Current Headlines 8 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.

Another dead Putin body Anna Akhmatova, in her blog atLargely, reports on the assassination of Maksim Kurochkin on March 27. She says that Kurochkin may have been considering revealing what he knew about the workings of the Russian Club and any dirty tricks used during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election in return for his freedom. One unsolved mystery that derives from the campaign is determining who is responsible for poisoning candidate Viktor Yushchenko.


Spy Murder Shakes Russian Émigrés Flooding Britain With Cash, Stephanie Baker-Said in Bloomberg reports on the wave of Russian wealth, and Russian intrigue, that is washing over a metropolis that some call "Londongrad". The London influx, which began after the Soviet Union collapsed, represents the third great wave of Russian émigrés in the past century. Anti-communist White Russians fled to London and Paris after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. In the Brezhnev-era '70s, tens of thousands of Russian Jews left for Israel. This is an excellent background piece.

Enemy of the state, Oksana Chelysheva, Guardian Unlimited, writes about imprisoned Mikhail Trepashkin. He was one of a group of FSB officers who, in a 1998 press conference, announced that they had been instructed to carry out a series of assassinations, but had refused to follow orders they regarded as criminal. Alexander Litvinenko was also among them. Trepashkin resigned from the FSB in 1998, stayed in Russia and became a lawyer. He took part in the independent commission investigating the 1999 explosions in apartment buildings in Moscow and other cities, representing the Moscow victims in court.

Russian prosecutors arrive in London to discuss Litvinenko deathThe International Herald Tribune reports that a delegation of Russian prosecutors, headed by Alexander Zvyagintsev, a deputy Russian prosecutor general, arrived in London, Monday, March 26, to pursue investigation of the Litvinenko murder.

Ex-KGB spy on hunger strike in U.K., demands defector pension The Russia News & Information Agency NOVOSTI reports that Viktor Makarov, former Russian KGB spy, has gone on a hunger strike in Britain, demanding a decent defector's pension from the government for passing secrets to British intelligence during the Cold War.

Girls in radiation tests after spy assassination The Harborough Today reports on two students that are being tested for Polonium-210, after they stayed in the same hotel room, the night after it was used by the people suspected of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko, last October. Traces of Polonium-210 were subsequently found in the room.

Friend of poisoned ex-FSB officer accuses Moscow of exploiting his wife in a media campaign Axis Information and Analysis is reporting that Alexander Goldfarb accused Moscow on Thursday of exploiting the dead man's ex-wife in a KGB-style campaign to blacken his name.

Polonium poisoning claim investigated by Irwin Mitchell This press release references the Polonium Victims Support Group, the Health & Safety Executives report and attorneys Conrad Murray and Sallie Booth, representing victims.

Russian's account further clouds a poisoning mystery Steven L Myers and Alan Cowell, International Herald Tribune report that Dmitri Kovtun's version of events, outlined in his most extensive and detailed interview, illustrates the starkly divergent view of the Litvinenko affair as seen from Moscow. It also suggests that sorting out the truth may ultimately be impossible, given the complex, secretive web of associations that bind Russia to its willing and unwilling exiles in London. Kovtun maintains that they (British police) have it backward, maintaining that Oct. 16 was the day that Litvinenko exposed him to the poison, polonium 210. "I am far from thinking that something was premeditated," Kovtun said. "I think things that were not premeditated were happening."

Polonium killers poisoned me too UK's Daily Express includes an exclusive interview by Lucy Johnson, with Steve Atkins, a guest at the Millennium Hotel, who unwittingly drank from the same cup laced with radioactive Polonium 210 which killed the 43-year-old former KGB agent, in the Pine Bar.

The Litvinenko Affair

THE LITVINENKO AFFAIR: A CHRONOLOGY, SOME TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS, AND SOME SPECULATIONS Published on CDI Johnson's Russia List, Prepared by Edward W. Walker with help from members of the Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Working Group on Political Developments in the FSU, UC Berkeley. This is the most comprehensive Litvinenko resource document on the Internet.

ERINYS UK, Ltd.; TITON International Ltd.; and RISC Management

Erinys UK, Ltd. and Titon International Ltd., 25 Grosvenor Street, What do we really know about them? Why does the Polonium-210 trail take us to 25 Grosvenor Street? What was Alexander Litvinenko doing for Erinys UK and Trition International? Is it a coincidence that Boris Berezovsky owns 25 Grosvenor Street, London W1K 4QN, as part of his extensive property portfolio.
What about RISC Management? There were traces of Polonium-210 there, too.

ERINYS International Ltd. Erinys is a British security company with an unparalleled reputation for delivering professional services under the most demanding of conditions, to a client base representative of the world’s leading corporations, and governments. Managed by industry recognized and respected personnel, the Group has regional offices and an operational footprint on 3 continents. With global experience in nationwide security projects, personal protection, training and site security, the Company has unique operational expertise in the petroleum, construction and mineral extraction industries. Erinys International and its subsidiaries have built a small but prestigious client base encompassing predominantly the petroleum, mining, power generation and telecommunications industry.

Erinys Ltd.
25 Grosvenor Street
London W1K 4QN
United Kingdom

Erinys' corporate management includes:
Jonathan Garratt
Michael Hutchings MA, MBA, psc, DipM MCIM
Fraser Brown
Peter Roberts LLB (Hons) FCCA
Maj Gen John Holmes DSO, OBE, MC
Jonathan Eldridge MA, Erinys Africa
Shindi Poonia, Erinys Iraq

Erinys can provide a global personal protection service, indigenous or expatriate, encompassing overt high threat environments through to more covert scenarios requiring tact and discretion. Operatives, male and female, are fully trained and, where applicable, their weapon handling skills and counter-surveillance techniques are current. In all cases individuals act within the law of the country in which they are deployed and abide by appropriate regulatory requirements. In addition to personnel protection, Erinys offers a range of electronic measures, including electronic counter-measures, to help counter the threat to an individual and or his business.



TITON International Ltd. Titon International Ltd is an independent Business Intelligence Company providing a wide range of bespoke security and intelligence services to the commercial world both in the UK and Overseas. All Titon services are necessarily discreet and precisely tailored to the client’s requirement, client confidentiality is of paramount importance to us and is always guaranteed. Titon is conveniently based in Mayfair, central London. The Group also has associates in Geneva, Moscow, Houston and Bangkok as well as strong links into the Middle East and Africa.

The Titon Group Comprises: Titon International Ltd, Titon Computer Security and Forensics Ltd (TCSF), and Titon Vetting Services Ltd (TVS). The Group Chief Executive is a recently retired Director of UK Special Forces, who in 2003/04 headed Project Unicorn for the Metropolitan Police. The aim of the Project was to consider what the commercial sector in London could do to help the UK Counter-Terrorist effort. The Head of the Investigative Branch of the Company is a commercial investigator with some 15 years experience at management level. In addition to his investigative skills he also has considerable experience in the gaming industry. Other members of staff are similarly experienced.

Titon International, Ltd.
25 Grosvenor Street
London W1K 4QN
United Kingdom

Titon Services include (1) Investigative investigations, due diligence for/on companies/deals/proposals, asset tracing, measures to counter industrial/commercial espionage and intrusion; (2) Individual pre employment screening, office security awareness for high level personal assistants, stalking and harassment, high value matrimonial investigations; (3) Electronic IT security assessments, including IT forensic investigation, IT incident response, electronic counter measures, communications security; and (4) Casino Gaming Security Design and policy, procedures, training, and investigations.


RISC Management a London based company, provides cost effective risk assessment, corporate intelligence and security services. Our in-house multi-disciplinary team of professionals and technical experts deliver vital information, intelligence and strategic advice to clients enabling them to make sound judgments and decisions about their activities. We work with clients worldwide, using our highly developed and extensive global network of associates and commissioned operatives. RISC has built up unrivaled knowledge and experience in the management of risk in the competitive international business environment. Working as an outsourced provider, we add value to our client operations by offering up-to-date information about risk in a specific industry and the relevant management process within it. As well as helping clients at a strategic planning level, we offer on-the-ground operational support, including project management capability and resources. Our services are particularly valuable to organizations taking investment decisions for projects planned in locations where existing knowledge and experience of risk is limited or uncertain. The key to our business approach is innovative thinking and knowledge sharing with clients, finding speedy solutions to sometimes complex problems and issues.

RISC Management
No. 1 Cavendish Place
London W1G 0QF
United Kingdom

Possible explanations:

Exclusive: Murdered ex-KGB officer was working for British security company Larisa Alexandrovna, in The Raw Story, published December 6, 2006, describes the employment relationship between Alexander Litvinenko and ERINYS. This is an excellent article.

Litvinenko was consulting two British security companies
Alexander Litvinenko was working for a British security firm at the time of his death, The Raw Story, an alternative news nexus, reports, referring to “two well-placed British sources who wish to remain unidentified”. The two separate British sources have confirmed that Litvinenko was working on contract for Erinys International Ltd. The office of this security and risk management company was among the 12 to 24 polonium contamination sites in the Piccadilly area of London identified by British authorities.

According to one of the sources, Erinys is trying to break into the Russian [security and intelligence] market and Litvinenko was the front man introducing them to all sorts of people. The source expanded that the reason Litvinenko was meeting at Erinys' offices around the time of his contamination was to broker a deal of some sort with a Russian security start-up being created by Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun. An American intelligence official suggested that Litvinenko was trying to get Erinys a security contract with one of the state-owned energy firms and speculated that this could be a reason why the FSB might have allegedly assassinated Litvinenko, The Raw Story writes.

Some US intelligence experts believe that Litvinenko was lured into the meetings by Kovtun and Lugovoy on the pretext of helping Erinys extend its interests in Russia, while others believe there was a genuine and legitimate business relationship with no sinister motive behind the meetings. British authorities, however, have refrained from commenting on the questions surrounding Erinys and Litvinenko’s employment with the firm, online site marks.

Nev Johnson, one of the two Foreign and Commonwealth Office press officers with responsibility for intelligence, primarily MI6, explained to The Raw Story that the continuing probe makes it difficult to confirm or discuss the issues surrounding the case. "The ongoing investigation into the death of Mr Litvinenko precludes providing background details about his activities and location prior to his death," said Johnson. "To do so might seriously compromise the police investigation and any criminal prosecution which might be undertaken."

In its turn the Financial Times has learned that Litvinenko was paid as a consultant for information on Russian businesses, by Titon International, a London-based business intelligence company. Titon’s website says it “provides a wide range of bespoke security and intelligence services to the commercial world”. A senior executive with Titon International told The Financial Times that Litvinenko had worked for the company and that its offices in London had been closed by police after traces of polonium-210 radiation had been found. There is no suggestion that Litvinenko was poisoned in the building, paper adds.

Litvinenko and Titon International Larisa Alexandrovna, at-Largely blog is the first (on December 13, 2006) to connect-the-dots between Erinys and Titon.

Search for killer of ex-spy a daunting task Kevin Cullen, The Boston Globe, reported that "...like others who surfaced here after working in the Russian secret services, Litvinenko carved out a new career by helping steer British-based businesses toward the Russian market. A former US Marine now working for an international security firm said Litvinenko was on the payrolls of at least two security firms. The former Marine, speaking on the condition he was not identified, said Litvinenko and other former KGB and FSB officers sell themselves as consultants, able to guide legitimate companies through the Byzantine business world in Russia where the legitimate and illegitimate merge."

Erinys' Document Leaker? Larisa Alexandrovna, in her blog, at-Largely, as the question, "Now if it is true that the dossier was "deliberately leaked" then would it also not follow that someone at the "British company" may have done the leaking in an attempt to force a business deal?"

On the Trail of Mr. X LaRussophobe reports that "Apparently, a British firm called Titon International may have hired Litvinenko to perform a due diligence investigation of Victor Ivanov prior to Titon's client commencing a major transaction with Aeroflot, and when the dossier turned over by Litvinenko turned up dirt on Ivanov, the deal was queered. Litvinenko then showed the dossier to Lugovoi, a Kremlin double agent who turned the material over to Ivanov, resulting in the Kremlin-connected oligarch deciding to strike down Litvinenko. Apparently, they were motivated not only by the lost value of the deal, but even more importantly by the information contained in the dossier and the possibility of future such outbreaks of information (which might expose high-level corruption). Obviously, the firm that hired Titon is in a position to say whether it received a dossier from Titon on Ivanov and whether it queered a deal with Aeroflot or not. Apparently, so far Titon is not revealing the name of its client." This is a most interesting report, which underscores the importance of pursuing a Erinys-Titon coincidence or conspiracy theory.

Update on Litvinenko laRussophobe confirms in this updated story that Litvinenko was employed by Titon (which has a sister company, Erinys) International to perform due diligence background checks on Russian officials, company officers and owners for investors, information reported by Larisa Alexandrovna at At Largely and by Litvinenko's colleague Yuri Shvets to the BBC's Tom Mangold (and if Shvets's previous information of a $100,000 contract with Titon is true, then Litvinenko was hardly "penniless," as Julia Svetlichnaja-Svetlichnaya claimed, by the way)

Revisit the Polonium-210 Trail

Britain's Home Secretary John Reid reported that 24 sites had been investigated for Polonium-210 contamination, and that 12 of them had shown traces of radioactivity. "It is at very low levels in some cases, at higher levels in others, though none of them, we think, is a health hazard of any significance," Reid said. The investigation also includes five aircraft, two of which have been confirmed to be contaminated. [Click on map to enlarge]

More Polonium Contamination In London AJ Strata, the Strata-Sphere blog, provides an updated lost of Polonium-210 contaminated sites in London. The article has links to another contaminated hotel, restaurant, and witness, Andrei Sidelnikov.

Litvinenko Inquiry Centers on 12 Sites, 5 Airplanes NPR Radio, Bob Gifford reports on All Things Considered (audio) on the contaminated sites in London, with links to three other related NPR stories.

London radiation locations CBC News provides an interactive map for visiting the London and German contamination sites. Pop-up windows include photographs and descriptions of the sites. A very good resource.

Polonium-210 Contamination Information and Updates The Health Physics Society (HPS) provides resources for Polonium-210 contamination information and updates. The site includes links to each of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) updates.

Order Of Contamination AJ Strata, Strata-Sphere blog, summarizes contamination sites and provides the comparative contamination of people close to Alexander Litvinenko.

Polonium-210 Contamination Sites:
Alexander Litvinenko home, 140 Osier Cresent-Muswell Hill
Millennium Hotel London Mayfair, 44 Grosvenor Square, W1K 2HP
Millennium Hotel Fourth floor room
Millennium Hotel Pine Bar
Erinys UK, Ltd. and Titon International Ltd., 25 Grosvenor Street (West End)
58 Grosvenor Street (West End)
Itsu Sushi bar, Piccadilly Circus
RISC Management, Cavendish Place
Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Hotel, Piccadilly
Parkes Hotel, Knightsbridge
Sheraton Parklane Hotel
Pescatori Restaurant, Dover Street
Emirates Stadium
Interpark House, 7 Down Street, Mayfair
Heathrow Airport
University College Hospital
Barnet General Hospital
Zakayev's automobile in N. London
British Airways Aircraft G-BZHA Boeing 767
British Airways Aircraft G-BNWB Boeing 767
British Airways Aircraft G-BNWX Boeing 767
Transaero Boeing 737
Erzberger Street, Hamburg Germany
Haselau Germany
British Embassy, Moscow Russia

Update - Information about Public Health Issues Related to Polonium-210 Contamination in the United Kingdom An Official CDC Health Update, summarizes the CDC's involvement in the Litvinenko Polonium-210 contamination case. It reports that the CDC contacted 160 Americans in 20 states for radiation testing.

Agencies announce progress on the Litvinenko remediation process The London Resilience site provides a series of Q&A for Polonium-210 contamination.

The Polonium Trail - With Updates AJ Strata, The Strata-Sphere provides a comprehensive synopsis of the Polonium-210 trail. The essay contains multiple resource links.

The Blackmail “kompromat” Theory

There is another theory regarding Alexander Litvinenko's death, that it was his plans to blackmail powerful people, including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin. I will try and provide a representative sampling of articles here, on this possibility.

'I can blackmail them. We can make money' The Guardian Unlimited, Mark Townsend, Jamie Doward and Tom Parfitt, describe Alexander Litvinenko as no stranger to risk. Over the summer months, the former Kremlin spy began finalizing an extraordinary business proposition that may prove the most compelling motive yet for murder.

Putin on the Throwback, Why are all the Russian reporters dying? Nikolas Gvosdev, in The National Review, writes about the trail of suspicious deaths and murders and attacks leads primarily to journalists and intelligence specialists, people who by training and profession gather secrets, people who were uncovering evidence of corruption at both the regional and federal levels; hidden crimes, human-rights abuses, shady deals, or sometimes just what the Russians call “kompromat”, the “compromising material” which can be used to embarrass or blackmail rivals, all the things that entrenched interests in both the government and the business communities never want exposed to the light of day.

Was he on the verge of unmasking a master spy at the heart of the Italian government? Jason Lewis with the Daily Mail, writes that a mysterious agent who leaked British defence secrets to the Russians is now at the centre of the hunt for the murderer of Alexander Litvinenko. Investigators believe Litvinenko may have been killed to protect the agent, codenamed Uchitel, 'The Teacher', by his former KGB paymasters.

Revealed: Litvinenko's Russian 'blackmail plot' Mark Townsend, Jamie Doward, Tom Parfitt, and Barbara McMahon, write in The Guardian Unlimited, the story of Julia Svetlichnaja in which she reveals that Alexander Litvinenko asked her to enter into a business deal with him and 'make money. He told me he was going to blackmail or sell sensitive information about all kinds of powerful people, including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin,' she said. 'He mentioned a figure of £10,000 that they would pay each time to stop him broadcasting these FSB documents. Litvinenko was short of money and was adamant that he could obtain any files he wanted.'

Current Headlines 7 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.

Russian Businessman (Dmitry Kovtum) to Help German Prosecutors in Litvinenko Poisoning Case Mosnews reports that Dmitry Kovtum has indicated a willingness to return to Hamburg for questioning in the Polonium-210 smuggling case. His attorney, Wolfgang Vehlow, added that Kovtun has permanent residency in Germany and considers Hamburg a home.

Heavy-handed Putin Jonathan Strong, American Thinker, writes that President Vladimir Putin increasingly has been imitating his Soviet predecessors of a bygone communist era. Dissidents, spies, "undesirables", and people just in the wrong place at the wrong time frequently "disappeared" in the former Soviet Union. Murder and intimidation remain tactics of security services in the Russian Federation. Particularly since Putin has reigned, power has been consolidated in the presidency and in Moscow.

Litvinenko’s children hit at Hollywood film plan Mark Franchetti and David Leppard, The Times, interviewed Alexander Litvinenko's children and wife from his first marriage. Natalia Litvinenko said, “One’s first motherland is one’s family, Sasha betrayed his family, then the FSB, then his country, then his religion. But this does not change the fact that his death is a terrible tragedy and that we love him deeply.”

Russian Journalist Seeks Asylum in United States The St. Petersburg Times reports about a female Russian journalist who claims to have been poisoned twice, harassed and assaulted. The article references a second Russian journalist, Alexander Kosvintsev, who fled to Ukraine and sought asylum there, last month.

Russian secret servicemen to question some 100 British citizens as part of former FSB officer’s poisoning investigation Axis Information and Analysis, Eurasian Secret Services Review, reports on Alexander Zvyagintsev's request to interview 100+ people in London.

Chechen Connection and PO-210 Smuggling

There is a theory connecting Alexander Litvinenko to Chechnya and an alleged Polonium-210 smuggling plot. I will try and provide a representative sampling of articles here, on this possibility.

Akhmed Zakayev: Litvinenko’s Chechen Connection John Fenzel describes for the reader, a fascinating relationship between Alexander Litvinenko and Akhmed Zakayev, the Foreign Minister of Chechen republic government-in-exile.

New wrinkle in Litvinenko's death The Online Journal, Wayne Madsen writes about several smuggling theories, including a Chechen press release reference to "the weapon" may have been hinting at a project to build a radioactive "dirty bomb" by Litvinenko. London's Observer surmised as much in a December 3 report: "Among the theories that remain open is that the poisonings were an accident that happened while Litvinenko tried to assemble a dirty bomb for Chechen rebels. Those who know him believe he was crazy enough to attempt such a thing and, in the past week, some have implicated him in the smuggling of nuclear materials from Russia."

Litvinenko Assassination Theory Just About Eliminated AJ Strata, Strata-Sphere, writes an convincing essay on the smuggling theory. This is an excellent background piece. The title says it all!

German Police Suspect Polonium Smuggling Ring Charles Ganske of Real Russia Project, report that German police suspect that Alexander Litvinenko and his associate Dimitry Kovtun were involved in smuggling polonium out of Russia. German detectives found traces of polonium in Dimitry Kovtun's apartment in Hamburg,

Did Litvinenko And Berezovsky Support Chechyan Terrorists? AJ Strata, in his blog, Strata-Sphere makes the case for a Chechen connection. I always wondered why the Chechen terrorists, just a day after Litvinenko died, named him a martyr for the Chechen cause. It was one of the indicators that Litvinenko was more likely smuggling Po-210 to Putin’s enemies than being the target of a Po-210 armed Putin assassin. How a Russian could become a Muslim martyr while living in London. Quite impressive. Now it seems there may be first hand knowledge out of Chechnya of Berezovsky’s personal hand (with Litvinenko) in allying with those trying to topple Putin and the Russian government.

Interim Chechen president’s claims undermine search for truth in Politkovskaya case Reporters Without Borders responds to Chechnya’s acting President Ramzan Kadyrov's claim, that he was personally present at meetings at which Boris Berezovsky compromised himself and that Berezovsky, aided by Alexander Litvinenko, had financed Chechen separatist fighters with the aim of destroying Russia.

Ridiculous News Media On Litvinenko’s Poisoning AJ Strata, in his blog, Strata-Sphere, asks the obvious question: This was not an assassination. That young, central asian man who flew to London with Kovtun and disappeared the same day all the Po-210 left London sounds like a Chechen, monitoring the final movements of all the Po-210 that made its way through London last October. There are amounts of Po-210 spread all over London, Hamburg and Moscow that would kill Litvinenko many times over. How is it this assassination effort got more Po-210 on the rug of a hotel room than they ever got into Litvinenko after ‘multiple’ tries? Forget the assassination theory. If the trail and the poisoned people are simply the debris from handling (and mishandling) the Po-210, then the big questions is what was the amount of Po-210 that was being smuggled that left this trail?

As AJStrata Predicted: Litvinenko Poisoned In Hotel Room! AJ Strata, in his blog, Strata-Sphere writes that “Friends of the ex-spy” are also possible associates who could be involved in the smuggling of Po-210 through London and possibly to Russia. The fact is every time Lugovoi traveled to London to meet Litvinenko and the British security firms Litvinenko worked for, Po-210 ended up contaminating multiple rooms. There are excellent resource links to this blog.

Litvinenko 'smuggled nuclear material' Cahal Milmo, Peter Popham and Jason Bennetto with The Independent, report on a conversation that Mario Scaramella had with Alexander Litvinenko on November 1, 2006, that he (Litvinenko) had organized the smuggling of nuclear material out of Russia for his security service employers.

Chechnya's ghosts loom large in the death of former spy Danica Kirka explores Alexander Litvinenko's conversion to Islam in this NC Times article. Litvinenko was moved by the immense suffering of Muslims in Chechnya. Another theory suggested conversion may have been an act of moral redress, for the injustice Muslims feel globally. "For Litvinenko, his conversion meant that he associated his struggle for justice with the struggle of the Islamic communities worldwide and in Russia in particular," said Geidar Dzhemal, the head of Islamic Committee of Russia, the leading Islamic advocacy group in Russia.

New wrinkle in Litvinenko's death Wayne Madsen, on the propagandamatrix blog, analyzes the Chechen connection, including the possibility of a smuggling accident.