Feb 01 2007
Berezovsky Concedes Meeting Lugovoi
We all know Lugovoi and Litvinenko have been tied to much of the Po-210 trail that criss-crosses London. Everytime Lugovoi flew to London last October to meet Litvinenko Po-210 shows up in the three hotels he stayed at – plus one other nearby. Rooms supposedly associated with Lugovoi’s companions show signs of Po-210. Dmitri Kovtun is present at two of these visits (first and last of the three reported in Oct) and has his own trail of Po-210 running through Hamburg Germany has he left Moscow.
But the big question has been the one Russian who ties Litvinenko and Lugovoi together, the one man both worked for and for whom they defended his life – Boris Berezovsky. We know Po-210 was discovered in large amounts in his offices. And we know he was the one who launched the PR campaign and pulls the string of mouthpiece Alex Goldfarb. Early reporting had Berezovsky’s mouthpiece claiming Litvinenko had dropped by Berezovsky’s office between his meeting with Scaramella and the Russians at the Millenium Hotel’s Pine Bar. This is when Goldfarb made one of his many PR blunders when he claimed Litvinenko sweated Po-210 on the furniture (though he never sweated it in the hospital and it was too soon have Po-210 show up in sweat). This mistep put Litvinenko at Berezovsky’s office and supposed he was the source of the trail of Po-210:
Traces were also found at three offices in Mayfair, including that of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky.
Litvinenko went there to warn Mr Berezovsky he was on the “KGB hitlistâ€.
Litvinenko’s friend Alexander Goldfarb said: “Everything he touched would have left a radioactive trace.
“Radiation was being secreted through his sweat.â€
Berezovsky went quiet after that mistake. I have maintained (and some reports have confirmed) Litvinenko met with Lugovoi and Kovtun in a 4th floor room where the Po-210 broke free of its container contaminating the room severely. I also think they went to see Berezovsky to discuss some logistics and the uncomfortable proximity of Mario Scaramella. Be that as it may, Berezovsky has now made an amazing admission – he not only met with Litvinenko during that last round of Po-210 transportation, he also met with Andrei Lugovoi:
In an interview in his London office Wednesday, exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky said he met with Lugovoy a day before Litvinenko was poisoned. Berezovsky formerly employed both Lugovoy and Litvinenko and believes the Russian security services were behind the poisoning.
“Mr. Lugovoy, who now is suspected to be the killer, he was sitting in this room in front of me, and we drank wine with him. And he had not less chances to poison me in this office where we are present now than to do the same in the hotel, putting polonium to a cup of tea of my friend Alexander,” Berezovsky said.
He said he has a “more or less clear answer” to why he was not targeted for poisoning, but has pledged to the police that he will not discuss the case in detail until the investigation is concluded.
“I think the main point for the British government today is that until they find all the rings of chain, how it happened, starting from the place where the polonium was taken until it reached the cup of tea of Alexander, no one British is able to feel protected,” the businessman said. “The problem now is whether this government is able to protect the population of this country from the same plot again.”
I was waiting for Berezovsky to break cover because he is concerned about why Lugovoi is calling himself a witness. I think Lugovoi and Kovtun were transporters and did not know what they were moving. It wasn’t until the accidental exposure nearly killed them (and did take Litvinenko) that they realized they better cut a deal. I think they did do that. Early on, before Litvinenko died, Gordiesky was floating the tea cup theory and pointing to an unnamed man who was no doubt Lugovoi. It seemed like a really obvious public warning to keep quiet from Berezovsky to Lugovoi. I doubt it worked.
This is not the first time we have heard about Lugovoi on the couch with wine – it is just the first time we have the source of this news being Berezovsky. Berezovsky is trying to establish an image in the public’s mind the contamination in his office is from Lugovoi. But the old theory was Litvinenko tracked in the Po-210 and Scaramella’s documents were the source:
he documents passed between Scaramella and Litvinenko at Itsu also appear to have been contaminated.
After the meal, the Russian hurried to Berezovsky’s nearby office where he appeared, according to a well-informed source, in an “agitated†state.
He showed the documents to Berezovsky, who skimmed through them and passed them to a colleague. Litvinenko then photocopied them. Tests later found traces of radiation on the photocopying machine.
Amazingly Berezovsky was not contaminated while the copier was. Of course these shifting stories keep hitting the media because the Berezovsky PR machine keeps trying to manufacture plausible diversions. That is how we got Kovtun landing at Heathrow when he really landed at Gatwick.
Here is something for Berezovsky’s team to contemplate. It could be that the Scaramella contamination was all an early ruse to have the guilty parties start offering alibis that fit a Scaramella poisoning. And then later a new twist was added to see if these same sources shifted their recollections and stories to fit the new data. And so on. Goldfarb as responded to every single media story that links back to Berezovsky with some wild speculation. Except the part where the last restaurant to show Po-210, discovered after the questioning of Lugovoi and Kovtun in Russia, was a restaurant favored by Goldfarb. While Berezovsky and Litvinenko tried to point the finger at Putin, all the players and their Po-210 runs right back to Berezovsky.
A possible scenario?
Berezovsky is trying now for years to discredit Putin. He already went to extremes, which caused Home Office to warn him that his asylum may be revoked if he doesn’t stay put.
How can he shake the Putin’s presidency anymore? What about a high profile assassination? Something like a poisoning with a radioactive material framing Putin? Never been done before so it will draw a lot of attention.
The victim? Litvinenko . He’s easy to manipulate.
The assassin? Lugovoi. He can get the Polonium and his name will point to Putin as the master minder.
So, Berezovsky asks his contact (Lugovoi) in Russia to help him kill Sasha with Polonium.
He cuts the financial support for Litvinenko. Sasha is now desperate to make some money. Berezovsky comes to his rescue with the great idea of making business with Lugovoi. They have a number of meetings so Sasha gets to trust Lugovoi .
October is too be the month for the poisoning. ( oops, 90 years anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution but it may be just a coincidence)
Lugovoi and Kovtun meet Litvinenko for dinner sometime in October (lets hope it was not 25) and do the job a la carte. By this,I mean they deliver the poison in the enough amount to cause Sasha to develop cancer in a few years without knowing that he’s ever been poisoned.
Berezovsky is waiting now any moment to hear that his dear friend and saver was taken to hospital. But it is not happening. He contacts Lugovoi and finds out that they did the job such way it leaves no trail. Berezovsky gets furious. He doesn’t care about the trail, he wants Sasha dead NOW!
Ok, the team comes back to UK, let’s say… oh Nov 1 is a soccer game, so reason good enough to be back so soon. This time they bring with them the professional, the Asian guy. They bring the polonium in solid form in containers carried in their pants pockets. I guess the amount of the substance being so small they could say that the containers were empty if somebody would have checked their pockets. (Nov 1st is the Day of the dead in Eastern Europe)
They arrive in London Oct 31 and call Sasha to let him know.
They can meet Sasha either Nov1 very early or after the soccer game Nov 2, but Sasha means business and wants to meet them ASAP.
Sasha is desperate for money, isn’t he Mr Berezovsky?
They agreed to see him in the morning of Nov 1 and being so early, in Lugovoi’s room.
In the hotel room, Lugovoi just woke up when Sasha arrives. Lugovoi wants a cup of tea. The Asian guy appears and volunteers to make the tea. Is introduced to Sasha and goes to make the tea.
He puts then the polonium in the teapot . (only when sasha was there and agreed to have tea). When he opens the container/s the powder gets on the cups as a very fine dust. This explained how Sasha got his hands contaminated. He brings the tray with the tea to the table where Sasha and Lugovoi are sitting.
Lugovoi just pretends he’s drinking touching the rim of the cup with his lips. So the fine dust on the rim accounts how he got poisoned as well. He is waiting for the right moment to get rid of the tea.
Here comes Scaramella into the picture. He is part of the team. He calls Sasha (cell phone?) and demands to see him immediately.
Lugovoi takes advantage of the distraction and throws the tea in his cup under the table. The rug is soaking wet, he gets the soles of his shoes wet. This explain how he spreaded the Polonium all over London .
To me it seems improbable that Litvinenko was doing contraband with radioactive material. If he did, then why was he taking these guys to different security firms. It looks like he was desperate to make a decent business with them and they were just playing the “cat and mouse” game.
I think that Scaramella’s role in the plot was to seed into Sasha’s mind the idea that he’s life is in imminent danger so Sasha will seek medical attention at the first sign of illness. They couldn’t run the risk of Sasha ignoring the symptoms and dying in his sleep. What if then the authorities will not be able to figure out he was poisoned and will rule his death as “natural causes” the way they did with two other Russians recently.
Berezovsky needed Sasha to be in hospital a long time. The longer the
stay, the bigger the circus.
Another thing, Berezovsky & Co came up with his deathbed declaration. It was so poetically written that sounded absolutely fabricated. Remember, sasha had a hard time remembering what he did Nov1.
About Putin, I think he knew what was going on but didn’t stop it. Why?
1. He hopes that the brits will find the truth and so he will get rid once and for all of Berezovsky.
2. If he tried to stop it, then imagine the media. “President Putin found out about a plot of Berezovsky to kill his friend Litvinenko with radioactive polonium worth $ 20 mil…etc.”
Who would have believed him?
I am sure that Scaramellas poisoning was a ruse, it was claimed that the lab made a mistake but was barely mentioned in the press. I also believe that it was with his knowledge and agreement. Iremeber when he was interviews in his hospital room and thought at the time that if he was so heavily contaminated why was the interview allowed. Also he seemed very relaxed for someone who was potentially facing a grissly death.
PS.
One more argument. Why only one cup was found?
Once Sasha was gone to meet Scaramella, the “team” got rid of the evidence.
They put the tea from the teapot and Sasha’s cup into a container. The container and Sasha’s cup with his fingerprints were thrown away in a garbage outside the hotel.
So the cup the police found is actually the Lugovoi’s cup.
“October is too be the month for the poisoning. ( oops, 90 years anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution but it may be just a coincidence)”
The Bolshevik Revolution was in 1917.
“Nov 1st is the Day of the dead in Eastern Europe” ?!
“What if then the authorities will not be able to figure out he was poisoned and will rule his death as “natural causes†the way they did with two other Russians recently.” ??!!
“This is when Goldfarb made one of his many PR blunders when he claimed Litvinenko sweated Po-210 on the furniture (though he never sweated it in the hospital and it was too soon have Po-210 show up in sweat). This mistep put Litvinenko at Berezovsky’s office and supposed he was the source of the trail of Po-210.”
If we suppose that Berezovsky’s group is behind the L’s death, or even only has been opportunistically exploiting it for anti-Russian propaganda I do not see how they could do any of this without a tacit support if not a direct involvement of British services. Just think, why L’s “friends,” Goldfarband Gordievsky, are not afraid to make all their blunders and missteps that may suggest their involvement in L’s death? Why aren’t they afraid to become suspects in the eyes of the Scotland Yard?
Berezovsky is persona no grata in Rus. Normally speaking, it would not be wise for Lugovoi to do business with Boris or Litvinenko.
Limonov – writing in the Exile – suggested that just standing next to Litvinenko would be dangerous for Lugovoi – quote: ‘His business would be crushed like a kitten under a truck’. Which suggests that Lugovoi was acting with the full complicity of the FSB.
It is also inconceivable that he was travelling anywhere without the knowledge of Russian intelligence.
Litvinenko and Scaramella were acting with the complicity of MI6 – that is seen with Gordievsky’s role in the Prodi business.
It is also inconceivable that Lugovoi and Litvinenko would be visiting sensitive security companies such as RISC and Erinys without the knowledge of MI5.
I am suspicious about the Polonium radioactivity trail. It doesn’t pass through a paper bag. It is hard to believe it could have leaked all over everywhere without help.
The trail could be both a plant and an invention. Gordievsky and Scaramella have both invented bogus contamination stories to date. The findings of the Atomic Weapon’s Research Establishment unbelievably ‘made a mistake’. Meanwhile The Health Protection Agency is unable to find anyone else in 48 countries contaminated with an amount above a ‘marker level’.
If I was writing the novel, Litvinenko would turn out – on the last page – to have been a double agent.
Litvinenko did sweat in 2 hospitals and infested his wife. Berezovsky has no polonium. The Health Protection Agency hides information to avoid mass panic.
Remember the Russians officially killed Trotzky, Bandera, Markov. The Russian ambassador in Germany recently poisoned Markus Wolff. All they do since 1917 is killing and poisoning their political enemies. Russia is a VERY rogue country.
Ermit,
Litvinenko threw up for two days, which is why Marina likely got contaminated. And actually the nursing staff showed no exposure – so the sweat theory is unlikely, but definitely he was not sweating massive amounts.
Berezovsky’s office have plenty of Po-210 traces and people in that building were considered to be at such high risks the HPA proposed the same urine tests as for people in the Pine Bar.
I noted Berezovsky magically missed be contaminated while the copier did not (strange, eh?). Things that happened in 1917 have no bearing on this case. Irrelevant.
Litvinenko didn’t meet Berezovsky at all on Nov. 1. He just made free copies in the office (saving money) of Limarev’s letters and left. The nurses took professional precautions. First, they thought that he had bacterial infection. Then thallium poisoning. Precautions are needed in both cases. One nurse was reported infected as far as I remember. Everybody had urine tests. Every site visited by Lugovoi or Litvinenko was high risk. Berezovsky’s office is not closed by the police as the Pine Bar or Marina’s house. So the office was not highly contaminated.
What happened AFTER 1917 seems relevant to me giving the general pattern what the Russians are capable of.
I think that the murderers knew nothing that they dealt with polonium. The FSB didn’t inform them what poison they were using.
Yesterday Putin renounced the conspiracy theory (Berezovsky) at his press conference. We’ll see what the Russians invent next. The problem with Berezovsky is the he couldn’t get polonium anywhere. Polonium is strictly government limited.
And the true Lugovoi and Kovtun seem to be dead long ago because they knew too much. It seems that the FSB shows us their doubles. Just look at the new “Kovtun” picture in Russia Today.
Lugovoi was thrown into prison by Putin in 2001 or 2002 and then he was strangely released. Litvinenko himself said on his deadbed that Lugovoi had been recruted by the FSB to kill him. L. also said that Lugovoi posessed about $ 1 million which is impossible in Russia to earn without the cooperation from the KGB. It is not me who says it. It is Litvinenko.
If Litvinenko accuses Lugovoi as his killer, we are to believe Litvinenko. That is only logical. The Lugovoi is surely the FSB and not the Berezovsky’s man.
You know, there are some very interesting questions about this case if you know where to dig. The Western mainstream press started to report about the case late November 18. ALL OF IT, AND AT THE SAME TIME. And Litvinenko started to accuse the KGB of his poisoning on Nov. 7. The first report of the poisoning was on Chechenpress on Nov.11. The Russian media started reporting about the case on Nov.12 based on this report. On Nov. 7 Litvinenko gave an interview about his poisoning to the BBC Russian service that was never aired. I would like to hear your opinion why the Western press kept a mum about the poisoning for the whole week, from Nov. 11 to Nov. 18. The simultaneous reaction on Nov.18 was surely orchestrated. But why they remained silent for the whole week?
Ya know what’s missing? Litvinenko’s medical records.
You don’t know what he took! Maybe, he depended on what russians use? And, somehow, the hospital staff didn’t know he was getting treated by some “russian stuff?”
Like how did he swallow the thalium?
And, he was constantly puking? How did the talium stay down?
Need a light bulb? What if he was INJECTED with the thalium?
You think he just got tip top medical care?
Andk when the russian was hospitalized? There were no spooks, from other agencies, suddenly reporting for “volunteer duty?”
I kid you not!
You’ve got about two weeks worth of consciousness; that took place IN HOSPITAL.
You think the Cup and Tea Pot were the only MacGuffins? Entering areas AFTER the fact? Don’t forget “after the fact” to Berezofsky is different than Litvinenko’s date of death. Which came as a surprise to him. Otherwise, why would he have been “so cooperative?” He certainly didn’t look to reach the front pages of the Daily Telegraph all on his own, ya know?
He was not injected with thallium because the symptoms, even as reported by the press (spine), demonstated radiation. Bad doctors… He was deliverd to the hospital on Nov.3. Thallium is thought to be a by-product in the polonium solution, the media reported.
Medical records are really a problem in this story. They were classified, the media reported.
My impression is that the police conceals a lot not to anger the Russians. An old policy of appeasement, you know.
Berezovsky seems to be so terrorized by the police that he didn’t give his version why Lugovoi didn’t poison him refering to his promise to the police not to report anything till the investigation was over. But the investigation IS over already. Please, report, Boris.
The British are not concealing information so the Russians won’t get mad. They simply don’t comment on intelligence matters.
The British MI5 writes:
The Security Service does not have a Press Office and does not comment on intelligence matters. The Home Office issues statements relating to our work from time to time and we link to these on this page, along with any other relevant official announcements.
http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page132.html
All these experts say that the KGB killed Litvinenko.
Former CIA chief James Woolsey says that the KGB did try to bomb Russian apartment building as a provocation for the second Chechen War.
I have the main posts on my blog and the link–Front Page Magazine, which is considered conservative.
http://legendofpineridge.blogspot.com/2007/02/symposium-of-russian-experts-discusses.html
But they do conceal information. Where are the results of the authopsy? This information is vital for the public nuclear safety. Then they must provide data on concrete initial levels of radiation for every site and person infected.
[All these experts say] Thy are classic old mentality characters. KGB was only tool in Communist party hands. Tool without ideology simply doesn’t work like in old good times. But guys still discuss stuff like KGB and USSR still alive.
About apartment house building bombing please follow this link. This is selection of courts verdicts about apartment bombing and other Chechen act of terrorism in Russia:
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc-y.html?docId=739652&issueId=36192
Sorry didn’t found it in english.
here automatic translation of above link:
http://www.translate.ru/url/tran_url.asp?lang=ru&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kommersant.ru%2Fdoc-y.html%3FdocId%3D739652%26issueId%3D36192&direction=re&template=General&cp1=NO&cp2=NO&autotranslate=on&transliterate=on&psubmit2.x=59&psubmit2.y=10