Organized Crime in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union and Former Soviet Union
Michael Averko
Joseph Serio's recently released book "Investigating the Russian Mafia" (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2008) is a detailed accounting of his study and personal experience on "Russian Mafia" related issues. He notes that the term "Russian Mafia" comprises elements of several ethnic groups in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union.
Serio's work in Russia includes a research position in the then Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. Afterwards, he worked for the international security consulting firm Kroll Associates, as director of its Moscow office, overseeing investigations across the former Soviet Union. Serio also served as an adviser to The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC, Chicago Tribune and a few other news organizations. That work included television documentaries dealing with organized crime in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union and former Soviet Union. Serio is currently a criminal justice doctoral student at Sam Houston State University's College of Criminal Justice.
A Russia Today TV segment featuring interviews with the New York Sun and Slate magazine writer Edward Jay Epstein and Russian parliamentarian Andrei Lugovoi
On the absurdity of suggesting that his KGB past necessarily damns Putin, while taking on trust anything said by other ex-Chekists like Alexander Litvinenko, Oleg Gordievsky, Vasili Mitrokhin or Oleg Kalugin, Patrick Armstrong is, as so often, an immensely refreshing voice of sanity.
Uncritical acceptance of claims by Gordievsky about how Litvinenko died is particular bizarre -- given that he has made different and incompatible claims at different times, so as a simple point of logic some of what he has claimed has to be false. A further curious feature of Gordievsky's accounts, however, is that much of what he has claimed directly contradicts central elements of what has become the official British version of Litvinenko's death. And in fact, while one would be ill-advised to take anything Gordievsky says at face value, some of what he has claimed fits in distinctly better with the publicly available evidence than the official version does.
Indeed, some of Gordievsky's claims turn out to fit surprisingly well with Edward Jay Epstein's argument that the British request for Lugovoi's extradition was not a bona-fide move to bring a guilty man to justice, but an attempt to prevent any awkward questions from being raised about Litvinenko's activities in London.
Russian mafia hitmen shot dead Dublin gangland member Paddy Doyle on the Costa del Sol, senior gardai claimed this weekend. Doyle, the survivor of a vicious criminal turf war in south Dublin which has claimed at least 10 lives, was gunned down in Estepona last Monday. Veteran detectives with the Garda Siochana's 'Operation Anvil', the drive against Dublin's crime gangs, said the 27-year-old had beaten up a close relative of a Russian mafia leader based on the southern Spanish coastline.
'From what our Spanish colleagues have told us, this was a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet. It has a military-trained assassin written all over it, possibly ex-special forces,' a senior detective told The Observer. 'The intelligence coming back from the Costa del Sol is that Paddy Doyle crossed the Russian mafia, which is something you do there at your peril.'
Russia's Glamorous Female Bodyguard Killed As Her Porsche Is Carjacked in Moscow
Yuri Mamchur
Anna Loginova with the Porsche Cheyenne she died trying to prevent being stolen
Russia's most famous female bodyguard Anna Loginova has been killed after failing to prevent her own Porsche from being carjacked. The glamorous 29-year-old died from head injuries after clinging to the door handle of the Cheyenne and being dragged along the street at high speed as the car screeched away.
"She suffered serious injuries and died at the scene," said a police spokesman. Police believe that she was killed in a random carjacking and was not the victim of an attack based on her work for wealthy high-profile Russian clients.
Since Russia Blog’s break from publishing late last week, a lot of newsworthy events have taken place.
First of all Putin paid an official visit to Iran. The trip seemed to be more beneficial for the West than for President Ahmadinejad.
Second, a maniac in Moscow, charged with 41 murders, not only confessed to all of them, but also informed the court and the jury about 11 other killings which had previously not been linked to him. The trial left the families of the victims and the jury speechless, as each morning the murderer took his seat, opened a new can of Coke, and then delivered detailed presentations of each murder with seemingly pure enjoyment.
Third, while the trial in Moscow was taking place two innocent army privates were shot dead by their supervisors in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk. The seniors were either drunk, or playing with pistols. In another tragedy, a drunken 25-year old police officer literally beheaded an old lady, driving into her at 150-miles per hour in a local judge’s Audi A8.
Visit Russia Blog in the next few days to learn more details about each story, and to find out who might be the new Russian president after the elections in March 2008!
Russians Under Attack by Careless Drivers... And The Government That Enables Them
Yuri Mamchur
Firemen working to recover the remains of a car hit by a Lexus on Moscow's Kutuzovsky Prospekt, September 14, 2007
One week ago Russia Blog reported about one government official’s motorcade, which purposely collided head-on with an old Lada sedan. That car and its passengers were unlucky enough to be caught on a highway that was supposed to be closed to civilian traffic. The government motorcade that collided with the car was carrying Vyacheslav Lebedev, head of Russia’s Supreme Court. The accident left one Russian citizen dead and two more severely injured. In spite of the reduced terrorist threat in the Russian Federation, the dangerous practice of escort vehicles knocking civilian cars out of the way of an official motorcade is still fairly common in Russia. This particular accident has captured the public’s attention because of the overwhelming number of witnesses. Apparently, the police “clean-up” crew could not do its job fast enough to prevent ordinary citizens from snapping pictures with their cell phone cameras.
The driving situation in the streets of Russian cities, particularly in Moscow, has always been chaotic (see this, this and this, or just scroll down the crime section of Russia Blog). But a new development is even more shocking. In separate incidents over the last two days alone, drivers have been involved in hit and run accidents with three children.
Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on October 7, 2006
Today Russian prosecutors charged the former head of Chechnya’s Achkhoi-Martan District with complicity in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. Shamil Burayev was detained on September 12. Mr. Burayev's lawyer, Pyotr Kozakov, spoke with the Associated Press and Russia's Interfax News Agency on Friday. Mr. Kozakov said that his client is innocent and intends to defend his good name.
According to the AP: "Burayev was the head of Chechnya's Achkoi-Martan district administration for eight years until 2003, when he was fired by then-Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov [father of the current Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov]. He also ran for president of the region."
Last month Russian Prosecutors detained eleven suspects in the murder of Politkovskaya. Two of the detainees have since been released, and one of the other suspects, former FSB Lt. Col. Pavel Riaguzov, is now being prosecuted on unrelated corruption charges.
Yesterday, September 10th, a Russian police Mercedes—speeding over 100 miles per hour in a lane used by oncoming traffic—collided with a Russian Lada, injuring (or possibly killing) its driver and a passenger. The accident was documented by witnesses with cellphone cameras and covered by the Russian news site Gazeta.Ru.
According to witnesses, the accident occurred after traffic police failed to provide adequate warning about a lane closure on the Kaluzhskoe highway for the motorcade of, presumably, the Head of the Russia’s Supreme Court. Early news reports said that the collision involved a common police vehicle. However, eyewitness photographs show a vehicle (a brand new Mercedes E-Klasse) far beyond the means of a “common policeman.”
Moscow - Today Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika announced that ten suspects had been detained in connection with the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On October 7, 2006 an unknown assailant shot Politkovskaya dead in her Moscow apartment building. The baseball-cap wearing gunman was caught on video tape as he left the building.
Perhaps most disturbing for both Russians and foreigners is the fact that the suspects include one police major, one Lieutenant Colonel from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), and three ex-cops. The other five men detained in connection with the plot are ethnic Chechens, one of them a lawyer in Moscow, who were allegedly part of a gang engaged in contract killings. Russian Prosecutors believe that the Chechen group could have been involved in the murders of Russian Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov and Forbes magazine Russia editor Paul Klebnikov in 2004.
Forbes magazine reported this weekend that the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky is facing an indictment for money laundering in Brazil. A warrant for Berezovsky's arrest has been filed with Interpol.
According to the Forbesarticle: "Brazilian prosecutors say Media Sports Investment, which in 2004 formed a partnership with the popular club, laundered millions of dollars received from Berezovsky to acquire a string of high-profile players."
"A Sao Paulo federal judge sent a request to Brazil's Justice Ministry requesting Berezovsky's extradition, froze bank accounts of Corinthians and London-based MSI, and demanded that the club provide a list of all players acquired with money from MSI within 10 days, according to a statement from the judge's office."
Lugovoy Accuses MI6, Berezovsky, Russian Mafia of Poisoning Alexander Litvinenko
Charles Ganske
Andrei Lugovoy is a former KGB bodyguard, security consultant, and entrepreneur who worked for Boris Berezovsky's ORT Channel 1 in the late 1990s
MOSCOW - Last week British prosecutors accused Andrey Lugovoy of killing Alexander Litvinenko with the radioactive substance polonium-210. Yesterday Mr. Lugovoy responded with his own accusations against the British government and the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, and he also cast suspicion on a Russian businessman allegedly involved in organized crime.
Among his many sensational claims, Lugovoy declared that the British intelligence agency MI6 had repeatedly tried to recruit him during his frequent business trips to the UK and that the fugitive Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky traded state secrets to the spy agency for political asylum in Great Britain. During the 1990s Boris Berezovsky held numerous Russian government posts while amassing a large personal fortune.
Andre Lugovoy met Alexander Litvinenko on November 1, 2006 in London
Last week the UK's Crown Prosecution Service indicted Andre Lugovoy, an ex-KGB officer and former bodyguard for exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The indictment drew sensational headlines in the British press and commentary on both sides of the Atlantic blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's secret services for the death of Alexander Litvinenko from radiation poisoning last year.
To date, the Russian Prosecutor General's office claims that it has not received sufficient evidence from the British government to open a criminal case against Mr. Lugovoy in Russia. Article 61 of Russia's constitution forbids extraditing Russian citizens to face trial abroad. Last week Mr. Lugovoy told Russia's RenTV last week that he fears that the British government may try to take action against him on Russian soil. Mr. Lugovoy claims that he is innocent and argues that he was also exposed to harmful levels of radiation during his meetings with Alexander Litvinenko in London on November 1, 2006.
Police in the southeastern Siberian city of Chita are investigating a 38 million ruble ($1.5 million) heist from a branch office of Sberbank, Russia's largest retail banking chain.
The robbers apparently entered the bank without leaving any traces of a struggle last Friday night after hours, killed the two bank guards, and left their bodies tied up inside the branch offices. This has led police to speculate that the guards may have known the perpetrators. The robbers disabled the bank's security cameras before making off with the cash. This crime is the biggest bank robbery Russia has witnessed in two years.
Click on the extended post to read the Moscow Times article.
Russian Prosecutors Open New Criminal Cases Against Berezovsky
Charles Ganske
Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky currently resides in London
The man the late Forbes magazine journalist Paul Klebnikov referred to as "The Godfather of the Kremlin" may have pushed his luck this week, when he called for the violent overthrow of the Russian government in an interview with the UK Guardian.
Russian prosecutors have tried many times to extradite Boris Berezovsky from the UK to face fraud charges back in Russia. The British government has consistently refused these requests. As we have reported previously here at Russia Blog, after Anna Politkovskaya was murdered and Alexander Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning late last year, these extradition requests were no longer in the news.
Today the UK Foreign Office issued a statement declaring that everyone in Great Britain must abide by the laws, and that calling for the violent overthrow of a sovereign elected government is unacceptable behavior for anyone residing in the country. Fearing deportation, Berezovsky backtracked today from his radical statements, claiming that he was only advocating "direct action" and non-violent resistance to the Russian authorities. The UK Guardian interview, however, made it clear that Berezovsky advocated the use of force if necessary to topple the "Putin regime".
In light of his extreme rhetoric, shady past and close association with exiled fundraisers for Chechen terrorists, the question Russians ask is: why does anyone in the West still take this man seriously as an advocate for "freedom" and "democracy"?
With the Joyal and Safronov incidents in Washington and Moscow occurring so close together, it presents a chance to put in perspective an issue of concern to the average citizen of any country: How safe are you?
The comparison is apt as both cities consistently win their respective continent's Murder Capital titles. Using census data from 2005 and rates of homicide given by Russian and American government sources, Moscow’s rate of homicide is 9.13 per 100,000 inhabitants, whereas Washington D.C.’s comes in at a whopping 35.42 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Knowing this, perhaps it is understandable why some aspects of emulating America can be troubling to foreigners who grow weary of the “rule of law”-mantra when these invectives are lobbed from a glass house.
Setting aside that the rate of political murders has decreased every year that Putin has been in power and ignoring the fact that these recent murders harm rather than advance Putin’s agenda, let’s pose a question for the unrepentant conspiracy fans out there: If Russia’s president is responsible for every murder in his capital, does that mean America’s leader is culpable for the same in his own backyard?
UPDATE - March 18, 2007Sean's Russki Blog has more info from the Washington Post on the Paul Joyal shooting case, suggesting that the attack was the work of common criminals.
Kommersant Reporter Falls to his Death in Moscow; American Russia Consultant Shot in Washington D.C. Suburb
Charles Ganske
Ivan Safronov, age 51, wrote on military affairs for Kommersant Photo by: newsru.com, reposted by MosNews
A journalist for the respected Russian business newspaper Kommersant died in Moscow last Friday, after falling to his death from a window in his apartment building. Ivan Safronov, age 51, was the chief military affairs writer for Kommersant and had written exposes of abuses in the Russian Defense Ministry. Police have not ruled out suicide, but Safronov's neighbors and friends have said that they believe he was murdered. Kommersant is reporting that at the time of his death, Safronov was investigating kickbacks received by powerful people in Russia and in Belarus from major arms sales to Syria and Iran.
Last Thursday night around 7:30 p.m., Paul Joyal, a consultant employed by the Washington D.C.-based consulting firm National Strategies, was shot outside his home in suburban Prince George's County Maryland. The bullet reportedly hit Joyal in the groin and the 53 year-old man is still sedated at this time. Over the weekend, police sources told reporters that they suspected robbery as the motive, and there was some media speculation about the ethnicity of the suspects seen fleeing the scene. However, yesterday Joyal's wife told reporters that her husband's wallet and briefcase were left behind in his car.
Mr. Joyal recently appeared on the TV show Dateline NBC as an acquintenence of Alexander Litvinenko, claiming that the Litvinenko was poisoned by Russian security services. Joyal also reportedly worked as a registered lobbyist for the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 1998. Prior to working as a consultant and lobbyist, Joyal was director of security for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1980 to 1989.
Click on the extended post to read the articles by Kommersant and The Washington Post.
Misrepresenting the Truth – WSJ Gives Khodorkovsky’s Defense Counsel a Platform
Yuri Mamchur
Mikhail Khodorkovksy and Platon Lebedev in jail (Photo by Itar-Tass) Read the original article in the extended post
Why are Beltway-types indignant about Enron, but not Khodorkovsky?
What is the motivation for a respectable outlet like The Wall Street Journal to continue to publish the lies and libelous screeds of a convicted felon?
Don’t people who support the rule of law understand that it involves prosecuting criminals and making them pay for their crimes?
“The Kremlin this week showed that democracy, human rights and the rule of law are dead in Vladimir Putin's Russia. With extraordinarily cynical timing, new charges -- this time, money-laundering -- were brought against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who once ran Russia's largest oil company, Yukos,” writes Robert Amsterdam, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s international defense counsel, on the pages of the WSJ.
“These charges have nothing to do with upholding Russia's laws,” continues Mr. Amsterdam. “They have everything to do with the fact that Mr. Khodorkovsky would have been eligible for parole later this year, having served half his eight-year sentence on a politically motivated tax evasion conviction handed down in 2005. Another show trial will surely propel the machinery of so-called justice toward another preordained guilty verdict.”
Was Alexander Litvinenko the Victim of a Botched Polonium Smuggling Operation?
Charles Ganske
Andrei Lugovoy, one of the suspects in the Litvinenko radiation poisoning case
This week Pajamas Media, a kind of aggregation/wire service for bloggers worldwide, has picked up a post by blogger AJ Strata casting more doubt on the claim that Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated in London. AJ Strata joins Edward Jay Epstein and others who doubt that Litvinenko was deliberately poisoned with a polonium-210 by an assassin. Instead, these bloggers believe that Litvinenko may have been the victim of a botched polonium smuggling operation, with the highly toxic radioactive substance leaking out a sealed container or vial into a teacup in Litvinenko's room at the Millenium Hotel.
Mario Scaramella met Alexander Litvinenko on November 1
Mario Scaramella, a witness in the Alexander Litvinenko case, was arrested in Naples on December 24. Mr. Scaramella met Litvinenko for lunch at London's Itsu sushi restaurant on November 1. Scaramella claimed that the purpose of this meeting was to warn Litvinenko that he and several other Russian exiles in Britain had been marked for death by a cabal of current or former members of Russia's security services. Scaramella claimed to have obtained this "enemies list" from his former KGB contacts. However, after Scotland Yard detectives interviewed the self-proclaimed expert on KGB espionage, they found many reasons to doubt his story, starting with Scaramella's claim that he had received a near-fatal dose of radiation. After extensive medical tests, Scaramella was released from a London hospital and has shown no symptoms of radiation poisoning. Italian police arrested Scaramella at the Naples airport when he arrived from London on Christmas Eve.
Russian businessman Dimitry Kovtun has been questioned twice by Russian and British investigators about his relationship with Alexander Litvinenko
Today Izvestia quoted Moscow-based security contractor Dimitry Kovtun as telling police that Alexander Litvinenko was strapped for cash in the months before they met on November 1. According to Kovtun, Litivinenko told him last summer that he was no longer receiving a "stipend" to cover living expenses for his family in London and badly needed to make a business deal. Litvinenko told Kovtun that he could bring in new British clients for Kovtun's private security company in return for commissions. While no one has directly identified the source of this "stipend", Litvinenko had been employed by Boris Berezovsky and lived very close to the exiled oligarch.
Meanwhile, Andrei Lugovoy, the other businessman who met with Litvinenko on November 1, claims that his relationship with Litvinenko was also distant, and that last summer he received a similar phone call from Litvinenko offering to introduce him to potential clients in Britain. The ex-KGB bodyguard told the ITAR TASS news agency, "My security business is developing in Russia fairly successfully. I met that call with a portion of doubt. But when I came to London I called him. He immediately named some companies and brought me to them. A reputation, authority and business interests of these companies allowed me to make a conclusion that this could be very interesting."
German police have told the Berliner Zeitung this week that they are looking into the possibility that radiation poisoning victim Alexander Litvinenko and his associate Dimitry Kovtun were involved in smuggling polonium out of Russia. According to RIA Novosti, one German police source told the Berliner Zeitung that the polonium 210 shipment that killed Litvinenko could have been valued at $25 million. German detectives have found traces of polonium in Dimitry Kovtun's apartment in Hamburg, and Russian investigators are treating him as a potential witness in the murder case.
Mr. Kovtun, a former member of the FSB who now works as a businessman, has denied any involvement in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. Andrei Lugovoy, who worked as a bodyguard for Boris Berezovsky in the late 1990s, has also proclaimed his innocence. Both men met with Alexander Litvinenko on November 1, a few hours before the ex-FSB agent became violently ill with radiation poisoning. Both have now undergone medical examinations to determine if they were irradiated, with the results likely to be returned by Friday. For investigators, determining Lugovoy and Kovtun's radiation exposure levels could prove to be very important in assembling their case.
NYU Russia Scholar Stephen F. Cohen Speaks Out About Litvinenko Case on PBS Charlie Rose Show
Charles Ganske
Russian businessman Dimitri Kovtun met with Litvinenko on November 1
German police announced this weekend that they have found traces of polonium 210 at a Hamburg apartment formerly occupied by Russian businessman Dimity Kovtun. Along with the ex-KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, Kovtun was one of two Russian men Alexander Litvinenko met in London on November 1, the day before he fell violently ill from radiation poisoning.
Mr. Kotvun allegedly left a long trail of polonium 210 traces behind while traveling from Moscow to London via Hamburg. The ultimate source of the nuclear material remains unknown, but British media reports have cited anonymous sources claiming that the isotopes have been traced to a Russian reactor. However, as veteran investigator and blogger Edward Jay Epstein points out, the quantity of polonium 210 required to create a fatal dose is quite small, and could conceivably be smuggled out of a nuclear facility by a single bribed technician. Russian government spokesmen have strongly denied that any nuclear material has ever been lost or could possibly be stolen from their facilities. Last week Russian nuclear agency officials told RIA Novosti that Russia's only polonium producing reactor was shut down two years ago and that the whole country produces only eight grams a month from leftover stocks, primarily for customers in the U.S. and Great Britain. Once isolated from polonium, the half life of the 210 isotope is just 132 days.
Both Mr. Kotvun and Mr. Lugovoi have denied any involvement in the crime, and point to the fact that they are undergoing treatment for radiation poisoning to demonstrate their innocence. After several UK newspapers cited Scotland Yard complaints of delays in interviewing key witnesses, British detectives interviewed both men in the presence of Russian officials on Monday. Mr. Lugovoi told RIA Novosti that he is fully cooperating with the criminal investigation and is happy to be interviewed again if necessary. Meanwhile, this weekend the Russian Prosecutor General's office announced that it may send its own team of investigators to London.
For the benefit of Russia Blog readers, in today's extended post we have reproduced excerpts from New York University Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen's appearance on the Dec. 7 edition of The Charlie Rose Show. In the segment, Prof. Cohen is highly critical of how the Anglo-American media has covered the Litvinenko affair, and shares his own opinion on the likely geopolitical fallout from the case.
Prof. Cohen received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1969 and has taught Russian history for over thirty years. Prof. Cohen also happens to be married to Katrina Vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation, a left-wing American magazine that has been highly critical of both Bush and Putin.
To watch the whole thing, click on the embedded Google video link in the extended post.
Samara, Russia – on December 4, Alexander Samoylenko, chief of the Itera-Samara oil company and a former executive for Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ was murdered in an apparent contract killing. Mr. Samoylenko was shot dead Monday evening while leaving work in his Lexus. The vehicle was riddled with bullets from a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and seven bullets struck the businessman, killing him instantly. A friend who was in the car with him suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
The killer escaped in a Russian-made Zhiguli, which was found a few minutes later on a residential street. The killer set the getaway car on fire to cover his tracks, and no one has been arrested in connection with this murder. Police suspect that Samoylenko was killed due to his present and past business affiliations. Samara’s local government has just changed leadership, and there have been several attacks on regional businessmen. These attacks may be part of an attempt to re-distribute financial power in the city. Itera is a prominent Russian oil company, and there are many potential enemies in Samara who could have wanted Samoylenko dead. Another possible reason for this murder could have been Samoylenko’s previous position with AvtoVAZ - the largest car manufacturer in Russia. Over 500 people affiliated with AvtoVAZ have been murdered in contract killings since 1992.
The Russian government has been widely blamed in the Western media for the recent murders of the Russian journalist Anna Politovskaya and former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The day after Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning, Yegor Gaidar, the former Russian Prime Minister who served with President Boris Yeltsin, became violently ill while visiting Ireland.
Mr. Gaidar, along with Anatoly Chubais, was one of the architects of Russia’s “privatization” schemes during the 1990s, and as a result is not well-loved by ordinary Russians. I have heard Mr. Gaidar speak at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. twice in the last three years. In the years since he left government service, he has traveled around the world delivering presentations strongly critical of Putin’s administration.
If Gaidar had died as a result of poisoning, it would have been very difficult to argue that the Kremlin was not behind this recent wave of political assassinations. However, Mr. Gaidar survived, and the first thing he did when he became conscious enough to make his own decisions was to fly back to Moscow. Mr. Gaidar apparently feels safer receiving medical treatment close to the Kremlin than he does abroad. That fact should give Westerners who assume that the Russian government sanctioned these awful crimes pause.
By now the whole world has heard about the poisoning of ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who ingested a fatal dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 three weeks ago. Most American and British commentators have focused suspicion on the Kremlin, which allegedly wanted to end Litvinenko’s investigation into the recent murder of the Russian opposition journalist Anna Politovskaya. One month before he was poisoned, Litvinenko had publicly accused President Putin of ordering Politovskaya’s death.
Several British newspapers have suggested that rogue FSB agents may have acted without the Kremlin’s knowledge to kill a man they regarded as a traitor and to intimidate future defectors. This theory has been advanced by Oleg Gordievsky, himself the highest level KGB defector to defect during the Cold War, who was a friend of Litvinenko.
For their part, Russian media outlets have quoted government sources blaming Boris Berezovsky or other exiled oligarchs for killing Litvinenko as well as Politovskaya, in order to pin their deaths on the Kremlin. “The excessive number of calculated coincidences between the deaths of people, who defined themselves as the opposition to the Russian authorities, and major international events involving Vladimir Putin is a source of concern,” Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a top Kremlin aide, told the ITAR-TASS news agency. “I am far from believing in the conspiracy theory, but, in this case, I think that we are witnessing a well-rehearsed plan of the consistent discrediting of the Russian Federation and its chief.”
Former FSB Lt. Colonel Alexander Litvinenko with his controversial book Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within
London – Former Federal Security Service (FSB) Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, has apparently been poisoned with traces of the toxic metal thallium. Tonight the 41 year-old Russian exile is being treated in the intensive care unit of London's University College Hospital, and the staff has added extra security for Litvinenko's protection. Litvinenko is being fed intravenously, and has lost nearly all of his hair. Doctors treating him say his white blood cell count is down to nearly zero. This high profile poisoning case has drawn comparisons in Western media outlets to the dioxin poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, shortly before he was elected President of Ukraine in 2004.
Litvinenko became violently ill following a meeting on November 1 with a man who claimed that he had information on the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politovskaya. Litvinenko met his contact, an Italian academic named Mario Scaramella, at the Itsu sushi restaurant near London’s Picadilly district. Mr. Scaramella, an expert on the history KGB and FSB spy activities in his native Italy, contacted the British Embassy in Rome when he found out about Litvinenko’s illness. He is now in hiding and seeking protective custody as a material witness to the crime.
Mr. Litvinenko told his friend Alex Goldfarb that he had met two Russian men for drinks shortly before his sushi lunch, and had described the suspects to the London police. One of the suspects was unknown to Mr. Litvinenko, and it is still unclear why he agreed to meet with the two men.
