Russian Oligarchs in exile are plotting a Green Revolution in Russia in 2008

Russian Information Centre Monitoring - The release date of the report on activities of exiled Russian oligarchs in the West to grab power in Moscow is moved to March 15. The report by Russian Information Centre, an independent media monitoring service, originally due for publication in late February, 2007, demonstrates that despite the seeming lack of funds and influence, the notorious oligarchs of the 90s are regrouping, consolidating their resources and scheming a triumphant return after 2008 presidential elections in Russia.

MOSCOW, Feb.8 /RusInfoService/ -- Russian Information Centre Monitoring - The release date of the report on activities of exiled Russian oligarchs in the West to grab power in Moscow is moved to March 15. The report by Russian Information Centre, an independent media monitoring service, originally due for publication in late February, 2007, demonstrates that despite the seeming lack of funds and influence, the notorious oligarchs of the 90s are regrouping, consolidating their resources and scheming a triumphant return after 2008 presidential elections in Russia.

The change of release date is caused by addition of new sources to analyze and changes in the structure of Russian Information Centre itself - the Centre plans to unveil the report along with launching of an affiliate in New York.
 

Highlights of the report, based on analysis of open sources such as Western and Russian media, on and off the record statements by experts, businessmen, law enforcement officials and politicians, demonstrate that the exiled oligarchs, who were de-facto rulers of Russia in the 90s, are preparing a revanche. On one hand they aggressively try to revamp their image tarnished by plundering the Russian economy and alleged ties with the organized crime. On the other, in some cases, - regain physical access to countries like the US, which denied them visas, vying for support of political forces in the West, soliciting former and active law enforcement and intelligence officials in Great Britain, the U.S., Israel, Italy and Eastern European countries with a dual task of using their expertise and connections to soften official scrutiny of their shadowy business practices and getting help in undermining the current government of Russia.
 

Among the traits highlighted by the media and experts are:

Attempts by the exiled oligarchs to enlist support of Western political
elite -- mainly the so called new conservatives, legislators in the US,
British Labour Party officials and Israeli "hawks" -- on the pretext of an
opportunity to get a more "predictable and user-friendly" Russia in 2008.

Building of a financial base in the countries neighboring Russia, such as
the Ukraine, Georgia and the former Baltic republics of the USSR, to
finance opposition to the Kremlin and establishing clandestine routes to
channel funds to Russia.

Getting western PR, PSYOP and covert operations experts' help in
undermining current Russian government utilizing a wide array of
techniques ranging from smear campaigns in the West against the leaders of
Russian business in energy, aviation, finance and metal sectors to
possible acts of terror in Russia and the West with the use of a dirty
bomb/radioactive materials to implicate Kremlin.

The scope of this campaign as highlighted by the media can be illustrated by the case of Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney) who along with his brother Leo gained almost full control over Russia's aluminum industry in the 90s in what became known as the bloody "aluminum wars." While Leo was in charge of business operations, Mikhail was reported to act as a liaison with organized crime, which provided "protection" from the competitors often leaving numerous human casualties after "business disputes."
Mikhail Chernoy, now living in Israel after the US stripped him of his visa in 1999, appears to be the hub in a tangled web of connections linking the Russian mafia, corrupt politicians, Chechen separatists, Russian opposition and notorious archenemy of the Kremlin -- the exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who found refuge in London.

Chernoy's activity has recently most noticeably spread to the Ukraine, where he controls several companies, the largest being First Ukrainian Development (FUD), which will soon break ground on a $1 billion building project in Kiev. Ukrainian journalists refer to their country's construction business today as "the flush pipe of criminal capital," and indeed, FUD's main office is registered at an offshore location in Cyprus, while its Kiev office is headed by Efim Borodulin, a man with close ties to Berezovsky. Chernoy himself flew to Ukraine three times this year on Berezovsky's personal airplane.

Soon, Chernoy may even be managing the flow of Berezovsky's assets. For years, Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has handled this responsibility, but lately he has chosen to distance himself from Berezovsky, and experts predict Mikhail Chernoy may soon take his place. Chernoy began his career as an entrepreneur during the Soviet period and by the 1990s, he and his brother Leo were in control of Russia's biggest metal enterprises. Their company, TWG, was a conglomerate of offshores scattered throughout the world. Any theory as to where the Chernoy brothers got their start-up capital is pure speculation, but the press has circulated a version involving a forged remittance slip.

Journalists described a clear division of labor between the two brothers: Lev answered for the economic and financial state of TWG, while Mikhail struck deals with anyone who had influence over the business, from government officials who set quotas on metal exports to organized crime bosses who sought tribute -- a kind of protection arrangement now known in Russia as "roofing." Chernoy's particular talent in managing this sphere led TWG to dominate Russia's metal industry.

European law enforcement has repeatedly suspected Chernoy of money laundering and mafia connections. He was investigated on charges including money laundering and drug-trafficking in the US, Russia, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Israel.

In recent years his efforts to regain right of entry to the US have significantly increased -- Chernoy has been sponsoring the Intelligence Summit, an annual gathering of former and acting US law enforcement and intelligence officials; a former FBI agent, who has been conducting an investigation of Chernoy's illegal activities in the US, is currently on his payroll, and Chernoy is courting members of the US Congress on their trips to Israel.
 

As his brother Leo stated in a recent interview to the RBC Russian newswire, which sounded more like an appeal to the Russian opposition groups, "the fate of Russia depends on the right, I stress -- right forms of corporate government; I am confident of this and hope to persuade those understanding that the clock is ticking."

Russian Information Centre: Exiled Russian Oligarchs Are Staging a Comeback Relying on the Help of Corrupt Western Politicians and Ex-Intelligence Operatives

Jan. 17  -- Russian Information Centre Monitoring -- Exiled Russian oligarchs are staging a comeback in 2008 to get back their "fair share" of the nation's wealth and control over politics. The report by Russian Information Centre, an independent media monitoring service, due for publication in late February, 2007, demonstrates that despite the seeming lack of funds and influence, the notorious oligarchs of the 90s are regrouping, consolidating their resources and scheming a triumphant return after 2008 presidential elections in Russia.

Highlights of the report, based on analysis of open sources such as Western and Russian media, on and off the record statements by experts, businessmen, law enforcement officials and politicians, demonstrate that the exiled oligarchs, who were de-facto rulers of Russia in the 90s, are preparing a revanche, aggressively trying to revamp their image tarnished by plundering the Russian economy and ties with organized crime, and in some cases -- regain physical access to countries like the US, which denied them visas, vying for support of political forces in the West, soliciting former and active law enforcement and intelligence officials in Great Britain, the U.S., Israel, Italy and Eastern European countries with a dual task of using their expertise and connections to soften official scrutiny of their shadowy business practices and getting help in undermining the current government of Russia.

 Among the traits highlighted by the media and experts are:

  Attempts by the exiled oligarchs to enlist support of Western political

  elite -- mainly the so called new conservatives, legislators in the US,

  British Labour Party officials and Israeli "hawks" -- on the pretext of an

  opportunity to get a more "predictable and user-friendly" Russia in 2008.

  Building of a financial base in the countries neighboring Russia, such as

  the Ukraine, Georgia and the former Baltic republics of the USSR, to

  finance opposition to the Kremlin and establishing clandestine routes to

  channel funds to Russia.

  Getting western PR, PSYOP and covert operations experts' help in

  undermining current Russian government utilizing a wide array of

  techniques ranging from smear campaigns in the West against the leaders of

  Russian business in energy, aviation, finance and metal sectors to

  possible acts of terror in Russia and the West with the use of a dirty

  bomb/radioactive materials to implicate Kremlin.

The scope of this campaign can be illustrated by the case of Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney) who along with his brother Leo gained almost full control over Russia's aluminum industry in the 90s in what became known as the bloody "aluminum wars." While Leo was in charge of business operations, Mikhail was reported to act as a liaison with organized crime, which provided "protection" from the competitors often leaving numerous human casualties after "business disputes."

Mikhail Chernoy, now living in Israel after the US stripped him of his visa in 1999, appears to be the hub in a tangled web of connections linking the Russian mafia, corrupt politicians, Chechen separatists, Russian opposition and notorious archenemy of the Kremlin -- the exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who found refuge in London.

Chernoy's activity has recently most noticeably spread to the Ukraine, where he controls several companies, the largest being First Ukrainian Development (FUD), which will soon break ground on a $1 billion building project in Kiev. Ukrainian journalists refer to their country's construction business today as "the flush pipe of criminal capital," and indeed, FUD's main office is registered at an offshore location in Cyprus, while its Kiev office is headed by Efim Borodulin, a man with close ties to Berezovsky. Chernoy himself flew to Ukraine three times this year on Berezovsky's personal airplane.

Soon, Chernoy may even be managing the flow of Berezovsky's assets. For years, Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has handled this responsibility, but lately he has chosen to distance himself from Berezovsky, and experts predict Mikhail Chernoy may soon take his place. Chernoy began his career as an entrepreneur during the Soviet period and by the 1990s, he and his brother Leo were in control of Russia's biggest metal enterprises. Their company, TWG, was a conglomerate of offshores scattered throughout the world. Any theory as to where the Chernoy brothers got their start-up capital is pure speculation, but the press has circulated a version involving a forged remittance slip.

Journalists described a clear division of labor between the two brothers: Lev answered for the economic and financial state of TWG, while Mikhail struck deals with anyone who had influence over the business, from government officials who set quotas on metal exports to organized crime bosses who sought tribute -- a kind of protection arrangement now known in Russia as "roofing." Chernoy's particular talent in managing this sphere led TWG to dominate Russia's metal industry.

European law enforcement has repeatedly suspected Chernoy of money laundering and mafia connections. He was investigated on charges including money laundering and drug-trafficking in the US, Russia, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Israel.

In recent years his efforts to regain right of entry to the US have significantly increased -- Chernoy has been sponsoring the Intelligence Summit, an annual gathering of former and acting US law enforcement and intelligence officials; a former FBI agent, who has been conducting an investigation of Chernoy's illegal activities in the US, is currently on his payroll, and Chernoy is courting members of the US Congress on their trips to Israel.

As his brother Leo stated in a recent interview to the RBC Russian newswire, which sounded more like an appeal to the Russian opposition groups, "the fate of Russia depends on the right, I stress -- right forms of corporate government; I am confident of this and hope to persuade those understanding that the clock is ticking."

The full text of the report will be available to the media by the end of February 2007 along with the comments by Russian and Western experts, government officials, independent reporters along with the oligarchs mentioned.

Russian Information Centre Monitoring is a non-profit nonpartisan research and media monitoring organization. The report on illegal international activities of exiled Russian oligarchs is due to be presented to the media later this month.

Additional resources on the subject: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1601.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cherney

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/06/12/281972/index.htm

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russia/index.html?query=CHERNOY,%20MIKHAIL&field=per&match=exact

Scaramella-Berezovsky link to World Trade Center security firm emerges in Italian prosecutors' investigation
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jan 15, 2007, 00:50

Mario Scaramella, the Italian interlocutor for the poisoned Alexander Litvinenko and Russian-Israeli media/mobster tycoon Boris Berezovsky, is now under investigation by prosecutors in Rome, Naples, and Bologna for international arms smuggling, divulging official judicial secrets, conspiracy, international trafficking in radioactive materials, and the dumping of hazardous waste through unauthorized third parties.

Scaramella was arrested last month by Italian police and his offices have been searched by police several times.

The Italian media is reporting on transcripts of phone conversations between Scaramella and two former U.S. intelligence officers. One conversation, reported in La Repubblica, is a January 25, 2006, conversation between Scaramella and a mysterious ex-CIA agent from California who uses the name "Perry." In the conversation, Scaramella stresses to Perry that his activities are not "just my activity, but the activity of the organization.' It is becoming clear that the :organization" to which Scaramella is referring is a private and global intelligence organization involving former members of the KGB and Russian Federal Security Bureau (like Litvinenko), private military and intelligence companies, and ex-CIA and British intelligence officers. Scaramella discussed the political dirty “trick” they are preparing for Italian center-left leader Romano Prodi and it is clear from the conversation that Perry gives Scaramella his orders, though politely. When Scaramella goes into a tangent on his international activities, Perry merely replies, 'You must work on the Italian politics.' When Scaramella presents a list of the possible future options open to him, Perry very curtly suggests, “You could be part of the cabinet of the minister.” But Scaramella is pessimistic when he states, “most probably Prodi will win, even if we will launch our attack . . ."

The "attack" is key to the conversation. WMR was the first media outlet to suggest that the Scaramella-Litvinenko affair was a dirty bomb plot gone bad and that the intelligence services of Russian President Vladimir Putin may have actually derailed the plot.

Scaramella relates to Perry his conversation with then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in which he asked the right-wing and now-indicted politician for a job, preferably at NATO or the United Nations. Scaramella claims that he was first offered a seat in the Italian parliament but declined because he feared a rough political campaign against him after he had made public his "KGB claims" against Prodi and that he "preferred a post outside Italy in an international organization."

The Italian paper Corriere della Sera is also reporting on a telephone conversation between Scaramella and Paolo Guzzanti, the Miktrokhin Committee's chairman on 28 January 2006, three days after the phone conversation between Perry and Scaramella that Romani Prodi was "cultivated by the KGB" and cited ex-KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky as his source. Guzzanti responds, "in that case he is our man?" "Yes," replies Scaramella's." "That's enough. I don't want to know anything else," Guzzanti replies.

It has also been revealed that while talking to Perry, Scaramella declared that he had obtained taped testimony against Prodi from Gordievski and that the testimony was given in the presence of "Lou Palumbo," who has now been identified as a 22-year veteran of the CIA. Gordievski, who is under the protection of the British intelligence services, has since denounced Scaramella as a fraud. It is also clear that Scaramella's mission was to seek out prominent Russian exiles and defectors in order to trick them into bringing false charges against leftist politicians like Prodi.

Previously, WMR reported that Scaramella was linked by Italian investigators to Filippo Marino, who is involved in the security business and founded the Special Research Monitoring Center (SRMC), and claims he was a member of the elite Italian Army 131st Regiment and member of an Italian law enforcement organized crime task force targeting the mob in Naples. One of Marino's companies, Securitydirector LLC, is registered at P.O. Box 190487, Miami Beach, FL 33119-0487. According to La Stampa, a link has now been discovered between Marino and Hallandale, Florida-based Incident Management Group (IMG). Marino has been a senior consultant for IMG, according to La Stampa. IMG's Managing Partner is none other than Louis F. Palumbo, Scaramella's task master in the reported attempt to tarnish Prodi. Palumbo's bio at the IMG website states that in 1977, he founded the security consulting firm Ackerman & Palumbo. The Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) lists a Louis F. Palumbo at 7980 N. Biscayne Point Cir., Miami Beach, FL 33141.

Palumbo's partners at IMG include Daniel Donohue, a former CIA clandestine services agent in Southeast Asia and India; Harley Stock, a "forensic hypnosis" expert with the FBI and US Secret Service; and, perhaps most intriguingly, Christopher Hagon, a 21-year veteran of the London Metropolitan Police.

Hagon told La Stampa that Marino did work as a consultant for IMG as a consultant. In fact, IMG's consultant profiles list Marino as: "FILIPPO MARINO, SENIOR CONSULTANT, has 10 years of international experience in the areas of security and environmental crime prevention. Marino has worked on a variety of security-related assignments ranging from investigative support of judicial authorities to personal awareness training and private consulting worldwide. He is one of the founders of Special Research Monitoring Center (SRMC) and a founding member of the Permanent Intergovernmental Conference for Environmental Crime Prevention. He is currently Director of Security & Operations, for the SRMC. Marino served as an officer of the prestigious 131st Regiment of the Italian Army, and is an inspector for a law-enforcement, environmental task force against organized crime in Naples, Italy. He holds a magna cum laude B. A. in Behavioral Sciences from San Jose State University, and has obtained multiple certifications in security and protection services. He speaks fluent Italian and German."

Note that Marino's links to Scaramella's ECPP is also cited above. Also of interest is the listing of a Curtis Perry as an IMG consultant: "CURTIS PERRY, SENIOR CONSULTANT, has 27 years experience in government and private sector security. He served for ten years in the CIA and was stationed throughout the Far East. Mr. Perry is fluent in several Chinese dialects and has access to numerous government agencies in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia. Previously he was employed as a Senior Consultant by the security firm of Ackerman & Palumbo and was a Managing Director for Kroll Associates in Manila from 1992 -1996. Mr. Perry has undertaken numerous investigations for Corporate America -- including those involving kidnappings, extortions and product contaminations -- in the Far East and Australia."

Another IMG consultant is Robert Wager, whose bio claims he manages security for the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. Scaramella claims to have also worked in Bogota. The bio of another IMG consultant, Ned Timmons, states, "for two years Timmons directed an international import/export corporation operating undercover in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Central America [and] . . . He currently serves as a consultant to the U.S. and Cayman Governments on drug trafficking matters." There is yet another Colombian link, "John Stabler, Senior Consultant, has 17 years experience in security management and consulting profession, with 13 years of specialization in Colombia. He has designed security for plantations, mines, pipelines, piers and airfields in hostile locations in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Chile."

Also of interest is another "environmental" link that ties the various Scaramella-Litvinenko players under the cover of an international environmental network. An SEC EDGAR search revealed a stockholders' agreement between Harrison-Kroll Environmental Services, Inc. of Louisiana and Palumbo Partners, a Delaware corporation dated December 31, 1992, in which Kroll acquires Palumbo Partners. A Google search also revealed that former Secret Service Presidential Protective Division agent Jim Holt served as Training Director for Ackerman & Palumbo and was "one of the original directors and consultant partners with Palumbo Partners, Inc., Miami." An office of Harrison-Kroll Environmental Services is listed at 300 S. Grand Avenue, Suite 1300, Los Angeles, CA 90071.

Kroll Associates is an enigmatic "security services" company which has close links to the CIA. Not only is Kroll active in private military contracting in Iraq, but it has long been associated with dubious U.S. intelligence activities at home and abroad. According to a knowledgeable source, Jules Kroll, who founded Kroll Associates in 1972, obtained needed funding for his firm from Foothill Capital in the 1980s. Foothill was deeply enmeshed in the savings & loan collapses in the 1980s but salvaged itself to become a part of Wells Fargo Bank. Kroll, who helped Curtis Publishing (renamed Cadence Industries after a merger) cut waste in the 1970s (and pilfer the company's pension fund in the process), got his first big break when he helped locate the stolen millions of Philippine ex-President Ferdinand Marcos (he would later go after the off-shore bank accounts of Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier and Iraq's Saddam Hussein).

According to our well-placed source, Ray Steffans (aka diStefano of New Jersey), Jewish mobster Gideon Chern, and Eddie Baker of Vanguard Petroleum met in Houston in September 1983 to discuss, among other items, funding for Kroll. In December 1977, Bernard Taubenfeld, Gideon Chern and Shalom Goldburd, officials of B'nai Torah Institute affiliate, Nutrition for Youth, were convicted of defrauding the government by submitting bills for food that was never served to poor children in the New York City summer lunch program. Chern's other organized crime activity in the 1980s reportedly had an important protector -- former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani. The former New York Mayor and prospective GOP presidential candidate reportedly suppressed a wealth of evidence against Chern.

Two days after the Houston meeting, a Jaguar supposedly with the body of Baker in it was found charred outside of Houston. A fire investigator later revealed that no body was found in the car at the time of the fire. Kroll, after Enron's bankruptcy, purchased Zolfo-Cooper, and thus owned Zolfo-Cooper's Steven Cooper, the attorney appointed by New York bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez to run Enron in bankruptcy. In July 2004, Marsh-McLennan bought Kroll and Associates. Marsh-McLennan is run by Jeffrey Greenberg, son of Maurice (Hank) Greenberg of AIG. Funny, since Chase and Citibank notes from Kenneth Lay/Enron were purchased in May 2001 by AIG and the MacArthur Foundation.

Kroll was responsible for the security of the World Trade Center on 9/11, The firm had hired FBI top counter-terrorism agent John O'Neill as director of World Trade Center security upon his retirement from the FBI. O'Neill died in the 9/11 attacks. Kroll also markets Identity Theft Shield, the first time Kroll has offered its services to individuals as opposed to governments and companies. As of June 30, 2006, Kroll had amassed over 560,000 customers for its Identity Theft Shield program.

The Chern link brings us back to the Russian-Israeli Mafia connections of Scaramella and company. Berezovsky's friend, former Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-Jewish oligarch and former president of the Russian Jewish Congress who now lives in Tel Aviv and is wanted by Russia for tax evasion and corruption. As the Democrats prepare to assume control of Congress, Nevzlin is now in the United States, protected by the FBI from arrest based on Russian and Interpol arrest warrants. This is not Nezvlin's first visit to the United States. In the summer of 2005 he appeared before the US Congress' Helsinki Committee to criticize the government of Vladimir Putin. Nevzlin's sponsors were incoming House International Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith (R). Nevzlin used the hearing to argue for the expulsion of Russia from the G-8. Another Nevzlin supporter is Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, another prospective GOP presidential candidate.

In a further example of the dubious activities of the Arlington, Virginia-based Fellowship Foundation, dubbed the "Christian Mafia" by many local residents, two of Nevzlin's wanted Yukos fellow shareholders, oligarchs Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, who were indicted in Russia on charges similar to those brought against jailed Yukos former chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were invited the have breakfast with President George W. Bush at the February 5, 2005, "National Prayer Breakfast." The annual Prayer Breakfast contrivance of the Fellowship Foundation is a ruse designed to provide a series of top level intelligence and organized crime meetings under the sanctioning smile of "Jesus." The person who invited Brudno, Dubov, and the jailed Khodorkovsky to the prayer breakfast was Lantos, whose wife, daughter, and son-in-law are devout Mormons.

Brudno and Dubov, citizens of Israel, were assured by the FBI that it would ignore the Interpol and Russian arrest warrants, just as the FBI is ignoring the arrest warrant for Nevzlin, who is now in the United States, most likely with the acquiescence of Lantos. Lantos, who has his own connections with mob-run unions operating at San Francisco International Airport, does not seem to mind the fact that Nevzlin has been under investigation by Israeli police for illegally laundering $500 million through a Tel Aviv branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank. Nevzlin also took over assets of Khodorkovsky's collapsed bank, Menatep, which was also linked to money laundering involving the Bank of New York.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev supports Putin's attempt to bring the Russian-Israeli oligarchs to justice. He told Britain's Sunday Times that it is believed that the exiled oligarchs have hidden away $1 trillion.

Nevzlin's and Berezovsky's activities with Litvinenko are the tip of a huge iceberg of private intelligence intrigue that involves a number of wanted Russian exiles, including Nevzlin, Berezovsky, ex-Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Chernoy, Roman Abramovitch, and Chechen "Foreign Minister" Akhmed Zakayev. Berezovsky's (and Litvinenko's) spokesman, Russian exile Alex Goldfarb, freely operating out of both London and New York. All are involved in various efforts to destabilize Russia with the help of neocons in the Bush administration and the government of Israel. However, the Israel Lobby's pressure on the U.S. media, most notably the Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post, ensures that the Russian exiles' links to Israel and organized crime are studiously ignored.

In another full circle between Tel Aviv and Italy, Menatep's former chief for investment management Alexei Globuvich said, after his arrest last Spring in Italy, that Nevzlin may have tried to poison him and his family after mercury was found in his office, home, and car. Globuvich said he was a threat because he knew where Yukos and Menatep assets were located. Shortly thereafter, a Scotland Yard officer handed over to the British security firm ISC Global plans by the British government to extradite a number of Russian-Israeli exiles in Britain to Russia. ISC Global had been part of Menatep and Nevzlin was one of its chief customers.

The London offices of ISC Global, now known as RISC Management, were visited in November 2006 by Litvinenko and Russian businessmen Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and traces of polonium-210 were discovered there. According to the Sunday Times of London, Russian police are also investigating whether the poisoning of Litvinenko and the attempted poisoning of Globuvich are connected to the radiation poisoning death two years ago of Roman Tsepov, a former bodyguard of Putin when he was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. Tsepov was involved in the Russian government's tracking of Yukos assets. Also of interest are connections to the June 2004 assassination of Forbes Russian edition editor-in-chief Paul Klebnikov, a U.S. citizen who wrote a damaging expose of Berezovsky. Three Chechen contract killers were charged in Klebnikov's murder. The same Russian-Israeli mob ring is also being looked at in the investigation of the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya of Novaya Gazeta as a way to embarrass Putin.

The connection of Nevzlin to the polonium and the receipt of classified British secrets is more of a reason for Russia's Prosecutor General's Office to seek his extradition -- but the FBI refuses to cooperate due to the orders coming from people like Lantos, McCain, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and others who do the bidding of the Russian-Israeli mob and their Italian mafiosi underlings.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office has stated, "“A version is being looked at that those who ordered these crimes [polonium poisoning, etc.] could be the same people who are on an international wanted list for serious and very serious crimes, one of whom is . . . Leonid Nevzlin."

The connections now discovered by Italian and Russian investigators between the Russian-Israeli-Italian-British-US private intelligence network of former intelligence agents and billionaire mobsters suggest that the "serious crimes" committed may be more than the poisoning of Litvinenko and others with radioactive materials. The investigators are wise to pursue the links to U.S. security firms and former CIA personnel involved in pre-9/11 protection functions. The FBI cannot or will not investigate the actual perpetrators of 9/11. However, the Italian and Russian law enforcement professionals are beginning to get very close. It is a shame that American law enforcement is not interested in pursuing real leads in the biggest crime in American history.

Poll: Stereotypes, Flawed Business Ethics And Exiled Oligarchs Notoriety Damage The Overall Image Of Russian-American Community

Stereotypes, not always immaculate business practices along with the actions and statements by the exiled Russian oligarchs now living in the West are, according to the newly released survey, the three main factors attributing to remaining animosity in the US towards the Russian-American community.

The undying stereotypes, often fuelled by the media and Hollywood, like the one of 'almighty Russian mafia', were named the main factor of mistrust towards Russian Americans by 63% of respondents. 22 percent of Russian- Americans who participated in the interactive Internet opinion poll conducted by the New York based PRGroup research company, admit that sometimes the business practices and lack of business ethics within the Russian Diaspora damage its image. The third reason for resentment, according to the poll results, was the actions and statements by the exiled Russian oligarchs. 15% of respondents consider them odious enough to cast the shadow on the reputation of the Russian-speaking community in its entirety.

According to the survey Boris Berezovsky, who found refuge in London and is sought by Russian authorities on criminal charges leads the list of most notorious exiled business tycoons (81%). He is followed by Leonid Nevzlin (11%), the former co-owner of YUCOS oil company now living in Israel, while ex-media tycoon Vladimir Goussinsky (Spain) and former aluminum baron Mikhail Chernoy (Israel) share the third position (4% each).

Almost two thirds (61%) of those polled think that the US immigration authorities should grant these individuals entry visas only upon thorough investigations of their alleged criminal activities, including those coming from Russia; 29% percent of respondents suggest to deny them entry unconditionally. Only 10% of Russian-speaking Americans think that the US government should grant the oligarchs asylum and provide them with support because they claim to be in opposition to the Kremlin.

The on-line poll was conducted on February 21-27, the number of participants exceeded 600.