Intelligence

Drop your silly Atlantic solidarity and support us, Putin tells West

Drop your silly Atlantic solidarity and support us, Putin tells West - Times Online

President Putin called on the West yesterday to drop its “silly Atlantic solidarity” if it wanted improved relations with Russia.

He accused America and some of the countries of the EU of harbouring outdated
Cold War attitudes that led to distrust, particularly on issues such as
energy security and trade. Such stereotypical positions were “absolutely
inappropriate” in the economic arena, he said, insisting that one source of
friction – Russia’s decision to build a pipeline bypassing Poland – was not
infringing anybody’s rights.

He also warned the West to stop giving Russia blanket lectures on democracy.
“We will participate in any debate with our partners, but, if they want us
to do something, they must be specific. If they want us to resolve Kosovo,
let’s talk Kosovo. If they are worried about nuclear programmes in Iran,
let’s talk about Iran, rather than talking about democracy in Russia.”

Neither would he take lectures over Russia imposing higher gas charges on
Ukraine after years of Western preaching about the need for market prices.
“If the West wants to support the Orange movement, let them pay for it. Do
you think we are idiots?”

At the same time, he sounded a more conciliatory note, sayinmg: “We in Russia
and you in Europe and the United States should be more patient. We should
not be faultfinding in our relations and we should look for positive things.
We should engage in friendly relations and support each other.”

He made his comments in a long and forthright session with Western reporters
at his holiday residence overlooking the Black Sea in Sochi and gave the
first inkling of his thinking about his successor and what role he saw for
himself after he leaves office in March next year. “I have no interest in a
weak president after me,” he said. His successor had to be “a
self-sustainable and efficient individual who will serve the people”.

But Mr Putin gave a blunt warning that he had no intention of leaving the
political scene. He was young and fit still, and wanted to continue serving
his country. “This will be a factor with which any future president must
reckon and we must agree how we will function.” He said that he would do
what he could to help his successor and he had no intention of allowing all
the achievements of recent years to be wiped away.

Mr Putin defended his authoritarian style, making clear that he thought a
strong president was essential for many years to come as the country had not
developed strong enough political parties for a Western-style democracy.
Otherwise, he said, there would be chaos. Even in Germany, the system could
misfire, as it did after the last election, and the Czech Republic, he said,
had been without a government for months.

Mr Putin said that, after he had stepped down, he would not disappear or take
up residence in another country. He loved his country and felt rooted to it.
But he all but ruled out any return to power for himself in 2012. “In 2012 I
hope to find a place where I will be comfortable instead of reading in the
Western press nasty things about becoming the new president.”

In a three-hour meeting, the fourth he has held with the same group of Western
academics and journalists, Mr Putin demonstrated an extraordinary grasp of
detail and statistics and ranged across domestic policy, Iraq, Afghanistan,
investment policy, macroeconomics and the future of the various political
factions in the Duma.

He began by defending his choice and timing of a new prime minister, which
stunned Russia this week, saying that he had to change the Government now
because people had begun to cast around for other jobs in anticipation of
change.

He said it was not his idea but that of Mikhael Fradkov, the former Prime
Minister, to dissolve the Cabinet and reform the Government under a
different leadership. Mr Putin praised both the outgoing Prime Minister and
his successor, Viktor Zubkov, who he said had a fine record of service. He
said the 65-year-old new Prime Minister might himself want to run for
president, just as Mr Putin did when appointed Prime Minister in 1999, but
he would first have to prove himself.

He spoke at length on the need to strengthen multiparty democracy in Russia,
saying that he would like to see a proper, modern, left-wing social
democratic party that could be an alternative to United Russia, the ruling
party, which supports him.

He did not see United Russia as a permanent party of government, but it was
vital in securing a parliamentary majority so that he and his successor
could enact necessary legislation. It was no use having only a “holdover
from the past, such as the Communist Party”, as the only real opposition.

Mr Putin also sought to quash Western fears that Russia would use its vast
foreign currency reserves, the result of the high oil price, to buy up vital
Western industries or undermine the Western economy. If there was any idea
that Russian would improperly invest in foreign economies, that was wrong.

He also told the United States that it should set a timetable for withdrawal
from Iraq as this would spur the Iraqi Government into meeting its own
security needs. Without a time-frame, he said, there would be no pressure
for the necessary political and security measures.

Overall, the President appeared remarkably confident about the legacy he will
leave and made much of the huge rise in living standards, in health,
education and housing, which he said most Russians saw as the key factors in
their lives. This, he said, was vital in creating a confident and stable
middle class, which must be the backbone of the new democratic Russia.

September 15, 2007 at 01:51 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Kremlin aims to beef up its Security Council

Kremlin aims to beef up its Security Council: paper | Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's aides plan to beef up a Kremlin advisory body known as the Security Council, turning it in effect into a parallel cabinet before his departure next year, a Moscow newspaper said on Thursday.

Putin has said he plans to retain political influence after he steps down at the end of his second term next year, and analysts have speculated that a Security Council with new powers could give him the platform to do that.

The Gazeta daily quoted an unnamed Kremlin source as saying Putin's staff was preparing a new document upgrading the status of the Council, an advisory board comprising top officials.

"Our source told us that the powers of the Security Council will be strongly enhanced," the paper said. "It will turn into a body which controls so called 'power ministries' and will also work out a national political strategy."

There was no confirmation from the Kremlin that it planned to upgrade the Council. Putin himself poured cold water on such suggestions last week, saying he did not see any point in giving it more powers.

"Power ministries" in the Russian political jargon include the Defence ministry and the Federal Security Service which at the moment report directly to the president.

The newspaper also quoted an analyst with Kremlin ties as saying strengthening the Security Council would ensure stability during the handover of power to a new president.

"We are now preparing for a transitional period ... and the Security Council is returning to its role as a parallel, balancing government which should ensure that the policies of the country's leader are implemented," it quoted analyst Sergei Markov as saying.

Putin has ruled out changing the constitution to give him another four years in the Kremlin. He says he will quit after March 2008 presidential polls.

Putin's plans beyond that are keenly followed by Russia watchers and investors, who see him as an important guarantor of continued economic and political stability.

The question of what he will do next has become as big a riddle for Russia watchers as the closely guarded name of the candidate Putin will endorse to replace him as president.

The Security Council, along with top posts in gas giant Gazprom and the main pro-Kremlin party United Russia, have been mentioned by analysts among Putin's potential future jobs.

The role of Security Council Secretary is now vacant after incumbent Igor Ivanov resigned earlier this month.

Some analysts have said Putin may seek to emulate Deng Xiaoping, who was China's effective ruler during the 1980s without occupying any formal top government posts.

July 26, 2007 at 12:44 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

I am plotting a new Russian revolution' | Russia | Guardian Unlimited

London exile Berezovsky says force necessary to bring down President Putin Audio: Berezovsky on change in Russia (25 secs) Audio: Berezovsky on his personal safety (34 secs) Ian Cobain, Matthew Taylor and Luke Harding in Moscow Friday April 13, 2007 The Guardian

Source: I am plotting a new Russian revolution' | Russia | Guardian Unlimited

The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia's ruling elite.

In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup.

"We need to use force to change this regime," he said. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."

Although Mr Berezovsky, with an estimated fortune of £850m, may have the means to finance such a plot, and although he enjoyed enormous political influence in Russia before being forced into exile, he said he could not provide details to back up his claims because the information was too sensitive.

Last night the Kremlin denounced Mr Berezovsky's comments as a criminal offence which it believed should undermine his refugee status in the UK.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's chief spokesman, said: "In accordance with our legislation [his remarks are] being treated as a crime. It will cause some questions from the British authorities to Mr Berezovsky. We want to believe that official London will never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia."

It will not be the first time the British government has faced accusations from the Kremlin that it is providing a safe haven for Mr Berezovsky. When he told a Moscow radio station last year that he wanted to see Mr Putin overthrown by force, Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, told the Commons that "advocating the violent overthrow of a sovereign state is unacceptable" and warned the tycoon he could be stripped of his refugee status.

Russian authorities subsequently sent an extradition request to London. That failed, however, when a district judge ruled Mr Berezovsky could not be extradited as long as he has asylum status.

In an interview with the Guardian, however, Mr Berezovsky goes much further than before, claiming to be in close contact with members of Russia's political elite who, he says, share his view that Mr Putin is damaging Russia by rolling back democratic reforms, smothering opposition, centralising power and flouting the country's constitution.

"There is no chance of regime change through democratic elections," he says. "If one part of the political elite disagrees with another part of the political elite - that is the only way in Russia to change the regime. I try to move that."

While declining to describe these contacts - and alleging that they would be murdered if they were identified - he maintained that he was offering his "experience and ideology" to members of the country's political elite, as well as "my understanding of how it could be done". He added: "There are also practical steps which I am doing now, and mostly it is financial."

Mr Berezovsky said he was unconcerned by any threat to strip him of his refugee status. "Straw wasn't in a position to take that decision. A judge in court said it wasn't in the jurisdiction of Straw."

He added that there was even less chance of such a decision being taken following the polonium-210 poisoning last November of his former employee, Alexander Litvinenko. "Today the reality is different because of the Litvinenko case."

Mr Berezovsky, 61, a former mathematician, turned to business during the Yeltsin years and made his fortune by capturing state assets at knockdown prices during Russia's rush towards privatisation.

Although he played a key role in ensuring Mr Putin's victory in the 2000 presidential elections, the two men fell out as the newly elected leader successfully wrested control of Russia back from the so-called oligarchy, the small group of tycoons who had come to dominate the country's economy.

A few months after the election Mr Berezovsky fled Russia, and applied successfully for asylum in the UK after Mr Litvinenko, an officer with the KGB's successor, the FSB, came forward to say he had been ordered to murder the tycoon.

Mr Berezovsky changed his name to Platon Elenin, Platon being the name of a character in a Russian film based loosely upon his life. He was subsequently given a British passport in this name.

As well as claiming to be financing and encouraging coup plotters in Moscow, Mr Berezovsky said he had dedicated much of the last six years to "trying to destroy the positive image of Putin" that many in the west held, portraying him whenever possible as a dangerously anti-democratic figure. He said he had also opposed the Russian president through Kommersant, the influential Russian newspaper which he controlled until last year.

Last month Mr Berezovsky was questioned by two detectives from the Russian prosecutor general's office who were in London to investigate the death of Mr Litvinenko. He has denied claims that he refused to answer many of their questions.

Last night the Kremlin said Russian authorities might want to question him again in the light of his interview with the Guardian. "I now believe our prosecutor general's office has got lots of questions for Mr Berezovsky," said Mr Peskov. He added: "His words are very interesting. This is a very sensitive issue."

The Foreign Office said it had nothing to add to Mr Straw's comments of last year.

· Audio: Berezovsky on change in Russia (25 secs)
· Audio: Berezovsky on his personal safety (34 secs)

April 13, 2007 at 05:11 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Police match image of Litvinenko's real assassin with his death-bed description - World - Times Online

 

Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin The polonium trail Police have identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder. Friends of the ex-spy say that the man was a hired killer, sent by the Kremlin, who vanished hours after administering a deadly dose of radioactive polonium-210 to Litvinenko.

Source: Police match image of Litvinenko's real assassin with his death-bed description - World - Times Online

 

He arrived in London on a forged EU passport and reportedly slipped the poison into a cup of tea he made for Litvinenko in a London hotel room. Litvinenko was reportedly able to give vital details of his suspected killer in a bedside interview with detectives just days before he died on November 23 at University College Hospital.

Police have decided not to publish pictures of this man, who was seen on CCTV cameras as he flew in from Hamburg on November 1, the day that Litvinenko fell ill.

He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.

He reportedly travelled on the same flight as Dimitri Kovtun, a Russian businessman who is being investigated for trafficking the radioactive material used in the poison plot.

Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB agent and friend of Litvinenko, who has worked closely with police on the investigation, said: “This man is believed to have used a Lithuanian or Slovak passport. He did not check into any hotel in London using the name or that passport, and he left the country using another EU passport.”

German police are investigating how polonium-210 was found in various locations Mr Kovtun visited in Hamburg.

According to police sources, until now it has not been revealed that Litvinenko visited a fourth-floor room at the Millennium Hotel to discuss a business deal.

He had gone to the room with Mr Kovtun and another former Russian agent, Andrei Lugovoy.

The three men were joined in the room later by the mystery figure who was introduced as “Vladislav”.

Mr Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how “Vladislav was described as someone who could help Mr Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company.

“Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea.

“His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,” he added.

The hotel room where Litvinenko thought he was poisoned remains sealed off. This room reportedly showed the heaviest concentration of polonium-210 found at a dozen locations across London.

Both Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun were questioned by Scotland Yard detectives in Moscow last month. They strenuously deny playing any role in the posion plot.

Scotland Yard have asked to return to Russia so that they can continue their hunt for the suspected murderer, but have been told that they will not be allowed back until after a team of Russian investigators have completed their own inquiry in London.

The fear is that the Russian investigators will use their trip to pursue enemies of President Vladimir Putin living in London. The Kremlin has offered an amnesty for some on its wanted list in return for information against Mr Putin’s main foes given asylum in Britain. They are thought to include former executives of the fallen oil giant Yukos, whose assets have been seized by the Kremlin.

Alexei Golubovich, former director of corporate finance and strategic planning at Yukos, came back from Italy this month after striking a deal with Russian prosecutors, who had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Mr Golubovich was held in Italy last year but fought off extradition attempts. He is now said to be co-operating actively with Russian prosecutors.

The Kremlin agreed apparently to drop fraud charges if he returned to Moscow and provided testimony against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of Yukos, and his deputy, Leonid Nevzlin.

Khodorkovsky was jailed for fraud and tax evasion in 2003 in what was widely seen as a government vendetta against the oligarch, who had been highly critical of President Putin. Mr Nevzlin fled to Israel.

Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor-General in Moscow, has accused Mr Nevzlin of involvement in Litvinenko’s death, a charge dismissed by the former Yukos number two. Mr Nevzlin told The Times how Litvinenko flew to Israel shortly before he was poisoned to warn him about a plan by the Kremlin to claw back millions of pounds from exiled Yukos executives through a covert campaign of intimidation and murder.

At least a dozen former Yukos personnel have been given asylum in Britain. Three attempts by the authorities in Moscow to have them sent back to Russia were blocked by the English courts.

All these executives are understood to be on the list of people the Russian investigators want to question in their murder inquiry.

Mr Chaika added to the intrigue this week by announcing that Moscow had “evidence of attempts to poison several witnesses in the Yukos case with mercury”.

He also asked Scotland Yard to investigate the sudden deaths of two Russians working in London, although police here insist the men died of natural causes.

January 21, 2007 at 11:37 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Traces of spy poison found in cup at hotel

Telegraph | News | Traces of spy poison found in cup at hotel

y Duncan Gardham and Laura Clout
Last Updated: 1:02am GMT 09/12/2006

The Millennium Hotel in London emerged as the most likely site for the poisoning of the Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko last night after it was revealed that a cup had been found containing traces of the radioactive substance which killed him.

It was reported that polonium 210 had also been found in a dishwasher at the hotel, in Grosvenor Square, raising concerns that small amounts of the substance could have been released into the water system. Unlike his drinking partners at the hotel's Pine Bar, Litvienenko was tee-total and drank only tea.

All seven bar staff at the bar on the day Mr Litvinenko was poisoned have tested positive for the same radioactive substance that killed him two weeks ago. Tests were continuing on more than 250 customers who drank in the bar on the same day.

Police have refused to spell out exactly where Litvinenko visited on the day he was poisoned, but only his dining partner, Mario Scaramella, has so far tested positive at the Itsu restaurant where he ate.

Scotland Yard's attempts to question one of the men who were drinking with him were frustrated again yesterday, as it was announced that he was suffering from radiation poisoning.

Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard turned businessman who visited each of the hotels and offices at which radioactivity has since been detected, was said by a Russian news agency to be suffering from multi-organ failure.

He is the second witness allegedly taken ill – it was reported on Thursday that his business partner Dmitry Kovtun, who was also at the Millennium Hotel meeting, had lapsed into a coma. Other reports coming from Russia seemed to suggest the condition of the two men was less serious.

ITAR-Tass, the state-owned agency, said Mr Lugovoi was feeling "normal"and quoted him saying: "Doctors believe that I'm in a stable condition."Mr Lugovoi's lawyer, Andrei Romashov, said his client's condition was not an obstacle to being questioned and he did not know why he had not been interviewed.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Mr Kovtun had "developed an illness connected with the radioactive nuclide (substance)"and the Interfax agency said he had regained consciousness but had radiation damage to his intestines and kidneys.

But Mr Romashov said Mr Kovtun's condition was "the same"as when he was interviewed by British police, in the presence of Russian prosecutors, on Wednesday. Reports of Mr Kovtun's illness were, he said, "aimed at creating a negative atmosphere around this case to make a sensation out of it."

Last night German police said they were searching a flat in Hamburg, used by Mr Kovtun, for traces of the radioactive substance polonium. The confusion over the two men means that nine British counter-terrorism detectives, who have spent the week in Moscow, have so far interviewed only one of the main suspects.

Police will have many questions to ask Mr Lugovoi, after signs of radiation turned up at a number of hotels and offices he visited in the days before Mr Litvinenko fell ill, as well as the aeroplanes he travelled on.

So far radiation has been detected at the Parkes Hotel in Knightsbridge, where he stayed with Mr Kovtun from October 16 to October 18, and two offices of security firms which they visited with Mr Litvinenko.

There have also been positive tests on rooms at the eighth floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Park Lane, where Mr Lugovoi stayed from October 25 to October 27.

The most significant finds of polonium have been at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel and at rooms on the fourth floor, where Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun stayed from October 31 to November 3, meeting Mr Litvinenko in the bar on November 1, the day he was poisoned.

Last night the Pine Bar remained closed, but a bar and restaurant owned by Brian Turner, a celebrity chef, were busy. One guest, who did not wish to give his name, said: ''I am only staying here because it's the only hotel in London with spare rooms."

December 9, 2006 at 12:23 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Russian Ex-Spy Lived in a World of Deceptions

Russian Ex-Spy Lived in a World of Deceptions - New York Times

By ALAN COWELL
Published: December 3, 2006

LONDON, Dec. 2 — The tangled tale of Alexander V. Litvinenko, the maverick Russian K.G.B. agent turned dissident who died of radiation poisoning last week, has seized the headlines recently, but its roots can be traced to a summer’s evening in Moscow in 1994.

At just after 5 p.m. on June 7, Boris A. Berezovsky, one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs, was leaving the offices of his car dealership in a chauffeured Mercedes 600. According to Russian news accounts at the time, he and his bodyguard were sitting in the rear seat behind the driver. As the car drove by another parked vehicle, a remote-controlled bomb detonated, decapitating the driver but somehow leaving Mr. Berezovsky unscathed.

As a high-ranking officer in the organized crime unit of the F.S.B., the successor to the K.G.B., Mr. Litvinenko “was the investigating officer of the assassination attempt,” said Alex Goldfarb, a Berezovsky associate and a spokesman for the Litvinenko family, in an interview conducted, fittingly, in the rear seat of a parked Mercedes in central London with a heavyset driver at the wheel. “They became friends.”

It was a friendship that was to shape Mr. Litvinenko’s career, which began in the roller-coaster politics and self-enrichment of post-Soviet Russia, spanned his desperate flight from Russia through Turkey and then on to Britain to seek asylum. It ended spectacularly and mysteriously, with the British police saying the only thing they knew for sure was that he was dead, poisoned after ingesting an obscure radioactive isotope called polonium 210.

After Mr. Litvinenko’s death, sketchy facts and abundant speculation unfolded like some lost chapter of the cold war. But unlike those days of East-West division and the half-light of shadowy, underground conflicts, this saga played out in the bright glare of newspaper headlines and 24-hour news channels.

Although the precise circumstances of his death remain hidden, Mr. Litvinenko lived the last years of his life as a public critic of President Vladimir V. Putin and the Russian government. Assigned to investigate the assassination attempt on Mr. Berezovsky, he ended up accusing the F.S.B. of involvement in a later conspiracy, a charge that severed his ties with the agency. Once in exile in London, his contacts with Mr. Berezovsky and a circle of other Russian émigrés and former agents flourished, even as his criticism of Mr. Putin grew more vigorous. In the weeks before his death, he had begun looking into the shooting death in Moscow of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Mr. Putin and his policies in Chechnya.

Mr. Litvinenko began his lingering decline on Nov. 1, when he met an Italian academic, Mario Scaramella, in a sushi bar and linked up with former K.G.B. colleagues in a five-star hotel. Then he fell ill, wasting away over 22 excruciating days from a muscular, almost boyish figure to a gaunt shadow. Investigators followed a radioactive trail around London and, through British Airways planes found to have traces of radiation, to Moscow. British Airways said 221 flights, carrying 33,000 people, might have been affected. In a bizarre sideshow, a former Russian prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, a quiet critic of the Kremlin, fell ill with symptoms of poisoning.

The episode left Britain’s relations with Russia strained: no matter how much Mr. Putin denied it, British officials faced a barrage of newspaper speculation that a supposedly friendly power, or its disaffected agents, had reached onto the streets of London for nefarious purposes.

From his deathbed, Mr. Litvinenko accused Mr. Putin of responsibility for his plight, but that conclusion was far from certain. One thing, though, was abundantly clear: Mr. Litvinenko’s death matched his life in a world of conspiracy and betrayal as a former spy.

Links to a Tycoon

Mr. Litvinenko’s role in the investigation of the assassination attempt against Mr. Berezovsky, who fled into exile in London in 2000, is not widely chronicled, although it was alluded to in an Associated Press report in 1998, which said the case was never solved.

Nonetheless, it appears to have provided the starting point for an association between Mr. Berezovsky, then one of Russia’s richest men and most influential power brokers, and Mr. Litvinenko, who was rapidly acquiring a reputation at the Russian spy agency as a rebel and whistleblower.

Indeed, in a book he published in 2004, “Lubyanka Criminal Group,” Mr. Litvinenko referred to a turning point in his life as an agent. In December 1997, he said his superior in the F.S.B. called him into his office with staggering orders: “You, Litvinenko, you know Berezovsky? You have to liquidate him,” he said his superior told him.

That claim resurfaced sensationally in the public eye in November 1998, after Mr. Berezovsky accused the F.S.B. of plotting to assassinate him. Mr. Litvinenko and other disaffected agents called a news conference to confirm Mr. Berezovsky’s allegations. It was a bizarre spectacle, even by the conspiratorial standards of the time: one dissident F.S.B. officer appeared in a ski mask, another in dark glasses. Mr. Litvinenko did not conceal his identity.

Mr. Putin, who led the agency at the time, reacted angrily, threatening to dismiss Mr. Litvinenko and the other officers who had spoken out.

According to a transcript published by the Kremlin International News Broadcast, Mr. Litvinenko began with a forthright attack on corruption within the agency. He said some of its units “have been used by certain officials not for constitutional purposes of state and personal security but for their own private political and material purposes, to settle accounts with undesirable persons, to carry out private political and criminal orders for a fee and sometimes simply as an instrument to earn money.”

The remarks led to Mr. Litvinenko’s suspension from the F.S.B. and a series of criminal court cases on five counts of abuse of power and other charges. In 1999, he spent eight months in pretrial detention in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. When charges were dropped in November 1999 for lack of evidence, he was rearrested the instant the acquittal was read out, according to an account in Isvestia in 2001. He was released again in December 1999 and ordered not to leave town.

But the weeks and months went by with no indication that the investigations against him would be dropped.

Mr. Litvinenko, his wife, Marina, and son, Anatoly, fled Moscow in October 2000. According to accounts by Mr. Litvinenko at the time, and by others including Mr. Goldfarb and Viktor Suvorov, a former Soviet military intelligence officer and defector, his trail led from Russia to the town of Antalya in southern Turkey, possibly via Ukraine.

But once in Turkey, no one, it seemed, wanted to deal with a renegade Russian agent.

“I brought him to the U.S. Embassy at the end of October in Ankara,” said Mr. Goldfarb, by his own account an American citizen who fled the Soviet Union 31 years ago and spent many years in exile working for, among others, the financier George Soros. “We just walked in and said here’s the F.S.B. colonel, and they are not interested.” Finally, Mr. Litvinenko left Turkey using a ticket allowing him to transit, but not stay, in London. In November 2000, he arrived at Heathrow airport, surrendered to the British police and claimed asylum, according to accounts by Mr. Litvinenko and in the British press. But he was still not treated as a high-level defector.

Mr. Suvorov, an agent from Russian military intelligence, G.R.U., who defected in 1978, said: “I raised the question, ‘Look, there’s a man who has lots of information about organized crime’ — no one else had so much information — but no one questioned him about it, British, French, Americans. He had incredible knowledge.” Neither Turkish nor American officials confirmed this account.

But, to judge from what happened later, Mr. Litvinenko was determined to put his knowledge of Russia’s intelligence networks to use.

Émigrés in London

From the minute he landed in Britain, Mr. Litvinenko resumed his association with Mr. Berezovsky, who had arrived some months earlier also seeking asylum. From a modest row house in white-collar Muswell Hill in north London, he appears to have moved easily in security and former espionage circles, frequently visiting Mr. Berezovsky’s offices in Mayfair — one of London’s most upscale districts.

He was part, too, of a population of an estimated 300,000 Russians in London, including political émigrés, old-time defectors and wealthy tycoons who spend their time in nightclubs and boutiques and buying up real estate and soccer clubs. He was granted British citizenship earlier this year. But he also maintained contact with his former F.S.B. colleagues, like Mikhail Trepashkin, who was jailed in October 2003 for betraying state secrets while investigating apartment bombings in Moscow and elsewhere in 1999 that killed scores of people. Those bombings formed the basis of a book published in English the same year by Mr. Litvinenko accusing Russia’s security services of staging the bombings as a pretext for the second Chechen war.

In a letter released Friday and dated Nov. 23, Mr. Trepashkin said in a reference to the F.S.B., “Back in 2002, I warned Alexander Litvinenko that they set up a special team to kill him.”

But Mr. Litvinenko also registered increasing concerns about his safety. “A secret service is designed to fight another secret service,” he told The New York Times in a telephone interview in 2004 during the inquiry into the poisoning of Viktor A. Yushchenko, then a Ukrainian presidential candidate. “When a secret service goes after an individual, they have no chance.”

Mr. Litvinenko said his supporters arranged for him to address British legislators, whom he told that members of the Russian secret services were “getting more aggressive, threatening my relatives.” He said he knew of 32 Russian spies working in England. “They follow us and prepare provocations and our liquidation,” he said.

In September 2004, two weeks after his appeal to Parliament, Mr. Litvinenko said in the interview, bottles containing burning liquid were thrown at his apartment at 1 a.m.

Some of his associates bridled at the idea that he was Mr. Berezovsky’s personal agent or go-between. “He was not just someone who came from Russia and said to Berezovsky: give me some money,” said Mr. Suvorov, the former G.R.U. agent.

But Mr. Litvinenko nonetheless displayed a knack for confidential business. According to a report in The Times of London in November, he traveled to Israel weeks before he died to hand over a dossier on the Yukos oil affair — in which the company’s former chairman, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, has been imprisoned for tax evasion — to Leonid Nevzlin, an exiled oil tycoon. Mr. Nevzlin was quoted as confirming the article. On the fateful day when he first took ill, the radiation trail of his movement led to the offices of Erinys, an international security company in Mayfair.

It was in that upscale district on Nov. 1 that he met his former Russian security service colleagues, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, in the Millennium Mayfair hotel, and Mr. Scaramella, the Italian consultant and academic, in the sushi bar on nearby Piccadilly. All three men have denied poisoning him.

A Mystery Deepens

But the saga was not over. One week after the police reported that Mr. Litvinenko had been poisoned, Mr. Scaramella himself was hospitalized when concentrations of the isotope were found in his body. Traces were also found on a member of Mr. Litvinenko’s family.

The mystery seemed as deep as ever: the police had traced Mr. Litvinenko’s movements and his contacts on Nov. 1. Detectives had spent 20 hours interviewing him in the hospital, according to associates. Yet the trail to Moscow seemed elusive and was impossible to confirm. Speculation swirled inconclusively about Kremlin plots and counterplots and efforts by rogue operatives to pursue their own feuds or discredit President Putin. But no one could say where the poison came from or how it entered Mr. Litvinenko’s body.

Indeed, Mr. Lugovoi, the former K.G.B. agent, said in a Russian newspaper interview published on Saturday that Mr. Litvinenko might have, in fact, ingested the poison weeks earlier than anyone realized. If true, that would upend some of the most basic assumptions of the investigation — at least as far as it has been made public — and explain why radiation was found on a British Airways plane that flew between Moscow and London on Oct. 25.

“Alexander Litvinenko, my business partner Dmitri Kovtun and I were in London on Oct. 17 at a meeting in the office of Erinys,” the private security company, Mr. Lugovoi told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “Traces of radiation could have been left there after this visit.”

Some of Mr. Litvinenko’s associates said his position might have been made more precarious when he began to gather information about the death of Ms. Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative reporter shot to death in Moscow in October. “He was a very good investigator himself,” said Mr. Suvorov, the former G.R.U. agent. “That made him very dangerous and vulnerable: if anyone called him and said, ‘I know who killed Politkovskaya,’ he just arranged a meeting. So, definitely, he was very vulnerable.”

Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington, and Steven Lee Myers and Viktor Klimenko from Moscow.

December 2, 2006 at 08:43 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

So who are the Russian mafia ?

BBC News | russian mafia | So who are the Russian mafia ?

While there may be thousands of mafia groups in Russia only a handful are large enough to maintain a serious threat.

The biggest gangs are the Dolgopruadnanskaya and the Solntsevskaya.

The latter, named after the Moscow suburb of Solntsevo from which it hails, has around 5,000 members.

Its leader is believed to be Sergei Mikhailov, known as Mikhas, who is being held by the authorities in Switzerland.

The Solntsevskaya specialises in drugs and gun smuggling but is not averse to extortion and the American hotelier Paul Tatum, who was shot dead in 1995, claimed they had threatened his life only a few weeks before.

[ image: Doug Steele with his Russian bodyguard]
Doug Steele with his Russian bodyguard
Routine extortion

Extortion has become a way of life in Russia.

Canadian entrepreneur Doug Steele owns a Moscow nightclub called The Hungry Duck and reckons he has paid out £625,000 ($1m) in pay-offs to police, officials and the mafia.

Mr Steele, who has already survived one kidnapping attempt, says: "You have to grease the palm or you won't be in business.

"If it was not for the mafia there would not be an economy. They are a major driving force behind what goes on here."

In Moscow, the Ostankino and Lubertsy clans are significant players.

In St Petersburg, the underworld is beginning to be dominated by the Tambov syndicate, based in the eponymous town 200 miles (330km) from Moscow and headed by Vladimir Gavrilenkov.

Chechens and Georgians, like Sicilians and Neapolitans, have played a disproportionately large role in the underworld.

The largest Chechen mafia is the Obshina, who have made much of their money from bank robberies, kidnapping and white collar crime.

Their leader, Nikolay Suleimanov, currently is trying to elbow his way into the lucrative East European cigarette smuggling racket.

Laundering mafia money

Any institution with access to large amounts of money can expect a visit from the mafia.

The Afghan veterans' association, which has a welfare role similar to the British Legion or the Vietnam Veterans' Association, is thought to have been used to launder dirty money.

Its head was murdered in 1994 and it split into two groups.

The head of one branch, Valery Radchikov, survived an assassination attempt the following year.

[ image: Vyacheslav Ivankov's tattoo denotes him as a 'thief in law']
Vyacheslav Ivankov's tattoo denotes him as a 'thief in law'
In November 1996 the leader of the other faction, Sergei Trakhirov, his wife and 11 others were killed when a bomb exploded in a cemetery during a funeral.

Mafia invades New York

When the Russian mafia began to move into the United States it chose Vyacheslav Ivankov, known as Yaponchik or "Little Japanese", to head its New York operation.

He was convicted in November 1997 in a £3.5m ($5.9m) extortion case.

Louis Freeh, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said: "In 10 or 20 years Ivankov would have been a very, very dangerous criminal leader, not just in the United States but worldwide."

The FBI believes his place as head of the Russian mafia in America has already been filled.

It will take more than one court case to stop the Russian mafia's worldwide expansion.

* The rise and rise of the Russian mafia
* How Russia's mafia is taking over the Israeli underworld

December 2, 2006 at 12:56 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Litvinenko may have fallen foul of ruthless Russian businessmen

Litvinenko may have fallen foul of ruthless Russian businessmen - World - Times Online

Richard Beeston, Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin
# The former spy 'had many enemies'
# Andrei Lugovoy is under suspicion
See a picture gallery of the major players

Alexander Litvinenko may have been killed after a deal that went wrong with associates involved in the ruthless world of Russian business.

According to security sources, investigators are looking at the former spy’s dealings with Russian businessmen involved in the lucrative energy sector and the shadowy world of private security. “We are looking at a very long list of Mr Litvinenko’s friends and foes since he has been in London,” one source said.

The list includes exotic figures ranging from billionaire businessmen, former Kremlin spies and KGB agents to underworld bosses.

In the six years that he was in Britain, Litvinenko appeared to have acquired a formidable collection of friends and enemies. Although he described himself as a journalist, Litvinenko tried unsuccessfully to muscle in on several lucrative business deals with Russians.

On the day that he fell ill he was attempting to broker a gas and oil exploration deal involving a British conglomerate that he claimed to represent. He was envious of the money that many of his former colleagues were making.

He also had talks about providing trained personal protection guards recruited from Russia, and claimed to represent a number of British interests wanting bilateral deals with Russian investors.

Police will look at investigations that his friends say he claimed to be involved in at the time of his death, including smuggling rings for nuclear material and prostitutes.

People connected to this world are frequently murdered on the streets of Russia’s cities, but until now the practice has not spread to London’s large Russian expatriate community.

The latest line of inquiry will confuse further an already complex investigation with a cast of characters that already includes President Putin, his nemesis Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch exiled in London, rogue FSB death squads and the Chechen mafia.

Even now counter-terrorist detectives have pointedly not used the word “murder”, preferring “suspicious death”.

Much of the latest focus of attention has been on Andrei Lugovoy, a former Russian intelligence officer, who met Litvinenko on the day he was poisoned.

There is no evidence to suggest that he had anything to do with Litvinenko’s death, but suspicions about him deepened this week after the suspected poisoning of Yegor Gaidar, the former Russian Prime Minister and Putin critic.

Mr Gaidar, 50, was recovering in a Moscow hospital from a mystery illness that he contracted on a visit to the Irish Republic last week.

Mr Lugovoy was Mr Gaidar’s chief bodyguard in the 1990s. Although the two have not met for four years, Mr Lugovoy emerged as the one man linking the two cases.

The focus on his activities has not distracted attention from the Kremlin. Mr Putin’s many critics have accused the former KGB chief of launching a campaign to silence, intimidate and eliminate his critics and opponents.

Litvinenko became one of Mr Putin’s most outspoken critics after writing a book accusing the Russian leader of orchestrating a series of apartment-block explosions that were blamed on Chechen terrorists. But Western officials doubt that Mr Putin would have ordered the assassination.

The Kremlin has pointed the finger of suspicion firmly at Mr Berezovsky. Russian officials maintain that the oligarch has gained most from seeing Mr Putin’s reputation tarnished by the death.

Although Mr Berezovsky was an ally of Litvinenko, there are also suggestions that the two men could have fallen out. On the day he died, Litvinenko visited the oligarch’s Mayfair offices, which have since been sealed because they contain traces of polonium-210.

December 2, 2006 at 12:54 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Death of the woman who shamed Moscow

Death of the woman who shamed Moscow - Sunday Times - Times Online

Mark Franchetti, Moscow
RUSSIA’S most famous investigative reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in the lift of her Moscow apartment block yesterday in an apparent contract killing.

A fearless opponent of Russia’s wars in Chechnya who once described President Vladimir Putin as a “KGB snoop” and compared him to Stalin, she was shot as she returned home from a shopping trip at 4.30pm. A pistol and four bullets were found near her body.

She was the most prominent of dozens of Russian journalists murdered in the past 10 years and her death has dealt a serious blow to the country’s reputation.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president, said: “It’s a strike against all the democratic independent press, a terrible crime against the entire country, against all of us.”

Last night police were hunting a young man who was caught on a video camera in the hall of the apartment block wearing a black baseball cap. Officers said the killer, whose face is not visible on the footage, followed Politkovskaya inside as she unloaded the shopping from her car, and killed her with two shots to the chest and head.

Politkovskaya, 48 and divorced with a son and a daughter, was one of the few Russian journalists who dared to write critically about widespread human rights abuses in Chechnya. She won international acclaim for her reports but was hated by many in Russia’s security forces.

I met Politkovskaya on many occasions to discuss Chechnya. Bespectacled and deeply serious, she resembled a strict schoolteacher rather than a glamorous war reporter inured to intimidation and flying bullets.

She was profoundly affected by the victims of war and seemed haunted by their suffering. To her, reporting was far more than a job — she saw it as a moral obligation.

Unlike most reporters, she often crossed the line between journalism and personal involvement. At the height of the bombing of Chechnya, she once bravely negotiated the safe passage of dozens of elderly civilians trapped in Grozny, the Chechen capital.

She had received numerous threats and two years ago was apparently poisoned on her way to Beslan during the school siege that ended with more than 300 deaths.

“I am not on a crusade,” she once told me. “But I feel that someone has to write about what is happening in our country. In Chechnya unspeakable war crimes have been committed but hardly anyone has the guts to write about it. I don’t want my son to grow up in a country which allows such things to happen.”

Vitaly Yaroshevsky, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, her newspaper, said there was no doubt she had been killed because of her work. “This is a professional murder,” he said. “Her reporting made her many enemies.”

In an interview two years ago she stated prophetically: “I’m absolutely sure that risk is a usual part of my job — of the job of a Russian journalist — and I cannot stop because it is my duty.”

Politkovskaya, who was born in New York while her Soviet Ukrainian parents were working as diplomats at the United Nations, became renowned for her courageous campaigning after the fall of communism.

Dirty War, her book on the conflict in Chechnya, provoked fury in the security forces. In Dirty Russia, another book, she claimed Putin was rolling back democracy and clamping down on media freedom.

She had been especially critical of his backing of Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Russian Chechen prime minister, whose forces she accused of a wave of kidnappings and extra-judicial killings.

Yaroshevsky said Politkovskaya had recently written many articles on Kadyrov, who is widely

expected to become president of Chechnya. She had been due to publish her next story on his regime tomorrow. “She was writing that in Chechnya a bandit state is being created. She wrote that political opponents of the regime are being persecuted,” said her editor.

At the height of the war in Chechnya, Politkovskaya was detained by Russian security forces for three days. She was held in a pit without food and water and endured a mock execution.

In 2001, she fled to Vienna for several months after receiving e-mail threats alleging that a Russian police officer she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians was intent on revenge Oleg Panfilov, director of the Moscow-based Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said that a few months ago unknown assailants had tried to break into a car being driven by her daughter, Vera.

At a time when most of Russia’s press has been muzzled by the Kremlin, Politkovskaya was a relatively rare dissenting voice.

She delivered regular warnings that the country was drifting back to a Soviet-style dictatorship. She also wrote critically about the arrest and trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon jailed after falling out with the Kremlin.

Her dedication led to the breakdown of her marriage. She returned home from Chechnya one day to hear her husband tell her: “I can’t take this any more.”

Alexei Malashenko, a political commentator who knew her well, said last night: “This is a political murder. She uncovered the truth no matter how powerful the people she wrote about are. If the state killed her, we don’t need such a state. If someone else silenced her, it’s a matter of honour for the state to track down her killers.”

October 8, 2006 at 01:56 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Putin and Hamas: olive branch or stab in back?

Putin and Hamas: olive branch or stab in back? - World - Times Online

Jeremy Page, Moscow Correspondent for The Times, believes that Russia's attempts to engage Hamas could help to tame the terrorist organisation's radical agenda

"As is frequently the case in Russian politics, there are a number of different interest groups involved in Moscow's decision to engage with Hamas.

"President Putin is keen to restore Russia's role as a major player in the Middle East. For the last 15 years, it has been distracted by its own domestic problems and it has been sidelined by the United States.

"A lot of people who used to be involved in foreign policy and international security issues have felt rather put out as they have watched the US calling the shots.

"There are certainly others. perhaps in the Foreign Ministry, who say that this represents an opportunity for Russia to do something positive on the world stage, to prove that the country can behave as a responsible power to help to resolve some of the big stand-offs. The same is true of Russian intervention in disputes in Iran and North Korea.

"There are also those who consider this an opportunity to reclaim lost influence in the Middle East, while others will see it as a practical chance to win contracts to sell to the Palestinian Authority.

"But whatever the reasons, everyone agreed with the policy of engaging Hamas.

"Russia has historical links with organisations and regimes that the West has either very poor relations with or none at all. During the Cold War, when Israel was backed by the US, Russia aligned itself with its opponents. This meant that it has historical ties to groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah which it now hopes to exploit.

"I don't think it's Russia sticking two fingers up to the US. America is in a very difficult position - Hamas was legally elected but the White House can not talk to them because it lists them as a terrorist organisation. Russia does not.

"It is undoubtedly very useful for the West to use Russia as a channel of communication with North Korea and Iran.

"Russia also has a very close relationship with Israel and there's a huge Russian Jewish population in Israel which has grown considerably over the past 15 years. They were politically conservative and it was from this bloc that Ariel Sharon derived considerable support.

"There were always going to be people in Israel who would be annoyed by any attempts to engage Hamas, but everybody in the West knows that Russia does not consider it to be a terrorist organisation.

"There are enough people in the West who would consider this a positive move and perhaps encourage Hamas to behave more responsibly."

February 10, 2006 at 04:28 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Russians accuse 4 Britons of spying

Russians accuse 4 Britons of spying - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

By Steven Lee Myers The New York Times
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006

MOSCOW An espionage scandal redolent of the Cold War unfolded here Monday after Russia accused four British diplomats of spying and linked some of their activities to the financing of prominent private organizations, including the Eurasia Foundation and the Moscow Helsinki Group.

A grainy, black-and-white video - broadcast on state television Sunday night and shown repeatedly again Monday - claimed to show a British diplomat picking up a rock that was said to conceal a communications device used to download and transmit classified information through hand-held computers.

The rock, the size of a watermelon and able to transmit and receive data at distances of more than 18 meters, or 60 feet, was seized near Moscow, prompting a search across the city for similar devices, Sergei Ignatchenko, the chief spokesman for Russia's intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, told Russian reporters, according to the Interfax news agency.

A second device was found, but "the British intelligence service managed to retrieve one of the gadgets," he said.

A Russian citizen has been arrested for complicity, but another spokesman for the Russian intelligence agency, Nikolai Zakharov, declined to say when and whether he had been formally charged. Zakharov would say only that the spy ring had been discovered and broken up at the beginning of winter.

The fate of the British diplomats - identified as mid-ranking secretaries in the embassy - remained unclear. Ignatchenko said their possible expulsion would be determined "at the political level."

The scandal, one of the most serious in years, threatened to raise diplomatic tensions, even as Russia assumed the presidency of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, which includes Britain. Ignatchenko accused Britain of violating an agreement in 1994 to end espionage in Russia. "In fact," he said, "we have been deceived."

Prime Minister Tony Blair, answering questions at a news conference in London, declined to comment.

"I'm afraid you are going to get the old stock-in-trade: 'We never comment on security matters,' except when we want to, obviously," Blair said.

"I think the less said about that, the better," he added.

The nature of the espionage was shrouded in secrecy, but the link to private organizations came amid a politically charged campaign against charities and advocacy groups here, many of them financed by the United States and European countries to promote democracy, independent media and other aspects of civil society.

Earlier this month President Vladimir Putin signed into law new legal restrictions on such groups, which critics have said could be used to pressure those critical of Russian policies.

The relation between the espionage charges and the organizations appeared tangential, however.

Zakharov said in a telephone interview that one of the diplomats, identified as Marc Doe, a political secretary, approved grants distributed by the British government to Russian and international organizations, even as he was involved in covert activities.

"He gave money to them," he said, referring to the organizations. "That is all documented."

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow declined to comment on the affair but cited a statement by the Foreign Office that said, "We reject any allegations of any improper conduct in our dealings with Russian" private organizations.

"All of our assistance is given openly and aims to support the development of a healthy civil society in Russia," he said.

One of the groups supported by Britain and cited by officials was the Eurasia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Washington that provides an array of grants across the former Soviet Union.

Irina Akishina, director of the Moscow office, said in a telephone interview that the organization had received a grant worth about $105,000 in 2004 to promote independent newspapers in provincial Russian cities.

She expressed bewilderment at the accusations, saying the television report, which appeared on the state's Rossiya channel with the cooperation of the Federal Security Service, was the first she heard of any questions surrounding her organization.

She said the accusations reflected the government's growing hostility toward private organizations that operate independently of the Kremlin.

"We certainly do feel there is some danger," she said, referring to the new law on organizations like hers. "We do not understand at all why we were mentioned in this program.

"We are not involved in any illegal activities."

The Moscow Helsinki Group, also linked to the case, is one of the country's most prominent human-rights organizations and is often critical of the Kremlin.

Russia's intelligence chiefs have publicly warned about the threat of espionage from the West. The warnings have underscored a growing wariness in Russian intelligence and diplomatic circles about what is widely seen as foreign interference in domestic affairs, especially following American and European support for democratic movements in Ukraine, Georgia and other former Soviet republics.

"Reconnaissance is not only not waning," Nikolai Patrushev, the director of the Federal Security Service, said in an interview in the official state newspaper, Rossiskaya Gazeta, in November. "It is strengthening."

In the interview he said that last year counterintelligence agents had exposed 20 agents working for foreign governments and 65 foreigners working for secret services. Earlier last year Patrushev singled out several non-governmental organizations, including the Peace Corps and a British charity, Merlin, as fronts for foreign espionage.

"Under the cover of implementing humanitarian and educational programs in Russia regions, they lobby for the interests of certain countries and gather classified information on a wide range of issues," he said of representatives of the private organizations.

Patrushev's remarks, sharply criticized at the time by the American and British governments, nevertheless became a basis of the new law putting such organizations under greater scrutiny.

The latest scandal involved espionage of a more traditional sort, though with a high-tech twist. The fake rock was used as a dead drop, an agreed place for exchanging classified information or otherwise communicating with agents. Where exactly it was remained unclear, though the television report showed it on a sidewalk near what was identified as a park on the edge of Moscow.

The hidden communication device allowed a Russian agent to transmit information in bursts lasting no more than a second or two, said Ignatchenko and other security officials. The British operatives could then download the information with their own palm computers, the officials said, declining to discuss the nature of the information that the Russian provided to the British agents, or its significance.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.

January 23, 2006 at 07:52 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe

Telegraph | News | Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe

By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 16/10/2005)

Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran to acquire technology needed to produce missiles capable of striking European capitals.

The Russians are acting as go-betweens with North Korea as part of a multi-million pound deal they negotiated between Teheran and Pyongyang in 2003. It has enabled Teheran to receive regular clandestine shipments of top secret missile technology, believed to be channelled through Russia.

Western intelligence officials believe that the technology will enable Iran to complete development of a missile with a range of 2,200 miles, capable of hitting much of Europe. It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device.

The revelation raises the stakes in the confrontation between Iran's Islamic regime and the West - led by the United States and European countries including Britain.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, clashed with Russian officials over Iran's nuclear programme during a visit to Moscow yesterday, saying that Teheran must fulfil its obligations under the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

She was later expected to urge President Vladimir Putin to back a referral of Iran to the United Nations Security Council.

Iran factfile

A senior American official said Iran's programme was "sophisticated and getting larger and more accurate. They have had very much in mind the payload needed to carry a nuclear weapon.

"I think Putin knows what the Iranians are doing."

Iran is believed to be hiding its weapons development behind its nuclear power programme, for which it receives Russian support, and has refused to suspend uranium enrichment or to allow full UN inspections.

John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, told BBC2's Newsnight that Iran was "determined to get nuclear weapons deliverable on ballistic missiles it can then use to intimidate not only its own region but possibly to supply to terrorists".

Iran's longest-range missile is the Shahab 3, which, with an 800-mile range, could hit Israel. The North Korean deal will allow the Iranian missile to reach targets far into Europe - including Rome, Berlin, and much of France.

North Korea has developed a missile, the Taepo Dong 2, that could reach America's west coast, based on the submarine-launched Soviet SSN6. Modifications allow it to be fired from a land-based transporter and this technology is being smuggled to Teheran with Russian help.

Russians have provided production facilities, diagrams and operating instruction so the missile can be built in Iran. Liquid propellant has been shipped to Iran. Russian specialists have also been sent to Iran to help development of its Shahab 5 missile project, which the Iranians hope to have operational by the end of the decade.

October 16, 2005 at 12:56 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Dozens killed during militant strikes in southern Russia

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online
By Simon Freeman and agencies
President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to "wipe out" pro-Chechen militants who staged an audacious attack on government buildings in the capital of a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia today.

More than 100 heavily armed militants launched simultaneous attacks around 9am on eight targets - including police stations, security service offices, and the local airport in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya.

Heavy automatic gunfire and explosions rattled through Nalchik as federal forces cordoned off the city centre and moved in, killing any gunman who resisted arrest, according to the Interfax news agency.

By nightfall, local officials said at least 59 rebels had been killed and another 17 captured. They said 12 police and 12 civilians had also been killed.

But the death toll was expected to rise as corpses were still being collected. Russia’s NTV television station showed footage of several bodies, covered with blankets, lying in the streets in pools of blood.

Witnesses described how the battles began in the early hours in a suburb. By mid-morning, much of the city of 235,000 had been cordoned off, but the clatter of gunfire and grenades echoed across the town.

Police cars equipped with loudspeakers advised residents to evacuate from some areas while state radio told others to remain indoors as the city was placed in lockdown.

A local journalist said that the gunmen were dressed in civilian clothing and took advantage of panic to blend in with the local population, hiding weapons under their clothes as they changed locations, before opening fire again on security forces.

In scenes reminiscent of last year's bloody siege in Beslan, children from a school behind one of the police stations were evacuated under heavy gunfire.

Alexander Chekalin, the Deputy Interior Minister, said: "The president gave an instruction that not one gunman should be allowed to leave the town, and those who are armed and putting up resistance must be wiped out."

Mr Chekalin added that one group of rebels was holding an unknown number of hostages in Nalchik’s third regional police department, while three more rebels were holed up in a souvenir shop. “We are facing some serious night work. The militants will try to break out at night,” he said.

The Kavkaz-Centre website, used by rebels loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, said that it had received a short message on behalf of the Caucasus Front claiming responsibility for the carefully co-ordinated attacks.

One local said: "I just woke up when an explosion went off. I could see buildings were on fire. Buildings in the centre are burning. I’ve heard grenades, machine guns, heavy machine guns."

"Fighting is going on everywhere. The attackers are trying to seize cars and burst their way out of the town," an unnamed military source said.

Yuri Ketov, the regional prosecutor, said: "These were meticulously planned and synchronised attacks. We have brought in extra interior ministry forces and armoured vehicles. Defence ministry troops have sealed off areas where operations are under way to disarm and eliminate the attackers."

Rene van der Linden, president of the Assembly of the Council of Europe, condemned the attacks. In a statement, he said that Europe would stand in solidarity with the Russian people.

"No cause can justify terrorism and only the total rejection of violence as a means of political struggle can bring peace to the region," he said.

Although this was the most dramatic operation since the Beslan school seizure, the assaults come amid an escalation of smaller-scale incidents that occur on an almost daily basis in Chechnya and adjacent provinces.

Reports suggest that Kabardino-Balkaria is becoming a refuge where Chechen rebels escape to recover. Basayev, the most extreme Chechen rebel leader who is believed to be the mastermind of Beslan, has reportedly been sighted there in recent months.

In December, gunmen raided the regional branch of the federal Drug Control Agency in Nalchik, killing four employees, looting an arsenal and setting the office ablaze.

Mr Putin has ordered security forces to deal more severely with suspected Islamic militants in the south and officials have declared that the conflict is winding down. The rebels, however, have vowed to continue their attacks until Russian forces leave.

October 16, 2005 at 02:44 AM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Streets littered with dead after rebel gunmen strike across city

Streets littered with dead after rebel gunmen strike across city - World - Times Online

From Jeremy Page in Moscow
AT LEAST 100 Chechen rebels attacked security posts in the southern Russian city of Nalchik yesterday in an audacious daylight operation that left dozens dead and challenged the Kremlin’s claims to control the North Caucasus.

The heavily armed militants launched simultaneous attacks about 9am on eight targets — including police stations, security service offices and the airport — in the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic.

Residents ran for their homes as the city, which is near the border with Chechnya, was engulfed in a fierce street battle between the rebels and Russian security forces for the rest of the day.

“The windows shook, cars were burning and there was shooting everywhere,” said Bela Kardanova, 48, a musician who spoke to The Times from her flat opposite one of the targeted police stations. “I heard someone cry Allah Akhbar!” President Putin ordered a blockade of the city of 280,000 people, to prevent militants from slipping out. He ordered security forces to shoot dead any gunmen who offered resistance.

After a meeting with Mr Putin, Alexander Chekalin, Russia’s Deputy Interior Minister, said: “Anyone who puts up resistance with weapons in his hands must be liquidated.”

By nightfall, local officials said that 61 rebels had been killed and another 17 captured. They said that 12 police and 13 civilians had been killed and that 116 people were injured. But the death toll was expected to rise because corpses were still being collected.

Russia’s NTV station showed footage of several bodies in the streets, lying in blood and covered with blankets. Mr Chekalin also said that five rebels were holding an unknown number of hostages in Nalchik’s third regional police department, while three more rebels were barricaded in a souvenir shop. “We are facing some serious night work,” he said. “The militants will try to break out at night . Our task is not to let a single militantthrough — and shoot to kill, if they are carrying weapons.”

Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Kavkaz- Centre website — a mouthpiece for Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord who was behind the Beslan school siege in September last year. “Forces of the Caucasus Front — a unit of the Chechen Republic’s Armed Forces — went into the town, including brigades from the Kabardino-Balkarian Yarmuk,” the statement said.

Yarmuk is a militant Islamic group based in Kabardino-Balkaria. It was targeted in a sweep by Russian security forces in January, a month after militants seized weapons from the local offices of the anti-drugs agency. Russian officials denied reports that Mr Basayev was directly involved in yesterday’s attack.

Vladimir Kolesnikov, the Deputy Prosecutor-General, said detained suspects claimed that it was carried out under orders from two wanted militants, one of them an active supporter of Mr Basayev.

Nevertheless, it was the most brazen operation by Chechen rebels since the Beslan siege, in which 331 people were killed, half of whom were children.

It was also their first large operation since Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, a cleric, took over as leader after Russian forces killed Aslan Maskhadov, the Chechen President.

Mr Sadulayev has threatened to broaden the decade-long war against Russian forces in Chechnya to encompass the whole of the North Caucasus.

The Kremlin insists that it is steadily bringing peace and stability to the region, but yesterday’s attack followed a string of smaller ones on republics neighbouring Chechnya over the past year.

The Moscow-based Human Rights Association said in a statement: “The tragedy in Nalchik confirms that assertions by Putin and the ministers of force that Chechnya is on the road back to peace and that almost all the rebel fighters have been eliminated are lies.”

Akhmed Zakayev, a London-based Chechen rebel representative, hailed the Nalchik attack as “a legitimate military operation which took place in the framework of the Caucasus front”. But Dmitry Kozak, Mr Putin’s representative in southern Russia, said that it was a criminal act, especially because it took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Local officials said that yesterday’s fighting began after police started an operation to capture about 10 militants in a suburb of Nalchik. Children were evacuated from Nalchik’s School No. 5, which is near a police station and the anti- terrorism centre, conjuring chilling memories of Beslan. Black smoke billowed from the building as panic-stricken parents searched for their children in the school yard.

At the airport, passengers on one charter flight had to wait inside their plane on the runway as Russian forces drove the rebels back. The rebels also raided a private weapons store.

A woman who gave only her first name, Marina, said that she was waiting for a bus near the weapons store when she saw three men in masks get out of an approaching tractor and start shooting. “We were terrified and just started running,” the 50-year-old woman said.

“I can’t believe this is happening. Everything seemed calm in our republic, but we also sensed that something was wrong, because so many people have come from Chechnya to live here.”

October 13, 2005 at 10:51 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Putin tells West not to interfere in ex-Soviet republics

Putin tells West not to interfere in ex-Soviet republics - World - Times Online

By Michael Binyon
I am no authoritarian and will not alter constitution to seek re-election, Russia’s President declares
RUSSIA will not tolerate outside interference in former Soviet republics or any attempts to destabilise countries on Russia’s borders, President Putin declared last night.

Still angry at the Orange Revolution that toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader in December, Mr Putin denounced non-governmental organisations that were quietly backed by Western governments and fomented uprisings in Moscow’s former sphere of influence.

“Our foreign partners may be making a mistake,” he said during a 2½-hour meeting in the Kremlin with Western academics and journalists, including The Times. “We are not against any changes in the former Soviet Union. We are afraid only that those changes will be chaotic. Otherwise there will be banana republics where he who shouts loudest wins.”

Mr Putin poured scorn on the new Ukrainian Government of President Yushchenko, saying that it was riven by corruption and had caused the collapse of an agreement for a new Russian gas pipeline to Western Europe. He had warned Europe of those consequences, he said, but “no one wanted to listen to us — and we have to be listened to”.

Mr Putin’s confident performance was clearly intended to soften his image in the West, where he is seen as increasingly authoritarian, and to rebut rumours that he was planning to stay on in office when his term expires in 2008.

“No, I am not going to run for president in 2008. No, we are not going to amend the constitution,” he insisted.

He also denied that he was an authoritarian, but said that all states should work out their democratic systems according to their culture and society: “We simply cannot copy everything. That would be counter-productive.”

To the charge that he was trying to introduce some kind of “managed democracy” he replied: “I don’t know what this is. Democracy either exists or it doesn’t exist. It cannot be set apart from the rule of law.”

Mr Putin expressed his shock at the devastation in New Orleans. “It is simply awful. I look at it and can’t believe my eyes. It tells us that, however strong and powerful we believe ourselves, we are nothing in front of nature and God almighty.”

He said he had ordered helicopters and planeloads of emergency aid to be made ready if the US asked for them. He had not personally spoken to “George”, but his officials were in daily contact with their US counterparts.

But on the highly contentious issue of Iran he was less emollient. He expressedconcern over Tehran’s nuclear programmes, but insisted that it had done nothing illegal to date, and should not yet be referred to the UN Security Council. Everybody had to move cautiously and sensibly, on this issue and North Korea. That would be “a great achievement of international diplomacy”.

Mr Putin was predictably uncompromising over Chechnya. Speaking only two days after receiving a delegation of bereaved mothers from Beslan, he said Shamil Basayev, who masterminded the school’s seizure, had to be caught or eliminated as soon as possible. He condemned Western news outlets that, hiding behind “some demagogic rhetoric” about freedom of expression, had given him and other terrorists the platform of publicity.

Mr Putin said Russia’s relations with China were now better than they had been for at least 40 years. He tried to allay worries that the recent joint military manoeuvres were intended as a warning and said that this new closeness represented no threat to Japan or Korea.

But he referred sarcastically to Japan’s attempts to resolve the dispute over the Kurile Islands, arguing that Russia was ready to do a deal in 1956.

Mr Putin was equally scathing about attempts by Estonia and Latvia to reopen a border dispute with Russia. He said that he had been willing to sign a deal with Estonia — even though it had refused to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of VE Day in Moscow in May — because he believed it was time to turn a new page.

But Estonia’s Parliament had tried to insert language from a 1920 treaty that Russia found “absolutely unacceptable”, and which would set a precedent for reopening any number of territorial rows in Europe. What would it mean for the border between Poland and Germany, he asked? Mr Putin said Russia’s economic outlook was extremely bright, largely because of high oil prices. But he insisted that the country would not spend the windfall earnings irresponsibly, or fuel inflation. He wanted to invest the money in a stability fund, encouraging high technology, boosting health, housing and science, and repaying Russia’s loans.

But he accepted that corruption throughout Russia was still a big problem, as it was in all countries in transition. He laughed when asked about corruption within the Kremlin itself, insisting that officials who sat on the boards of state companies were there simply to guard state interests.

Mr Putin, a committed Christian, said that religion had a big place to play in Russia, and the Government, without dictating to churches or mosques, would do everything to restore property to them and help them to expand. Russia had built dozens of new mosques and synagogues recently, including the largest synagogue in Europe. He said it was also considering a proper commemoration of the Holocaust, including perhaps even the building of a Holocaust museum.

September 8, 2005 at 09:13 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Ukraine's Orange Revolution starts to go pear-shaped

Ukraine's Orange Revolution starts to go pear-shaped - World - Times Online

By Jeremy Page
President sacks Government for failing to root out corruption and economic mismanagement
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO of Ukraine sacked his entire Government yesterday as infighting and allegations of corruption tore apart the team that led the Orange Revolution last year.

Mr Yushchenko dismissed the Cabinet of Yuliya Tymo-shenko, his charismatic Prime Minister, severing the partnership that brought hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters on to the streets of Kiev last November. He also accepted the resignation of Petro Poroshenko, a key sponsor of the Orange Revolution, as head of the National Defence and Security Council in the climax of a fierce power struggle within the administration. “

These people remain my friends. It is very difficult but today I must cut this Gordian knot,” said Mr Yushchenko, looking sombre but calm after wielding the knife. I do not want any more the intrigues between two or three people that were determining state policy.” His emphatic move came less than a week after Oleksandr Zinchenko, the architect of the Orange Revolution, resigned as his chief of staff, accusing the Administration of being even more corrupt than its predecessor.

It was a dramatic attempt by the President to reassure an increasingly disillusioned public that he would stick to his pledges to root out the corruption and economic mismanagement that plagued Ukraine under Leonid Kuchma, the previous President.

“We are witnessing a paradox,” Mr Yushchenko said. “Many new faces have come to power, but the face of power has not changed.”

His actions raised fears that the feisty Mrs Tymoshenko, arguably the most inspirational figure in the Orange Revolution, would join the opposition or call her supporters out on to the streets again.

She is due to make a statement on television today that could determine whether Ukraine continues along its path towards integration with the West or descends again into civil unrest. “She will speak to the people of Ukraine,” Vitaly Tchepinoga, her spokesman, told The Times.

Mrs Tymoshenko’s glamorous looks and fiery rhetoric inspired many of the protesters who helped to overturn a rigged presidential election last November and sweep Mr Yushchenko to power. But her popularity has waned because of her Government’s poor record and she is widely despised in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine because of her anti-Russian views and links to big business.

Mr Yushchenko appointed Yury Yekhanurov, the Governor of the western region of Dnipropetrovsk, as acting Prime Minister and asked him to form a new Cabinet. Mr Yekhanurov, 57, served as Mr Yushchenko’s deputy when he was Prime Minister in 2000 and is considered a loyal and reform-minded technocrat who can better balance Ukraine’s relations with the West and Russia.

In his first public remarks after learning of his appointment, Mr Yekhanurov said: “I have one goal, to ensure stability. That’s why my task right now is to form a government.”

The crisis prompted calls for stability both from Western governments, which backed Mr Yushchenko during the revolution, and from Russia, which supported his opponent.

President Putin of Russia said that he had spoken to Mr Yushchenko by telephone to offer his support. It was a clear indication of Moscow’s dislike for Mrs Tymoshenko. She is still wanted in Russia on charges — which she says are politically motivated — of bribing Russian Defence Ministry officials when she was head of Ukraine’s gas monopoly in the 1990s. Mr Putin said: “Ukraine is going through a complicated stage of its development.”

Analysts blamed the crisis on a power struggle between Mrs Tymoshenko, nicknamed the Gas Princess in the 1990s, and Mr Poroshenko, a confectionery and media tycoon dubbed the Chocolate King.

The three joined forces last year to oppose Mr Kuchma’s chosen successor, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who wanted to forge closer ties with Russia. But after the revolution Mr Poroshenko was disappointed not to have been appointed Prime Minister and built up a rival power base that clashed regularly and publicly with Mrs Tymoshenko. That rivalry was at the heart of a series of public disputes that have marred Mr Yushchenko’s presidency, notably over energy policy and the reprivatisation of assets sold in rigged auctions in the 1990s.

Nikolai Tomenko, a Deputy Prime Minister who also resigned yesterday, said that there were in effect two governments in Ukraine, one run by Mrs Tymoshenko and the other by Mr Poroshenko. “I do not want to share responsibility with those who have created a system of corruption,” Mr Tomenko said. The infighting boiled over last weekend when Mr Zinchenko, who co-ordinated Mr Yushchenko’s election campaign, resigned and accused Mr Poroshenko and another top presidential aide, of corruption.

Sources close to Mr Yushchenko said that he had tried to get Mr Poroshenko to resign along with some members of Mrs Tymoshenko’s team to maintain the balance of power between the two factions. But Mrs Tymoshenko had refused.

“He was left with no choice. In some ways, this house cleaning should have been done a lot earlier,” one source close to Mr Yushchenko said. “The issue now is how the public reacts.”

Analysts say that plans for Mr Yushchenko and Mrs Tymoshenko to join forces to fight the election are no longer realistic.

AMBER FUTURE

November 2004 Official count gives presidential election victory to Viktor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister. With reports of vote-rigging, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko begins a campaign of street protest. Supreme Court annuls the poll result

December 2004 Yushchenko wins the poll count after a rerun of the election

January 2005 Yanukovych’s challenge is rejected by the Supreme Court and Yushchenko is sworn in as President

February 2005 Yuliya Tymoshenko, the President’s nominee for Prime Minister, is approved by parliament

March 2005 Yushchenko says suspected killers of the journalist Georgy Gongadze, a critic of the previous administration, are in custody and accuses the former authorities of a cover-up

April 2005 Tymoshenko cancels her first official visit to Moscow. Tension heightens between Moscow and Kiev

September 2005 Oleksandr Zinchenko resigns as Yushchenko’s chief of staff and accuses officials of corruption. The President dismisses the Government

September 8, 2005 at 08:31 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Freedom is priceless, Walesa tells Poland

Telegraph | News | Freedom is priceless, Walesa tells Poland

By Matthew Day in Warsaw
(Filed: 30/08/2005)

Lech Walesa celebrated the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Solidarity trade union yesterday by telling Poles that "freedom is priceless".

The union, which he helped to found, would go down in history for uniting the nation in one of its darkest hours, the electrician and Nobel prize winner said.

His speech to parliament was part of a series of events commemorating Solidarity's birth and its role in destroying communism and tearing down the Iron Curtain.

Recognisable as ever by his walrus moustache, he said: "We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless."

A strike he led at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980 triggered a wave of national protest at Poland's communist regime and widespread food shortages.

Confronted by growing unrest, the government was forced to recognise Solidarity, which then became the eastern bloc's first free union.

It was outlawed under martial law in 1981 but returned to the forefront of national life and helped to topple the communists in 1989, a year of revolutions across the east. Mr Walesa, now 61, went on to be Polish president between 1990 and 1995.

"The role of Solidarity in the downfall of communism was enormous because it showed the world that workers do not like communism," said Richard Pipes, the US historian and adviser to the late president Ronald Reagan.

In fact, for many Poles, the events set in motion a quarter of a century ago only reached their conclusion last year when Poland joined the European Union.

The celebrations will culminate tomorrow with a Mass and concert outside the shipyard gates. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, will represent Britain, but Russia has reportedly failed to respond to its invitation.

However, despite efforts to recapture the spirit of 1980, events have been overshadowed by acrimony between Solidarity's old leaders.

Andrzej Gwiazda, its former vice-president, accused Mr Walesa of betraying its principles and has boycotted the celebrations.

Typically abrasive in his reply, Mr Walesa poured scorn on his critics. "Ask these people what they have done in the past 25 years," he said. "What have they participated in? It's a pity that they did not help in building a new reality in Poland."

Other veterans feel that Mr Walesa turned his back on the union's principles when Poland's shift to capitalism led to rising inequality and unemployment.

"We fought for free trade unions and our main ideal was to help people," said Henryka Krzywonos, one of the original strike's leaders. "But now the system does not provide enough for people to live in dignity."

Critics on the Right accuse Mr Walesa of being a communist pawn acting on orders to prevent a "real" anti-communist revolution.

But yesterday the man himself dismissed such conspiracy theories. "In front of God, I declare that there was no manipulation," he said.

The rifts in Solidarity have also hastened its demise. Membership has slumped to 700,000 and it will not contest parliamentary elections next month, the first time it has missed out since 1989.

At the same time, and as a testimony to the power the Solidarity name still wields, many of the parties that are fielding candidates are jostling to portray themselves as its heirs.

Even a party comprised of communists has laid claim to Solidarity's social agenda, arguing that more should be done to combat poverty.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.

August 29, 2005 at 09:59 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Russia is now ripe for freedom revolution, warns Solzhenitsyn

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online

From Jeremy Page in Moscow
THE former dissident author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has emerged from three years in obscurity with a warning that Russia could face a Ukrainian-style revolution.

The 86-year-old Nobel laureate, who spent ten years in the Soviet gulag, said in his first television interview since 2002 that Russia was not backsliding on democracy because it had never been truly democratic.

�It is often said that democracy is being taken away from us and that there is a threat to our democracy. What democracy is threatened? Power of the people? We don�t have it,� he told Rossiya, the state-run channel.

�We have nothing that resembles democracy. We are trying to build democracy without self-governance. Before anything, we must begin to build a system so that the people can manage their own destinies.�

He said that the State Duma, dominated by the Kremlin�s supporters, was acting �as if it were drunk� and the country could face an upheaval similar to last year�s Orange Revolution in Ukraine if the Government did not change course.

�An Orange Revolution may take place if tensions between the public and the authorities flare up and money begins flowing to the opposition,� he said.

Solzhenitsyn is the latest prominent figure to re-ignite political debate in Russia since President Putin backtracked on democratic reforms this year by abolishing direct elections for regional governors. But the author did not give his backing to the liberal Opposition.

Instead, he condemned Russia�s Parliament and all its political parties, as well as criticising the United States for trying to impose democracy on other countries. �Democracy is not worth a brass farthing if it is being installed by bayonets. Democracy should grow slowly and gradually.�

He also pointed out that the local elections abolished by Mr Putin�s new legislation were distorted by corruption and organised crime. Analysts said that might explain why the interview was aired on Rossiya, the Government�s mouthpiece.

Solzhenitsyn is regarded as one of Russia�s few independent moral and political authorities but is often criticised in the West for his nationalism and religious orthodoxy. In a previous televised interview, he attacked Mr Putin for failing to crack down on the oligarchs, the two dozen businessmen who bought state assets cheaply in the privatisations of the 1990s. President Putin is under fire in the West precisely because of the state�s legal assault on one oligarchs, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The oil tycoon was jailed for nine years last week after what was seen as a Kremlin-orchestrated show trial to punish a potential political rival and seize his property.

Vladimir Kolesnikov, Russia�s Deputy Prosecutor General, told NTV television late on Sunday that there could be more such trials. �I can say one thing, [Khodorkovsky�s] case will not be the last.�

Solzhenitsyn appeared to have no sympathy for the fallen oil magnate. �The world has never seen such rapid privatisation,� he said. �The world has never seen such idiots. They gave away our God-given resources at lightning speed � oil, nonferrous metals, coal, production. They fully robbed Russia. From scratch, from nothing we bred billionaires who have done nothing for Russia.�

A life in exile
# Spent ten years in the Soviet gulag after he wrote a letter criticising Joseph Stalin in 1945
# One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, his account of life in the gulag, made him famous when it was published in 1962 and translated into 35 languages
# In 1970 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature
# He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974 for writing The Gulag Archipelago, a history of the labour camp system in Soviet Russia
# He continued to write as an exile in Switzerland and the US before returning to Russia in 1994 after a pardon from Mikhail Gorbachev

June 6, 2005 at 08:25 PM in Russia | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Moonlight Maze

The Moonlight Maze of secret cyberwar gossip.

As we approach the end of 1999, dear reader, you cannot help but notice that secret cyberwars aimed at the Pentagon seem to be occurring every day. Although the average citizen sees no trace or serious bad effect from them, they are there, claim our national security mandarins.

Russian hackers, Chinese hackers, French hackers -- all are or could be in merciless combat against the electronic forces of the Pentagon, looting ill-defined precious national secrets from under the noses of our guardians.

As we approach the end of 1999, dear reader, you cannot help but notice that secret cyberwars aimed at the Pentagon seem to be occurring every day. Although the average citizen sees no trace or serious bad effect from them, they are there, claim our national security mandarins.

Russian hackers, Chinese hackers, French hackers -- all are or could be in merciless combat against the electronic forces of the Pentagon, looting ill-defined precious national secrets from under the noses of our guardians.

And the loud trumpet of terror this month is Moonlight Maze.

But first, we'll go back a bit in time, to the first quarter of 1999, to see how it started.

In the first half of March, Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre claimed the United States was in a cyberwar -- under attack by hackers.

In a story in the March 1 issue of Defense Week, reporters John Donnelly and Vince Crawley wrote that John Hamre had revealed to Congressman Curt Weldon the "details" of an on-going cyberattack.

"We are at war right now. We are in a cyberwar," John Hamre was said to have claimed. The secret cyberwar was dubbed Moonlight Maze.

Although information was vague then, as it is now, the activity which caused the Pentagon reaction was a slow, extended series of probes seemingly aimed at an Air Force Information Warfare Center (AFIWC) server in San Antonio, Texas. AFIWC -- like most military sites -- is a high profile target for hackers, mostly because of the continuing publicity surrounding the agency's efforts in information warfare.

In addition, the alarms appeared very similar in nature to warning announcements made by SHADOW, a somewhat publicity hungry Navy computer security operation with a fancy acronym in Dahlgren, Virginia, in September of 1998. SHADOW's leader at the time, computer security administrator Stephen Northcutt, has since been associated with the private sector and appears from time to time to announce the approach of various Net menaces. (Most recently Northcutt has appeared as a pitchman for a computer security company's services in detecting boobytrapped software allegedly installed by programmers and the enemies of democracy under the cover of Y2K remediation. The cynics among the readership may notice four similar characteristics between Moonlight Maze and the dread menace of Y2K programmers sapping and impurifying our bodily fluids with software boobytraps: (1) unknown foreigners -- usually ex- or unreconstructed commies -- are involved; (2) more anonymous sources than you can shake a stick at; (3) Congressional hearings which say nothing; (4) shills for computer security vendors employing both as advertisements.)

All of this information on Moonlight Maze was in the public domain by the end of the first quarter of 1999.

Seeing potential enemies everywhere in cyberspace, Hamre also turned the glare of the professional paranoid on his own: "We are increasingly concerned about those who have legitimate access to our networks -- the trusted insider," he said for Defense Week.

And in a gesture that resembled the rumblings of the "Un-American Activities" hysteria of the Fifties, when citizens were asked to staunchly proclaim that were loyal to America, Hamre said he was now instituting "an oral attestation" in which DoD people who have access to Top Secret material or compartments affirm "they will conform to the conditions and responsibilities imposed by that access."

David Kennedy of the International Computer Security Association reflected in a memo to Crypt News, "[Some] details seem to be ignored in all the [current] 'Pentagon Hacks' reporting:"

"[Detection of an attack] is a function of one's ability to observe. [The Pentagon] has dramatically improved its ID capabilities and [it is] now able to observe what was in all likelihood, already there."

"Finally, for two years running Deputy Secretary Hamre has made dramatic announcements of the Pentagon being under attack just as budget submissions are going in," wrote Kennedy. "Last year it was Feb 25, 1998 -- three teenagers and 'the most organized and systematic' attack DoD had seen."

"So far, none of the [mainstream] reports I've seen have considered the possibility DoD is social engineering the Congress, media and public to bolster their Fiscal Year 2000 budget request."

(Note: Coincidentally, on October 8 the Pentagon ran a dog-and-pony show in Norfolk, Virginia, in which a number of DoD bigwigs including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense William Cohen ballyhooed the opening of a new US military center for "cyberwar" to be headquartered at Colorado Springs. "To combat the expanding threat of cyberwarfare, the Pentagon established a new center on Thursday to defend the United States from hackers and to plot ways to attack an enemy's computer network," read one account of it which ran in the New York Times. "In future wars, U.S. cyberwarriors will try to disable air defense systems, upset logistics and infect software [with computer viruses] . . . according to [an anonymous] Pentagon official.")

After a spate of news stories piggybacking on the Defense News revelations in March of this year, Moonlight Maze died away for awhile.

Then, in a London Sunday Times piece published on July 25, Hamre's "we're in a cyberwar" quote was resurrected once again to ring the bell for "electronic Pearl Harbor" in a story that implied Russian hackers were stealing US information treasure via the Internet.

Entitled "Russian Hackers Steal US Weapons Secrets," the article breathlessly proclaimed: "The intelligence heist, that could cause damage to America in excess of that caused by Chinese espionage in nuclear laboratories, involved computer hacking over the past six months."

However, it was apparent even then that a significant part of the US military devoted to computer security operations was either ignorant of the Moonlight Maze secret "cyberwar" or not particularly interested in it.

In an article that ran in Defense Daily, a trade publication, two days after the London Sunday Times piece, Navy Captain Bob West, deputy commander of the Pentagon's Joint Task Force on Computer Network Defense said: "The odds of the U.S. being attacked on line by a foreign nation state in some kind of cyberwar in the near future are probably pretty low."

The Sunday Times story was pumped up by a great deal of anonymous government and military sources uttering baleful warnings. It maintained: "Besides military computer systems, private research and development institutes have been plundered in the same operation. Such institutes are reluctant to discuss losses, which experts claim may amount to hundreds of millions of dollars."

The London Sunday Times wrote that secret documents had been stolen but that the US military could not determine what was in them or which ones, precisely, had been stolen -- which would seem to constitute a somewhat ludicrous contradiction in terms.

Further, this information -- claimed the Times -- had been revealed at a private computer security conference by an employee of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR).

The Times article speculated that either Russia or China could be behind the "cyberwar" that only the Pentagon can see because: ". . . Russia's relations with America have reached their lowest ebb since the cold war because of NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia. Relations with China have also suffered. An offensive in cyberspace may be their one way of retaliating without getting into a shooting war."

The London paper also speculated that Russian organized crime might be behind Moonlight Maze, and that: "China, Libya and Iraq are developing information warfare capabilities and, according to one White House official, 'we see well-funded terrorist groups that also have such capabilities'."

The London Sunday Times piece set a hallmark by which subsequent stories in the US media on Moonlight Maze could be judged:

That is -- Moonlight Maze stories are recognizable by their almost complete reliance upon gossip and speculation; their complete lack of definition in the who, what and where categories; and a stupefying preponderance of anonymous sources from the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and/or the private computer security industry speculating or expostulating for journalists.

Throughout the latter part of the summer, reporters from the mainstream media contacted Crypt Newsletter about Moonlight Maze. The story had taken on a life of its own even though there was a complete lack of substantive evidence to go by. It was clear that Moonlight Maze was going to enjoy a second lifetime in the news and, indeed, a media cascade resulted in the second week of October, mostly built upon a wave of copycat reporting and inconclusive statements about the affair made in a Congressional hearing that week.

All of the reporters contacting Crypt Newsletter for comment had one thing in common.

They were all working from the exact same script. In addition to being inspired by the London Sunday Times piece, they all said or wrote that one "anonymous" source in "the Pentagon" was telling them that "Russian hackers" working off of the "Russian Academy of Sciences'" Internet domain were "involved."

This being the case, one could not totally rule out the possibility that someone within, connected to or formerly connected with the Pentagon or Department of Defense was attempting to pump this story into the mainstream U.S. media for the usual "cyber-scare" purposes.

On September 13, Newsweek's Gregory Vistica "We're In The Middle Of A Cyberwar" rolled out the old quote attributed to Hamre from the first quarter of the year.

Vistica's article reported nothing new from the London Sunday Times, but did republish, unattributed, much of its quote, tone and phraseology.

"Russian hackers may have pulled off what could be the most damaging breach ever of U.S. computer security . . ." writes Vistica.

"This was, Pentagon officials [anonymous, of course] say flatly, 'a state-sponsored Russian intelligence effort to get U.S. technology' -- as far as is known, the first such attempt ever by Russia," wrote Newsweek.

In response to the growing media hubbub created by Vistica's article, Michael Vatis, the head of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, was questioned about it in a Congressional subcommittee meeting on technology and terrorism on Wednesday, October 8.

Articles immediately resulted from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Reuters. None reported anything that hadn't been written about from earlier in the year. All repeated the same nebulous quote. All, to varying degrees, attempted to make the case that Moonlight Maze had resulted in the loss of unspecified national security treasure to unspecified parties.

On October 6, "Cyber Blitz Traced To Russia, FBI Says," was a story issued by Reuters.

"A major effort to pierce U.S. government and private-sector computer networks seems to have originated in Russia, a top U.S. law-enforcement officer told Congress Wednesday," wrote Reuters.

In Moonlight Maze, Vatis said intruders had stolen ``unclassified but still-sensitive information about essentially defense technical research matters.''

This was a quote, the substance of which would be repeated in every subsequent story on Moonlight Maze.

``About the furthest I can go is to say the intrusions appear to originate in Russia,'' Vatis said.

A Pentagon public relations officer "said the Defense Department knew of no classified information that had been jeopardized in the Moonlight Maze intrusions."

On October 7, the New York Times checked in with a story entitled "Computer Intruders Apparently From Russia, Senate Panel Is Told."

"Intruders who stole sensitive information on Defense Department weapons during a widespread series of attacks on government and private computer networks are apparently based in Russia, an FBI official told a Congressional panel . . ." wrote the Times, referring to NIPC's Michael Vatis.

Lost in much of the overheated coverage on Moonlight Maze was Vatis testimony before Congress that most computer security breakdowns can be traced to insiders.

"Senator Robert F. Bennett, a Utah Republican who is chairman of a special Senate committee that is overseeing Year 2000 efforts . . . [said] 'The challenge of information warfare will be the No. 1 security issue for the next administration," wrote the Times.

Bennett, wrote the Times, proposed an "electronic FEMA" to combat cyberterror.

This was completely unremarkable. Over the years, stories about secret cyberwars and hackers plundering our national treasure tend to be chock full of suggestions for creating new law enforcement or military agencies designed to protect us from them.

Also on October 7, the Los Angeles Times filed a front page story entitled "Yearlong Hacker Attack Nets Sensitive US Data."

The LA Times' story, while lengthy, was par for the course in that it produced no new information on Moonlight Maze.

It did state, however, that Wednesday marked "the first public confirmation of Moonlight Maze." This was, as we have read, flat-out wrong.

The Los Angeles Times article was, however, quite notable for its excessive reliance on anonymous sources passing on innuendo, speculation, hypotheses and half-baked theories on the matter.

Some excerpts:

" . . . circumstantial evidence points heavily toward a Russia-based intelligence gathering operation, officials said."

"'There are strong indications and it's our belief, that it's coming from Russia and that it may be a sponsored activity,' a senior Energy Department official said."

"Another computer security expert called Moonlight Maze 'the longest-running and most widespread attack we've seen. It's not been stopped . . . It's not even clear why. But the consequences are potentially huge."

"One US intelligence veteran, now a Senate staff member, said that the Internet has created huge new opportunities, as well as frightening vulnerabilities, for spy agencies around the world. 'Think of it . . . You can sit anywhere in the world now and run a spy operation.'"

"A senior White House official said that the evidence so clearly points to Russia that it almost seems like a deliberate diversion."

"Other intelligence experts argued that skilled hackers hired by Russian organized crime elements may be probing for commercially valuable information."

"Some experts suggested that France, a longtime proponent of economic espionage, may be the ultimate customer. That theory also remains unproved, however . . . "

Which would seem indisputable.

Crypt Newsletter asks the reader to pose these questions: Why are all the "sources" on Moonlight Maze anonymous? Why does the mainstream media persist in giving them a free ride? Why cannot anyone say what, precisely, has been stolen? Since when does a theory or hypothesis about unknown "hackers" constitute evidence of what is happening? Why can it not be said precisely what national security interests have been damaged, if this is so serious? And why has this news story been repeated from March in the year with no substantial addition of information?

There has been one doubting Thomas in the media with regard to Moonlight Maze.

On September 27, 1999, Federal Computer Week published a story on "Moonlight Maze" by reporter Dan Verton. Entitled "Russia hacking stories refuted," the piece stated flatly, "DOD sources say U.S. military secrets were not compromised."

Bias disclosure: Crypt Newsletter was a quoted source in this article.

". . . Pentagon officials and security experts refute claims that the Russian government officially took part in a computer break-in that reportedly resulted in the theft of sensitive naval codes and missile-guidance data," wrote FCW.

". . . a DOD spokesperson called recent media coverage of [Moonlight Maze] 'a combination of outright fabrications, distortions and incorrect quotations,' adding that military secrets were not compromised."

One of the anonymous sources peddling the story of Moonlight Maze through the summer, "who works for a major Internet domain registration firm, said he found copies of DOD duty rosters, network maps and photographs of DOD facilities residing on servers belonging to [the alleged attackers]," wrote FCW.

"As far as the pictures of DOD facilities and other materials that sources claim to have found on Russian systems, [Crypt Newsletter] said that type of material can be found in many places on the Internet."

" 'Portions of DOD are prone to yell cyberwar at just about any potential misuse of cyberspace,'" CN added.

A sampling of the incongruity in reporting on Moonlight Maze:

From Newsweek reporter Greg Vistica: "This was, Pentagon officials say flatly, 'a state-sponsored Russian intelligence effort to get U.S. technology' -- as far as is known, the first such attempt ever by Russia."

From Federal Computer Week: ". . . Pentagon officials and security experts refute claims that the Russian government officially took part in a computer break-in that reportedly resulted in the theft of sensitive naval codes and missile-guidance data."

From Federal Computer Week: ". . . a DOD spokesperson called recent media coverage of [Moonlight Maze] 'a combination of outright fabrications, distortions and incorrect quotations,' adding that military secrets were not compromised."

From the London Sunday Times:

"The intel