REVIEW TOPICS:
British investigators ask Moscow to take new investigative actions against Lugovoy
British journalist confronts Lugovoy in Moscow, murder suspect hides in toilet
British Liberal Democrats leader hopeful has sexy Russian spy in past
Putin decrees new anti-drug commission equating Cherkesov and Patrushev
Russia’s Putin discusses with Security Council members home, foreign policy
Federal Security Service detains deputy head of regional administration in Russia’s Karelia
Kidnappers of Chechen brothers in Ingushetia established as employees of FSB and GRU
Ukraine’s SBU exposed criminals committed Hoverla’s act of vandalism
Bulgarian court overturns former State Security archives declassification committee conclusion
British investigators ask Moscow to take new investigative actions against Lugovoy
British and Russian investigators could shortly resume their interaction in probing
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the poisoning of former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko. Well-placed sources in London and Moscow said British authorities had forwarded an official request to their Russian counterparts that more investigative actions be taken in relation to Russian businessman and parliamentary candidate Andrei Lugovoy, whom the UK views as the prime suspect in the case, news agency Interfax reports.
The Russian investigators were asked for legal help “to confirm much evidence about Lugovoi’s guilt”.
The evidence was not specified.
The Sun cites the prime suspect saying last week: “I have already stressed that there was no, nor can there be, real proof against me. “The case was highly politicised and British security services were involved in it from the start. In these circumstances, it would be suicidal to go to London to participate in a put-on show.”
Meanwhile The Sun reported that football fan Lugovoy was going to make a high-profile appearance at the Euro 2008 qualifier to show British authorities he cannot be touched. Russian media sources said his presence would be shown clearly in TV coverage beamed back to the UK as a slap in the face to the Prime Minister. British diplomats believe all his movements are choreographed by Russian officials – so his presence at the game is seen as a deliberate taunt.
British journalist confronts Lugovoy in Moscow, murder suspect hides in toilet
Oliver Harvey, a correspondent of The Sun, confronted multi-millionaire Andrei Lugovoy, 42, the ex-KGB protection officer, accused of murdering former Russian state security officer Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 over a cup of tea in London, near his office in Moscow’s Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel and offered to fly him back to face a UK court. The British journalist also suggested Lugovoy the chance to take a lie detector test. Shielded by his personal bodyguard, the businessman said he wanted to go to the toilet.
From the Radisson, Lugovoy runs his company Pershin – involved in private security, soft drinks and wine. His office is lined with photographs of himself as a young KGB recruit, as a hunter in camouflage fatigues and as a playboy sunbathing on a yacht. Lugovoy has always maintained his innocence and claims he was framed by MI6. Lugovoy had tea with Litvinenko at London’s Millennium Mayfair Hotel on the day he fell fatally ill, November 1 last year. Investigators suspect that a phial of polonium-210 was tipped into Litvinenko’s tea.
The Sun cites the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service spokesman who said they still feel there is sufficient evidence to charge Lugovoy with Litvinenko’s murder. „We believe he should be sent to the UK for trial”, said the spokesman. He also said the CPS had sent extradition papers to the Russian authorities but they had replied that their constitution doesn’t allow him to be sent here for trial.
The paper also cites a senior British official in Moscow saying last week that “the evidence against Lugovoy is huge”. “While someone else may have ordered it, Lugovoy made at least three attempts to kill the former agent Litvinenko, according to the police case. On each attempt there was a big trail of polonium. It’s like he had a hole in his pocket and you can follow it.” The source added: “The Russians have complained that Britain has failed to provide the full evidence in the case to Russia. “But a complete outline of the evidence in line with normal extradition requests elsewhere in the world has been given.”
Lugovoy is likely to enter the Russian parliament in December for the extreme nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who recently called Britain a nation of “cheats and bandits”, The Sun adds. Becoming a parliament member would give Lugovoy could also grant him immunity from future prosecution.
British Liberal Democrats leader hopeful has sexy Russian spy in past
40-year-old Nick Clegg, is called a favourite to become the next leader of the British Liberal Democrats. Research by The Mail on Sunday has discovered that ancestors on his father's side include a Russian baroness who spied for the Soviet Union.
The paper reveals that of all the many colourful names in the Clegg family tree it is his greatgreat- aunt Moura Budberg who stands out above the rest. The Russian-born noblewoman was widely suspected of spying for both the Soviet Union and British intelligence. MI5 was warned by the British Embassy in Moscow in the early 1920s that she was 'a very dangerous woman'. She was mistress to science fiction writer H.G. Wells and the Russian witer Maxim Gorky, as well as Robert Bruce Lockhart, probably the most famous diplomat and spy Britain ever sent to Moscow.
According to one account she offered sexual favours to a Lubyanka prison commandant after the 1917 revolution to secure her own release. She then took food parcels and books to her lover Lockhart, jailed in Moscow under suspicion of masterminding an attempt to assassinate revolutionary leader Lenin in 1918 and topple the Bolsheviks, before brokering his release. Later she came to know both Lenin and Stalin, once giving an accordion to the great dictator, The Mail on Sunday notes.
Budberg was born Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya in St Petersburg in 1891. She was one of four children of senator and landowner Ignatiy Platonovich Zakrevsky, distinguished lawyer and diplomat who served for a time in London. Budberg's sister, Alexandra, was the mother of Clegg's grandmother, Baroness Kira von Engelhardt, who was born in Russia in 1909. After the revolution, Budberg and her niece Kira both eventually found their way to Britain.
Many years later Budberg gave British intelligence a sensational nugget of intelligence which, somehow, they contrived to ignore. Following the escape to Moscow of Soviet agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean in 1951, she fell under suspicion. Burgess had regularly visited her apartment and while the secret services had previously discounted rumours that she was a Soviet agent, now she was targeted by British counter-intelligence. MI5 files show that agent Jona 'Klop' Ustinov, father of the actor Peter Ustinov, was sent to interrogate her, The Mail on Sunday says.
Russia’s Putin discusses with Security Council members home, foreign policy
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a conference with members of the Security Council yesterday, news agency ITAR-TASS reports, referring to Presidential Press Secretary Alexei Gromov.
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, Head of the Kremlin’s Administration Sergei Sobyanin, Acting Secretary of the Security Council Valentin Sobolev, First Vice Premier Dmitry Medvedev, Defense Minister Anatoli Serdyukov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, Director of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov and Speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov were taking part in the conference, news agency says. Putin and the officials discussed various aspects of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy, according to Presidential Press Secretary.
Putin decrees new anti-drug commission equating Cherkesov and Patrushev
Russian President Putin signed a declaration yesterday establishing a state anti-drug
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Viktor Cherkesov |
commission, news agencies are reporting. The measure designates the nation's current anti-drug service chairman, Viktor Cherkesov, as head of the new commission. Commissions are set at the federal and local levels, acting in coordination to counter regional drug trafficking. Committee members must be named within a month and Parliament must approve financial and technical appropriations in three months, news agency RIA Novosti says. On structure and significance the new committee reminds the National Antiterrorism committee which is headed by the Director of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev. Thus, observers mark, Vladimir Putin has actually balanced the status of heads of two special services which recently openly clashed with each other.
Radio Ekho Moskvy notes that Cherkesov was a head of St. Petersburg directorate of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and in 2000 he was suggested to occupy the post of the FSB Director, however, he reportedly refused to accept it himself and offered the position to Nikolai Patrushev.
Cherkesov's unprecedented article was published recently in the daily Kommersant, following arrests of several senior officers of the Federal Drug Control Service by agents of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main KGB successor agency. Analysts described the arrests as part of a longtime battle that pitted Cherkesov against Putin's powerful deputy chief of staff, Igor Sechin, and other members of Putin's inner circle.
Federal Security Service detains deputy head of regional administration in Russia’s Karelia
In the Russian republic of Karelia, deputy of the head of the Prionezhsky district administration Sergei Semenchuk has been detained by the employees of Federal Security Service Karelia regional directorate, news agency RBC reports, referring to the press service of the republican directorate.
The FSB regional directorate does not make any official comments on the reasons of detention of the official. Semenchuk has been detained in his study in the building of administration Prionezhsky district, RBC adds.
Kidnappers of Chechen brothers in Ingushetia established as employees of FSB and GRU
Persons involved in abduction in September in Ingushetia of second cousins Aushevs who were released only after mass unrest in the capital of republic, Nazran, are established, online paper NEWSru. reports. Three of them are operatives of security services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and military intelligence service (GRU), according to father of one of the victims.
Two inhabitants of the Surkhakhi settlement in Ingushetia, Magomed Osmanovich Aushev and Magomed Maksharipovich Aushev were kidnapped on September 18 near Grozny bye unknown persons in a camouflage. On September 20 the brothers were released.
An employee of the regional FSB directorate in the Chechen Republic has been interrogated by inspectors of the Chechen Office of Public Prosecutor on the fact of kidnapping case. Currently he and two more suspects have disappeared from the prosecutor's office workers, online paper Prague Watchdog says.
According to a relative of the Aushevs, it had been Abdul Mutsayev, employee of the regional DSB directorate, who commanded the group of kindnappers. In his turn, Mutsayev declared that they operated according to the request (or an assignment, an order) of their FSB Ingushetia directorate colleagues.
The Ministry of Interior of the Chechen Republic earlier declared that security forces of the republic had no relation to kidnapping of brothers Aushev. The brothers were released only after next day in the city of Nazran there has passed the a mass rally of the local residents took place in Nazran, demanding immediate release of the young men, and the demonstrators came to collisions with employees of law enforcement bodies.
Ukraine’s SBU exposed criminals committed Hoverla’s act of vandalism
The State Security Service (SBU) of Ukraine exposed organizers and executors of the act of vandalism over Ukrainian national symbols on Hoverla mountain in Ivano-Frankivsk region, daily Ukrayinska Pravda writes, referring to a SBU report.
According to the report, the crime was committed by three young men, members of the Yevroaziyska Spilka Molodi (ESM), the organization banned by Ukraine’s court.
The following individuals are accused of committing the crime: Leonid Savin, 1974, born in Sumy, resident of Ukraine, living in Moscow, the Russian Federation since March, 2007, one of the organization’s activists being in charge of the ESM website operation; Alexander Bovdunov, 1986, and Valery Mantrov, 1988, both residents of the Russian Federation.
According to the acting head of the SBU, Valentin Nalyvaychenko, the agency has received evidence proving that the act of vandalism was organized by Russian-located ESM leaders Pavlo Zarifulin and Alexander Dukhin, whom the SBU banned to enter Ukraine for five years in June 2006.
The SBU reports that criminals came to Ukraine on October 12 and firstly visited Sumy and Kyiv. Then they arrived to the foot of Hoverla mountain and climbed up the hill where they imitated the cutoff of some details of the construction in the form of small Ukraine’s national emblem and draw the ESM emblem on the memorial to the Ukrainian Constitution. The flagstaff for the Ukrainian flag was empty at that time. Criminals filmed and photographed their vandal actions, went down the mountain and left Ukraine by train.
On October 17 night, Savin edited snapshots, having added a picture of broken granite slabs, metal parts and the like and on October 18 placed them on the ESM website with a video reel imitating cutoff of the trident. The documents that the SBU possesses prove that criminals planned the aforesaid unlawful actions when being in Russia. It was proved that snapshots were forged, according to the operational investigation group. The SBU reports that currently the national symbols and memorial to the Ukrainian Constitution on Hoverla mountain are renewed. On October 20, the SBU referred the evidence to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The SBU also informed the Foreign Ministry of misdeeds committed by foreign citizens.
Bulgarian court overturns former State Security archives declassification committee conclusion
The Sofia Administrative Court overturned a conclusion of the committee on declassification of the archives of former State Security and People’s Army, in which it announced that Pavel Dimitrov, member of the Supreme Judicial Council, had been a collaborator of the former security services, Sofia Echo reports, referring to daily Dnevnik .
The court motivated its ruling by saying that it had not been proven that "the letter combination DS without a doubt means Durzhavna Sigurnost (State Security)," Dnevnik daily reported. Dimitrov, who is currently leader of Citizen for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) in Varna, was mentioned in a report on connections with the former State Security of current and past members of the Supreme Judicial Council since 1991. Besides Dimitrov, another 14 council members were mentioned in the report.
According to documents, which the Interior Ministry had handed to the committee on declassification, Pavel Dimitriv was on the account of the DS and had received 20 leva for "agent-operative activities".
The court did not consider these documents as evidence, Sofia Echo adds.
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