at-Largely

Russian Artist Anna Mikhalchuk found dead...

H/T Patrick:

"BERLIN, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - Controversial Russian artist Anna Mikhalchuk, found dead in Germany, has been identified by a DNA test, police in Berlin said on Friday, reiterating that the case was an apparent suicide.

Mikhalchuk, reported missing on March 21, was earlier identified by her husband by her wedding ring. Her body was found in the River Spree in central Berlin on April 10.

"The DNA test proved the drowned woman is 52-year-old Anna Mikhalchuk," police spokesman Norbert Gunkel said. "No traces of violence were found on her body, and an autopsy showed she drowned in the river."

Commenting on media reports suggesting the artist's death could be linked to her activities in Russia, the police officer said there is not yet evidence of this.

"There are not sufficient grounds for this version of events," the police officer said, adding that toxicology tests were still to be carried out, and that a final conclusion would be made by prosecutors.

In Russia, Mikhalchuk, also known as Anna Alchuk, was charged with inciting religious hatred after taking part in a controversial art exhibition focusing on religion in 2003, but was acquitted in 2005.

Much of the artwork displayed at the 2003 Moscow exhibition entitled 'Caution, Religion! was vandalized during the show. These included a painting of Jesus Christ's face imposed on a Coca-Cola logo next to the words "This is My Blood".' (source)

It could be possible that she took her own life. Then again, given what we know about Putin's soldiers of death, I think a full investigation is in order.

Start with the Italian...

There is a fascinating article out in the Guardian (h/t to Chris for the heads up) about the Litvinenko case, which I had covered for a while.  First let's go through the main points of what my investigation uncovered:

"Former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who passed away late last week from what many intelligence officials have indicated they believe to be a state-sponsored assassination, was likely the victim of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR)"

And likely FSB IMHO, by I digress - as I often do:

"Specifically, two former Cold War CIA officers, who still on occasion provide consulting work for the CIA, point to the S Directorate of SVR, which is in charge of black operations and other allegedly highly illegal transnational activities. They believe that the murders are closely tied to terrorist activities within Russia, and likely do involve Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning from a rare and highly concentrated isotope, polonium-210. It is alleged that prior to the poisoning he had been in receipt of documents that were also in the possession of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya when she was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in her Moscow apartment building in October of this year."

<snip>

"However, one British intelligence officer, who wished to remain anonymous given that the investigation is still ongoing, suggested a different possibility. "You should start," says this source, "with the Italian." The Italian in question is Mario Scaramella, the contact whom Litvinenko met at the sushi bar to discuss the case of Anna Politkovskaya.

Scaramella, an expert on the former Soviet Union, does indeed appear to have both a relationship with the Russian FSB and some knowledge of radioactive materials. According to an account by BBC International Monitoring, originally from an Italian source, in 2004 Scaramella brought to the attention of Italian police an attempt to smuggle highly enriched uranium into Italy"

And I did...

Moscow to Britain: Don't bother coming back...

Well then, no more kotlety for the British diplomatic corps:

"The Foreign Ministry is warning Britain not to follow through with its plans to reopen two British Council offices next week, saying the move would inflame already tense relations between the countries.

The ministry last month ordered offices of the British Council in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg to close as of Jan. 1. The offices are closed for the extended New Year's and Orthodox Christmas holidays, but British officials say they will defy the order and resume operations on Monday.

Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said he expected the operations to be permanently closed and "any other actions would be provocative and build up bilateral tensions."

<snip>

"If there is a law we don't comply with, the Russian government has yet to point it out," she said by telephone from London.

British Council officials have been in contact with the Russian government, seeking an agreement that would allow the offices to open without incident, Board said.

The order against the British Council comes amid high tensions stemming from the 2006 killing in London of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko. Russia has refused Britain's request to extradite the man it considers the main suspect; this summer Britain expelled four Russian diplomats to protest Moscow's stance, and Russia in turn kicked out four British diplomats."

Suspected Polonium Hit-Man Elected to Russian Parliament...

Well isn't this special?

"With the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party clearing the 7 percent threshold to enter Parliament, one of its new leaders, Andrei K. Lugovoi, is expected to receive a seat.

Mr. Lugovoi is the former K.G.B. officer accused in Britain in the fatal radiation poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko. Britain has sought Mr. Lugovoi’s extradition, but Russia has refused. Once he enters Parliament, Mr. Lugovoi will have immunity from prosecution in Russia.

Among the most startling results from the election Sunday were those in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, which is run by a strongman leader installed by Mr. Putin. United Russia won 99.4 percent of the vote in Chechnya, officials said, with a turnout of 99.5 percent."

Thanks to dqueue for pointing this out in the comments.

Ah, finally, someone notices the Russian murders...

From WaPo:

"THIRTEEN journalists have been killed in Russia since Vladimir Putin became president seven years ago. Not one of their cases has been solved. So the announcement Monday that 10 people had been arrested for involvement in the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya last October represents a kind of progress. Unfortunately, Mr. Putin's government hasn't stopped its cynical attempt to politicize the case -- or to protect those who sponsored the slaying.

<snip>

That there have been arrests, including those of current and former police officers and a lieutenant colonel in the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB, is probably due to Ms. Politkovskaya's newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. This small, independent organization courageously conducted its own investigation of her murder and shared its findings with police. In an editorial published Tuesday, the paper's editors said Novaya Gazeta had identified those arrested as suspects and described them as members of two criminal gangs that cooperated with each other."

Courageous is right given the circumstances. I remember a time when such blatant murder of journalists would have elicited a serious response from the U.S. That time has long gone.

"Where the newspaper and Russian authorities part ways is on who might have ordered and paid for the murder. At a news conference, Mr. Putin's chief prosecutor claimed that conspirators based outside Russia were responsible, a theory first floated by the president himself days after the event. The prosecutor didn't name the suspect he obviously had in mind; that was left to former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, who held his own news conference to say that Boris Berezovsky, the former tycoon exiled in London, was responsible. The seriousness of that charge can be deduced from the fact that Mr. Lugovoi is Scotland Yard's prime suspect in the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London a month after Ms. Politkovskaya's slaying. Mr. Putin has been shielding Mr. Lugovoi and an alleged accomplice from British prosecution; his propagandists claim that Mr. Berezovsky is also behind the London assassination.

Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, said repeatedly this week that there is no basis for the government's claim of foreign sponsorship of Ms. Politkovskaya's killing. Rather, his paper suggested, Mr. Putin probably intends to use the lie that foreigners are sponsoring deadly plots against Russia as a theme in a domestic political campaign before parliamentary elections this year. Blaming an international conspiracy -- Mr. Berezovsky happens to be Jewish -- also will have the effect of shielding those who had the money and clout to hire Chechen gangsters and a senior FSB officer to kill the journalist. There's no public evidence that Mr. Putin or his associates ordered the killing of Ms. Politkovskaya, Mr. Litvinenko, or other journalists and critics who have troubled the regime. It's clear, however, that they don't want their cases to be solved." (emph mine)

I would disagree there is no evidence pointing to Putin, but I have written about this so many times that repeating again will just bore people to tears.

But I will leave you folks with a few questions (based on what Novaya Gazeta and the Russian authorities agree on): former and current FSB and police authorities were involved along with the Chechen mafia. Now I ask you, why would it take 10 people to kill one woman? Why would the FSB official's role be as well as the police authorities? Most importantly, why would the killings be contracted out to the Chechen mafia, as opposed to the Russian mafia, or other criminal elements? Think about that.

Pavel Ryaguzov

More details on  Anna Politkovskaya murder emerge:

"Investigators' success was tempered somewhat by news that members of the Federal Security Service or FSB, a police major and three former police officers also played a role in the killing. An FSB general lieutenant told the First Channel that Pavel Ryaguzov, a lieutenant colonel in the agency was among those arrested. Izvestia also learned of the involvement of three Chechen brothers and a Chechen businessman, Akhmed Isayev, who had business ties to Malik Saidullayev, a prominent Chechen millionaire."

The Prosecutor General also said that this was a "contract killing" from abroad, clearly alluding to Boris Berezovsky.

"The prosecutor-general didn't name names when referring to the Kremlin's alleged foreign enemies, but he appeared to be referring to one person: Boris Berezovsky, the former Kremlin insider turned fierce Putin critic who is living in exile in London."

I don't know if Berezovsky is involved, given that nothing relating to his alleged involvement has been released. I suspect that if the Kremlinites had proof of Berezovsky's involvement, they would have had it all over the news, silk screened onto t-shirts, embossed, engraved, and delivered by every conceivable distribution mechanism to the entire planet. Remember that Berezovsky is public enemy #1 and considered a traitor. If there had been evidence, it would have been widely released.  Alluding to Berezovsky live and in living color without presenting any shred of evidence suggests to me
that the Kremlinites are trying to distract from the alarming - although not unexpected - news that an FSB lieutenant colonel and 3 high level police officers were involved.

Obviously I have a great many questions. Right now, however, I am very curious about any possible relationship that Ryaguzov has with Andre Lugovi, the man wanted in Britain for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Anna's Killers?

Now this is an interesting development regarding Anna Politkovskaya's murder:

The group suspected of killing the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was led by an ethnic Chechen organised crime boss, Russian authorities said today.

Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general, also told a press conference that the killers included serving government officers.

"The group was headed by a leader of a Moscow criminal group of Chechen origin," Mr Chaika said. "We have evidence that this group took part in the killing of [the US journalist] Paul Klebnikov ... Unfortunately, this group included retired and acting interior ministry and FSB (Federal Security Service) officers."

So retired and still active interior ministry and FSB officials were involved in her murder? Um, should that not be the lead?  There is more, however:

"Her last incomplete article, published last October, contained allegations of torture by pro-Russian Chechen security forces. Her newspaper, Noveya Gazeta, carried eyewitness accounts and photos of people with injuries said to have been sustained under torture.

Politkovskaya's colleagues from Noveya Gazeta cautiously welcomed the 10 arrests. Vyacheslav Izmailov, a friend and columnist on the paper, said few details of the arrests had been made public."

Yes, the torture and of  course the unmentioned other  political crimes (Beslon) carried out by pro-Russian Chechens. Here is the problem though, in a region that is fighting against the Russians for its independence, pro-Russian Chechens would be working with Russian military, law enforcement, and intelligence officers. And pro-Russian Chechen mafia leaders would without doubt be working for Russian intelligence. So, the way I read this is that on the orders of the FSB (which does not act alone, take that as you will), their proxy agents in Chechen organized crime were given a contract to take out Anna P and also Paul Klebnikov.  That is called a state sponsored assassination.

For those who do not understand the enormity of the crime, let me give you a hypothetical example:

Let's say American journalist John Doe was investigating crimes committed by anti-Castro Cubans, including political dirty jobs for the US government and that John Doe finally had enough evidence to tie this hypothetical group of Cubans to acts of terrorism in the US as well as acts of terrorism, torture, and murder in Cuba. John Doe is shot point-blank in the head at his home on the birthday of a then current US President. Nearly a year later, we find out that current and former members of the FBI/CIA and the Interior Department ordered a group of anti-Castro Cubans to kill John Doe.

You see how unlikely it is that it was a group of low level, bad apples, operating without any knowledge of the government leadership?

Raimondo attacks...

Update at end

##

Justin Raimondo - whom I respected a great deal until yesterday, wrote an article claiming that the "Russians were framed" by the Neo-Cons in the Litvinenko death. I wrote a very long comment about Raimondo's piece, during which I repeatedly stated that I respected his work and him as a person. And what you folks don't know, is that I sent him a very kind email explaining why I wrote my piece and again expressing my respect for him and his work. What I wrote can be read HERE.

In response to my polite explanation as to why Raimondo's assertions are not accurate, he in turn wrote a  commentary that was  basically more of an insult than an honest response. He titles his piece Litvinenko Revisionism, which I read as the pejorative, in which facts are manipulated for illegitimate reasons. Clearly, the respect I had expressed for Raimondo in my piece was not returned in kind in his own work.

His piece does little to address the key points I make, and he does use trite and often sexist cutsie language to address me: "the lovely Larisa," or "My dear Larisa," and so forth. We are not doing a class on Nabokovian stylings here, so the lilting language is really unnecessary. But I digress as I often do. In response to Raimondo's response (to my response and so forth), his fan club stopped by to spam my comments. Lucky for me I have set up an approval system for comments, so I managed to delete most of the garbage and left some of the more rational posts. So, to make a long blog entry even longer, here is my latest response to Justin's hallucinations:

Enough with the Putin hug festival...

UPDATE: AT END OF POST

(note: let me apologize in advance as this thing turned into a novel in length)

##

Seriously, if one more person defends Putin based on the single reason that Putin stands up to Bush, I shall pull my hair out. Putin standing up to Bush is like two crime syndicates hashing it out, neither one or the other falling into cleanly defined categories of  "good" and "bad."

It does not give me pleasure to do this since I respect the writer a great deal. Justin Raimondo and I have differing political positions, he is a Libertarian, I am a Humanist, but we respect one another and admire the work that the other does.

But the latest from this fine writer and thinker is really disconcerting. Raimondo believes that the "Russians" have been framed for the Litvinenko murder.  By the Russians, he means Putin and the FSB, who are really a mix of KGB and organized crime elements, sadly parading their Russian roots and exploiting their nationality for criminal ends. They happen to be Russian by accident of birth.

Kind of like Cheney and the OSP just happen to be "Americans"  by birth, when in fact they are a mixture of neo-fascism and organized crime.  I just wanted to point out the obvious flaw in the "Russians framed" analysis before we delve into the factual problems of Raimondo's analysis.  Raimondo is, again, someone whom I respect greatly, but who is doing a great injustice to truth by his latest piece. Let's begin with the faulty premise that the victim of a crime should be tarred and feathered postmortem:

Police confirm Berezovsky plot

The Russian oligarch turned British citizen claimed recently that Scotland Yard had thwarted a plot to assassinate him. After the Alexander Litvinenko hit, many folks speculated that Berezovsky was behind it in order to discredit Vladamir Putin. While an interesting conspiracy theory, the reality is that enough sources have confirmed that FSB elements were behind it, likely on order from Putin. In any case, Scotland Yard now confirms that they did in fact arrest and deport a Russian hit-man. The fact that the would-be assassin was deported to Russia and not detained in British custody suggests to me that he was an SVR/FSB officer. Here are some snips from an ITV News article on the Berezovsky foiled plot:

Scotland Yard has confirmed a man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder over an alleged plot to kill Russian exile Boris Berezovsky.

The man, who was arrested in central London on June 21, was handed over to immigration officials two days later.    

The police statement appears to back up claims made by Mr Berezovsky who said a Russian hitman had planned to shoot him in a room at the Hilton hotel, in London's Park Lane.

Mr Berezovsky was a friend of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko who was murdered in London by assassins who gave him lethal dose of radiation poisoning.    

Mr Berezovsky's spokeswoman said: "Three weeks ago, he was informed by Scotland Yard of a plot to kill him. They advised him to leave the country and after a week he was told it was OK to return."

The would-be assassin apparently planned to lure Mr Berezovsky to a meeting and had taken a child with him so he looked less suspicious. The paper said the security service and Scotland Yard anti-terrorism police seized the gunman before he could carry out his plan."