Jan 16 2007
Litvinenko And Russian Oil?
The Litvinenko case has gone from the strange into the bizarre. What is truly compelling is that Andrei Lugovoi stated he would not have anything to say until things got going on January 15th. Well some interesting things got going today.
Apparently Russians believe the Litvinenko death is somehow tied to the Yukos oil companies legal problems. It seems Yukos is Russian for “Enron” if the reporting from Kommersant is accurate (and there is not reason to not to believe it is accurate). It seems Russian investigators were running up the organization getting the small fry to turn evidence on the higher ups in a classic law enforcement pincer move. And it seems clear we have paper transactions on oil with huge windfalls involving billions of dollars:
In April 2006, Judge Elena Yarlykova of the Basmanny Court began hearing the case against Valdez-Garcia and two other defendants, former general director of YUKOS affiliate Ratibor Vladimir Malakhovsky and former deputy director of the YUKOS foreign debt directorate Vladimir Pereverzin. They were accused of involvement in the embezzlement of $13 billion, of which $8.5 billion was allegedly laundered. According to investigators, crude oil produced by YUKOS subsidiaries was delivered on paper to Fargoil (which was headed by Valdez-Garcia) and Ratibor (headed by Malakhovsky). Those companies are registered in tax exemption zones in Mordovia and Evenkia, respectively. The crude oil bought at artificially low prices by those companies was sold at market price and the proceeds sent to offshore companies. That was done to economize on taxes, but the Prosecutor General’s Office saw embezzlement and laundering of YUKOS money in those actions
…
Valdez-Garcia’s disappearance has interrupted sentencing in the case, which is closely tied to a new case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. The charges that the Prosecutor General’s Office is preparing to make any day now against them at the Chita holding facility are connected with the delivery of oil by YUKOS subsidiaries to Fargoil and Ratibor, which, according to the investigation took place only on paper. The prosecutor was hoping that the sentencing of the “lower link in the criminal organization,†that is, Valdez-Garcia, Pereverzin and Malakhovsky, would take place in February, so that the investigation could make reference to it as prejudicial in its accusations against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in the new case. Now that sentencing has been postponed indefinitely.
While some may quibble on whether this is a power play or not, paper transactions valued at $13 billion, where no oil moves an inch, is a clear accounting shell game. And these amounts clearly represent a plausible motive to kill. I still find it amusing the Enron-hating western press love the Enron-clones in Russia who bankrupted a country and starved the Russia people while destroying what savings they had. Clearly Enron on a national level. From reporting here and here it is clear the case against the Yukos executives is going forward. And there is pressure on the US and Israel to stop harboring these apparent robber barons. I am still not clear how this all folds together, but it seems we understand why Berezovsky and the other Oligarchs want Putin out before 2008. He is still a threat to their wealth empires. It now seems the Russians have recieved a request from the UK to have another round of investigators visit Moscow. This was a response, it seems, on a Russian request to come to London and sit in on the interrogations of self-exiled oligarch Berezovsky and Chechyan dissidant leader Zakayev, both friends of Litvinenko and both tied to the Polonium trail in London. Russians believe there may be another murder related to Yukos in London as well, that of a chief witness against the Yukos barons.
So, was the Po-210 being shipped into Russia in order to pin a conspiracy theory on Putin and remove the legal pressure from these oligarchs who are sitting on billions of dollars of money skimmed off the Russian economy? The fact the Po-210 may have been obtained AFTER it was exported from Russia means the signature of the Russian processing was still intact in the Po-210. This would have pointed any attack using this material right at Putin’s government, fulfilling theories put forth for years by Berezovsky, Litvinenko and Zakayev. Theories of state sponsored false flag attacks on Russia’s citizens. And that would explain why Berezovsky and Goldfarb had their PR group ready to move out when Litvinenko died with a variation on that theme – the Putin sponsored state attack. The smugglers knew the Po-210 would be traced to Russia, even though Russia has accounted for the material up until the point of export. The fall of Putin under such a staged scenario would releive the barons of scrutiny and legal jeopardy. The fact the UK and Russian authorities are still working together indicates to me that they are not buying the media spin (since they may be the source of it anyway) and have some other angles they are following. Was Litvinenko part of an effort by the oligarchs to destroy Putin and remove pressure on them? Seems like reasonable speculation to me.
AJ I don’t quite follow your theory but I do agree that the plot will probably prove to be an attempt by Berezovsky to dethrone Putin, in one way or another. And I do agree that central to this is linking the PO to Putin’s Russia.
Exactly what they wanted to do is puzzling. I agree that given Litvinenko’s investigative look at the earlier apartment bombings and the connections Berezovsky has with Chechnia, it could well be that they were trying to frame Putin as a “mad bomber.”
But why London? Why not keep it more local? Did everyone including Berezovsky underestimate the difficulties of handling PO? Did he just want to verify the shipments before sending them on?
Ya know, the Ruble was never worth anything. You really couldn’t trade it anywhere.
But, I’ll tell ya what! This story NOW is very, very plausible.
Except WHY did the po-210 have to travel to so many places?
Enron came tearing down because of the PUBLIC nature of the stock market, where anyone can go and buy stocks in public companies.
During October 1929, when the stock market collapsed (because the money supplies were not well handled by the government. And, there was suddenly a very big race into the market by a lot of people. I can remember my mom talking about MARGINS. And, how this was the poison, in America, that took the stock market down on that eventful October day.)
In other words? People thought they owned whole hunks of this garbage, when all they bought were “marginal positions.” When the losses came, a lot of people had to step up and hand over REAL MONEY, as the values kept falling! This is the HOW behind how people lost so much.
And, Winston Churchill was in the States. (It was during that “fallow period” where he was NOT an insider in the British government. But he made his living writing. And, he wrote about the American stock market crash.) What Winston said rings true to this day!
Winston said you cannot put laws into place that stop people from being greedy. What America had in place, however, were LAWS TO CLEAN THINGS UP. Yes, a lot of people lost their shirts. But that happens to INDIVIDUALS. NOT TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY!
He said if “such a thing had happened in England” the government would have been cast out the door.” But American LAWS held! That’s why we survived the bleak depression.
And, I think what Churchill said will always remain true. Because there are always suckers “for the easy buck.”
Besides, russia isn’t the only communist country tanking. You could notice this happening all over the “continent” if you looked. And, what’s most interesting is that the birth rate is lacking. In other words? Governments who run social programs haven’t got the adults producing enough children, to keep the social programs FUNDED.
As to the russians, and their blame games, yes. A very few people have always made money off the russian hides. Armand Hammer did so. George Soros is very involved in “paper games” where he bets one country’s currency against another.
And, this firm “Yukos.” What I think may have happened, because Gorbechev was DESPERATE, was that lock, stock and barrel, the state’s assets in russia were put out ON THE BLACK MARKET. So a few insiders began shifting around “stuff.” And, then? Some wanted to be free of mother russia. And, that was during a time there was a chance for some russians to escape to Israel. IF they could prove they were Jews. (There were no rabbinical records here, folks. Just claims by about 15 million russians, that set them apart from others. In that they were willing to escape. Some made it to Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn. Some to Israel. And, some deposited themselves in England. None of this stuff was good stuff. And, today, russia actually has a brain drain it can’t seem to beat, either.)
Again, where this story might unravel, since very little is known about how russia actually functions. It’s run by a few. And, the many are still just peasants.
If you look at european history, you’d see the few were the aristocrats. And, the peasants never had two nickles to rub together. And, brain drains are behind lots of stories. (Including, today, Ireland’s growth at the expense of the failed socialistic states on the Continent.) And, of course, the wholesale departure from russia of those who could get away. Even if it meant packing gold and diamonds into shoulder pads of winter coats. Since the Ruble still has no value at all.
Why would the means be polonium poisoning? When it seems Litvinenko, and others, had no idea they were being poisoned when they handled this stuff. And, they certainly didn’t know they were exposing their own children!
I’d bet behind this story sits hundreds of millions of dollars.
And, I’m not so sure we advance beyond the possibilities of “it could have been.” In russia, every other person is a member of the KGB! I’m not so sure I’d call this “human intelligence.” But it is true that in russia no one trusts anyone else. Because you just never know how your own kids could report you to authorities. And, russians have lived with more “knocks on the door” … and people disappearing … that anything that even happened in Iraq!
Again, too, why would the italians be involved, here, IF this was just a personnel matter in russia?
Why does this approach make it seems putin has no access to other means that would have been at his disposal?
While the arabs?
Ya know, all you have to do is look at Dubai. You see a city that is there because the arabs have the wealth that they can buy these plans. But if you asked ONE QUESTION: “WHY WOULD YOU BUILD THIS IN THE DESERT?” What would their answer be?
Because they can! Of course! But they’re no Hong Kong! They’re building to duplicate what their eyeballs pick up when they go on the road. But nowhere among the arabs will you find even one individual as well educated and as smart as the average Chinese.
So just because they can is an answer that fits when morons have more money, and greed, than they know what to do with. And, the only laws that apply are what comes after. WHEN THE CLEAN UP’s come due.
I still think that putin wouldn’t have to divest materials to the scum, where none of those oligarths are his friends.
But why quibble? We really don’t know.
And, all clues are good clues, until proven otherwise.
The Ruble never held sway in economic markets. It was strictly internal monopoly money. And, the russians? Odd country of peasantry. Half of whom report to work for the KGB. Not one of those places where anyone trusts another. You could kill people there in broad daylight. No need for radioactive material. Let alone how the russian government must still feel about Chernobyl. (They just don’t handle fissionable materials all that well to decide transporting this stuff in the seats of your pants.) Not in my book.
And, while this story is interesting, it still leads to the question of WHY?
Why this?
Putin can’t kill people without leaving a radioactive trail?
Yes, ALL those billionnaires finaggled themselves to wealth. That’s the kind of a country that russia IS! Where, at one point, you had to be a ballet dancer to get to an opportunity to “leave.”
Today? Given how many russians are travelling to Londonstan, you gotta wonder if Goldfarb isn’t the only one tossing out Red Herrings?
And, again, is this “new wrinkle” shilling for “killing,” so that the word “assassination” stays in the game?
As to the “money” that was made on russia’s behind, when the state went through a period of “divestiture,” I’d guess none of it remains in “the mother country,” now! Carting wealth out of russia ain’t new. (People used to sew gold coins and jewels into their shoulder pads, just to get the wealth they had “away.”) It’s actually one of the reasons women wore jewelry. They were able to carry “cash” out.
But a reason, here? For such a complicated scheme? Wouldn’t Occam’s Razor grow dull cutting through so much garbage?
Seems, though, putin has fewer friends on the block than, for instance, stalin had. I doubt stalin would have been amused. Or that siberia wouldn’t have seen an influx of people considered too bright to live. (Russia really is responsible for all her own problems.)
And, the bad guys? You think you can convince them to drop their guns? And, poisoned darts? And, opt up for radioactive materials?
Because to start this ball rolling, you have to grease the wheels, enough, to make from what we know now, about 100 people interested in “smuggling.” Including the italians. You think, perhaps, the italians wanted to go back to moscow and “get putin?” I think they hated their russian assignments during WW2. What would the call have to contain to get Scaramella to londonstan?
The ironic thing about the Litvinenko death and ensuing media blitz by Goldfarb et al is that I am learning much more about the corrupt oligarchs (including Berezovsky) and mafiosas than I am about the evil Putin – I hadn’t paid much attention to the money grabbing under Yeltsin and later – I just accepted blindly the right wing “evil Putin” spin without thought…Putin has his hands full it turns out.
For what it’s worth, a couple of snippets I came across:
Gordon Thomas writes:
In March, 2000, Litvinenko was part of a secret operation to fly a shipment of
radioactive material from a Russian nuclear site to Zurich. Its final destination
remains unknown. Litvinenko’s role was to guard the consignment on board a
Russian military aircraft. Swiss airport authorities say they have no record of the
flight.
>
MI6 and the DST are also checking claims that shortly before his death,
Litvinenko flew to Israel to meet with a Russian millionaire living in Tel Aviv. During
that time the former spy also met with Mossad.
Scaramella has described the meetings on one tape as “highly sensitiveâ€.
Mossad sources have confirmed Litvinenko had such a meeting with two
officers from its Russia Desk and that a further meeting had been scheduled in
London. The date was set shortly after Litvinenko was admitted to hospital
where he died.
Gordon Thomas is the author of Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, the new edition of which will be published in January 2007. He specialises in international intelligence matters.
Litvinenko flew to Israel only two weeks before meeting Lugovoi.
Typical report
An aide authorised to speak on behalf of Mr Nevzlin from New York said . . . that Mr Litvinenko met Mr Nevzlin in Tel Aviv weeks before he died and handed over documents relating to the Kremlin’s takeover of Yukos.
“Litvinenko came to Israel on his own initiative. When we learnt about his tragic death, we sent these documents to the Israeli justice ministry and to the British embassy in Tel Aviv.â€
The aide said the latest Russian allegations against Mr Nevzlin were an attempt to muddy the waters surrounding the Litvinenko investigation and came at a time when Mr Khodorkovsky, his former close associate, and Platon Lebedev, another jailed former Yukos partner, faced fresh charges of money-laundering.
He said Mr Nevzlin was scheduled to meet senior figures in the US, including congressmen and State Department officials.
For what it’s worth, a couple of snippets I came across:
Gordon Thomas writes:
In March, 2000, Litvinenko was part of a secret operation to fly a shipment of
radioactive material from a Russian nuclear site to Zurich. Its final destination
remains unknown. Litvinenko’s role was to guard the consignment on board a
Russian military aircraft. Swiss airport authorities say they have no record of the
flight.
MI6 and the DST are also checking claims that shortly before his death,
Litvinenko flew to Israel to meet with a Russian millionaire living in Tel Aviv. During
that time the former spy also met with Mossad.
Scaramella has described the meetings on one tape as “highly sensitiveâ€.
Mossad sources have confirmed Litvinenko had such a meeting with two
officers from its Russia Desk and that a further meeting had been scheduled in
London. The date was set shortly after Litvinenko was admitted to hospital
where he died.
Gordon Thomas is the author of Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, the new edition of which will be published in January 2007. He specialises in international intelligence matters.
For what it’s worth, a couple of snippets I came across . . .
Gordon Thomas writes:
In March, 2000, Litvinenko was part of a secret operation to fly a shipment of radioactive material from a Russian nuclear site to Zurich. Its final destination remains unknown. Litvinenko’s role was to guard the consignment on board a Russian military aircraft. Swiss airport authorities say they have no record of the flight.
>
MI6 and the DST are also checking claims that shortly before his death, Litvinenko flew to Israel to meet with a Russian millionaire living in Tel Aviv. During that time the former spy also met with Mossad.
Scaramella has described the meetings on one tape as “highly sensitiveâ€. Mossad sources have confirmed Litvinenko had such a meeting with two officers from its Russia Desk and that a further meeting had been scheduled in London. The date was set shortly after Litvinenko was admitted to hospital where he died.
>
Gordon Thomas is the author of Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, the new edition of which will be published in January 2007. He specialises in international intelligence matters.
I think this Carol Herman just talks through her hat a lot and doesn’t know what she is talking about. I am getting really tired of her know-it-all attitude.
I would like to respond to just two points this Carol Herman makes that show she doesn’t have a clue.
She claims the Rouble was just “internal monopoly money.” Actually, that is total baloney. If she read even a little about the Russian financial system, she would know that.
There used to be two kinds of Roubles. Domestic “paper” roubles and hard currency roubles. The hard currency roubles were backed by gold and were real money.
There were a lot of scams to make a lot of money by taking advantage of the fact that there were these two kinds of currency. Hard currency roubles are real money and what Russians have always used to pay for foreign products.
I don’t know what they have these days, but that’s what they used to have–domestic roubles and hard currency roubles. It lead to a lot of corrupt schemes for people who could get their hands on both.
Carol Herman also says that the (worthless???) money “eft Russia in the same way that the old nobility took out their jewels.
If roubles are worthless “monopoly money,” (as Carol claims) tell me why it would someone get rich by taking worthless monopoly money out of Russia?
Doh!
Actually, there were a lot of scams to have the money leave, get laundered in “western” companies, and then return as “foreign investment.” This was real money.
A lot of “foreign investment” was really laundered Russian money.
This is a very complicated subject that even experts have trouble figuring out.
Gordon Thomas is not a reliable source!
But if there are lessons to be learned, now, we can see that the media is used NOT just by the CIA. But by anyone with the kinds of money that flows around “oligarths.”
The bigger questions? All come to the WHY. And, the WHERE is it now?
Anyone can make claims that Litvinenko “went” to Israel. But does it have a money trail?
As to disappearing nuclear stuff; Bulgaria stopped a truck (called a lorry by the Brits). That had left England with 90 containers of nuclear materials. Went all the way through, including france. Without being stopped. And, then was stopped in Bulgaria.
Is it possible that there are bad guys now who believe they can build “bombs,” or “spritzer devices” off the shelf? The way, in Japan, a small reclusive group got to spray train passengers with Ricin?
Whatever the plans were, something here is on par with “Dubai.”
Dubai has built itself UP in the desert, as if it were Hong Kong. The only question never answered is WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS? It’s not as if Dubai were ever gonna be attractive enough to draw tourists.
But it gets done. Because the money is there to do it.
Just like that Tyco dude spent money on shower curtains, at $16,000 a pop. And, containers for umbrellas at $6,000 a pop.
But you need CONNECTIONS to be a decorator in that market!
How did this whole smuggling business get started?
You now know that there were more than 100 smugglers involved! Is that a lot? Perhaps for the russians it’s standard?
Unlike the mafia, when we use this word to mean Italians, they at least can sell pizza. What have the russians even got?
So at some point this whole thing opens, based on what?
WHAT’s a good question, too.
As to Litvinenko’s death being an assassination, that’s hardly likely. Do you know why? BECAUSE HE COOPERATED! Very few people actually “cooperate” in their own undoing.
So all you know is that Livinenko had to get sick, before he even believed something had gone awry.
While in Dallas? I don’t know if Oswald did anything. But he was ALIVE on 11/22/63. And, you can believe what you want. But I don’t think Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman.
And, even if you want to involve the mafia; you still need to get your hands on the CIA dude who got the “green light.”
LBJ? I’ll wait to see what E. Howard Hunt publishes. Coming in May. But LBJ had to be nervous about the presidency, itself. Dallas? Kennedy had no choice! And, he was losing voters. At a time the party, itself, saw ruin, ahead. Well, what would the plans have looked like, if Oswald was short-sighted? And, shot LBJ instead? Of course, LBJ went into Dealey Plaza, dropping down to the floor of his vehicle.
And, history can’t be changed, anyway. No genie walks back into the bottle.
Putin’s a sitting duck when it comes to what the oligarths can buy from the international press.
Israel’s not so lucky. The global network of pressitutes is always out to do its harms to Israel. (And, the sheisters within her government? Always willing to embroil lawyers in fake legal challenges, by destroying reputations with callus disregard.)
Quite a playing field where this crap plays out.
To get hands on fissionable materials? Takes insiders who’d be willing to sell. And, given that russia just sent missiles to iran; you can see the market is out there.
But THE BIG PHARAOH published, yesterday, that the next war will be between iran and eygpt. Seems proxies (palestinians and lebanese) aren’t enough.
So out there in the darkness the balls are rolling.
I’m still looking for the argument that pushed Litvinenko into thinking he was working on a very good deal.
Red Herrings from the press? Nothing new there, either.
And, I still think it’s a clue that the imam in the mosque, refusing entry to Litvinenko, has real fears about radiating people. Where did he pick that fear up from? And, why did he think Litvinenko, dead, remained radioactive? Where’s the science?
Carol, do you think mafiyas are killing each other in Russia and perhaps abroad for monopoly money?
Snapple, there’s no question that russia plays games with Western companies. I think Shell just learned that it got its clocks cleaned, as soon as putin stepped in, and re-nationalized the gas production industry.
Russia just doesn’t have management skills.
You’d see the same to be true in the Mideast.
As to Rubles, that’s not the wealth that’s really, really missing from Russia! The BRAIN DRAIN. Some of it caused by the KGB, who sent the middle-class to siberia.
Russia is a shambles!
And, yes. The Black Market is fed WHOLESALE out of russia! This has caused such a great calamity, that among the things the Poles were going to do, was build a great wall, separating off the Ukraine. (Until the Ukraine had its revolution. Which shelved the plans of making “easy access into the European markets” more difficult to do IF the Poles had gone ahead with a separation fence.)
To most people, black marketeering means trafficking in drugs. But russia also sells radioactive materials. OBVIOUSLY. And, we know that North Korea got technology from “someplace.” It’s not home grown technology.
And, now? It seems a lot of the Mideastern countries are looking for “nukes.” Not just iran.
It also doesn’t mean that success is around the corner!
Russia is also not the only country out there where a lot of people would love to be running away from! (A recent article from iran said an American who was leaving, was “taken outside” by an Iranian official. At the airport. But the question was innocent enough. He wanted to talk to the American “about getting help” in leaving Iran.) At one time this used to get traded at the embassy. So all it meant to me was that the iranians have no access OUT. While a lot of them would love to leave.
How 15 million russians left, starting with Gorby’s easing of restrictions; wasn’t even seen as a calamity until recently. (And, believe it or not, putin’s been asking Olmert to send some of “his” Jews back to the mother ship.)
Anyway. It’s wonderful that new details can be added.
But it’s still a mystery. Wrapped in an inigma. Hidden by veils.
Sure. Easy to find 100 russians! Don’t laugh. Most other countries isn’t so rich with bad guys that you could move 100 people into plans that have no sane basis on which to rely.
Throw in the Mossad. See if I care?
Carol–you are babbling incoherently. You aren’t making any points.
Why don’t you be quiet so some other people can have a turn?
AJ: “So, was the Po-210 being shipped into Russia in order to pin a conspiracy theory on Putin and remove the legal pressure from these oligarchs who are sitting on billions of dollars of money skimmed off the Russian economy?”
Here is some things to consider in favor of this line of thought.
1. The Yukos hypothesis became quite popular in Russia from the very beginning. In particular, people observed that Russia’s new prosecutor general began his tenure by sending to London a team of lawyers to work out a legal framework for extradiction procedures. That was a call for Berezovsky, Yukos people and many other swindlers hiding in UK. On November 16, Russia and Britain signed a new memorandum on extradition. It is easy to imagine how the Yukos CEOs, wanted in Russia, were feeling. They are to lose everything: billions of dollars stashed in the West and face spending much of what remains of their lives in Siberian labor camps.
2. Yukos was not a Russian Enron. By 2003 it became, perhaps, a biggest criminal business organization in the world, with activities ranging from tax evasion and embezzlements to blackmail, kidnappings, murders, and high treason. Robber barons were toddlers in comparison. Interestingly, one of their victims, the mayor of the Siberian city Nefteyugans, Petukhov, was assassinated on Khodorkovsky’s birthday, as a present to the “boss.” This crossed my mind when I first heard about Politkovskaya being assassinated on Putin’s birthday.
3. Khodorkovsky employed literally hundreds of former KGB officers, mostly in Menatep and Yukos “security” and “analytical” departments, headed by people like the army general Philipp Bobkov and major-general Alexei Kondaurov. In the SU Bobkov was the head of the (in)famous Fifth (Political) Department of KGB that supervised Soviet “dissidents” and “creative intelligentsia.” Kondaurov was his deputy. These guys had files on thousands of secret informers. Khodorkovsky and Gusinsky made them multi-millionaires. Alexei Pichugin, former KGB Major, was Khodorkovsky’s head of the “strong-arm” operations. He is now serving a 20-year sentence for ordering the assassination of a married couple who worked for him as middlemen for hiring killers for people who had the misfortune to be on Yukos’ way. Witnesses from the prosecution told that Pichugin took orders from Nevzlin.
4. AJ already observed that the RISC Management, where polonium contamination was found, is formerly ISC Global linked to Yukos.
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/3153
5. Yuri Golubev, founder of Yukos, suddenly died Jan. 8 in London. He was a key witness in the investigation of Yukos. Russians suspect foul play and ask for invetigation.
6 “Kommersant reported that Alexei Golubovich, a former top official of Nevzlin’s Menatep bank, testified in the spring that someone had tried to poison him and his family with mercury, traces of which were found in his office, his home, and his car, something the Prosecutor General’s Office cited in its statemnet. Golubovich had then said Nevzlin could have a motive for his attempted murder.”
http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2006-50-3
7. “the Izvestia daily compares the death of Litvinenko, who had met with Nevzlin shortly before his death, with the 2004 death of Roman Tsepov, the general director of a security company who had ties to President Vladimir Putin. “According to certain information,” writes Izvestia, “Tsepov conducted unofficial negotiations with people in the Yukos case, and people from Nevzlin’s circle may have taken part in his murder.”
All well and good that the russians have black marketeers selling everything portable. Including the nuke stuff.
But what put this one in motion?
Getting passengers on a Moscow train killed? Why?
If Litvinenko didn’t manage to poison himself, and others, we’d have no clues about what was going on at all. (Doesn’t mean spooks from other countries aren’t putting things together.)
Not all agencies work like our CIA, where their major plants are done through the media.
What would have gotten about one hundred smugglers interested in this venture?
And, just because the media can’t get it straight, doesn’t mean we haven’t seen something unfolding that was very, very big. AND, it probably WENT BUST.
I’d also imagine that anyone who came out of russia with billions and billions, is well aware of the need for bodyguards. And, all sorts of protections.
What seems to have fallen off, in this “quest” … is that Litvinenko, and one hundred other smugglers, all threw caution to the winds.
How can you get people who are handling radioactive material to do that?
Most people can’t conceive of the amounts of money that was out there, between the HOUSE OF SAUD. Saddam’s oil for food money. And, what the iranians are also tossing around. The amounts are huge!
And, the people playing “in center field” are not playing diddle-de-winks. They can match nasty credentials with the best of ’em.
While there’s enough time. And, enough willing media outlets. To run with the PR stories, all designed to confuse.
I thought Fililpp Bobkov worked for Gusinsky in MOST Bank?
His grandaughter,(?) Darya S. Bobkova worked in a MOST correspondant bank ( a bank just for banks) in Spain, which I thought was sketchy.
Putin was in charge of giving the licences for exporting non-ferrous metals out of Petersburg under Sobchak. All of these guys have mafia structures.
There were rumors that Bobkov was the head of some drug ring. But I don’t know.
Snapple,
do yourself a favor & skip over anything by Carol_H. Her musings are tiresome, incoherent, not worth the effort.
Snapple: “I thought Fililpp Bobkov worked for Gusinsky in MOST Bank?”
You are absolutely right, I made a mistake.