Current Headlines 6 of 12

There is a great deal of intrigue, speculation and facts in the media. In this post, I will try to provide a characterization of this work, research and opinion.

Why Are Putin's Enemies Dying? Ben Bolton, NewsMax, revisits the coincidence-conspiracy question. He reviews the unsolved assassinations (or attempts) of Paul Joyal, Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Shchekochikin, Paul Klebnikov, Yan Serguinin, Viktor Yushchenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Andrei Kozlov and Movladi Baisarov.

THE KREMLIN'S LONG SHADOW Bryan Burrough, Vanity Fair investigates in the April 2007 issue, the murder in London last November of former K.G.B. agent Alexander Litvinenko. The case had all the elements of a spy thriller: an exotic poison, an exiled tycoon, and plenty of hidden agendas. But can the polonium 210 that killed Litvinenko be traced back to Moscow?

Dead reporter 'had Kremlin secrets' Adrian Blomfield, The Age, provides a motive for the assassination of Kommersant journalist, Ivan Safronov. He was working on a story that claimed the Kremlin was secretly providing Syria with missile systems.

Suspicions still swirling about Russian bombs The Hamilton Spectator revisits the connections between Alexander Litvinenko's assassination, the Ryazan apartment bombings in Moscow and the Chechnya War, as described in Litvinenko's book, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within.

KGB expert who accused Russian authorities in poisoning of ex-FSB officer found shot near his home in America AXIS Information and Analysis, reports on the attempted murder of Paul Joyal, just days after he accused the Russian government of involvement in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. In an interview broadcast last Sunday on "Dateline NBC," Joyal also accused the Russian government of trying to silence its critics. "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you in the most horrible way possible," Joyal said.

Prominent Russian defense correspondent dies in mysterious fall The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports on the suspicious death of Kommersant journalist, Ivan Safronov. A former colonel in the Russian Space Forces, Safronov, 51, wrote about military and space issues for Kommersant. Most recently, he had written about changes in the defense leadership and problems in military training that had led to the deaths of young soldiers. He also wrote about defense technology and military testing failures that often went unacknowledged and unreported by the army.

Who's killing Putin's enemies? Michael Specter writes in The Guardian's Observer Magazine, that Putin has presided over a staggering economic boom in the six years since he took control of the Kremlin. Meanwhile, a dozen of his critics have been assassinated and the country's vast natural resources are in the pockets of a chosen few. The two-part essay reports on the corruption and gangsterism gripping Russia.

The Last Days of a Secret Agent, NBC Dateline NBC Dateline's Justin Baldins reports on the Litvinenko investigation, and includes an interactive and video link regarding the 'conspiracy theories' surrounding the assassination.

The Polonium 210 Fallout A.J. Strata, in his blog, Strata-Sphere, revisits the Polonium-210 contamination pattern. The essay also includes a link to the latest Health Protection Agency (HPA) report.

Berezovsky ordered murders of Litvinenko, Politkovskaya - Kadyrov. The ITAR-TASS News Agency quotes Chechnya's acting president Ramzan Kadyrov as knowing that Boris Berezovsky was the one who had placed the murder contracts on former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London and investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow.

Russian investigator in ex-spy Litvinenko’s case meets with Scotland Yard in London AXIS Information and Analysis reports that Russia's top prosecutors earlier ruled out that Lugovoi, whom British media have called the key suspect in the Litvinenko case, could be extradited to the U.K., saying he was a Russian citizen and could not be tried elsewhere.

Litvinenko, Scaramella, Guzzanti and Mitrokhin Commission

Resources:
The Mitrokhin Archive, by Vasil Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew





The Mitrokhin Archive II, by Vasil Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew






The Sword and the Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive by Vasil Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew






Sen. Paolo Guzzanti's blog Italian

The Mitrokhin Commission Report, 5 April 2004 Italian

The Mitrokhin Commission Report, 23 March 2006, Minority Report Italian

The Mitrokhin Inquiry Report United Kingdom

Mitrokhin Archive Wikipedia[photgraph of Vasil Mitrokhin]





Recent Headlines:

Limarev e il falso Guzzanti European Tribune, de Gondi, has written an historical essay that connects Sen. Paolo Guzzanti, Evgueni Limarev, Alexander Litvinenko and the Mitrokhim Commission. This is a fascinating work, and due to reference links, a good resource as well.

Le Plot Thickens, Again: Russians going after Nevzlin Larisa Alexandrovna, in her blog, at-Largely, decribes the relationship between Alexander Litvinenko, Mario Scaramella and the Mitrokhin Commission.

The Litvinenko murder: Scaramella - The Italian Connection The Independent provides an Italian biography for Mario Scaramella and identifies the recently published telephone transcript between Scaramella and Senator Paolo Guzzanti, President of the Mitrokhin Commission, regarding Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Italian tests positive in KGB case Italy Magazine reports that Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said that Scaramella had never had “any relationship with the Italian secret services, apart from two occasions in which he contacted the heads of (civilian intelligence agency) Sisde, who immediately told him not to try contacting them again”.

The strange case of Mario Scaramella Geoff Andrews, openDemocracy, skillfully weaves the story line of Mario Scaramella, Alexander Litvinenko, Senator Paolo Guzzanti and The Mitrokhin Commission together, providing background and intrigue along the way.

Fixing Fox de Gondi, European Tribune, is a detailed article which demonstrates the political relationship between Sen. Paolo Guzzanti and Mario Scaramella.

The Secret Life of Mario Scaramella Alexander Stille, Slate, describes Mario Scaramella as "a kind of Rosencrantz or Guildenstern of the Litvinenko tragedy, a minor character who sheds a highly revealing sidelight on the larger drama while also illuminating a different and very Italian tragedy."

What Did Litvinenko Know/Say/Do that Cost Him His Life?

Below are links to some of Alexander Litvinenko's work:
1. Litvinenko's Book: Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within

2. FSB Involvement in the 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings

3. Russian Secret Services' Links With Al-Qaeda

4. Litvinenko's Video Interview , The Frontline Club, the Murder of Anna Politkovskaya

5. The Kremlin Pedophile

6. About "Nord-Ost", Zakayev and terrorist activity of FSB

7. Putin and the drug trade in Russia

8. Colonel Alexander Litvinenko Signed the Appeal for an Interim un Administration in Chechnya

9. Litvinenko's Book: Lubyanka Criminal Group

10. Backlight: In Memoriam Aleksander Litvinenko


Political Biography
1. In his book Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, Litvinenko describes that he had established personal relations with Berezovsky during the investigation of the July 1994 attempt on the businessman.

2. Russian observers and the politicians close to the present Russian regime say that Litvinenko and his closest associates on service had been Berezovsky’s “agents of infulence” in the FSB.

3. The specified sources pointed out that Litvinenko and his comrades, in 1996-1998, tried to discredit a number of the high-ranking FSB officers, with an aim of their subsequent replacement by people, loyal to Berezovsky.

4. In the book Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within Litvinenko confirms that he collected compromising information on some high-ranking officers and tried to convey it to the top leadership, in particular, to Putin. But as he said, he did it for the sake of suppression of the criminal activity in the ranks of the FSB.

5. In November 1998, Litvinenko and four of his colleagues held an unprecedented press conference, having accused the FSB and their direct supervisors, of alleged practice of extrajudicial liquidations and physical pressure upon businessmen and political figures. They declared, in particular, that one year prior to that they had received an order on Berezovsky's elimination. Two years later, one of the closest fellows of Litvinenko and a participant of the abovementioned press conference, Viktor Shebalin, publicly announced that it had been “a planned-in-advance action of Litvinenko, under direction of Boris Berezovsky”.

6. In the autumn 2000, together with his family, Alexander Litvinenko secretly left Russia. Through Ukraine and Turkey, he arrived in England. In May 2001, Litvinenko was granted political asylum there and he was under trusteeship of the local law enforcement bodies.

7. In Britain, Litvinenko began an active propaganda campaign against the Russian leadership and the FSB. He accused Russia’s secret services of organizing the explosions in apartment houses in Moscow in the autumn 1999, and in ties with the Al-Qaeda, and also in the wide-range criminal activity, such as participation in the international Afghan drug traffic.

8. In 2001 the first book by Litvinenko (in the co-authorship) was published in the United States, under the title Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within.

9. In 2002, the second book by Litvinenko, Lubyanka’s Criminal Grouping, was published in the US.

10. Litvinenko often spoke that his life and the life of his relatives had been endangered. He told that the first attempt at him took place in December 1997 after he and his colleagues had refused to carry out the order on Boris Berezovsky's liquidation.

11. He said he knew of 32 Russian spies working in England.

12. He traveled to Israel weeks before he died to hand over a dossier on the Yukos oil affair, in which the company’s former chairman, Mikhail Khodorovsky, has been imprisoned for tax evasion, to Leonid Nevzlin, an exiled oil tycoon.

13. In Moscow, a city given to conspiracy theories, people could speak of little else: Putin had acted to silence a vocal traitor; no, Putin’s enemies did it, to destroy the image of the Kremlin and gain leverage in the 2008 Presidential campaign; Putin’s allies did it, so that they could use the affair as a convenient excuse to ignore the constitution and secure him a third term; the “Jews” did it, because Litvinenko had converted to Islam; Muslim extremists did it, because Litvinenko had reneged on a promise to supply parts for a dirty bomb; Berezovsky did it, to embarrass Putin. The Kremlin even suggested that Leonid Nevzlin, a wealthy oil executive who fled Russia and lives in Israel, might have been involved. The New Yorker, Kremlin, Inc, by Michael Specter.

14. Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent now based in the United States, said he and Litvinenko had worked together providing confidential background information for international companies before possible investment in Russia. Shvets told the BBC his friend was poisoned after an eight-page dossier complied by Litvinenko, which allegedly contained sensitive material, was leaked to the unnamed figure in Moscow.

15. "At one point, Litvinenko's old boss, Maj. Gen. Yevgeny Khokholkov said, 'If I ever see him in my doorway, I will kill him with my own hands.' And he put his two hands together as if he was smashing the neck, as if it was a piece of pipe, or a baguette. And then he just said, 'I'm joking, of course.' But it was clear he was not joking. They hated him so much." as told by Yuri Felshtinsky. The Seattle Times

Opinions:
1. Alexander Litvinenko: Blackmailer, Smuggler, Gangster Extraordinaire by Antiwar.com Justin Raimondo

2. Yuri’s quest to uncover the truth lives on Anne Simpson, of The Herald, writes about Yuri Felshtinsky, a historian specializing in Russian secret services, who co-authored writing Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within with Alexander Litvinenko.