstraction layers is: they are made to simplify a context. This makes it easier to understand and to see correlations and processes. It also hides details of the picture.
  As far as I know there are people in Russia who work for their own goals. Those bridges don't collapse themselves and it takes someone to derail a train or sabotage a helicopter or provide intelligence about movements.
  Yes. Most people just eat the propaganda or at least don't act up to evade repression (if they would care enough to do so otherwise). That's normal human behavior, it's no Russian specialty. Can you think of a current critical situation which would need immediate wide-spread attention, but people tend to ignore it?
- You won't find ANY ruskie who will be against Russia-Ukraine war, Putin AND the annexation of Crimea.
  We exist. But it's right to asume one is a bastard or an indifferent enabler until proven otherwise. That's a given.

"Russia is very afraid", Peskov said. "We cannot afford to lose an already weakened partner in a region where Russia is losing more and more influence" he proceeded.

++reasonsToDoIt
They have an army of donkeys lined up at the border. etc
- They need the donkeys to combat the antelope invasion though