Dec 29 2006
Berezovsky To Be Questioned
Update: Right on cue, Goldfarb speaks out for Berezovsky:
Alex Goldfarb, who runs Berezovsky’s Foundation for Civil Liberties in New York, told Reuters British police had already questioned Berezovsky and other people who knew Litvinenko.
“It is none of the Russian prosecutors’ business: this is a British investigation and Boris is fully cooperating,” Goldfarb said by telephone.
“This is clearly part of a spin control operation: they are trying to deflect attention from themselves with the different branches of the Russian authoritarian system. They are all part of the big corporation Kremlin Inc. and they are trying to get away with murder,” he said.
The PR war must be slipping for Goldfarb to react so quickly all the time. It is clear from what I am seeing that many people think Putin or Russia tried to assassinate Litvinenko. Those of us who think differently are clearly in the minority. But there must be some cracks showing up in the perception war for Goldfarb to react like this. Where does he get off claiming this is none of Russia’s business? If this is a roque operation then it is incumbent on the administration to get to the bottom of it. If it is some sort of terrorist activity aimed at Russia, then Putin and his government need to find out quickly what is going on in order to protect the people.
The fact is Berezovsky has a Polonium trail leading right to his offices. His people, Litvinenko and Lugovoi, have been poisoned by Polonium-210. Business associates of his, Scaramella and Kovtun, have been poisoned. There is no trail of Polonium leading into the Kremlin right now. It all surrounds Berezovsky and his associates. So Goldfarb sounds pathetically desparate here.
What is interesting is Berezovsky’s claim to have been questioned. When was he questioned? Was he questioned recently after all the Polonium trails over the two weeks in October were discovered leading to his friends Litvinenko and Lugovoi? Was he questioned before Lugovoi and Kovtun arranged their apparent plea deals? Still waiting to see if Berezovsky actually refuses to be questioned again by Scotland Yard. Now that would be a telling turn of events! – end update
The news is just now breaking (here and here) that Russia has requested the UK authorities to question Berezovsky and others in regards to the Litvinenko investigation.
Russian prosecutors have asked Britain to question exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky as part of the investigation into the death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, Interfax news agency said on Friday.
Interfax quoted an unidentified source in the prosecutor-general’s office as saying Russia had sent a request to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service asking for Berezovsky and others to be questioned.
The ‘others’ are going to include Litvinenko’s Chechen leader friend Zakayev, and I would not be surprised if Alex Goldfarb gets caught up in this. I expect we shall see his response (for Berezovsky) in the media within the hour. It will be hard for the UK to resist the request – and I seriously doubt if this has not been coordinated between the two countries anyway. The leak was not possibly intentional, but the fact it was happening behind the scenes tells me the cooperation between Russia and the UK (and Germany and the US) is probably going along just fine.
“There is a request to carry out a series of investigative actions including the questioning of a large number of people, in particular businessman Boris Berezovsky who lives in London,” the source said, according to Interfax.
My guess the “large number of people” may include people here in the US and in many other countries, not just London or the UK. I am still not buying the ‘murder’ plot in terms of someone targetting Litvinenko. He was too marginal for the price that is clearly inherint in this incident. The problem with the leak is it may force the hand of UK authorities before they are ready to interrogate the key witnesses. Berezovsky has been hiding behind Goldfarb since the story started to drift from assassination to other theories. So we may be ready to start the critical power play with Berezovsky and his dominion.
i still believe the extra polonium was for other hits, which for some reason did not occur.
Okay, first of all, I’m not sure what reports you’re reading AJ, but from what I’ve read on major news sites the Polonium trail HAS in fact been found on 3 airplanes that fly regularly between the Moscow and the UK, and there are 8 gumshoes from Scotland Yard over in Moscow right now, but are hitting a bureaucratic brick wall of sorts since they aren’t allowed into the Kremlin or any other government building to do their ‘testing’ so your charge that there isn’t a polonium trail leading into the Kremlin is moot since they’re not allowed in. The Russian justice department has also stated that no Russian will be tried in British courts before opening their own investigation. Now why would they be so protective if they had nothing to hide? I haven’t seen you try to explain any of this.
And I also have to wonder, the polonium trail being on the jets between moscow and london have been all over the news, yet you conveniently don’t even mention this and instead state that the only trail of it goes to berezovksy’s office. Are you really interested in ‘truth’ or only truth that supports the ‘reality going on in your head’ as you accused Enlightenment of?
Second, did you ever consider that perhaps Litvinenko had ‘dirt’ on Putin, or at least made Putin ‘think’ that he had enough dirt on him via extortion that he felt that despite the risks that Litvinenko must be eliminated? Blackmail was certainly one of Litvinenko’s business specialties, as Russian academic Julia Svetlichnaja will attest:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1962759,00.html
In fact it seemed blackmail was his PRIMARY specialty. That article also seems to confirm from multiple sources that Litvinenko in fact did or thought he had enough dirt on the FSB or Putin that he would be able to successfully extort them. He also appears in that article to be much more than the ‘marginalized’ player you dismissively suggest he was and provides an answer to your dismissing him because ‘nothing in his book’ nailed him. As a blackmail artist, it wouldn’t have to, nor would he want to give away what someone would pay top dollar to keep secret. It would only need to convince his targets that he did have the goods on them should they not pay up to his demands.
Before the whole pollonium incident it was difficult for the press to take seriously some of Litvinenko’s claims … he’s accused Putin of being a serial pedophile, and had been lately making noise about how he had a tape of Putin having sex with another man. I would say that’s a pretty good reason Putin might want him dead, and hardly more farfetched than the pollonium smuggling ring theory that keeps getting pushed.
“To be honest I felt the urge to squeeze him like a kitten, and that led to the gesture I made. There was really nothing behind it really.”
–Valdimir Putin, explaining why he was shown on Russian ntaional TV appraching a young boy in a group of tourists, lifting the boy’s shirt, and kissing him on his bare stomach.
-Newsweek, January 1, 2007 edition, Article 2006 Perspectives, page 95
Ydef,
All my sources are in my posts and your information is old and incorrect. In the end only two planes showed signs of Polonium-210 and all the rumors of the Brits having problems were media generated. It appears Lugovoi and Kovtun have plea agreements. And all the inspectors are back. Now I have no time to correct the rest of your post (that being your first sentence) so I suggest you get to reading.
Tempester,
The extra Polonium could be enough to kill hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Why so much?